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He addressed his audience as "my fellow-citizens" and began with a message of gratitude. He said:
"No people on earth have more cause to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has blessed us with the conditions which have enabled us to achieve so large a measure of well-being and of happiness. To us as a people it has been granted to lay the foundations of our national life in a new continent. We are the heirs of the ages, and yet we have had to pay few of the penalties which in old countries are exacted by the dead hand of a bygone civilization. We have not been obliged to fight for our existence against any alien race; and yet our life has called for the vigor and effort without which the manlier and hardier virtues wither away. Under such conditions it would be our own fault if we failed; and the success which we have had in the past, the success which we confidently believe the future will bring, should cause in us no feeling of vainglory, but rather a deep and abiding realization of all which life has offered us; a full acknowledgment of the responsibility which is ours; and a fixed determination to show that under a free government a mighty people can thrive best, alike as regards the things of the body and the things of the soul."
He went on to comment that "Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us." He outlined the duties expected of Americans, duties which could not be shirked. He said: "Toward all other nations, large and small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship." In typical Roosevelt fashion, he added, "But justice and generosity in a nation, as in an individual, count most when shown not by the weak but by the strong." He called for a balance of peace and justice for all nations that acted "manfully and justly".
Roosevelt went on to address conditions at home, noting the economic prosperity that the nation was experiencing, along with the problems naturally attracted by this condition. Returning to his optimistic sentiment, he told his audience, "There is no good reason why we should fear the future, but there is every reason why we should face it seriously, neither hiding from ourselves the gravity of the problems before us nor fearing to approach these problems with the unbending, unflinching purpose to solve them aright."
Roosevelt concluded by comparing the challenges facing the nation to those confronted by "our fathers who founded and preserved this Republic". He concluded by saying:
But we have faith that we shall not prove false to the memories of the men of the mighty past. They did their work, they left us the splendid heritage we now enjoy. We in our turn have an assured confidence that we shall be able to leave this heritage unwasted and enlarged to our children and our children's children. To do so we must show, not merely in great crises, but in the everyday affairs of life, the qualities of practical intelligence, of courage, of hardihood, and endurance, and above all the power of devotion to a lofty ideal, which made great the men who founded this Republic in the days of Washington, which made great the men who preserved this Republic in the days of Abraham Lincoln.
Roosevelt's inaugural celebration was the largest and most diverse of any up to that time (or perhaps since). Roosevelt's guests included cowboys from the badlands of the Dakotas, Native Americans (including the Apache Chief Geronimo), coal miners, soldiers, and students. The oath of office was administered on the East Portico of the Capitol by Chief Justice Melville Fuller. Below is a brief (1:45) silent video of portions of the ceremony and inaugural parade.