men, to my side. God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but
counsel and sustain me!




FIRST ADDRESS TO CONGRESS

[Delivered at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress, at the
beginning of the first session of the Sixty-third Congress, April 8,
1913.]


MR. SPEAKER, MR. PRESIDENT, GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

I am very glad indeed to have this opportunity to address the two Houses
directly and to verify for myself the impression that the President of
the United States is a person, not a mere department of the Government
hailing Congress from some isolated island of jealous power, sending
messages, not speaking naturally and with his own voice--that he is a
human being trying to coöperate with other human beings in a common
service. After this pleasant experience I shall feel quite normal in all
our dealings with one another.[B]

I have called the Congress together in extraordinary session because a
duty was laid upon the party now in power at the recent elections which
it ought to perform promptly, in order that the burden carried by the
people under existing law may be lightened as soon as possible and in
order, also, that the business interests of the country may not be kept
too long in suspense as to what the fiscal changes are to be to which