Dead Presidents: Leap Day

February 29 comes along only once in four years, which might account for the fact that no Presidents or Vice Presidents of the United States were ever born or died on that day, though President John Tyler came within a few feet of death on February 28, 1844, when a 12-inch gun on the warship USS Princeton accidently exploded, killing two members of his cabinet, among others.

There have been a few bits of presidential history associated with Leap Day, however. On February 29, 1796, for example, President Washington announced that the Jay Treaty was in effect -- officially, the Treaty of Amity Commerce and Navigation, between His Britannic Majesty; and The United States of America. (John Jay was the chief negotiator on the American side.) Among other things, the treaty provided for the end of the lingering British occupation of forts in the Northwest Territory; the settlement of compensation to U.S. ship owners whose vessels by the British during the Revolution; and the establishment of a commission to delineate part of the boundary with British North American (that is, the Canadas).

On February 29, 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt formally appointed a seven-man commission -- the Isthmian Canal Commission, which reported at first to Secretary of War William Howard Taft -- to get on with the task of building the Panama Canal, one of the signal achievements of his presidency. The move came immediately after the brand-new Panamanian government, which had been helped into existence by the U.S.S. Nashville in late 1903, ceded control of the Canal Zone to the United States on February 23.

On February 29, 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the second Neutrality Act, which renewed a previous act that banned trading in arms or war materials with all parties in a war, and clarified the status of Americans traveling on ships of belligerent powers -- at their own risk (everyone still recalled the Lusitania in those days). The '36 act also banned loans or credits to belligerents. Other neutrality acts were passed in the late '30s, for all the good they did in the early '40s in keeping the United States out of war.

A TR Christmas

Merry Christmas from Dead Presidents Daily. Back again after Christmas Day.

"We had a delightful Christmas yesterday -- just such a Christmas thirty or forty years ago we used to have under Father's and Mother's supervision in 20th street and 57th street.

"At seven all the children came in to open the big, bulgy stockings in our bed; Kermit's terrier, Allan, a most friendly little dog, adding to the children's delight by occupying the middle of the bed. From Alice to Quentin, each child was absorbed in his or her stocking, and Edith certainly managed to get the most wonderful stocking toys. Bob was in looking on, and Aunt Emily, of course.

"Then, after breakfast, we all formed up and went into the library, where bigger toys were on separate tables for the children. I wonder whether there ever can come in life a thrill of greater exaltation and rapture than that which comes to one between the ages of say six and fourteen, when the library door is thrown open and you walk in to see all the gifts, like a materialized fairy land, arrayed on your special table?"

-- President Theodore Roosevelt, December 26, 1903, in a letter to his sister, Corinne Robinson. (The National Christmas Tree pictured, selected for being picturesque, is from another era: 1981, the first tree of the Reagan administration.)

Twain Didn't Care for TR

Mark Twain had opinions about many things, including some of the presidents of his time. On the occasion of Twain's birthday, the following are items he wrote toward the end of his life, expressing himself on former President Cleveland and President Theodore Roosevelt, as well as President-elect Taft.

On Grover Cleveland: In a letter to Jean Clemens, June 19, 1908.

Of all our public men of today he stands first in my reverence & admiration, & the next one stands two-hundred-&-twenty-fifth. He is the only statesman we have now. ... Cleveland drunk is a more valuable asset to this country than the whole batch of the rest of our public men sober. He is high-minded; all his impulses are great & pure & fine. I wish we had another of this sort.

On Theodore Roosevelt: In a letter written March 6, 1908, and reprinted in the New York Times in 1912, after Twain's death.

Our people have adored this showy charlatan as perhaps no impostor of his brood has been adored since the Golden Calf, so it is to be expected that the Nation will want him back again after he is done hunting other wild animals heroically in Africa, with the safeguard and advertising equipment of a park of artillery and a brass band.

On William Howard Taft: In a letter dated March 2, 1909, two days before Taft was inaugurated. It too was reprinted in the New York Times in 1912.

You can't help but like Mr. Taft. The country likes him and respects him; and I want him to make the best people in the country continue to respect him and every now and then dislike him -- sure proof, in a public servant, that he is doing his whole duty, as he sees it, regardless of personal consequences. He has the natural gifts, the culture, the experience, the training, the sanity, the right-mindedness, the honesty, the truthfulness, the modesty, and the dignity properly requisite in a President of the United States, the most responsible post on the planet. In a word, he possesses every qualification the other one [Theodore Roosevelt] was destitute of.

TR's 1901 Thanksgiving Proclamation

The Thanksgiving proclamations of George Washington (November 26, 1789) and Abraham Lincoln (November 26, 1863) are usually noted in any serious discussion of the American holiday, as well they should be. But every president since Lincoln has issued annual Thanksgiving Day proclamations, both before and after the 1941 law fixing the day as a federal holiday.

Theodore Roosevelt had a particularly delicate task in 1901, proclaiming a day of thanksgiving despite the recent violent murder of the popular William McKinley. This is how he handled it in a proclamation dated November 2, 1901:

"This Thanksgiving finds the people still bowed with sorrow for the death of a great and good President. We mourn President McKinley because we so loved and honored him; and the manner of his death should awaken in the breasts of our people a keen anxiety for the country, and at the same time a resolute purpose not to be driven by any calamity from the path of strong, orderly, popular liberty which as a nation we have thus far safely trod.

"Yet in spite of this great disaster, it is nevertheless true that no people on earth have such abundant cause for thanksgiving as we have. The past year in particular has been one of peace and plenty. We have prospered in things material and have been able to work for our own uplifting in things intellectual and spiritual. Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us; and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips and shows itself in deeds. We can best prove our thankfulness to the Almighty by the way in which on this earth and at this time each of us does his duty to his fellow men.

"Now, Therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, do hereby designate as a day of general thanksgiving Thursday, the 28th of this present November, and do recommend that throughout the land the people cease from their wonted occupations, and at their several homes and places of worship reverently thank the Giver of all good for the countless blessings of our national life."

As it happened, more than 60 years later the last presidential proclamation issued by John Kennedy was his 1963 Thanksgiving proclamation, dated November 5, for a holiday that took place six days after his death.

Joe Wiegand as TR, Part Two

Today is the 153rd anniversary of the birth of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. This is the second part of Joe Wiegand doing the president in the East Room of the White House on the occasion of his 150th birthday.

Wiegand writes, "Now more than ever, I know that the American people benefit from hearing the words of and relearning the life story of TR. I know that the many months ahead will give me the opportunity to do so in all the right places, the places that need his message of strenuous living, good citizenship and perseverance."

Joe Wiegand as TR, Part One

There are many Lincoln impersonators, but far fewer who bring Theodore Roosevelt back to life on stage. Tomorrow is TR's 153rd birthday, and in honor of the occasion is a posting of the first part of a bully performance by Joe Wiegand as Theodore Roosevelt in the East Room of the White House, on the occasion of the sesquicentennial of TR's birth in 2008.

Wiegand travels the nation re-acquainting its citizens with the 26th President of the United States in a way that no filmed re-creation can do -- full-bodied and in person. He plans to continue his touring in 2012, which is of course the 100th anniversary of Mr. Roosevelt's Bull Moose campaign.

It Takes More Than That to Kill a Bull Moose

In October 1912, a deranged man named John Flammang Schrank (pictured) put a bullet into former President Theodore Roosevelt while he was campaigning to return to the White House under the Progressive (Bull Moose) Party banner. At one point, Schrank claimed that President McKinley's ghost told him to do it, but his motives remained murky. After the shooting, he spent the rest of his life -- he died in 1943 -- at the Central State Mental Hospital in Waupun, Wisconsin.

The wound wasn't serious, and TR famously made his scheduled campaign speech before going to the hospital. Turns out it was a near thing for the former president, however.

According to the book The Attempted Assassination of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt, written immediately after the incident by Wheeler Bloodgood, Oliver Remey and Henry Cochems, "That the shot fired by Schrank didn't succeed in murdering Col. Roosevelt is a miracle of good fortune. A 'thirty-eight' long Colt's cartridge, fired from a pistol frame of 'forty-four' caliber design, so built because it gives a heavier drive to the projectile, fired at that close range, meant almost inevitable death.

"The aim was taken at a lower portion of Col. Roosevelt's body, but a bystander struck Schrank's arm at the moment of explosion, and elevated the direction of the shot. After passing through the Colonel's heavy military overcoat, and his other clothing, it would have certainly killed him had it not struck in its course practically everything which he carried on his person which could impede its force.

"In his coat pocket he had fifty pages of manuscript for the night's speech, which had been doubled, causing the bullet to traverse a hundred pages of manuscript. It had struck also his spectacle case on the outer concave surface of the gun metal material of which the case was constructed. It had passed through a double fold of his heavy suspenders before reaching his body.

"Had anyone of those objects been out of the range of the bullet, Schrank's dastardly purpose would have been accomplished beyond any conjecture."

TR composed a telegram to his family from the hospital was taken to after completing his speech:

"Am in excellent shape, made an hour and half speech. The wound is a trivial one. I think they will find that it merely glanced on a rib and went somewhere into a cavity of the body; it certainly did not touch a lung and isn't a particle more serious than one of the injuries any of the boys used continually to be having. Am at the Emergency hospital at the moment, but anticipate going right on with my engagements. My voice seems to be in good shape. Best love to Ethel."

TR Creates the First National Monument

On this day in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower, Wyoming, as the first national monument, noting in the proclamation that “the lofty and isolated rock known as ‘Devils Tower'... is such an extraordinary example of the effect of erosion in the higher mountains as to be a natural wonder and an object of historic and great scientific interest.”

The authority for him to do so was the newly passed Antiques Act of 1906, a Congressional response to widespread looting of Indian burial grounds beginning at the end of the 19th century. According to the National Park Service, "[the act] it authorized permits for legitimate archaeological investigations and penalties for persons taking or destroying antiquities without permission. And it authorized presidents to proclaim 'historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest' as national monuments -- 'the limits of which in all cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.'

"So it was originally expected that national monuments would be proclaimed to protect prehistoric cultural features, or antiquities, and that they would be small."

TR did not think small. Devils Tower National Monument is about 1,347 acres, and during his presidency, TR created 18 national monuments, including Muir Woods in California, Jewel Cave in South Dakota, and Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon -- the latter some 800,000 acres -- both in the Arizona Territory.

The Big Stick Speech

"A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick — you will go far.' If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power."

-- Vice President Theodore Roosevelt at the Minnesota State Fair, September 2, 1901.

December 16, 1907:TR's Great White Fleet Sails

One hundred years ago, during the waning of Theodore Roosevelt's time as president, he oversaw the sailing of the Great White Fleet -- an armada of 16 new battleships, plus many other support ships -- on a cruise around the world. The move could easily be characterized as an example of carrying a big stick, and in this case, showing it off. Whether that counts as speaking softly is a matter of opinion.

JO2 [Journalist Second Class] Mike McKinley of the Naval Historical Center wrote: "On the warm, cloudy morning of Dec. 16, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt stood on the weather-deck of the presidential yacht Mayflower, anchored in the waters off Hampton Roads, Va. He flashed his famous broad, toothy smile and thought how "bully" it was to see a mighty armada of US battleships passing in review before him. The President, and indeed the throngs of onlookers gathered on shore, felt a great sense of pride and exhilaration as 16 battleships of the US Atlantic Fleet, all painted white, save for gilded bows, steamed in a long majestic column out of Hampton Roads to the open sea, flanked by their attending auxiliary ships.

"To the familiar strains of 'The Girl I left Behind Me,' the procession of battlewagons passed before the President at 400-yard intervals with their crews smartly manning the rails. This newly designated battle fleet was made up of ships commissioned since the end of the Spanish-American War....

"The four squadrons of warships, dubbed the 'Great White Fleet,' were manned by 14,000 sailors and marines under the command of Rear Adm. Robley 'Fighting Bob' Evans. All were embarking upon a naval deployment the scale of which had never been attempted by any nation before -- the first 'round-the-world cruise by a fleet of steam-powered, steel battleships. The 43,000 mile, 14-month circumnavigation would include 20 port calls on six continents; it is widely considered one of the greatest peacetime achievements of the US Navy.

"The idea of sending the new battle fleet around the world was the brainchild of the energetic 'Teddy' Roosevelt... [who] brought to the White House a deep conviction that only through a strong navy could a nation project its power and prestige abroad.

"In 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, the United States was thrust into the mainstream of international affairs and gained status as a world power, acquiring as possessions the Philippines and Guam in the Pacific, then Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. In 1904, the United States also established a naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to ensure the safety of the Panama Canal, then under construction.

"Roosevelt stressed the upgrading and expansion of the US fleet in order to protect American interests abroad. From 1904 to 1907, American shipyards turned out 11 new battleships to give the Navy awesome battle capabilities. This was timely, for, in 1906, hostilities with Japan seemed possible; the Japanese navy dominated the Pacific and posed a potential threat to the Philippines.

"Roosevelt didn't want a break with Japan, as the United States was ill-prepared for war. Most of our battle fleet was concentrated in the Atlantic, and there were only a handful of armored cruisers on duty in the Pacific. In the event of war with Japan, this small contingent that made up the Asiatic Battle Fleet would have to abandon the Philippines for West Coast ports until the United States had strength enough to go on the offensive.

"Thus, to impress upon Japan that the US Navy could shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Roosevelt ordered the Great White Fleet to sail around the world."

December 10, 1906: TR Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

One hundred and one years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American, and thus far one of two sitting presidents (Wilson was the other one), to win a Nobel Peace Prize. Charles B. Doleac, an attorney and founder of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forums, wrote this about the reason Roosevelt won the prize:

"Despite winning most of the battles and sinking the Russian fleet in the Battle of Tsushima Strait, Japan could not decisively defeat the Russian Army. The continuation of the struggle threatened both Russia and Japan with financial ruin, destabilized the established balance of power in Asia and Europe and risked, through complicated alliances, drawing the other European powers into the conflict as later happened in World War I. As President of a neutral power not aligned with either warring party, Roosevelt seized the opportunity to be peacemaker.

"Careful to make certain that both parties understood the United States was not imposing its own view on the conflict, Roosevelt offered the US as the neutral host for peace negotiations, respecting the Japanese and Russian insistence on direct, face-to-face negotiations without the third party interference the European powers had previously imposed on both nations. After convincing both Russia and Japan to come to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Roosevelt engaged the capacity of the US Navy for the security, diplomatic protocol, and telecommunications necessary for the formal talks at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Roosevelt then entrusted the Governor of the State of New Hampshire and the local people of New Hampshire and Maine with the responsibility of hosting the delegates' stay (accommodating them at Wentworth by the Sea Hotel), confident they would provide the right neutral, encouraging atmosphere for the negotiations to proceed both formally and informally.

"True to his promise of non-interference, Roosevelt never came to Portsmouth. But when the negotiations deadlocked for days over issues of territory and indemnity, Roosevelt pressed back channel communication with the Russian and Japanese governments and with other European powers to encourage both parties to break the impasse. Roosevelt relied at this critical juncture on the diplomatic protocol of the Navy, the informal encouragement of Governor John McLane and the persistent spirit of hope within the hospitality of the local people to keep the negotiators at the table. The two sides kept at their negotiations until they reached agreement, neither Japan nor Russia wishing to disappoint their hosts or risk world disapproval for being the first to break the negotiations.

"Roosevelt 's brilliance was as a realistic diplomat. He created a neutral but supportive negotiating atmosphere where he could suggest compromises through back channel contacts but ensured that the belligerents decided their mutual balance of power without the interference of any other government. Ultimately, through the Treaty of Portsmouth, the Russians and Japanese established a framework that balanced power between Russia and Japan in Asia until the end of World War II."

The entire article is here. In his 1913 autobiography, TR himself commented on the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize: "As a result of the Portsmouth peace, I was given the Nobel Peace Prize. This consisted of a medal, which I kept, and a sum of $40,000, which I turned over as a foundation of industrial peace to a board of trustees which included Oscar Straus, Seth Low and John Mitchell. In the present state of the world's development, industrial peace is even more essential than international peace; and it was fitting and appropriate to devote the peace prize to such a purpose. In 1910, while in Europe, one of my most pleasant experiences was my visit to Norway, where I addressed the Nobel Committee, and set forth in full the principles upon which I had acted, not only in this particular case but throughout my administration."

November 9, 1906:TR Goes Abroad

On November 9, 1906, Theodore Roosevelt became the first sitting US president to leave the country. Commonplace now, such a trip was unheard of then. But TR had his reasons. He was going to inspect the progress on the Panama Canal (pictured under construction in 1907, below).

"In November 1906 he was setting out on a journey to survey the progress of his project to build that better route between the Atlantic and the Pacific," wrote Alexander Burns in AmericanHeritage.com in November 2006. "Seven years earlier, in 1899, Congress had created an Isthmian Canal Commission, charged with plotting out a route for a canal through Panama, but it had taken several years and multiple treaties to guarantee the United States access to and ownership of the land needed to begin construction. Finally, in 1903, the United States under Roosevelt had arrived at a deal with a new Panamanian government by which the U.S. would control the canal’s route across the isthmus as well as a five-mile strip of land on both sides and a few islands in the Bay of Panama. In exchange for this, the government would pay Panama $10 million initially and $250,000 each year starting in 1912.

"It was a remarkably good deal for the United States. Some observers grumbled that it was too good, particularly given that it had been arrived at only after a new, U.S.-friendly Panamanian government had seized power by force. When Roosevelt disembarked in Panama, however, there was no sign of bitterness or resentment on the part of the Panamanian people. His ship arrived in the middle of a storm, but the weather did little to dampen the energy with which he was received. As he rode through Panama City in the pouring rain, with his wife beside him, he looked out on buildings and streets that had been scrubbed clean in anticipation of his arrival. He could see flags flying in window after window. He basked in the knowledge that his hosts had formally declared a day of 'joy and exalted enthusiasm' in honor of his arrival.

"The trip was far from just ceremonial, though. Roosevelt wanted to see firsthand the progress that was being made on the construction of his canal. Contemporary accounts of his expedition highlight the characteristic rigor of his travels. Intentionally visiting the grittiest of the work sites, he didn’t hesitate to tramp through mud or ride on horseback in order to gain access to unfinished portions of the canal. He also went out of his way to witness the conditions in which the project placed its workers. On one of the first days of the tour, he and the First Lady decided not to attend a lavish luncheon to which they had been invited, at the luxurious Tivoli Hotel. Instead they visited a mess hall in which canal workers ate their meals. Sitting down among several hundred laborers, the Roosevelts dined on a 30-cent lunch. At the Cristóbal work site, the President spent most of his time touring workers’ living quarters."

October 27, 1858:Theodore Roosevelt's Birthday

Today is the birthday of Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. What more to say about TR? Perhaps something by the man himself, a former president offering commentary on the presidency.

Writing in the May 7, 1918, edition of the Kansas City Star, Roosevelt had an obvious jab for the wartime behavior of President Wilson in mind, but probably TR believed what he wrote, war or no war:

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. 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. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

September 14, 1901: Theodore Roosevelt, 42, Becomes President

President McKinley lingered for a time after been shot, but ultimately did not survive his wounds. On September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th President of the United States, taking the oath of office in Buffalo, New York. No one before or after has been so young at the beginning of his time in that office: 42 years and 322 days.

According to the web site of the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site: " September 8 - 10, 1901: As McKinley's condition continued to improve, Roosevelt felt it was safe to leave Buffalo. On Tuesday night he took an all night train to the Adirondacks where his family was already on vacation. He left detailed instructions with Ansley Wilcox [his friend in Buffalo] on the chance that he would be asked to return to Buffalo....


September 11 - 13, 1901: On Thursday evening, September 12th, Roosevelt and a group of family and friends hiked up Mt. Marcy and spent the night there. Back in Buffalo, McKinley's condition had changed for the worst and he was rapidly deteriorating. Upon his return from the hike on Friday afternoon, Roosevelt was met by a messenger who carried the news that McKinley was dying and Roosevelt should return to Buffalo as soon as possible. The Vice President left his cabin in the late evening of Friday, September 13th for the thirty-five mile carriage ride to the nearest train station at North Creek. He arrived there just before dawn and was told of the President's death. He took a train to Albany and another one to Buffalo, arriving here at about 1:30 pm. McKinley had died at 2:15 am that morning, September 14, 1901...


September 14, 1901: Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Buffalo at 1:30 pm. He was met at the train station by Ansley Wilcox and brought back to this home. After lunch and a visit to the Milburn home to pay his respects to Mrs. McKinley, Roosevelt returned to the Wilcox house for the inauguration.

This site was chosen by Roosevelt as the most appropriate place for the ceremony. It took place in the Wilcox library at approximately 3:30 pm. A small crowd was assembled including a few newspaper reporters who were allowed to take notes. The photographers were barred from the room until after the ceremony. Roosevelt wore formal clothing borrowed from some of the guests who were present. The oath was administered by Federal District Judge John R. Hazel.

August 22, 1902:The First Presidential Motorcade

Teddy Roosevelt was not the first president to ride in a motor car. His predecessor, William McKinley, seems to have done so on a few occasions. But he did so out of the public eye. There was no such reticence for President Roosevelt. The first time he rode in an automobile, August 22, 1902, he did so very much in public, while on a swing through New England ahead of the '02 mid-term elections. It was the first presidential motorcade, through Hartford, Conn.

Frederic D. Schwarz writes in AmericanHeritage.com: "...his was the first time Americans witnessed a President sitting in a motorcar and waving to cheering crowds — a scene that has since taken on familiar and occasionally chilling overtones.

"The car in which Roosevelt rode was a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton. At this early stage in the industry’s development, about half of America’s automobiles were electric, with most of the rest running on steam and a small fraction being internal-combustion. (President McKinley’s first auto ride, back in 1899, had been in a steam-driven Locomobile piloted by its inventor, F. O. Stanley, in Washington, D.C.)

"Like other Columbia models, the Victoria Phaeton had an external box for the driver, in this case in the rear — a holdover from the days of horse-drawn carriages. It was propelled by two rear electric motors, using power stored in 20 two-volt Exide lead-acid batteries. Together the batteries weighed about 800 pounds, roughly 40 percent of the vehicle’s total weight; they were placed above the front and rear axles. The tires were solid rubber, and the chauffeur had a choice of four speeds, topping out at a blistering 13 mph, though in this case the car probably crawled along at the minimum 4 mph. It sold for $3,000, about five times the average annual wage...

"...By the end of the decade, the use of cars would be routine for Presidents. In 1907 the Secret Service bought a pair of White steam cars to carry visitors between the Oyster Bay train station and the President’s house at Sagamore Hill. In 1909, President William Howard Taft rode a Pierce-Arrow to and from his inaugural ball. From then on, automobiles became a staple of presidential appearances — though since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the use of open cars has been reduced considerably."

August 13, 1914:A Man, A Plan, A Canal

On August 13, 1914, the steamship Christobal, in the service of the US government, made a test run through the Panama Canal in both directions, marking the first passage of a large steamer through its locks. The test was a success. Two days later the canal was officially opened to traffic, with the Ancon making the first official transit of the project that Theodore Roosevelt initiated as president in the early 1900s.

According to the history of the canal at the Panama Canal Authority web site: "Plans were made for a grand celebration to appropriately mark the official opening of the Panama Canal on August 15, 1914. A fleet of international warships was to assemble off Hampton Roads on New Year’s Day 1915, then sail to San Francisco through the Panama Canal, arriving in time for the opening of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, a world’s-fair type celebration. But no such grand opening occurred. Although the Panama Pacific Exposition went on as planned, World War I forced cancellation of planned festivities at the Canal. The grand opening was a modest affair with the Canal cement boat Ancon, piloted by Captain John A. Constantine, the Canal’s first pilot, making the first official transit....

"Roosevelt is widely given credit for building the Panama Canal, and he likely never disputed the claim. However, of the three presidents whose terms coincided with Canal construction – Roosevelt, WIlliam Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson – it was Taft who provided the most active, hands-on participation over the longest period. Taft visited Panama five times as Roosevelt’s Secretary of War and made two more trips while President. He also hired John Stevens and, when Stevens resigned, recommended [Col. George Washington Goethals] as chief engineer. When Taft replaced Roosevelt in the White House in 1909, canal construction was only at the halfway mark. Goethals, however, was to write, 'The real builder of the Panama Canal was Theodore Roosevelt.'

"The following words of Theodore Roosevelt are engraved in a plaque on display in the Rotunda of the Administration Building, and more than anything else convey his personal philosophy and the spirit of his thinking about the achievement at Panama:

" 'It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.' "

In The Path Between the Seas, David McCullough wrote: "The creation of a water passage across Panama was one of the supreme human achievements of all time, the culmination of a heroic dream of over four hundred years and of more than twenty years of phenomenal effort and sacrifice. The fifty miles between the oceans were among the hardest ever won by human effort and ingenuity, and no statistics on tonnage or tolls can begin to convey the grandeur of what was accomplished. Primarily the canal is an expression of that old and noble desire to bridge the divide, to bring people together. It is a work of civilization."

July 1, 1898:TR at Kettle & San Juan Hills

Teddy Roosevelt, who grew up hearing stories of the Great Rebellion, hankered for a piece of that kind of action for himself, and he got his chance in Cuba during the war with Spain. After the outbreak for hostilities, Roosevelt gave up his post as assistant secretary of the Navy and was instrumental in organizing the 1st US Cavalry Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, which is much better known by their nickname "Rough Riders."

According to Scott Mingus Jr., writing in "Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders at Kettle Hill" at MilitaryHistory.com: "Around noon [on July 1, 1898], the First Infantry Division began their assault on San Juan Hill with the support of General Joseph Wheeler's Cavalry. Seeing the attack on adjacent San Juan Hill starting, Roosevelt still in position in reserve below Kettle Hill became more and more impatient. Finally he was given the command to start the Rough Riders' assault up Kettle Hill. Roosevelt, feeling very excited, began to ride up and down the line urging the men forward. Seeing Roosevelt personally urging them forward, momentum quickly spread and finally the entire regiment was on the move forward, passing the forward lines of other American units...

"As the American cavalry and infantry reached the lower slopes of the hill, Spanish fire became more deadly and more accurate. But... the Rough Riders and their supports continued to steadily climb the hill. As the Americans reached the second fenceline, it became apparent to the Spanish defenders that to avoid hand-to-hand combat, they must withdraw. ...then they began to withdraw.'

"Reaching the top of the hill, the Rough Riders established some initial defensive measures to secure the area as the Spanish on the higher San Juan Hill began to fire upon them. Seeing that the attack on the adjacent height was not going too well as heavy fire and other obstacles were stopping the forward progress, Roosevelt himself decided to lead a charge, a decision reinforced when three Gatling guns got to the top of Kettle Hill to support an attack.

"Shouting for his men to follow, he jumped over a barbed wire fence and ran down the slope. Roosevelt ran about one hundred yards when he turned around to notice that only five of his troopers had followed him down the slope into the swale between Kettle and San Juan Hills. Roosevelt turned around and returned to the crest of Kettle Hill where his troopers claimed they did not hear his order to charge. Forming them quickly into an assault line, Roosevelt again ordered the charge.

"This time, the entire regiment with support from other nearby forces went forward towards San Juan Hill.... By two thirty in the afternoon, the entire heights were possession of the American troops. With the victory at San Juan Heights, the Americans were able to move into the city of Santiago and establish a good offensive position to fire on the Spanish fleet in the harbor. With the subsequent destruction of the Spanish fleet from an attack from Rear Admiral William T. Sampson, the Americans were able to win the battle, and force and early end to the war.

"Theodore Roosevelt's personal actions at the battle of San Juan Heights would win him the nation's highest military honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor.... His enthusiasm, confidence, bravery, and high regard for his troopers would him enduring fame with his Rough Riders, who associated victory solely with Roosevelt, not with their actual commander Leonard Wood, who has all but been forgotten by history."

Curiously, Roosevelt didn't receive the Medal of Honor in his lifetime; he wasn't nearly as popular with the establishment in Washington as with the public after his deeds on the San Juan Heights. The medal was awarded to him posthumously by President Clinton toward the end of his administration in January 2001. In receiving it, TR became the only president ever to win a Congressional Medal of Honor.

March 17, 1905:Teddy Roosevelt Gives Away the Bride

Less than two weeks after his inauguration for a full term in his own right, President Theodore Roosevelt was in New York City on March 17, 1905, to attend a wedding. In fact, standing in for the bride’s deceased father, he did the honor of giving the bride away.

The bride was his niece, the 20-year-old Eleanor Roosevelt, daughter of his brother, Elliot. The groom was a distant cousin of his and hers, 23-year-old Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

“Before the wedding the engaged couple took time off to attend Uncle Theodore’s inauguration…” wrote Joseph P. Lash in Eleanor and Franklin (1971). “During the ceremonies on March 4 they sat on the Capitol steps just behind the president and his family and heard his ringing appeal: ‘All I ask is a square deal for every man.’ They went to the White House to lunch with the president and again joined him and his immediate family on the reviewing stand for the parade and at the inaugural ball that evening. Then they hurried back to New York, Eleanor, at least, thinking that was the last inauguration of a family member that she would attend.”

Maybe Franklin had other ideas. In any case, when their wedding day came -- March 17, which also happened to be Eleanor’s mother’s birthday -- President Roosevelt arrived “top-hatted and buoyant, a shamrock in his buttonhole,” noted Lash. Like most society weddings, a lot of detail was recorded: “The bridesmaids, in taffeta, with demidevils and three silver-tipped feathers in their hair, moved with measured step down the circular stairway and up the aisle formed by satin ribbons held by the ushers. Behind them came the gravely beautiful bride on the arm of her uncle… Her satin wedding gown was covered with Grandmother Hall’s rose-point Brussels lace, which Eleanor’s mother had also worn at her marriage. The veil that covered her hair and flowed over her long court train was secured with a diamond crescent that had belonged to her mother.

“At the altar she was met by Franklin. Alice took her bouquet of lilies of the valley and the rector began the Episcopal wedding service… The vows were exchanged. Hand touched hand. It was done. ‘Well, Franklin,’ the president’s high-pitched voice could be heard saying, ‘there’s nothing like keeping the name in the family.’ ”