62d Congress } {Document _2d Session_ } SENATE {No. 616 ADDRESS OF HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT DELIVERED AT BOSTON, MASS. SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1912 [Illustration] PRESENTED BY MR. REED April 29, 1912.――Ordered to be printed WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1912 ADDRESS OF HON. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. PRINCIPLES, NOT PERSONALITIES, AT STAKE. My friends and fellow citizens, men and women of Massachusetts, men and women of Boston, I am glad indeed to be in your old historic State, your old historic city, this evening to plead for a cause which is preeminently the cause for which Massachusetts has stood throughout her existence as a colony and as a Commonwealth. [Cheers.] And friends――friends, I shall make my appeal to you in the name of every man and every principle for whom and for which Massachusetts has stood in the heroic days of the past. [Applause and cheers.] Now, friends, last night I felt obliged to answer at length the attacks made upon me by Mr. Taft, but I do not wish this contest to be put upon the basis of a contest of personalities [Good! good! and cheers] between myself and Mr. Taft, and to-night I shall only allude to Mr. Taft just as far as it is necessary for me in order to illustrate the principles for which he and I respectively stand. [Applause.] FIGHTING FOR EVERY GOOD CITIZEN. And those allusions I shall make right at the outset, so that I can get down to the part of my speech in which I shall strive, however feebly, to put before you the principles which I think are at stake in this contest. For mind you, friends, I hold that this is infinitely more than a mere faction fight in the Republican Party. [A voice: “That’s where you’re right.”] I hold that this is infinitely more than any ordinary party contest, for I claim that we who stand for the principles of progressive Republicanism [applause and cheers]――that we who stand for making the principles of Abraham Lincoln living principles applied to the living issues of to-day――I hold that we are fighting not only for every good Republican, but for every good citizen in the United States, whoever he may be. [Cheers.] And now at the outset, to dispose of the only matters that I have to take up in connection with Mr. Taft, I am more fortunate than Mr. Taft in my friends. [A voice: “You bet your life.” Cheers.] WILLING TO LOSE WITH A GOOD MAN.