The Core of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Approach to Life and Government

In 1899, New York Governor Teddy Roosevelt offered advice for the students at Mount Pleasant Military Academy. The legendary leader of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, known as the Rough Riders, drew from a rather surprising source—the revelation at the foot of another mountain, Sinai, three thousand years prior.

“I urge you to have the widest toleration in matters of opinion,” he told the assembly, “but to have no toleration at all when it comes to matters of the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. These are fundamental, essential principles which must live in the heart of every American citizen and by which every man asking place or political power must be tested.”

A Life-long Affinity

Theodore Roosevelt’s citing the Decalogue, in fact, is not as surprising as it might seem. He had an affinity for citing it, and other passages from the Bible, throughout his career. The habit was a natural outgrowth of his upbringing. His parents were members of various Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed congregations. As historian Benjamin J. Wetzel has described, in their “household, prayers were regular, churchgoing was weekly, and little Teedie (as he was called) was often required to summarize the morning’s sermon.” Teedie even taught a Sunday school class for underprivileged children until he left to attend Harvard in the fall of 1876. There, he continued his Sunday school teaching at Christ Episcopal Church in Cambridge.