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Top Comments: Theodore Roosevelt and The Progressive Era Edition [1]
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Date: 2025-06-17
In Sunday’s APR, Chitown Kev linked to a CNN interview with Rutger Bregman who noted the Progressive Era in America immediately followed the end of The Gilded/Robber Baron Age. He specifically points out Theodore Roosevelt, a person born of privilege in NYC, who took on the moneyed elites like JP Morgan that were his friends and contemporaries. While the order of American history is true, I firmly believe the Progressive Era came about when it did due to a confluence of events that could have easily never happened.
The Progressive Era begins mainly due to Theodore Roosevelt’s accession to the presidency following McKinley’s assassination in 1901, but Roosevelt becoming McKinley’s running mate in the 1900 election almost didn’t happen and wouldn’t have had Roosevelt gotten his way.
Prior to the modern political era, the vice presidency was mainly a do nothing job if the Senate wasn’t in session. In fact, up until the ratification of the 25th Amendment, if a vice president left office in the middle of their term because they became president, died or resigned, they were not replaced by anyone until the inauguration of the next president. Furthermore, from Martin Van Buren through William Howard Taft, no vice president had become president by election. because of these two facts, Theodore Roosevelt, who had presidential aspirations, had never wanted to run on a ticket as the vice presidential candidate.
Even in his early days as a State Assemblyman in NY, Roosevelt pushed anti-corruption bills to reform the state civil service. Roosevelt was a prolific legislator writing and passing numerous pieces of legislation. After leaving politics following a falling out with the Republican Party due to an offend remark about supporting a Democrat over the Republican candidate in the 1884. It didn’t help Roosevelt that the Democratic candidate was NY Governor Grover Cleveland with whom Roosevelt had a good working relationship.
Roosevelt left politics and moved to North Dakota for a bit before being enticed to run for mayor of the City of NY. He finished third in that race but was later appointed by President Benjamin Harrison to run the Civil Service Commission in 1889 and was reappointed to the position by Grover Cleveland in 1893 and served until 1895. In his position on the Civil Service Commission, Roosevelt pushed hard to reform the commission from a spoils system by attempting to more vigorously enforcing civil service laws.
In 1895, Roosevelt was appointed to the NYC Police Commission and became its president. As president, Roosevelt instituted various reforms of the police including making appointments based on merit rather than political affiliations, implemented regular firearm inspections and physical exams for cops, created the Meritorious Service Medals, installed phone in the station houses. He also spent time walking the beat with officers.
In 1898, Roosevelt is recruited to run for Governor of NY by the deputy of the Republican Party boss Thomas Platt. Platt wasn’t too keen having Roosevelt as the Party’s nominee but needed someone to repair the party from its unpopular current governor. Roosevelt acquiesced saying he would not “make war” as governor. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Roosevelt went full bore as governor studying how various social and economic ills were impacting the masses of NY.
Roosevelt successfully pushed the Ford Franchise-Tax bill, which taxed public franchises granted by the state and controlled by corporations, declaring that "a corporation which derives its powers from the State, should pay to the State a just percentage of its earnings as a return for the privileges it enjoys"(citation pp 378-379 )
Roosevelt continued to spar with Platt as he continued instituting his reforms and making appointments over Platt’s objections. When VP Hobart died in 1899, people such as Henry Cabot Lodge pushed Roosevelt to put his hat in for the position. As I stated in the introduction, Roosevelt had no desire to take on such a worthless job and instead was more likely to run for re-election as governor pondering whether to run for president in 1904. Platt, who was aching to rid Roosevelt as the chief executive of NY, maneuvered to get Roosevelt nominated for VP when said he would agree to run only if he won the nomination but that he preferred to run for another term as governor.
Thanks to Plats maneuvering, Roosevelt won the nomination unanimously. Roosevelt barnstormed the country holding numerous rallies helping to propel McKinley to re-election in 1900. Unfortunately for Roosevelt, one could the road to hell is paved with good intentions as he was miserable for the 6 months he was vice president as the Senate was only in session for 4 days. That all changed on September 14, 1901 when McKinley died after being shot 8 days prior.
We’ll let presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin pick up from here:
Roosevelt’s ascension to the presidency was met with concern by conservative Republicans, with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin noting that “Conservatives, who had utterly dominated the Republican Party for three decades, feared the impulsive young president would prove a ”bucking bronco,” upsetting the alliance between business and government that had delivered unparalled prosperity at the turn of the century. Reformers hoped Roosevelt’s vigorous leadership would refashion the Republican Party into the progressive force it had been under Abraham Lincoln, endeavoring to spread prosperity beyond the wealthy few to the common man.”[113] Adding to this point, Kearns has noted that Throughout his career, Roosevelt had struggled to reconcile party allegiance with the drive to address social problems, a balancing act that became more difficult as the troubling aspects of industrialization intensified. While he considered himself conservative in relation to the Populists, he believed that his party was in thrall to reactionaries who so "dreaded radicalism" that they "distrusted anything that was progressive." Precisely such men dominated both chambers of Congress, Roosevelt lamented. He would work to "push" them forward but recognized that genuine progress would require a direct appeal to the people, "the masters of both of us." To reach the general public, he would enlist the new breed of independent journalists, without whose "active support," he later acknowledged, he "would have been powerless.
Roosevelt would quickly invite Booker T Washington to dinner at the White House, the first time a Black man would have that opportunity. While it did spark significant backlash in the South, Roosevelt would continue to have Washington at the White House though sadly never officially for dinner again.
We know from looking back this was the spark that began what would become known as the Progressive Era in American history. Does this happen without Roosevelt becoming president? Possibly, but who can say? Even if it did, would it had led to the reforms started by Roosevelt and continued by Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt? Again, it is impossible to know. What we do know is Thomas Platt bet on red and it came up black for him. He so wanted to end Theodore Roosevelt’s ability to push reforms as Governor of NY by putting him in a show job as VP and ended with Roosevelt gaining the most powerful executive office in the country.
Information in this diary comes from my memory and the Theodore Roosevelt Wikipedia page.
Diarist reserves all rights to his original writing only. Community material is not covered by this ©
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