The addresses are separated by three asterisks: ***
Dates of addresses by Theodore Roosevelt in this eBook:
December 3, 1901
December 2, 1902
December 7, 1903
December 6, 1904
December 5, 1905
December 3, 1906
December 3, 1907
December 8, 1908
***
State of the Union Address
Theodore Roosevelt
December 3, 1901
To the Senate and House of Representatives:
The Congress assembles this year under the shadow of a great calamity.On the sixth of September, President McKinley was shot by an anarchistwhile attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, and died inthat city on the fourteenth of that month.
Of the last seven elected Presidents, he is the third who has beenmurdered, and the bare recital of this fact is sufficient to justifygrave alarm among all loyal American citizens. Moreover, thecircumstances of this, the third assassination of an AmericanPresident, have a peculiarly sinister significance. Both PresidentLincoln and President Garfield were killed by assassins of typesunfortunately not uncommon in history; President Lincoln falling avictim to the terrible passions aroused by four years of civil war, andPresident Garfield to the revengeful vanity of a disappointedoffice-seeker. President McKinley was killed by an utterly depravedcriminal belonging to that body of criminals who object to allgovernments, good and bad alike, who are against any form of popularliberty if it is guaranteed by even the most just and liberal laws, andwho are as hostile to the upright exponent of a free people's soberwill as to the tyrannical and irresponsible despot.
It is not too much to say that at the time of President McKinley'sdeath he was the most widely loved man in all the United States; whilewe have never had any public man of his position who has been so whollyfree from the bitter animosities incident to public life. His politicalopponents were the first to bear the heartiest and most generoustribute to the broad kindliness of nature, the sweetness and gentlenessof character which so endeared him to his close associates. To astandard of lofty integrity in public life he united the tenderaffections and home virtues which are all-important in the make-up ofnational character. A gallant soldier in the great war for the Union,he also shone as an example to all our people because of his conduct inthe most sacred and intimate of home relations. There could be nopersonal hatred of him, for he never acted with aught but considerationfor the welfare of others. No one could fail to respect him who knewhim in public or private life. The defenders of those murderouscriminals who seek to excuse their criminality by asserting that it isexercised for political ends, inveigh against wealth and irresponsiblepower. But for this assassination even this base apology cannot beurged.
President McKinley was a man of moderate means, a man whose stocksprang from the sturdy tillers of the soil, who had himself belongedamong the wage-workers, who had entered the Army as a private soldier.Wealth was not struck at when the President was assassinated, but thehonest toil which is content with moderate gains after a lifetime ofunremitting labor, largely in