Progressive Presidents Research Paper

The Progressive Presidents
Kenneshea Q Alexander
George Aleman
HIS 204
15 March 2013

It has been said that the Presidential election of 1912 was the most Progressive in the US history. This election was held on November 5, 1912 of which democrat Woodrow Wilson defeated Bull Moose as well as candidate and former Republican president Theodore Roosevelt and Republican incumbent president William Howard Taft. We ask ourselves what or who were Progressives? According to a statement by Roosevelt, “Anyone who has a forward-thinking vision of the future and intense convictions qualified as a Progressive” (Bowles, 2011). As we viewed our election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and many made their last minute votes during the election,
He was known for his outstanding personality, wide range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, he also had cowboy persona and robust masculinity. Roosevelt was the leader of the Republican Party and founder of the first incarnation of the short-lived Progressive Party of 1912. Became President at the age of 42 because President William McKinley was assassinated, he was known as the youngest president. He made attempts to turn the Republican Party towards Progressivism. He coined the phrase “Square Deal” which described his domestic agenda, which put emphasis on average citizens would be allotted fair share under his policies. His policies were known as “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Within the New Nationalism, it states that, “There have been two great crises in our country’s history: first, when it was formed, and then, again, when it was perpetuated; and, in the second of these great crises – in the time of stress and strain which culminated in the Civil War, on the outcome of which depended the justification of what had been done earlier, you men of the Grand Army, you men who fought through the Civil War, not only did you justify your generation, not only did you render life worth living for our generation, but you justified the wisdom of Washington and Washington’s colleagues” (PBS, 1910). The New
They were bitter rivals, one from the Democratic Party and the other from the Republican Party, they introduced the presidency with new powers and then changed the nation in ways few other presidents have previously and presently. Roosevelt was very precise about public image as well as his public communication skills, this is what helped him win reelection in 1904 in which he promised a Square Deal for all. He published a book in 1906 titled the same and stated, “We must treat each man on his worth and merits as a man” (Bowles, 2011). Also that each individual should be granted a square deal and be entitled to no more and should not gain any less, Square Deal was his overall strategy; which included conservation, environmentalism, and business reform for the railroads, food and drug industry. Because of Roosevelt’s New Nationalism, Wilson knew he had to do something to increase revenue, which was a national income tax, and this was something many individuals were not familiar with. The Sixteenth Amendment in 1913 opened the door to an income tax, which Wilson led the nation through. His next reform was banking which became the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, then antitrust laws, the Clayton Antitrust Act of