Excerpt, Theodore Roosevelt, Inaugural Address
Saturday, March 4, 1905
My fellow-citizens, no people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of
boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have
enabled us to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness. To
people it has been granted to lay the
foundations our national life in :
v continent. We are the heirs | the ages, and yet we have had to pay few of the
penalties which in old countries are exacted by the dead hand of a bygone civilization. We have not been obliged to fight for
existence against any alien race; and yet our life has called for the vigor and effort without which the manlier and hardier
virtues wither away. Under such conditions it would be our own fault if we failed; and the success which we have had in the
past, the success which we confidently believe the future will bring, should cause in us
feeling of (vanityl, but rather a deep
and abiding realization of all which life has offered us;, full acknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours, and a fixed
determination to show that under a free government : mighty people can thrive best, alike as regards the things of the body
and the things of the soul.
Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and
shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by
of the
the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations
and small,
ouf
earth, and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities. Toward all other nations, large
attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship. We must show not only in our words, but in our deeds, that we are
earnestly desirous ol securing their good will by acting toward them in.
spirit of just and generous recognition of all their
rights. But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong.
While ever careful to refrain from wrongdoing others,
wish peace, but we wish the peace
we must be no less insistent that we are not wronged ourselves.
of justice, the peace of righteousness.
We
because we are afraid. No weak nation that
We wish it because we think it is right and not
acts manfully and justly should ever have cause to fear US, and no strong power
should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression.
Which line from the text explains the author's point about responsibility in the second paragraph?
