Speech Transcript:

My Fellow-Citizens:

When we assembled here on the 4th of March, 1897, there was great
anxiety with regard to our currency and credit. None exists now. Then
our Treasury receipts were inadequate to meet the current obligations
of the Government. Now they are sufficient for all public needs, and
we have a surplus instead of a deficit. Then I felt constrained to
convene the Congress in extraordinary session to devise revenues to
pay the ordinary expenses of the Government. Now I have the
satisfaction to announce that the Congress just closed has reduced
taxation in the sum of $41,000,000. Then there was deep solicitude
because of the long depression in our manufacturing, mining,
agricultural, and mercantile industries and the consequent distress
of our laboring population. Now every avenue of production is crowded
with activity, labor is well employed, and American products find good
markets at home and abroad.

Our diversified productions, however, are increasing in such
unprecedented volume as to admonish us of the necessity of still
further enlarging our foreign markets by broader commercial
relations. For this purpose reciprocal trade arrangements with other
nations should in liberal spirit be carefully cultivated and
promoted.

The national verdict of 1896 has for the most part been executed.
Whatever remains unfulfilled is a continuing obligation resting with
undiminished force upon the Executive and the Congress. But fortunate
as our condition is, its permanence can only be assured by sound
business methods and strict economy in national administration and
legislation. We should not permit our great prosperity to lead us to
reckless ventures in business or profligacy in public expenditures.
While the Congress determines the objects and the sum of
appropriations, the officials of the executive departments are
responsible for honest and faithful disbursement, and it should be
their constant care to avoid waste and extravagance.

Honesty, capacity, and industry are nowhere more indispensable than
in public employment. These should be fundamental requisites to
original appointment and the surest guaranties against removal.

Four years ago we stood on the brink of war without the people
knowing it and without any preparation or effort at preparation for
the impending peril. I did all that in honor could be done to avert
the war, but without avail. It became inevitable; and the Congress at
its first regular session, without party division, provided money in
anticipation of the crisis and in preparation to meet it. It came.
The result was signally favorable to American arms and in the highest
degree honorable to the Government. It imposed upon us obligations
from which we cannot escape and from which it would be dishonorable
to seek escape. We are now at peace with the world, and it is my
fervent prayer that if differences arise between us and other powers
they may be settled by peaceful arbitration and that hereafter we may
be spared the horrors of war.

Intrusted by the people for a second time with the office of
President, I enter upon its administration appreciating the great
responsibilities which attach to this renewed honor and commission,
promising unreserved devotion on my part to their faithful discharge
and reverently invoking for my guidance the direction and favor of
Almighty God. I should shrink from the duties this day assumed if I
did not feel that in their performance I should have the co-operation
of the wise and patriotic men of all parties. It encourages me for the
great task which I now undertake to believe that those who voluntarily
committed to me the trust imposed upon the Chief Executive of the
Republic will give to me generous support in my duties to "preserve,
protect, and defend, the Constitution of the United States" and to
"care that the laws be faithfully executed." The national purpose is
indicated through a national election. It is the constitutional
method of ascertaining the public will. When once it is registered it
is a law to us all, and faithful observance should follow its
decrees.

Strong hearts and helpful hands are needed, and, fortunately, we have
them in every part of our beloved country. We are reunited.
Sectionalism has disappeared. Division on public questions can no
longer be traced by the war maps of 1861. These old differences less
and less disturb the judgment. Existing problems demand the thought
and quicken the conscience of the country, and the responsibility for
their presence, as well as for their righteous settlement, rests upon
us all--no more upon me than upon you. There are some national
questions in the solution of which patriotism should exclude
partisanship. Magnifying their difficulties will not take them off
our hands nor facilitate their adjustment. Distrust of the capacity,
integrity, and high purposes of the American people will not be an
inspiring theme for future political contests. Dark pictures and
gloomy forebodings are worse than useless. These only becloud, they
do not help to point the way of safety and honor. "Hope maketh not
ashamed." The prophets of evil were not the builders of the Republic,
nor in its crises since have they saved or served it. The faith of the
fathers was a mighty force in its creation, and the faith of their
descendants has wrought its progress and furnished its defenders.
They are obstructionists who despair, and who would destroy
confidence in the ability of our people to solve wisely and for
civilization the mighty problems resting upon them. The American
people, intrenched in freedom at home, take their love for it with
them wherever they go, and they reject as mistaken and unworthy the
doctrine that we lose our own liberties by securing the enduring
foundations of liberty to others. Our institutions will not
deteriorate by extension, and our sense of justice will not abate
under tropic suns in distant seas. As heretofore, so hereafter will
the nation demonstrate its fitness to administer any new estate which
events devolve upon it, and in the fear of God will "take occasion by
the hand and make the bounds of freedom wider yet." If there are
those among us who would make our way more difficult, we must not be
disheartened, but the more earnestly dedicate ourselves to the task
upon which we have rightly entered. The path of progress is seldom
smooth. New things are often found hard to do. Our fathers found them
so. We find them so. They are inconvenient. They cost us something.
But are we not made better for the effort and sacrifice, and are not
those we serve lifted up and blessed?

We will be consoled, too, with the fact that opposition has
confronted every onward movement of the Republic from its opening
hour until now, but without success. The Republic has marched on and
on, and its step has exalted freedom and humanity. We are undergoing
the same ordeal as did our predecessors nearly a century ago. We are
following the course they blazed. They triumphed. Will their
successors falter and plead organic impotency in the nation? Surely
after 125 years of achievement for mankind we will not now surrender
our equality with other powers on matters fundamental and essential
to nationality. With no such purpose was the nation created. In no
such spirit has it developed its full and independent sovereignty. We
adhere to the principle of equality among ourselves, and by no act of
ours will we assign to ourselves a subordinate rank in the family of
nations.

My fellow-citizens, the public events of the past four years have
gone into history. They are too near to justify recital. Some of them
were unforeseen; many of them momentous and far-reaching in their
consequences to ourselves and our relations with the rest of the
world. The part which the United States bore so honorably in the
thrilling scenes in China, while new to American life, has been in
harmony with its true spirit and best traditions, and in dealing with
the results its policy will be that of moderation and fairness.

We face at this moment a most important question that of the future
relations of the United States and Cuba. With our near neighbors we
must remain close friends. The declaration of the purposes of this
Government in the resolution of April 20, 1898, must be made good.
Ever since the evacuation of the island by the army of Spain, the
Executive, with all practicable speed, has been assisting its people
in the successive steps necessary to the establishment of a free and
independent government prepared to assume and perform the obligations
of international law which now rest upon the United States under the
treaty of Paris. The convention elected by the people to frame a
constitution is approaching the completion of its labors. The
transfer of American control to the new government is of such great
importance, involving an obligation resulting from our intervention
and the treaty of peace, that I am glad to be advised by the recent
act of Congress of the policy which the legislative branch of the
Government deems essential to the best interests of Cuba and the
United States. The principles which led to our intervention require
that the fundamental law upon which the new government rests should
be adapted to secure a government capable of performing the duties
and discharging the functions of a separate nation, of observing its
international obligations of protecting life and property, insuring
order, safety, and liberty, and conforming to the established and
historical policy of the United States in its relation to Cuba.

The peace which we are pledged to leave to the Cuban people must
carry with it the guaranties of permanence. We became sponsors for
the pacification of the island, and we remain accountable to the
Cubans, no less than to our own country and people, for the
reconstruction of Cuba as a free commonwealth on abiding foundations
of right, justice, liberty, and assured order. Our enfranchisement of
the people will not be completed until free Cuba shall "be a reality,
not a name; a perfect entity, not a hasty experiment bearing within
itself the elements of failure."

While the treaty of peace with Spain was ratified on the 6th of
February, 1899, and ratifications were exchanged nearly two years
ago, the Congress has indicated no form of government for the
Philippine Islands. It has, however, provided an army to enable the
Executive to suppress insurrection, restore peace, give security to
the inhabitants, and establish the authority of the United States
throughout the archipelago. It has authorized the organization of
native troops as auxiliary to the regular force. It has been advised
from time to time of the acts of the military and naval officers in
the islands, of my action in appointing civil commissions, of the
instructions with which they were charged, of their duties and
powers, of their recommendations, and of their several acts under
executive commission, together with the very complete general
information they have submitted. These reports fully set forth the
conditions, past and present, in the islands, and the instructions
clearly show the principles which will guide the Executive until the
Congress shall, as it is required to do by the treaty, determine "the
civil rights and political status of the native inhabitants." The
Congress having added the sanction of its authority to the powers
already possessed and exercised by the Executive under the
Constitution, thereby leaving with the Executive the responsibility
for the government of the Philippines, I shall continue the efforts
already begun until order shall be restored throughout the islands,
and as fast as conditions permit will establish local governments, in
the formation of which the full co-operation of the people has been
already invited, and when established will encourage the people to
administer them. The settled purpose, long ago proclaimed, to afford
the inhabitants of the islands self-government as fast as they were
ready for it will be pursued with earnestness and fidelity. Already
something has been accomplished in this direction. The Government's
representatives, civil and military, are doing faithful and noble
work in their mission of emancipation and merit the approval and
support of their countrymen. The most liberal terms of amnesty have
already been communicated to the insurgents, and the way is still
open for those who have raised their arms against the Government for
honorable submission to its authority. Our countrymen should not be
deceived. We are not waging war against the inhabitants of the
Philippine Islands. A portion of them are making war against the
United States. By far the greater part of the inhabitants recognize
American sovereignty and welcome it as a guaranty of order and of
security for life, property, liberty, freedom of conscience, and the
pursuit of happiness. To them full protection will be given. They
shall not be abandoned. We will not leave the destiny of the loyal
millions the islands to the disloyal thousands who are in rebellion
against the United States. Order under civil institutions will come
as soon as those who now break the peace shall keep it. Force will
not be needed or used when those who make war against us shall make
it no more. May it end without further bloodshed, and there be
ushered in the reign of peace to be made permanent by a government of
liberty under law!