Reunion: Theodore Roosevelt's 1905 Southern Trips (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798462487682)

This book follows an identical pattern as the author's two previous self-created daily journals of Theodore Roosevelt's western travels, Keep it for Your Children: Theodore Roosevelt's 1903 Western Trip, and High Ideals: Theodore Roosevelt's 1911 Western Trip. In 1905, Theodore Roosevelt made two extended train trips, which journeys together covered virtually the entire Southern United States Region as defined by the United States Census Bureau, and also included a three-week hunting trip in Colorado. Although the President's stated purposes for these two trips were to attend a reunion of his Rough Rider regiment in San Antonio, Texas, as well as a reunion of his mother's family in Roswell, Georgia, upon studying the many whistle stop and formal speeches the President made along the routes of these trips, one cannot help to wonder whether the periods covered, which coincided with the 40-year anniversary of the end of the Civil War, were intended to be more than coincidental.
The Oxford dictionary includes the following two definitions for the noun "reunion" 1. the process or an instance of reuniting; and 2. a social gathering of people who have not seen each other for some time. There is no question that a purpose of the President's 1905 southern trips was to attend the reunions of his Rough Rider regiment in San Antonio and of his mother's family in Roswell, but perhaps more significantly the President sought by these trips to convey a "message of reuniting" to the country upon the 40-year anniversary of the end of the Civil War, from his first major speech in
Louisville, Kentucky (a state which originally announced its intention to be neutral throughout the Civil War), through his final speech in New Orleans.
The President wanted the entire country to be reunited, not just the men who fought for the blue and the men who fought for the gray, but for its citizens at large, regardless of heritage, station in life or family, geographical or political background. And he wanted it desperately for Washington, also.

Author: James Blase
ISBN-10: 8462487684
ISBN-13: 9798462487682
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 08/22/2021
Pages: 334
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.46lbs
Size: 10.00h x 8.00w x 0.70d