The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1905-03-05
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
is CHARACTERISTIC
Mr.. Roosevelt Sketches Present and
Past and Looks to the Future


Following is President Roosevelts
inaugural address:
My fellow citizens: No people on earth
nave more cause to be thankful than ours
and this is said reverently In no spirit of
DoastiulnesS in our own strength, but with
sIatltude TO the Giver OF Good, who has
dressed US with the conditions which have
enabled US to achieve so large a measure
OF Wei being and Of happiness. To us as
people 1t has been granted to lay the
foundations OF our national life in a new
comment. We are the heirs of the ages
and yet We have had to pay few of the
penalties which in old countries are exact
ca by the dead hand OF a bygone civiiza-
ton. We have not been Obliged TO fight
Tor our existence against any alien race:
ana yet our life has called for the Yigor
afld enort without which the manlier and
hardier virtues wither away Under such
conditions IL would be our own fault IL
we Jailed; and the success which We have
mao In the past, the success which We
confidently believe the future will bring,
should cause us no feeling of vainglory
put nather deep and abiding realization
OF all which life has offered us: a fun ac-
acknowledgement OF responsibility which is
ours; and fixed determination to show
that under free government mighty
people can thrive best alike as regards
the soul
Much has been given to us, and much
VIII rlghtfully be expected from us. We
nave duties 10 others. and duties TO our
serves, and we can shirk neither. We
have become great nation. forced by the
!act OF It's greatness into relations with
tne otner nations OF the earth; and we
must behave as beseems a people with
such responsibilities. Toward all other
nations, large and small. our attitude
must be one of cordial and sincere friend
ship. We must show not only in our
words but in our deeds that We are earn
estly DESTROYS of securing their good will
-Dy acting toward them in a-spirft of lust
ana generous recognition of all their
rights. But justice and generosity in a
nation. as in an individual. count most
when shown not by the weak but bv the
strong. While ever careful to refrain from
wronging others we must be no less iE-
SlStent that We are not wronged ourselves
we wish peace;-but we wish the peace OF
Justice: the peace of righteousness. We
wish 1t because we think IL is right and
not because we are afraid. No weak ma
Ton that acts manfully and justly should
ever nave cause to fear us. and no strong
power should ever be able to single ms
out as subject for iRsolent aggression.
Growth In Problems
Our relations with the other powers of
inc world are important; but still more
Important are our relations among our
selves such growth in wealth, in popu-
lation, and in power as this nation has
seen during the century and a quarter of
It's national life Is. inevitably accompanied
by a like growth in the problems which
are ever before every nation that rises to
greatness. Power invariably means both
responsibility and danger. Our forefathers
@0NCo NNl1nAi pcilS WHICH we nave OUT
grown We now face other perils the very
existence of which ii was impossible that
they should foresee- Modern life is both
ctSlnplex ana intense. and the tremendous
changes wrought by the extraordinary in
dustrial development of the last half cen
fury are felt in every fiber of our social
ana polltical being Never before have
men tried so vast and formidable an eX-
pertinent as that of administering the af-
fairs OF continent under the forms of a
democratic republic.
MI hox T1l.1
marvellous material wellbeing, which have
developed TO very high degree our
energy, self reliance and individual initia-
i've, nave also brought the care and
anxiety inseparable from the accumula-
tlon OF great wealth in industrial centers.
Upon the success of our experiment much
welfare. but as regards the welfare of
mankind. II we fail, the cause of free
seli-government throughout the world
VIII rock to its foundations and there
fore our responsibility is heavy. to our
selves, to the world as II is today and TO
the generations yet unborn. There is no
good reason why we should fear the flu
ture, but there is every reason why we
should face IL seriously. neither hiding
from ourselves the gravity of the prob
lens before us nor fearing to approach
these problems with the unbending un-
hinching purpose TO solve them Alright
Yet after all. though the problems are
new, though the tasks set before us differ
from the tasks set before our fathers who
founded and preserved this republic the
spirit in which these tasks must be under
taken and these problems faced. II our
duty is TO be well done. remains essen
tally unchanged. We know that self
government is difficult. We know that no
people needs such high traits of -charac-
ter as that people which seeks to govern
Its affairs Alright through the freely ex-
pressed VIII of the freemen who compose
II. But we have faith that we shall not
prove false to the memories of the men
OF the mighty past. They did their work
they left us the splendid heritage we NOW
enjoy. We in our turn have an assured
confidence that we shall be able to leave
this heritage unwasted and enlarged TO
our children and our children's Children
To do so we must show, not merely in
great crises, but in the everyday affairs OF
life. the qualities of practical intelligence
of courage. OF hardihood and endurance
and above all, the power of devotion to a
lofty ideal. which made great the men who
founded this republic in the days of Wash
ington. which made great the men who
preserved this republic in the days of
Abraham Lincoln.