Roosevelt was born on October 27, 1858 in New York City to a moderately wealthy family of Dutch Ancestry. He received superb education from personal instructors and at Harvard College. In 1880, he entered Columbia University Law School and shortly after married his first wife …show more content…
At the age of forty-two, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest man ever to hold the office of president. In numerous ways, he became the model for the twentieth-century president an official heavily and deliberately engaged in domestic and foreign affairs. Roosevelt’s domestic program, which he called the Square Deal, embraced reform of the American workplace, government regulation of industry and consumer protection, with the comprehensive desire of helping people of all social classes. The Square Deal attempted to address the problems caused by economic consolidation by distinguishing between good and bad corporations. Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency is distinguished by this commitment to arraigning monopolies under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Roosevelt stunned the corporate world by announcing his objective to persecute under the Sherman Antitrust Act the Northern Securities Company. The holding company was constructed by financer J.P Morgan, they owned the stock and conducted the affairs of three major western railroads. It monopolized transportation between the Great Lakes and the Pacific. In 1904, the Supreme Court Order Northern Securities diffused, a big achievement for the antitrust …show more content…
In June 1902, the National Reclamation Act became the first major legislative achievement of his presidency. Roosevelt set aside almost 200 million acres for national forests, wildlife refuges and reserves. Theodore’s pressure on Congress led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug and Meat Inspection act which laid the basis for the modern concept of consumer protection. In 1904, Theodore was reelected and became the first president to be reelected after attaining the White House due to the death of his predecessor. Roosevelt desired to bring the United States out of its isolationism and fulfill its responsibility as a world power. He believed that way to conduct foreign affairs was to “speak softly but carry a big stick” in the the realm of international affairs and that it president should be willing to use force to back up his diplomatic negotiations. Roosevelt followed his big stick policy mostly when it came to dealing with Latin America. In 1903, he helped Panama secede from Colombia in order begin the construction on the Panama Canal. Roosevelt claimed that the Panama Canal was one of his greatest accomplishment as president. He was convinced that the canal would facilitate the movement of naval and commercial vessels between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. Panama signed a treaty giving the United States both the right to construct and operate the canal and sovereignty over the Canal