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Top image via Snopes, which confirmed and cited the quote. Second image online here. 

PRESIDENT TEDDY ROOSEVELT ON PATRIOTISM

By Miriam Kleiman, Program Director for Public Affairs.

Numerous patriotic quotes are circulating on social media in the aftermath of the horrific attack on the US Capitol. Following the sage wisdom of my brilliant and inspiring AP US History teacher Terry Pollack, I sought primary sources to verify and provide context to these statements attributed to Teddy Roosevelt. 

Teddy Roosevelt quote 1: 

“Patriotism means to stand with the country. It does not mean to stand with the President.” 

Source: President Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln and Free Speech, Metropolitan Magazine, May 1918 (v.47 no.6), From the HathiTrust Digital Library, essay here.

Teddy Roosevelt quote 2:

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

Source: Sedition, a Free Press, and Personal Rule, editorial by Teddy Roosevelt, Kansas City Star, 5/7/1918. Online here. 

Our nation’s history is one of protest, fighting for rights, and continually striving to form a “more perfect union.” Two of our current exhibits, Records of Rights, and Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote, highlight records documenting historic struggles. However, such challenges to and questioning of the government, especially of the President, are often seen as unpatriotic or even treasonous. As the highlighted quotes above show, Teddy Roosevelt responded strongly to such accusations.

Teddy Roosevelt stated that far from being unpatriotic, it is one’s patriotic duty to oppose a president whose policies put Americans in harm’s way. At the time, the US was both embroiled in World War I and dealing with a pandemic. Teddy Roosevelt adamantly supported the war, and even wanted to serve despite his age and failing health, but criticized President Woodrow Wilson for not playing a bigger role on the European war front. Wilson responded by trying to quash all criticism through Sedition Act of 1918 that criminalized any “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government or military. 

See also: 

From letter to the Kansas City Star, 4/6/1918, online here. 

While the records above from President Teddy Roosevelt are not from the National Archives, we do hold records of government efforts to foster “patriotic spirit” including the original Declaration of Independence. and thousands of military recruitment posters, some more effective than others, including this one:

“Like mighty Niagara’s torrents is the strong surge of our patriotism.”

WWII poster, Office for Emergency Management. Office of War Information. NARA ID 515739.

See related:

Why Teddy Roosevelt Tried to Bully His Way Onto the WWI Battlefield, Smithsonian Magazine, by Erick Trickey.

The Bull Moose in Winter: Theodore Roosevelt and World War I, National Parks Service.

It’s a Beary Special Day...

Do you have your teddy? No matter where you may be working or learning from, today’s the day to have a good snuggle with your favorite teddy. It’s National Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work/School Day!

To celebrate, we would like to share this photo from our holdings of a 1984 display of Teddy Roosevelt and his Teddy Bear from the Cleveland National Forest. During a hunting trip in 1902, President Roosevelt, ever the outdoorsman, refused to shoot a black bear that had been tied to a tree.  This consequential decision inspired the cartoon also seen in the display pictured.  “Teddy’s Bear” was born when a candy shop owner and his wife made a stuffed bear toy after seeing the widely-circulated cartoon in the newspaper.

For more information, please visit the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site. 

Please share with us your own pictures of you and your teddy bear! 

"We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation."