Wednesday Wisdom
Squarely but Politely
Theodore Roosevelt is well-known for a variety of phrases he either popularized or coined during his political career: “my hat is in the ring,” “big stick,” “square deal,” “malefactors of great wealth,” “Ananias Club,” “muckraker,” “bully pulpit,” “lunatic fringe,” “weasel words,” and “strong as a bull moose.”
Although cartoonists incorporated all of these phrases in some way into various political cartoons during Roosevelt’s day, they preferred one phrase significantly more than the others: big stick. To give you an idea of just how popular the phrase was, there are over 275 political cartoons alone in the digital library with an identified big stick.
We’re thinking this preference might be due to the ease of drawing a big stick compared to the difficulty of depicting a square deal, for example. But in any case, the big stick was a concept firmly linked to Roosevelt in his day as well as ours.
Ironically, Roosevelt didn’t use the term very frequently himself. That’s why we were excited when we ran across what is today’s #WednesdayWisdom since it mentions the big stick in a new context besides his famous 1901 speech: “Besides acting squarely, talk politely. Yes, and have the ‘big stick,’ too, but do not brandish it.”
This Wednesday Wisdom quotation comes from a speech given at the New York Press Club on February 13, 1905. In this brief speech, Roosevelt discusses foreign policy and his belief that the United States should act squarely with other nations which should in turn act squarely with the United States.
It’s in this context that Roosevelt mentions the importance of having a big stick, but perhaps more importantly of not brandishing it. In other words, he believed it was crucial to be prepared to take a firm stance while also avoiding needlessly shaking or waving a weapon menacingly.
According to Roosevelt, the way for the United States to steer clear of brandishing the big stick was to avoid insulting other countries. As he said a few paragraphs later, “It is the mark, or it should be the mark, of a strong self-respecting nation never wantonly to injure the feelings or to infringe upon the rights of any other people.”
Today we are apt to focus on Roosevelt’s legacy on military power, but this quotation from Roosevelt reminds us of the necessity of speaking softly—or talking politely, to use his wording from this speech—as well.
Learn more about Roosevelt’s views on the United States’s relationships with other countries by reading the entire speech here.