US Presidency
1905

We know that no people needssuch high traits of character as that people which seeks to govern itsaffairs aright through the freely expressed will of the freemen who composeit. But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memories ofthe men of the mighty past. They did their work, they left us the splendidheritage we now enjoy. We in our turn have an assured confidence that weshall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our childrenand our children's children. To do so we must show, not merely in greatcrises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practicalintelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all thepower of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who foundedthis Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preservedthis Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln