At 43 years old, Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest man ever to take the oath of office for the Presidency of the United States. The situation was thrust upon him at the time of William McKinley's assassination, however, and the former governor of New York took up his duty and set out on his policy of reform.
Public Reforms
As President, just as he had done in several public capacities prior to this time, one of Roosevelt's chief concerns became to root out corruption and patronage, both inside and outside of the government.
Roosevelt enacted several regulatory reforms, including a dramatic increase in anti-trust legislation (although he himself was not opposed to free market capitalism, he recognized the need for occassional regulation in order to protect certain elements of the society).
In addition, Roosevelt passed reforms of the railroad (the Hepburn Act of 1906) and food industries (the Food and Drug Act of 1906 and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906) - appealing directly to the American people using speeches and tours in order to pressure congress into submission to his requests.
Other Domestic Policies
Roosevelt is also remembered as being a conservationist - prompted by his many experiences in the frontier lands and numerous hunting and fishing trips in the wilderness. He encouraged the protection of natural resources, the setting aside of wilderness as national parks, and the promotion of agriculture in the west by building canals and waterworks.
The President used a "square deal" policy to help negotiate a settlement between the managers and workers during the coal strike of 1902, which proposed to create a deal which was beneficial to both sides and served to give a name to Roosevelt's domestic agenda.
In the midst of all of this legislating, Roosevelt won an easy and well-deserved reelection in 1904, the Democrats having no big names to run against him.
Panama Canal
The thin passage between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean which now exists through the nation of Panama is probably the best known of all of Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policies.
Beginning with his endorsement of Dr. Walter Reed's plan to use military resources to root out Yellow Fever in these tropical regions (which had so destroyed the French attempts at the same feat decades earlier), Roosevelt's Presidency played a role in the Panamanian revolution which took control of the region away from Columbia, and allowed the United States to purchase a tract of land with which to build a canal.
Though the actual canal was not completed until well into the administration of Roosevelt's hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, the 26th President deservedly gets the greatest amount of credit for this extremely important achievement.
The Legacy of Roosevelt
Because of his vigorous persuit of both domestic and foreign policies and reforms all across the board, Theodore Roosevelt is generally credited, even by those who disagree with him, as having been one of the most effective Presidents in American history.
In almost every list of great Presidents, Roosevelt makes his way easily into the top ten, often appearing as high as #4, and, of course, he is immortalized on Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota - a region in which he briefly made a home for himeself.
This is not the end of his story, however. Just as Roosevelt lived an interesting life prior to achieving the Presidency, so also was his life after this. In fact, Roosevelt became one of the most influential ex-Presidents in American History.
For more on this later period of his life, see: Roosevelt's Post Presidency.
For more information:
References:
"Theodore Roosevelt." American Presidents: An Online Reference Resource."
The Theodore Roosevelt Association.
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