On this day in 1901 — 120 years ago — Vice President Theodore Roosevelt gave us one of the most famous entries in our national lexicon.
“Speak softly and carry a big stick,” Roosevelt said in a speech at the Minnesota State Fair, using a day in the heartland to help define a new role for the federal government in the world.
Four days later, President William McKinley was shot by an assassin. McKinley’s death eight days later elevated Roosevelt to the presidency.
As governor of New York, Roosevelt had used similar words in a letter to a friend, as he explained how he forced the state’s Republican leaders to abandon their support for a corrupt insurance commissioner. Roosevelt attributed the phrase, which came to refer to U.S. dominance, to a proverb he learned while on a safari in Africa.
He also added “bully pulpit,” “muck raker” and “loose cannon” to our civic lingo. “Lunatic fringe” was his characterization of a group of avant-garde artists. Speaking more softly, Roosevelt gave us “Alice blue,” a tint named for his daughter Alice, and inspired “teddy bear,” after a toymaker was moved by the president’s refusal to shoot a cub on a hunting trip.
And the term “White House”? That was his, too. It was known as the Executive Mansion until he moved in.
In William Allen Rogers's 1904 cartoon, Roosevelt's big stick is used in a recreation of an episode in Gulliver's Travels
Thanks New York Times!