Inaugural Address of Theodore Roosevelt

Inaugural Address of Theodore Rooseveltresearch paper due and don't know how to start it? How about like this?

When taking the oath of office, Theodore Roosevelt had a plan before him that would help bring America to the greatest heights of glory. Throughout his speech, he touched on the following:

• Roosevelt alluded to the enormous power possessed by our nation
• The notion that it was the time for our society to take its place on the world's stage.
• Roosevelt expressed a moral duty, both in terms of our own society and in our relations with foreign nations.
• As one of history's great reformers, Theodore Roosevelt worked with the American people to improve the quality of life for so many individuals, identifying corruption in big business and addressing social problems in their many forms.

This, he felt, was essential if we were to be taken seriously by the world's nations. As a nation that had been in existence for less than 150 years, we needed to prove our social standing to nations and empires that had existed for centuries. This, he felt, could only be done through reform.

Roosevelt balanced this moral reform position with one of strength and action. As leader of this nation, he planned to display our might economically and militarily, if the latter were necessary. To ensure our continued success as a nation, and to fight the unique challenges that appeared during his tenure, Roosevelt pledged to "show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence, courage, of hardihood, and endurance," all traits that would be necessary for our continued survival. The challenges of his generation were dramatically different from the challenges faced by Washington or Lincoln, but they were no less pressing. While his course of action might have been dramatically different from his predecessors, the ultimate outcome was the same: the political, economic, and social growth of the nation, both among her citizens and in the eyes of the great powers of the world.