Yale University
OCT 20 1904

Speech of

Theodore Roosevelt

^Accepting the
Republican Nomination
for

President of the United States.

Oystez "Bay, N. Y., July 26, I go4

CAKo [00

Speed? of Theodore Roosevelt
cAccepting the Republican Nomination for
Vzesident of the United States.

Oystet Bay, N. Y., July 26, 1904.

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Notification
Committee : I am deeply sensible of the high honor conferred
upon me by the representatives of the Republican party as
sembled in convention, and I accept the nomination for the
Presidency with solemn realization of the obligations I assume.
I heartily approve the declaration of principles which the Re
publican National Convention has adopted, and at some future
day I shall communicate to you, Mr. Chairman, more at length
and in detail a formal written acceptance of the nomination.
M'KINLEY'S POLICIES SUSTAINED.
Three years ago I became President because of the death
of my lamented predecessor. I then stated that it was my pur
pose to carry out his principles and policies for the honor and
the interest of the country. To the best of my ability I have
kept the promise thus made. If next November my country
men confirm at the polls the action of the convention you repre
sent, I shall, under Providence, continue to work with an eye
single to the welfare of all our people.
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PLEDGES HATE BEEN FULFILLED.
A party is of worth only in so far as it promotes the national
interest, and every official, high or low, can serve his party best
by rendering to the people the best service of which he is capa
ble. Effective government comes only as the result of the
loyal co-operation of many different persons. The members
of a legislative majority, the officers in the various departments
of the administration, and the legislative and executive
branches as towards each other, must work together with sub
ordination of self to the common end of successful government
We who have been entrusted with power as public servants
during the past seven years of administration and legislation
now come before the people content to be judged by our record
of achievement. In the years that have gone by we have made
the deed square with the word; and if we are continued in
power we shall unswervingly follow out the great lines of
public policy which the Republican party has already laid
down ; a public policy to which we are giving, and shall give, a
united, and therefore an efficient, support.
REPUBLICANS EVADE NO ISSUES.
In all of this we are more fortunate than our opponents,
who now appeal for confidence on the ground, which some
express and some seek to have confidentially understood, that
if triumphant they may be trusted to prove false to every prin
ciple which in the last eight years they have laid down as vital,
and to leave undisturbed those very acts of the administration
because of which they ask that the administration itself be
driven from power. Seemingly their present attitude as to
their past record is that some of them were mistaken and
others insincere. We make our appeal in a wholly different
spirit. We are not constrained to keep silent on any
vital question; we are divided on no vital question;
our policy is continuous, and is the same for all sections

and localities. There is nothing experimental about the gov
ernment we ask the people to continue in power, for our
performances in the past, our proved governmental efficiency,
is a guarantee as to our promises for the future. Our oppo
nents, either openly or secretly, according to their several
temperaments, now ask the people to trust their present prom
ises in consideration of the fact that they intend to treat their
past promises as null and void. We know our own minds and
we have kept of the same mind for a sufficient length of time
to give to our policy coherence and sanity. In such a funda
mental matter as the enforcement of the law we do not have
to depend upon promises, but merely to ask that our record be
taken as an earnest of what we shall continue to do. In dealing
with the great organization known as trusts we do not have
to explain why the laws are not enforced, but to point out that
they actually have been enforced and that legislation has been
enacted to increase the effectiveness of their enforcement. We
do not have to propose to " turn the rascals out," for we have
shown in very deed that whenever by diligent investigation a
public official can be found who has betrayed his trust he will be
punished to the full extent of the law without regard to
whether he was appointed under a Republican or a Democratic
administration. This is the efficient way to turn the rascals
out and to keep them out, and it has the merit of sincerity.
Moreover, the betrayals of trust in the last seven years have
been insignificant in number when compared with the extent
of the public service. Never has the administration of the
government been on a cleaner and higher level ; never has the
public work of the nation been done more honestly and effi
ciently.
THE GOLD STANDARD TO BE PRESERVED.
Assuredly it is unwise to change the policies which have
worked so well and which are now working so well. Prosper
ity has come at home. The national honor and interest have
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been upheld abroad. We have placed the finances of the nation
upon a sound gold basis. We have done this with the aid of
many who were formerly our opponents, but who would neither
openly support nor silently acquiesce in the heresy of unsound
finance ; and we have done it against the convinced, the violent
opposition of the mass of our present opponents, who still re
fuse to recant the unsound opinions which for the moment they
think it inexpedient to assert. We know what we mean when
we speak of an honest arid stable currency. We mean the same
thing from year to year. We do not have to avoid a definite
and conclusive committal on the most important issue which
has recently been before the people, and which may at any
time in the near future be before them again. Upon the prin
ciples which underlie this issue the conviction of half of our
number do not clash with those of the other half. So long as
the Republican party is in power the gold standard is settled,
not as a matter of temporary political expediency, not because
of shifting conditions in the production of gold in certain min
ing centers, but in accordance with what we regard as the
fundamental principles of national morality and wisdom.
GOVERNMENT FINANCES IN A SATISFACTORY CONDITION.
Under the financial legislation which we have enacted there
is now ample circulation for every business need, and every
dollar of this circulation is worth a dollar in gold. We have
reduced the interest-bearing debt and in still larger measure
the interest on that debt. All of the war taxes imposed during
the Spanish war have been removed with a view to relieve the
people and to prevent the accumulation of an unnecessary sur
plus. The result is that hardly ever before have the expendi
tures and income of the Government so closely corresponded.
In the fiscal year that has just closed the excess of income over
the ordinary expenditures was nine millions of dollars. This
does not take account of the fifty millions expended out of the
accumulated surplus for the purchase of the isthmian canal.

It is an extraordinary proof of the sound financial condition of
the nation that instead of following the usual course in such
matters and throwing the burden upon posterity by an issue
of bonds, we were able to make the payment outright, and yet
after it to have in the treasury a surplus of one hundred and
sixty-one millions. Moreover, we were able to pay this fifty
millions of dollars out of hand without causing the slightest
disturbance to business conditions.
THE PROTECTIVE TARIFF MUST BE MAINTAINED.
We have enacted a Tariff law under which during the past
few years the country has attained a height of material well
being never before reached. Wages are higher than ever before.
That whenever the need arises there should be a readjustment
of the Tariff schedules is undoubted; but such changes can
with safety be made only by those whose devotion to the prin
ciple of a Protective Tariff is beyond question; for otherwise
the changes would amount not to readjustment, but to repeal.
The readjustment when made must maintain and not destroy
the Protective principle. To the farmer, the merchant, the
manufacturer this is vital; but perhaps no other man is so
much interested as the wage-worker in the maintenance of our
present economic system, both as regards the finances and the
Tariff. The standard of living of our wage-workers is higher
than that of any other country, and it cannot so remain unless
we have a Protective Tariff which shall always keep as a mini
mum rate of duty sufficient to cover the difference between the
labor cost here and abroad. Those who, like our opponents,
" denounce Protection as a robbery," thereby explicitly commit
themselves to the proposition that if they were to revise the
Tariff no heed would be paid to the necessity of meeting this
difference between the standards of living for wage-workers
here and in other countries ; and, therefore, on this point their
antagonism to our position is fundamental. Here again we ask -
that their promises and ours be judged by what has been done
in the immediate past. We ask that sober and sensible men
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compare the workings of the present Tariff law and the condi
tions which obtain under it with the workings of the preceding
Tariff law of 1893 and the conditions which that Tariff of 1893
helped to bring about.
M'KINLEY RECIPROCITY APPROVED.
We believe in reciprocity with foreign nations on the terms
outlined in President McKinley's last speech, which urged the
extension of our foreign markets by reciprocal agreements
whenever they could be made without injury to American in
dustry and labor. It is a singular fact that the only great
reciprocity treaty recently adopted — that with Cuba — was
finally opposed almost alone by the representatives of the very
party which now states that it favors reciprocity. And here
again we ask that the worth of our words be judged by com
paring their deeds with ours. On this Cuban reciprocity treaty
there were at the outset grave differences of opinion among
ourselves, and the notable thing in the negotiation and ratifica
tion of the treaty, and in the legislation which carried it into
effect, was the highly practical manner in which, without sacri
fice of principle, these differences of opinion were reconciled.
There was no rupture of ? great party, but an excellent prac
tical outcome, the result of the harmonious co-operation of
two successive Presidents and two successive Congresses. This
is an illustration of the governing capacity which entitles us
to the confidence of the people, not only in our purposes, but in
our practical ability to achieve those purposes. Judging by the
history of the last twelve years, down to this very month, is
there justification for believing that under similar circum
stances and with similar initial differences of opinion our oppo
nents would have achieved any practical result ?
EQUAL JUSTICE TO LABOR AND CAPITAL.
We have already shown in actual fact that our policy is to
do fair and equal justice to all men, paying no heed to whether
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a man is rich or poor, paying no heed to his race, his creed, or
his birthplace.
We recognize the organization of capital and the organiza
tion of labor as natural outcomes of our industrial system.
Each kind of organization is to be favored so long as it acts in
a spirit of justice and of regard for the rights of others. Each
is to be granted the full protection of the law, and each in turn
is to be held to a strict obedience to the law; for no man is
above it and no man below it. The humblest individual is to
have his rights safeguarded as scrupulously as those of the
strongest organization, for each is to receive justice, no more
and no less. The problems with which we have to deal in our
modern industrial and social life are manifold ; but the spirit in
which it is necessary to approach their solution is simply the
spirit of honesty, of courage, and of common sense.
IRRIGATION.
In inaugurating the great work of irrigation in the West
the administration has been enabled by Congress to take one
of the longest strides ever taken under our Government toward
utilizing our vast national domain for the settler, the actual
home-maker.
PANAMA CANAL RECORD AN HONORABLE ONE.
Ever since this continent was discovered the need of an
isthmian canal to connect the Pacific and the Atlantic has been
recognized, and ever since the birth of our nation such a canal
has been planned. At last the dream has become a reality.
The isthmian canal is now being built by the Government of
the United States. We conducted the negotiation for its con
struction with the nicest and most scrupulous honor, and in a
spirit of the largest generosity toward those through whose
territory it was to run. Every sinister effort which could be
devised by the spirit of faction or the spirit of self-interest
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was made in order to defeat the treaty with Panama and there
by prevent the consummation of this work. The construction
of the canal is now an assured fact; but most certainly it is
unwise to entrust the carrying out of so momentous a policy to
those who have endeavored to defeat the whole undertaking.
FOREIGN POLICY COMMANDS RESPECT.
Our foreign policy has been so conducted that while not
one of our just claims has been sacrificed our relations with all
foreign nations are now of the most peaceful kind ; there is not
a cloud on the horizon. The last cause of irritation between
us and any other nation was removed by the settlement of the
Alaskan boundary.
In the Caribbean Sea we have made good our promises of
independence to Cuba, and have proved our assertion that our
mission in the island was one of justice and not of self-
aggrandizement ; and thereby no less than by our action in ¦
Venezuela and Panama we have shown that the Monroe Doc
trine is a living reality, designed for the hurt of no nation, but
for the protection of civilization on the Western continent and
for the peace of the world. Our steady growth in power has
gone hand in hand with a strengthening disposition to use this
power with strict regard for the rights of others, and for the
cause of international justice and good will.
We earnestly desire friendship with all the nations of the new
and old worlds, and we endeavor fo place our relations with
them upon a basis of reciprocal advantage instead of hostility.
We hold that the prosperity of each nation is an aid and not
a hindrance to the prosperity of other nations. We seek in
ternational amity for the same reasons that make us believe
in peace within our own borders, and we seek this peace not
because we are afraid or unready, but because we think that
peace is right as well as advantageous.
American interests in the Pacific have rapidly grown.
American enterprise has laid a cable across this, the greatest
io

of oceans. We have proved in effective fashion that we wish
the Chinese Empire well and desire its integrity and inde
pendence. THE PHILIPPINE POLICY.
Our foothold in the Philippines greatly strengthens our
position in the competition for the trade of the East ; but we are
governing the Philippines in the interest of the Philippine
people themselves. We have already given them a large share
in their government, and our purpose is to increase this share
as rapidly as they give evidence of increasing fitness for the
task. The great majority of the officials of the islands, whether
elective or appointive, are already native Filipinos. We are
now providing for a legislative assembly. This is the first step
to be taken in the future, and it would be eminently unwise to
declare what our next step will be until this first step has been
taken and the results are manifest. To have gone faster than
we have already gone in giving the islanders a constantly in
creasing measure of self-government would have been disas
trous. At the present moment to give political independence
to the islands would result in the immediate loss of civil rights,
personal liberty and public order, as regards the mass of the
Filipinos, for the majority of the islanders have been given
these great boons by us and only keep them because we vigi
lantly safeguard and guarantee them. To withdraw our gov
ernment from the islands at this time would mean to the
average native the loss of his barely won civil freedom. We
have established in the islands a government by Americans, as
sisted by Filipinos. We are steadily striving to transform this
into self-government by the Filipinos, assisted by Americans.
CONTENT TO STAND OR FALL BY RECORD MADE.
The principles which we uphold should appeal to all our
countrymen, in all portions of our country. Above all they
should give us strength with the men and women who are the
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spiritual heirs of those who upheld the hands of Abraham
Lincoln ; for we are striving to do our work in the spirit with
which Lincoln approached his. During the seven years that
have just passed there is no duty, domestic or foreign, which
we have shirked ; no necessary task which we have feared to
undertake, or which we have not performed with reasonable
efficiency. We have never pleaded impotence. We have never
sought refuge in criticism and complaint instead of action. We
face the future with our past and our present as guarantors of
our promises, and we are content to stand or to fall by the
record which we have made and are making.

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