I am glad to have the opportunity to bid welcome to the members of this Association and their friends to—day.

I welcome you here, and I am glad to have the chance of seeing you, and I wish to say a word of congratulation to you upon this Association.

The warfare that has extended the boundaries of civilization at the expense of barbarism and savagery has been for centuries one of the most potent factors in the progress of humanity.

Upon your success depended all the future of the people on this continent, and much of the future of mankind as a whole.

Just at this moment the Army of the United States, led by men who served among you in the great war, is carrying to completion a small but peculiarly trying and difficult war.

Peace and freedom—are there two better objects for which a soldier can fight?

All honor to them; and shame, thrice shame, to us if we fail to uphold their hands!

Washington and Lincoln—the man who did most to found the Union, and the man who did most to preserve it—stand head and shoulders above all our other public men.

We believe that we can rapidly teach the people of the Philippine Islands not only how to enjoy but how to make good use of their freedom.

There were other crises in which to have gone wrong would have meant disaster; but this was the one crisis in which to have gone wrong would have meant not merely disaster but annihilation.

All cruelty is forbidden, and all harshness beyond what is called for by need.

It is a good custom for our country to have certain solemn holidays in commemoration of our greatest men and of the greatest crises in our history.

On July 4 we celebrate the birth of the nation; on this day, the 30th of May, we call to mind the deaths of those who died that the nation might live.

Washington and Lincoln—the man who did most to found the Union, and the man who did most to preserve it—stand head and shoulders above all our other public men, and have by common consent won the right to this preeminence.

Now, Therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, do hereby declare and make known that the Executive Orders dated December 57, 1875, and December 29, 1891, are so far modified as…

I am sure, my fellow citizens, that you welcome the chance which brings it about that this embassy of the French people should come to our shores.

I extend to you on behalf of the people of the United States, the warmest and most cordial greeting.

I am sure that I give utterance to the sentiments of every citizen of the United States.