Many of the officers of our ships have mentioned to me that during the war punishments almost ceased, because the men who got into scrapes in times of peace were so aroused and excited by the chance of battle that their behavior was…

We read now and then of foreign services where men hate their officers, have no community of interest with them, and no desire to fight for the flag.

It follows that the navy is comparatively free in time of war from the presence in the higher ranks of men utterly unfit to perform their duties.

To get the very best work out of them, they should all be composed of trained and seasoned men; and in any event they should not be sent against a formidable adversary unless each crew has for a nucleus a large body of such men filling all…

On them will rest the blame of any check to the national arms, and the honor that will undoubtedly be won for the flag by our army will have been won in spite of their sinister opposition.

On the other hand, the national consciousness of capacity to vindicate national honor must be due mainly to the action of those Congressmen who have in fact built up our fleet.

The young officers who first took hold and developed the possibilities of our torpedo-boats, for instance, really deserve as much credit as their successors have rightly received for handling them with dash and skill during the war.

The admirals who first exercised the new ships in squadrons were giving the training without which Dewey and Sampson would have found their tasks incomparably more difficult.

In no service, ashore or afloat, in the world could better men of their grade be found than the lieutenants, and indeed the captains, of the infantry and dismounted cavalry at Santiago.

Only thus will it be possible to train the commanders, the quartermasters, the commissaries, the doctors, so that they may by actual experience learn to do their duties, as naval officers by actual experience have learned to do theirs.

Only thus can we do full justice to as splendid and gallant a body of men as any nation ever had the good luck to include among its armed defenders.

But if the man chosen had been timid about taking risks, nothing that could be done for him would have availed.

I deem such legislation demanded not only by our interest but by our honor.

She is loyally observing her obligations to us; and she is entitled to like treatment by us.

It is a market which lies at our doors, which is already large, which is capable of great expansion, and which is especially important to the development of our export trade.

It would be indeed shortsighted for us to refuse to take advantage of such an opportunity, and to force Cuba into making arrangements with other countries to our disadvantage.

Finally, it is desirable as a guaranty of the good faith of our Nation toward her young sister republic to the south, whose welfare must ever be closely bound with ours.

We are knit to her by the memories of the blood and the courage of our soldiers who fought for her in war; by the memory of the wisdom and integrity of our administrators who served her in peace and who started her so well on the difficult…

We must help her onward and upward; and in helping her we shall help ourselves.

The Congress has created the Department of Commerce and Labor, including the Bureau of Corporations, with for the first time authority to secure proper publicity of such proceedings of these great corporations as the public has the right…

I speak in another part of this Message of the widespread crimes by which the sacred right of citizenship is falsely asserted and that “inestimable heritage” perverted to base ends.

While there may have been as much official corruption in former years, there has been more developed and brought to light in the immediate past than in the preceding century of our country’s history.

Other offences violate one law while corruption strikes at the foundation of all law.

Under our form of government all authority is vested in the people and by them delegated to those who represent them in official capacity.

There can be no offence heavier than that of him in whom such a sacred trust has been reposed, who sells it for his own gain and enrichment; and no less heavy is the offence of the bribe giver.