The Triumphant Life of Theodore Roosevelt edited by J. Martin Miller

THE PRESIDENT STARTS ON HIS TRIP 171
injury on the weak. It is not at all necessary to say disagreeable things about the
strong in order to impress them with the fact that we do not intend to submit to
injury. Keep our navy up to the highest degree of efficiency; have good ships, and
enough of them ; have
the officers and the enlisted men on them trained to handle
ihem, so that in the future the American navy shall rise level, whenever the need
comes, to the standard it has set in the past. Keep in our hearts the rugged, manly
virtues, which have made our people formidable as foes and valuable as friends
throughout the century and a quarter of our national life. Do all that; and having
done it, remember that it is a sensible thing to speak courteously of others.
"WE WANT THE FRIENDSHIP OF MANKIND"
I believe in the Monroe Doctrine. I shall try to see that this nation lives up
to it ; and as long as I am President it will be lived up to. But I do not intend to
make the doctrine an excuse or a justification for being unpleasant to other powers,
for speaking ill of other powers. We want the friendship of mankind. We want
to get on well with the other nations of mankind, with the small nations and with the
big nations. We want so to carrj' ourselves that if (which I think most unlikely) any
quarrel should arise, it would be e\ndent that it was not a quarrel of our own seeking,
but one that was forced on us. If it is forced on us, I know you too well not to
know that you will stand up to it if the need comes; but you will stand up to it all
the better if you have not blustered or spoken ill of other nations in advance. We
want friendship; we want peace. We wish well to the nations of mankind. We
look %vith joy at any prosperity of theirs, we wish them success, not failure.
We rejoice as mankind moves forward over the whole earth. Each nation has its
own difficulties. We have difficulties enough at home. Let us improve ourselves,
lifting what needs to be lifted here, ard let others do their own ;
let us attend to our
own, keep our own hearthstone swept and in order. Do not shirk any duty; do not
shirk any difficulty that is forced upon us, but do not invite it by foolish language.
Do not assume a quarrelsome and unpleasant attitude towards other people.
Let the friendly expression of foreign powers be accepted as tokens of their
sincere good-will, and reflecting their real sentiments , and let us avoid any language
on our part which might tend to turn their good-will into ill-will. All that is mere
common sense; the kind of common sense that we apply in our own lives, man
to man, neighbor to neighbor; and remember that substantially what is true
among nations, is true on a small scale among ourselves. The man who is a
weakling, who is a coward, we all despise, and we ought to despise him. If a man
cannot do his own work and take his own part, he does not count ; and I have no
patience with those who would have the United States unable to take its own part,
to do its work in the world. But remember that a loose tongue is just as unfortunate