Roosevelt
Printed in The Emporia Gazette March 4, 1909.
What Theodore Roosevelt has done for this country
– the laws he has pushed through Congress, the policies of administration
he has inaugurated, the righteousness he has made public morals –
all these form a most unique career in our history. But they are not
chiefly the most important part of our heritage that Theodore Roosevelt
has given to the people. The chief thing he gave was himself. He went
onto office a strong, virile, frank, honest, fearless man – full
of youth, full of faith in man and God, full of ideas. And for seven
years and a half he has lived and worked with people, and has come out
– not a broken, jaded, worn-out, disillusioned man – but the
same high, clean, unbending, youthful man that he went in.
One’s ideals are gauged by his conduct. The reason Roosevelt has faith is because he has kept faith himself. The pessimist is the man who has compromised with life, who has lowered his flag for expediency, who has surrendered. Theodore Roosevelt has made mistakes, but he has not surrendered. He has lived up to his ideals. He has played an honest hand, and he is leaving eight years of great service as he came – "unconquered and unbowed." This is a great achievement – perhaps his greatest achievement. For he has given an example of what a decent man may do. The example he has left probably is worth more to the nation than the laws he has forced through Congress and the polices he has promulgated.
And this is why today the nation is sad at this going, and the people feel instantly that he will come back again.