Teddy Roosevelt

Either it is necessary supinely to acquiesce in the wrong, and thus put a premium upon brutality and aggression, or else it is necessary for the aggrieved nation valiantly to stand up for its rights.

When one nation wrongs another or wrongs many others, there is no tribunal before which the wrongdoer can be brought.

There is as yet no judicial way of enforcing a right in international law.

But we must also remember that it is as much the duty of the Nation to guard its own rights and its own interests as it is the duty of the individual so to do.

It is our duty to remember that a nation has no more right to do injustice to another nation, strong or weak, than an individual has to do injustice to another individual; that the same moral law applies in one case as in the other.

Neither does it tarry long in the hands of those too slothful, too dishonest, or too unintelligent to exercise it.

One of our great poets has well and finely said that freedom is not a gift that tarries long in the hands of cowards.

The right of freedom and the responsibility for the exercise of that right can not be divorced.

Unrighteous wars are common, and unrighteous peace is rare; but both should be shunned.

Generally peace tells for righteousness; but if there is conflict between the two, then our fealty is due-first to the cause of righteousness.

The goal to set before us as a nation, the goal which should be set before all mankind, is the attainment of the peace of justice, of the peace which comes when each nation is not merely safe-guarded in its own rights, but scrupulously…

The peace of tyrannous terror, the peace of craven weakness, the peace of injustice, all these should be shunned as we shun unrighteous war.

Tyrants and oppressors have many times made a wilderness and called it peace.

There are kinds of peace which are highly undesirable, which are in the long run as destructive as any war.

The steady aim of this Nation, as of all enlightened nations, should be to strive to bring ever nearer the day when there shall prevail throughout the world the peace of justice.

If there is no intention of providing and of keeping the force necessary to back up a strong attitude, then it is far better not to assume such an attitude.

It is not merely unwise, it is contemptible, for a nation, as for an individual, to use high-sounding language to proclaim its purposes, or to take positions which are ridiculous if unsupported by potential force, and then to refuse to…

The Alaskan natives should be given the right to acquire, hold, and dispose of property upon the same conditions as given other inhabitants; and the privilege of citizenship should be given to such as may be able to meet certain definite…

He should be provided with the means and the power to protect and advise the native people, to furnish medical treatment in time of epidemics, and to extend material relief in periods of famine and extreme destitution.

The development of the educational system in the form of practical training in such industries as will assure the Indians self-support under the changed conditions in which they will have to live.

Action in their interest is demanded by every consideration of justice and humanity.

Their country is being overrun by strangers, the game slaughtered and driven away, the streams depleted of fish, and hitherto unknown and fatal diseases brought to them, all of which combine to produce a state of abject poverty and want…

Those who have come under the influence of civilization, even for a limited period, have proved their capability of becoming self-supporting, self-respecting citizens, and ask only for the just enforcement of law and intelligent…

In some instances I feel that the legislation suggested is so imperatively needed that I am moved briefly to emphasize the Attorney-General's proposals.

It should, therefore, receive reasonable aid from the Government.