Speech · 1910

“The New Nationalism”

Speaking at the dedication of a memorial to John Brown in Osawatomie, Kansas, former President Roosevelt called for a “New Nationalism” that would put “the national need before sectional or personal advantage.” He urged a strong federal government acting as steward of the public welfare, with supervision of corporations, a ban on corporate funds in politics, graduated income and inheritance taxes on big fortunes, workers’ compensation, child labor laws and conservation, and declared that property is held “subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use.”

“The New Nationalism puts the national need before sectional or personal advantage. It is impatient of the utter confusion that results from local legislatures attempting to treat national issues as local issues.”

Theodore Roosevelt, August 31, 1910

Why it matters

The speech defined the progressive program Roosevelt carried into his 1912 Progressive (“Bull Moose”) campaign after breaking with President William Howard Taft, a split that divided the Republican Party and helped elect Woodrow Wilson; its vision of federal power remains debated among conservatives.

Read the full text at obamawhitehouse.archives.gov

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

progressivism regulation economy conservation

From the library

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