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[[File:TR-Farewell.jpg|thumb|320px|Roosevelt moves left in his 1908 Farewell Address]]
 
[[File:TR-Farewell.jpg|thumb|320px|Roosevelt moves left in his 1908 Farewell Address]]
 
Roosevelt moved left in 1907-08, criticizing the courts, promoting labor unions and attacking big business. The Republican leadership in Congress ignored his radical proposals and waited for his successor-Taft-to take over the White House.
 
Roosevelt moved left in 1907-08, criticizing the courts, promoting labor unions and attacking big business. The Republican leadership in Congress ignored his radical proposals and waited for his successor-Taft-to take over the White House.
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====View of the Constitution====
 
====View of the Constitution====
 
Roosevelt's administration marked the shift to a more activist conception of the presidency, in peace as well as war,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pyle|first1=Christopher H.|last2=Pious|first2=Richard M.|title=The President, Congress, and the Constitution: Power and Legitimacy in American Politics|date=1984|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0029253809|pages=68–69}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/policy-report/2002/11/chapman.pdf |title=TR: No Friend of the Constitution |work=Cato Institute |date=November/December 2002 }}</ref> and was both internationalist and aggressive in asserting Presidential power.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dumbrell|first1=John|last2=Barrett|first2=David M.|title=The Making of US Foreign Policy|date=1997|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0719048227|pages=56–57}}</ref>  He would write in his Autobiography:
 
Roosevelt's administration marked the shift to a more activist conception of the presidency, in peace as well as war,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pyle|first1=Christopher H.|last2=Pious|first2=Richard M.|title=The President, Congress, and the Constitution: Power and Legitimacy in American Politics|date=1984|publisher=Simon and Schuster|isbn=978-0029253809|pages=68–69}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/policy-report/2002/11/chapman.pdf |title=TR: No Friend of the Constitution |work=Cato Institute |date=November/December 2002 }}</ref> and was both internationalist and aggressive in asserting Presidential power.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dumbrell|first1=John|last2=Barrett|first2=David M.|title=The Making of US Foreign Policy|date=1997|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0719048227|pages=56–57}}</ref>  He would write in his Autobiography:
 
<blockquote>I declined to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the Nation could not be done by the President unless he could find some specific authorization to do it. My belief was that it was not only his right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws. Under this interpretation of executive power I did and caused to be done many things not previously done by the President and the heads of the departments. I did not usurp power, but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power. In other words, I acted for the public welfare, I acted for the common well-being of all our people, whenever and in whatever manner was necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative prohibition.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Roosevelt|first1=Theodore|title=Theodore Roosevelt, an Autobiography|date=1913|publisher=Charles Scribner's sons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Io4fAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA357|pages=}}</ref></blockquote>
 
<blockquote>I declined to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the Nation could not be done by the President unless he could find some specific authorization to do it. My belief was that it was not only his right but his duty to do anything that the needs of the Nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or by the laws. Under this interpretation of executive power I did and caused to be done many things not previously done by the President and the heads of the departments. I did not usurp power, but I did greatly broaden the use of executive power. In other words, I acted for the public welfare, I acted for the common well-being of all our people, whenever and in whatever manner was necessary, unless prevented by direct constitutional or legislative prohibition.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Roosevelt|first1=Theodore|title=Theodore Roosevelt, an Autobiography|date=1913|publisher=Charles Scribner's sons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Io4fAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA357|pages=}}</ref></blockquote>
 
This view came to be known as the [[Stewardship Theory]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dodds|first1=Graham G.|title=Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics|date=May 2, 2013|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-4511-0|pages=31–33}}</ref> by [[William Howard Taft]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Taft|first1=William H.|title=Our chief magistrate and his powers|date=1916|publisher=Columbia University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/ourchiefmagistra00taftuoft|pages=139–140}}</ref>
 
This view came to be known as the [[Stewardship Theory]],<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dodds|first1=Graham G.|title=Take Up Your Pen: Unilateral Presidential Directives in American Politics|date=May 2, 2013|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-4511-0|pages=31–33}}</ref> by [[William Howard Taft]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Taft|first1=William H.|title=Our chief magistrate and his powers|date=1916|publisher=Columbia University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/ourchiefmagistra00taftuoft|pages=139–140}}</ref>
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====Eugenics====
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As was common during the [[Progressive Era]], Roosevelt came to believe in the doctrines of [[Eugenics]].  He wrote about the dangers of "race suicide",<ref>[http://www.theodore-roosevelt.com/toonsbytopicracesuicide.html Theodore Roosevelt : Political Cartoons : "Race Suicide" Controversy]</ref><ref>[When some eugenists wrote about "race", they meant "Human Race" and not racial superiority]</ref> in that people were not having enough children.
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Common with eugenists, he did believe in sterilization.  In an article titled "Twisted Eugenics", he wrote that "I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilized and feeble-minded persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qbsRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA32 The Outlook, Volume 106]</ref>  Additionally, he wrote a letter to Charles Davenport expressing the same sentiment.  He wrote: "Society has no business to permit degenerates to reproduce their kind. It is really extraordinary that our people refuse to apply to human beings such elementary knowledge as every successful farmer is obliged to apply to his own stock breeding."<ref>[https://www.dnalc.org/view/11219-T-Roosevelt-letter-to-C-Davenport-about-degenerates-reproducing-.html T. Roosevelt letter to C. Davenport about "degenerates reproducing"]</ref>
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Roosevelt's eugenic beliefs have at times been misunderstood, and can be best categorized as Neo-Lamarkist.<ref>Thomas G. Dyer, ''Theodore Roosevelt and the Idea of Race'' (1980), p. 160</ref>
    
===Foreign Policy===
 
===Foreign Policy===
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