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Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt)

Theodore Roosevelt

Also known as: TR Inaugural · Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural 1905

1905 · Early 20th Century · Oratory · English

Public domainGreat Poems & Speeches · Speech Read full text Download EPUB Five-minute digest

Abstract

Written: Delivered 4 March 1905
Setting: March 1905, as industrial consolidation and a new overseas role reshaped American expectations; East Portico of the Capitol
Author: Theodore Roosevelt
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Presidential inaugural address
Form: Brief ceremonial charge of about a thousand words, without specific policy proposals
Recommended: Grades 9–12

Background. Roosevelt had served three and a half years of McKinley's term, pressing antitrust suits, mediating the 1902 coal strike, and in December 1904 announcing his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. His 1904 victory over Alton Parker gave him a mandate of his own.

Occasion. On the East Portico he spoke briefly and in general terms, naming no legislation. He opens with gratitude to God and an explicit refusal of boastfulness, framing national success as gift rather than achievement.

Argument. From that gift follows obligation. Abroad, a great nation must deal justly and generously with all, strong and weak, while refusing to be wronged; it seeks peace because peace is right, not out of fear. At home, rapid industrial growth has created problems the founders could not have foreseen, and the attempt to govern a continent as a democratic republic carries consequences for free government everywhere. The tone is serious without alarm: there is no reason to fear the future, but every reason to face it soberly.

Close. Roosevelt names the qualities the coming age requires, joining the generation of Washington to that of Lincoln as models. Character exercised in ordinary daily affairs, not only in emergencies, is his answer to the problems of a modern industrial nation, and the hope is to pass the inheritance on "unwasted and enlarged."

Key figures

Theodore Roosevelt: Twenty-sixth President, elected in his own right after completing McKinley's term
Charles W. Fairbanks: Vice President, Indiana senator elected on the 1904 ticket

Summary

Theodore Roosevelt had been President since McKinley's assassination in September 1901, and on 4 March 1905 he took the oath for a term he had won in a landslide. His address from the East Portico is about a thousand words long, one of the shortest of the twentieth century, and it never mentions a specific policy, party, or program. He begins with thanks "to the Giver of Good" and with a warning against vainglory. Americans laid their foundations on a new continent and are "the heirs of the ages," spared many penalties of older nations, so failure would be "our own fault." The second paragraph turns on its most remembered sentence: "Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us." Duties run in two directions, abroad and at home, and neither can be shirked. Toward other nations Roosevelt promises friendship and justice, adding that "justice and generosity in a nation" matter most when the strong show them, and that America wants "the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness." The third paragraph turns inward. Industrial growth has brought wealth and also new anxieties, "the accumulation of great wealth in industrial centers," and the country is running the largest experiment ever made in governing a continent democratically. If it fails, "the cause of free self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations." The close insists that new problems do not need a new spirit. The virtues that made the founders and Lincoln's generation great—practical intelligence, courage, hardihood, endurance, and devotion to a lofty ideal—must be shown "not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life." The speech carries the vocabulary of manly vigor and racial difference common in 1905, which students should read in its period, and it compresses the strenuous ethic of Roosevelt's longer speeches into a ceremonial charge.

Virtues in this work

Prudence: Roosevelt warns against both fearing the future and hiding "the gravity of the problems before us."
Justice: He demands cordial and just dealing with all nations, large and small, and refusal to be wronged.
Humility: He frames American success as gift from "the Giver of Good" rather than as proof of national merit.

Plot or Argument

Thanks without boasting
Roosevelt thanks the Giver of Good for the conditions of American well-being and warns that success should produce responsibility, not vainglory.
Much given, much expected
Duties to others and to ourselves cannot be shirked; toward all nations the country must act with friendship and justice, insisting equally that it not be wronged.
The new perils of industrial power
Growth in wealth and power brings new problems; governing a continent democratically is an experiment whose failure would shake free government everywhere.
Old virtues for new tasks
The spirit of Washington's and Lincoln's generations must be shown in everyday life so that the heritage passes on unwasted and enlarged.

Lessons

Gratitude that forbids vainglory
Roosevelt opens by saying his thanks are offered "in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength." Because Americans received their advantages, he argues, their success should produce "a full acknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours." Gratitude here becomes the ground of obligation rather than of pride.
- What advantages does Roosevelt say Americans received rather than earned?
- Why would failure under such conditions be "our own fault"?
- How can gratitude make a person or nation more responsible instead of more complacent?
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Justice from the strong
Roosevelt claims that justice and generosity "count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong." He wants a nation no weak country need fear and no strong power can bully. The paragraph is a compact ethic of power that his corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, announced weeks earlier, would put to the test in the Caribbean.
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- What is "the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness," and how does it differ from peace through fear?
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Everyday virtue for a complex age
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- Which new perils of industrial life does Roosevelt name?
- Why does he pair the founders with the generation of Lincoln?
- Are ordinary daily virtues really adequate to the problems of concentrated wealth?
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Context

By 1905 the United States had become an industrial power with overseas possessions acquired in 1898. Trusts and railroad combinations dominated much of the economy, labor conflict was frequent, and Roosevelt had begun using federal power to regulate corporations. In December 1904 he announced that the United States would act as an "international police power" in the Western Hemisphere.

Composition

Roosevelt delivered the address from the East Portico of the Capitol on 4 March 1905. The text follows the Project Gutenberg #4938 transcription.

Reception

The speech is less quoted than Roosevelt's other addresses, but its sentence on what is given and expected is widely cited. Historians read it as a summary of his strenuous, duty-centered conception of national character.

Power / Politics Leadership Virtue Ethics Justice Law

Comparisons

Citizenship in a Republic ("The Man in the Arena")
Roosevelt's 1910 Paris speech develops at length the call for vigorous, practical citizenship that the inaugural states in a few sentences.
First Inaugural Address
Washington links national happiness to "the eternal rules of order and right"; Roosevelt names Washington's generation as a model and recasts that link for an industrial age.
First Inaugural Address
Wilson in 1913 also confronts concentrated industrial wealth but proposes specific reforms; compare Roosevelt's choice to speak only of character.

Quotes

Frequently cited

“Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us”

— Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt), Second paragraph, opening sentence (Project Gutenberg #4938).Quote card

Pearl Harbor Address ("A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"), Paragraph 1
Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. The opening sentence, with the word infamy that Roosevelt wrote into the draft by hand.
A Treatise of Human Nature, Source
A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE By David Hume CONTENTS VOLUME I INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHOR BOOK I OF THE UNDERSTANDING PART I OF IDEAS THEIR ORIGIN COMPOSITION CONNEXION ABSTRACTION ETC SECT I OF THE ORIGIN OF OUR IDEAS SECT II DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT SECT III OF THE IDEAS OF THE MEMORY AND IMAGINATION SECT IV OF THE CONNECTION OR ASSOCIATION OF IDEAS SECT V OF RELATIONS SECT VI OF MODES AND SUBSTANCES SECT VII OF ABSTRACT IDEAS PART II OF THE IDEAS OF SPACE AND TIME SECT I OF THE INFINITE DIVISIBILITY OF OUR IDEAS O...
Fourth Inaugural Address, Inaugural address, second paragraph
It is a test of our courage--of our resolve--of our wisdom--our essential democracy Roosevelt names the four qualities the war is testing.
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Second Inaugural Address, Inaugural address
again called upon by the voice of my country to execute the functions of its Chief Magistrate Opening sentence of the 1793 address, framing the second term as a summons obeyed.

“self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations, and therefore our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generations yet unborn”

— Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt), Third paragraph (Project Gutenberg #4938).Quote card

Third Inaugural Address, Inaugural address, fifth paragraph
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“To us as a people it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national life in a new continent”

— Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt), First paragraph (Project Gutenberg #4938).Quote card

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“We are the heirs of the ages, and yet we have had to pay few of the penalties which in old countries are exacted by the dead hand of a bygone civilization”

— Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt), First paragraph (Project Gutenberg #4938).Quote card

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— Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt), First paragraph (Project Gutenberg #4938).Quote card

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“We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness”

— Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt), Second paragraph (Project Gutenberg #4938).Quote card

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Earthly peace is real but fragile, framed against the final peace of God’s city.
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opportunity of putting a question in which I had a near interest I said to Mrs Micawber May I ask ma am what you and Mr Micawber intend to do now that Mr Micawber is out of his difficulties and at liberty Have you settled yet My family said Mrs Micawber who always said those two words with an air though I never could discover who came under the denomination my family are of opinion that Mr Micawber should quit London and exert his talents in the country Mr Micawber is a man of great talent Master Copperfield I s...
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over the nation here and wherever else our flag waves and we acquiesce in it there will be peace But let me ask Judge Douglas how he is going to get the people to do that They have been wrangling over this question for at least forty years This was the cause of the agitation resulting in the Missouri Compromise this produced the troubles at the annexation of Texas in the acquisition of the territory acquired in the Mexican war Again this was the trouble which was quieted by the Compromise of when it was settled...

“But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong”

— Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt), Second paragraph (Project Gutenberg #4938).Quote card

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reveals about man's attitudes toward the abortion procedure over the centuries We bear in mind too Mr Justice Holmes' admonition in his now-vindicated dissent in Lochner v New York U S The Constitution is made for people of fundamentally differing views and the accident of our finding certain opinions natural and familiar or novel and even shocking ought not to conclude our judgment upon the question whether statutes embodying them conflict with the Constitution of the United States I The Texas statutes that con...
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Loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine; but it is still finer to defy arbitrary power, unjustly and cruelly used—not on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of others more helpless. Margaret defends her exiled brother's part in the mutiny.
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agitate the public so long as a portion of the citizens of the nation are excluded from its privileges in any State It seems to me very desirable that this question should be settled now and I entertain the hope and express the desire that it may be by the ratification of the fifteenth article of amendment to the Constitution In conclusion I ask patient forbearance one toward another throughout the land and a determined effort on the part of every citizen to do his share toward cementing a happy union and I ask...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

The opening thanks "to the Giver of Good" and the refusal of boastfulness.
The sentence "Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us."
The claim that justice and generosity matter most "when shown not by the weak but by the strong."
The pairing of Washington's and Lincoln's generations at the close.

Key terms and names

Vainglory: Empty pride in one's own achievements; Roosevelt says American success should cause "no feeling of vainglory."
Peace of righteousness: Roosevelt's phrase for a peace sought because it is just, not because the nation is afraid.
Experiment: Roosevelt's word for governing a whole continent under democratic forms, which he calls unprecedented.
Hardihood: Toughness and endurance; one of the virtues Roosevelt asks Americans to show in daily life.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension To whom does Roosevelt give thanks in the opening sentence?
Comprehension What two kinds of duties does Roosevelt say Americans cannot shirk?
Interpretation Why does Roosevelt say failure under American conditions would be "our own fault"?
Interpretation How does Roosevelt connect the success of American democracy to "the welfare of mankind"?
Interpretation Why does the speech avoid naming any specific policy?
Big Question Does great power create great obligation, or only great temptation?
Big Question Can the character of citizens solve problems created by industrial economic change?

Faith Connections

Luke 12:48 (Scripture)
Roosevelt's central sentence adapts Christ's saying "unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" from a parable about faithful servants, applying a word about stewardship to a nation.
Augustine, City of God V.12-19 (Church Fathers)
Augustine examines how love of glory drove Roman greatness and why it falls short of true virtue; compare Roosevelt's warning against vainglory in a powerful republic.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics IV.3 (Great Conversation)
Aristotle's magnanimous man claims great things because he is worthy of them; ask whether Roosevelt's ideal of a strong, just nation resembles that portrait.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Because Americans have received unusual blessings, Roosevelt argues, they owe a serious accounting of duty: justice and friendship toward all nations, a firm refusal to be wronged, and steady civic virtue at home sufficient to master the new problems of industrial power.

Rhetorical device: Antithesis. "Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us." The balanced clauses set gift against obligation, a pattern the speech repeats in "duties to others and duties to ourselves."

Debate: Resolved: That American power abroad is justified only when matched by justice and self-mastery at home.

Memory Work

Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us
Second paragraph, opening sentence. The best-known sentence of the address, adapting Luke 12:48 into a statement of national duty.

self-government throughout the world will rock to its foundations, and therefore our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generations yet unborn
Third paragraph. Roosevelt's warning about what failure would mean for self-government everywhere shows the stakes he assigns to the American experiment.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain how Roosevelt turns gratitude for national blessings into an argument for national duty.

Comparison with Citizenship in a Republic ("The Man in the Arena"): Compare the virtues Roosevelt asks for in his 1905 inaugural with those he praises in "Citizenship in a Republic" (1910); what does the longer speech add?

Medical Lens

Presidential inaugurals concern constitutional politics and national crisis; they have no medical content for this library's lens.

Creative Prompts

Classroom
Find each pair of balanced opposites in the speech (given and expected, duties to others and to ourselves, weak and strong, body and soul) and explain what each pair contributes to the argument.
Dialogue
Write a conversation in 1905 between a Pennsylvania steelworker and a New York investor about whether Roosevelt's "care and anxiety" over great wealth means anything for them.
Essay
Argue whether "Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us" is a sound foundation for foreign policy.

Inaugural Address (Theodore Roosevelt)

Abstract

Key figures

Summary

Virtues in this work

Plot or Argument

Lessons

Gratitude that forbids vainglory

Justice from the strong

Everyday virtue for a complex age

Context

Composition

Reception

Comparisons

Quotes

For Students

Reading Guide

Watch for

Key terms and names

Seminar Questions

Faith Connections

Logic and Rhetoric

Memory Work

Writing Prompts

Medical Lens

Creative Prompts

Further Reading