The Breckenridge news., 1905-03-15
PRESIDENT R00SEVELPS
INAUGURATION ADDRESS.

The following is the address made
by Theodore Roosevelt on taking the
oath of Office for his second and last
term:
my Fellow Citizens: No people on
earth have more cause to be thankful
than ours, and this is said reverently,
in no spirit of boastfulness in our own
strength, but with gratitude to our
Giver of.Good who has blessed us
with the conditions which have enabl-
ed us TO achieve so large a measure of
well-b being and of happiness. To us as
a people it has been granted to lay the
foundations OF our national life n a
new continent. We are the heirs of
the ages. and yet we have had to
pay few of the penalties which in old
countries are enacted by the dead
nand of bygone civilization. We have
not been oplI ged to fight for our exist
ence against any alien race; and yet
our lite has called for the vigor and
effort wIthout.which the manlier and
harder virtues wither away. Under
such conditions it would be our own
fault If we failed and the success
which we have had in the past, the
success which we confidently believe
the future will bring should cause us
no feeling of vain glory but rather
deep and abiding realization of all
which life has offered us; full ac-
Knowledgemnt of the responsibility
which il ours and a fixed determina-
tion to show that under a free govern
ment a mighty people can thrive best,
alike as regards the things OF the body
aud the things of the soul.
"Much has been given to us, and
mucn will fully be expected from
us. We have duties to others ana
duties to ourselves, and we can shirk
neither We have become great ma
ton, forced ny the fact of It's great
ness into relations with the other. ma
tions of the earth; and We must be-
have as beseems a people with such
respo 1si bilities. Toward all other ma
tions. large and snsll, our atti. ude
must be one OF cordial and sincere
friendship. We must show not only in
our words but In our deeds that we
are earnestly desirious of securing
their good will by acting toward
them in q spirit of just and genert u
recognition of all their rights. But
Justice and generosity in nation.
as in an individual, count most when
shown not by the weak but refrain
from wronging others, we must be
no less insisrent that we are not
wronged ourselves. We wish peace /;
but we wi9h the peace of justice, the
peace of righteousness. We wish 1T
because we think it is right and not
because we are afraid. No weak ma
ii on that acts manfully and justly
should ever have cause to fear us, and
no strong power should ever be able
to single us out as a subject for in
solent aggression.
"Our relations with the other pow
ers OF the world are important bu t
still more important are our relations
among urselves. Such growth in
wealth. in population, and in power as
this nation has seen during the cep-
tury and a quarter of it's national
life is inevitably accompanied by a
like growt tn in the problems which are
ever before every nation that rises to
greatness. Power invariably means
both responsibility and danger. Our
forefathers faced certain perils which
we have outgrown. We now face their
perils, the very existence of which it
was i'm possi ble that they should tore
see. Modern life is both complex and
intense, and the tremendous changes
wrought by the extraordinary indus
trial development of the last half cen
tury are felt in every fiber of our So
cisl and political being.
Never before have men tried 80
vast and formidable an experiment
as that of admi nistering the affairs
of a continent under the forms of
a democratic republic. The conditions
which have told for our marvellous
material well-being, which have de-