The Strenuous Life: The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, Volume 12 (of 14)Roosevelt, Theodore
General
The Strenuous Life: The Works of Theodore Roosevelt, Volume 12 (of 14)
Roosevelt, Theodore
United States -- Colonial question; United States -- Politics and government
During the last century we have on the whole made long strides in
the right direction, but we have very much yet to learn. We all look
forward to the day when there shall be a nearer approximation than
there has ever yet been to the brotherhood of man and the peace of the
world. More and more we are learning that to love one’s country above
all others is in no way incompatible with respecting and wishing well
to all others, and that, as between man and man, so between nation
and nation, there should live the great law of right. These are the
goals toward which we strive; and let us at least earnestly endeavor
to realize them here on this continent. From Hudson Bay to the Straits
of Magellan, we, the men of the two Americas, have been conquering the
wilderness, carving it into state and province, and seeking to build
up in state and province governments which shall combine industrial
prosperity and moral well-being. Let us ever most vividly remember the
falsity of the belief that any one of us is to be permanently benefited
by the hurt of another. Let us strive to have our public men treat as
axiomatic the truth that it is for the interest of every commonwealth
in the Western Hemisphere to see every other commonwealth grow in
riches and in happiness, in material wealth and in the sober, strong,
self-respecting manliness, without which material wealth avails so
little.
To-day on behalf of the United States I welcome you here—you, our
brothers of the North and you, our brothers of the South; we wish you
well; we wish you all prosperity; and we say to you that we earnestly
hope for your well-being, not only for your own sakes, but also for our
own, for it is a benefit to each of us to have the others do well. The
relations between us now are those of cordial friendship, and it is
to the interest of all alike that this friendship should ever remain
unbroken. Nor is there the least chance of its being broken, provided
only that all of us alike act with full recognition of the vital need
that each should realize that his own interests can best be served by
serving the interests of others.
You, men of Canada, are doing substantially the same work that we of
this Republic are doing, and face substantially the same problems that
we also face. Yours is the world of the merchant, the manufacturer and
mechanic, the farmer, the ranchman, and the miner; you are subduing the
prairie and the forest, tilling farm-land, building cities, striving
to raise ever higher the standard of right, to bring ever nearer the
day when true justice shall obtain between man and man; and we wish
Godspeed to you and yours, and may the kindliest ties of good will
always exist between us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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