Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Presidential Rhetoric Sample - James Madison and Theodore Roosevelt
Presidential Rhetoric Sample - James Madison and Theodore Roosevelt
Proclamation—Announcement of a State of War Between the United States and the United Kingdom, 19 June
1812
● ...I do moreover exhort all the good people of the United States, as they love their country, as they
value the precious heritage derived from the virtue and valor of their fathers, as they feel the wrongs
which have forced on them the last resort of injured nations, and as they consult the best means under
the blessing of Divine Providence of abridging its calamities, that they exert themselves in preserving
order, in promoting concord, in maintaining the authority and efficacy of the laws, and in supporting
and invigorating all the measures which may be adopted by the constituted authorities for obtaining a
speedy, a just, and an honorable peace.
Remarks at the Reunion of the Department of the Potomac, Grand Army of the Republic at the New Willard
Hotel, 19 February 1902
● So now it behooves each of us so to conduct his civil life, so to do his duty as a citizen, that we shall
in the most effective way war against the spirit of anarchy in all its forms.
Commencement Address at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, 2 May 1902
● We all of us earnestly hope that the occasion for war may not arise, but if it has to come then this
nation must win
● It is what has been done before the outbreak of war that counts most.
Remarks at the Centennial Meeting of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church at Carnegie
Hall in New York City, 20 May 1902
● The criticism of those who live softly, remote from the strife, is of little value; but it would be
difficult to overestimate the value of the missionary work of those who go out to share the hardship,
and, while sharing it, not to talk, but to wage war against the myriad forms of brutality.
● Mere anarchy and ruin would have fallen upon the island if we had contented ourselves with simple
victory in the war and then had turned the island loose to shift for itself.
Remarks at the Banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York in New York City, 11
November 1902
● And remember, gentlemen, that we shall be a potent factor for peace largely in proportion to the way
in which we make it evident that our attitude is due, not to weakness, not to inability to defend
ourselves, but to a genuine repugnance to wrongdoing, a genuine desire for self-respecting friendship
with our neighbors.
● The voice of the weakling or the craven counts for nothing when he clamors for peace; but the voice
of the just man armed is potent.
Remarks at the Banquet of the Young Men’s Christian Association at the New Willard Hotel, 19 January
1903
● ...to strive to make the young man decent, God-fearing, law-abiding, honor-loving, justice-doing; and
also fearless and strong, able to hold their own in the hurly-burly of the world’s work, able to strive
mightily that the forces of right may be in the end triumphant.
Remarks at a Banquet in Honor of the Birthday of the Late President McKinley in Canton, Ohio, 27 January
1903
● He sought by every honorable means to preserve peace, to avert war.
● Then, when it became evident that these efforts were useless, that peace could not be honorably
entertained, he devoted his strength to making the war as short and as decisive as possible.
Remarks at the Milwaukee National Soldiers’ Home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 3 April 1903
● The man who did all these things and then had the stuff in him to fight when the occasion came - that
is the man who will succeed in war as well as in civil life.
Address at the Ceremonies Incident to the Breaking of Sod for the Erection of a Monument in Memory of the
Late President McKinley in San Francisco, California, 13 May 1903
● It is a solemn thing to speak in memory of a man who, when young, went to war for the honor and
the life of the nation, who for four years did his part in the camp, on the march, in battle, rising
steadily upward from the ranks, and to whom it was given in after life to show himself exemplary in
public and in private conduct, to become the ideal of the nation in peace as he had been a typical
representative of the nation's young sons in war.
Commencement Address at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, 30 January 1905
● What we desire is to have it evident that this nation seeks peace, not because it is afraid, but because
it believes in the eternal and immutable laws of justice and of right living.
Remarks at the Unveiling of the Statue of General Henry W. Slocum in Brooklyn, New York City, 30 may
1905
● ...they raised it to the principle of righteousness, which alone can justify any war or any struggle…
Remarks on Receiving the Degree of LL.D. From Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, 21 June
1905
● I have no patience with the brawler, the quarreler, the swashbuckler, and I have a little less for the
academy person who believes that a nation any more than an individual can afford to put peace
before justice.
Remarks at Sea on Board the West Virginia en Route to Washington, DC, 29 October 1905
● Let each of you officers remember, in the event of war, that while a surrender may sometimes be
justifiable, yet that surrender must always be explained, while it is never necessary to explain the fact
that you don't surrender, no matter what the conditions may be.
Remarks at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the Office Building of the House of Representatives: “The Man
with the Muck-Rake”, 14 April 1906
● It is because I feel that there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil that I ask
that the war be conducted with sanity as well as with resolution.
Sixth Annual Address, 3 December 1906
● A just war is in the long run far better for a nation's soul than the most prosperous peace obtained by
acquiescence in wrong or injustice.
● Nothing would more promote iniquity, nothing would further defer the reign upon earth of peace and
righteousness, than for the free and enlightened peoples which, tho with much stumbling and many
shortcomings, nevertheless strive toward justice, deliberately to render themselves powerless while
leaving every despotism and barbarism armed and able to work their wicked will.