The New Nationalism

Roosevelt explained his "new nationalism" succinctly:

"The American people are right in demanding that New Nationalism, without which we cannot hope to deal with new problems. The New Nationalism puts the national need before sectional or personal advantage. It is impatient of the utter confusion that results from local legislatures attempting to treat national issues as local issues. It is still more impatient of the impotence which springs from over-division of governmental powers, the impotence which makes it possible for local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired by wealthy special interests, to bring national activities to a deadlock. This New Nationalism regards the executive power as the steward of the public welfare. It demands of the judiciary that it shall be interested primarily in human welfare rather than in property, just as it demands that the representative body shall represent all the people rather than any one class or section of the people."

(Scanned from The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 17(New York: Charles Scribners, 1925): 19)

Roosevelt first spoke about his New Nationalism in a famous speech in 1910, delivered in Osawatomie, Kansas.  The Democrats quickly poked fun at the former President.