Part 1
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
The original edition did not include a Table of Contents. For the convenience of the reader one has been created:
Introduction i
The Presidency 1
Addresses and State Papers 14
Speech of President Roosevelt at the Reunion of the Department Of the Potomac, G. A. R., at the New Willard Hotel, Washington, D. C., Feb. 19, 1902 14
At the Charleston Exposition, Wednesday, April 9, 1902 18
At New York at the Banquet at Sherry’s in Honor of Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University, April 19, 1902 27
To the Graduating Class, Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md., May 2, 1902 33
At the Banquet of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, Washington, D. C., May 2, 1902 36
At the Laying of the Cornerstone of the McKinley Memorial Ohio College of Government of the American University, Washington, D. C., May 14, 1902 39
At the Exercises of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, Attending the Reburial of Major-general William Stark Rosecrans, Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, D. C., May 17, 1902 40
At the Centennial Meeting of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, Carnegie Hall, New York, N. Y., on the Evening of May 20, 1902 44
At the Overflow Meeting of the Centennial of Presbyterian Home Missions, Central Presbyterian Church, New York, N. Y., May 20, 1902 50
On the Occasion of the Unveiling of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument at Arlington, Under the Auspices of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, May 21, 1902 53
At Arlington, Memorial Day, May 30, 1902 56
At the Opening Session of the Military Surgeons’ Association, Washington, D. C., June 5, 1902 68
At the Centennial Celebration of the Establishment of the United States Military Academy, West Point, June 11, 1902 70
At the Harvard Commencement Dinner, Cambridge, Mass., June 25, 1902 78
At the Coliseum, Hartford, Conn., August 22, 1902 85
At Providence, R. I., August 23, 1902 98
At Symphony Hall, Boston, August 25, 1902 108
At Haverhill, Mass., August 26, 1902 118
At Portland, Maine, August 26, 1902 122
At Augusta, Maine, August 26, 1902 124
At Bangor, Maine, August 27, 1902 126
At Northfield, Mass., September 1, 1902 134
At Fitchburg, Mass., September 2, 1902 137
At Dalton, Mass., September 3, 1902 144
At Wheeling, W. Va., September 6, 1902 146
To the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen, Chattanooga, Tenn., September 8, 1902 156
At Danville, Va., September 9, 1902 167
At Music Hall, Cincinnati, Ohio, on the Evening of September 20, 1902 169
At the Banquet of the Spanish War Veterans, Detroit, Mich., September 22, 1902 185
At Logansport, Ind., September 23, 1902 187
At the Banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, at New York, November 11, 1902 196
At the Banquet Tendered General Luke E. Wright, at Memphis, Tenn., November 19, 1902 202
At the Reception to General Wright at Memphis, Tenn., November 19, 1902 208
At the Founders’ Day Banquet of the Union League, Philadelphia, Pa., November 22, 1902 211
At the Banquet to Justice Harlan, the New Willard Hotel, Washington, D. C., December 9, 1902 221
Reception of a Delegation from the National Board of Trade, Washington, D. C., January 15, 1903 225
At the Banquet of the Young Men’s Christian Association, New Willard Hotel, Washington, D. C., Jan. 19, 1903 226
At the Banquet at Canton, Ohio, January 27, 1903, in Honor of the Birthday of the Late President McKinley 231
At Carnegie Hall, New York, N. Y., February 26, 1903, Upon the Occasion of the Bi-centennial Celebration of the Birth of John Wesley 242
At a Meeting of the Society of American Foresters, Held at the Residence of Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Washington, D. C., March 26, 1903 249
At Chicago, Ill., April 2, 1903 257
At Waukesha, Wis., April 3, 1903 268
At Milwaukee, Wis., April 3, 1903 272
Before the Minnesota Legislature, St. Paul, Minn., April 4, 1903 286
In the Chapel of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., April 4, 1903 292
At Minneapolis, Minn., April 4, 1903 294
At Sioux Falls, S. D., April 6, 1903 302
At Fargo, North Dakota, April 7, 1903 310
At Medora, North Dakota, April 7, 1903 320
At Jamestown, N. D., April 7, 1903 321
At Laying of Cornerstone of Gateway to Yellowstone National Park, Gardiner, Montana, April 24, 1903 324
At Omaha, Neb., April 27, 1903 329
From Address at Quincy, Ill., April 29, 1903 335
At Odeon Hall, St. Louis, Mo., Before the National and International Good Roads Convention, April 29, 1903 336
At St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, April 29, 1903 341
At the Dedication Ceremonies of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, April 30, 1903 341
At Topeka, Kansas, May 1, 1903 353
From Address at Denver, Col., May 4, 1903 361
At Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 5, 1903 364
At the Catholic School, Albuquerque, N. M., May 5, 1903 368
At the Indian School, Albuquerque, N. M., May 5, 1903 368
At Grand Canyon, Arizona, May 6, 1903 369
At Barstow, California, May 7, 1903 372
At San Bernardino, Cal., May 7, 1903 373
At the Big Tree Grove, Santa Cruz, Cal., May 11, 1903 375
At Leland Stanford Junior University, Palo Alto, Cal., May 12, 1903 377
At Mechanics’ Pavilion, San Francisco, Cal., May 13, 1903 390
At the Ceremonies Incident to the Breaking of Sod For the Erection of a Monument in Memory of the Late President McKinley, San Francisco, Cal., May 13, 1903 397
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT—UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD, N. Y.
_A CALIFORNIA SPEECH_
_Some of President Roosevelt’s addresses on public questions called him across the continent. However, he always transacted an enormous amount of public business en route_ ]
Homeward Bound Edition
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS
_February 19, 1902, to May 13, 1903_
BY
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
[Illustration: (colophon)]
PUBLISHED WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR THROUGH SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
VOLUME I
NEW YORK
THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS COMPANY
MCMX
The Publishers desire to make clear to the readers that Ex-president Roosevelt retains no pecuniary interest in the sale of the volumes containing these speeches. He feels that the material contained in these addresses has been dedicated to the public, and that it is, therefore, not to be handled as copyrighted material from which Mr. Roosevelt should receive any pecuniary return.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS
FEBRUARY 19, 1902
TO
MAY 13, 1903
INTRODUCTION
BY ALBERT SHAW
The materials contained in the Addresses and State Papers of Theodore Roosevelt, while President of the United States, possess far more than a transitory interest and value. It is obvious indeed that for the future student of American politics and history their preservation in convenient and authentic form is not merely an important service, but an indispensable one; for it would have been impossible to collate them in any accurate or complete way from the scattered files of newspapers, especially since many of the addresses were delivered at points remote from news centers, and some of these were very inadequately reported by the press. This observation, it is needless to say, does not apply to the formal State Papers—chiefly messages to Congress—for such official deliverances are duly preserved and published by the Government itself. It is, however, suitable as well as convenient to include these State Papers in a collection of the recent utterances of President Roosevelt, for reasons so obvious as to need little comment.
The palpable fact is that President Roosevelt’s messages to Congress and a large number of his speeches, delivered in various parts of the country in his capacity as President, pertain to the same topics and serve a like public purpose. The messages must, of course, deal with matters affecting the welfare of the nation, and with various questions of public business or policy, in those aspects that bear upon the work of Congress. It is the President’s Constitutional right and duty to present information upon such topics, or to expound them from the standpoint of the Administration. In the long series of Presidential messages one may, indeed, read the history of this country for more than a hundred years. To that official narrative these messages by Mr. Roosevelt add some of the most fascinating chapters.
The speeches here collected, on the other hand, have a much wider range. Nevertheless, a great number of the addresses and speeches do in fact deal with precisely the same topics as those presented in the messages to Congress, and were intended not merely for a particular audience but for the whole country through the medium of the press. And for Mr. Roosevelt’s full disclosure of his views and policies touching some questions of large public concern, it is necessary to read his speeches in connection with his general or special messages to Congress. Since a number of his speeches here printed, like his general messages, deal with a variety of matters, the reader who wishes to compare and collate his utterances upon a given subject—as, for example, the regulation of the trusts, the reorganization of the army, the relations of the United States to Cuba, or our methods and policies of administration in the Philippines—will find it desirable to consult the index, which is intended to make these volumes available for ready reference.
Quite apart from their obvious value for reference purposes to the student of our contemporary history and politics, or to the campaign speaker of one party or another—who may wish to know authoritatively what Mr. Roosevelt said about various public issues—this collection of addresses has several distinct merits and advantages that must give it a place among works relating to the national life and character. Mr. Roosevelt, as an exponent of the aims and ideals of a great portion of his own generation of men and women in the United States, stands unquestionably first. In two volumes of his previously collected essays and papers, one entitled _American Ideals_ and the other _The Strenuous Life_, both of which are included in the present edition of his works, Mr. Roosevelt has expressed with remarkable vigor,—as well as with an unwavering conviction and a wholesome philosophy of work and courage,—those views of politics, citizenship, and organized social and economic life to which the best conscience and intelligence of his fellow-countrymen have made sympathetic response. These essays, it is true, set forth no abstract scheme of political or social philosophy. Yet out of them there might be evolved a systematic body of doctrine relating to the duties of citizenship in a democracy, and to the ethics of administration and government. The explanation is that the doctrines and principles have come to be embodied in the character and convictions of the man himself; and thus the essays and addresses have not been the mere intellectual products of a man addicted to the use of the pen or to the phrasing of sentences, but rather the direct and wellnigh spontaneous expression of Mr. Roosevelt in relation to topics rendered timely by events and occasions.
In like manner and in an even higher sense, these later speeches, made under the sobering sense of responsibility that must come with the holding of so great an office as the Presidency, express Mr. Roosevelt’s convictions respecting our American life and citizenship in such manner as to form a sort of record for the study of the psychology of the nation at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Furthermore, these addresses and public papers, while to some extent homely, unstudied and unconventional in their phraseology, have the quality of permanent literature in a much higher measure than the utterances of almost any other American public man of our time. The traditional American political oratory is highly stilted and artificial—overloaded with rhetoric and figures of speech, lacking vernacular force and directness. While the orotund and rhetorical method of the past has largely disappeared, there has followed it another method almost equally artificial, in which the stately periods of the old-fashioned orator have been succeeded by the illustrative amusing anecdote, the highly burnished witticism, and the pointed phrase or apothegm.
Mr. Roosevelt’s method is wholly different from either of these. Except for being at times a trifle more earnest and hortatory, it is the method of some of the best contemporary English speakers. They do not posture, and do not attempt to be either orators or mere platform entertainers. Rather, they prefer to state in a direct, conversational manner certain things that they wish to say. Their language is that which naturally, and without conscious effort, clothes their thoughts as men of culture and mature intellectual life. Mr. Roosevelt being a man of trained mind, strong conviction, historical knowledge, and wide public experience, combined with great practical energy and executive force, and buoyant physical health, has both his own opinions and his own ready and forcible way of expressing them.
Thus many of the speeches contained in this collection are as nearly extemporaneous utterances as any which have ever been put into similarly permanent form. Here are addresses made in almost every State and Territory of the Union; and they were prepared and delivered within a very short range of time, during which a far greater number of briefer and more casual speeches have been made, thousands of letters written, and innumerable statements upon matters of a public character addressed to the Cabinet (collectively and individually), to Senators and members of Congress, to various executive officials, to public men and citizens from every part of every State of the Union, to committees and deputations representing all classes and interests, and to representatives and visitors from all countries—whether a royal prince from Germany or a defeated Boer general from South Africa. And when one considers all these demands upon a President’s time, and knows something of the prodigious industry with which the Chief Executive must devote himself to the almost innumerable duties that present themselves daily in connection with his executive work, it becomes plain that these speeches and addresses have been in the main the spontaneous utterances of a richly stored mind inspired by firm conviction and resolute will, and supported by extraordinary physical strength and vigor.
Yet Mr. Roosevelt’s speeches have not been carelessly prepared. Nor have they ever been left—as some speakers profess to leave theirs—to the “inspiration of the moment.” Mr. Roosevelt has unusual powers of concentration; and his achievement of so much work is due to his ability to turn promptly from one thing to another and to give each successive task his whole undivided attention. With an excellent memory and a disciplined mind, he is able to summon to his aid at a given moment all his past resources of reading, study, and thought upon a given topic. Thus, before going on several of the long trips in connection with which a great number of addresses in these volumes were made, the more important of the speeches for which dates had been fixed were dictated one after another to his stenographers late in the evening when the day’s work was cleared away, social or official guests had departed, and an hour or two of uninterrupted time was at his disposal.
This, indeed, is the same method by which a number of the essays and addresses which have become familiar in the collected volumes entitled _American Ideals_, and _The Strenuous Life_, had been prepared at former periods when Mr. Roosevelt was under stress of much occupation. There has been no attempt to polish sentences or to make fine phrases, yet there is the orderly and the deliberate expression that results from orderly processes of thinking. And there is the assured and confident tone that reveals a steadfast mind seldom tormented by doubts or misgivings.
Again, it is to be noted that these addresses are patriotic rather than partisan, and that where they deal with matters of controversy they show a spirit as little contentious or polemic as possible. While believing in the utility of the party system, Mr. Roosevelt spoke as President of the whole country and not merely as the chief of a party. His speeches, in short, are the utterances of a man who embodies the national spirit more broadly and fully than almost any other man of his day. He expresses himself upon a wide range of topics with a larger fund of experience and direct knowledge than is possessed by any other conspicuous public man of either party.
It is only through some understanding of the career that led up to his assumption of the Presidency that the richness, the fulness, and the authoritative quality of his observations on many varied themes can be appreciated. Mr. Roosevelt’s life has, amid much variety, possessed great unity. While still in college at Harvard, his mind became centered upon the study of American life, American history, and American government and policy. Whatever he undertook after leaving college added steadily to his understanding of the people of his own country and their institutions. Almost at once he threw himself into the politics of the great State of New York, served several terms in the Legislature, and made himself known throughout the country by the vigor and courage with which he applied himself to current problems of State and municipal reform. At a time when the so-called “spoils system” was powerfully rooted in the practical government of nation, State, and city, he became a civil service reformer.
Everything that was worth while was of interest to him and everything that he undertook to do was done whole-heartedly and thus made its contribution to his own development. He was an officer in the militia, and learned lessons which became, years afterward, valuable to him as a colonel in the Spanish-American war and later as commander-in-chief of the army by virtue of the Presidential office.
Meanwhile his first literary undertaking was the history of the naval war of 1812, which appeared in 1882, and which will always remain a vital and standard account of our last war with Great Britain, especially from the standpoint of naval strategy and actual operations. Whether taking part himself in the current life of his country and in the making of its history, or whether studying or writing about the part that others have taken in the development of the nation, there has been on Mr. Roosevelt’s part always a singleness of purpose and a harmony of effort. Thus, when he wrote about the War of 1812, as when in later years he wrote the graphic yet accurate and well-poised studies of those Western movements, military and civil, that created the Mississippi Valley (comprised in the series of volumes entitled _The Winning of the West_), there was on his part just as much a sense of dealing with realities as when in 1899 he wrote out the story of the part played by his regiment of Rough Riders in the Spanish-American war of the year before. This single work, on _The Winning of the West_, in the opinion of the authorities, justified the honorary degree conferred upon Colonel Roosevelt by the University of Norway on May 6, 1910.
The circumstances which took him to the West in 1884 to become for some years a cattle ranchman, a resident of the great plains, and an exponent of hunting and frontier life, involved in no manner an interruption of the career upon which he had made so propitious an entrance. On the contrary, this was the best possible step that could have been taken for the rounding out and development of the career of a man destined, either in letters or in action, to spend his life in dealing with American affairs from a broad standpoint.
Many of the most marked traits of the American people have been evolved through the process of pioneering. For three centuries our people have been engaged in subduing a continent that they had found a pathless wilderness. No man who has lacked contact with some concrete phases of our pioneering life can ever wholly enter into the spirit of the nation’s historical development, or perfectly understand the inherited qualities of our present day citizenship. Mr. Roosevelt’s Western life supplied that needful element of understanding, while it gave him physical hardihood and a continental breadth of view. It gave him, furthermore, that traditional American readiness with a horse and a gun, and that adaptability to the free life of field and of woods which is the heritage of the average young American, and which made the greater part of the Northern and Southern armies in the Civil War so unequaled, for effectiveness, in all military history.
Through these years of practical life in the West Mr. Roosevelt never lost the studious and literary habit, nor did he lose any of his zest for the public affairs of the country. In due time he returned to the East, took an active part in New York politics again, and was nominated for Mayor. Then he went to Washington, where for a number of years he served as Chairman of the Board of Civil Service Commissioners and became an expert in the field of national administration. After that came his two years as President of the Police Commissioners of New York City—a truly strenuous period that tested every quality of his mind and character. The navy had been at low ebb when Mr. Roosevelt in 1882 wrote his _Naval War of 1812_, and that book fairly contributed toward the revival of interest which soon set on foot the movement for the creation of our modern fleet. The author of that book had ever afterward been regarded both at home and abroad as an expert student of naval history and of sea power, and he had retained an enthusiastic interest in the whole subject. He was well fitted, therefore, for the post of Assistant Secretary of the Navy, to which President McKinley appointed him at the very time when, more clearly than most others, he foresaw the probability of a war with Spain.
He threw his whole intense energy into the work of fitting our navy for such a test, devoting himself especially to the questions of readiness and efficiency in practical detail. And then came the outbreak of war. With the feeling that he was no longer needed in the naval department, and that it was his duty to respond to the call for volunteer soldiers, he entered the army. The history of that service he has himself told in a fascinating way in the volume entitled _The Rough Riders_, included in this edition of his works.
The war being ended, he returned to his own State of New York at a moment when his party was casting about for a candidate for Governor. The outlook was not propitious; but Mr. Roosevelt’s recent career had given him a great personal popularity, and he was accordingly nominated and elected. Great questions of administration are always pending in the State of New York, and there are few governmental offices in any country better adapted to train the incumbent for the tasks of practical statesmanship. Mr. Roosevelt took up the work of the Governorship with characteristic industry, and with results that were successful and valuable in many directions. So well had he satisfied the expectations of his party and of the State that his renomination as Governor was assured; and the whole country had its attention fixed upon him as the probable nominee of his party for the Presidency in the year 1904.