 | Addresses and presidential messages of Theodore Roosevelt, 1902-1904 |  |
I
CHARLESTON EXPOSITION, APRIL 9, 1902
Mr. President; Mr. Mayor; and you the men and women
of the Palmetto State, men and women of the South;
my fellow-citizens of the Union:
It is indeed to me a peculiar pleasure to have the chance
of coming here to this Exposition held in your old, your
beautiful, your historic city. My mother's people were
from Georgia; but before they came to Georgia, before
the Revolution, in the days of Colonial rule, they dwelt
for nearly a century in South Carolina; and therefore I
can claim your State as mine by inheritance no less than
by the stronger and nobler right which makes each
foot of American soil in a sense the property of all
Americans.
Charleston is not only a typical Southern city; it is
also a city whose history teems with events which link
themselves to American history as a whole. In the early
Colonial days Charleston was the outpost of our people
against the Spaniard in the South. In the days of the
Revolution there occurred here some of the events which
vitally affected the outcome of the struggle for Independence,
and which impressed themselves most deeply upon
the popular mind. It was here that the tremendous,
terrible drama of the Civil War opened.
With delicate and thoughtful courtesy you originally
asked me to come to this Exposition on the birthday of
Abraham Lincoln. The invitation not only showed a
also emphasized as hardly anything else could have emphasized
how completely we are now a united people.
The wounds left by the great Civil War, incomparably
the greatest war of modern times, have healed; and its
memories are now priceless heritages of honor alike to the
North and to the South. The devotion, the self-sacrifice,
the steadfast resolution and lofty daring, the high devotion
to the right as each man saw it, whether Northerner
or Southerner—all these qualities of the men and women
of the early sixties now shine luminous and brilliant before
our eyes, while the mists of anger and hatred that
once dimmed them have passed away forever.
All of us, North and South, can glory alike in the valor
of the men who wore the blue and of the men who wore
the gray. Those were iron times, and only iron men
could fight to its terrible finish the giant struggle between
the hosts of Grant and Lee, the struggle that came to an
end thirty-seven years ago this very day. To us of the
present day, and to our children and children's children,
the valiant deeds, the high endeavor, and abnegation of
self shown in that struggle by those who took part
therein will remain for evermore to mark the level to
which we in our turn must rise whenever the hour of the
Nation's need may come.
When four years ago this Nation was compelled to face
a foreign foe, the completeness of the reunion became
instantly and strikingly evident. The war was not one
which called for the exercise of more than an insignificant
fraction of our strength, and the strain put upon us was
slight indeed compared with the results. But it was a
satisfactory thing to see the way in which the sons of the
soldier of the Union and the soldier of the Confederacy
leaped eagerly forward, emulous to show in brotherly
rivalry the qualities which had won renown for their
fathers, the men of the great war. It was my good fortune
old Joe Wheeler, who commanded the cavalry division
at Santiago.
In my regiment there were certainly as many men
whose fathers had served in the Southern, as there were
men whose fathers had served in the Northern, army.
Among the captains there was opportunity to promote
but one to field rank. The man who was singled out for
this promotion because of conspicuous gallantry in the
field was the son of a Confederate general and was himself
a citizen of this, the Palmetto State; and no American
officer could wish to march to battle beside a more loyal,
gallant, and absolutely fearless comrade than my former
captain and major, your fellow-citizen, Micah Jenkins.
A few months ago, owing to the enforced absence of
the Governor of the Philippines, it became necessary to
nominate a Vice-Governor to take his place—one of the
most important places in our Government at this time.
I nominated as Vice-Governor an ex-Confederate, General
Luke Wright, of Tennessee. It is therefore an ex-Confederate
who now stands as the exponent of this Government
and this people in that great group of islands in the
eastern seas over which the American flag floats. General
Wright has taken a leading part in the work of steadily
bringing order and peace out of the bloody chaos in which
we found the islands. He is now taking a leading part
not merely in upholding the honor of the flag by making
it respected as the symbol of our power, but still more in
upholding its honor by unwearied labor for the establishment
of ordered liberty—of law-creating, law-abiding civil
government—under its folds.
The progress which has been made under General
Wright and those like him has been indeed marvellous.
In fact, a letter of the General's the other day seemed to
show that he considered there was far more warfare about
the Philippines in this country than there was warfare in
completeness of the reunion of our country that one of
the foremost men who have been instrumental in driving
forward the great work for civilization and humanity in
the Philippines has been a man who in the Civil War
fought with distinction in a uniform of Confederate
gray.
If ever the need comes in the future, the past has
made abundantly evident the fact that from this time on
Northerner and Southerner will in war know only the
generous desire to strive how each can do the more effective
service for the flag of our common country. The
same thing is true in the endless work of peace, the never-ending
work of building and keeping the marvellous fabric
of our industrial prosperity. The upbuilding of any part
of our country is a benefit to the whole, and every such
effort as this to stimulate the resources and industry of a
particular section is entitled to the heartiest support from
every quarter of the Union. Thoroughly good national
work can be done only if each of us works hard for himself,
and at the same time keeps constantly in mind that
he must work in conjunction with others.
You have made a particular effort in your Exhibition
to get into touch with the West Indies. This is wise.
The events of the last four years have shown us that the
West Indies and the Isthmus must in the future occupy
a far larger place in our national policy than in the past.
This is proved by the negotiations for the purchase of the
Danish islands, the acquisition of Porto Rico, the preparation
for building an Isthmian canal, and, finally, by
the changed relations which these years have produced
between us and Cuba. As a Nation we have an especial
right to take honest pride in what we have done for Cuba.
Our critics abroad and at home have insisted that we never
intended to leave the island. But on the 20th of next
month Cuba becomes a free republic, and we turn over
would be very difficult to find a parallel in the conduct of
any other great state that has occupied such a position as
ours. We have kept our word and done our duty, just
as an honest individual in private life keeps his word and
does his duty.
Be it remembered, moreover, that after our four years'
occupation of the island we turn it over to the Cubans in
a better condition that it ever has been in all the centuries
of Spanish rule. This has a direct bearing upon our own
welfare. Cuba is so near to us that we can never be indifferent
to misgovernment and disaster within its limits.
The mere fact that our administration in the island has
minimized the danger from the dreadful scourge of yellow
fever, alike to Cuba and to ourselves, is sufficient to emphasize
the community of interest between us. But there
are other interests which bind us together. Cuba's position
makes it necessary that her political relations with
us should differ from her political relations with other
powers. This fact has been formulated by us and accepted
by the Cubans in the Platt amendments. It follows
as a corollary that, where the Cubans have thus
assumed a position of peculiar relationship to our political
system, they must similarly stand in a peculiar relationship
to our economic system.
We have rightfully insisted upon Cuba adopting toward
us an attitude differing politically from that she adopts
toward any other power; and in return, as a matter of
right, we must give to Cuba a different—that is, a better
—position economically in her relations with us than
we give to other powers. This is the course dictated
by sound policy, by a wise and far-sighted view of our
own interest, and by the position we have taken during
the past four years. We are a wealthy and powerful
country, dealing with a much weaker one; and the contrast
in wealth and strength makes it all the more our
her, in a spirit of large generosity.
This Exposition is rendered possible because of the
period of industrial prosperity through which we are passing.
While material well-being is never all-sufficient to
the life of a nation, yet it is the merest truism to say
that its absence means ruin. We need to build a higher
life upon it as a foundation; but we can build little indeed
unless this foundation of prosperity is deep and
broad. The well-being which we are now enjoying can
be secured only through general business prosperity, and
such prosperity is conditioned upon the energy and hard
work, the sanity and the mutual respect, of all classes of
capitalists, large and small, of wage workers of every degree.
As is inevitable in a time of business prosperity,
some men succeed more than others, and it is unfortunately
also inevitable that when this is the case some
unwise people are sure to try to appeal to the envy and
jealousy of those who succeed least. It is a good thing
when these appeals are made to remember that, while it
is difficult to increase prosperity by law, it is easy enough
to ruin it, and that there is small satisfaction to the less
prosperous if they succeed in overthrowing both the more
prosperous and themselves in the crash of a common
disaster.
Every industrial exposition of this type necessarily calls
up the thought of the complex social and economic questions
which are involved in our present industrial system.
Our astounding material prosperity, the sweep and rush
rather than the mere march of our progressive material
development, have brought grave troubles in their train.
We cannot afford to blink these troubles, any more than
because of them we can afford to accept as true the
gloomy forebodings of the prophets of evil. There are
great problems before us. They are not insoluble, but
they can be solved only if we approach them in a spirit
intention to do fair and equal justice to all men alike.
We are certain to fail if we adopt the policy of the
demagogue who raves against the wealth which is simply
the form of embodied thrift, foresight, and intelligence;
who would shut the door of opportunity against
those whose energy we should especially foster, by penalizing
the qualities which tell for success. Just as little
can we afford to follow those who fear to recognize
injustice and to endeavor to cut it out because the task
is difficult or even—if performed by unskilful hands—
dangerous.
This is an era of great combinations both of labor
and of capital. In many ways these combinations have
worked for good; but they must work under the law, and
the laws concerning them must be just and wise, or they
will inevitably do evil; and this applies as much to the
richest corporation as to the most powerful labor union.
Our laws must be wise, sane, healthy, conceived in the
spirit of those who scorn the mere agitator, the mere
inciter of class or sectional hatred; who wish justice for
all men; who recognize the need of adhering so far as
possible to the old American doctrine of giving the widest
possible scope for the free exercise of individual initiative,
and yet who recognize also that after combinations have
reached a certain stage it is indispensable to the general
welfare that the Nation should exercise over them, cautiously
and with self-restraint, but firmly, the power of
supervision and regulation.
Above all, the administration of the Government, the
enforcement of the laws, must be fair and honest. The
laws are not to be administered either in the interest of
the poor man or the interest of the rich man. They are
simply to be administered justly; in the interest of justice
to each man be he rich or be he poor—giving immunity
to no violator, whatever form the violation may assume.
and to it he must be true under penalty of forfeiting the
respect both of himself and of his fellows.
And now, my fellow-countrymen, in closing, I am
going to paraphrase something said by Governor Aycock
last night. I have dwelt to-day upon the fact that we
are indeed a reunited people; that we are indeed and forever
one people. The time was when one could not have
made that statement with truth; now it can be truthfully
said. There was a time when it was necessary to keep
saying it, because it was already true, and because the
assertion made it more true; but the time is at hand, I
think the time has come, when it is not necessary to say
it again. Proud of the South! Of course we are proud
of the South; not only Southerners but Northerners are
proud of the South. Proud of your great, deeds! Of
course I am proud of your great deeds, for you are my
people. I thank you from my heart for the welcome you
have given me, and I assure you that few experiences in
my life have been more pleasant than the experiences of
these two days that I have spent among you.
| Addresses and presidential messages of Theodore Roosevelt, 1902-1904 | |