Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States. 1989. Theodore Roosevelt: Inaugural Address.

Theodore Roosevelt

Inaugural Address

Saturday, March 4, 1905

The energetic Republican President had taken his first oathof office upon the death of President McKinley, who died of an assassin'sgunshot wounds on September 14, 1901. Mr. Roosevelt had been President himselffor three years at the election of 1904. The inaugural celebration was thelargest and most diverse of any in memory--cowboys, Indians (including theApache Chief Geronimo), coal miners, soldiers, and students were some ofthe groups represented. The oath of office was administered on the EastPortico of the Capitol by Chief Justice Melville Fuller.

  MY fellow-citizens, no people on earthhave more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, inno spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to theGiver of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have enabledus to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness. To us asa people it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national lifein a new continent. We are the heirs of the ages, and yet we have had topay few of the penalties which in old countries are exacted by the deadhand of a bygone civilization. We have not been obliged to fight for ourexistence against any alien race; and yet our life has called for the vigorand effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues wither away. Undersuch conditions it would be our own fault if we failed; and the successwhich we have had in the past, the success which we confidently believethe future will bring, should cause in us no feeling of vainglory, but rathera deep and abiding realization of all which life has offered us; a fullacknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours; and a fixed determinationto show that under a free government a mighty people can thrive best, alikeas regards the things of the body and the things of the soul. 1
  Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expectedfrom us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirkneither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatnessinto relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave asbeseems a people with such responsibilities. Toward all other nations, largeand small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship. Wemust show not only in our words, but in our deeds, that we are earnestlydesirous of securing their good will by acting toward them in a spirit ofjust and generous recognition of all their rights. But justice and generosityin a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weakbut by the strong. While ever careful to refrain from wrongdoing others,we must be no less insistent that we are not wronged ourselves. We wishpeace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. Wewish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. No weaknation 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 forinsolent aggression. 2
  Our relations with the other powers of the world are important;but still more important are our relations among ourselves. Such growthin wealth, in population, and in power as this nation has seen during thecentury and a quarter of its national life is inevitably accompanied bya like growth in the problems which are ever before every nation that risesto greatness. Power invariably means both responsibility and danger. Ourforefathers faced certain perils which we have outgrown. We now face otherperils, the very existence of which it was impossible that they should foresee.Modern life is both complex and intense, and the tremendous changes wroughtby the extraordinary industrial development of the last half century arefelt in every fiber of our social and political being. Never before havemen tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of administeringthe affairs of a continent under the forms of a Democratic republic. Theconditions which have told for our marvelous material well-being, whichhave developed to a very high degree our energy, self-reliance, and individualinitiative, have also brought the care and anxiety inseparable from theaccumulation of great wealth in industrial centers. Upon the success ofour experiment much depends, not only as regards our own welfare, but asregards the welfare of mankind. If we fail, the cause of free self-governmentthroughout the world will rock to its foundations, and therefore our responsibilityis heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generationsyet unborn. There is no good reason why we should fear the future, but thereis every reason why we should face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselvesthe gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problemswith the unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright. 3
  Yet, after all, though the problems are new, though the tasksset before us differ from the tasks set before our fathers who founded andpreserved this Republic, the spirit in which these tasks must be undertakenand these problems faced, if our duty is to be well done, remains essentiallyunchanged. We know that self-government is difficult. We know that no peopleneeds such high traits of character as that people which seeks to governits affairs aright through the freely expressed will of the freemen whocompose it. But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memoriesof the men of the mighty past. They did their work, they left us the splendidheritage we now enjoy. We in our turn have an assured confidence that weshall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our childrenand our children's children. To do so we must show, not merely in greatcrises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practicalintelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all thepower of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who foundedthis Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preservedthis Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln. 4

Inaugural Addressesof the Presidents of the United States. 1989.

MY fellow-citizens, no people on earthhave more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, inno spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to theGiver of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have enabledus to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness. To us asa people it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national lifein a new continent. We are the heirs of the ages, and yet we have had topay few of the penalties which in old countries are exacted by the deadhand of a bygone civilization. We have not been obliged to fight for ourexistence against any alien race; and yet our life has called for the vigorand effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues wither away. Undersuch conditions it would be our own fault if we failed; and the successwhich we have had in the past, the success which we confidently believethe future will bring, should cause in us no feeling of vainglory, but rathera deep and abiding realization of all which life has offered us; a fullacknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours; and a fixed determinationto show that under a free government a mighty people can thrive best, alikeas regards the things of the body and the things of the soul.	1
Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expectedfrom us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirkneither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatnessinto relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave asbeseems a people with such responsibilities. Toward all other nations, largeand small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship. Wemust show not only in our words, but in our deeds, that we are earnestlydesirous of securing their good will by acting toward them in a spirit ofjust and generous recognition of all their rights. But justice and generosityin a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weakbut by the strong. While ever careful to refrain from wrongdoing others,we must be no less insistent that we are not wronged ourselves. We wishpeace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. Wewish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. No weaknation 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 forinsolent aggression.	2
Our relations with the other powers of the world are important;but still more important are our relations among ourselves. Such growthin wealth, in population, and in power as this nation has seen during thecentury and a quarter of its national life is inevitably accompanied bya like growth in the problems which are ever before every nation that risesto greatness. Power invariably means both responsibility and danger. Ourforefathers faced certain perils which we have outgrown. We now face otherperils, the very existence of which it was impossible that they should foresee.Modern life is both complex and intense, and the tremendous changes wroughtby the extraordinary industrial development of the last half century arefelt in every fiber of our social and political being. Never before havemen tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that of administeringthe affairs of a continent under the forms of a Democratic republic. Theconditions which have told for our marvelous material well-being, whichhave developed to a very high degree our energy, self-reliance, and individualinitiative, have also brought the care and anxiety inseparable from theaccumulation of great wealth in industrial centers. Upon the success ofour experiment much depends, not only as regards our own welfare, but asregards the welfare of mankind. If we fail, the cause of free self-governmentthroughout the world will rock to its foundations, and therefore our responsibilityis heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generationsyet unborn. There is no good reason why we should fear the future, but thereis every reason why we should face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselvesthe gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problemswith the unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright.	3
Yet, after all, though the problems are new, though the tasksset before us differ from the tasks set before our fathers who founded andpreserved this Republic, the spirit in which these tasks must be undertakenand these problems faced, if our duty is to be well done, remains essentiallyunchanged. We know that self-government is difficult. We know that no peopleneeds such high traits of character as that people which seeks to governits affairs aright through the freely expressed will of the freemen whocompose it. But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memoriesof the men of the mighty past. They did their work, they left us the splendidheritage we now enjoy. We in our turn have an assured confidence that weshall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our childrenand our children's children. To do so we must show, not merely in greatcrises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practicalintelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all thepower of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who foundedthis Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preservedthis Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln.	4