I ask for a navy, primarily, because it is the surest means of keeping peace; and also because if war does come, surely there can be no American who will tolerate the idea of its having anything other than a successful issue.

The only way to do in building up the Navy is to keep on with it.

The best possible assurance against war is an adequate navy.

It is no wonder the people of Washington have shown themselves true to the practices and principles of the men who fought in the great war.

I congratulate Washington on its agriculture, its lumber, its mines, upon all that it produces, but most of all upon its crop of children.

Do not threaten; do not bluster; above all, do not insult other people; but when you make up your mind that the situation is such as to require you to take a given position, take it and keep it, and have it definitely understood that what…

Never draw unless you mean to shoot.

The surest guarantee of peace is an adequate Navy.

We have met to commemorate a mighty pioneer feat, a feat of the old days, when men needed to call upon every ounce of courage and hardihood and manliness they possessed in order ta make good our claim to this continent.

Base is the man who inflicts wrong, and base is the man who suffers a wrong to be done him.

It is a good thing to cheer her, but it is a better thing to see that we keep on building other ships like her, but even better.

We can glory now in the deeds of Manilla and Santiago, because for the dozen years before our people were building up the Navy.

Whether we wish it or not we have to be a great power; we have to play a great part.

I ask that you show your appreciation of what the Navy did in '98, that you show your appreciation of what was done in the past by the pioneers who won this land by making ready for the future.

I ask that we, the inheritors of the glory of the men who founded the Republic under Washington, of the men who saved it under Lincoln, in our turn play our part and do aright the lesser tasks of today.

If we do not, then our children when they look back for cause of pride in our history will have to skip our generation.

I am impressed, as every man must be, with what our nation is to have within its borders a State such as this.

We cannot be dragged up, we have got to push ourselves up.