I thought of President Theodore Roosevelt as I attended a wreath-laying ceremony in Annapolis recently. We were observing the 100^th anniversary of the Tomb of the Unknowns at St. John’s College. Those unknowns are not American soldiers and sailors but those of France who died fighting for our freedom in the War of Independence. Theodore Roosevelt cared deeply about such things. As president, he presided over the return of the remains of John Paul Jones from France.

And he was more than willing to have his own body buried in France. Yes. Former President Roosevelt went hat-in-hand to the White House in 1917. There, he almost begged President Woodrow Wilson to let him go to France to fight against Germany.

Wilson demurred, saying it would be too dangerous to let a former President of the United States be captured or killed in combat. I would be more than willing, T.R. told his long-time adversary, to have my epitaph read:  Roosevelt to France.

Wilson didn’t turn T.R. down then. He said to his faithful aide Joe Tumulty after his rival left the presidential office: “Theodore is like a big boy.” Hopeful, T.R. said he thought the professorial Wilson might relent.

Today is Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday. T.R. is getting beaten up a good bit among conservatives these days. His embrace of national health care when he ran as the “Bull Moose” (Progressive Party) candidate for president in 1912 is seen, with some justification, by President Obama as an early endorsement of his own takeover of one-sixth of the nation’s economy.

Continue reading »

Comments: - |