3. “Without the habit of orderly obedience to the law, without the stern enforcement of the laws at the expense of those who defiantly resist them, there can be no possible progress, moral or material, in civilization. There can be no weakening of the law-abiding spirit here at home, if we are permanently to succeed; and just as little can we afford to show weakness abroad.”
In that same 1901 Address in Minnesota, Roosevelt decries any attempts at civil disobedience and seemingly justifies a belief in following law only because it is the rule of the land. As opposed to American revolutionaries who disobeyed unjust laws and actively campaigned against following such rules and regulations, Roosevelt apparently thinks that obedience is what is most important in an American citizen.
