Playing Cowboy

I. Death of Wife and Mother

A. Personal devastation--The loss Roosevelt felt from this double tragedy--the loss of both his wife and mother--undoubtedly caused Roosevelt to react in ways difficult to understand from a "rational" viewpoint.

B. Continuation of his political career.

1. 1884 Republican Convention--Roosevelt considered himself a "reformer,'' and therefore was very much opposed to the presumptive Republican candidate, James G. Blaine, "The Continental Liar," former senator from Maine, as well as former Secretary of State in the Garfield Administration.

a. Candidates that Roosevelt and his ally Henry Cabot Lodge attempted to nominate (including John Sherman of Ohio) fell short, however, and Blaine was nominated by the convention to run against the Democratic Party candidate, Grover Cleveland.

b. With this development, Roosevelt "bolted" from the  convention, giving the impression that he was disgruntled and considering "bolting" from the party as well.  When he sent word, through the press, that he  intended to do no such thing, he was labeled by the press as just another politician.

II. Playing Cowboy

A. Ranchmen--Roosevelt, in his writing about his life in the  Badlands of North Dakota, made a distinction between farmers, cowboys, and men like himself--ranchmen.

1.  Farmers--were soon worn  down by the drudgery of trying to raise crops on the prairie, which dulled them as human beings.

2. Cowboys--a step above farmers (and especially farm hands), with an air of simplistic nobility about them, but in the end in need of direction from ranchmen.

3. Ranchmen--had  the physical vigor of the cowboy,  with the ability to appreciate poetry and fine literature on the trail--or to  go off  for weeks at a time on hunting excursions,  as Roosevelt did.

B. Part-time  Ranchmen--Roosevelt spent only parts--and relatively small parts--of 1884, 1885, and 1886 at  his "ranch" in  North Dakota. Much of the rest of those years he spent at home with sister Anna  and  "Baby Lee," his daughter Alice.

1. Corporate rancher--despite the mythology of the life of freedom and independence to be lived out on the lone prairie, these ranches were actually owned by Eastern corporations, and run to supply beef for Eastern markets

2. Rich Squatters--the  Badlands  in North Dakota were an ideal area to raise beef cattle. The geography--particularly along the Little Missouri River valley, where Roosevelt build his ranch--was ideal cattle grazing terrain. The Northern Pacific Railroad had just opened up through the  region, linking ranches  with slaughterhouses in  Chicago. And  the land was all public domain, so these corporate ranchmen paid no one for the right to graze their cattle there.

3. Marquis de Mores--nearly  the long exception to this was a French nobleman.  Mores bought thousands of acres of land, and then had the audacity to fence it to prevent others from grazing on it. Mores also built  a slaughterhouse and leased refrigerated rail cars to ship his beef east, and therefore bypass the growing Chicago Beef Trust (Swift, Armour,  Cudahy, etc.)

a. Roosevelt's  run-in with Mores--while in jail  awaiting trial for killing a  cowboy he accused  of cutting a hole in his fence, the Marquis inquired of Roosevelt why all of his associated  seemed to be involved  his harassing him. Roosevelt took umbrage at what he felt was a slight to his honor, and told  the  Marquis he would gladly fight him in a duel. The Marquis simply ignored this challenge

b. Roosevelt and honor--the above was only one instance of many where Roosevelt responded physically (or offered to respond physically) to a perceived slight to his honor; while in Montana, he sucker punched a drunken cowboy who made fun of his glasses.

C. The Romanticized West--was a place that Roosevelt helped to create, as well  as a place that he inhabited in his imagination.


1. Owen Wister--wrote the first great "western" novel, The Virginian. Wister was a Harvard graduate who actually spent little more time in the West than did Roosevelt, but wrote about it in an enchanting way.

2. Frederick Remington--famous artist, especially of "western" scenes. Many art critics fell that he  captured to "spirit" of the West. In particular, his art helped  to  perpetuate the myth that the West pitted man alone against the forces of nature.

3.  Theodore Roosevelt--his numerous  books on the West, drawn in part from his personal experiences,  gave more weight to these myths. Roosevelt even went so far  as to see himself fulfilling  these myths, which helps to explain his need to dress the part, from the  $100 buckskin shirt,  his pearl-handled revolver, and so on.

D. How the West Changed Theodore Roosevelt

1. Strengthening his body--undoubtedly, removing himself from the coal-sooted skies of New York City helped to  improve his asthma. The strenuous exercise was of great benefit,  as well.

2. Healing his soul--there is also little doubt that the sudden, unexpected deaths of his mother and beloved wife were a severe blow--and being in the West  in the desolate beauty of  the  Badlands  helped  to heal those wounds.

III. Move Back East

A. Re-enters politics--Roosevelt re-entered politics after the winter of 1886-87 cost  him most of his cattle herd and his inheritance, and ended his career as a ranchman.

1. Run for Mayor 1886--ran a distant third in the race behind Democrat Abram Hewit and  Henry George of the United Labor Party.

B. Marriage to Edith Carow

1. Edith Carow a known quantity

2.  Offer to sister Anna--to allow her to continue to raise Alice--but Anna insisted the Roosevelt had to  raise the child in his own family.

The Family Claim on Jane Addams

I. The Loss of Her Father

A. The Guiteau Crisis--in June 1881, Freeport native Charles Guiteau shot President James Garfield; Garfield lingered for 11 weeks (and probably would have made a full recovery, except for the medical care he received), and died  in September of that year.

1. Luther Guiteau--was employed by John Addams at his bank in Freeport. The senior Guiteau was seen as something as an eccentric in town, particularly since he was a follower of John Humphrey Noyes and  his "free love" community in of "perfectionists" Oneida, New York.

2. Charles Guiteau--delusional, and today would be recognized as insane probably; expected to be rewarded for shooting Garfield.

3. John Addams--led a drive by leading citizens to write a letter to Secretary of State James G. Blaine disavowing any local  connection to Charles Guiteau's  actions--but also demonstrated sympathy toward the Guiteau family left in Freeport.

4. Jane Addams--was  childhood friends with Charles Guiteau's half-sister, Flora; the chief lesson she seemed to take from this episode, however, was to avoid political extremism.

B. Death of John Addams

1. Loss of her champion--John Addams respected his daughter's intelligence, and did much to foster its growth and development. Despite his rather conservative politics, he did not hesitate to provide Jane with the means to grow intellectually; his death meant that she no longer had his assurance that she could accomplish what she desired.

II. The Family Claim

A. Anne Hardeman Addams--as the widow of John Addams, Anne now placed an emotional claim on Jane  to provided care and companionship for her.

1. Demanding personality--Anne's demanding and emotional personality (she was not on speaking terms with her eldest son at the time of the death of her husband because she was disappointed with his drinking habits) was in direct contrast to the personality of Jane's father.

2. Jane Addams Family Mediator--Jane returned to her former role in the family as the mediator of conflicts. It was she who prevailed upon her siblings and step-siblings to remain in contact with  "Ma."

3. Jane Addams Dutiful Daughter--Jane felt--had--an obligation as the unmarried daughter to care for her stepmother. This obligation was re-iterated by her stepmother on a number of occasions. In order  to accomplish this task, the unmarried daughter would be expected to sacrifice whatever plans she had for her own life in order to care for her aged parent.

B. Jane Addams Physical Debility--Jane suffered from Pott's Disease (like Theodore Roosevelt's older sister Anne), which left her with a slight curvature of the spine, and the life-long affliction of sciatica.

1. Marquette vacation--The reason the Addams family was in Marqette, Michigan, where John Addams was afflicted with appendicitis, was to allow Jane Addams time to regain her health.

2. Women's Medical College--enrollment was occasioned by the move in the fall of 1881to Philadelphia by her stepmother, rather than a burning desire on Jane's  part to become a doctor. In fact, the seven months in medical school proved to Jane that she had no interest in becoming a doctor.

3. George Hardeman's Romantic Interest--Jane largely avoided contact with George, her stepbrother, to avoid any intimation of romance,  despite what family legend on this matter might imply (which was largely that George pursued Jane, but that interest was not reciprocated).

4. Stay With Harry and Alice Hardeman--Jane's sciatica remained quite painful, and she was persuaded to go live in Iowa with her sister and step-brother,  where Harry would provide her with treatment. The treatment necessitated months of recover, where Jane was obligated to remain flat on her back.

5. Weber Addams'  Mental Illness--Jane's older brother suffered from mental illness, and in the spring of 1883 had  a manic episode so severe that he was institutionalized. With the assistance of a lawyer, Jane helped Weber's wife put the family's financial situation back in order.


C. Deepening Friendship with Ellen Starr

1. Faith--the continuing crises Jane experienced prompted her to change her mind on the issue of Jesus Christ; Ellen Starr's own belief in his divinity meant that Jane felt she could turn to an intellectual equal in this matter, and could therefore feel more at ease about "returning to the flock" of Christianity.


D. Rockford Seminary Address (1883)


1. End of the Sill Era--Anna Peck Sill prevailed upon Jane Addams in the spring of 1883 to attend an upcoming  board meeting, and to give a commencement address. The board was pressuring Sill to retire, and she wanted Jane to speak to them on  her behalf.


2. "To the Uncomfortableness of Tranisition"--speaking to the graduates and board members,  Jane focused her remarks on the transition of the school from its previous status to this new  collegiate status--but these remarks  also reflected her own trials and and frustrations as she attempted to find her way to a productive adulthood.


E. Jane Addams' Grand Tour--began in the fall of 1883.

Jane Addams and the Rockford Seminary

I. The Rockford Seminary

A. Missionary Purpose

From Harvard to the Arena of State Politics

I. The Harvard Reputation

A. Current--Harvard today has a stellar reputation, and is always among the top 5 universities (if not higher). This has not always been the case, and was not the case when Roosevelt attended university there. It was a rather provincial place then--Roosevelt, from New York City, would have definitely been labeled an outsider, even without his little quirks

B. 1876--when Roosevelt arrived on campus, only males were allowed to attend school there. Outside of the  classroom, students generally did not approach their "tutors" (as the professors were then known), and they were discouraged from asking questions.

1. Most students came from the immediate  Boston area, and from families whose male members had themselves attended college there.

2. Charles W. Eliot--president of Harvard for 40 years, including the time that Roosevelt attended. Eliot is credited with beginning the changes that transformed the college into the leading research university.

C. Roosevelt at Harvard--considered  something of an oddball during this time there. During most of this freshman and sophomore years, Roosevelt was a teatotaler, along with a good friend during this time.

D. Death of Thee--a shattering experience for TR, as it would be for many people. As a result, he temporarily lost his moral bearings, and began to drink and behave more like a college student of today.

II. Alice Lee

A. Alice the Unattainable--besides here great beauty, Alice attracted TR because he considered here "unattainable," meaning she was too beautiful. I would argue that she reminded TR of his own younger mother, Martha Bulloch Roosevelt.

B. Roosevelt the Politician--was elected to the New York State Assembly at age 23, the youngest man ever elected to that body. Gained a reputation as a reformer,  largely on the strength of badgering those he saw as corrupt. The press also found him charming, since they could rely upon him for a sharp, pithy quote on just about any subject.

C. Birth--and Death

1. Baby girl--Roosevelt was in Albany on legislative business when he received word of the birth of his daughter.

2. Bright's Disease--Alice probably contracted Bright's Disease while pregnant, and after giving birth her kidneys failed. Roosevelt was able to rush home to hold her in his arms as she expired.

3. Typhoidhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tr/--Roosevelt's mother, meanwhile, was dying in the same house from typhoid; both expired within hours of one another.

4. Burials--after burying his wife and his mother, Roosevelt left his infant daughter in the care of his sister and went to the Badlands to heal.

Paper Assignment #1

For the first paper assignment, chose a biography of either Jane Addams or Theordore Roosevelt (excluding those already assigned for the class), and write a three to five page critical review essay. This first assignment will be due on February 5, at the beginning  of class.

Check back here this week for more information on just what a critical review essay should contain.

UPDATE: Follow this link to a good, brief overview of what a critical review essay should contain.

Innocents Abroad

I. The Grand Tour I

A. Transportation Technology

1. Screw-propeller ships--the advent of the steam-powered screw-propeller ship greatly reduced the time required for crossing large bodies of water--particularly the Atlantic Ocean. This reduction in time meant that the sips could cross the ocean more frequently, which led to the shipping lines dropping  the price and allowed more people to cross the ocean more frequently. This was the case not only for middle class Americans crossing the ocean to visit Europe, but also for former Euopean Peasants to cross the ocean seeking employment.

2. Railroads--the spread of rail transportation occurred not only in the United States, but in Europe, as well. The Roosevelt grand tour of Europe could not of occurred without the advent of the railroad on the continent.

B. Justification for the trip.

1. Educational benefits--none of the Roosevelt children attended any kind of grammar school or primary school; they were all home schooled by a series of tutors. This insulated the children from any untoward influences--but also  isolated them from much of everything else, as well. The trip to Europe would expose them to a whole new world (the "Old World," ironically), and would broaden their horizons. The Roosevelt's also  made a real attempt to learn European languages (it was what "cultured" people of their class did). The children were also exposed to many sites that they had  only read about.

2. Fashionability--the Grand Tour was an expected norm for people of the Roosevelt's class; Thee, in fact, had visited Europe on such an excursion before his marriage to Mittie.

3. Visit relatives--James and Irvine Bulloch had remained in England after the Confederate surrender, since they faced considerable legal entanglements from their involvement in the Civil War. The children finally got to meet their heroic Southern relatives

4. Visiting the "Other"-- in large cities the family was exposed to the misery that industrial capitalism induced in poor people--although there was no recognition that that was the cause of so many women and children begging in the streets.

II. Grand Tour II

A. Egypt--the cradle of "civilization" was also the home of even stranger "others." The Roosevelt family spent a month or so floating up and  down the Nile, seeing the pyramids and sundry other sites.

B. The Rise of TR

1. Challenge from Thee--after  the first trip, TR went through an extremely difficult spell with asthma attacks; much of the next several years he spent in the company of his mother at a variety of places seeking treatment.  Thee, fearing this disease was sapping TR's masculinity, urged him to exercise more will power and to exercise his body as a means of diminishing the effects of the disease.

2. Exercise regimen--TR and Elliott were taken to the gym, and then the latest exercise equipment was purchased and installed in their home. TR was especially diligent in pursuing a daily exercise routine, which slowly paid off in making him stronger and toning his body.

3. Eyeglasses--it was during this time period that TR was finally diagnosed as nearsighted and fitted with "spectacles." TR became much more engaged with his surroundings,  as a result.

4. Budding naturalist--TR spent much of the trip in Egypt shooting birds with his new shotgun and then stuffing them to use as "scientific specimens." This sounds abhorrent to us today, but it is also how the noted naturalist illustrator John Jay  Audubon was  able to make all of those lovely illustrations.

5. Stay in Dresden German--Germany has become the center of western learning by the early 1870s,  and the three younger Roosevelt children stayed in  Dresden to soak up some of that learning.

C. Fall of Elliott--TR's rise was accompanied by the long slow decline of Elliott, who felt he could not compete any longer with his older brother. Elliott's bouts of self-doubt and depression manifested themselves physically in fainting spells, which led to his dismissal from St. Mark's School.


III. Movin' On Up

A. Death of  CVS Roosevelt--left Thee and his brothers with a sizable inheritance; Thee's share was somewhere between $1 and $3 million ($30-$40 million in today's dollars). With the money,Thee and a brother bought adjacent lots in the newly fashionable Upper East Side, near Central Park, abandoning Union Square.

B. Thee's philanthropies--The felt a sense of noblesse oblige with this big pile of money, which he had felt much of his adult life, and continued to fund--and encourage others of his class to fund--a number of "worthy causes."

1. Newsboys

C. Thee the Politician--Thee's disgust with the "corruption" rampant in politics led him to enter into the fray to return the United States back to the kind of politics he remembered from his childhood.

1. The Tamany Machine--Tamany Hall was the center of organization for much of the Democratic Party in New York City.

a.  George Washington Plunkitt and "honest graft."

b. Urban political machines

2. The Roscoe Conkling machine--a US Senator from New York who essentially ran the Republican Party in the state of New York. His second in command,  Chester A. Arthur, held the patronage rich position of collector of tariffs fro  the Port of New York. Conkling had nothing but disdain for political reformers, since in his opinion they had no idea how political power operated.

3. Conkling bid blocked--reformers did know enough about power politics to block Conkling from being nominated for the presidency in 1876.

4. Thee's nomination--Conkling returned the favor when Thee was nominated for the position of  collector of the tariffs, using his position in the Senate to block  the nomination.

Childhood of Jane Addams

I. Her Early Life

A. Birth--Jane Addams was born September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois

B. Mother-- Sarah Weber Addams, born 1817. Her father, Col. George Weber, owned a successful milling business in Kriedersville, Pennsylvania.

C. Father--John Huy Addams, born in 1822 near Reading, Pennsylvania, to Samuel and Catherine Huy Addams.

1. 7th of 10 children, 3rd son.

2. Apprenticed to Evan Reiff, a flour miller, at the age of 18. Reiff's mill was located in Ambler, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia

3. Married Sarah Weber in the summer of 1844. After a honeymoon stop in Niagara Falls, the couple continued west to Illinois. John Addams had received a $4000 loan from his father (approximately $90,000 in today's money) to establish a mill to provide for himself and his family. After months of scouting locations, Addams chose to buy a mill that he refurbished  in Cedarville. To pay off this loan, Addams dedicated himself to long hours of work.