270 Presidential Addresses 



in order to impress them with the fact that we do 

 not intend to submit to injury. Keep our navy up 

 to the highest point of efficiency; have good ships, 

 and enough of them; have the officers and the en 

 listed men on them trained to handle them, so that 

 in the future the American navy shall rise level, 

 whenever the need comes, to the standard it has set 

 in the past. Keep in our own hearts the rugged, 

 manly virtues, which have made our people for 

 midable as foes, and valuable as friends throughout 

 the century and a quarter of our national life. Do 

 all that; and having done it, remember that it is a 

 sensible thing to speak courteously of others. 



I believe in the Monroe Doctrine. I shall try to 

 see that this Nation lives up to it; and as long as I 

 am President it will be lived up to. But I do not 

 intend to make the doctrine an excuse or a justifi 

 cation for being unpleasant to other powers, for. 

 speaking ill of other powers. We want the friend 

 ship of mankind. We want to get on well with the 

 other nations of mankind, with the small nations 

 and with the big nations. We want so to carry 

 ourselves that if (which I think most unlikely) any 

 quarrel should arise, it would be evident that it was 

 not a quarrel of our own seeking, but one that was 

 forced on us. If it is forced on us, I know you 

 too well not to know that you will stand up to it if 

 the need comes ; but you will stand up to it all the 

 better if you have not blustered or spoken ill of 

 other nations in advance. We want friendship; 



