Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oah.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Organization of American Historians is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
The Journal of American History.
http://www.jstor.org
TheodoreRooseveltand theDivided
Characterof AmericanNationalism
GaryGerstle
1280 TheJournalofAmerican
History December1999
Theodore
Roosevelt Nationalism
andAmerican 1281
Roosevelt'sRacialized Nation
Presidents:
FromAbrahamLincolnto Theodore Roosevelt(GardenCity,1971), 308-73; RichardSlotkin,Gunfighter
Nation:TheMythoftheFrontier in Twentieth-CenturyAmerica(New York,1992), 29-122; Gail Bederman,Man-
A CulturalHistoryof Genderand Race in the UnitedStates,1880-1917 (Chicago,1995),
linessand Civilization:
170-215; and Saxton,Riseand Fall oftheWhiteRepublic, 349-83.
4 Roosevelt,Winning in Works
of theWest, ofTheodore Roosevelt,
ed. Hagedorn,VIII, 100-1 01. See Frederick
JacksonTurner,TheSignificance oftheFrontier in AmericanHistory,
ed. Harold P. Simonson(New York,1980),
29-58; and RichardWhite,"Frederick JacksonTurnerand BuffaloBill,"in TheFrontier
in AmericanHistory,ed.
JamesR. Grossman(Berkeley, 1994), 6-65.
Theodore Roosevelt,"Manhoodand Statehood,"1901 address,ibid.,XIII, 455.
1284 ofAmerican
TheJournal History December
1999
6
RooseveltmighthaveclaimedthattheAmericanculturewas essentially EnglishorAnglo-Saxon;at times,he
came close to labelingthe backwoodsmen's cultureScotch-Irish. But he pulled back frombothclaims,perhaps
becauseeitherwould have impliedthathis own heritage-mixed,but primarily Dutch-lay outsidethe core
Americanculture.Roosevelt,WinningoftheWest, ibid.,VIII, 89.
7Ibid., 8; TheodoreRooseveltto AlbionWinegarTourgee,Nov. 8, 1901, in TheLetters of Theodore
Roosevelt,
ed. EltingE. Morison(8 vols.,Cambridge,Mass., 1951), III, 190-91.
Theodore
Roosevelt
andAmerican
Nationalism 1285
Thisphotowastakenona hilloverlooking
Santiago,Cuba,inJuly1898after
theRough
hadtakenKettle
Riders andSanJuanhills.TheodoreRoosevelt
iswherehe
wantstobe,atthecenterofitallbutalsooneoftheguys.
Library
Courtesy ofCongress.
19GeraldLinderman,TheMirrorof War:AmericanSociety
and theSpanish-American
War(AnnArbor,1974),
114-73.
79- 118, esp. 110, 1 5.
RoughRiders,
20Roosevelt,
1290 ofAmerican
TheJournal History December
1999
.........;.......... .
In ;.
this .:: .
hill
. .
painting, e E
commanded
R,,S,;~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~..
: William
,
by
J. Glackens
Spanish forces.
portrays
Black
the
troops
heroism
have
of ..... the
been
t X Rough
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.,
.. ....'
i..;
patiipted >s'
Cavary~e~ R'ing'
agiparae
down,,0
Wahngo' i-;i~',i2 Pensylani Avnu and
receivedi0i;
James!,rmebre a hewrko
PresideWiliam
President William
hispantig WhcenRoortaseveth
sallame.V/hcens
McJlysslt.
Mcininley' herismofaellttheRough
Rootastevheltoidm
beteenyouandtheotericavalry regimens Otheree s ti
in Octo ersh,
Riders heto sptedte black "uhthei
csualdiers: Spnayrup calleadly
em'moe
Riders
n Octo
Yankees"'
he sid,"utw frmthes
erceltased
fommndd blaicktsoldiers:
Spais fores
the Spnirdmmstcle,
Banecelletrop
"theywr beenkes
breedo he Soe
msr
thatspeatheentielpnts tof
ofiersur
that speathe entimntsromoffiersd then
tand
andmheninarge
inr whnIbeta
asseblad
sebaewhnfsyta
tho
taskthanRooseveltandothershad anticipated.
difficult Despitetheir"savage"behav-
iorat Las Gua'simas, theSpanishsoldierssoon revealedthattheywerefarwhiterand
morecivilized thantheAmericans hadexpected. Meanwhile,UnitedStatestroopswere
unnerved bytheirencounters withCubantroops.The latter wereoftenpoorlydressed,
inadequately provisioned, Americansoldierswereparticularly
and lackingdiscipline.
upsetbytheCuban troops'practiceof stripping corpses-of friendand foealike-
of clothing, food,guns, and any otherusableitems and bytheirannoying penchant
forbegging. And theywerestunnedthatCuban troopswereoverwhelmingly darkin
complexion. The UnitedStatestroopsknewlittleof theCubans'longstruggle for
independence, theyhad had to endure,and ofwhytheyhad chosen
of thehardships
tacticsagainsttheSpanish.The Americans,
guerrilla influencedbyHearstand Pulitzer
newspapers, hadimagined thatCubanswerea peoplemuchlikethemselves-freedom
loving,civilized,and white.Hence,theywereshockedto discoverthattheCubans
exhibitedtraits theycoulddefineas primitive The blackCubans,not
and undignified.
theSpanish,weretheisland'struesavages!29
The Cubans themselves, however, neverbecamea savagefoeagainstwhomthe
Americans a warofextermination-that
feltcompelledto fight honorwentto theFil-
ipinos.The Cubansinsteadbecamea childlikeallyin needofAmericanmentoring,
assistance,and protection.On thesegrounds, theUnitedStatesjustified to
itsrefusal
granttheCubansthepoliticalindependence theyso desperatelysought.Instead,it
madetheislandintoa virtualcolony,takingon the"whiteman'sburden"of uplift-
inga darker and moresavagerace.In suchwaystheSpanish-American Warreinforced
Americans' as
senseof themselves a white and superiorpeople.30
Roosevelt'sCivic Nationalism
It is tempting
to interpret
Roosevelt'snationalism as simplyan Americanexpression
of whatEuropeanscholarslabelethnic,or romantic, nationalism.Suchnationalism
locatestheessenceof thenationin theVolk,definedas a peoplewho sharethesame
blood,history,language,and land.The Volk,in theeyesof ethnicnationalists, did
notchangemuchovertime;itwasthought of as an entitystandingoutside a
history,
forceof moraland biologicalpuritythatcoulderadicatetheallegedevilsof moder-
nity:corruption,materialism,
promiscuity,and racialmixing.31
Manyindividuals and groupsin theUnitedStatessubscribed to suchethnoracialist
notions,theKu KluxKlan beingthe best known and most example.But
successful
38 See, forexample,Slotkin,Gunfighter
Nation,189-92.
39IsraelZangwill,TheMelting-Pot:
Drama in FourActs(1909; New York,1923), 2 andpassim.
40Ibid.,33; Rooseveltto IsraelZangwill,Oct. 15, 1908, in Letters
of Theodore
Roosevelt,
ed. Morison,VI,
1288.
TheodoreRooseveltandAmerican
Nationalism 1299
In theabstract,
thetaskof reconcilingcivicnationalismwithracialnationalism
was
Roosevelt
straightforward. simplyarguedthatcertainraces-notablyAsiansandAfri-
can Americans-couldnotmeetthefundamental requirementsofAmericancitizen-
ship. "Only the veryhighestraces have been able" to make a successof self-
government, he wrotein a 1908 letter,
and it wouldbe foolish,evencontemptible,
to assumethat"utterlyundevelopedraces"could functionon an evenfootingwith
whitesin a democracy.44
The practicalworkof exclusionwas in some casesas easilyaccomplishedas the
43 ArnaldoTesti,"The Genderof Reform Politics:TheodoreRooseveltand theCultureof Masculinity,"
Jour-
nal of AmericanHistory,81 (March 1995), 1509-33; RobynMuncy,"Trustbusting and White Manhood in
America,1898-1914," AmericanStudies,38 (Fall 1997), 21-42; Paula Baker,"The Domesticationof Politics:
Women and AmericanPoliticalSociety,1780-1920," AmericanHistoricalReview,89 (June 1984), 620-47;
Theodore Roosevelt,TheodoreRoosevelt:Autobiography, 161-67; Theodore Roosevelt,The Foes of Our Own
Household(New York,1917), esp. 232-73; KristinL. Hoganson,Fighting forAmericanManhood:How Gender
PoliticsProvokedtheSpanish-Americanand Philippine-AmericanWars(New Haven, 1998); Bederman,Manliness
and Civilization,170-215; Nancy F. Cott, "Marriageand Women'sCitizenshipin the United States,1830-
1934,"American HistoricalReview,
103 (Dec. 1998), 1440-74.
to ArthurHamiltonLee, March7, 1908, in Letters
44 Roosevelt of Theodore ed. Morison,VI, 965.
Roosevelt,
TheodoreRoosevelt Nationalism
andAmerican 1301
Ibid.; GeorgeE. Mowry,"The South and the Progressive LilyWhite Partyof 1912,"Journalof Southern
History,6 (May 1940), 237-47; Dewey W. GranthamJr.,"The Progressive Movementand the Negro,"South
AltanticQuarterly,54 (Oct. 1955), 461-77; ArthurS. Link,"The Negroas a Factorin theCampaignof 1912,"
JournalofNegroHistory, 32 (Jan.1947), 81-99.
56Grantham, "ProgressiveMovementand theNegro";Link,"Negroas a Factorin theCampaignof 1912."
57ArthurS. Link,ed., "Correspondence Party's'LilyWhite'Policyin 1912,"Jour-
Relatingto theProgressive
nal ofSouthern History,10 (Nov. 1944), 483-88; TheodoreRoosevelt,"The Progressivesand theColoredMan,"
1912, in Works ofTheodore ed. Hagedorn,XVII, 304-5.
Roosevelt,
1306 TheJournal
ofAmerican
History December
1999
nationalistconviction
thateveryAmericanbe guaranteed "hisrightto life,to liberty,
to protectionfrominjustice"withoutregardto creed,birthplace, socialstation,or
color.In hiscommunications and speeches,Rooseveltalso listedthemanyefforts by
theProgressivepartyin theNorthto guarantee blackstheirpoliticalrights. None of
thiswentoververywell withwhitesoutherners who werecontemplating joining
Roosevelt'scrusade.And then,on theeveof theelection,Rooseveltfurther alienated
hispotentialwhitesouthern supporters
bycommitting another"unpardonable viola-
tionof theSouthernracialcode":He dinedwithtwoblacksin a RhodeIslandhotel,
reminding whitesupremacists everywhereof his originalsin-his White House
lunch,more than a decade earlier,with BookerT. Washington.The Progressive
party'ssoutherncampaignwas a fiasco,nettingRooseveltmanyfewervotesthanhe
had won as a Republicanin 1904.58