All language subtitles for Theodore.Roosevelt.S01E01.WEBRip.x264-ION10

- That's him, isn't it?

[phone ringing]

- It's time, Colonel.

- Is the car here?

- Outside, sir.

- Good.

[light music]

- [Roosevelt] It is not
the critic who counts.

Not the man who points out
how the strong man stumbles.

Or where the doer of deeds
could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man

who is actually in the arena.

[crowd cheering]

- How ya feeling, Teddy?

- Fit as a bull moose.

- [Crowd] Teddy, Teddy,
Teddy, Teddy, Teddy.

Teddy, Teddy,
Teddy, Teddy, Teddy.

Teddy, Teddy,
Teddy, Teddy, Teddy.

[crowd cheering]

[gunshot]

[gasping]

- Let's go!

To the hospital.

- [Doris] Everything
can change in a moment.

Theodore Roosevelt did
everything he could

to be ready for that moment.

- [Edward] Theodore Roosevelt
is born into privilege

and of great wealth.

- [Jared] A very sickly child.

So he had to put up
his dukes and fight.

- Roosevelt saw himself as
the embodiment of America.

- [Doris] He was an exemplar
of the strenuous life.

- He suffers loss.

He suffers grief.

- [Stacy] Here's a man
who had everything.

Education, wealth,
opportunities.

- But he felt all
of that must be used

to help the lives
of the unfortunate.

- [Leonard] Fairness, justice,
equity is what drove him.

- He woke up every day of
his life saying, bring it on.

- [Clay] He was the first
celebrity President.

- [Edward] There were
thousands of people

yelling and screaming.

Like, he's a rockstar.

- He grasped the power of the
presidency with both hands.

He had so much energy.

He's always on his feet.

- He gave an 84 minute address
bleeding from a chest wound.

- [H.W.] He becomes a folk hero.

- [Clay] On the side
of the underdog.

- [Tweed] He was multifaceted.

- He was America as
a singular figure.

- [H.W.] He wanted to
change the country.

- He makes the United
States a global power.

- He's propelling
America's best ideas.

- [Richard] He dragged
America, kicking and screaming,

into the 20th century.

- [Doris] He was always moving
forward to change things.

To make his mark on the world.

[dramatic music]

[drumming]

[bells chiming]

After Abraham Lincoln's
assassination in 1865,

a train carried his body
home to Springfield.

The cortege stopped in

major cities along the way.

In New York, 100,000

people lined the streets.

An enormous crowd at that time.

They were drawn
together in disbelief

that the leader who
had carried them

through the Civil
War had been shot.

They sang, they held
hands, they wept.

They carried signs.

One placard said, mankind
has lost a friend.

- If you look closely at the
second floor of this mansion,

you see two little faces
peering above the window sill.

That was TR and his
brother Elliott.

TR was six, almost seven,
and his brother was five.

- Here we have our
future 26th President

looking down at the casket

of our 16th President,
Abraham Lincoln.

The man that Theodore
Roosevelt would revere

the rest of his life.

What an uncanny and
symbolic moment.

- Teddy Roosevelt comes of age

in one of the most
tumultuous times

in American history.

There was no way to be part

of the United States
in the early 1860s

without understanding
the existential threat

posed by the Civil War itself.

- Theodore was a
son of privilege.

The Roosevelt family
stood at the very top

of New York society.

His grandfather was one of
the five wealthiest people

in the city of New York.

- Theodore's father
believes very firmly

that to be a real
citizen, to be a man,

to be a Christian meant

that you could enjoy
wealth and privilege,

but you had to use your wealth

and your talent to help the
lives of the unfortunate.

And he's gonna instill
that in young Theodore.

He'll take Theodore
with him to visit

the orphan boys
and the vulnerable

and to see the
underside of the city

and really constantly
instruct him that

as you grow up, this is
something you must carry on.

- His father was a hero
that he really admired.

He said his father was his
best friend, his companion.

The greatest man he ever knew.

But his father worried
about his beloved son.

- [Clay] TD, as he was
called, TD is sickly,

he is underweight, he's frail.

- He had terrible
asthma and really seemed

to be one of those
children that was destined

to not reach adulthood.

And so, as a consequence,
he was kept at home.

He was in many ways
babied by the family

in order to kind of protect him

from the infirmities
he suffered from.

[coughing]

- [Roosevelt] Some of
my earliest remembrances

are of nights when
he would walk up

and down with me in his arms.

When I was a wretched mite.

- Easy, easy.

- TR was very aware
of how sick he was.

When he had those asthma
attacks he would feel

like he was suffocating
or drowning.

And then he heard
his parents say

that they were worried
that he might not live.

Just imagine what that's
like for a little kid,

to hear that he might die.

- Because TR
couldn't go to school

and couldn't do what
other children do,

couldn't play outside
much, he became bookish.

He began to read
books about boys

that go off into the
frontier and do great things

and kill a buffalo and
save pioneer families.

- He actually put himself
into the adventures

of the people that
he was reading about,

the explorers and
the deer slayers.

And then he got into
collecting birds and insects.

His shelves in his
room were so filled

with dead objects that
poor Elliott begged

to have another room.

- Theodore Roosevelt
didn't have a lot

of friends when he was a kid,

because he was
mostly house bound.

And so his father
was his confidant.

He was his model.

He was the one who
urged Theodore Roosevelt

to make himself strong.

And so it really was this model

that Theodore Roosevelt
tried to live up to.

- And his father goes to
him and challenges him.

- You've got a strong mind, TD.

But not the body to go with it.

Your mind can only
take you so far.

You can do it, TD.

You can do anything.

[heavy breathing]

Hey.

- No, I can do it.

- [Clay] This need to prove
himself through sheer will power

is one of the principle
motivating forces

in the entire life of
Theodore Roosevelt.

- [Doris] He took
up that challenge

with every bone of his body.

He just said, I'll make my body.

And by god, did he.

He was in that gym that
his father provided

for him day after day.

And it becomes the challenge
for the rest of his life.

[triumphant music]

- [H.W.] Roosevelt
entered Harvard

because his family
was well connected.

- Come on, get him!

- He wanted to be a
big man on campus.

He could box, he could wrestle,

but he was not well coordinated.

He had terrible eyesight.

[cheering]

But he was determined.

- When TR entered Harvard
he was not very cool.

He had these side whiskers,

these bright red cheeks,
those metal rim glasses.

And he was pretty awkward.

He had been home schooled,

so he wasn't used to
being with other kids.

And then in his room he had

the dead lizards
and the dead snakes.

And the smell of formaldehyde

followed him everywhere he went.

- He doesn't drink,
he doesn't smoke,

he doesn't swear.

He finds out that many
of his fellow classmates

are heading off to
Boston's brothels

and gambling dens.

And he was really
appalled at what he sees

as this immoral lot.

So he doesn't make many
friends with that attitude.

- He was loud.

He could be obnoxious.

He was opinionated.

But he was interested
in excelling.

He worked hard at every class.

He got A's and embraced
political science and history.

- No matter how strange
he might have seemed

at the start, there was
something about his warmth,

his curiosity, his
irrepressible energy

that just won people over.

He became one of them.

And he became quite
popular at Harvard.

- While he was at
Harvard he saw,

across the crowded room,
Alice Hathaway Lee,

this beautiful Boston debutant.

- And she made quite
an impression on him

because he came home
and wrote in his diary,

I'm gonna marry that woman.

- [Doris] No sooner
does he meet Alice Lee

then he launches a crusade

to make this young
woman his wife.

[crowd cheering]

- Why won't he stop?

- You know what
he's like, Alice.

[grunting]

[bell ringing]

- Alice.

- You don't quit, do you?

- Roosevelt, got
a telegram for ya.

[somber music]

- [Doris] He gets
a telegram saying

that his father is dying
and he rushes home.

But by the time he
gets there his father

is already dead.

He was only 46 years old.

- His father had been
suffering from stomach cancer.

And they'd really kind of
kept it from Roosevelt.

- Flags are at half mast
throughout the city.

They talked about him
as one of the greatest

philanthropists that
New York had ever known.

And the rich and the poor
followed him to the grave.

- [Roosevelt] I
shall never forget

these terrible moments
of sharp, bitter agony.

When I realized he would
never again greet me.

How I wish I could
ever do something

to keep up his name.

- [Doris] It was a terrible,
terrible time for him.

He said that if he
had too much time

on his hands he would
literally go crazy.

- Roosevelt's only
19 and it's really

the first body blow that life
deals Theodore Roosevelt.

And he does what's
gonna be characteristic

in the other dark moments and
big challenges in his life.

And engages in intense
physical activity.

- In the months after his
father's death he went to Maine

where he'd be out in the woods.

He'd be kept busy day after day.

Two guides in Maine,
Bill Sewell and Will Dow

take him under their wing.

And the extraordinary thing

is they know he's fragile,
but he actually has

an asthma attack while
he's there with them

and it doesn't stop him one bit.

Every night he's bunking
with the woodsmen.

And these are people who
may not have been able

to write their own name,

but he loved listening
to their stories.

And Sewell said you
could see that night

that wherever he went, he got
connected with the people.

He enjoyed listening to them,

empathizing with them,
learning their stories,

and make some sort of connection

that will last for
the rest of his life

with many of these people.

- It's one of the things that's
really remarkable about him.

Despite being a wealthy
gentleman from New York City,

he can mix with anybody.

He never tries to be
someone that he's not

and his authenticity
makes him quite relatable

to people who he really
has nothing in common.

- He comes back to Harvard.

He's stronger, more confident,

even more passionate
about Alice Lee.

And they announce
their engagement

on Saint Valentine's Day.

- [Edward] They're married
on Roosevelt's 22nd birthday.

They go back to New York City.

- Initially,
Theodore was thinking

that he would follow in
his father's footsteps.

That he would get involved
in the philanthropic boards

that his father had
been so important in.

He began to realize that
if he got into government,

that government could
take care of some

of the underlying problems

that the philanthropic
world had addressed.

He decided, my
mission is gonna be

the betterment of New
York City's government.

- At the time, the
poverty and the wealth

were so extreme in New York.

It was a gilded age.

The millionaires, the JP
Morgan and Vanderbilt.

The size of their mansions just
extraordinary on 5th Avenue.

And then you go down
to the Lower East Side

and see such, just
brutal poverty.

Full of so many new immigrants.

More than two thirds of the city

was either foreign born
or first generation.

- [Stacy] Immigrants
were taken advantage of

because they didn't
speak the language

by capitalists who were
looking to make a profit.

- [Richard] And there
was no safety net.

There is no minimum wage.

There is no social security.

People starved to
death in New York City.

- Theodore Roosevelt
was attracted

to the Republican
Party because it was

his father's party
and it was the party

of Abraham Lincoln.

- In those days, to
break into a party,

you had to belong
almost to a club.

So you had to find where
the headquarters were.

And they were in a big room
above a saloon, Morton Hall.

So he just started going there

and hoped that he
would be accepted

as part of the Republican Party.

[murmuring]

- There's horses dead
four deep on Broadway.

I mean, I had three die
on me in the last month.

- Horses? Pass.

[chuckling]

- That's why we need
a sanitation bill.

To make Tammany Hall
responsible for street cleaning.

- Shove off, swill.

- Excuse me?

- He said, shove off.

- Gentleman, I'm a
Republican, just like you.

- No, not just like us, I'd say.

- All right lads, that'll do.

- Sure, Joe.

- The name's Joe Murray.

What's yours?

- Theodore Roosevelt.

- Roosevelt, that's
quite a name.

Do you happen to be a
relation to the great man?

- My father.

- A great loss to the city,
the passing of your dad.

- Mr. Murray, what is it
that you do around here?

- I get Republicans elected.

- I'm interested in government.

- Watching it or doing it?

- I'm a doer, Mr. Murray.

This is what I wanna do.

[dramatic music]

- Theodore Roosevelt is elected

to the New York State Assembly.

TR shows up in Albany
as a 23 year old

freshman state assemblyman.

Of course, he's
got his own outfit.

Custom tailored
for the experience.

- Black and white photos
of the state legislature

might show a lot of people
wearing jackets and ties

but it's a rough place filled

with rough, heavy
drinking, tough people.

And along comes this
silk stocking, elitist.

He just seems ripe for a bully

to come along and pick on him.

And that's precisely
what happens.

And so Roosevelt
realizes that he can't

just simply be moral.

He just can't
simply be brilliant.

He actually has to
get in the ring.

If the situation required it,

he had to put up
his dukes and fight.

- He makes headlines
and he suddenly becomes

the most famous assemblyman.

He regards politics as a
fight between good and evil.

So he gets on the
floor and he yells

at his Democratic opponents.

He says, they're
rotten, they're corrupt.

And he makes lots of
enemies doing this.

After awhile the
Republicans even begin

to get irritated with him.

He had risen like a
rocket in New York.

Of course they love
those fiery speeches

but then he realized he
was crashing like a rocket.

And he finally realizes that
he's alienated everybody

and he can't get anything done.

And the good thing
was he understood

that he had a swelled head.

He tones down his rhetoric,

he reaches across the
aisle to the Democrats.

He makes friends again
with his fellow Republicans

and he really becomes
an effective legislator

because he grew on the job.

- When he was new to the
New York legislature,

it was assumed
that he would vote

as his social class voted.

In all bills and these bills
would favor the wealthy.

- There was a cigars reform bill

that was gonna prohibit
the manufacture

of cigars in private
houses, in tenement houses.

- Cigars at that time were
made in people's homes.

Horrible, squalid,
small, dark, awful places

where usually
immigrants labored.

Almost around the clock.

If cigars were made at home,

then cigar companies
made a lot of money.

- When the cigar
bill first comes

to the floor he gives a
passionate speech against it.

All of his life's
learning had taught him

that the government had no right

to interfere with the
rights of private property.

In fact, he had voted
against minimum wage bills,

working condition changes

on that very philosophical
understanding.

- [Stacy] And Roosevelt assumed
that the home manufacture

of cigars was just fine.

- That cigar bill will not pass

as long as I have a vote.

- I heard your
speech, Mr. Roosevelt.

Samuel Gompers with
Cigar Makers Union.

- You didn't
approve of it, then.

- It seems to me anybody
who's got an opinion

should know the facts.

Even if that person's bought
by the Republican Party.

- I'm my own man.

- Prove it.

- When Samuel Gompers,
who went on to become

an extremely important
labor leader said, look,

come with me on a
little inspection tour.

Roosevelt didn't say,
no, or I'll send an aide

or give me a report.

He said, of course.

- He takes up
Gompers' challenge.

But also, it's his
native curiosity.

The same curiosity
that made him want

to understand what it
was like for the woodsmen

to live in the woods
all their lives.

Now he wants to see
what is life like

for these people
living in the tenement.

And what he sees stuns him.

[baby crying]

[coughing]

- They work from
dawn to midnight.

It pays a dollar a day.

- Each?

- No, my whole family.

And the owner he takes
the rent out of it.

[coughing]

- Hello, young fellow.

[light music]

- Roosevelt would
recount that it really

had an impression on him.

This was in his home city.

This is where the bulk of
New Yorkers are living.

- They lived under
conditions where

plaster was falling
off the walls.

The ceilings were a
constant wet puddle.

There was mold and
brownness and dirt smudged

in every corner of the room.

They might live in
windowless, confined dwellings

with tuberculosis and
other contagious diseases.

- They're absolutely desperate

and they'll do whatever it takes

to put a tin of food on the
table for their children.

They can't protect their
own value as laborers.

And Roosevelt underwent

a kind of conversion
experience over this.

He gained, I think,
a sense that he was

on the side of the underdog.

- And that first hand experience

is a thing he will crave
the rest of his life.

To see conditions the
way they really are.

To feel empathy and understand
how other people are living

and then he's able to say, I'm
gonna make this difference.

- This is the first
inkling that he gets

that his father's style of
public duty is not enough.

The only way this
problem is gonna be fixed

is not through philanthropy.

The problem of exploited workers

is gonna be fixed by law.

- Roosevelt came out in favor

of the cigar reform
bill and he went

to the Democratic governor at
the time, Grover Cleveland,

who was skeptical of the bill,

to lobby for this
with the governor.

- I thought you opposed
this union bill?

- I did.

But I've seen in
person the conditions

of these tenement factories.

- I know Mr. Gompers.

- Governor.

- And who is your friend?

- Governor Cleveland,
this is Mr. Politiski.

I met him the other
day in his home.

- What do you have to say?

- I wish for Mr. Roosevelt
to speak for my family.

- Why him?

- He came and he saw,
with his own eyes.

- All right, Mr.
Roosevelt, talk.

I hear you're good at that.

- Governor, what I
saw was not a home

you'd ever recognize.

Two families living
in just two rooms

and children working
where they should sleep.

It's unsanitary,
it's outrageous!

[dramatic music]

- [Doris] The bill passes.

Roosevelt was so excited knowing

that it would change
the conditions of life

for the people who were
in those tenement houses.

- This is just the
first example, really,

of Roosevelt
betraying his class.

Of Roosevelt looking
out for the poor.

- [Doris] And then,
in short order,

the bill got overturned
by the courts.

- He thought, well
what does it mean

when you finally get
a legislative body

to do the right
thing, only to have it

vetoed by unelected
court justices.

- He was shocked at
what he saw in Albany.

The graft, the corruption.

These people who are
getting the bribes,

insisting on the bribes,
paying off judges.

- [Edward] He starts
investigating corruption.

Newspapers couldn't
get enough of it.

- Even from his first
days in the Assembly,

he understood the
power of the press

and he made friends
with the people

who were covering the Assembly.

- Roosevelt becomes
a very savvy politico

about how to get things
done, who to align with,

and how to get the
public on your side.

Increasingly, people
are making decisions

about politicians based
on what they would read

in the newspapers.

- By the time he's
reached that second term

in his legislature,
he's championing

a series of reform bills.

And he really feels like
he's become a leader.

And he has the
reigns in his hand.

- Back in New York
City at the time,

his new wife Alice was pregnant.

They were about to
have their first child.

When he received a
telegram telling him

that his wife had
produced a baby girl.

- It's a moment of
great celebration.

Cigars and congratulations
all around.

And then a second
telegram arrives.

You must come home at once.

Your wife is dying and
your mother is dying too.

It was incomprehensible.

His mother had
contracted typhoid fever

just in the week
that she came there

to help take care of
Alice who was dying

from complications
of child birth.

- [Clay] So he got on the train

and inched his way
down to the city.

It was the longest train
journey of his life.

- [Tweed] By the time he
got to New York it was

in the middle of the night.

- [Doris] His brother
Elliott meets him at the door

and says to him, there's
a curse on this household.

- And so, on
Valentine's Day, 1884,

Roosevelt sat by his
mother's bed and she died.

And then a few
hours later he held

his young wife Alice in
his arms and she died too.

- The two most important
women of his life

have died in the same
house, on the same day

within hours of each other.

[cracking thunder]

[somber music]

- [Roosevelt] The light,

has gone out of my life.

[somber music]

- [Clay] He thought that his
life was effectively over.

He was stoic
through the funeral.

- He became totally despondent.

And it's only his sister
who came to him and said,

Theodore, get out
of New York City.

- She agreed to take the
child, temporarily at least.

And then he went to the
Little Missouri River Valley

in Dakota Territory,
the Badlands.

The starkness and
the ruggedness.

The drama of it had
a deep appeal to him.

He really believed
that there was nothing

further for him
in New York City.

And so he went there thinking
that he might never return.

[triumphant music]

- [Roosevelt] It was a land
of vast, silent spaces.

Of lonely rivers and plains.

Where the wild game stared
at the passing horseman.

It was still the Wild
West in those days,

the West of the Indian,
the buffalo hunter,

the soldier, and
the cow puncher.

- [Tweed] After Alice
dies, TR is devastated.

So he decides to start

a whole new existence
in North Dakota.

- [Clay] It was a
perfect place for him.

To read, to write, to
reflect, to grieve,

to hunt, and to seek adventure.

- Roosevelt called
it a grim fairy land

because it was a real
darkly romantic landscape.

- The wide open West
just captured his spirit.

He had come to believe
that the frontier

was the test of the
American character.

- People on the
frontier had to contend

with wild animals
and weather events

and Native Americans.

So those people had to
demonstrate their strength.

And that's why for
him, the frontier myth

was America's story.

- When Roosevelt
thought of the West,

he thought of what we would
call manifest destiny.

That the West was where
America was gonna achieve

its initial phase of greatness.

If you want to sum it
up into a single image

it's that John Gast painting,
"American Progress."

Shows westward migration.

It shows an angel of
democracy, floating

above settlers and miners and
ranchers all heading west.

And Native Americans are
fleeing off the scene

because they're no
match for what's coming.

What is coming is
not just these people

but also technologies.

- White Americans
in the 19th century

did not believe that indigenous
people have land rights.

They also believed that
they were just going

to kind of disappear
into the future.

They were going to die off.

Unless, they converted
to civilization.

- Like a lot of Americans
of the late 19th century,

Roosevelt is of two minds
regarding Native Americans.

He sees Native
Americans as savages

that are in the way of progress,

but also paragons of
nobility and strength.

- He also said, and
I hate to quote it

because it's so
awful, but he said,

I won't say that the only
good Indian is a dead Indian

when it's true nine
times out of 10

and I wouldn't be too
certain about the 10th.

- So while he was
castigating Native Americans

for their savagery
and subhuman behavior,

almost in the same sentence,

he'd write about,
well they sometimes

were pushed to it by whites.

So you could see him
trying to do this

sort of even handed
account of the slaughter

that was going on, on the
frontier, on both sides.

- So, Roosevelt's views
about Native Americans were,

to put it very
kindly, complicated.

[horses cantering]

[horse whinnying]

[ominous music]

- [Clay] He would go out alone

for days at a time
to test himself.

He would just take a teabag
and a biscuit and a rifle.

He was like, I'll
live off the land.

I'm gonna prove
that I can do this.

- [Doris] It's a constant
flight from sadness

to go to the next stage.

He's asked Bill
Sewell and Will Dow,

the two guides from
his expedition to Maine

to come out to help
him build a ranch.

And Sewell said that
Roosevelt seemed

to have nothing to live for.

- Glad to see you
brought dinner.

- Ran into some Lakota.

- What were they
doing around here?

- I didn't ask.

- Hey I picked up the mail.

It's from your sister back East.

[light music]

- My daughter will
never know me.

She's better off with my sister.

- That's foolish talk.

No child is better off
without a father.

- I've got a lot of work to do.

- Right.

I sent a string of ponies
ahead for the round up.

- We leave at first light.

- He's not just playing cowboy,

he actually becomes a cowboy.

He participates in the roundups.

He wants to prove
that he can stay

in the saddle as long
as the cowboys can

and he wants to
prove it to them,

but maybe also to
himself as well.

- Each rancher
would send a string

of horses and a couple of men.

And they would all spend a
month or six weeks together

moving slowly through
the territory,

rounding up all the strays.

And Roosevelt loved it, I
mean he absolutely loved it.

And it was very difficult,
somewhat dangerous work.

In one of the stampedes
his horse threw him.

He broke the point
of his shoulder,

which is a very painful thing.

And he couldn't
leave the roundup.

So he just dealt with it.

He just lived with
this excruciating pain.

- But he was looked
upon askance.

Here was this eastern dude,

who had a penchant
to dress up in fancy

sort of faux cowboy clothing.

The fringe jackets and the like.

- [Jared] The
Badlands was no place

for a gentleman from New York.

This was a rough, rough place.

- [Patron] Give
me another bottle.

Put it on my tab.

- [Bartender] You ain't
got a tab, mister.

- You don't think
I'm good for it?

How about you, greenhorn?

You got a name?

- Roosevelt.

- Well, give me another bottle.

Put it on Rosy's tab.

Is that gonna be a problem?

I said, is that gonna
be a problem, four eyes?

- Of course not.

[ominous music]

[smacking]

- He didn't shelter himself.

He worked hard to get
them to admire him.

He said, what's it
gonna take for you

to respect and admire me?

And then he did that.

- [Tweed] TR was assigned sort
of informal deputy Sheriff.

He was asked to
do various duties,

mostly going and
arresting somebody

and bringing them back.

- He's no longer
that eastern dude.

He's this hybrid American.

At that time in
America there was such

a gap between the western
people and the east.

Between the country
and the city.

Between the rich and the poor.

And he's beginning
to bridge those gaps

by all of his experiences.

- He also has an
intellectual transformation.

You know, he starts writing
about winning the West.

And he becomes enchanted by
the idea of conservation.

- The natural world has touched

a deep cord within
him and he says

that the romance of
his life has begun.

He changes physically.

He gains 30 pounds.

And it's all bone
and muscle and grit.

And his voice, which had
been a falsetto voice

is now strong enough
to drive oxen.

So it's a huge change in
his physical demeanor.

There's also a change in
his emotional demeanor.

Somehow being out there
began to heal him.

He began to look forward
to the future again.

And then he comes back to
the east after two years.

He rekindles his relationship
with Edith Kermit Carow.

- Edith and Theodore
were sweethearts

when they were quite young.

Edith had been sort of a
member of the Roosevelt family.

The two bonded over books
and a love of nature.

- The family thought that
they might get married

but TR went off to college

and then he met Alice
and he married Alice,

but Edith hung in there.

They were a very good fit.

- [Doris] When they
first got married,

he's offered a
rather low level job

to be on the Civil
Service Commission.

And so he and Edith
move to Washington.

- He's an out sized
personality for the job.

But it stokes the
flame of reform

that his father had
seeded with him.

- For Roosevelt,
Civil Service Reform

guided his life.

It's the basic idea that
positions in government

should not be based
on how much money

you paid for your position.

They should be
based on your merit.

- So there was a fundamental
fairness involved here.

He said he wanted
the farmer's son

and the mechanic's son
to have the same chance

as a son of privilege.

And he fought to establish
that civil service

and make it rooted
in our understanding

of how a government should work.

It was in Washington
that Roosevelt met

William Howard Taft.

And the two of them became
really good friends.

It was a really pleasant time.

He's there for six years.

They have a big family by then.

Alice, of course, is there.

And then they have
Theodore, Kermit,

Ethel, and they have Archie.

Washington is one of
the happier experiences

of Edith's life.

[laughing]

- What's next for you, Theodore?

- Good question.

What do you think, Edith?

- Theodore would clean up the
whole country if he could.

[chuckling]

No one could stop him.

Now they want him to
clean up New York.

- You're leaving Washington?

- Mayor Strong
asked me to head up

the Sanitation
Commission in New York.

I turned him down.

- As well you should have.

You're far too
talented for that.

- But New York could do with
a damned good scrubbing.

Hm?

Greed in the papers.

Bribery in the police force.

Paying for jobs.

- You know what that city needs

is someone who can
whip 'em into shape.

Right up your alley, actually.

- Oh, there's no chance of that.

We love it here,
don't we Theodore?

- What if I've done all
I can in Washington?

[ominous music]

- [H.W.] By the time
Roosevelt returned in 1895,

New York City had
changed enormously.

- [Edward] New York
City was a growing city,

bursting at the seams.

Huge infrastructure projects.

Millions of dollars being spent.

- It had more than
doubled in population.

It was the industrial
center of the country.

12,000 factories, half a
million factory workers.

It had Wall Street, it had
100 live theater companies.

New York was the Las
Vegas of the 1890s.

Men came to New York
to have a good time.

They drank too much.

They drank all night.

There were dance clubs.

There were maybe
40,000 prostitutes.

There was gambling.

There were casinos.

It was an unbelievably bustling,

dynamic, crowded place.

- What New York
was going through

and the pressures on New York

is what was happening all
throughout the United States.

The rapid urbanization.

Vast numbers of
immigrants coming.

Industrialization.

America becoming
an economic power.

- The great wealth
of the robber barons

and the railroads and
the fossil fuel industry

and the John Rockefeller
and Standard Oil.

All that money ended
up in New York City

one way or the other.

And the abject poverty
of those at the bottom

of this economy was such a
vivid display of inequality.

- [Richard] So in
1895 Roosevelt accepts

an appointment as commissioner

of the New York City
Police Department.

- It's a challenge.

He wants to take it on.

And it's the right time
and the right moment

for his kind of leadership.

- In 1895 the report
of the Lexow Commission

comes out and it is
full of lurid details

about kidnapping
schemes where people

are jailed with no cause until

they sell their store and
give the money to the police.

Witnesses are brought in front

of the investigating committee
beaten half to death.

One of them with their eye
hanging out of their socket.

- Remember, Roosevelt's image

of public service is
that one that's instilled

in him by his father, that
public service is noble

and you only go
into public service

as a policeman or as
a mayor to do good.

To make the community better.

And here is an institution
that rotten to the core.

- The patrolman on
the beat took a bribe

to let the pushcarts stay in
place more than 15 minutes.

He took a bribe to
let the saloon owner

stay open after
1:00 in the morning.

Brothels were
unbelievably lucrative.

It was 50 dollars a month.

One district on the Lower
East Side had 50 brothels.

2,500 dollars back then
was 75,000 in modern,

times 12 months, you're
looking at a million dollars.

And this was all shared among

the captains, the inspectors,
and the local politicians.

- [Edward] When Theodore
Roosevelt steps into

the police commission,
Thomas Byrnes

is the utterly corrupt
chief of police.

The tip of the pyramid

of this giant organized
crime syndicate.

- So Byrnes is
almost untouchable.

He's powerful, he's
connected to Tammany Hall.

And yet, Roosevelt takes him on.

And says, this
guy has got to go.

- It was an early
indicator of a man

who was willing to take
on power and influence

by using the kind
of muscular position

of public authority
for the purposes

of putting down the kind
of illicit corruption

of which the police
department was central to.

- But it's one thing
for TR to believe

that he can take on the
boxing champion at Harvard.

It's quite another to take
on the most dangerous,

powerful man in New York.

- Byrnes is quite
ruthless in dealing

with his adversaries.

In terms of doing them in,
creating scandal around them,

or you know, physically
harming them.

And so Roosevelt has all
of these things to fear.

And so it's very
much like the bully

he confronts in
the bar out West.

He had learned that even
if he, deep down inside,

was afraid of someone,
that if he acted like

he wasn't afraid and
sort of willed himself

not to be afraid, that
he wouldn't be afraid.

And to stand up to the bully,

to stand up to the
corrupt person,

to stand up to the evil
doer and triumph.

- Chief Byrnes.

- Ah, Commissioner.

It's an honor.

Sit, please.

A drink?

- I won't.

- Of course not.

Finally.

A reform minded commissioner.

Do you know that I'm
a reformer myself?

- Is that right?

- Well, we'll uh, brook
no corruption in my force.

Send out the word.

No swearing at the citizenry.

No soliciting or bribes.

I've already launched
an investigation into

one of our captains
taking payoffs.

Nasty business.

- It's quite a change
of heart you've had.

- Well, uh.

This job can break
you, Mr. Commissioner.

We can work together.

- How long have you served
this city, Chief Byrnes?

- 32 years.

- Well I suppose after
a career like that

you might think about retiring.

[chuckling]

- The city needs me.

I'm not going anywhere.

- Neither am I.

- So Roosevelt threatened
to prosecute Byrnes

over corruption
and taking bribes

from some of the wealthiest
people in New York City.

Roosevelt wanted to achieve
the impossible here.

He wanted to clean up
the dirtiest, loudest,

roughest city in
the United States.

And Byrnes decides to resign.

- [Edward] When
Theodore Roosevelt

becomes the police commissioner,
he makes big changes.

He forces the police chief
to resign from office.

- [Doris] And once he had
changed the top leadership

then he knew he had to
change the entire culture

because it really
was a way of life

in the police department.

And that meant
understanding the policemen

on the beat at
night in New York.

So what he decides is
that he's gotta have

his own firsthand information.

- [Edward] He immediately
contacts his friend, Jacob Riis,

who has become nationally
famous in recent years

for writing an expose
of ills of urban life

and tenement life called,
"How the Other Half Lives."

And Roosevelt knows
that Riis got a lot

of his material by prowling
the city after midnight.

- [Edward Kohn] Jacob Riis knew

the backstreets and tenements

of New York City better
than anybody else.

And he matched that
with a new technology

of flash photography.

So he could go into the darkest
of the stale beer dives.

He could go into the
underground flop houses.

He could go into the
basement tenements

and catch a literal
snapshot of how

the other half lives.

- [Doris] So he does these
famous midnight rambles.

Where he and Riis go out
between midnight and 5:00 A.M.

He'll put a floppy
hat on his head.

He'll have a long coat on.

He'll walk unbeknownst
among the people

so then he can see
what's actually

happening on the street.

- And they find policemen that
are sleeping at their posts.

They find policemen that
are drinking in bars

and carousing with prostitutes.

And are just outraged
and he decides

to do something about it.

[dog barking]

[murmuring]

- Officer Brody?

- Yeah?

- Shouldn't you be at your post?

- Take a hike.

Beat it.

- I'd be careful.

- Who's this?

- Whoever he is, I'm about
to knock some sense into him.

- Wait.

It's Roosevelt.

- That's not.

- It is, I swear.

I've seen him in the papers.

- It's him all right.

Now, Mr. Roosevelt,
I only stopped here--

- Thank you both for a
most illuminating evening.

I shall see you in
my office tomorrow.

[dog barking]

- Policemen are fired.

People are reassigned.

And there's immediately a sense

that Roosevelt is
cleaning up the town.

Like that kind of
Western Sheriff

that he so admired.

The good guys, the
white hats are in town

and there's gonna be a
new way of doing business.

- This is a mixture of
the enforcement part

of being police commissioner

and playing the theatrics.

But the theatrics
were not superficial.

He had this tremendous
sense of right and wrong.

- Here's this five
foot, eight inch guy

standing up to these
massive Irish cops.

And the public loved it.

- All of a sudden
there are cartoons

in papers all across
the country showing

policemen cowering at the
image of these big teeth

and the mustache
and the whiskers.

And again, he becomes
a romantic figure

fighting corruption in New York

just as he had become in
the Badlands being a cowboy.

So he's becoming, as one
of the newspaper reporters

said at the time, the most
interesting man in America.

- This is the moment
where TR reaches

a new milestone in
his political savvy.

Because he realizes that the
press finds him fascinating.

- He sees that the
police department itself

needs to be professionalized
and modernized.

He created the
first police academy

where officers were trained.

He standardized the uniforms
and the gun training

and the guns they could have.

- He brings typewriters in.

He brings in a fingerprint crew.

The first women secretaries
in the police department.

- Part of what TR
enjoys about being

the police
commissioner is he gets

to play the role of enforcer.

He played the role
of legislator.

Played the role of cowboy.

Now he had an opportunity to
go out and enforce reform.

Any law that's
written on the book,

he believes needs
to be enforced.

- At the time in New York City

there's something called
the Sunday Excise Law.

You could not sell liquor.

You could not have your
saloon open on a Sunday.

- The problem with
the Sunday Closing Law

was that it was not being
enforced all together.

They weren't all
being closed down.

If you wanted to keep
your saloon open,

you could bribe the police
and the politicians.

If you couldn't
afford the bribe,

you were forced to be closed.

Or if you tried to
open you'd be arrested.

So he saw that this was really
the tap root of corruption.

- So Roosevelt decides
that he will actually

enforce the law.

And the backlash
is unbelievable.

People are absolutely furious.

Back then, New Yorkers
worked six days a week.

The one day off
they had was Sunday.

- And they would go
to their local tavern

which was kind of
a community center.

And they would eat
and relax a little

and spend time with their
families and their friends.

It was actually an
important social institution

in the city of New York.

- [Edward] I don't think
he quite understood

the role that saloons
played in the lives

and cultures of working
class immigrants.

- [Roosevelt] I have now
run up against an ugly snag.

The Sunday Excise Law.

It is all together too strict
but I have no honorable

alternative, save to enforce it.

And I am enforcing it.

To the furious rage
of the saloon keepers.

And of many good people
too, for which I am sorry.

- Roosevelt, always
a bit moralistic.

Always taking the high ground.

Always a bit impetuous.

Always doing what's right
and darn the consequences,

and he got one of his close
friends, Henry Cabot Lodge

saying, you know,
Roosevelt you have

to be a little careful
about the fights you pick.

You don't want to
end your career.

- [Protestors]
Where is Roosevelt?

Where is Roosevelt?

Where is Roosevelt?

[crowd jeering]

- Well, Theodore.

You made everyone in
the whole city mad

and they all seem to be outside.

- Damn it, I know
the law's not right.

It's the root of every
problem in the city.

- Let them have
their Sunday beer.

You wouldn't be the first
to look the other way.

- Huh.

[crowd jeering]

- They will eat you alive.

- Well, I'm not gonna hide.

Are you coming?

[crowd jeering]

- [Richard] When Roosevelt
decides that he will shut

the saloons on Sunday,
people are so frustrated.

- There were death threats.

A bomb was sent to headquarters
on Mulberry Street.

- But Theodore
Roosevelt is unique.

He woke up every day of his
life saying, bring it on.

- Well, here I am!

Here's Roosevelt!

- Why can't we get
a drink on Sundays?

- I'm merely enforcing
the law, sir.

- Yeah, well it's
easy for you to say!

- Sunday's our only day off!

- Yeah, I bet he drinks whenever
he wants at the Union Club.

- What you may not
see, gentlemen,

is that we are doing this
for the good of the city.

- Well nobody asked you!

- Go back to your
5th Avenue mansion.

- Well, it's actually
Madison Avenue.

If you're gonna insult me at
least get my address right.

[crowd chuckling]

[jeering]

[laughing]

Spitting image.

Bully for you!

[crowd cheering]

- The crowd changes
its feeling toward him.

So it's a great capacity where

self deprecating
humor can win you over

and make people realize he's
doing something we don't like.

Maybe he's doing it for
his reasons, but he's okay.

- But still, between
12 and 15,000 saloons

in New York were
shut on Sundays.

And in the next city elections,

the Republicans go
down and they lose hard

and they blame one
person for that,

and that's Theodore Roosevelt.

- This was a failure,
he had failed.

He recognized that he had failed

because he had not gotten
the people behind him.

- [Jared] His career
in New York City

is absolutely finished.

- He needs to find
a graceful way out

so he goes to
campaign for McKinley,

who's running for President,

in the hopes perhaps
he can be given

a job in the new administration.

- TR always longed for more.

He was endlessly ambitious.

- He was an explosive
campaigner, a force of energy.

They jammed the aisles to
come to hear him speak.

This was where his compulsion

to be the center of attention
really works for him.

Because there's a magnetic
field that people come

and want to be in his presence.

Alice had always
said that he wanted

to be the baby at the baptism,

the bride at the wedding,
and the corpse at funeral.

He so loved being the
center of attention.

- McKinley was a
little suspicious

because he viewed TR

as a bull in the china
shop, as they say.

A man who broke
a lot of glasses.

- [Doris] McKinley
wins the election.

And he finally, under
pressure, gives him the job

of Assistant
Secretary of the Navy.

And it's exactly what TR wants.

- Roosevelt is a scholar
of military history.

And a person who
believes that America

needs to project
its strength abroad.

And he argues essentially,
that all great powers

in history have always
been strengthened by

a powerful naval force.

- TR looked at the American
Navy and was aghast

to see how far down,
I think we were like

the ninth largest
navy in the world

after somewhere like
Peru or Ecuador.

So he did everything he
could to build it up.

Particularly in battleships.

- [Roosevelt] There comes a time

in the life of a nation, as
in the life of an individual,

when it must face
great responsibilities.

We have now reached that time.

Our flag is a proud flag.

And it stands for
liberty and civilization.

- America has a long standing
notion of isolationism,

of staying out of world affairs.

But Roosevelt thought,
we had to be isolationist

back in the 1790s.

But now in the 1890s
we are the strongest

economic power in the world.

We have an obligation
to help others.

We can't be weak.

We can't be an invalid nation.

We have to project that power.

- [Clay] The game changing event

is the Spanish-American war.

- [H.W.] Spain is one of
the oldest European powers

to have possessions
in the new world.

Cuba is by far the most
important possession

Spain has in the Caribbean.

- There was a rebellion
for independence

that had gone on
for over a decade.

And it was incredibly brutal.

- There were concentration camps

and there were torture and rapes

and disappearances and
near starvation and so on.

- Newspapers report wildly on

the conditions down in Cuba.

This is an era of
yellow journalism

and they would
compete for readership

with exaggerated headlines.

- Roosevelt believed
that this was

an oppressed people that
we needed to go help.

But also, this
was an opportunity

to pick a fight with
a European power.

- And Roosevelt was always
looking to pick a fight.

- [Roosevelt] The revolt in Cuba

had dragged its weary length

until conditions
in the island had

become so dreadful as to be
a standing disgrace to us

for permitting them to exist.

I became convinced that
the war would come.

- But McKinley didn't want war.

McKinley had been a
major in the Civil War.

He had seen mayhem.

- McKinley and TR's boss,

Secretary of the Navy,
John Long, urged restraint.

But you have TR going rogue

and agitating towards war.

- He believed that
America needs a war

to kind of tone us
up and to restore

our masculine values and
to take the effeminacy,

as he called it, out
of our character.

Fortunately for Roosevelt,

his chief, John Long,
was kind of lazy.

Took long periods away.

- TR could do what he
wanted while Long was away.

And these wonderful
stream of letters

that he writes to Long saying,

I know you were
thinking of coming back

but it's really, really
hot here in Washington.

Just stay where you are.

Everything's fine here.

- What we see is Theodore
Roosevelt giving speeches

where he talks about the
United States should go to war.

He engages with
senators and congressmen

and he's putting the idea
that we should go to war.

- He's seeing
weakness coming out

of the McKinley administration.

He even says, my boss,
William McKinley,

has the spine of a
chocolate eclair.

- Excuse me, Cavenward.

I'd like a word
with Mr. Roosevelt.

Secretary Long tells me
that you've been quite busy.

- Well, there's so
much to be done, sir.

- You've been shouting
war from the rooftops

at every opportunity.

But you have had an influence.

Secretary Long has asked
me to send a battleship

to Havana to protect
American citizens there.

I might just do that.

- That would be a
wise choice, sir.

- I've also read your war plan.

- I am honored, sir.

Now I fer--

- You're a young
man, Mr. Roosevelt.

Tell me, where were you
in September of 1862?

- I was just a boy.

- I was in the
Battle of Antietam.

You may get your
war, Mr. Roosevelt.

But I wouldn't be
in such a hurry.

[ominous music]

- McKinley tried to force Spain

to the negotiating table.

So he sends a new battleship,
the USS Maine, to Cuba.

It was the best the
United States had.

- It will show up in
Havana Harbor in January

and it's a very tense situation
when it first shows up.

[dramatic music]

And then tensions start to ease.

And this will be the
case all the way until

the 15th of February.

When Captain Charles Sigsbee
is sitting there on the Maine.

It's night time, it's a
hot and sultry evening.

He is writing the Assistant
Secretary of the Navy,

Theodore Roosevelt.

He sets down his pen
about 9:15 to hear

the last notes of "Taps" echo
off the corners of the harbor.

["Taps" playing]

[ominous music]

Within a few minutes the Maine

will settle into the
mud of Havana harbor.

The United States will suffer

over 260 casualties
that evening.

- It was, at the time,
the worst naval disaster

in American history.

It sent shock waves
through the country.

[ominous music]

People assumed that the Spanish

had blown up the Maine.

- [Clay] Roosevelt immediately
jumped on that narrative

whether it was true or not.

- [Edward] There's chants of,

"Remember the Maine,
to hell with Spain."

- [Clay] The groundswell of
Roosevelt and others pushing

and pushing and pushing for
war finally became too much.

- [Doug] On the 25th of
April, 1898 the United States

would declare war against Spain.

- [Roosevelt] In a crisis,
the man worth his salt

is the man who meets the
needs of the situation

in whatever way is necessary.

[dramatic music]

- Theodore.

What's this?

- How are you feeling?

- Well, what is it?

You're not in the habit
of bringing me tea.

- The 1st US Volunteer Cavalry.

I got it!

[chuckling]

I told them they should
make Leonard Wood

regimental colonel, I shall
be lieutenant colonel.

I have no doubt I'll be
able to train the men,

but Leonard with his experience,

he'll be able to equip us.

Give us the very
best of everything.

- So, it's done.

You've got it all worked out.

What about them?

[children playing]

- Edith, I intend to
explain to my children

why I did take
part in a just war.

Not why I did not
take part in one.

It's what my father had to do.

Explain to us why he hired a man

to fight his war for him.

A just war that he whole
heartedly believed in.

A man ought to make his
words good by his deeds.

- Stop.

You've convinced yourself.

- Oh my goodness! Oh!

[shouting]

- One of the reasons
that he wants

to go to war is while
he believes his father

is the greatest man he ever met,

the only thing that
tinges him of uncertainty

with regard to his father
is that he did not fight

in the American Civil War.

- His father was certainly
on the Union side.

And would have liked to
go to war, but he didn't

because TR's mother
was a Confederate

and her brothers were
actually officers

in the Confederate Navy.

So some agreement was
made that his father

would not go to war because
that would actually create

war within the family itself.

So he did what many
other wealthy people did.

He bought proxies to
go fight on his behalf.

- Roosevelt's generation
grew up hearing

stories from their
uncles, from their fathers

about the Civil War.

And they only hear
the stories of glory.

Not the stories of tragedy.

And so, when the Spanish
American War was declared

a million men volunteered.

It's one of the
great ironies of war

that it both repels
and attracts.

- But for Roosevelt,
his father did not

go off to serve
when a generation

of American sons and
husbands did do that.

And so that was something
that kind of was

a shadow over Roosevelt's
view of the war.

- So, it informs his
own view of things

that I'm gonna be a
guy who goes for it.

I'm not gonna let
this opportunity pass.

I'm going to seize the moment

because it may never come again.

- [Roosevelt] It
was my one chance

to do something for my
country and for my family.

And my one chance to
cut my little notch

on the stick that stands
as a measuring rod

in every family.

- [Clay] John Long, the
Secretary of the Navy

said, no, your duty is
to stay at your desk.

Twice President McKinley
called him to the White House

and asked him not to
resign and go to war.

But Roosevelt resigned
his commission

as the Assistant
Secretary of the Navy

and he rounded up what he
called a harem, scare 'em

group of rough riders.

- Right away he
starts to demonstrate

a very sophisticated
appreciation

for what it means
to be a leader.

Roosevelt was perfectly
willing to say,

I don't know the answer.

I don't know what to do here.

He had a willingness to defer

to people who knew
more than he did.

- He realized that he
didn't have a background

in military leadership.

So he talked his old
friend from the frontier,

Colonel Wood, to take
the role as colonel

and he was second in command.

- [Clay] People come
out of the woodwork

as soon as they know that
Roosevelt's on the hunt.

- And because 23,000
applications came in,

he had the cream of the crop.

- Roosevelt got in touch with
the football coach at Harvard.

And with police
officers from New York.

- He wanted people from out west

that were used to
hardship, living outside,

firearms, riding on horses.

- [Clay] Harvard tennis
players and Yale yachtsmen,

and swells of the aristocracy.

- The number one and the
number two tennis players

in the country quit tennis
to become Rough Riders.

- As these grim frontier boys,

who probably have never
been very far from Wyoming.

- [Edward] Native Americans
would be part of this.

Southerners,
northerners, rich, poor.

It's a remarkable amalgam
of the American people.

- [Roosevelt] In my
regiment nine tenths

of the men were better
horsemen than I was,

and two thirds better
shots than I was.

While on the average they
were certainly more hardier

and enduring, yet after I
had them a very short while

they all knew, and I knew too,

that nobody else could
command them as I could.

- Well, here we are boys!

Your rifles have arrived.

These, the very same
the regulars use.

Colonel Wood saw to it that
you would have the best!

- [Soldiers] Yeah!

[cheering]

- Hi.

- Good setup.

- My pops taught me how
to use one of these.

- [Roosevelt] These were the
men who made up the regiment

and who gave it, it's
peculiar character.

- My, my, my.

- [Roosevelt] In all the world,

there could be no
better material

for soldiers than these
wild Rough Riders.

- Most of the men who
were there had heard

these stories about Roosevelt.

He's this towering figure.

They had maybe heard
some of the stories

of his life on a ranch.

But he arrives and
he's not as tall

as they thought he would be.

He was wearing glasses.

He had gone out and bought a
uniform at Brooks Brothers.

- One can only
imagine that they were

a little bit nervous about him.

- [Clay] And yet, he's out
there every morning for drills.

12 mile marches in
triple digit heat.

At night he would pour
through cavalry manuals

and combat manuals.

And the men love it.

- Once he gets them in
the training grounds,

he has to meld them together
to become a unified team.

And that's where he excels.

Understanding that people
from different parts

of life have to be able
to have a common purpose

and here their common purpose
is to be a Rough Rider.

Then he becomes a leader.

He becomes one of them.

Sometimes he got
too close to them.

After they had done
a good job one day

in the training camp he decided,

you can have all the
liquor you want tonight.

It's all on me.

- Come on, Captain, you've
got the mean cyclone.

[soldiers chatting]

- Here he comes.

- Get him, Captain!

Come on, Captain!

[groaning]

- What's going on here,
Colonel Roosevelt?

- Well, I think O'Neil's
about to, ha, ha.

All right, that's
enough, break it up.

Attention!

Back to your tents!

- I don't know
what to think about

an officer who allows drinking
and gambling among his men.

- Colonel Wood, I feel like
the biggest ass in 10 miles.

- I'm sure it
won't happen again.

- No.

- This came for you.

[dramatic music]

- My brother-in-law
is in the Navy.

He sent me this.

- Well, you're gonna need it.

We ship out in the morning.

[dramatic music]

- The Rough Riders
will eventually

be ordered on the
29th of May to leave

San Antonio and head to Tampa.

When they get there, there's
hardly any organization.

Nobody's there to greet them.

Leonard Wood probably
characterizes this

the best when he says,
confusion, confusion, confusion.

- But it's a real rush job.

There's a lot of snafus
as the military would say.

But even with all
of those problems,

Roosevelt is not one
to lack confidence.

He believes that he understands
what needs to be done.

- [Roosevelt]
Tampa was the scene

of the wildest confusion.

There was no semblance of order.

We had to shove and huffle for
ourselves as best we could.

- It's all chaos.

America hasn't fought
a war for a long time.

- [Clay] Troops everywhere.

Miles and miles
of supply trains.

- Rail cars stacked
up from Tampa

to Columbia, South
Carolina 500 miles away.

- [Clay] The army has a problem.

They have more than
20,000 soldiers in Tampa

and they're only able
to get enough ships

to carry about 16,000 men.

- Every unit is required to cut.

This is an extremely
heart wrenching moment

for both Leonard Wood
and Theodore Roosevelt

to figure out which members of
the Rough Riders will not go.

Ultimately they will take
about 560 of their men.

Most of the horses
will be left behind.

- They could only afford
to bring the horses

for the officers.

The Rough Riders had been
designed as a cavalry regiment.

- They are now gonna
walk on their feet

and they're gonna be
employed just like infantry.

So their role changes.

Whatever they got
in their training

in San Antonio, largely
thrown out the window as well.

When the order is given
to board the ships,

the Rough Riders are
waiting for their ship.

They go hunt down the
quartermaster to go,

hey, what boat are
we supposed to go on?

In that chaos, the
quartermaster says, hey,

why don't you take the Yucatan?

In the meantime they
learn two other regiments

were already
assigned to that ship

and Theodore Roosevelt
wants to make sure

his Rough Riders
are on there first.

- You're still not only my
list, I've told you twice.

Next, here, move it, go!

- Wood found us a
boat, the Yucatan.

But we've gotta get
past that guard.

Keep the men ready.

If we're going to Cuba,
it's now or never.

- [Davis] Colonel Roosevelt.

- Mr. Davis, Mr. Marshall.

Are you looking for a story?

- Got room for two reporters?

- Ha, ha, not yet.

But I might.

Give me a piece of paper.

Thank you.

[clearing throat]

Orders from General Shafter.

This vessel is reserved for
the 1st Volunteer Cavalry.

We'll be boarding
immediately, Sergeant.

- Sir, I was told
the 2nd Infantry is

gonna board this ship.

- Well, these orders are
from the commanding general.

- Can I see them, sir?

- Are you questioning
me, Sergeant?

- No, sir, I.

- The Yucatan is ours!

Captain O'Neil!

Move the men out, now!

- 1st Volunteers,
columns of two.

Move up!

Quick march!

- Double quick!

Better hurry.

Good, good.

[ship horn blowing]

- What the hell is going on?

Your men are boarding my boat.

I'm the 2nd Infantry.

I'm supposed to
have the Yucatan.

- I have orders for this vessel.

- So you're the
famous Rough Riders.

Get your men off immediately.

We're regular army.

We've got priority.

- My volunteers are the best
regiment in this army, Colonel.

And you're late.

- I'm reporting this
to General Shafter.

- Oh, ho, ho!

You do that, Colonel!

Meanwhile, we'll be in Cuba.

[dramatic music]

- Hey, possession is
nine tenths of the law.

We're already here.

That's how he ensures
that his Rough Riders

will go to Cuba.

- [Roosevelt] We
sailed for Cuba.

That is, eight
troops dismounted.

We do not like needing
to leave the remainder

and having to leave our horses.

But we would rather crawl
on all fours than not go.

- The landing site is

a little fishing
village called Daiquiri.

And the landing does
not go smoothly.

The seas are rough.

There are no landing ships.

They only have one large barge

to bring things unto the beach.

- Trying to get the
officer's horses ashore,

a lot of them start
swimming the wrong way.

One of Roosevelt's
horses got sucked under.

Two men drowned.

- But, it's an
unopposed landing.

That's probably the only
thing that really saves them.

- [Clay] The immediate plan

is to secure the
path to Santiago.

A port city on the
southeast coast.

They have neutralized
the Spanish fleet

which is bottled up in
the harbor at Santiago.

And the Rough Riders
are sent along

a range of hills
just to the west.

It's rougher going.

There isn't really
much of a trail.

The Americans didn't
really have maps.

There was no real sense

of what the territory
looked like.

- [Doug] They can't
cover a lot of ground.

The only horses there
are for senior officers.

So the reconnaissance mission

that would normally
be done by horses

is not being done.

There are two
reporters with them

to make sure the
story gets told.

- [Roosevelt] It was
a mountainous country,

covered with thick jungle.

A most confusing country.

[dramatic music]

- Where are we, Colonel?

- Cuba, Mr. Marshall.

[dramatic music]

- There's a dead Cuban
fighter, Colonel.

- The Spanish must be close,

pass the word,
silence in the ranks.

Show me.

[ominous music]

- Where are they?

[ominous music]

- They're signaling.

[gunshot]

Help him!

[gunfire]

- What are your orders?

- We've gotta get
through that fence

and past the clearing
to get at them.

Head down.

[guns firing]

Troopers, formation!

Company, forward double quick!

- Come on, double quick.

Faster, faster!

Move!

- For most of the men,
this is their first combat.

Roosevelt included,
but Roosevelt takes

to it very quickly.

- Roosevelt comes
across a person

who imagined himself a soldier

but wasn't really a soldier.

He could have easily
been one of those guys

who held back and
all, but he was not.

He was a person that said,

I'm the real deal
and I know that means

I have to put my body
on the line and he does.

- As the Rough Riders
advance along the road

to Santiago, Roosevelt's
role is to connect up

with the US regulars
to attack Las Guasimos.

The first Spanish
line of defense.

- [Clay] The fighting goes
on for a couple of hours

until finally the
Americans rush the Spanish.

- It's their first victory.

And those reporters make
sure this gets reported

in the US press.

But after the battle
of Las Gausimas,

there is a delay.

The roads are bad.

They're in the rainy season.

Supplies go bad.

- Which gives the Spanish
a lot of time to prepare.

Over the next several days
the Spanish dug in a line

of trenches and machine
gun posts all along

this range of hills that's

called San Juan Heights.

- [Doug] The Rough Riders need

to attack San Juan Heights,

the principle defense guarding

the approach to Santiago.

- There's no way to retreat,

so if this doesn't work
they're going to be massacred.

- The day started with
a lot of confusion.

Orders weren't coming down.

It wasn't clear who
was actually in charge.

- Theodore Roosevelt is
now regimental commander.

Because Leonard Wood
has been bumped up

to be brigade commander.

Roosevelt is chomping
at the bit to go.

Ready to go at 11:20.

12 o'clock, one o'clock.

And yet, there they sit.

Within range of the Spanish
who start to fire at 'em.

They're taking casualties.

[gunfire]

- I need orders
from General Sumner

if I'm gonna get
us up that hill.

Just keep the men ready!

- Hold tight!

Brush 'em off, keep it tight.

- Captain, get down!

[dramatic music]

[gunfire]

- [Roosevelt] The instant
I received the order

my crowded hour began.

The man in command
must take all the risks

he asks his men to take.

On the day of the big fight,

the only way to
get them to do it

in the way it had to be done
was to lead them myself.

- You all know what to do, men.

Follow me!

[soldiers shouting]

- This is the moment for
showing that he is without fear.

This is the peak he
has been climbing

for so long in his life.

[gunfire]

- For the Spanish
shooting down the slope,

the Americans are
very vulnerable

and there's nobody
who's more vulnerable

than Theodore Roosevelt.

He's a big target.

He's on a horse and if you're

a Spanish soldier you
know that a person

on a horse is an officer.

And so he had a lot of
heavy fire coming his way.

Roosevelt has bullets
nick off of his clothing,

nick off of his boots.

His life could have
ended right there.

- This is the image
and the reporting

that made him a national hero.

A reporter said that
nobody who saw him

take that ride expected that
he would finish it alive.

[soldiers shouting]

- [Roosevelt] All men
who feel joy in battle

know what it is like.

When the wolf
rises in the heart.

[soldiers shouting]

[automatic gunfire]

[men shouting]

[gunshot]

[heavy breathing]

[ethereal music]

- They get to the top.

They overrun the
Spanish trenches.

After nine days in Cuba,
they've conquered San Juan Hill.

- TR called it his crowded hour.

This was such a pivotal
moment in his life

and all crammed into just
one hour out of a lifetime.

- [Clay] After this battle,

the Americans lay
siege to Santiago.

The Spanish sue for peace.

- Are you all right, Colonel?

Your arm.

- Eh, it's nothing.

A lot of the boys are
worse off than me.

I'd have gladly
taken a bullet just

to be part of this.

[chuckling]

- He eventually wrote
a book about it.

Of course, he always
writes a book.

It's called "The Rough Riders."

Published in 1899.

The great Chicago writer
Finley Peter Dunne

loved to tease the
Roosevelt myths.

He wrote a review of the book.

And he said the only problem

with the book,
"The Rough Riders"

is that it's misnamed.

- He said that Roosevelt
made himself the center

of every moment of
every action of the war.

That he should have called
the book Alone in Cuba.

The whole country is
laughing about this

and what does Roosevelt do?

He writes a letter to
Finley Dunne and he says,

I regret to tell
you that my wife

and my most intimate friends
are absolutely delighted

with your review of my book.

Now you owe me one.

I'd like you to visit me

the next time you
come to Washington.

He relished that ability
to make fun of himself

and he knew it endeared
him to his critics.

It's again a mark of his
maturity as a leader.

- So he was able to kind
of narrate his own story

and not only is there
a great exaltation

that the US forces have
achieved victories,

but that there's a hero.

There's a person that
embodies this triumph

and his name is
Theodore Roosevelt.

[triumphant music]

- [Reporter] The war weary,
but triumphant veterans

just returned from
their Cuban campaign

and received the acclaim
of a frenzied nation.

- With the ultimate
surrender of Spain

at the end of the
Spanish-American War

they will give up Cuba.

This doesn't become a
United States possession.

But what the United States
does get out of this

is Puerto Rico.

It also gets Guam.

And gives the United States
control of the Philippines.

The United States becomes

an imperialistic world
power in eight months.

- The Spanish-American
War happens

at a time when America was,

in so many ways,
at a crossroads.

It was coming out of
a depression ridden

by sectional tensions between
the North and the South.

Labor tensions, ethnic tensions.

And the world is looking
at America going,

what is its role going
to be as a major power?

And the Spanish-American
War comes along

and it solves so many
of those conundrums.

It unifies different
parts of the country

behind a common purpose
and against a common enemy.

And it gave America a purpose.

It allowed it to say, this
is what we do with our power.

We go and we help other people.

It allowed America to tell
itself a certain story

about why America needs
to be in the world.

- TR returns from Cuba the
most famous man in America.

- He is perceived as a hero.

And there was a
cult of personality

that had developed around him.

He's been in all these
different parts of the country.

Meeting people from
different parts of life.

And yet he could
connect with them

as if he were part of them.

And that's the important thing.

He absorbs different areas of
America's life into himself

and becomes this
much larger person.

So he represented a
mosaic of American life.

- In the aftermath of
the Spanish-American War,

Roosevelt has to decide
what he's gonna do next.

And very quickly he's
encouraged to run for governor.

And he seizes that opportunity.

He's already been involved
in New York State politics

so he feels like he
knows that scene.

Also, we need to remember
in the late 19th century,

governors of New
York were almost

automatically considered
viable Presidential candidates.

- New York was the
commercial center.

It was the wholesale center.

New York Harbor was
the largest harbor

in the Western hemisphere.

It was the import-export
center of the United States.

- In New York the Republican
Party represented big business

and Theodore Roosevelt
was always a part

of the reformer wing.

- And so the party bosses

are not so sure about
him being governor.

They don't want a
reformer in that job.

- But as much as
the Republican boss

in New York, Thomas
Platt, can't stand him,

he realizes the only
chance they have

of the Republicans holding
on to the gubernatorial seat

is if they have a sure
thing run for governor.

- They figured it was
better to win the election

with TR than to
lose the election.

So they backed him.

- So Roosevelt just barnstorms.

Tirelessly goes around
the state by train.

- [Roosevelt] After
being nominated,

I made a hard and aggressive
campaign through the state.

Making my appeal as directly

and as emphatically
as I knew how.

To the mass of
voters themselves.

To the people.

- [Jared] He does
the whistle stops.

Travels to more towns, cities,

parts of the state than anyone.

- [Clay] Giving speech
after speech after speech.

- [Jared] TR is really the
first modern campaigner.

- He is perfectly
primed for the new kind

of politics which
emphasizes a public persona.

Which emphasizes romanticism,

which emphasizes celebrity.

- [Jared] He campaigns
with the Rough Riders.

He has them stump for him.

He has them introduce him.

- I'm Sergeant Buck Taylor of
the 1st Cavalry Volunteers.

And today I want to tell
you about my colonel.

[cheering]

Colonel Roosevelt--

- [Tweed] But it was
a very close race.

- [Roosevelt] I don't
know in the least

what my chances
are for governor.

- [Doris] Joe Murray,
the political boss

from New York City

is helping him on
the campaign trail.

- Another great crowd.

- You're going to
win by 100,000 votes.

You will be the next
governor of New York.

- It's gonna be
closer than that.

If we win at all.

- He's right.

Half of them out there
are women and children.

I prefer actual living,
breathing voters.

- Plenty of eligible
voters here.

- From what I
hear, the Democrats

are spreading buckets of
cash around the precincts.

It'll be close, all right.

[knocking]

- Beg your pardon, Colonel.

Well, I'm the driver
of this train.

Well, I just wanted to meet ya.

- Delighted!

Tell me your name.

- I'm Barnabas Sullivan, sir.

- Barnabas Sullivan,
the honor is all mine.

I tell you, I'd
rather meet you than

a whole welcoming
committee of aldermen.

Ha, ha, no doubt about it.

Real working man, Joe.

So, Barnabas Sullivan,

what's it like driving
this iron steed, huh?

All that power at
your fingertips.

- Holding the reigns of
1,000 horses all at once!

[chuckling]

- I bet it is.

I'd like to try it
someday, I really would.

- Me and my friends are
voting for you, Colonel.

Are you gonna win?

- Well, it's gonna be tough.

It's a tough fight.

But I'm not known to shy
away from a fight, am I?

Plus.

I got something the
other side doesn't have.

Tell you what, do me a
favor, Barnabas Sullivan.

Just stand by the doorway.

Thank you.

- And here he is, the greatest
Rough Rider of them all,

your next governor,
Theodore Roosevelt!

[crowd cheering]

- Thank you.

Thank you folks for coming.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My fellow citizens of New York.

I came here today to tell you

that I could not have
charged up that hill

if I didn't have these
great men next to me.

Just like I can't win tomorrow

without all of you.

Now, Buck here says I'm
pretty good in a fight.

But I'm here to
show you exactly who

we're fighting for
in this election.

I wanna introduce
you to someone.

Let me introduce to you, my
friend, Barnabas Sullivan.

He is who we're fighting
for in this election.

The American working man!

Yeah!

[crowd cheering]

- [Jared] At the time
that TR becomes governor

he's a larger than life figure.

- He's called the boy governor.

He's only 41 years
old and he brings

his young family
with him to Albany.

So there's life
and there's energy

in that governor's mansion.

He meets with
people all day long.

He's on his feet.

He never sits behind his desk.

And he starts
getting things done.

Roosevelt had been arguing
for years, actually,

that social welfare
and human rights

were more important
than property rights.

A big thing to say at that time.

- Reformers argued
that as stewards

of the public trust,
we have to make sure

that poor people live under
much more improved conditions.

By holding the city
and state accountable

rather than those individuals.

- TR as governor knows
that he doesn't command

either the loyalty
or the control

of the Republican Party bosses.

And so once again he turns
to the press as his ally.

- He knew when to call
his journalists together.

He knew when the most important
headlines were released.

- [Jared] And so he fights

legislative battles
through the press.

He leaks things to the press.

He pushes his progressive
agenda through the press.

- TR was quite effective.

He achieved a lot as governor.

- [Doris] Making
conditions of work better.

An eight hour day.

Protections for
women and children

who were working in factories.

And factory inspectors.

Then he also set aside
land for conservation.

- He was always
going, always busy,

always full of ideas.

And certain in what
he was gonna do.

- Through all the different
parts of his career

there's a sense of urgency
to get things done.

He said, if you're
thinking at every moment

where am I now and how
am I bettering myself

for the future, you're
gonna be too cautious.

You're gonna be too
worried about yourself.

Instead, you give
everything to that job.

Because everything can
change in a moment.

So he goes for the kill.

Which is a tax on
businesses who own

franchises in public spheres.

Electric railroads,
telephone lines.

Here were these huge
franchises making

millions of dollars in profits

and they weren't paying
any taxes to the state.

And he thought
that was essential,

that they pay their fair share.

- The New York State
Republican boss, Tom Platt,

thought that this
was a terrible idea.

This smacked of socialism.

- And the tax thing
is what really got

to the Republican leaders.

So they do not want him
to have a second term.

Because he's too
much of a reformer

for the political bosses.

- Thomas Platt was
figuring, okay,

so what am I gonna do here?

How am I gonna get
rid of this guy?

- [Jared] Less
than a year before

the Presidential
Election of 1900

McKinley's Vice President,
Garret Hobart, dies in office.

- [Doris] So the bosses
devise what they think

is the perfect solution.

- He thought, I know
what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna make him Vice
President of the United States.

- This great scheme hatched
by the power brokers

in the Republican Party that
will kick Roosevelt upstairs.

They'll promote
him into oblivion.

That he will become
McKinley's Vice President

and essentially never
heard from again.

- It's a perfectly dignified,

but perfectly useless position.

And at the same time,
he will not be governor.

- [Roosevelt] The Vice
Presidency is an utterly

anomalous office.

And one which, I think,
ought to be abolished.

The man who occupies it may,
at any moment, be everything.

But meanwhile, he is
practically nothing.

- So this was a job
that nobody liked.

One Vice President
famously said,

being Vice President is
worth a bucket of warm spit.

- It's a really
interesting question

why Roosevelt accepts
the Vice Presidency.

In some ways it's a reflection

of his own self
confidence to say,

I know other Vice
Presidents have failed

to go on to the Presidency,
but I'm different.

I think he also had a sense

that it was an opportunity
he couldn't refuse.

- In steps Henry
Cabot Lodge who says

that this is the position
you need to be in

to set yourself up for a
presidential run in four years.

Take the Vice Presidency, sit
on your hands for four years

and you will have the
ultimate prize in 1904.

- Of course, immediately
once he takes that job

he begins to regret it.

And begins to realize,
this is not much fun.

He's a great advocate
of the strenuous life,

but he finds out
very quickly that

the opposite of
the strenuous life

is to be Vice President
of the United States.

- Mark Hanna, who is one of
McKinley's closest advisors

thinks TR is an absolute maniac.

And so when McKinley and
Roosevelt win the election

Mark Hanna says to McKinley,
you're only responsibility

these next four years is
to make sure that you live.

So that mad man doesn't
become President.

[dramatic music]

- What is it, Papa?

[dramatic music]

- I thought you'd be
too busy to come, Papa.

- Oh Kermit, I'm not too busy.

- TR hates being Vice President.

McKinley gives him
no responsibilities,

asks no advice, and he
feels perfectly worthless.

He's in a position that
is so boring for him

that he's even considering
going to law school.

- In the fall of 1901
America is riding high.

McKinley has just presided
over a splendid little war

which has greatly
increased the reach

and the footprint of the
United States globally.

The economy is booming.

The Republican Party is
strong and doing well.

There is a palpable
sense of progress

and of technological
achievement.

At that moment something called

the automobile is
being invented.

People are seeing
them on the streets.

This self-propelling vehicle.

Which at the time was
simply mind blowing.

And there are people
experimenting with flight.

Electricity is now everywhere.

In middle class homes, it's
illuminating streets of cities.

And so McKinley decides to go

to the Buffalo
Pan-American Exposition.

This event showcases technology.

Showcases the progress
and his final event

is a meet and greet.

It's gonna be a big crowd.

His security staff is worried

but McKinley shrugs
off all their concerns

and he goes and he
begins pumping the flesh

and meeting lots
and lots of people.

- [Jared] McKinley insists
on doing a receiving line.

He wants to get
his glory moment.

- Sir.

- And meanwhile, TR is
deeply, deeply worried

that he's a political
exile as Vice President.

This was where he had
politically gone to die.

- We made it to the top.

- Of course we did.

If you start the climb,

you can't stop until
you reach the top.

Remember, Kermit,
you can do anything.

Work hard, be ready.

You ready?

[dramatic music]

[crowd murmuring]

[ominous music]

- Mr. Vice President.

[ominous music]

- What is it, Papa?

[ominous music]

[gunshots]

[ethereal music]

- The President's been shot.

[dramatic music]

- [Roosevelt]
We are face to face

with our destiny.

And we must meet it.

With a high and
resolute courage.

[dramatic music]

- It's been confirmed.

President McKinley died
this morning at 2:15 A.M.

- I should take
the oath at once.

- Congratulations,
Mr. President.

- Do you intend

going after my steel
company next?

- We will never
accept the proposal

with the union
at the table.

- You must.

All I'm asking is
a square deal

for every man.

[crowd cheering]

[heavy breathing]

[ominous music]