Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1905-03-08
TIE INAUGURAL SPEECH
President RooseveIt's Remarks Were
Brief, Timely and Appropriate.

to be thankful than ours, n this is
said reverently, in no spirit of boast
fulness 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 Of happiness.
To us as a people it has been granted to
lay the foundations of our NATIONAL life
in a new continent. We are the heirs OF
the ages, and yet we have had to pay
few of the penalties which in old coun-
tries are exacted by the dead hand OF a
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 With
out which the manlier and harder viz
tues wither away. Under such condl-
tons it would be u 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
vain-glory, but rather a deep and bid
ing realization of all which life has
the responsibility which is ours; and a
fixed determination to show that under
a free government a mighty people can
thrive best, alike as regards the things
of the body and the things of the soul.
MUST B7 FRIENDLY.
Much has been given to us, and much
will rightfully be expected from us. We
have duties to others INT duties to our
selves; and we can shirk neither. We
have become a great nation, forced by
the fact of it's greatness into relations
with the other nations of the earth;
and we must behave as beseems a peo-
pie with such responsibilities. Toward
all other nations, large and small, our
attitude must be n of cordial and sim
cere friendship. We must show not only
in our words, but in our deeds That we
are earnestly DESTROYS of securing their
good will by acting toward them In a
spirit Of just and generous recognition
of all their rights. But justice and gen
crosby in a nation, as in an individual,
count most when shown no by the
weak, but by the strong. When ever
careful to refrain from wrongdoing
others, we must be no less inslstent
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 ma
llOu I1dI dNlo hloll1uI1J oho JNoSAS
should ever have cause to fear us, and
no strong power should ever be able
to single us out as a subject for inso-
lent aggression.
OUR RELATIONS AMONG OUR
SELVES.
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 cen
fury and a quarter of its national LIE
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 re-
sponsibility and danger. Our forefath-
ers faced certain perils which VIC nave
outgrown. We now face other perlls
the very existence of which it was in
possible that they should foresee.
Modern life is both complex and in
tense, and the tremendous changes
wrought by the extraordinary indus
trial development of the last half CEN
tury are felt in every fiber of our social
and political being. Never before have
men tried so vast and formidable an
experiment as that of administering
the affairs of a continent under the
forms of a democratic republic. The
conditions which have told for oU,
marvellous material well-being, which
have developed to a very high degree
our energy, self-reliance n individual
initiative, have also brought the care
and anxiety inseparable from the &C
emulation Of great wealth in indus
trial centers. Upon the success OF our
experiment much depends, not only as
regards our w welfare, but as re-
CARDS the welfare of mankind. Ii we
fail, the cause OF free self-government
throughout the world will rock to its
foundations; and, therefore, our re-
sponsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to
the world as it is today, and to the
generations yet unborn. There is no
good reason why we should fear the tu-
ture, but there is every reason why we
should face it seriously, neither hiding
from ourselves the gravity of the prob
lens before us nor fearing to approach
these problems with the ~unbendlng, I'M
finching purpose to solve them arlght.
Yet, after all, though the problems
are new, though the tasks set before
us differ from the tasks set before our
Iat1ofS VINO 1Ouiu9u anu plSoCi fou nio
republic, the spirit in which these tasks
mpst be undertaken and these problems
faced if our duty is to be well done, re-
mains essentially unchanged. We know
that self-government is difficult. we
know that no people need such high
traits of character as that people which
seeks to govern it's affairs arlght
through the freely expressed will OF the
freemen who compose it. 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 lett us
the splendid heritage we now ENJOY.
We in our turn, have an assured con-
fdence that we shall be able to leave
this heritage unWasted and enlarged TO
our children and u children's chill
dren. To do so we must show, not
merely in great crises, but in the every
day affairs of life, the qualities OF prac-
teal intelligence, Of courage, OF hard
ihood and endurance, and, above all,
the power Of devotion to a lofty ideal,
which made great the men VIC
this republic in the days of Washing
- 1.1 -.o1t 4ho rrar "hn