‘Theodore! With all thy faults –‘
https://www.nysun.com/editorials/theodore-with-all-thy-faults/91170/
President Trump no doubt speaks for millions of New Yorkers and other Americans when he protests the decision to remove the statue of Theodore Roosevelt from in front of the Museum of Natural History. He calls the decision “ridiculous.” There are serious differing views. Ours is that it’s a sad day for those who thrill to the spirit of liberalism in our city and the inclusive Americanism for which Roosevelt stood during his heroic life.
The museum is trying to cast its decision as being animated by something other than disapproval for Roosevelt himself. The museum’s president, Ellen Futter, is insisting to the Times that its decision to remove the monument “is based on the statue, that is the hierarchical composition that’s depicted in it.” She is referring to the Native American man and African man on either side of TR and the steed on which he is mounted.
We, for one, find that distinction unconvincing, even if art is in the eye of the beholder. The protesters who forced the museum’s hand hate Roosevelt as much as his statue. The sculptor himself, James Earle Fraser, intended the two figures beside TR to symbolize “Roosevelt’s friendliness to all races.” Roosevelt mightn’t pass muster with today’s protesters, but in his own time, he was a progressive.
Too progressive at the time for The New York Sun, we confess. That was because of TR’s hostility to capital. Even the Sun, though, swung behind the 26th president in 1904 when, after acceding to the presidency following the assassination of President McKinley, he stood for his own term. The Sun’s endorsement, as retrieved by biographer Edmund Morris, was summed up in one sentence: “THEODORE! With all thy faults — .”
Today’s Sun shares the sentiment. None of our great leaders, judges, generals, newspaper editors, writers, and sculptors were, or are, perfect. Progressives of a century ago look like regressives today. It doesn’t follow that they should be shorn of honors. The museum plans to assuage the insult to Roosevelt inherent in removing the statue by naming a hall of “biodiversity” after the president who built our national parks.
What a crabbed view of the bespectacled colonel who led the Rough Riders to the summit of San Juan Hill, the reforming commissioner of New York’s police, the president whose merciful spirit inspired the Teddy Bear, the trustbuster, the Nobel Laureate in Peace, the author of more books than any other man ever to have held the White House. Roosevelt’s achievements tower over his faults.
This seems to be recognized even today. The museum has put up on Youtube a film about the controversy over the statue. It includes a number of persons speaking beautifully in favor of keeping the statue, instead of erasing history. “I don’t know if it necessarily needs to be taken down,” says a young woman, Gerry, “because if we take it down, then we erase what happened.”
Liberalism infuses the American spirit, and we need more of it as, from coast to coast, protesters are toppling statues of even such heroes as U. S. Grant. Could President Trump present a plan to Congress to use the powers of eminent domain to rescue Roosevelt by seizing his statue for public use? A reach maybe, but what a start that would be toward reclaiming America’s liberal spirit.
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