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02 - Theodore Roosevelt; An Address To Congress by Henry Cabot Lodge · Theodore Roosevelt- an Autobiography

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Speaker 1: Part two of Theodore Roosevelt, an address delivered before the
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Speaker 1: Congress of the United States by Henry Cabot Lodge. This
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Within the narrow
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Speaker 1: limits of an address, it is impossible to give an
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Speaker 1: account of an administration of seven years, which will occupy
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Speaker 1: hundreds of pages when the history of the United States
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Speaker 1: during that period is written. It was a memorable administration,
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Speaker 1: memorable in itself and not by the accident of events
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Speaker 1: and the large in its accomplishment. It began with a surprise.
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Speaker 1: There were many persons in the United States who had
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Speaker 1: carefully cultivated and many people who had accepted without thought
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Speaker 1: the idea that Roosevelt was in some way a dangerous man.
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Speaker 1: They gloomily predicted that there would be a violent change
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Speaker 1: in the policies and in the officers of the mc
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Speaker 1: kinley administration. But Rosevelt had not studied the history of
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Speaker 1: his country in vain. He knew that in three of
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Speaker 1: the four cases where vice presidents had succeeded to the
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Speaker 1: presidency through the death of the elected president, their coming
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Speaker 1: had resulted in a violent shifting of policies and men,
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Speaker 1: and as a consequence, in most injurious dissensions, which in
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Speaker 1: two cases at least proved fatal to the party in power.
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Speaker 1: In all four instances, the final obliteration of the vice president,
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Speaker 1: who had come into power through the death of his
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Speaker 1: chief was complete. President Roosevelt did not intend to permit
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Speaker 1: any of these results. As soon as he came into office,
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Speaker 1: he announced that he intended to retain President McKinley's cabinet
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Speaker 1: and to carry out his policies which had been sustained
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Speaker 1: in the polls. To those over zealous friends who suggested
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Speaker 1: that he could not trust the appointees of President mc
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Speaker 1: ginley and that he would be but a pallid imitation
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Speaker 1: of his predecessor, he replied that he thought, in any event,
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Speaker 1: the administration would be his, and that if new occasions
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Speaker 1: required new policies, he felt that he could meet them,
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Speaker 1: and that no one would suspect him of being a
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Speaker 1: pallid imitation of anybody. His decision, however, gratified and satisfied
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Speaker 1: the country, and it was not apparent that Roosevelt was
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Speaker 1: hampered in any way in carrying out his own policies
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Speaker 1: By this wise refusal to make sudden and violent changes.
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Speaker 1: Those who were alarmed about what he might do, had
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Speaker 1: also suggested that with his combative propensities, he was likely
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Speaker 1: to involve the country in war. Yet there never has
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Speaker 1: been an administration as afterwards appeared when we were more
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Speaker 1: perfectly at peace with all the world, nor were our
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Speaker 1: foreign relations ever in danger of producing hostilities. But this
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Speaker 1: was not due in the least to the adoption of
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Speaker 1: a timid or year yielding foreign policy. On the contrary,
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Speaker 1: it was owing to the firmness of the President in
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Speaker 1: all foreign questions and the knowledge which other nations soon acquired.
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Speaker 1: The President. Roosevelt was a man who never threatened unless
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Speaker 1: he meant to carry out his threat, the result being
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Speaker 1: that he was not obliged to threaten at all. One
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Speaker 1: of his earliest successes was forcing the settlement of the
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Speaker 1: Alaskan boundary question, which was the single open question with
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Speaker 1: Great Britain that was really dangerous and contained within itself
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Speaker 1: possibilities of war. The accomplishment of this settlement was followed
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Speaker 1: later while mister Root was Secretary of State, by the
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Speaker 1: arrangement of all our outstanding differences with Canada. And during
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Speaker 1: mister Root's tenure of office, over thirty treaties were made
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Speaker 1: with different nations, including a number of practical and valuable
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Speaker 1: treaties of arbitration. When Germany started to take advantage of
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Speaker 1: the difficulties in Venezuela, the af fair culminated in the
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Speaker 1: dispatch of Dewey and the fleet to the Caribbean, the
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Speaker 1: withdrawal of England at once, and the agreement of Germany
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Speaker 1: to the reference of all subjects of difference to arbitration.
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Speaker 1: It was President Roosevelt whose good offices brought Russia and
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Speaker 1: Japan together in a negotiation which closed the war between
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Speaker 1: those two powers. It was Roosevelt's influence which contributed powerfully
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Speaker 1: to settling the threatening controversy between Germany, France, and England
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Speaker 1: in regard to Morocco by the Algeciras Conference. It was
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Speaker 1: Roosevelt who sent the American fleet of battleships round the world,
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Speaker 1: one of the most convincing peace movements ever made on
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Speaker 1: behalf of the United States. Thus it came about that
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Speaker 1: this president, dreaded at the beginning on account of his
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Speaker 1: combative spirit, received the Nobel Prize in nineteen o six
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Speaker 1: as the person who had contributed most to the peace
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Speaker 1: of the world world in the preceding years, and his
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Speaker 1: contribution was the result of strength and knowledge, and not
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Speaker 1: of weakness. At home, he recommended to Congress legislation which
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Speaker 1: was directed toward a larger control of the railroads and
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Speaker 1: to removing the privileges and curbing the power of great
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Speaker 1: business combinations obtained through rebates and preferential freight rates. This
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Speaker 1: legislation led to opposition in Congress and to much resistance
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Speaker 1: by those affected. As we look back, this legislation, so
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Speaker 1: much contested at the time, seems very moderate, but it
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Speaker 1: was nonetheless momentous. President Roosevelt never believed in government ownership,
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Speaker 1: but he was thoroughly in favor of strong and effective
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Speaker 1: government supervision and regulation of what are now known generally
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Speaker 1: as public utilities. He had a deep conviction that the
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Speaker 1: political influence of financial and business interests, and of great
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Speaker 1: combinations of capital, had become so great that the American
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Speaker 1: people were beginning to distrust their own government than which
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Speaker 1: there could be no greater peril to the republic. By
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Speaker 1: his measures, and by his general attitude toward capital and labor,
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Speaker 1: both he sought to restore and maintain the confidence of
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Speaker 1: the people in the government they had themselves created in
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Speaker 1: the Panama Canal. He left the most enduring, as it
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Speaker 1: was the most visible monument of his administration. Much criticized
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Speaker 1: at the moment for his action in regard to it,
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Speaker 1: which time since then has justified and which history will praise.
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Speaker 1: The great fact remains that the canal is there. He
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Speaker 1: said himself that he made up his mind that it
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Speaker 1: was his duty to establish the canal and have the
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Speaker 1: debate about it afterwards, which seemed to him better than
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Speaker 1: to begin with indefinite debate and have no canal at all.
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Speaker 1: This is a view which posterity, both at home and abroad,
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Speaker 1: will accept and approve. These passing over as we must
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Speaker 1: in silence. Many other beneficial acts are only a few
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Speaker 1: of the most salient features of his administration, stripped of
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Speaker 1: all detail and all enlargement. Despite the conflict which some
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Speaker 1: of his domestic policies had produced, not only with his
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Speaker 1: political opponents but within the Republican ranks, he was overwhelmingly
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Speaker 1: re elected in nineteen o four, and when the seven
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Speaker 1: years had closed, the country gave a like majority to
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Speaker 1: his chosen successor, taken from his own cabinet. On the
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Speaker 1: fourth of March nineteen o nine, He returned to private
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Speaker 1: life at the age of fifty, having been the youngest
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Speaker 1: president known in our history. During the brief vacations which
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Speaker 1: he had been able to secure in the midst of
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Speaker 1: the intense activities of his public life after the Spanish War,
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Speaker 1: he had turned for enjoyment to expedition in pursuit of
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Speaker 1: big game in the wildest and most unsettled regions of
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Speaker 1: the country. Open air life and all its accompaniment of
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Speaker 1: riding and hunting were to him the one thing that
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Speaker 1: brought him the most rest and relaxation. Now having left
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Speaker 1: the presidency, he was able to give full scope to
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Speaker 1: the love of adventure, which had been strong with him
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Speaker 1: from boyhood. Soon after his retirement from office, he went
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Speaker 1: to Africa, accompanied by a scientific expedition sent out by
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Speaker 1: the Smithsonian Institution. He landed in East Africa, made his
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Speaker 1: way into the interior and thence to the sources of
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Speaker 1: the Nile. After a trip in every way successful both
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Speaker 1: in exploration and in pursuit of big game, he then
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Speaker 1: came down the Nile through Egypt and thence to Europe,
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Speaker 1: and no private citizen of the United States, probably no
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Speaker 1: private man of any country, was ever received in a
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Speaker 1: manner comparable to that which met Roosevelt in every country
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Speaker 1: in Europe which he visited. Everywhere, it was the same
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Speaker 1: in Italy, in Germany and France and England. Every honor
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Speaker 1: was paid to him that authority could devise, accompanied by
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Speaker 1: every mark of affection and admiration which the people of
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Speaker 1: those countries were able to show. He made few speeches
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Speaker 1: while in Europe, but in those few he did not
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Speaker 1: fail to give to the questions and thoughts of the time,
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Speaker 1: real and genuine contributions, set forth in plain language, always vigorous,
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Speaker 1: and often eloquent. He returned in the summer of nineteen
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Speaker 1: ten to the United States, and was greeted with a
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Speaker 1: reception on his landing in New York quite equaling in
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Speaker 1: interest and enthusiasm that which had been given to him
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Speaker 1: in Europe. For two years afterwards, he devoted himself to
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Speaker 1: writing not only articles as contributing editor of The Outlook,
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Speaker 1: but books of his own, and addresses and speeches, which
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Speaker 1: he was constantly called upon to make. No man in
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Speaker 1: private life probably ever had such an audience as he addressed,
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Speaker 1: whether with tongue or pen, upon the questions of the day,
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Speaker 1: with a constant refrain as to the qualities necessary to
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Speaker 1: make men both good citizens and good Americans. In the
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Speaker 1: spring of nineteen twelve, he decided to become a candidate
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Speaker 1: for the Republican nomination for the presidency, and a very
10:30
Speaker 1: heated struggle followed between himself and President Taft for delegations
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Speaker 1: to the Convention. The convention, when it assembled in Chicago,
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Speaker 1: was the stormiest ever known in our history. President Taft
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Speaker 1: was renominated, most of the Roosevelt delegates refusing to vote,
10:48
Speaker 1: and a large body of Republicans thereupon formed a new
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Speaker 1: party called the Progressive and nominated mister Roosevelt as their candidate.
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Speaker 1: This division into two nearly equal parts of the Republican Party,
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Speaker 1: which had elected mister Roosevelt and mister Taft in succession
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Speaker 1: by the largest majorities ever known, made the victory of
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Speaker 1: the Democratic candidate absolutely certain. Colonel Roosevelt, however, stood second
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Speaker 1: in the poll, receiving four million, one hundred nineteen thousand,
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Speaker 1: five hundred seven votes, carrying six states, and winning eighty
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Speaker 1: eight electoral votes. There never has been in political history,
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Speaker 1: when all conditions are considered, such an exhibition of extraordinary
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Speaker 1: personal strength to have secured eighty eight electoral votes, when
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Speaker 1: his own party was hopelessly divided, with no great historic
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Speaker 1: party name and tradition behind him, with an organization which
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Speaker 1: had to be hastily brought together in a few weeks,
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Speaker 1: seems almost incredible, And in all his career there is
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Speaker 1: no display of the strength of his hold upon the
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Speaker 1: people equal to this. In the following year, he yielded
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Speaker 1: again to the longing for adventure and exploration, going to
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Speaker 1: South America. He made his way up through Paraguay and
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Speaker 1: western Brazil, and then across a trackless wilderness of jungle
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Speaker 1: and down an unknown river into the valley of the Amazon.
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Speaker 1: It was a remarkable expedition and carried him through what
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Speaker 1: is probably the most deadly climate in the world. He
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Speaker 1: suffered severely from the fever, the poison of which never
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Speaker 1: left him and which finally shortened his life. In the
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Speaker 1: next year, the Great War began, and Colonel Roosevelt threw
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Speaker 1: himself into it with all the energy of his nature.
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Speaker 1: With Major Gardner, he led the great fight for preparedness
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Speaker 1: in a country utterly unprepared. He saw very plainly that
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Speaker 1: in all human probability, it would be impossible for us
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Speaker 1: to keep out of the war. Therefore, in season and
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Speaker 1: out of season, he demanded that we should make ready.
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Speaker 1: He and Major Gard, with the others who joined them,
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Speaker 1: roused a widespread and powerful sentiment in the country, but
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Speaker 1: there was no practical effect on the army. The navy
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Speaker 1: was the single place where anything was really done, and
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Speaker 1: that only in the Bill of nineteen sixteen. So that
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Speaker 1: war finally came upon us as unready as Roosevelt had
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Speaker 1: feared we should be. Yet the campaign he made was
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Speaker 1: not in vain, for in addition to the question of preparation,
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Speaker 1: he spoke earnestly of other things, other burning questions, and
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Speaker 1: he always spoke to an enormous body of listeners everywhere.
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Speaker 1: He would have had us protect and take action at
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Speaker 1: the very beginning of nineteen fourteen, when Belgium was invaded,
13:44
Speaker 1: he would have had us go to war when the
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Speaker 1: murders of the Lusitania were perpetrated. He tried to stir
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Speaker 1: the soul and rouse the spirit of the American people,
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Speaker 1: and despite every obstacle, he did awaken them, so that
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Speaker 1: when the hour came in April nineteen seven, a large
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Speaker 1: proportion of the American people were even then ready in spirit,
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Speaker 1: and in hope, how telling his work had been was
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Speaker 1: proved by the confession of his country's enemies. For when
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Speaker 1: he died, the only discordant note, the only harsh words,
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Speaker 1: came from the German press. Germany knew whose voice it was, that,
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Speaker 1: more powerfully than any other, had called Americans to the
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Speaker 1: battle in behalf of freedom and civilization, where the advent
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Speaker 1: of the armies of the United States gave victory to
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Speaker 1: the cause of justice and righteousness. When the United States
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Speaker 1: went to war, Colonel Roosevelt's one desire was to be
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Speaker 1: allowed to go to the fighting line. There. If fate
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Speaker 1: had laid its hand upon him, it would have found
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Speaker 1: him glad to fall in the trenches or in a
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Speaker 1: charge at the head of his men. But it was
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Speaker 1: not permitted to him to go, and thus he was
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Speaker 1: denied the reward which he would have ranked above all others,
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Speaker 1: the great prize of death in battle. But he was
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Speaker 1: a patriot in every fiber of his being, and personal
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Speaker 1: disappointment in no manner slackened or cooled his zeal. Everything
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Speaker 1: that he could do to forward the war, to quicken preparation,
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Speaker 1: to stimulate patriotism, to urge on efficient action, was done
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Speaker 1: day and night, in season and out of season. He
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Speaker 1: never ceased his labors. Although prevented from going to France himself,
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Speaker 1: he gave to the great conflict, that which was far
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Speaker 1: dearer to him than his own life. I cannot say
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Speaker 1: that he sent his four sons, because they all went
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Speaker 1: at once, as every one knew that their father's sons
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Speaker 1: would do. Two have been badly wounded, one was killed.
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Speaker 1: He met the blow with the most splendid and unflinching courage,
15:53
Speaker 1: met it as Seaward, the Earl of Northumberland, receives in
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Speaker 1: the play the news of his son's death. Seward. Had
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Speaker 1: he his hurts before ross Ay on the front, Seward,
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Speaker 1: why then, God's soldier be he had I as many
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Speaker 1: sons as I have hairs, I would not wish them
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Speaker 1: to a fairer death. And so his knell is nulled.
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Speaker 1: Among the great tragedies of Shakspeare, and there are none
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Speaker 1: greater in all. The literature of Man Macbeth was Colonel
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Speaker 1: Roosevelt's favorite, and the moving words which I have just quoted,
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Speaker 1: I am sure were in his heart and on his
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Speaker 1: lips when he faced with stern resolve and self control
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Speaker 1: the anguish brought to him by the death of his
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Speaker 1: youngest boy, killed in the glory of a brave and
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Speaker 1: brilliant youth. He lived to see the right prevail. He
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Speaker 1: lived to see civilization triumph over organized barbarism, and there
16:54
Speaker 1: was great joy in his heart in all his last days.
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Speaker 1: The thoughts which filled his mind mind were to secure
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Speaker 1: a peace which should render Germany forever harmless, and advance
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Speaker 1: the cause of ordered freedom in every land and among
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Speaker 1: every race. This occupied him to the exclusion of everything
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Speaker 1: else except what he called and what we liked to call, Americanism.
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Speaker 1: There was no hour, down to the end, when he
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Speaker 1: would not turn, aside from everything else, to preach the
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Speaker 1: doctrine of Americanism, of the principles and the faith upon
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Speaker 1: which American government rested, and which all true Americans should
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Speaker 1: wear in their heart of hearts. He was a great patriot,
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Speaker 1: a great man above all, a great American. His country
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Speaker 1: was the ruling, mastering passion of his life from the beginning,
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Speaker 1: even unto the end. So closes the inadequate, most incomplete
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Speaker 1: account of a life full of work done and crowded
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Speaker 1: with achievement, brief in years and prematurely ended. The recitation
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Speaker 1: of the offices which he held, and of some of
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Speaker 1: the deeds that he did, is but a bare, imperfect
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Speaker 1: catalog into which history, when we are gone, will breathe
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Speaker 1: a lasting life. Here to day, it is only a background.
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Speaker 1: And that which must concern us now is what the
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Speaker 1: man was, of whose deeds done. It is possible to
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Speaker 1: make such a list. What a man was is ever
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Speaker 1: more important than what he did, because it is upon
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Speaker 1: what he was that all his achievement depends, and his
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Speaker 1: value and meaning to his fellow men must finally rest.
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Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt always believed that character was of greater worth
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Speaker 1: and moment than anything else. He possessed abilities of the
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Speaker 1: first order, which he was disposed to under rate, because
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Speaker 1: he set so much greater store upon the moral qualities
18:51
Speaker 1: which we bring together under the single word character. Let
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Speaker 1: me speak first of his abilities. He had a powerful, full,
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Speaker 1: well trained, ever active mind. He thought clearly, independently, and
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Speaker 1: with originality and imagination. These priceless gifts were sustained by
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Speaker 1: an extraordinary power of acquisition, joined to a greater quickness
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Speaker 1: of apprehension, a greater swiftness in seizing upon the essence
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Speaker 1: of a question than I have ever happened to see
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Speaker 1: in any other man. His reading began with natural history,
19:28
Speaker 1: then went to general history, and thence to the whole
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Speaker 1: field of literature. He had a capacity for concentration, which
19:35
Speaker 1: enabled him to read with remarkable rapidity anything which he
19:40
Speaker 1: took up, if only for a moment, and which separated
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Speaker 1: him for the time being from everything going on about him.
19:47
Speaker 1: The subjects upon which he was well and widely informed, would,
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Speaker 1: if enumerated, fill a large space. And to this power
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Speaker 1: of acquisition was united not only a tenacious but an
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Speaker 1: extraordinarily accurate memory. It was never safe to contest with
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Speaker 1: him on any question of fact or figures, whether they
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Speaker 1: relate to the ancient Assyrians or to the present day
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Speaker 1: conditions of the tribes of Central Africa, to the Syracusan
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Speaker 1: expedition as told by Thucydides, or to protective coloring in
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Speaker 1: birds and animals. He knew and held details always at command,
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Speaker 1: but he was not mastered by them. He never failed
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Speaker 1: to see the forest on account of the trees, or
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Speaker 1: the city on account of the houses. He made himself
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Speaker 1: a writer not only of occasional addresses and essays, but
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Speaker 1: of books. He had the trained thoroughness of the historian,
20:44
Speaker 1: as he showed in his history of the War of
20:46
Speaker 1: eighteen twelve and of the Winning of the West, and
20:50
Speaker 1: nature had endowed him with that most enviable of gifts,
20:54
Speaker 1: the faculty of narrative and the art of the teller
20:58
Speaker 1: of tales. He knew how to weigh evidence in the
21:02
Speaker 1: historical scales, and how to depict character. He learned to
21:06
Speaker 1: write with great ease and fluency. He was always vigorous,
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Speaker 1: always energetic, always clear and forcible. In everything he wrote,
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Speaker 1: nobody could ever misunderstand him. And when he allowed himself
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Speaker 1: time and his feelings were deeply engaged, he gave to
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Speaker 1: the world many pages of beauty as well as power,
21:26
Speaker 1: not only in thought, but in form and style. At
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Speaker 1: the same time he made himself a public speaker, and
21:33
Speaker 1: here again, through a practice probably unequaled in amount, he
21:38
Speaker 1: became one of the most effective in all our history.
21:42
Speaker 1: In speaking, as in writing, he was always full of
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Speaker 1: force and energy. He drove home his arguments and never
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Speaker 1: was misunderstood. In many of his more carefully prepared addresses
21:54
Speaker 1: are to be found passages of impressive eloquence, touched with
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Speaker 1: imagination and instinct, with grace and feeling. He had a
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Speaker 1: large capacity for administration, clearness of vision, promptness in decision,
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Speaker 1: and a thorough apprehension of what constituted efficient organization. All
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Speaker 1: the vast and varied work which he accomplished could not
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Speaker 1: have been done unless he had had most exceptional natural abilities.
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Speaker 1: But behind them, most important of all was the driving
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Speaker 1: force of an intense energy and the ever present belief
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Speaker 1: that a man could do what he willed to do.
22:34
Speaker 1: As he made himself an athlete, a horseman, a good shot,
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Speaker 1: a bold explorer, so he made himself an exceptionally successful
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Speaker 1: writer and speaker. Only a most abnormal energy could have
22:47
Speaker 1: enabled him to enter and conquer in so many fields
22:51
Speaker 1: of intellectual achievement. But something more than energy and determination
22:56
Speaker 1: is needed for the largest success, especially in the world's
23:00
Speaker 1: high places. The first requisite of leadership is ability to lead,
23:05
Speaker 1: and that ability Theodore Roosevelt possessed in full measure. Whether
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Speaker 1: in a game or in the hunting field, in a fight,
23:13
Speaker 1: or in politics, he sought the front, where as Webster
23:17
Speaker 1: once remarked, there is always plenty of room for those
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Speaker 1: who can get there. His instinct was always to say come,
23:25
Speaker 1: rather than go and he had the talent of command.
23:29
Speaker 1: His also was the rare gift of arresting attention sharply
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Speaker 1: and suddenly, a very precious attribute, and one easier to
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Speaker 1: illustrate than to describe. This arresting power is like a
23:42
Speaker 1: common experience which we have all had on entering a
23:46
Speaker 1: picture gallery, of seeing at once and before all others,
23:51
Speaker 1: a single picture among the many on the walls. For
23:54
Speaker 1: a moment, you see nothing else, although you may be
23:57
Speaker 1: surrounded with masterpieces, in that that particular picture lurks a strange, capturing,
24:03
Speaker 1: gripping fascination, as impalpable as it is unmistakable. Roosevelt had
24:09
Speaker 1: this same arresting, fascinating quality, whether in the legislature at Albany,
24:16
Speaker 1: the Civil Service Commission at Washington, or the Police Commission
24:20
Speaker 1: in New York, Whether in the Spanish War or on
24:23
Speaker 1: the plains among the cowboys, he was always vivid, at
24:26
Speaker 1: times startling, never to be overlooked. Nor did this power
24:31
Speaker 1: stop here. He not only, without effort or intention, drew
24:36
Speaker 1: the eager attention of the people to himself. He could
24:39
Speaker 1: also engage and fix their thoughts upon anything which happened
24:44
Speaker 1: to interest him. It might be a man, or a
24:47
Speaker 1: book reformed spelling, or some large historical question, his traveling library,
24:53
Speaker 1: or the military preparation of the United States. He had
24:56
Speaker 1: but to say, see how interesting, how important is this
25:00
Speaker 1: man or this event? And thousands, even millions of people
25:05
Speaker 1: would reply, we never thought of this before, but it
25:09
Speaker 1: certainly is one of the most interesting, most absorbing things
25:13
Speaker 1: in the world. He touched a subject, and it suddenly
25:17
Speaker 1: began to glow, as when the high power electric current
25:20
Speaker 1: touches the metal, and the white light starts forth and
25:23
Speaker 1: dazzles the onlooking eyes. We know the air played by
25:27
Speaker 1: the pied piper of Hamlin no better than we know
25:30
Speaker 1: why Theodore Roosevelt thus drew the interest of men after him.
25:35
Speaker 1: We only know they followed wherever his insatiable activity of
25:39
Speaker 1: mind invited them. Men follow also most readily a leader
25:45
Speaker 1: who was always there before them, clearly visible, and just
25:49
Speaker 1: where they expect him. They are especially eager to go
25:53
Speaker 1: forward with a man who never sounds a retreat. Roosevelt
25:57
Speaker 1: was always advancing, always struggling to make things better, to
26:00
Speaker 1: carry some much needed reform and help humanity to a
26:04
Speaker 1: larger chance, to a fairer condition, to a happier life. Moreover,
26:10
Speaker 1: he looked always for an ethical question. He was at
26:13
Speaker 1: his best when he was fighting the battle of right
26:16
Speaker 1: against wrong. He thought soundly and wisely upon questions of
26:21
Speaker 1: expediency or of political economy, but they did not arouse
26:26
Speaker 1: him or bring him the absorbed interest of the eternal
26:29
Speaker 1: conflict between good and evil. Yet he was never impractical,
26:34
Speaker 1: never blinded by counsels of perfection, never seeking to make
26:39
Speaker 1: the better the enemy of the good. He wished to
26:43
Speaker 1: get the best, but he would strive for all that
26:45
Speaker 1: was possible, even if it fell short of the highest
26:48
Speaker 1: at which he aimed. He studied the lessons of history
26:52
Speaker 1: and did not think the past bad simply because it
26:55
Speaker 1: was the past, or the new good solely because it
26:59
Speaker 1: was new. He sought to try all questions on their
27:02
Speaker 1: intrinsic merits, and that was why he succeeded in advancing
27:07
Speaker 1: in making the government and society better, where others who
27:11
Speaker 1: would be content with nothing less than an abstract perfection failed.
27:17
Speaker 1: He would never compromise a principle, but he was eminently
27:20
Speaker 1: tolerant of honest differences of opinion. He never hesitated to
27:25
Speaker 1: give generous credit where credit seemed due, whether to friend
27:29
Speaker 1: or opponent, and in this way he gathered recruits and
27:33
Speaker 1: yet never lost adherents. The criticism most commonly made upon
27:39
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt was that he was impulsive and impetuous, that
27:43
Speaker 1: he acted without thinking. He would have been the last
27:47
Speaker 1: to claim infallibility. His head did not turn when fame
27:51
Speaker 1: came to him, and choruses of admiration sounded in his ears,
27:55
Speaker 1: for he was neither vain nor credulous. He knew that
27:59
Speaker 1: he made mistakes, and never hesitated to admit them to
28:02
Speaker 1: be mistakes, and to correct them or put them behind
28:06
Speaker 1: him when satisfied that they were such. But he wasted
28:10
Speaker 1: no time in mourning, explaining, or vainly regretting them. It
28:14
Speaker 1: is also true that the middle way did not attract him.
28:18
Speaker 1: He was apt to go far both in praise and censure,
28:22
Speaker 1: although nobody could analyze qualities and balance them justly. In
28:27
Speaker 1: judging men better than he, he felt strongly, and as
28:31
Speaker 1: he had no concealments of any kind, he expressed himself
28:35
Speaker 1: in like manner. But vehemence is not violence, nor is
28:39
Speaker 1: earnestness anger, which a very wise man defined as a
28:43
Speaker 1: brief madness. It was all according to his nature. Just
28:47
Speaker 1: as his eager cordiality in meeting men and women, his
28:51
Speaker 1: keen interest in other people's care or joys, was not
28:55
Speaker 1: assumed as some person's thought who did not know him.
29:00
Speaker 1: It was all profoundly natural, it was all real. And
29:04
Speaker 1: in that way and in no other, was he able
29:07
Speaker 1: to meet and greet his fellow men. He spoke out
29:10
Speaker 1: with the most unrestrained frankness at all times and in
29:14
Speaker 1: all companies. Not a day passed in the presidency when
29:18
Speaker 1: he was not guilty of what the trained diplomatist would
29:21
Speaker 1: call indiscretions. But the frankness had its own reward. There
29:26
Speaker 1: never was a president whose confidence was so respected, or
29:30
Speaker 1: with whom the barriers of honor which surround private conversation
29:34
Speaker 1: were more scrupulously observed. At the same time, when the
29:39
Speaker 1: public interest required, no man could be more wisely reticent.
29:44
Speaker 1: He was apt, it is true, to act suddenly and decisively.
29:48
Speaker 1: But it was a complete mistake to suppose that he
29:51
Speaker 1: therefore acted without thought or merely on a momentary impulse.
29:56
Speaker 1: When he had made up his mind, he was resolute
29:59
Speaker 1: and unchained. But he made up his mind only after
30:02
Speaker 1: much reflection. And there never was a president in the
30:06
Speaker 1: White House, who consulted not only friends, but political opponents
30:10
Speaker 1: and men of all kinds and conditions, more than Theodore Roosevelt.
30:15
Speaker 1: When he had reached his conclusion, he acted quickly and
30:19
Speaker 1: drove hard at his object. And this, it was probably,
30:24
Speaker 1: which gave an impression that he acted sometimes hastily and thoughtlessly,
30:30
Speaker 1: which was a complete misapprehension of the man. His action
30:34
Speaker 1: was emphatic, but emphasis implies reflection, not thoughtlessness. One cannot
30:41
Speaker 1: even emphasize a word without a process. However, slight of
30:45
Speaker 1: mental differentiation. The feeling that he was impetuous and impulsive
30:51
Speaker 1: was also due to the fact that in a sudden,
30:54
Speaker 1: seemingly unexpected crisis, he would act with great rapidity. This
31:00
Speaker 1: happened when he had been for weeks, perhaps for months,
31:03
Speaker 1: considering what he should do if such a crisis arose.
31:07
Speaker 1: He always believed that one of the most important elements
31:11
Speaker 1: of success, whether in public or in private life, was
31:14
Speaker 1: to know what one meant to do under given circumstances.
31:18
Speaker 1: If he saw the possibility of perilous questions arising, it
31:22
Speaker 1: was his practice to think over carefully just how he
31:25
Speaker 1: would act under certain contingencies. Many of the contingencies never
31:30
Speaker 1: arose now, and then a contingency became an actuality, and
31:35
Speaker 1: then he was ready. He knew what he meant to do.
31:38
Speaker 1: He acted at once, and some critics considered him impetuous, impulsive,
31:44
Speaker 1: and therefore dangerous, because they did not know that he
31:47
Speaker 1: had thought the question all out beforehand. Very many people,
31:52
Speaker 1: powerful elements in the community regarded him at one time
31:56
Speaker 1: as a dangerous radical, bent upon overthrowing all the safeguard
32:01
Speaker 1: of society and planning to tear out the foundations of
32:04
Speaker 1: an ordered to liberty. As a matter of fact, what
32:08
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt was trying to do was to strengthen American
32:12
Speaker 1: society and American government by demonstrating to the American people
32:17
Speaker 1: that he was aiming at a larger economic equality and
32:20
Speaker 1: a more generous industrial opportunity for all men, and that
32:25
Speaker 1: any combination of capital or of business which threatened the
32:28
Speaker 1: control of the government by the people who made it
32:31
Speaker 1: was to be curbed and resisted, just as he would
32:35
Speaker 1: have resisted an enemy who tried to take possession of
32:38
Speaker 1: the city of Washington. He had no hostility to a
32:41
Speaker 1: man because he had been successful in business, or because
32:45
Speaker 1: he had accumulated a fortune. If the man had been
32:49
Speaker 1: honestly successful and used his fortune wisely and beneficently, he
32:54
Speaker 1: was regarded by Theodore Roosevelt as a good citizen. The
32:58
Speaker 1: vulgar hatred of wealth found no place in his heart.
33:01
Speaker 1: He had but one standard, one test, and that was
33:05
Speaker 1: whether a man rich or poor, was an honest man,
33:09
Speaker 1: a good citizen, and a good American. He tried men,
33:14
Speaker 1: whether they were men of big business or members of
33:17
Speaker 1: a labor union, by their deeds and in no other way.
33:21
Speaker 1: The tyranny of anarchy and disorder, such as is now
33:25
Speaker 1: desolating Russia, was as hateful to him as any other tyranny,
33:30
Speaker 1: whether it came from an autocratic system like that of
33:33
Speaker 1: Germany or from the misuse of organized capital. Personally, he
33:39
Speaker 1: believed in every man earning his own living, and he
33:42
Speaker 1: earned money and was glad to do so. But he
33:45
Speaker 1: had no desire or taste for making money, and he
33:49
Speaker 1: was entirely indifferent to it, the simplest of men in
33:53
Speaker 1: his own habits. The only thing he really would have
33:56
Speaker 1: liked to have done with ample wealth would have been
33:58
Speaker 1: to give freely to the many good objects which continually
34:03
Speaker 1: interested him. Theodore Roosevelt's power, however, and the main source
34:08
Speaker 1: of all his achievement, was not in the offices which
34:11
Speaker 1: he held, for those offices were to him only opportunities,
34:15
Speaker 1: but in the extraordinary hold which he established and retained
34:19
Speaker 1: over great bodies of men. He had the largest personal
34:22
Speaker 1: following ever attained by any man in our history. I
34:27
Speaker 1: do not mean by this the following which comes from
34:30
Speaker 1: great political office or from party candidacy. There have been
34:34
Speaker 1: many men who have held the highest offices in our
34:37
Speaker 1: history by the votes of their fellow countrymen, who have
34:40
Speaker 1: never had anything more than a very small personal following.
34:44
Speaker 1: By personal following is meant here that which supports and
34:48
Speaker 1: sustains and goes with a man simply because he is himself,
34:53
Speaker 1: a following which does not care whether their leader and
34:56
Speaker 1: chief is in office or out of office, which is
35:00
Speaker 1: with him and behind him, because they one and all
35:03
Speaker 1: believe in him and love him, and are ready to
35:07
Speaker 1: stand by him, for the sole and simple reason that
35:10
Speaker 1: they have perfect faith that he will lead them where
35:13
Speaker 1: they wish and where they ought to go. This following
35:17
Speaker 1: Theodore Roosevelt had, as I have said, in a larger
35:21
Speaker 1: degree than any one in our history, and the fact
35:24
Speaker 1: that he had it, and what he did with it
35:26
Speaker 1: for the welfare of his fellow men, have given him
35:30
Speaker 1: his great place and his lasting fame. This is not
35:34
Speaker 1: mere assertion. It was demonstrated, as I have already pointed out,
35:39
Speaker 1: by the vote of nineteen twelve, and at all times
35:42
Speaker 1: from the day of his accession to the presidency onward,
35:46
Speaker 1: there were millions of people in this country ready to
35:49
Speaker 1: follow Theodore Roosevelt and vote for him or do anything
35:53
Speaker 1: else that he wanted, whenever he demanded their support or
35:56
Speaker 1: raised his standard. It was this great mass of support
36:00
Speaker 1: among the people, and which probably was never larger than
36:04
Speaker 1: in these last years, that gave him his immense influence
36:08
Speaker 1: upon public opinion. And public opinion was the weapon which
36:12
Speaker 1: he used to carry out all the policies which he
36:15
Speaker 1: wished to bring to fulfillment, and to consolidate all the
36:18
Speaker 1: achievement upon which he had set his heart. This extraordinary
36:24
Speaker 1: popular strength was not given to him solely because the
36:27
Speaker 1: people knew him to be honest and brave, because they
36:30
Speaker 1: were certain that physical fear was an emotion unknown to him,
36:34
Speaker 1: and that his moral courage equaled the physical. It was
36:38
Speaker 1: not merely because they thoroughly believed him to be sincere.
36:42
Speaker 1: All this knowledge and belief, of course, went to making
36:46
Speaker 1: his popular leadership secure. But there was much more in
36:49
Speaker 1: it than that, something that went deeper, basic elements which
36:54
Speaker 1: were not upon the surface, which were due to qualities
36:57
Speaker 1: of temperament, interwoven with his very being, inseparable from him,
37:02
Speaker 1: and yet subtle rather than obvious in their effects. All
37:07
Speaker 1: men admire courage, and that he possessed in the greatest degree,
37:12
Speaker 1: but he had also something larger and rarer than courage
37:15
Speaker 1: in the ordinary acceptation of the word. When an assassin
37:20
Speaker 1: shot him at Milwaukee, he was severely wounded. How severely
37:24
Speaker 1: he could not tell, but it might well have been mortal.
37:28
Speaker 1: He went on to the great meeting awaiting him, and there, bleeding, suffering,
37:34
Speaker 1: ignorant of his fate, but still unconquered, made his speech
37:39
Speaker 1: and went from the stage to the hospital. What bore
37:43
Speaker 1: him up was the dauntless spirit, which could rise victorious
37:47
Speaker 1: over pain and darkness and the unknown, and meet the
37:50
Speaker 1: duty of the hour as if all were well. A
37:54
Speaker 1: spirit like this awakens in all men more than admiration.
37:58
Speaker 1: It kindles affection and appeal to every generous impulse. Very
38:05
Speaker 1: different but equally compelling, was another quality. There is nothing
38:09
Speaker 1: in human beings at once so sane and so sympathetic
38:14
Speaker 1: as a sense of humor. This great gift the Good
38:17
Speaker 1: Fairies conferred upon Theodore Roosevelt at his birth in unstented measure.
38:23
Speaker 1: No man ever had a more abundant sense of humor, joyous,
38:27
Speaker 1: irrepressible humor, and it never deserted him, even at the
38:32
Speaker 1: most serious and even perilous moments. If there was a
38:35
Speaker 1: gleam of humor anywhere, he saw it and rejoiced and
38:39
Speaker 1: helped himself with it over the rough places and in
38:43
Speaker 1: the dark hour. He loved fun, loved to joke and chaff, and,
38:48
Speaker 1: what is more uncommon, greatly enjoyed being chaffed himself. His
38:53
Speaker 1: ready smile and contagious laugh made countless friends and saved
38:58
Speaker 1: him from many An enmity even more generally effective than
39:02
Speaker 1: his humor, and yet allied to it was the universal
39:06
Speaker 1: knowledge that Roosevelt had no secrets from the American people.
39:11
Speaker 1: Yet another quality, perhaps the most engaging of all, was
39:15
Speaker 1: his homely, generous humanity, which enabled him to speak directly
39:20
Speaker 1: to the primitive instinct of man. He dwelt with the
39:24
Speaker 1: tribes of the marsh, and more he sate at the
39:26
Speaker 1: board of kings. He tasted the toil of the burden slave,
39:30
Speaker 1: and the joy that triumph brings. But whether to jungle
39:34
Speaker 1: or palace hall or white walled tent, he came. He
39:38
Speaker 1: was brother to king and soldier and slave. His welcome
39:42
Speaker 1: was the same. He was very human and intensely American,
39:48
Speaker 1: and this net a bond between him and the American
39:51
Speaker 1: people which nothing could ever break. And then he had
39:55
Speaker 1: yet one more attraction, not so impressive, perhaps as the others,
39:59
Speaker 1: but nonetheless very important and very captivating. He never, by
40:04
Speaker 1: any chance bored the American people. They might laugh at
40:08
Speaker 1: him or laugh with him. They might like what he
40:11
Speaker 1: said or dislike it. They might agree with him or
40:14
Speaker 1: disagree with him. But they were never wearied of him,
40:17
Speaker 1: and he never failed to interest them. He was never heavy, laborious,
40:22
Speaker 1: or dull. If he had made any effort to be
40:25
Speaker 1: always interesting and entertaining, he would have failed and been tiresome.
40:30
Speaker 1: He was unfailingly attractive because he was always perfectly natural
40:35
Speaker 1: and his own unconscious self, And so all these things
40:39
Speaker 1: combined to give him his hold upon the American people,
40:42
Speaker 1: not only upon their minds, but upon their hearts and
40:46
Speaker 1: their instincts, which nothing could ever weaken, and which made
40:50
Speaker 1: him one of the most remarkable as he was one
40:53
Speaker 1: of the strongest characters that the history of popular government
40:57
Speaker 1: can show. He was, also, and this is very revealing
41:02
Speaker 1: and explanatory too, of his vast popularity, a man of ideals.
41:08
Speaker 1: He did not expose them daily on the road side,
41:11
Speaker 1: with language fluttering them about them, Like a Tibetan who
41:15
Speaker 1: ties his slip of paper to the prayer wheel whirling
41:18
Speaker 1: in the wind. He kept his ideals to himself until
41:22
Speaker 1: the hour of fulfillment arrived. Some of them were the
41:25
Speaker 1: dreams of boyhood, from which he never departed, and which
41:29
Speaker 1: I have seen him carry out shyly and yet thoroughly,
41:33
Speaker 1: and with intense personal satisfaction. He had a touch of
41:38
Speaker 1: the knight Errant in his daily life, although he would
41:41
Speaker 1: never have admitted it, but it was there. It was
41:44
Speaker 1: not visible in the medieval form of shining armor and
41:47
Speaker 1: dazzling tournaments, but in the never ceasing effort to help
41:51
Speaker 1: the poor and the oppressed, to defend and protect women
41:55
Speaker 1: and children, to right the wronged, and succor the down
41:58
Speaker 1: trodden pass by on the other side. Was not a
42:02
Speaker 1: mode of travel through life ever possible to him. And
42:05
Speaker 1: yet he was as far distant from the professional philanthropist
42:10
Speaker 1: as could well be imagined. For all he tried to
42:13
Speaker 1: do to help his fellow men, he regarded as part
42:16
Speaker 1: of the day's work to be done and not talked about.
42:20
Speaker 1: No man ever prized sentiment or hated sentimentality more than he.
42:25
Speaker 1: He preached unceasingly the familiar morals which lie at the
42:29
Speaker 1: bottom of both family and public life. The blood of
42:33
Speaker 1: some ancestral Scotch covenanter or some Dutch Reformed preacher facing
42:38
Speaker 1: the tyranny of Philip of Spain was in his veins,
42:41
Speaker 1: and with his large opportunities and his vast audiences, he
42:46
Speaker 1: was always ready to appeal for justice and righteousness. But
42:50
Speaker 1: his own personal ideals he never attempted to thrust upon
42:53
Speaker 1: the world until the day came when they were to
42:56
Speaker 1: be translated into realities of action. When the future historian
43:01
Speaker 1: traces Theodore Roosevelt's extraordinary career, he will find these embodied
43:07
Speaker 1: ideals planted like milestones along the road over which he marched.
43:12
Speaker 1: They never left him. His ideal of public service was
43:16
Speaker 1: to be found in his life, And as his life
43:19
Speaker 1: drew to its close, he had to meet his ideal
43:22
Speaker 1: of sacrifice face to face. All his sons went from
43:26
Speaker 1: him to the war, and one was killed upon the
43:29
Speaker 1: field of honor. Of all the ideals that lift men up,
43:33
Speaker 1: the hardest to fulfill is the ideal of sacrifice. Theodore
43:37
Speaker 1: Roosevelt met it as he had all others, and fulfilled
43:41
Speaker 1: it to the last jot of its terrible demands. His
43:44
Speaker 1: country asked the sacrifice, and he gave it with solemn
43:48
Speaker 1: pride and uncomplaining lips. This is not the place to
43:52
Speaker 1: speak of his private life, but within that sacred circle,
43:56
Speaker 1: no man was ever more blessed In the utter devotion
43:59
Speaker 1: of a noble wife and the passionate love of his children.
44:03
Speaker 1: The absolute purity and beauty of his family life tell
44:07
Speaker 1: us why the pride and interest which his fellow countrymen
44:10
Speaker 1: felt in him were always touched with the warm light
44:14
Speaker 1: of love in the home so dear to him. In
44:17
Speaker 1: his sleep, death came and so valiant for truth passed over,
44:24
Speaker 1: and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.
44:30
Speaker 1: And of Part two and of Theodore Roosevelt, an address
44:37
Speaker 1: delivered before the Congress of the United States by Henry
44:41
Speaker 1: Cabot Lodge