Excerpt from the Platform of the Progressive Party Excerpt from Address by Theodore Roosevelt before the Convention of the National Progressive Party in Chicago

August 6–7, 1912

"We progressives stand for the rights of the people."

—Theodore Roosevelt

In the summer of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) was the most popular politician in America. As a Republican, he had been president for seven-and-a-half-years, from the assassination of William McKinley in September 1901 until March 1909. Near the end of his second term, he decided not to run for another term.

But Roosevelt was not happy with his Republican successor, William Howard Taft (1857–1930). The two disagreed particularly over the issue of conservation of natural resources. Both men were dedicated "trustbusters" who favored government lawsuits to break up large monopolies (companies...