New Nationalism

Throughout his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt sought to espouse and enforce elements of what would become the Progressive Movement in America. Through his arbitration between capital and labor, such as during the Anthracite Coal Strike, or in his establishment of the Food and Drug Administration in response to infamously poor conditions within meat packing facilities, he sought to improve the lives of working Americans without causing radical change. After leaving the presidency, this ideal continued to develop, and was exemplified in 1910 when in Osawatomie, Kansas, he delivered his famous “New Nationalism” speech. In his speech he laid out the key ideas he would take with him when eventually forming the Progressive Party (known informally as the “Bull Moose Party”). In this speech, Roosevelt championed equal opportunity and equal treatment before the law, protection of human welfare and property rights, which fell in line with the “Square Deal” mantra that he ran under during his second term as president.¹ “I stand for the square deal. But when I say that I am for the square deal, I mean not that I stand for fair play under the present rules of the game, but that I stand for having those rules changed so as to work for a more substantial equality of opportunity and of reward for equally good work.” This is the platform he would use when campaigning for a third term in 1912 as the nominee for the Progressive Party. Although he lost the 1912 election, the ideas of his New Nationalism would outlive him such as with the passage of the 19th amendment in 1920.² Other of these ideas that continue to appear include destroying corrupt dealings between big business and “the invisible government,” advocating for the expediting of formally amending to the constitution, equal suffrage, and other progressive causes.³

Sources

1. Forbath, William E., and Ken I. Kersch. “The New Nationalism (1911).” National Constitution Center – Constitutioncenter.Org, https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/historic-document-library/detail/theodore-roosevelt-the-new-nationalism-new-york-the-outlook-company-1911. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024. 

2. “100 Years of Women’s Suffrage.” Center for American Women and Politics, 13 Oct. 2020, http://cawp.rutgers.edu/programs/100-years-womens-suffrage. 

3. Peters, Gerhard, and John T. Woolley. “Progressive Party Platform of 1912” The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/273288.

Entry contributed by Isaac Baker – Theodore Roosevelt Center Student Employee