Kambriel: Rappaccini's Daughter Veil

1

• Stefan Brandt
• Universität Siegen
• Email brandt_at_anglistik.uni-siegen.de

• TALK

• The finest type of existing marriage
• Family and Statehood
• in Theodore Roosevelts
  Writings

Annual Conference of the DGfA, Heidelberg May
15-18, 2008 The American Presidency and Political
Leadership Workshop 6, Family Values The
Politics of Private Representation
2
I. Teddy Roosevelt The Family President
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
III. T.R.s Concept of Family and Statehood
3
I. Teddy Roosevelt The Family President
I don't think that any family has ever enjoyed
the White House more than we have. I was thinking
about it just this morning when Mother and I took
breakfast on the portico and afterwards walked
about the lovely grounds and looked at the
stately historic old house. It is a wonderful
privilege to have been here and to have been
given the chance to do this work . Letter
to Kermit, June 21, 1904, T.R., Letters to His
Children (1919)
4
I. Teddy Roosevelt The Family President
One night I came up-stairs and found Quentin
playing the pianola as hard as he could, while
Archie would suddenly start from the end of the
hall where the pianola was, and, accompanied by
both the dogs, race as hard as he could the whole
length of the White House clean to the other end
of the hall and then tear back again. Another
evening as I came up-stairs I found Archie and
Quentin having a great play, chuckling with
laughter, Archie driving Quentin by his
suspenders, which were fixed to the end of a pair
of woollen reins. Then they would ambush me and
we would have a vigorous pillow-fight .
Letter to Kermit, March 19, 1906, T.R., Letters
to His Children (1919)
5
Alice
Ted, Jr.
Kermit
Ethel
Archie
T.R.
Edith Roosevelt
Quentin
6
(No Transcript)
7
(No Transcript)
8
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
There are certain old truths, which will be true
as long as this world endures, and which no
amount of progress can alter. One of these is the
truth that the primary duty of the husband is to
be the home-maker, the bread-winner for his wife
and children, and that the primary duty of the
woman is to be the helpmeet, the housewife and
mother. T.R., The American Woman as
Mother. In The Ladies Home Journal, July
1905.
race suicide
9
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
The Woman who is a Good Wife, a good mother, is
entitled to our respect as no one else but she
is entitled to it only because, and so long as
she is worthy of it. Effort and self-sacrifice
are the law of worthy life for the man as for the
woman though neither the effort nor the
self-sacrifice may be the same for the one as for
the other. T.R., The American Woman as
Mother. In The Ladies Home Journal, July
1905.
Are Women Retaliating on Men? Grover Cleveland,
Womans Mission and Womans Clubs. In The
Ladies Home Journal, May 1905.
10
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
woman suffrage wherever the women wish it.
T.R., American Problems (1910)
The vital need for women, as for men, is to war
against vice, and frivolity, and cold
selfishness, and timid shrinking from necessary
risk and effort. T.R., American
Problems (1910)
Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910)
11
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
The highest ideal of the family can be
obtained only where the father and the mother
stand to each other as lovers and friends.
T.R., National Life and Character (1894)
The important thing to work for in marriage is
to raise the average marriage relations to those
that already obtain in the finest type of
existing marriage. T.R., American
Problems (1910)
12
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
III. T.R.s Concept of Family and Statehood
In the last analysis, the welfare of the State
depends absolutely upon whether or not the
average family, the average man and woman and
their children represent the kind of citizenship
fit for the foundation of a great nation and if
we fail to appreciate this we will fail to
appreciate the root morality upon which all
healthy civilization is based. T.R., The
American Woman as Mother. In The Ladies
Home Journal, July 1905.
homely duties ltgt stately duties
13
II. T.R. and the Role of Women
Conclusion
The family is the bedrock of our nation, but it
is also the engine that gives our country life.
Its for our families that we work and labor,
so we can join around the dinner table, bring our
children up the right way, care for our parents,
and reach out to those less fortunate. It is the
power of the family that holds the Nation
together, that gives America her conscience, and
that serves as the cradle of our countrys
soul.
Ronald Reagan, public speech held in Chicago,
Sept. 30. 1988.