The man who died this morning was an excellent seaman, who had done his duty faithfully, and who died in the performance of that duty.

The Cumberland sank with her flags flying and her guns firing while her decks were awash.

The result as I see it in this ship is a triumph not only of organization and discipline, but of the ready zeal with which each individual performs his allotted task.

The discipline, the ready subordination of each man, whether officer or enlisted man, to duty, the care taken of the men and in return the eager, intelligent, self-respecting zeal of each man in doing his work.

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…

Then Joe is dead.

At any time some emergency may arise in which the safety of the entire ship will depend upon the vigilance, intelligence, and cool courage of some one man among you.

Any man in the whole ship's company who does his full duty can claim as his own the honor and repute of the ship and has a right to feel a personal pride in all she does.

What must impress especially any observer is how essential it is that every individual on a ship like this should do his whole duty, and in any crisis more than his duty.

It is a privilege for any President to come aboard a squadron of American warships such as these.

No President of the United States could have been greeted as I have been greeted today and not go back to take up the duties of his office with a stronger and more earnest purpose to try to represent all the splendid people whom he serves.

One thing that, as President of this country, I won't do, is to make a bluff that I can't make good.

Although some times we have difficulties in this country that we have to battle against, and sometimes things that we are not quite satisfied with, yet we are pretty good people.

I accept it with pleasure.

Now think what it means in a nation for the President of that nation, forty years after one of the greatest wars of all time, to be able to come and speak as I spoke in the capital of the Southern Confederacy, and to feel that I was…

I have no respect either for the nation or for the individual that brawls, that invites trouble.

I don't say anything unless I mean it.

All I had to do was to be able to show them that any measure was for the country's good and I knew they would stand for it.