First Inaugural Address In the City of New York
Fellow‑Citizens of the Senate and
of the House of Representatives:
AMONG the vicissitudes incident to
life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which
the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day
of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose
voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which
I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with
an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years a retreat which
was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition
of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the
gradual waste committed on it by time. On the other hand, the magnitude and
difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being
sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a
distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with
despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed
in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of
his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dare aver is that
it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation
of every circumstance by which it might be affected. All I dare hope is that
if, in executing this task, I have been too much swayed by a grateful remembrance
of former instances, or by an affectionate sensibility to this transcendent
proof of the confidence of my fellow‑citizens, and have thence too little
consulted my incapacity as well as disinclination for the weighty and untried
cares before me, my error will be palliated by the motives which mislead
me, and its consequences be judged by my country with some share of the partiality
in which they originated.
Such being the impressions under which
I have, in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present station,
it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent
supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides
in the councils of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every
human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness
of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves
for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in
its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his
charge. In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and
private good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than
my own, nor those of my fellow‑citizens at large less than either. No people
can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the
affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they
have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been
distinguished by some token of providential agency; and in the important revolution
just accomplished in the system of their united government the tranquil deliberations
and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities from which the event
has resulted can not be compared with the means by which most governments
have been established without some return of pious gratitude, along with
an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seem to presage.
These reflections, arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves
too strongly on my mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust,
in thinking that there are none under the influence of which the proceedings
of a new and free government can more auspiciously commence.
By the article establishing the executive
department it is made the duty of the President "to recommend to your consideration
such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." The circumstances
under which I now meet you will acquit me from entering into that subject
further than to refer to the great constitutional charter under which you
are assembled, and which, in defining your powers, designates the objects
to which your attention is to be given. It will be more consistent with
those circumstances, and far more congenial with the feelings which actuate
me, to substitute, in place of a recommendation of particular measures, the
tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which
adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable
qualifications I behold the surest pledges that as on one side no local
prejudices or attachments, no separate views nor party animosities, will
misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this
great assemblage of communities and interests, so, on another, that the foundation
of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles
of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified
by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command
the respect of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction
which an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth
more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course
of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness; between duty
and advantage; between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy
and the solid rewards of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to
be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected
on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven
itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty
and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered,
perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the
hands of the American people.
Besides the ordinary objects submitted
to your care, it will remain with your judgment to decide how far an exercise
of the occasional power delegated by the fifth article of the Constitution
is rendered expedient at the present juncture by the nature of objections
which have been urged against the system, or by the degree of inquietude which
has given birth to them. Instead of undertaking particular recommendations
on this subject, in which I could be guided by no lights derived from official
opportunities, I shall again give way to my entire confidence in your discernment
and pursuit of the public good; for I assure myself that whilst you carefully
avoid every alteration which might endanger the benefits of an united and
effective government, or which ought to await the future lessons of experience,
a reverence for the characteristic rights of freemen and a regard for the
public harmony will sufficiently influence your deliberations on the question
how far the former can be impregnably fortified or the latter be safely and
advantageously promoted.
To the foregoing observations I have
one to add, which will be most properly addressed to the House of Representatives.
It concerns myself, and will therefore be as brief as possible. When I was
first honored with a call into the service of my country, then on the eve
of an arduous struggle for its liberties, the light in which I contemplated
my duty required that I should renounce every pecuniary compensation. From
this resolution I have in no instance departed; and being still under the
impressions which produced it, I must decline as inapplicable to myself any
share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a
permanent provision for the executive department, and must accordingly pray
that the pecuniary estimates for the station in which I am placed may during
my continuance in it be limited to such actual expenditures as the public
good may be thought to require.
Having thus imparted to you my sentiments
as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, I shall
take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent
of the Human Race in humble supplication that, since He has been pleased to
favor the American people with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquillity,
and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of government
for the security of their union and the advancement of their happiness, so
His divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the
temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this
Government must depend.
Inaugural Address
in the City of Philadelphia
The first Vice President became the
second President of the United States. His opponent in the election, Thomas
Jefferson, had won the second greatest number of electoral votes and therefore
had been elected Vice President by the electoral college. Chief Justice Oliver
Ellsworth administered the oath of office in the Hall of the House of Representatives
in Federal Hall before a joint session of Congress.
When it was first perceived, in early
times, that no middle course for America remained between unlimited submission
to a foreign legislature and a total independence of its claims, men of reflection
were less apprehensive of danger from the formidable power of fleets and armies
they must determine to resist than from those contests and dissensions which
would certainly arise concerning the forms of government to be instituted
over the whole and over the parts of this extensive country. Relying, however,
on the purity of their intentions, the justice of their cause, and the integrity
and intelligence of the people, under an overruling Providence which had so
signally protected this country from the first, the representatives of this
nation, then consisting of little more than half its present number, not
only broke to pieces the chains which were forging and the rod of iron that
was lifted up, but frankly cut asunder the ties which had bound them, and
launched into an ocean of uncertainty.
The zeal and ardor of the people during
the Revolutionary war, supplying the place of government, commanded a degree
of order sufficient at least for the temporary preservation of society. The
Confederation which was early felt to be necessary was prepared from the
models of the Batavian and Helvetic confederacies, the only examples which
remain with any detail and precision in history, and certainly the only ones
which the people at large had ever considered. But reflecting on the striking
difference in so many particulars between this country and those where a
courier may go from the seat of government to the frontier in a single day,
it was then certainly foreseen by some who assisted in Congress at the formation
of it that it could not be durable.
Negligence of its regulations, inattention
to its recommendations, if not disobedience to its authority, not only in
individuals but in States, soon appeared with their melancholy consequences
universal languor, jealousies and rivalries of States, decline of navigation
and commerce, discouragement of necessary manufactures, universal fall in
the value of lands and their produce, contempt of public and private faith,
loss of consideration and credit with foreign nations, and at length in discontents,
animosities, combinations, partial conventions, and insurrection, threatening
some great national calamity.
In this dangerous crisis the people
of America were not abandoned by their usual good sense, presence of mind,
resolution, or integrity. Measures were pursued to concert a plan to form
a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide
for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings
of liberty. The public disquisitions, discussions, and deliberations issued
in the present happy Constitution of Government.
Employed in the service of my country
abroad during the whole course of these transactions, I first saw the Constitution
of the United States in a foreign country. Irritated by no literary altercation,
animated by no public debate, heated by no party animosity, I read it with
great satisfaction, as the result of good heads prompted by good hearts, as
an experiment better adapted to the genius, character, situation, and relations
of this nation and country than any which had ever been proposed or suggested.
In its general principles and great outlines it was conformable to such a
system of government as I had ever most esteemed, and in some States, my
own native State in particular, had contributed to establish. Claiming a
right of suffrage, in common with my fellow‑citizens, in the adoption or rejection
of a constitution which was to rule me and my posterity, as well as them
and theirs, I did not hesitate to express my approbation of it on all occasions,
in public and in private. It was not then, nor has been since, any objection
to it in my mind that the Executive and Senate were not more permanent. Nor
have I ever entertained a thought of promoting any alteration in it but such
as the people themselves, in the course of their experience, should see and
feel to be necessary or expedient, and by their representatives in Congress
and the State legislatures, according to the Constitution itself, adopt and
ordain.
Returning to the bosom of my country
after a painful separation from it for ten years, I had the honor to be elected
to a station under the new order of things, and I have repeatedly laid myself
under the most serious obligations to support the Constitution. The operation
of it has equaled the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and from
an habitual attention to it, satisfaction in its administration, and delight
in its effects upon the peace, order, prosperity, and happiness of the nation
I have acquired an habitual attachment to it and veneration for it.
What other form of government, indeed,
can so well deserve our esteem and love?
There may be little solidity in an
ancient idea that congregations of men into cities and nations are the most
pleasing objects in the sight of superior intelligences, but this is very
certain, that to a benevolent human mind there can be no spectacle presented
by any nation more pleasing, more noble, majestic, or august, than an assembly
like that which has so often been seen in this and the other Chamber of Congress,
of a Government in which the Executive authority, as well as that of all the
branches of the Legislature, are exercised by citizens selected at regular
periods by their neighbors to make and execute laws for the general good.
Can anything essential, anything more than mere ornament and decoration, be
added to this by robes and diamonds? Can authority be more amiable and respectable
when it descends from accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity
than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and
enlightened people? For it is the people only that are represented. It is
their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every
legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear. The existence of
such a government as ours for any length of time is a full proof of a general
dissemination of knowledge and virtue throughout the whole body of the people.
And what object or consideration more pleasing than this can be presented
to the human mind? If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it
is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from
conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence.
In the midst of these pleasing ideas
we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger
to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity
of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections. If an election is
to be determined by a majority of a single vote, and that can be procured
by a party through artifice or corruption, the Government may be the choice
of a party for its own ends, not of the nation for the national good. If that
solitary suffrage can be obtained by foreign nations by flattery or menaces,
by fraud or violence, by terror, intrigue, or venality, the Government may
not be the choice of the American people, but of foreign nations. It may
be foreign nations who govern us, and not we, the people, who govern ourselves;
and candid men will acknowledge that in such cases choice would have little
advantage to boast of over lot or chance.
Such is the amiable and interesting
system of government (and such are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed)
which the people of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety
of the wise and virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration
of a citizen who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence,
justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the
same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty
to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity,
has merited the gratitude of his fellow‑citizens, commanded the highest praises
of foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity.
In that retirement which is his voluntary
choice may he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services,
the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world,
which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes
of this country which is opening from year to year. His name may be still
a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bulwark, against all open or
secret enemies of his country's peace. This example has been recommended to
the imitation of his successors by both Houses of Congress and by the voice
of the legislatures and the people throughout the nation.
On this subject it might become me
better to be silent or to speak with diffidence; but as something may be expected,
the occasion, I hope, will be admitted as an apology if I venture to say
that if a preference, upon principle, of a free republican government, formed
upon long and serious reflection, after a diligent and impartial inquiry after
truth; if an attachment to the Constitution of the United States, and a conscientious
determination to support it until it shall be altered by the judgments and
wishes of the people, expressed in the mode prescribed in it; if a respectful
attention to the constitutions of the individual States and a constant caution
and delicacy toward the State governments; if an equal and impartial regard
to the rights, interest, honor, and happiness of all the States in the Union,
without preference or regard to a northern or southern, an eastern or western,
position, their various political opinions on unessential points or their
personal attachments; if a love of virtuous men of all parties and denominations;
if a love of science and letters and a wish to patronize every rational effort
to encourage schools, colleges, universities, academies, and every institution
for propagating knowledge, virtue, and religion among all classes of the
people, not only for their benign influence on the happiness of life in all
its stages and classes, and of society in all its forms, but as the only
means of preserving our Constitution from its natural enemies, the spirit
of sophistry, the spirit of party, the spirit of intrigue, the profligacy
of corruption, and the pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel
of destruction to elective governments; if a love of equal laws, of justice,
and humanity in the interior administration; if an inclination to improve
agriculture, commerce, and manufacturers for necessity, convenience, and
defense; if a spirit of equity and humanity toward the aboriginal nations
of America, and a disposition to meliorate their condition by inclining them
to be more friendly to us, and our citizens to be more friendly to them; if
an inflexible determination to maintain peace and inviolable faith with all
nations, and that system of neutrality and impartiality among the belligerent
powers of Europe which has been adopted by this Government and so solemnly
sanctioned by both Houses of Congress and applauded by the legislatures
of the States and the public opinion, until it shall be otherwise ordained
by Congress; if a personal esteem for the French nation, formed in a residence
of seven years chiefly among them, and a sincere desire to preserve the friendship
which has been so much for the honor and interest of both nations; if, while
the conscious honor and integrity of the people of America and the internal
sentiment of their own power and energies must be preserved, an earnest
endeavor to investigate every just cause and remove every colorable pretense
of complaint; if an intention to pursue by amicable negotiation a reparation
for the injuries that have been committed on the commerce of our fellow‑citizens
by whatever nation, and if success can not be obtained, to lay the facts
before the Legislature, that they may consider what further measures the
honor and interest of the Government and its constituents demand; if a resolution
to do justice as far as may depend upon me, at all times and to all nations,
and maintain peace, friendship, and benevolence with all the world; if an
unshaken confidence in the honor, spirit, and resources of the American people,
on which I have so often hazarded my all and never been deceived; if elevated
ideas of the high destinies of this country and of my own duties toward it,
founded on a knowledge of the moral principles and intellectual improvements
of the people deeply engraven on my mind in early life, and not obscured
but exalted by experience and age; and, with humble reverence, I feel it
to be my duty to add, if a veneration for the religion of a people who profess
and call themselves Christians, and a fixed resolution to consider a decent
respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for the public service,
can enable me in any degree to comply with your wishes, it shall be my strenuous
endeavor that this sagacious injunction of the two Houses shall not be without
effect.
With this great example before me,
with the sense and spirit, the faith and honor, the duty and interest, of
the same American people pledged to support the Constitution of the United
States, I entertain no doubt of its continuance in all its energy, and my
mind is prepared without hesitation to lay myself under the most solemn obligations
to support it to the utmost of my power.
And may that Being who is supreme
over all, the Patron of Order, the Fountain of Justice, and the Protector
in all ages of the world of virtuous liberty, continue His blessing upon this
nation and its Government and give it all possible success and duration consistent
with the ends of His providence.
Theodore
Roosevelt, 1901
Never before have men tried so vast and formidable an experiment as that
of administering the affairs of a continent under the form of a democratic
republic. ...
First Inaugural Address
The Republican Party successfully
promoted the candidacy of the popular General of the Army in the 1952 election
over the Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson. The oath of office was administered
by Chief Justice Frederick Vinson on two Bibles the one used by George Washington
at the first inauguration, and the one General Eisenhower received from
his mother upon his graduation from the Military Academy at West Point.
A large parade followed the ceremony, and inaugural balls were held at the
National Armory and Georgetown University's McDonough Hall.
MY friends, before I begin the expression
of those thoughts that I deem appropriate to this moment, would you permit
me the privilege of uttering a little private prayer of my own. And I ask
that you bow your heads:
Almighty God, as we stand here at
this moment my future associates in the executive branch of government join
me in beseeching that Thou will make full and complete our dedication to the
service of the people in this throng, and their fellow citizens everywhere.
Give us, we pray, the power to discern
clearly right from wrong, and allow all our words and actions to be governed
thereby, and by the laws of this land. Especially we pray that our concern
shall be for all the people regardless of station, race, or calling.
May cooperation be permitted and be
the mutual aim of those who, under the concepts of our Constitution, hold
to differing political faiths; so that all may work for the good of our beloved
country and Thy glory. Amen.
My fellow citizens:
The world and we have passed the midway
point of a century of continuing challenge. We sense with all our faculties
that forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before
in history.
This fact defines the meaning of this
day. We are summoned by this honored and historic ceremony to witness more
than the act of one citizen swearing his oath of service, in the presence
of God. We are called as a people to give testimony in the sight of the world
to our faith that the future shall belong to the free.
Since this century's beginning, a
time of tempest has seemed to come upon the continents of the earth. Masses
of Asia have awakened to strike off shackles of the past. Great nations of
Europe have fought their bloodiest wars. Thrones have toppled and their vast
empires have disappeared. New nations have been born.
For our own country, it has been a
time of recurring trial. We have grown in power and in responsibility. We
have passed through the anxieties of depression and of war to a summit unmatched
in man's history. Seeking to secure peace in the world, we have had to fight
through the forests of the Argonne, to the shores of Iwo Jima, and to the
cold mountains of Korea.
In the swift rush of great events,
we find ourselves groping to know the full sense and meaning of these times
in which we live. In our quest of understanding, we beseech God's guidance.
We summon all our knowledge of the past and we scan all signs of the future.
We bring all our wit and all our will to meet the question:
How far have we come in man's long
pilgrimage from darkness toward light? Are we nearing the light a day of freedom
and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing
in upon us?
Great as are the preoccupations absorbing
us at home, concerned as we are with matters that deeply affect our livelihood
today and our vision of the future, each of these domestic problems is dwarfed
by, and often even created by, this question that involves all humankind.
This trial comes at a moment when
man's power to achieve good or to inflict evil surpasses the brightest hopes
and the sharpest fears of all ages. We can turn rivers in their courses, level
mountains to the plains. Oceans and land and sky are avenues for our colossal
commerce. Disease diminishes and life lengthens.
Yet the promise of this life is imperiled
by the very genius that has made it possible. Nations amass wealth. Labor
sweats to create and turns out devices to level not only mountains but also
cities. Science seems ready to confer upon us, as its final gift, the power
to erase human life from this planet.
At such a time in history, we who
are free must proclaim anew our faith. This faith is the abiding creed of
our fathers. It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man, governed by
eternal moral and natural laws.
This faith defines our full view of
life. It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man's
inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight.
In the light of this equality, we
know that the virtues most cherished by free people love of truth, pride of
work, devotion to country all are treasures equally precious in the lives
of the most humble and of the most exalted. The men who mine coal and fire
furnaces and balance ledgers and turn lathes and pick cotton and heal the
sick and plant corn all serve as proudly, and as profitably, for America as
the statesmen who draft treaties and the legislators who enact laws.
This faith rules our whole way of
life. It decrees that we, the people, elect leaders not to rule but to serve.
It asserts that we have the right to choice of our own work and to the reward
of our own toil. It inspires the initiative that makes our productivity the
wonder of the world. And it warns that any man who seeks to deny equality
among all his brothers betrays the spirit of the free and invites the mockery
of the tyrant.
It is because we, all of us, hold
to these principles that the political changes accomplished this day do not
imply turbulence, upheaval or disorder. Rather this change expresses a purpose
of strengthening our dedication and devotion to the precepts of our founding
documents, a conscious renewal of faith in our country and in the watchfulness
of a Divine Providence.
The enemies of this faith know no
god but force, no devotion but its use. They tutor men in treason. They feed
upon the hunger of others. Whatever defies them, they torture, especially
the truth.
Here, then, is joined no argument
between slightly differing philosophies. This conflict strikes directly at
the faith of our fathers and the lives of our sons. No principle or treasure
that we hold, from the spiritual knowledge of our free schools and churches
to the creative magic of free labor and capital, nothing lies safely beyond
the reach of this struggle.
Freedom is pitted against slavery;
lightness against the dark.
The faith we hold belongs not to us
alone but to the free of all the world. This common bond binds the grower
of rice in Burma and the planter of wheat in Iowa, the shepherd in southern
Italy and the mountaineer in the Andes. It confers a common dignity upon the
French soldier who dies in Indo‑China, the British soldier killed in Malaya,
the American life given in Korea.
We know, beyond this, that we are
linked to all free peoples not merely by a noble idea but by a simple need.
No free people can for long cling to any privilege or enjoy any safety in
economic solitude. For all our own material might, even we need markets in
the world for the surpluses of our farms and our factories. Equally, we need
for these same farms and factories vital materials and products of distant
lands. This basic law of interdependence, so manifest in the commerce of peace,
applies with thousand‑fold intensity in the event of war.
So we are persuaded by necessity and
by belief that the strength of all free peoples lies in unity; their danger,
in discord.
To produce this unity, to meet the
challenge of our time, destiny has laid upon our country the responsibility
of the free world's leadership.
So it is proper that we assure our
friends once again that, in the discharge of this responsibility, we Americans
know and we observe the difference between world leadership and imperialism;
between firmness and truculence; between a thoughtfully calculated goal and
spasmodic reaction to the stimulus of emergencies.
We wish our friends the world over
to know this above all: we face the threat not with dread and confusion but
with confidence and conviction.
We feel this moral strength because
we know that we are not helpless prisoners of history. We are free men. We
shall remain free, never to be proven guilty of the one capital offense against
freedom, a lack of stanch faith.
In pleading our just cause before
the bar of history and in pressing our labor for world peace, we shall be
guided by certain fixed principles.
These principles are:
(1) Abhorring war as a chosen way
to balk the purposes of those who threaten us, we hold it to be the first
task of statesmanship to develop the strength that will deter the forces of
aggression and promote the conditions of peace. For, as it must be the supreme
purpose of all free men, so it must be the dedication of their leaders, to
save humanity from preying upon itself.
In the light of this principle, we
stand ready to engage with any and all others in joint effort to remove the
causes of mutual fear and distrust among nations, so as to make possible drastic
reduction of armaments. The sole requisites for undertaking such effort are
that in their purpose they be aimed logically and honestly toward secure
peace for all; and that in their result they provide methods by which every
participating nation will prove good faith in carrying out its pledge.
(2) Realizing that common sense and
common decency alike dictate the futility of appeasement, we shall never try
to placate an aggressor by the false and wicked bargain of trading honor for
security. Americans, indeed all free men, remember that in the final choice
a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains.
(3) Knowing that only a United States
that is strong and immensely productive can help defend freedom in our world,
we view our Nation's strength and security as a trust upon which rests the
hope of free men everywhere. It is the firm duty of each of our free citizens
and of every free citizen everywhere to place the cause of his country before
the comfort, the convenience of himself.
(4) Honoring the identity and the
special heritage of each nation in the world, we shall never use our strength
to try to impress upon another people our own cherished political and economic
institutions.
(5) Assessing realistically the needs
and capacities of proven friends of freedom, we shall strive to help them
to achieve their own security and well‑being. Likewise, we shall count upon
them to assume, within the limits of their resources, their full and just
burdens in the common defense of freedom.
(6) Recognizing economic health as
an indispensable basis of military strength and the free world's peace, we
shall strive to foster everywhere, and to practice ourselves, policies that
encourage productivity and profitable trade. For the impoverishment of any
single people in the world means danger to the well‑being of all other peoples.
(7) Appreciating that economic need,
military security and political wisdom combine to suggest regional groupings
of free peoples, we hope, within the framework of the United Nations, to help
strengthen such special bonds the world over. The nature of these ties must
vary with the different problems of different areas.
In the Western Hemisphere, we enthusiastically
join with all our neighbors in the work of perfecting a community of fraternal
trust and common purpose.
In Europe, we ask that enlightened
and inspired leaders of the Western nations strive with renewed vigor to make
the unity of their peoples a reality. Only as free Europe unitedly marshals
its strength can it effectively safeguard, even with our help, its spiritual
and cultural heritage.
(8) Conceiving the defense of freedom,
like freedom itself, to be one and indivisible, we hold all continents and
peoples in equal regard and honor. We reject any insinuation that one race
or another, one people or another, is in any sense inferior or expendable.
(9) Respecting the United Nations
as the living sign of all people's hope for peace, we shall strive to make
it not merely an eloquent symbol but an effective force. And in our quest
for an honorable peace, we shall neither compromise, nor tire, nor ever cease.
By these rules of conduct, we hope
to be known to all peoples.
By their observance, an earth of peace
may become not a vision but a fact.
This hope this supreme aspiration
must rule the way we live.
We must be ready to dare all for our
country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak
or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defense and display stamina in
purpose.
We must be willing, individually and
as a Nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people
that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
These basic precepts are not lofty
abstractions, far removed from matters of daily living. They are laws of spiritual
strength that generate and define our material strength. Patriotism means
equipped forces and a prepared citizenry. Moral stamina means more energy
and more productivity, on the farm and in the factory. Love of liberty means
the guarding of every resource that makes freedom possible from the sanctity
of our families and the wealth of our soil to the genius of our scientists.
And so each citizen plays an indispensable
role. The productivity of our heads, our hands, and our hearts is the source
of all the strength we can command, for both the enrichment of our lives and
the winning of the peace.
No person, no home, no community can
be beyond the reach of this call. We are summoned to act in wisdom and in
conscience, to work with industry, to teach with persuasion, to preach with
conviction, to weigh our every deed with care and with compassion. For this
truth must be clear before us: whatever America hopes to bring to pass in
the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.
The peace we seek, then, is nothing
less than the practice and fulfillment of our whole faith among ourselves
and in our dealings with others. This signifies more than the stilling of
guns, easing the sorrow of war. More than escape from death, it is a way of
life. More than a haven for the weary, it is a hope for the brave.
This is the hope that beckons us onward
in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done
with bravery, with charity, and with prayer to Almighty God.
Lyndon
B. Johnson, 1965
We are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamour of building and the
rush of our day's pursuit we are all believers in Justice and Liberty and
Union, and in our own union. We believe that every man must some day be
free. ...
This is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unplanned
ridge, it is the star that is not reached, and the harvest that's sleeping
in the unploughed ground. ...
I will repeat today what I said on that sorrowful day in November last
year; I will lead, and I will do the best I can. But you must look within
your own hearts to the old promises and to the old dream. They will lead
you best of all.
Richard Nixon, 1969
In pursuing our goals of full employment, better housing, excellence in
education, in rebuilding our cities and improving our rural areas, in protecting
our environment and enhancing the quality of life, in all these and more,
we will and must press urgently forward. We shall plan now for the day when
our wealth can be transferred from the destruction of war abroad to the
urgent needs of our people at home. The American dream does not come to
those who fall asleep. But we are approaching the limits of what government
alone can do.
Jimmy Carter, 1977
Two centuries ago our nation's birth was a milestone in the long quest
for freedom. But the bold and brilliant dream which excited the founders
of this nation still awaits its consummation.
I have no dream to set forward today, but rather urge a fresh faith in
the old dream. Ours was the first society to define itself in terms of both
spirituality and human liberty...
The American dream endures. We must once again have full faith in our country
and in one another. I believe America can be better, we can be even stronger
than before...
And I join in the hope that when my time as your president has ended, people
might say this about our nation; that we had remembered the words of Micah*
and renewed our search for humility, mercy, and justice; that we had torn
down the barriers that separated those of different race and region and
religion; and where there had been mistrust, built unity with the respect
for diversity; that
we had ensured respect for the law and equal treatment under the law for
the weak and the powerful, for the rich and the poor... These are not just
my goals, and they will not be my accomplishments, but the affirmation of
our nation's continuing moral strength. And I believe in an undiminished
ever-expanding American Dream.
William Jefferson (Bill) Clinton
Inaugural Address
My fellow citizens:
Today we celebrate the mystery of
American renewal.
This ceremony is held in the depth
of winter. But, by the words we speak and the faces we show the world, we
force the spring.
A spring reborn in the world's oldest
democracy, that brings forth the vision and courage to reinvent America.
When our founders boldly declared
America's independence to the world and our purposes to the Almighty, they
knew that America, to endure, would have to change.
Not change for change's sake, but
change to preserve America's ideals life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.
Though we march to the music of our time, our mission is timeless.
Each generation of Americans must
define what it means to be an American.
On behalf of our nation, I salute
my predecessor, President Bush, for his half‑century of service to America.
And I thank the millions of men and
women whose steadfastness and sacrifice triumphed over Depression, fascism
and Communism.
Today, a generation raised in the
shadows of the Cold War assumes new responsibilities in a world warmed by
the sunshine of freedom but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues.
Raised in unrivaled prosperity, we
inherit an economy that is still the world's strongest, but is weakened by
business failures, stagnant wages, increasing inequality, and deep divisions
among our people.
When George Washington first took
the oath I have just sworn to uphold, news traveled slowly across the land
by horseback and across the ocean by boat. Now, the sights and sounds of this
ceremony are broadcast instantaneously to billions around the world.
Communications and commerce are global;
investment is mobile; technology is almost magical; and ambition for a better
life is now universal. We earn our livelihood in peaceful competition with
people all across the earth.
Profound and powerful forces are shaking
and remaking our world, and the urgent question of our time is whether we
can make change our friend and not our enemy.
This new world has already enriched
the lives of millions of Americans who are able to compete and win in it.
But when most people are working harder for less; when others cannot work
at all; when the cost of health care devastates families and threatens to
bankrupt many of our enterprises, great and small; when fear of crime robs
law‑abiding citizens of their freedom; and when millions of poor children
cannot even imagine the lives we are calling them to lead we have not made
change our friend.
We know we have to face hard truths
and take strong steps. But we have not done so. Instead, we have drifted,
and that drifting has eroded our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken
our confidence.
Though our challenges are fearsome,
so are our strengths. And Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful
people. We must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who
came before us.
From our revolution, the Civil War,
to the Great Depression to the civil rights movement, our people have always
mustered the determination to construct from these crises the pillars of our
history.
Thomas Jefferson believed that to
preserve the very foundations of our nation, we would need dramatic change
from time to time. Well, my fellow citizens, this is our time. Let us embrace
it.
Our democracy must be not only the
envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong
with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
And so today, we pledge an end to
the era of deadlock and drift a new season of American renewal has begun.
To renew America, we must be bold.
We must do what no generation has
had to do before. We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs, in
their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt. And we must do so
in a world in which we must compete for every opportunity.
It will not be easy; it will require
sacrifice. But it can be done, and done fairly, not choosing sacrifice for
its own sake, but for our own sake. We must provide for our nation the way
a family provides for its children.
Our Founders saw themselves in the
light of posterity. We can do no less. Anyone who has ever watched a child's
eyes wander into sleep knows what posterity is. Posterity is the world to
come the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our
planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility.
We must do what America does best:
offer more opportunity to all and demand responsibility from all.
It is time to break the bad habit
of expecting something for nothing, from our government or from each other.
Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families
but for our communities and our country.
To renew America, we must revitalize
our democracy.
This beautiful capital, like every
capital since the dawn of civilization, is often a place of intrigue and calculation.
Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in
and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose
toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way.
Americans deserve better, and in this
city today, there are people who want to do better. And so I say to all of
us here, let us resolve to reform our politics, so that power and privilege
no longer shout down the voice of the people. Let us put aside personal advantage
so that we can feel the pain and see the promise of America.
Let us resolve to make our government
a place for what Franklin Roosevelt called "bold, persistent experimentation,"
a government for our tomorrows, not our yesterdays.
Let us give this capital back to the
people to whom it belongs.
To renew America, we must meet challenges
abroad as well at home. There is no longer division between what is foreign
and what is domestic the world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS
crisis, the world arms race they affect us all.
Today, as an old order passes, the
new world is more free but less stable. Communism's collapse has called forth
old animosities and new dangers. Clearly America must continue to lead the
world we did so much to make.
While America rebuilds at home, we
will not shrink from the challenges, nor fail to seize the opportunities,
of this new world. Together with our friends and allies, we will work to shape
change, lest it engulf us.
When our vital interests are challenged,
or the will and conscience of the international community is defied, we will
act with peaceful diplomacy when ever possible, with force when necessary.
The brave Americans serving our nation today in the Persian Gulf, in Somalia,
and wherever else they stand are testament to our resolve.
But our greatest strength is the power
of our ideas, which are still new in many lands. Across the world, we see
them embraced and we rejoice. Our hopes, our hearts, our hands, are with
those on every continent who are building democracy and freedom. Their cause
is America's cause.
The American people have summoned
the change we celebrate today. You have raised your voices in an unmistakable
chorus. You have cast your votes in historic numbers. And you have changed
the face of Congress, the presidency and the political process itself. Yes,
you, my fellow Americans have forced the spring. Now, we must do the work
the season demands.
To that work I now turn, with all
the authority of my office. I ask the Congress to join with me. But no president,
no Congress, no government, can undertake this mission alone. My fellow Americans,
you, too, must play your part in our renewal. I challenge a new generation
of young Americans to a season of service to act on your idealism by helping
troubled children, keeping company with those in need, reconnecting our torn
communities. There is so much to be done enough indeed for millions of others
who are still young in spirit to give of themselves in service, too.
In serving, we recognize a simple
but powerful truth we need each other. And we must care for one another. Today,
we do more than celebrate America; we rededicate ourselves to the very idea
of America.
An idea born in revolution and renewed
through 2 centuries of challenge. An idea tempered by the knowledge that,
but for fate, we the fortunate and the unfortunate might have been each other.
An idea ennobled by the faith that our nation can summon from its myriad diversity
the deepest measure of unity. An idea infused with the conviction that America's
long heroic journey must go forever upward.
And so, my fellow Americans, at the
edge of the 21st century, let us begin with energy and hope, with faith and
discipline, and let us work until our work is done. The scripture says, "And
let us not be weary in well‑doing, for in due season, we shall reap, if we
faint not."
From this joyful mountaintop of celebration,
we hear a call to service in the valley. We have heard the trumpets. We have
changed the guard. And now, each in our way, and with God's help, we must
answer the call.
Thank you and God bless you all.
George W. Bush
Inaugural Address
President Clinton, distinguished guests
and my fellow citizens, the peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history,
yet common in our country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and
make new beginnings.
As I begin, I thank President Clinton
for his service to our nation.
And I thank Vice President Gore for
a contest conducted with spirit and ended with grace.
I am honored and humbled to stand
here, where so many of America's leaders have come before me, and so many
will follow.
We have a place, all of us, in a long
story‑‑a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story
of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of
a slave‑holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a
power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not
to conquer.
It is the American story‑‑a story
of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and
enduring ideals.
The grandest of these ideals is an
unfolding American promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a
chance, that no insignificant person was ever born.
Americans are called to enact this
promise in our lives and in our laws. And though our nation has sometimes
halted, and sometimes delayed, we must follow no other course.
Through much of the last century,
America's faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it
is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations.
Our democratic faith is more than
the creed of our country, it is the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal
we carry but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. And even after nearly
225 years, we have a long way yet to travel.
While many of our citizens prosper,
others doubt the promise, even the justice, of our own country. The ambitions
of some Americans are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and
the circumstances of their birth. And sometimes our differences run so deep,
it seems we share a continent, but not a country.
We do not accept this, and we will
not allow it. Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens
in every generation. And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a
single nation of justice and opportunity.
I know this is in our reach because
we are guided by a power larger than ourselves who creates us equal in His
image.
And we are confident in principles
that unite and lead us onward.
America has never been united by blood
or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds,
lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every
child must be taught these principles. Every citizen must uphold them. And
every immigrant, by embracing these ideals, makes our country more, not less,
American.
Today, we affirm a new commitment
to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion and
character.
America, at its best, matches a commitment
to principle with a concern for civility. A civil society demands from each
of us good will and respect, fair dealing and forgiveness.
Some seem to believe that our politics
can afford to be petty because, in a time of peace, the stakes of our debates
appear small.
But the stakes for America are never
small. If our country does not lead the cause of freedom, it will not be led.
If we do not turn the hearts of children toward knowledge and character, we
will lose their gifts and undermine their idealism. If we permit our economy
to drift and decline, the vulnerable will suffer most.
We must live up to the calling we
share. Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice
of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos. And this commitment, if we
keep it, is a way to shared accomplishment.
America, at its best, is also courageous.
Our national courage has been clear
in times of depression and war, when defending common dangers defined our
common good. Now we must choose if the example of our fathers and mothers
will inspire us or condemn us. We must show courage in a time of blessing
by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.
Together, we will reclaim America's
schools, before ignorance and apathy claim more young lives.
We will reform Social Security and
Medicare, sparing our children from struggles we have the power to prevent.
And we will reduce taxes, to recover the momentum of our economy and reward
the effort and enterprise of working Americans.
We will build our defenses beyond
challenge, lest weakness invite challenge.
We will confront weapons of mass destruction,
so that a new century is spared new horrors.
The enemies of liberty and our country
should make no mistake: America remains engaged in the world by history and
by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom. We will defend
our allies and our interests. We will show purpose without arrogance. We will
meet aggression and bad faith with resolve and strength. And to all nations,
we will speak for the values that gave our nation birth.
America, at its best, is compassionate.
In the quiet of American conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty
is unworthy of our nation's promise.
And whatever our views of its cause,
we can agree that children at risk are not at fault. Abandonment and abuse
are not acts of God, they are failures of love.
And the proliferation of prisons,
however necessary, is no substitute for hope and order in our souls.
Where there is suffering, there is
duty. Americans in need are not strangers, they are citizens, not problems,
but priorities. And all of us are diminished when any are hopeless.
Government has great responsibilities
for public safety and public health, for civil rights and common schools.
Yet compassion is the work of a nation, not just a government.
And some needs and hurts are so deep
they will only respond to a mentor's touch or a pastor's prayer. Church and
charity, synagogue and mosque lend our communities their humanity, and they
will have an honored place in our plans and in our laws.
Many in our country do not know the
pain of poverty, but we can listen to those who do.
And I can pledge our nation to a goal:
When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass
to the other side.
America, at its best, is a place where
personal responsibility is valued and expected.
Encouraging responsibility is not
a search for scapegoats, it is a call to conscience. And though it requires
sacrifice, it brings a deeper fulfillment. We find the fullness of life not
only in options, but in commitments. And we find that children and community
are the commitments that set us free.
Our public interest depends on private
character, on civic duty and family bonds and basic fairness, on uncounted,
unhonored acts of decency which give direction to our freedom.
Sometimes in life we are called to
do great things. But as a saint of our times has said, every day we are called
to do small things with great love. The most important tasks of a democracy
are done by everyone.
I will live and lead by these principles:
to advance my convictions with civility, to pursue the public interest with
courage, to speak for greater justice and compassion, to call for responsibility
and try to live it as well.
In all these ways, I will bring the
values of our history to the care of our times.
What you do is as important as anything
government does. I ask you to seek a common good beyond your comfort; to defend
needed reforms against easy attacks; to serve your nation, beginning with
your neighbor. I ask you to be citizens: citizens, not spectators; citizens,
not subjects; responsible citizens, building communities of service and a
nation of character.
Americans are generous and strong
and decent, not because we believe in ourselves, but because we hold beliefs
beyond ourselves. When this spirit of citizenship is missing, no government
program can replace it. When this spirit is present, no wrong can stand against
it.
After the Declaration of Independence
was signed, Virginia statesman John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: ``We know
the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think
an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm?''
Much time has passed since Jefferson
arrived for his inauguration. The years and changes accumulate. But the themes
of this day he would know: our nation's grand story of courage and its simple
dream of dignity.
We are not this story's author, who
fills time and eternity with his purpose. Yet his purpose is achieved in our
duty, and our duty is fulfilled in service to one another.
Never tiring, never yielding, never
finishing, we renew that purpose today, to make our country more just and
generous, to affirm the dignity of our lives and every life.
This work continues. This story goes
on. And an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.
God bless you all, and God bless America.