In this speech, Teddy gets into the nitty-gritty of the reform he implied was coming in "The Man with the Muckrake." He delivered this speech at a gathering of Civil War vets, so he lays out his policy in Civil War metaphors.

The most powerful of these metaphors is comparing military organization to the country. Soldiers needed good ties with Washington, competent generals, and a solid supply line, but without the right character all of them will be useless in getting results. This is TR's politics in a nutshell—he wants to make sure that conditions in America are fair to everyone, but people have to meet the government halfway and really show what they're made of.