Editing Theodore Roosevelt (section)

====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>