America’s 26th President Speaks

Sometimes historical figures jump from the past, become suddenly relevant, as if speaking from the Great Beyond. Recently, rereading books by Theodore Roosevelt (TR), America’s hard-charging, patriotic, crime-fighting 26^th President, former GOP Governor and Vice President, his words echo.

In January 1900, TR was the Governor of New York. He would soon be Vice President, and – following William McKinley’s assassination in 1901 – become President. He was an exceptional, insightful, non-ideological, vehemently patriotic writer, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, and soldier.

Interestingly, what mattered as much as protecting America – internally and externally – was what bound Americans to each other. That month, he published an essay, “Fellow-Feeling As a Political Factor,”  in which he argued Americans must – above all – work to understand each other.

His words are not pie in the sky, but practical. The specter of communism had yet to raise its ugly head. Communism would eventually destroy freedoms from Russia to Eastern Europe. At the time TR writes, he is urging Americans to understand and respect each other to survive.

As you read his words, understand TR had already been a legislator, cowboy, police commissioner, assistant secretary of the Navy, soldier, organizer of the Rough Riders, who bravely charged San Juan Hill in the Spanish-American War, was a father of five, and was New York’s GOP Governor.

The essay begins with these words. “Fellow-feeling, sympathy in the broadest sense, is the most important factor in producing a healthy political and social life.” From that premise, TR expands.

“Neither our national nor our local civil life can be what it should be, unless it is marked by the fellow-feeling, the mutual kindness, the mutual respect, the sense of common duties and common interest, which arise when men take the trouble to understand one another…” TR had no time for class warfare, but thinks men who differ should talk.

“A very large share of the rancor of political and social strife arises either from sheer misunderstanding  … or else from the fact that the two … classes are so cut off from each other that neither appreciates the other’s passions, prejudices, and… point of view, while they are both entirely ignorant of their community of feeling … the essentials of manhood and humanity.”

Exactly what TR would make of modern politics and today’s “Progressives” – who evolved from reformers to communists – is hard to say. He would think boys in girls’ sports were mentally disturbed, feminization of manhood a national tragedy, the size of government and taxes, failure of schools, flood of illegal foreigners, and concentrated power all immoral, a threat to the republic.

Even so, he would be pushing – exactly what made him great – for better understanding among American citizens.  In 1900, he wrote:  “… the growth of means of communication, the growth of education in its highest and finest sense, means the growth in the sense of solidarity throughout the country … patriotic pride of each American in the deeds of all other Americans … pride in the past history and present and future greatness of the whole country.”  Communication aided patriotism.

Pointing out what we forget, he wrote: “If ever there existed in the world a community where the identity of interest, of habit, of principle, and of ideals should be felt as a living force, ours is the one…” What TR knows is that divisions exist, but constant effort heals them, and always must.

A realist, he notes: “The fact remains that the only true solution of our political and social problems lies in cultivating everywhere the spirit of brotherhood, of fellow-feeling and understanding …”

As a personal, fiscal, national security, and public safety conservative, he sees forces internal and external stirring “class” warfare. He calls it “socialism” and warns against it. He makes the point that, if common sense is kept front and center, we will beat those forces pushing class division.

How do we do that? “It is this capacity for sympathy, for fellow-feeling and mutual understanding, which must lie at the basis for all really successful movements for good government, and the betterment of social and civic conditions,” but “there is no patent device for bringing about good government,” engaged, responsive, protective, but limited.

TR disdains those who push class warfare, warning: “It is impossible for a democracy to endure if the political lines are drawn to coincide with class lines…Republics have fallen…primarily because the parties that controlled them divided along the lines of class, so that inevitably the triumph of one…implied the supremacy of a part over the whole.”

While TR has other warnings, the kernel of his pitch is that men must talk with each other, strive to see what they have in common, especially love of our American rights, diminish their differences. “The only way to avoid the growth of these evils” of class warfare, “is…to help in the creation of conditions which will permit mutual understanding and fellow-feeling between” all Americans. 

Bottom line: Theodore Roosevelt, one of the most intrepid, talented, courageous, and thoughtful presidents we have had, concluded: “Fellow-feeling among Americans…is absolutely necessary if we are to see the principles of virile honesty and robust common sense triumph in our civil life.”

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!