Presidential Addresses and State Papers

Theodore Roosevelt's speeches crackle with urgency, whether he is addressing publishers, schoolboys, veterans, or the nation itself. Across these varied occasions, he returns to the same hard-minded creed: liberty depends on character, and power demands responsibility. He praises the press as a force that shapes public thought, urges restraint in national and international speech, and warns that boasting, insult, and moral looseness weaken a country from within. At Groton School, Roosevelt tells boys that privilege means accountability, not entitlement. He celebrates pluck, honesty, common sense, and practical usefulness, insisting that athletics and scholarship matter only when they build courage, discipline, and self-control. He rejects snobbery, laziness, and a life devoted to comfort, arguing that true happiness comes from duty well done and from becoming both competent and principled. In his memorial and public addresses, he honors Gettysburg, the Civil War dead, and the union of idealism with practical courage that preserved the nation and ended slavery. He also outlines a foreign policy rooted in justice, arbitration, and peace without weakness, defending intervention only when disorder or wrongdoing threatens order and fairness. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.