Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 3 (of 7)Roosevelt, Theodore
History
Presidential addresses and state papers, Volume 3 (of 7)
Roosevelt, Theodore
Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919; United States -- Politics and government -- 1901-1909
Alarm has been professed lest the Filipinos should not receive all the
benefits guaranteed to our people at home by the Fourteenth Amendment
to the Constitution. As a matter of fact, the Filipinos have already
secured the substance of these benefits. This Government has been true
to the spirit of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Philippines. Can our
opponents deny that here at home the principles of the Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Amendments have been in effect nullified? In this, as in
many other matters, we at home can well profit by the example of those
responsible for the actual management of affairs in the Philippines. In
our several commonwealths here in the United States we, as a people,
now face the complex problem of securing fair treatment to each man
regardless of his race or color. We can do so only if we approach
the problem in the spirit of courage, common-sense, and high-minded
devotion to the right, which has enabled Governor Taft, Governor
Wright, and their associates, to do so noble a work in giving to the
Philippine people the benefit of the true principles of American
liberty.
* * * * *
Our appeal is made to all good citizens who hold the honor and the
interest of the Nation close to their hearts. The great issues
which are at stake, and upon which I have touched, are more than
mere partisan issues, for they involve much that comes home to the
individual pride and individual well-being of our people. Under
conditions as they actually are, good Americans should refuse, for
the sake of the welfare of the Nation, to change the national policy.
We, who are responsible for the administration and legislation under
which this country, during the last seven years, has grown so greatly
in well-being at home and in honorable repute among the nations of the
earth abroad, do not stand inertly upon this record, do not use this
record as an excuse for failure of effort to meet new conditions. On
the contrary, we treat the record of what we have done in the past
as incitement to do even better in the future. We believe that the
progress that we have made may be taken as a measure of the progress
we shall continue to make if the people again intrust the Government
of the Nation to our hands. We do not stand still. We press steadily
forward toward the goal of moral and material well-being for our own
people, of just and fearless dealing toward all other peoples, in the
interest not merely of this country, but of mankind. There is not a
policy, foreign or domestic, which we are now carrying out, which it
would not be disastrous to reverse or abandon. If our opponents should
come in and should not reverse our policies, then they would be branded
with the brand of broken faith, of false promise, of insincerity in
word and deed; and no man can work to the advantage of the Nation with
such a brand clinging to him. If, on the other hand, they should come
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