The Rhetoric of Theodore Roosevelt26th president: 1901-1909

(Inauguration, 1905)

“Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we

have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to

be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we

must act big.”

-Teddy Roosevelt

(Giving one of many speeches from a train)

Roosevelt’s Philosophy:

Roosevelt saw the presidency as a “bully pulpit” which allowed him to preach his ideals to the people.

“He also saw a clearly-defined hierarchy in the government and an almost organic unity in society. Society was a body made up of arms, legs, and other parts. The brain was the President of the United States.”

Roosevelt & Conservation

"Optimism is a good characteristic, but if carried

to an excess, it becomes foolishness. We are prone to speak of the resources of this country as inexhaustible; this is not so."

-7th Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1907

(Teddy Roosevelt & John Muir, Yosemite Valley, CA)

“Since conservation, as Roosevelt conceived it, was a novel policy, he

confronted two rhetorical challenges in persuading his audience to accept his

initiative. First, he had to create a sense of exigency, an urgency to resolve the

environmental crisis. Second, he had to formulate a nexus between conservation

and values and attitudes that his audience embraced.”

-Buehler, “Permanence and Change in Theodore Roosevelt’s Conservation Jeremiad”

• Roosevelt pointed out need for change without blaming citizens for the damage that had already been done.

• “As a rhetorical leader Roosevelt took his case to the public and promoted conservation not only as a legislative initiative but also as a moral imperative.” (Dorsey)

• Framed the purpose of conservation as the continuation of growth and prosperity, invoking both permanence and change.

• Redefined classic Frontier Myth

Roosevelt & the Good Citizen: “What is true for the individual is

true for the nation.”

stressed the importance of the virtues and the everyday tasks of the common man before expanding these ideals from the individual to the state level

called for an active audience

“We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our children and our children's children. To do so we must

show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of

practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all

the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington,

which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham

Lincoln.”Inaugural Address, March 4, 1905