Introduction
Born on 27th October, 1858, Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States of America. He took over as president at the age of 42 years after the assassination of President William McKinley. He is remembered by many as the most active American President who lived a very exciting life. Roosevelt was funny, smart, hardworking and very brave (Potts 5).
Roosevelt’s Personality
Theodore Roosevelt was a very popular President who cared about all people regardless of their status in society. He loved people and in his service to the Americans, he used powers given to him to seek help for others. It is him love for people that motivated him to study law. He also cared so much about nature and desired so to save it for the future generations (McKay 2). His strong interest in nature led him to Harvard University in Massachusetts where he studied to be a naturalist; a scientists who studies plants and animals (McKay 5).
During his tenure as a civil service commissioner, he made attempts to change the way government hired its employees. According to President Roosevelt, government employees were expected to provide services to the public impartially and it was very critical to have them trained properly to carry out their duties (Potts 11).
Roosevelt led the police commission in New York City at a time when the public had completely lost trust in the police force. He fired any police officer who was not good at his or her job and slowly but surely, he managed to restore the public’s confidence in the police and the police commissioner (Potts 11).
Roosevelt’s Greatest Achievement
According to Hooton (1), Roosevelt was the most effective conservationist that American has ever seen. He lived up to his dream of preserving nature for the future and because of his relentless efforts, Americans now have water, food and forest lands (Hooton 1).
In my opinion, this is a very remarkable achievement considering that climate change and environmental degradation is and will continue to be a real menace to the survival of mankind. Presently, many countries are paying a high price because of poor natural resource management policies. Because of man’s never ending ambitions and destructive activities, we keep hearing stories about extended drought periods and people dying of hunger.
When President Roosevelt finally came to power as the President of the United States, his first agenda was to ensure that the nation’s resources were preserved. In his maiden speech to the Congress he made his intentions quite clear when he declared that Americans had to stop thinking that the nation’s resources were unlimited.
Subsequently, he proclaimed a policy to invalidate the historic thought that America’s resources should be exploited for the sake of nation building (Hooton 1). The federal government later participated actively to reinforce the new policy. In his view, Roosevelt was convinced that a good nation must be able to pass its resources to the future generation increased and not depleted (Hooton 1).
Conclusion
Clearly, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt left a mark in the American History. A part from positively impacting the lives of many Americans, Roosevelt worked hard to conserve America’s natural resources.
Today, his conservation efforts can be seen in a number of ways. The presence of 150 forests and 24 reclamation projects speak volumes about what he did for American. He believed that the federal government was responsible for conserving and protecting natural resources and ensured that they did so to the benefit of the nation (Hooton 1).
Works Cited
Hooton, LeRoy W. President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, America’s Conservationist. Salt Lake City, UT: Salt Lake City Corporation. 2009. Web.
McKay, Sindy. President Theodore Roosevelt. San Anselmo, CA: Treasure Bay, Inc., 2006. Print.
Potts, Steve. Theodore Roosevelt. Mankato, MN: Capstone Press, 2006. Print.