It is told that he
never spoke in public, until about his third year in college, that
he was shy and had great difficulty in speaking. It was by effort
that he became one of the best orators of his day.
Roosevelt did not like the way college debates were conducted. He
said that to make one side defend or attack a certain subject,
without regard to whether they thought it right or wrong, had a
bad effect.
"What we need," he wrote, "is to turn out of colleges young men
with ardent convictions on the side of right; not young men who
can make a good argument for either right or wrong, as their
interest bids them."
He did one thing in college which is not a matter of course with
students under twenty-two years old. He began to write a history,
named "The Naval War of 1812." It was finished and published two
years after he graduated, and in it he showed that his idea of
patriotism included telling the truth. Most American boys used to
be brought up on the story of the American frigate Constitution
whipping all the British ships she met, and with the notion that
the War of 1812 was nothing but a series of brilliant victories
for us.
Theodore Roosevelt thought that Americans were not so soft that
they were afraid to hear the truth, and that it was a poor sort of
American who dared not point out to his fellow-countrymen the
mistakes they had made and the disasters which followed.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35