528 Presidential Addresses 



all who in any way have a right to address the pub- 

 lic, should with every energy unite to denounce such 

 crimes and to support those engaged in putting them 

 down. As a people we claim the right to speak with 

 peculiar emphasis for freedom and for fair treatment 

 of all men without regard to differences of race, 

 fortune, creed, or color. We forfeit the right so to 

 speak when we commit or condone such crimes as 

 these of which I speak. 



The nation, like the individual, can not commit a 

 crime with impunity. If we are guilty of lawlessness 

 and brutal violence, whether our guilt consists in ac- 

 tive participation therein or in mere connivance and 

 encouragement, we shall assuredly suffer later on be- 

 cause of what we have done. The cornerstone of 

 this Republic, as of all free government, is respect for 

 and obedience to the law. Where we permit the law 

 to be defied or evaded, whether by rich man or poor 

 man, by black man or white, we are by just so much 

 weakening the bonds of our civilization and increas- 

 ing the chances of its overthrow, and of the substitu- 

 tion therefor of a system in which there shall be vio- 

 lent alternations of anarchy and tyranny. 

 Sincerely yours, 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



HON. WlNFIELD T. DURBIN, 



Governor of Indiana, 

 Indianapolis, Ind. 



