Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 2 (of 7)Roosevelt, Theodore
History
Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 2 (of 7)
Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
he does his duty by his neighbor and the State, receives the full
protection of the law and is given the amplest chance to exercise the
ability that there is within him, alone or in combination with his
fellows as he desires. My friends, it is sometimes easier to preach
a doctrine under which the millennium will be promised off-hand if
you have a particular kind of law, or follow a particular kind of
conduct—it is easier, but it is not better. The millennium is not
here; it is some thousand years off yet. Meanwhile there must be a
good deal of work and struggle, a good deal of injustice; we shall
often see the tower of Siloam fall on the just as well as the unjust.
We are bound in honor to try to remedy injustice, but if we are wise
we will seek to remedy it in practical ways. Above all, remember this:
that the most unsafe adviser to follow is the man who would advise us
to do wrong in order that we may benefit by it. That man is never a
safe man to follow; he is always the most dangerous of guides. The man
who seeks to persuade any of us that our advantage comes in wronging
or oppressing others can be depended upon, if the opportunity comes,
to do wrong to us in his own interest, just as he has endeavored to
make us in our supposed interest do wrong to others.
AT THE TABERNACLE, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, MAY 29, 1903
_Mr. Governor, Mr. Mayor, Senator Kearns, and you, my
Fellow-Americans_:
I am particularly glad to have the chance to speak to you here in
this city, in Utah, this morning, because you have exemplified a
doctrine which it seems to me all-essential for our people ever to
keep fresh in their minds—the fact that though natural resources can
do a good deal, though the law can do a good deal, the fundamental
requisite in building up prosperity and civilization is the requisite
of individual character in the individual man or woman. Here in this
State the pioneers and those who came after them took not the land
that would ordinarily be chosen as land that would yield return with
little effort. You took territory which at the outset was called after
the desert, and you literally—not figuratively—you literally made the
wilderness blossom as the rose. The fundamental element in building up
Utah has been the work of the citizens of Utah. And you did it because
your people entered in to possess the land and to leave it after them
to their children and their children’s children. You here whom I am
addressing and your predecessors did not come in to exploit the land
and then go somewhere else. You came in, as the Governor has said, as
home-makers, to make homes for yourselves and those who should come
after you; and that is the only way in which a State can be built up,
in which the Nation can be built up. You have built up this great
community because you came here with the purpose of making this your
abiding home, and of leaving to your children not an impoverished, but
an enriched heritage; and I ask that all our people from one ocean to
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