Editing Theodore Roosevelt (section)

==Presidency (1901–1909)==
{{Main |Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt}}
[[File:Theodore Roosevelt by John Singer Sargent, 1903.jpg|thumb|Official [[White House]] portrait of Roosevelt by [[John Singer Sargent]] in 1903]]
On September 6, 1901, President McKinley was attending the [[Pan-American Exposition]] in [[Buffalo, New York]], when he [[Assassination of William McKinley|was shot]] by anarchist [[Leon Czolgosz]]. Roosevelt, vacationing in [[Isle La Motte, Vermont]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=74729|title=Theodore Roosevelt's Visit to Isle la Motte Historical Marker|access-date=February 22, 2022|archive-date=February 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222173837/https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=74729|url-status=live}}</ref> traveled to Buffalo to visit McKinley in the hospital. When McKinley seemed to recover, Roosevelt resumed his vacation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.trsite.org/learn/the-day-of-the-inauguration|title=The Inauguration|access-date=February 22, 2022|archive-date=February 22, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220222173838/https://www.trsite.org/learn/the-day-of-the-inauguration|url-status=live}}</ref> When McKinley's condition worsened, Roosevelt rushed back to Buffalo. He was in [[North Creek, New York|North Creek]] when he learned of McKinley's death on September 14. Roosevelt then continued to Buffalo and was [[First inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt|sworn in as the 26th president]] at the [[Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site|Ansley Wilcox House]].{{sfn|Miller|1992|pp=348–352}}

McKinley's supporters were uneasy about Roosevelt, with Ohio Senator [[Mark Hanna]] particularly bitter, given his strong opposition at the convention. Although Roosevelt assured party leaders that he would adhere to McKinley's policies and retained his Cabinet, he sought to establish himself as the party's leader and position himself for the 1904 election.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=354–356}} Roosevelt’s ascension to the presidency was met with concern by conservative Republicans, with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin noting that 

{{blockquote| “Conservatives, who had utterly dominated the Republican Party for three decades, feared the impulsive young president would prove a ”bucking bronco,” upsetting the alliance between business and government that had delivered unparalled prosperity at the turn of the century. Reformers hoped Roosevelt’s vigorous leadership would refashion the Republican Party into the progressive force it had been under Abraham Lincoln, endeavoring to spread prosperity beyond the wealthy few to the common man.”<ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Bully_Pulpit/4W7Q-qr_TSAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Conservatives,+who+had+utterly+dominated+the+Republican+Party+for+three+decades,+feared+the+impulsive+young+president+would+prove+a+%E2%80%9Dbucking+bronco&pg=PA279&printsec=frontcover The Bully Pulpit  Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism By Doris Kearns Goodwin, 2013, P.279-280]</ref>}} 

Adding to this point, Kearns has noted that

{{blockquote|Throughout his career, Roosevelt had struggled to reconcile party allegiance with the drive to address social problems, a balancing act that became more difficult as the troubling aspects of industrialization intensified. While he considered himself conservative in relation to the Populists, he believed that his party was in thrall to reactionaries who so "dreaded radicalism" that they "distrusted anything that was progressive." Precisely such men dominated both chambers of Congress, Roosevelt lamented. He would work to "push" them forward but recognized that genuine progress would require a direct appeal to the people, "the masters of both of us." To reach the general public, he would enlist the new breed of independent journalists, without whose "active support," he later acknowledged, he "would have been powerless."<ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Bully_Pulpit/4W7Q-qr_TSAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Throughout+his+career,+Roosevelt+had+struggled+to+reconcile+party+allegiance+with+the+drive+to+address+social+problems,+a+balancing+act+that+became+more+difficult+as+the+troubling+aspects+of+industrialization+intensified&pg=PA280&printsec=frontcover The Bully Pulpit Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism By Doris Kearns Goodwin, 2013, P.281]</ref>}}

Shortly after taking office, Roosevelt invited [[Booker T. Washington]] to dinner at the [[White House]], sparking a bitter reaction across the heavily segregated South.<ref>Dewey W. Grantham, "Dinner at the White House: Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, and the South." ''Tennessee Historical Quarterly'' (1958) 17.2: 112-130 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/42621372 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023060345/https://www.jstor.org/stable/42621372 |date=October 23, 2021 }}</ref> While Roosevelt initially planned more dinners with Washington, he later avoided further invitations in favor of business appointments to retain political support in the white South.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=422–423}}{{Sfn|Morris|2001|p=58}}

===Domestic policies: The Square Deal===
{{Further|Square Deal}}

====Trust busting and regulation====
Roosevelt was hailed as the "trust-buster" for his aggressive use of the 1890 [[Sherman Antitrust Act]], compared to his predecessors.{{sfn|Ruddy|2016}} He viewed big business as essential to the American economy, prosecuting only "bad trusts" that restrained trade and charged unfair prices.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=365–366}} Roosevelt brought 44 antitrust suits, breaking up the [[Northern Securities Company]], the largest railroad monopoly, and regulating [[Standard Oil]], the largest oil company.{{sfn|Ruddy|2016}} His predecessors, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, and William McKinley, had together prosecuted only 18 antitrust violations.{{sfn|Ruddy|2016}}

After winning large majorities in the [[1902 United States elections|1902 elections]], Roosevelt proposed creating the [[United States Department of Commerce and Labor]], which included the [[Bureau of Corporations]]. Congress was receptive to the department but skeptical of the antitrust powers Roosevelt wanted within the Bureau. Roosevelt appealed to the public, pressuring Congress, which overwhelmingly passed his version of the bill.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=378–381}}

House Speaker [[Joseph Gurney Cannon]] commented on Roosevelt's desire for executive branch control: "That fellow at the other end of the avenue wants everything from the birth of Christ to the death of the devil." Biographer Brands notes, "Even his friends occasionally wondered whether there wasn't any custom or practice too minor for him to try to regulate, update or otherwise improve."{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=552–553}} Roosevelt's willingness to exercise power extended to attempted rule changes in [[American football]], forcing retention of martial arts classes at the [[U.S. Naval Academy]], revising disciplinary rules, altering the design of a disliked coin, and ordering simplified spellings for 300 words, though he rescinded the latter after ridicule from the press and a House protest.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=553–556}}

====Coal strike====
{{main|Coal strike of 1902}}
In May 1902, [[United Mine Workers|anthracite coal miners]] went on strike, threatening a national energy shortage. After threatening the coal operators with federal troops, Roosevelt won their agreement to dispute arbitration by a commission, stopping the strike. The accord with [[J. P. Morgan]] resulted in miners getting more pay for fewer hours but no union recognition.{{Sfn|Harbaugh|1963|pp= 165–179}}{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=450–483}} Roosevelt said, "My action on labor should always be considered in connection with my action as regards capital, and both are reducible to my favorite formula—a square deal for every man."{{Sfn|Brands|1997|p=509}} He was the first president to help settle a labor dispute.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=376–377}}

====Prosecuted misconduct====
During Roosevelt's second year in office, corruption was uncovered in the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs|Indian Service]], the [[United States General Land Office]], and the [[United States Post Office Department|Post Office Department]]. He prosecuted corrupt Indian agents who had cheated [[Native American tribes]] out of land parcels. Land fraud and speculation involving Oregon timberlands, led to him and [[Ethan A. Hitchcock (Interior)|Ethan A. Hitchcock]] forcing General Land Office Commissioner [[Binger Hermann]] from office, in November 1902. Special prosecutor [[Francis J. Heney]] obtained 146 indictments in the Oregon Land Office bribery ring.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|p=207}} Roosevelt also prosecuted 44 postal employees on charges of bribery and fraud.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|p=208}} Historians agree he moved "quickly and decisively" to address misconduct in his administration.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|p=209}}

====Railroads====
{{Main|Hepburn Act}}
Merchants complained that some railroad rates were too high. In the 1906 [[Hepburn Act]], Roosevelt sought to give the [[Interstate Commerce Commission]] (ICC) the power to regulate rates, but the Senate, led by conservative [[Nelson Aldrich]], resisted. Roosevelt worked with Democratic Senator [[Benjamin Tillman]] to pass the bill. They ultimately reached a compromise that gave the ICC the power to replace existing rates with "just-and-reasonable" maximum rates, allowing railroads to appeal to federal courts on what was "reasonable".{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=453–459}}{{sfn|Blum|1977|pp=89–117}} The Hepburn Act also granted the ICC regulatory power over pipeline fees, storage contracts, and other aspects of railroad operations.{{Sfn|Morris|2001|pp=445–448}}

====Pure food and drugs====
Roosevelt responded to public outrage over abuses in the food packing industry by pushing Congress to pass the [[Meat Inspection Act]] of 1906 and the [[Pure Food and Drug Act]]. Conservatives initially opposed the bill, but [[Upton Sinclair]]'s ''[[The Jungle]]'', published in 1906, galvanized support for reform.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=459–460}} The Meat Inspection Act banned misleading labels and [[preservatives]] with harmful chemicals. The Pure Food and Drug Act banned impure or falsely labeled food and drugs from being made, sold, and shipped. Roosevelt served as honorary president of the [[American School Hygiene Association]] from 1907 to 1908 and convened the first [[White House]] Conference on the Care of Dependent Children in 1909.<ref name = "ProgHealth21">{{cite book|title=The progressive era's health reform movement: a historical dictionary|first1=Ruth C.|last1=Engs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mNeGQRBgd_MC|pages=20–22|publisher=Praeger|year=2003|isbn=0-275-97932-6|access-date=October 17, 2015|archive-date=April 7, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407023133/http://books.google.com/books?id=mNeGQRBgd_MC|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Conservation====
{{main|Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt#Conservation}}
[[File:President Theodore Roosevelt Driving Through the Wawona Tunnel Tree, in Yellowstone National Park (14994749857).jpg|thumb|Roosevelt driving through a [[Sequoiadendron giganteum|sequoia]] [[Wawona Tree|tree tunnel]]]]
Roosevelt was proudest of his work in conserving natural resources and extending federal protection to land and wildlife.{{sfn|Bakari|2016}} He worked closely with Interior Secretary [[James Rudolph Garfield]] and Chief of the United States Forest Service [[Gifford Pinchot]] to enact a series of conservation programs that met resistance from Western Congress members, such as [[Charles William Fulton]].{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=469–471}} Nonetheless, Roosevelt established the [[United States Forest Service]], signed the creation of five [[National parks (United States)|National Parks]], and signed the 1906 [[Antiquities Act]], under which he proclaimed 18 new [[U.S. National Monument]]s. He also established the first 51 [[bird reserve]]s, four [[game preservation|game preserves]], and 150 [[United States National Forest|National Forests]]. The area of the United States he placed under public protection totals approximately {{convert|230|e6acre|km2|sp=us|abbr=off}}.{{sfn|Brinkley|2009}} Roosevelt was the first honorary member of the [[Camp Fire Club|Camp-Fire Club of America]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hornaday |first1=William |title=Membership Nominations |url=https://wcsarchives.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/13160 |website=Wildlife Conservation Society |access-date=February 27, 2023}}</ref>

Roosevelt extensively used [[Executive order (United States)|executive orders]] to protect forest and wildlife lands during his presidency.<ref>{{cite book |title=Executing the Constitution: Putting the President Back Into the Constitution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qgzmexCI734C&pg=PA53 |year=2006 |publisher=State University of New York Press |page=53 |isbn=978-0-7914-8190-5 |access-date=August 17, 2016 |archive-date=November 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119073515/https://books.google.com/books?id=qgzmexCI734C&pg=PA53 |url-status=live }}</ref> By the end of his second term, Roosevelt used executive orders to reserve {{convert|150|e6acre|km2|sigfig=1|abbr=off|sp=us}} of forestry land.<ref name="Take up Your Pen">{{cite book|last1=Dodds|first1=Graham|title=Take up Your Pen|date=2013|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|isbn=978-0-8122-4511-0|page=144}}</ref> Roosevelt was unapologetic about his use of executive orders to protect the environment, despite Congress's perception that he was encroaching on too many lands.<ref name="Take up Your Pen"/> Eventually, Senator [[Charles William Fulton|Charles Fulton]] attached an amendment to an agricultural appropriations bill preventing the president from reserving further land.<ref name="Take up Your Pen"/> Before signing the bill, Roosevelt established an [[midnight forests|additional 21 forest reserves]], waiting until the last minute to sign it into law.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|last1=Dodds|first1=Graham|title=Take up Your Pen|date=2013|publisher=University of Pennsylvania|isbn=978-0-8122-4511-0|page=146}}</ref> In total, Roosevelt established 121 forest reserves in 31 states through executive orders.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Roosevelt issued 1,081 executive orders, more than any previous president except Grover Cleveland (253). The first 25 presidents issued a total of 1,262 executive orders.<ref name="executiveorders">{{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php|title=Executive Orders|publisher=UCSB|access-date=August 17, 2016|archive-date=August 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820213947/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/data/orders.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Business panic of 1907====
{{Further|Panic of 1907}}
[[File:Theodore Roosevelt by Harris & Ewing Studio, 1907.jpg|thumb|A 1907 portrait of Roosevelt by [[Harris & Ewing]]]]
In 1907, Roosevelt faced the greatest domestic economic crisis since the [[Panic of 1893]]. Wall Street's stock market entered a slump in early 1907, and many investors blamed Roosevelt's regulatory policies for the decline in stock prices.{{Sfn|Morris|2001|pp=495–496}} Roosevelt ultimately helped calm the crisis by meeting with the leaders of [[U.S. Steel]] on November 4, 1907, and approving their plan to purchase a Tennessee steel company near bankruptcy—its failure would ruin a major New York bank.{{sfn|Gould|2011|p=239}}

However, in August, Roosevelt had exploded in anger at the super-rich for their economic malfeasance, calling them "malefactors of great wealth" in a major speech, "The Puritan Spirit and the Regulation of Corporations". Trying to restore confidence, he blamed the crisis primarily on Europe, but then, after saluting the unbending rectitude of the Puritans, he went on:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roosevelt |first1=Theodore |editor=Hermann Hagedorn|title=The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, Volume 18 - American Problems |date=1925 |publisher=[[Scribner & Sons]] |page=99 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4u4h58niE8cC&pg=PA99 |access-date=January 19, 2024 |chapter=13 - The Puritan Spirit and the Regulation of Corporations"(speech of August 20, 1907)}}</ref><blockquote>It may well be that the determination of the government...to punish certain malefactors of great wealth, has been responsible for something of the trouble; at least to the extent of having caused these men to combine to bring about as much financial stress as possible, in order to discredit the policy of the government and thereby secure a reversal of that policy, so that they may enjoy unmolested the fruits of their own evil-doing.</blockquote>

Regarding the very wealthy, Roosevelt privately scorned, "their entire unfitness to govern the country, and ... the lasting damage they do by much of what they think are the legitimate big business operations of the day".<ref>Roosevelt to [[William Henry Moody]], September 21, 1907, in {{harvnb|Morison|1952|loc=5:802}}</ref>

===Foreign policy===
{{Main|Foreign policy of the Theodore Roosevelt administration}}

==== Japan ====
The American [[Newlands Resolution|annexation of Hawaii]] in 1898 was stimulated in part by fear that Japan would dominate or seize the Hawaiian Republic.<ref>William Michael Morgan, "The anti-Japanese origins of the Hawaiian Annexation treaty of 1897." ''Diplomatic History'' 6.1 (1982): 23–44.</ref> Similarly, Germany was the alternative to American takeover of the Philippines in 1900, and Tokyo strongly preferred the U.S. to take over. As the U.S. became a naval world power, it needed to find a way to avoid a military confrontation in the Pacific with Japan.<ref>James K. Eyre Jr, "Japan and the American Annexation of the Philippines." ''Pacific Historical Review'' 11.1 (1942): 55–71 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3632998 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021085938/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3632998 |date=October 21, 2021 }}</ref>

In the 1890s, Roosevelt had been an ardent [[American imperialism|imperialist]] and vigorously defended the permanent acquisition of the Philippines in the 1900 campaign. After the [[Philippine–American War|local insurrection]] ended in 1902, Roosevelt wished to have a strong U.S. presence in the region as a symbol of democratic values, but he did not envision any new acquisitions. One of Roosevelt's priorities was the maintenance of friendly relations with Japan.<ref>Michael J. Green, ''By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783'' (2019) pp. 78–113.</ref><ref>Charles E. Neu, ''An Uncertain Friendship: Theodore Roosevelt and Japan, 1906–1909'' (1967) pp. 310–319.</ref> From 1904 to 1905 [[Russo-Japanese War|Japan and Russia were at war]]. Both sides asked Roosevelt to mediate a peace conference, held successfully in [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire]]. Roosevelt won the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for his efforts.<ref>Matsumura Masayoshi, "Theodore Roosevelt and the Portsmouth Peace Conference: The Riddle and Ripple of his Forbearance." in ''Rethinking the Russo-Japanese War, 1904–5'' (Global Oriental, 2008) pp. 50–60.</ref>

Though he proclaimed that the United States would be neutral during the [[Russo-Japanese War]], Roosevelt secretly favored Imperial Japan to emerge victorious against the Russian Empire.<ref>Kissinger, pp. 41–42</ref> In California, [[Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States|anti-Japanese hostility was growing]], and Tokyo protested. Roosevelt [[Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907|negotiated a "Gentleman's Agreement" in 1907]]. It ended explicit discrimination against the Japanese, and Japan agreed not to allow unskilled immigrants into the United States.<ref>Neu, pp. 263–280</ref> The [[Great White Fleet]] of American battleships visited Japan in 1908. Roosevelt intended to emphasize the superiority of the American fleet over the smaller Japanese navy, but instead of resentment, the visitors arrived to a joyous welcome. This goodwill facilitated the [[Root–Takahira Agreement]] of November 1908 which reaffirmed the status quo of Japanese control of Korea and American control of the Philippines.<ref>Thomas A. Bailey, "The Root-Takahira Agreement of 1908." ''Pacific historical review'' 9.1 (1940): 19–35. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3634124 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023051400/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3634124 |date=October 23, 2021 }}</ref>{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=614–616}}

==== China ====
Following the [[Boxer Rebellion]], foreign powers, including the United States, required China to pay indemnities as part of the [[Boxer Protocol|Boxer protocol]]. In 1908, Roosevelt appropriated these indemnities for the [[Boxer Indemnity Scholarship]]s, which funded tens of thousands of Chinese students to study in the U.S. over the next 40 years.<ref name=":Minami">{{Cite book |last=Minami |first=Kazushi |title=People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=9781501774157 |location=Ithaca, NY}}</ref>{{Rp|page=91}}

====Europe====
Success in the war against Spain and the new empire, plus having the largest economy in the world, meant that the United States had emerged as a world power.<ref>Walter LaFeber, "The 'Lion in the Path': The US Emergence as a World Power." ''Political Science Quarterly'' 101.5 (1986): 705-718 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2150973 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211023062833/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2150973 |date=October 23, 2021 }}</ref> Roosevelt searched for ways to win recognition for the position abroad.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=382–383}} He also played a major role in mediating the [[First Moroccan Crisis]] by calling the [[Algeciras Conference]], which averted war between France and Germany.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=450–451}}

Roosevelt's presidency saw the strengthening of ties with Great Britain. [[The Great Rapprochement]] had begun with British support of the United States during the Spanish–American War, and it continued as Britain withdrew its fleet from the Caribbean in favor of directing most of its attention to the rising [[Anglo-German naval arms race|German naval threat]].{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=387–388}} In 1901, Britain and the U.S. signed the [[Hay–Pauncefote Treaty]], abrogating the [[Clayton–Bulwer Treaty]], which had prevented the U.S. from constructing a canal connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=399–400}} The long-standing [[Alaska boundary dispute]] was settled on terms favorable to the U.S.; as Roosevelt later put it, this "settled the last serious trouble between the British Empire and ourselves."{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=397–398}}

====Latin America and the Panama Canal====
As president, Roosevelt primarily directed the nation's overseas ambitions towards the Caribbean, especially locations that had a bearing on the defense of his pet project, the [[Panama Canal]].{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=615–616}} Roosevelt also increased the size of the navy, and by the end of his second term, the U.S. had more battleships than any country other than Britain. The Panama Canal, when it opened in 1914, allowed the U.S. Navy to rapidly move back and forth from the Pacific to the Caribbean to European waters.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|p=384}}

In December 1902, the Germans, British, and Italians blockaded the ports of [[Venezuela]] to force the repayment of delinquent loans. Roosevelt was particularly concerned about the motives of German Emperor [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]]. He succeeded in getting the three nations to agree to arbitration by tribunal at [[The Hague]], and successfully defused the [[Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903|crisis]].{{Sfn|Brands|1997|p=464}} The latitude granted to the Europeans by the arbiters was in part responsible for the "[[Roosevelt Corollary]]" to the [[Monroe Doctrine]], which the President issued in 1904: <blockquote>Chronic wrongdoing or an impotence which results in a general loosening of the ties of civilized society, may in America, as elsewhere, ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hemisphere, the adherence of the United States to the Monroe doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|p=527}}</blockquote>

[[File:Panama canal cartooon 1903.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|Roosevelt felt American dominance of the region was essential to building the [[Panama Canal]]. He used military dominance to ensure [[separation of Panama from Colombia|Panama successfully revolted]] and achieved independence in 1903.]]
Two possible routes for an [[History of the Panama Canal|isthmus canal]] in Central America were under consideration: through [[Nicaragua]] and through Panama, which was then a rebellious district within [[Colombia]]. Roosevelt persuaded Congress to approve the Panamanian alternative, and a treaty was approved, only to be rejected by the Colombian government. When the Panamanians learned of this, a rebellion followed, was supported by Roosevelt, and succeeded. A [[Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty|treaty]] with the new Panama government for construction of the canal was reached in 1903.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=482–486}} Roosevelt received criticism for paying the bankrupt Panama Canal Company and the New Panama Canal Company $40&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|40,000,000|1903|r=-7}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US-GDP}}) for the rights and equipment to build the canal.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|p=209}} Critics charged that an American investor syndicate divided the large payment among themselves. There was also controversy over whether a French company engineer influenced Roosevelt in choosing the Panama route for the canal over the Nicaragua route. Roosevelt denied charges of corruption. In January 1909, Roosevelt, in an unprecedented move, brought criminal libel charges against the ''[[New York World]]'' and the ''[[Indianapolis News]]'' known as the "Roosevelt-Panama Libel Cases".{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|pp=209–210}} Both cases were dismissed by U.S. District Courts, and on January 3, 1911, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' rulings.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|pp=213–214}} Historians are sharply critical of Roosevelt's criminal prosecutions of the newspapers but are divided on whether actual corruption took place.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|p=215}}

In 1906, following a disputed election, an insurrection ensued in Cuba; Roosevelt sent Taft, the Secretary of War, to monitor the situation; he was convinced that he had the authority to unilaterally authorize Taft to deploy Marines, if necessary, without congressional approval.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|p=570}}

Examining the work of numerous scholars, Ricard reports that:

<blockquote>The most striking evolution in the twenty-first-century historiography of Theodore Roosevelt is the switch from a partial arraignment of the imperialist to a quasi-unanimous celebration of the master diplomatist.... [Recent works] have underlined cogently Roosevelt's exceptional statesmanship in the construction of the nascent twentieth-century "special relationship". ...The twenty-sixth president's reputation as a brilliant diplomatist and real politician has undeniably reached new heights in the twenty-first century...yet, his Philippine policy still prompts criticism.{{sfn|Ricard|2014}}</blockquote>
On November 6, 1906, Roosevelt was the first president to depart the continental United States on an official diplomatic trip. Roosevelt made a 17-day trip to Panama and Puerto Rico.<ref name="Forslund">{{cite web |last1=Forslund |first1=Catherine |title="Off for the Ditch" - Theodore and Edith Roosevelt Visit Panama in 1906 |url=https://www.whitehousehistory.org/off-for-the-ditch |publisher=[[White House Historical Association]] |access-date=January 14, 2024 |date=2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Presidential and Secretaries Travels Abroad - Theodore Roosevelt |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/travels/president/roosevelt-theodore |publisher=Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, [[United States Department of State]] |access-date=January 14, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Thomas |first1=Heather |title=Theodore Roosevelt: A President of "Firsts" |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2020/06/theodore-roosevelt-a-president-of-firsts/ |access-date=January 14, 2024 |date=June 4, 2020 |quote=The first president to leave the country during his time in office—On November 9, 1906, Roosevelt embarks from the Chesapeake Bay aboard the U.S.S. Louisiana to inspect the construction of the Panama Canal,}}</ref> He visited the Panama Canal worksite and attended diplomatic receptions in both Panama and Puerto Rico.<ref name="Forslund"/>

===Media===
[[File:Go Away Little Man Charles Green Bush.jpg|thumb|A 1903 cartoon, "Go Away, Little Man, and Don't Bother Me", depicting Roosevelt intimidating [[Colombia]] to acquire the [[Panama Canal Zone]]]]
Building on McKinley's effective use of the press, Roosevelt made the White House the center of news every day, providing interviews and photo opportunities. After noticing the reporters huddled outside the White House in the rain one day, he gave them their own room inside, effectively inventing the presidential [[press briefing]]. The grateful press, with unprecedented access to the White House, rewarded Roosevelt with ample coverage.<ref name="american chronicle">{{Cite news|url=http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/6883 |publisher=American Chronicle |date=March 15, 2006 |title=Happy Anniversary to the first scheduled presidential press conference—93 years young! |first=Robert |last=Rouse |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080913094418/http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/6883 |archive-date=September 13, 2008}}</ref>
Aside from the Roosevelt-Panama Libel Cases, Roosevelt normally enjoyed very close relationships with the press. While out of office, he made a living as a writer and magazine editor. He loved talking with intellectuals, authors, and writers. He drew the line, however, at exposé-oriented scandal-mongering journalists who, during his term, sent magazine subscriptions soaring by their attacks on corrupt politicians, mayors, and corporations. Roosevelt himself was not usually a target, but a speech of his from 1906 coined the term "[[muckraker]]" for unscrupulous journalists making wild charges.<ref>{{cite book| first1 = Arthur| last1 = Weinberg| first2 = Lila Shaffer| last2 = Weinberg| title = The Muckrakers| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=HXMFrIZ68gwC&pg=PA59| year = 1961| publisher = University of Illinois Press| pages = 58–66| isbn = 978-0-252-06986-4| access-date = October 17, 2015| archive-date = April 27, 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160427212030/https://books.google.com/books?id=HXMFrIZ68gwC&pg=PA59| url-status = live}}</ref>

===Election of 1904===
{{Main |1904 United States presidential election}}
[[File:ElectoralCollege1904.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|Electoral College results of the 1904 election]]
With the waning of Thomas Platt's power, Roosevelt faced little effective opposition for the 1904 nomination.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=437–438}} In deference to [[Mark Hanna]]'s conservative loyalists, Roosevelt at first offered the party chairmanship to [[Cornelius Bliss]], but he declined. Roosevelt turned to his own man, [[George B. Cortelyou]] of New York, the first Secretary of Commerce and Labor. To buttress his hold on the party's nomination, Roosevelt made it clear that anyone opposing Cortelyou would be considered opposing the President.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=501–503}} The President secured his own nomination, but his preferred vice-presidential running mate, [[Robert R. Hitt]], was not nominated.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|p=504}} Senator [[Charles W. Fairbanks|Charles Warren Fairbanks]] of Indiana, a favorite of conservatives, gained the nomination.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=437–438}}

While Roosevelt followed the tradition of incumbents in not actively campaigning on the stump, he sought to control the campaign's message through specific instructions to Cortelyou. He also attempted to manage the press's release of White House statements by forming the [[Ananias Club]]. Any journalist who repeated a statement made by the president without approval was penalized by restriction of further access.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|p=507}}

The Democratic Party's nominee in 1904 was [[Alton B. Parker|Alton Brooks Parker]]. Democratic newspapers charged that Republicans were extorting large campaign contributions from corporations, putting ultimate responsibility on Roosevelt himself.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|pp=215–216}} Roosevelt denied corruption while at the same time ordering Cortelyou to return $100,000 (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|100,000|1904|r=-4}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US-GDP}}) of a campaign contribution from [[Standard Oil]].{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|p=216}} Parker said that Roosevelt was accepting corporate donations to keep damaging information from the [[Bureau of Corporations]] from going public.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|p=216}} Roosevelt strongly denied Parker's charge and responded that he would "go into the Presidency unhampered by any pledge, promise, or understanding of any kind, sort, or description...".{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|pp=216–217}} Allegations from Parker and the Democrats, however, had little impact on the election, as Roosevelt promised to give every American a "[[Square Deal|square deal]]".{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|pp=216–217}} Roosevelt won 56% of the popular vote to Parker's 38%, and won the [[Electoral College (United States)|Electoral College]] vote 336 to 140. Before his [[Second inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt|inauguration ceremony]], Roosevelt declared that he would not serve another term.{{Sfn|Brands|1997|pp=513–514}} Democrats would continue to charge Roosevelt and the Republicans of being influenced by corporate donations.{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|pp=217–218}}

===Second term===
As his second term progressed, Roosevelt moved to the left of his Republican Party base and called for a series of reforms, most of which Congress failed to pass.{{Sfn|Gould|2012|p=2}}{{Failed verification|date=August 2024|talk="promoted policies to the left"|reason=the cited page 2 content does not support this sentence}} Roosevelt's influence waned as he approached the end of his second term, as his promise to forego a third term made him a [[Lame duck (politics)|lame duck]] and his concentration of power provoked a backlash from many Congressmen.{{Sfn|Miller|1992|pp=463–464}} He sought a national [[Incorporation (business)|incorporation]] law, called for a federal [[Income tax in the United States|income tax]] (despite the Supreme Court's ruling in ''[[Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.]]''), and an [[Estate tax in the United States|inheritance tax]]. Roosevelt called for limits on the use of court injunctions against labor unions during strikes; injunctions were a powerful weapon that mostly helped business. He wanted an employee liability law for industrial injuries (pre-empting state laws) and an [[Eight-hour day|eight-hour work day]] for federal employees. In other areas, he also sought a [[postal savings system]] (to provide competition for local banks), and he asked for campaign reform laws.{{sfn|Ricard|2011|pp=160–166}}

The election of 1904 continued to be a source of contention between Republicans and Democrats. A Congressional investigation in 1905 revealed that corporate executives donated tens of thousands of dollars in 1904 to the [[Republican National Committee]]. In 1908, a month before the general presidential election, Governor [[Charles N. Haskell]] of Oklahoma, former Democratic Treasurer, said that Senators beholden to Standard Oil lobbied Roosevelt, in the summer of 1904, to authorize the leasing of Indian oil lands by Standard Oil subsidiaries. He said Roosevelt overruled his [[United States Secretary of Interior|Secretary of the Interior]] [[Ethan A. Hitchcock (Interior)|Ethan A. Hitchcock]] and granted a pipeline franchise to run through the [[Osage Nation|Osage lands]] to the Prairie Oil and Gas Company. The New York ''Sun'' made a similar accusation and said that Standard Oil, a refinery that financially benefited from the pipeline, had contributed $150,000 to the Republicans in 1904 (equivalent to ${{Format price|{{Inflation|US-GDP|150,000|1904|r=-5}}}} in {{Inflation-year|US-GDP}}) after Roosevelt's alleged reversal allowing the pipeline franchise. Roosevelt branded Haskell's allegation as "a lie, pure and simple".{{Sfn|Chambers|1974|p=219}}

====Rhetoric of righteousness====
Roosevelt's rhetoric was characterized by an intense moralism of personal righteousness.<ref>Leroy G. Dorsey, "Preaching Morality in Modern America: Theodore Roosevelt's Rhetorical Progressivism." in ''Rhetoric and Reform in the Progressive Era, A Rhetorical History of the United States: Significant Moments in American Public Discourse'', ed. J. Michael Hogan, (Michigan State University Press, 2003), vol 6 pp 49–83.</ref><ref>Joshua D. Hawley, ''Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness'' (2008), p. xvii. [https://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Roosevelt-Joshua-David-Hawley/dp/0300120109 excerpt]. [[Josh Hawley]] in 2019 became a Republican senator with intense moralistic rhetoric.</ref><ref>See also ''The Independent'' (February 6, 1908) [https://books.google.com/books?id=RjAPAQAAIAAJ&dq=%22justified+by+the+advocacy+of+a+system+of+morality%22&pg=PA275 p. 274 online]</ref> The tone was typified by his denunciation of "predatory wealth" in a message he sent Congress in January 1908 calling for passage of new labor laws: <blockquote>Predatory wealth--of the wealth accumulated on a giant scale by all forms of iniquity, ranging from the oppression of wageworkers to unfair and unwholesome methods of crushing out competition, and to defrauding the public by stock jobbing and the manipulation of securities. Certain wealthy men of this stamp, whose conduct should be abhorrent to every man of ordinarily decent conscience, and who commit the hideous wrong of teaching our young men that phenomenal business success must ordinarily be based on dishonesty, have during the last few months made it apparent that they have banded together to work for a reaction. Their endeavor is to overthrow and discredit all who honestly administer the law, to prevent any additional legislation which would check and restrain them, and to secure if possible a freedom from all restraint which will permit every unscrupulous wrongdoer to do what he wishes unchecked provided he has enough money....The methods by which the Standard Oil people and those engaged in the other combinations of which I have spoken above have achieved great fortunes can only be justified by the advocacy of a system of morality which would also justify every form of criminality on the part of a labor union, and every form of violence, corruption, and fraud, from murder to bribery and ballot box stuffing in politics.<ref>Roosevelt,
"Special message to Congress, January 31, 1908," in {{harv|Morison|1952|loc=vol 5 pp. 1580, 1587}}; online version at [https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/message-congress-workers-compensation UC Santa Barbara, "The American Presidency Project"]</ref> </blockquote>