US Presidency
1913

We shall deal with oureconomic system as it is and as it may be modified, not as it might beif we had a clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step by step we shallmake it what it should be, in the spirit of those who question their ownwisdom and seek counsel and knowledge, not shallow self satisfaction orthe excitement of excursions whither they can not tell. Justice, and onlyjustice, shall always be our motto. And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. The Nation has beendeeply stirred, stirred by a solemn passion, stirred by the knowledge ofwrong, of ideals lost, of government too often debauched and made an instrumentof evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of right and opportunitysweep across our heartstrings like some air out of God's own presence, where justice and mercy are reconciled and the judge and the brother areone.