____________. Anything that the women of this country want, I want to give them. Now, I base
my hope and base my firm belief in the future of the American Nation because I think that the
average American is a pretty good fellow and that his wife is a still better fellow. Progressive
Principles (Progressive National Service, New York, 1913), 220.
____________. You cannot draw any line of intelligence or of conduct that wouldn’t leave some
of each sex on each side of it. “Woman Suffrage Demanded In the Interests of Good
Government,” speech, New York City, NY, May 2, 1913, typed ms., Theodore Roosevelt
Collection, Harvard.
____________. It is perfect nonsense to think that a woman who is not a doll or a drudge thereby
loses respect. On the contrary, I think that there is no surer sign of an advancing civilization than
the advanced measure of respect paid to the woman who is neither a doll or a drudge. “Woman
Suffrage Demanded In the Interests of Good Government,” speech, New York City, NY, May 2,
1913, typed ms., Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Harvard.
____________. There has always been to me an element of great absurdity in the arguments
advanced against Woman Suffrage when we consider the fact that from time immemorial in
monarchies women have been deemed fit to hold the very highest place of government power,
that is, the position of sovereign. For example, this continent was discovered by Columbus under
the patronage of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain; and he owed more to the Queen
than to the King. The oldest state in the Union, Virginia, derives its name from the fact that the
first effort at colonization from England on our shores was in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and
during the last four centuries Queen Elizabeth was certainly the greatest sovereign who sat on the
English throne. When Frederick the Great was King of Prussia the only two European sovereigns
who in any shape or way compared with him were two women – Catherine of Russia and Maria
Theresa of Austria. I have thus mentioned four queens who were great sovereigns, four queens
who would by all capable historians be given lead places among the sovereigns of their times. If
a woman is deemed fit to be the head of a mighty monarchy, surely no adequate reason can be
advanced against allowing her to exercise the rights of sovereignty in a democracy, that is, to be
one of the free citizens who vote so as to decide how their own intimate concerns shall be
managed. (TR to Ethel Eyre Valentine Dreier, October 15, 1915.) Letters of Theodore Roosevelt
(Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1951-54), 8, 974.