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Oyster Bay, Sagamore Hill. As a result of his death, the Roosevelt family received numerous telegrams expressing their sadness at the loss of the president.  Although he had lost the election in 1912, Roosevelt was undoubtedly the nation’s most popular politician when he died, and few presidents have been able to match his popularity since. He was quickly commemorated across the nation, most famously by being carved into Mount Rushmore less than 20 years after his death.
    Legacy
     
    Without diving into his life and career, the fact that Theodore Roosevelt is on Mount Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln says volumes about his place in American history.  That alone makes clear Roosevelt is among the nation's most influential and important Presidents.
     
    Roosevelt's legacy radiates from two primary channels: his policy achievements and his personal appeal.  The latter is perhaps unique to Roosevelt and most significant in transforming the office of President of the United States.  Theodore Roosevelt, often referred to fondly as Teddy Bear, used his quirky, masculine and gregarious personality to his benefit in a way no prior President had.  Undoubtedly Roosevelt was assisted by modern inventions, most important among them being the improved transportation of trains and the ability to widely distribute photographs.  In his Bull Moose run, the former President's voice was even able to be recorded. 
     
    But technology was not the lone reason Roosevelt was able to create the “bully pulpit” of the presidency.  Technology did not necessitate that the White House become the gathering center for the press everyday; this was Roosevelt's invention.  The President ensured that he set the nation's legislative agenda by giving press statements regularly.  Every President since has been looked to as the go-to person for the nation's legislative priorities.
     
    This personal strengthening of the Presidency spilled over into an administrative augmentation of the office of President.  Though the Sherman Anti Trust Act had been passed in the 1880's, all presidents before Roosevelt underutilized its power.  Roosevelt consolidated much of the power delegated to him by Congress, and ensured that the President took an active role in administering the government of the United States.  He expanded the Presidential cabinet and created many new administrative departments, widening the breadth of the nation's federal bureaucracy.  Only his fifth cousin, Franklin, would outshine him in this pursuit decades later.
     
    On domestic policy, Theodore Roosevelt's presidency was the height of American progressivism, again outshone only by his cousin FDR decades later.  Roosevelt brought the Anglo-American ideology of limited, free-market government to its heels and instituted numerous reforms geared towards breaking corporate power and aiding consumers.  On this accomplishment, however, Roosevelt's legacy was not immediately appreciated.  Even his handpicked successor, Taft, fell flat in furthering the Square Deal.  All Presidents thereafter, until FDR in 1932, sought to limit the role of government in economic and public life.  The wisdom of Theodore Roosevelt went unheeded. 
     
    Roosevelt's presidency is also credited with making the U.S. a global player in international relations.  The Panama Canal and the Roosevelt Corollary ensured America would dominate the Western Hemisphere, and the Portsmouth Treaty also expanded the reach of the United States into places the nation had previously never touched.  Roosevelt’s expansion of the military and support for an interventionist policy was a marked departure from previous administrations; until Roosevelt, the United States had been rigidly isolationist since Washington offered his neutrality advice as President.  It was Roosevelt who ensured the nation would not merely be an economic powerhouse but also participate actively and powerfully