Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1905-03-11
ROOSEVELT
INAUCURATED
CONTINUED FROM 1ST PAGE.


At a sign from Chief Justice Fuller
the clerk of the supreme court stepped
forward holding Bible. hush fell
over the crowd. The president raised
his right hand and the oath to support
the laws and constitution of the Unit
ed States was taken amid deem
silence. When this had been conclud-
ed there was practically no demonstra-
ton and the president began his in
augural address. AS soon as he finish
ed speaking he re-entered the capitol
and as he disappeared within the build
Ing a signal was flashed to the navy
yard and the roar of 81 guns was be-
gun in official salute to the president.
Presidents Inaugural Address.
The presidents inaugural address
was as follows:
My Fellow Citizens-No people on earth
have more cause to be thankful than
ours. and this is said reverently. i'm no
spirit OF boastfulness I'm 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
q measure Of well-being and of happiness
To us as n people il has been granted to
lay the foundations 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 I'm 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 man.
lier and harder virtues wither away
Under such conditions IL would be our
own fault il failed: and the success
which we have had i'm the past the sue
cess which we confidently believe the fu-
ture will bring, should cause in US no
and abiding realization OF all which life
has offered us; a full acknowledgment OF
the responsibility which is ours; and n
liked determination to show that under a
free government mighty 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 rightfuily he expected from us We
as Sc dutsv- ~ otne.s o~sss S,v.iVa- - Sss-
selves; and we shirk neither. We
have become a great nation forced by
the fact of its greatness into relations
with the other nations of the earth, and
we must behave as beseems n 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
10y acting toward them in a spirit OF Just
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
tnsistent that are not wronged our
selves We wish peace. but we wish the
peace OF justice, the peace OF righteous
ness. We wish ii because we think IL is
right and not because we are afraid. No
weak nation that acts manfully and lust
iy should ever have cause 20 fear us, and
no strong power should ever be able to
single us out as a subject for insolent ag-
gression.
Our relations with the other powers of
the world are important; but still more
important are our relations among our
selves Such growth In wealth. in popula-
ton and in power as this nation has seen
during the century and n quarter of it's
national life is inevitably accompanied by
a ike growth In the problems which are
ever before every nation that rises to
greatness. 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 il was impossible
that they could foresee. Modern life is
both complex and intense. and the ire
mendous changes wrought by the extra
ordinary industrial development of the
last half century are felt in every fibre OF
our social and political being. Never be-
fore have men tried so vast and formid-
able an experiment that of adminis-
terlng the affairs of continent under
the forms of democratic republic The
conditions which have told for our mar
vicious material well-being, which have
developed to a very high degree our en-
ergy, se!f-reliance and individual initia-
tive, have also brought the care and
anxiety inseparable from the accumula-
ton or great wealth in industrial centers
Upon the success of our experiment much
depends; not only as regards our own
welfare, but regards the welfare of
mankind. If we fail, the cause of free
self-government throughout the world
Will rock to its foundations; and, there
fore, our responsibility is heavy to our
selves, TO the world as il is today and to
the generations yet unborn. There is no
good reason why we should fear the fu-
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 unbending, un-
ttinching 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 the
spirit In which these tasks must be UNI
dertaken and these problems faced, il 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 character
as that people which seeks to govern its
AFFAIRS Alright through the freely expressed
Will OF the freemen who compose it, But
we have faith that shall not prove
false to the memories of the men of the
mighty past. They did their work they
left us the splendid heritage which we
now enjoy. We in our turn have an as
sured confidence that we shall be able to
leave this heritage unwasted and en-
larged to our children and our children's
children. 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 hardi-
hood and endurance, and above all the
power and devotion to lofty ideal. which
made great the men who founded this re-
public in the days of Washington, which
made great the men who preserved this
republic In the days of Abraham Lincoln.