Establishing the Rhetorical Presidency through Presidential Rhetoric: Theodore Roosevelt and the Brownsville Raid

Abstract

Theodore Roosevelt was an important figure in the development of the presidency as a primary and authoritative source for definitions of national identity. Through an analysis of three specific rhetorical moves Roosevelt made in arguments over the “proper” interpretation of the Brownsville Raid, this essay examines how Roosevelt both justified his dismissal of the soldiers and increased the definitional power of his institution. Brownsville highlights the importance of the presidency's constitutive and rhetorical power, especially as that power pertains to ideologically based definitions of national identity and the role of minorities within that identity, and illuminates the argumentative forms that undergird that constitutive power.