The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1905-03-11
INAUGURAL ADDRESS.
President Roosevelt's Magnificent Speech
at Washington Last Saturday.

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 the
Giver OF Good, who has blessed US
with the conditions which have enabled
US to achieve so large a measure of
well-being and happiness.
To us as people it has been granted
TO lay the foundatio of our national
life in 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 exacted by the dead
hand of bygone civilization. We
have not been obliged to fight for our
existence against any alien race, and
yet our life has called for the vigor
and effort without which the manlier
and harder virtues wither away. I'm
der 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 in
US no feeling of vainglory, but rather
a deep and abiding realization of all
which life has offered US, a full ac-
acknowledgement Of the responsibility
which is ours, and affixed determination
TO show that under free government q
free people can thrive best, alike as
regards the things of the body and the
things of the soul.
Much has been given to US. and much
will rightfully be expected from us.
We have duties to others and duties
TO ourselves, and we can shirk neither.
We have become a gre at nation, forced
by the fact of its greatness into rela-
tions with the other nations of the
earth, and we must behave as beseems
people with such responsibilities.
Toward all other nations, large and
small, our attitude must be one of
cordial and sincere friendship. We
must show not only in our words, but
in our deeds, that we are earnestly
desirous OF securing their good will
by acting toward them in a spirit OF
just and generous recognition of all
their rights. But justice and gener-
osity in a nation, as in an individual,
count most when shown not by the
weak but the strong. While ever care
full to refrain from wronging others
we must be no less insistent that
we are not wronged ourselves. We
wish peace, but we wish the peace of
justice, the peace of righteousness.
We wish it because we think it is right
and not because we are afraid. No
weak nation that acts manfulIy and
justly should ever have cause to fear
us, and no strong power should ever
be able to single US outsas a subject
for insolent aggression.
Our relations with the other powers
OF. the world are important, but still
more important are our relations
among ourselves. Such growth in
wealth, in population 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 great
ness. Power invariably means both
responsibility and danger. Our fore
fathers faced certain perils which we
have outgroWn. We now face other
perils, the very existence of which it
was Impossible that they should fore
see.
Modern life is both complex and in
tense, and the tremendous changes
wrought by the extraordinary indus
trial development of the last half CEN
fury are felt in every fiber OF our So
cial and political being. Never before
have men tried so vast and formid able
an experiment as that of administer
ing the affairs of continent under
the forms Of a democratic republic.
The conditions which have told for
our marvellous material Well-being,
which have developed to very high
degree our energy, self-re1iance and in
dividual initiative, have also brought
the care and anxiety inseparable from
the accumulation of great wealth in
industrial centers.
Upon the success Of our experiment
much depends, not only as regards our
own welfare, but as regards the welfare
of mankind. If we fail the cause of free
seif-government throughout the world
will rock to its found ations; and there
fore our responsibility is heavy to
ourselves, to the world as it is today
and to the erations yet unborn.
There is no good reason why We
should fear the future, but there is
every reason why we should face it
seriously, neither hiding from our
selves the gravity Of the problems be-
fore us nor fearing to approach these
problems with the unbending. unflinch-
ing 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 undertaken and these
problems faced, if our duty is TO be
well done, remains essentially I'M
changed. We know that self-goVgrn-