[x]

It must have something to do with the time when the memorial was planned. If they started it after 1945, Franklin Roosevelt would probably have been up there instead. Also, TR's association with conservation and the Dakota Badlands must have played a role.

If you think about it, there's something a little peculiar about a memorial to "Great Presidents." It's as valid a selection principle as any, but why not a memorial to "Great Americans?" In the end Rushmore almost comes off looking like as much a monument to the Presidency as to America or the four great Americans depicted.

But if you're thinking about great Presidents, you have Washington, and Lincoln, and it's hard to find others of that calibre. TR's being a very well known figure probably played a great role in putting him on Rushmore. If Polk or Jackson or Cleveland were up there, people would be forever wondering just who that guy next to Lincoln is.

More cartoons.

And a collection of executive orders. It looks like the torrent of executive orders really started with TR. Earlier Presidents used executive orders for things we'd regard as trivial and procedural. Lincoln employed them for important questions of military governance, but sparingly. The quantity leaps up with TR, but they're still largely concerned with minor details. With Wilson and FDR executive orders increase and executive power penetrates far deeper into American life and society.

[nicollo]

That list of Executive Orders is incomplete. I've seen in the Taft papers many others of equal or more substance than they've listed. They certainly edited them out, even for Roosevelt. I think they missed a few of his doozies, in fact.

Roosevelt certainly took an expansive view of his powers, yet I am also certain that it was not nearly as bold or expansive as he claimed it was in his autobiography. The more I learn, the more I see, the more I am dismayed at the con-job he pulled in his autobiography. Sadly, he's been taken at his word, except by the Amos Pinchot/ Robert La Follette types, both of whom wrote equally revolting historical revisions. Their followers have been the only ones to question Roosevelt, and they do it from the wrong side of the equation. If you've read Kolko's "The Triumph of Conservativism," you'll know what I mean. There's truth in it, but not enough, and too many lies. Just like Roosevelt's. Like his ex-presidency, it was all mood.

On this Rock Creek Park incident, I just ran across today the following item in the February 1, 1909 Washington Star:

The Park Riding Incident
Letter Concerning It Given Out At White House
Mother of Seminary Girl Writes President – Was Not in the Party

A letter was made public at the White House today concerning the widely published charges that President Roosevelt last Thanksgiving day reprimanded some girl students from the Forest Glen Seminary for riding past him and his party in Rock Creek Park. One story said that the President, in riding up to the party to reprimand the members, struck the horse of one of the girls, causing it to rear and almost throw her. The letter is from the mother of one of the girls. It is as follows:

“Los Angeles, Cal., January 27, 1909.
“The President, U.S.A.
“Washington, D.C.
“Dear Sir: My daughter, Miss May Rhodes, whose horse, it has been widely reported, you struck while riding in the park last Thanksgiving day, most emphatically denies any knowledge of such an occurrence, and, as it is deemed of such importance as to be referred to in Congress, may I be permitted to ask why you do not deny this story?” “Very Sincerely,
“Elizabeth M. Rhodes

Secretary Loeb said the President had never denied the story because he considered it too ridiculous, but that since it had traveled over the country the letter was made public.

The Star’s account of the incident, which was printed, December 17, 1908, consisted chiefly of an interview with Miss E.L. Sisson, a teacher at National Park Seminary, who accompanied the Thanksgiving day horseback party as chaperon. The names of the girls in the party were not mentioned. The principal of the National Park Seminary today sated to a Star reporter that Miss Rhodes was not in the party on Thanksgiving day.

The story was repeated, vaguely, in Congress during the "Secret Service Affair" of Dec/08-Feb/09. The House went ape on Roosevelt, one member, I think the one who repeated this story, calling him a "pygmy scion of dutch burghers..." or something to that effect. He was censured and the remarks removed from the record. At the Senate, they had to invoke a new rule to prohibit insulting the President.

I'm inclined to find some truth in the story. Again, I don't use it, and I won't, for there's no proof. The Star believed it, which is why they checked up on Miss Rhode's denial.

Thanks for the links to cartoons. I put a few others on this thread