Show ADDRESS oft 4 PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT I 1 hort speech delivered by chief executive after taking the oath of office our duties as A nation to the world and to ourselves atter taking the with of office dur ng the inauguration at march 4 president hoose roose relt dellver ef the following speech my nry fellow citizens no people on earth have more ause to be thankful than ours outs and his big 17 thaid sald reverently in no spirit A t boastfulness in our own strength iut ut with gratitude to the giver of who has blessed us with the conditions ons which have enabled us to so large a measure mea ure of well a ell being and of happiness to us as a people it has been granted to lay ray the of our national life in a ew continent we are the heirs of the ares aged and jet yet ve vie have had to pay few ew of the he penalties which in old countries are exacted by tho the dead hand of a bygone civilization we have not been obliged to fight tor for OUT ouy existence against any all alt fa in race and yet our life has calleb tor for the vigor and effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues wither away under 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 con fl fi dently believe the future will bring should cause in us no fueling feling of vain glory but rather a deep and abiding realization of all which life has of us a full acknowledgment of the responsibility which Is ours and s fixed determination to show that under a free tree government a mighty people can thrive best alike as regards the things of file 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 great na tion forced by the tact fact of its great nes ness into relations with the other na tlona of the earth and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities toward all other large and small our attitude tura hiir and a quarter of its national life Is inevitably accompanied by a like growth groath in n thel problems which are eier ever before every nation that rises to greatness power invariably means both responsibility and danger our forefathers faced certain perils which ft e ha e outgrown we now face oth er perils the very existence of which it was impossible that they should foresee modern modem life la Is both complex I 1 and intense and the tre tremendous mendo a changes wrought by the extraordinary industrial developments of the last halt half century are felt in every fiber ot of our social and political being never before have men tried sova so vast stand and for or rai dable an experiment ex as that ot of ad ministering the affairs ot of a continent under the forms of a democratic re public the conditions which have told for or our marvelous material well being which have developed to a very high degree our energy self reliance and individual initiative have also brought the care and anxiety able from the accumulation of great wealth in industrial center centers upon the success ot of our experiment much depends not only as reg regards ardEf 1 our own v elfare but as regards the welfare of mankind it if we tail fail the cause of free self government ent throughout the world will rock to its found foundations and therefore our responsibility Is heavy to ourselves to the world as it la Is today and to the generations yet un born there Is no good reason why wo we should tear fear the future but there Is every reason 4 why we should face it seriously nel neither ther h ding from ourselves the gravity ot of the problems before us nor tearing fearing tc to approach these problems with the unbending unflinching purpose tc solve them aright yet after all though the problem lenit are new now though the tasks set betor us differ from the tasks task 8 set bedfor t our fathers who ho founded and pro pre served this republic the spirit in which these tasks must be b under tak PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT A f 4 e r 1 I V A I 1 via I 1 0 4 fill 1 it N I 1 I 1 A J I 1 I 1 I 1 I 1 IF I 1 inaugurated march 4 1903 bust be one of cordial and sincere friendship Mend ship we must show not only in our words but in our deeds that we are earnestly desirous of cecur lug their good will by acting toward them in a spirit of just and generous recognition of all their rights but justice u slice and generosity in a cation nation as in an individual count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong while ever careful to retrain refrain from wronging others we must be no na 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 manfully and justly should ever have cause to tear fear us and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent ag grescion gres slon sion our relations with the other pow ere era 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 con en eu and these problems faced it if oui ow duty is to to be well done remains essen bially unchanged we know that self government is difficult we know that no people needs such high traits oil of character as that people which seeks to govern its affairs aright through the freely expressed will of the tree free men who compose it but we have faith that ae we shall not prove false te 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 confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage and enlarged to our children and an our children V a children to do so we must show not merely in great crises but in the everyday affairs of lit the qualities of practical intelligence of 0 courage of hardihood and endurance and above all the power of devotion devo tiola to a lofty ideal which made great the men who founded this republic in the daye days of washington which made gleat great the men who preserved this republic in the days of abraham lin coin coln |