H102 Lecture 13: Roosevelt, Wilson, and the Morality of Power

In addition, there are three major points on foreign policy that we will discuss in greater detail in terms of Roosevelt and Wilson:

"A Splendid Little War"

The event that first brought the United States to the stage of world power was the Spanish-American War of 1898. Proponents of this brief incursion called it the "splendid little war." Kindled by a crisis in Spanish-American relations, the war began as an intervention by the United States on behalf of Cuba. By some accounts, nearly 100,000 Cuban civilians had died under the brutal rule of the Spanish military between 1896 and 1898. Accounts of Spanish mistreatment of Cuban natives in the nation's so-called "yellow press," especially in newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, stirred American resentment of Spain.

Taken together with America's growing imperialist tendencies and fervent anti-Spanish sentiment, the event which provoked the war was the explosion of the battleship U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898, "the consequence, it now seems, of spontaneous combustion in one of its magazines, not because of a Spanish or Cuban mine" (Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, eds., The Reader's Companion to American History, 1015). Nonetheless, many Americans blamed Spain for the loss of its battleship and were more than happy when the nation went to war against the Spanish. The war itself lasted only four months, from mid-April to mid-August 1898. Some of its memorable events include the charge of the Rough Riders in Cuba and the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines, when Admiral George Dewey allegedly gave the command: "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley."

Results of the Spanish-American War

The United States easily and swiftly won the war and this outcome left a lasting legacy on both domestic and foreign policy.

United States became more like European countries

In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, the United States became a world power, acquiring the territories of Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Wake Island, and Puerto Rico. Suddenly, the nation, a former British colony, had colonies of its own, which sparked criticism from anti-imperialists. President McKinley had to find some way, some moral argument, to justify to the American public why the United States had taken foreign territories. Historians believe that McKinley thought long and hard about these new acquisitions and that he recognized that the nation had four choices:

Having weighed these four possibilities, McKinley rejected the first three on moral grounds; he felt that any of these options would just lead to more upheaval and bloodshed in the newly-freed territories. Ultimately, he justified his decision to exercise the fourth option with the following logic:

Of course, the new territories also had great strategic and economic value. They provided key outposts for the United States navy, new markets for American goods, and access to Asia for trade with China. President McKinley, however, played down these reasons in favor of the moral justifications.

No longer a republic equal in all of its parts

The acquisition of these territories brought about a dramatic change in the very concept of equality for people living under the American flag. People began to raise an entirely new question: what constitutional rights do the indigenous peoples of the new territories have? Anti-imperialists protested the acquisition of new territories, but not only out of concern for the rights of the islanders. In many cases, anti-imperialists were staunchly anti-immigrant as well. The anti-imperialists filed suit against the federal government and a series of cases made their way to the Supreme Court, where the justices decided them together as the "Insular Cases" in 1901. (The word 'insular,' along with 'insulation' and 'insulin,' comes from the Latin 'insula,' island.) The Court ruled that the Constitution need not apply equally to the populations of the territories. In the end, the Court's decision enabled the United States to withhold certain rights from the Filipinos, the Hawaiians, or the Puerto Ricans.

Created a psychological effect on many people

Two modes of thought about America's future were at the core of public rhetoric of the day: optimism and fatalism. These terms are not necessarily mutually exclusive; people can give themselves up to fate (fatalism) and still hope that things will change for the better (optimism). The fatalist view was most evident in the evolution of the term "manifest destiny." During the 1840s and 1850s, "manifest destiny" meant that no outside influence or foreign country could resist the expansion of the United States across the American continent. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, manifest destiny meant that not even Americans themselves could stand in the way of America's growing power and influence throughout the world. It was not only America's destiny, but its duty to expand its power and moral authority. Many of the nation's leading politicians and intellectuals, including novelists such as Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, and Frank Norris, articulated a fatalistic worldview at the time. In his novel, The Octopus (1901), which examines wheat farming in California and the exploitation of farmers by corporations, Norris writes about individuals who were at the mercy of larger forces:

"Men were mere nothings. Force only existed. Force that brought men into the world, force that crowded them out of it to make way for future generations."

On the flip side of the coin was optimism. Popular newspapers, as well as ministers in their sermons, preached that progress was possible, that the strength of the United States would continue to grow. America's easy victory in the Spanish-American War was further proof that Providence still smiled on the nation. The fusion of fatalism and optimism is best illustrated in a book entitled The Americanization of the World or The Trend of the Twentieth Century (1901), by William T. Stead. Stead was a British journalist who had spent a lot of time in America. In his book, he predicted the gradual Americanization of the world, particularly the spread and influence of American thought and culture. Stead felt that this trend was inevitable and that it would be futile for the European powers to resist it. He wrote:

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

Now, let's look more specifically at the presidential administrations of the time. Theodore Roosevelt was President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He was a moralist at heart, but, at the same time, he was a realist and a masterful politician who understood what the American people would and would not accept from their political leaders.

Roosevelt was fond of quoting a West African proverb: "Walk softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far." This sums up his quest for order and efficiency and his faith in government power to back up this order and efficiency. Roosevelt's practices led to the term "Big Stick Diplomacy"--international negotiations backed by the threat of force.

Order and Efficiency

In domestic social problems, Roosevelt sought orderly, well-defined relationships among various segments of society. These included:

Roosevelt viewed the presidency as a "bully pulpit" from which he could preach these three points. He also saw a clearly defined hierarchy in the government and an almost organic unity in society. Society was a body made up of arms, legs, and other parts. The President of the United States, according to Roosevelt, was the brain. In a 1903 speech, he talked about this national unity, about the interdependence of the various parts of the American "body:"

Roosevelt's quest for order and efficiency in domestic affairs extended to his foreign policy. He viewed the nations of the world divided into three groups:

According to T. R., there was a constant struggle within this hierarchy and force set apart the successful nations from the unsuccessful. The great powers were the upholders of order. While it may be regrettable that the great powers had to flex their military muscle to dominate smaller powers, such action was necessary to uphold the world order through their "international police duty."

Faith in Power

Roosevelt the great nation's of the world needed to use their economic and military power to maintain order around the globe. He was determined that the United States would remain one of these great nations. To this end, he preached "preparedness" and "righteousness."

"Preparedness"--The United States must have a foundation of physical strength: a large population, strong industries, and preserved and protected natural resources. Roosevelt also called for the strengthening of the people's moral fiber; Americans had to be willing to sacrifice and to fight for their country. Third, the United States must be prepared militarily, must build a powerful army and navy. To prove this point, Roosevelt, as Commander in Chief, showed off the United States Navy on a cruise around the world in 1907, despite protests from Congress.

"Righteousness"--Roosevelt judged other nations on the same criteria he used to judge individuals: righteousness and morality. He tended to equate righteousness with order, believing that the great powers of the world, and especially the United States, should act with self-restraint while pursuing their own goals and never use force for anything other than righteous causes. In a 1914 speech on the topic of "Warlike Power: The Prerequisite for the Preservation of Social Values" Roosevelt said:

Roosevelt repeatedly found it necessary to use military force in Latin America to restore what he considered efficiency and order in those countries and to keep European nations out of the region. His foreign interventions included Venezuela (1902), Panama (1903), Santo Domingo (1904-1907), and Cuba (1906). Roosevelt also acted as mediator in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904.

We have already discussed the growing relationship between industry and foreign policy in Lecture 12. This is well illustrated in Roosevelt's campaign in Panama (1903) to secure the building of the Panama Canal. For a long time, the United States had been interested in a canal that would make transportation between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans more efficient. This was crucial not only for trade, but for the growing United States Navy. In 1881, a French company had begun construction on a canal in Panama, which was then a northern province of Columbia, but it had gone bankrupt after a few years. Roosevelt was prepared to pay the New Panama Canal Company (which had taken over the French rights in Panama) $40 million for access to the canal and $10 million to Columbia for the land, but Columbia refused, hoping for a higher price. At the same time, there was a growing independence movement in Panama. A group of revolutionaries agreed to stage an uprising in exchange for the $10 million which Roosevelt had offered Columbia. Not coincidentally, the uprising, which took place on November 3, 1903, was engineered by a Frenchman who was a representative of the New Panama Canal Company. The United States promptly recognized the new Republic of Panama. With the help of the United States, Panama got its independence and a cool $10 million, the canal company got $40 million, Columbia got nothing, and the United States, after a decade of construction and the death of nearly 6,000 canal builders, got its sea passage.

What Roosevelt began, Woodrow Wilson (president from 1913 to 1921) expanded. Wilson was elected President of the United States in 1912 after serving as president of Princeton University and as governor of New Jersey. Wilson was a highly complex character who was insecure about his own identity and was driven by ambition. By his own admission, Wilson couldn't "let alone those things I see going downhill." Just as moralistic and righteous as Roosevelt, Wilson was less of a realist when it came to domestic and foreign policy.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

Wilson strongly believed that the American system would save the world. This system included:

Note the caveat, "when properly directed." Wilson saw the United States as the rightful and natural director. He was determined to provide that direction in a framework where morality, democracy and economics were closely related. Wilson believed that other nations of the world had to look to the United States as an example. At the same time, America was dependent on the rest of the world, mostly for economic markets. The world market must act as the new frontier for the American system. Wilson was determined to direct the affairs of other nations so that they could eventually achieve self-government, as long as this government was based on the American model, and he was even more willing to intervene in other countries than Roosevelt. For instance, he sent American troops to Mexico to intervene in their civil war (1913-1917). When World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, Wilson tried to keep the United States out of the conflict, but Germany repeatedly violated America's neutrality. When America finally entered the war in 1917 it was because, as Wilson stated,

As these events were unfolding in foreign policy, there were dramatic changes were transforming American society and culture. As the United States worked to export its political ideals of freedom and democracy to the rest of the world, many people discussed increasingly the equality of the sexes and the role of women at home. This debate is an extraordinarily important part of our story. So important, in fact, that we'll take it up in Lecture 14: "Women, Feminism and Sex in Progressive America."

Lecture 13	*Related Web Links*
Content	Presentation	Audience	Link	Info
		College	"'The White Man's Burden' and Its Critics," by Jim Zwick
		College	THE OCTOPUS, by Frank Norris
		College	"Occupied Territories," by John Brigham
		College	Theodore Roosevelt
		High School	About Theodore Roosevelt

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