PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES AND 

 STATE PAPERS 



THE PRESIDENCY 



EDITOR'S NOTE. Although this volume is devoted almost 

 entirely to addresses made after Mr. Roosevelt became Presi 

 dent, it is believed that this essay on the office of the Presi 

 dent, which has not elsewhere appeared in book form, has a 

 fitting place as introductory to the materials which follow 

 herewith. The article was written by Mr. Roosevelt in 

 1900, while he was Governor of New York, and previous to 

 the Republican National Convention, which nominated him 

 for Vice-President. The views expressed in the article are, 

 therefore, those of an outside observer, and are not to be 

 regarded as those of an incumbent of the office. It will be 

 clear to all readers that the writer of the article could not 

 at the time of its publication have foreseen the place he was 

 destined to occupy. 



This article was written expressly for "The Youth's Com 

 panion," and is reprinted by courtesy of that publication. 

 Copyright, 1902, by Perry Mason Company. 



THE President of the United States occupies a 

 position of peculiar importance. In the whole 

 world there is probably no other ruler, certainly no 

 other ruler under free institutions, whose power 

 compares with his. Of course a despotic king has 

 even more, but no constitutional monarch has as 

 much. 



In the republics of France and Switzerland the 

 President is not a very important officer, at least, 

 compared with the President of the United States. 

 In England the sovereign has much less control in 



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