The Republican journal., 1905-03-16
Inaugural Address Of:
President Roosevelt,

the inaugural address OF PRESIDENT
Roosevelt delivered in Washington,
ID. c., March 4th, and as the press
dispatches say ''easily heard by at least
$4,000 persons; but it should be read
by every one, aud is now printed in
full:
My fellow CITIZENSHIP 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
tc achieve SO large measure of we'll
being and of happiness. TO us as a
people it has been granted to lay the
foundations of our national life III 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
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 conditions, it would be
our own fault if we failed; and the sue
cess which we have had in the past, the
success which we confidently believe
the future will bring, should cause i'll
us no feeling of vainglory but rather a
deep and abiding realization of all
which life has offered us; a full &C
acknowledgement of the responsibility
which is ours; and a fixed determine
ton to show that under free govern
ment mighty people can thrive best,
alike as regards the things of the
body and the things of the soul.
MUCH EXPECTED OF COUNTRY.
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 shrk neither.
We have become great nation, forced
by the fact of its greatness into rela-
tions with the other 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 friendship. We
must show, not only in our words, but
in our deeds, that we are earnestly
DESTROYS of securing their good will by
dSOlbS toNaAu CHOlll Ill SHllIU VI JuSG
and 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
by the strong.
While ever careful to refrain from
wronging others, we must be no less
lnSlStent that we are not wronged our
selves. We wish peace; but we wish
the peace of justice, the peace of right
eousness. We wish it because we
think it is right and not because we are
afraid. No weak nation that acts
rightly and justly should ever have
cause to lear us, and no strong power
should ever be able to single us out as
subject for lnSolent 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 its national life is in
evitably accompanied by a like growth
in the problems that are ever before
every nation that rises in greatness.
POWER MEANS RESPONSIBILITY.
Power invariably means both respon-
sunny GNU NeshSSA. Ooi
faced certain perils which we have
outgrOwn. We now face other perils,
the very existence of which it was i'm
possible that they should foresee. Mod
ern life is both complex and intense
and the tremendous changes wrought
by the extraordinary industrial devel-
oprent OF the half century are felt in
every fibre of our social and political
being.
Never before have men tried SO vast
and formidable an experiment as that
of administering the affairs of CONT
nent under the forms of democratic
republic. The conditions that have told
for our marvellous material we'll being,
which have developed to very high
degree our energy, Self-reliance and ill.,
dividual initiative, also have 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 well
fare of mankind. If we fail the cause
of free self government throughout the
world will rock to it's foundations; and
therefore our responsibility 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 future, but there is every rea-
son why we should face it seriously,
neither hiding from ourselves the gray
ity of the problems before us, nor fear
ing to approach these problems with
the unbending, unilinching purpose to
solve them Alright.
MUST EMULATE MIGHTY MEN OF THE
PAST.
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 we'll done,
remains essentially unchanged. We
know that no people needs such high
| traits of character as that people which
seeks to govern its affair Alright through
the freely expressed will of the free
men 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 left us
the splendid heritage we now enjoy.
We in our turn have an assured conf
dence that we shall bel able to leave
this heritage unwasted and enlarged to
our children and our children's chill
| dren.