Theodore Roosevelt's Great Speeches
He Called the Presidency a Bully Pulpit. These Six Speeches Show Why.
Sorbonne, Paris — 1910
The lecture was titled "Citizenship in a Republic," but one passage — "the man who is actually in the arena" — outlived everything else, quoted from Mandela's prison cell to today.
Hamilton Club, Chicago — 1899
Before a room of comfortable Chicago businessmen, Governor Roosevelt preached "the doctrine of the strenuous life" — toil, effort, and national purpose over ignoble ease.
Osawatomie, Kansas — 1910
At a John Brown memorial, before a crowd of some 30,000, the former president unveiled the progressive manifesto that would carry him into the 1912 Bull Moose campaign.
Key Facts
| The Strenuous Life | Hamilton Club, Chicago — April 10, 1899 |
|---|---|
| First Annual Message | Sent to Congress in writing — December 3, 1901 |
| Inaugural Address | U.S. Capitol, Washington — March 4, 1905 |
| Citizenship in a Republic | The Sorbonne, Paris — April 1910 |
| The New Nationalism | Osawatomie, Kansas — August 31, 1910 |
| Confession of Faith | Progressive Convention, Chicago — August 6, 1912 |
| Most-quoted line | “It is not the critic who counts” (Paris, 1910) |
| Osawatomie crowd | About 30,000 at a John Brown memorial |
| 1905 inaugural first | First president to ride to his inaugural in an automobile |
| 1912 rallying cry | “We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord” |
| Read the full texts | Theodore Roosevelt Center digital archives |
Washington — 1901
Three months after McKinley's assassination, the young president sent Congress a written blueprint: regulate the trusts, conserve the forests, and deal squarely with labor.
The Capitol — 1905
His only inaugural, delivered after a landslide win — he arrived by automobile, a first, and made a pledge not to run again that he would come to regret.
Standing at Armageddon — 1912
Accepting the Progressive nomination, Roosevelt declared "We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord" — a lost campaign whose platform won the century.