Senator Mathias, Chief Justice Burger, Vice President Bush, Speaker O’Neill,
Senator Dole, Reverend Clergy, members of my family and friends, and my fellow
citizens:
This day has been made brighter with the presence here of one who, for a time, has
been absent—Senator John Stennis.
God bless you and welcome back.
There is, however, one who is not with us today: Representative Gillis Long of
Louisiana left us last night. I wonder if we could all
join in a moment of silent prayer. (Moment of silent prayer.)
Amen.
There are no words adequate to express my thanks for the great honor that you have
bestowed on me. I will do my utmost to be deserving of your trust.
This is, as Senator Mathias told us, the 50th time that we the people have
celebrated this historic occasion. When the
first President, George Washington, placed his hand upon the Bible, he
stood less than a single day’s journey by horseback from raw, untamed
wilderness. There were 4 million Americans in a union of 13
States. Today we are 60 times as many in a union of 50 States.
We have lighted the world with our
inventions, gone to the aid
of mankind wherever in the world there was a cry for help,
journeyed to the Moon and safely returned.
So much has changed. And yet we stand together as we did
two centuries ago.
When I took this oath four years ago, I did so in a time of economic stress. Voices
were raised saying we had to look to our past for the greatness and glory. But
we, the present-day Americans, are not given to looking
backward. In this blessed land, there is always a better
tomorrow.
Four years ago, I spoke to you of a new beginning and we have accomplished that.
But in another sense, our new beginning is a continuation of that beginning
created two centuries ago when, for the first time in history, government, the
people said, was not our master, it is our servant; its only power that which
we the people allow it to have.
That system has never failed us, but, for a time, we failed the system. We asked things of government that
government was not equipped to give. We yielded authority to the
National Government that properly belonged to States or to local
governments or to the people themselves. We allowed taxes and inflation to rob us of our
earnings and savings and watched the great industrial machine that had
made us the most productive people on Earth slow down and the number of
unemployed increase.
By 1980, we knew it was time to renew our faith, to strive with all our strength
toward the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an orderly
society.
We believed then and now there are no limits to growth and human progress when men
and women are free to follow their dreams.
And we were right to believe that. Tax rates have been
reduced, inflation cut dramatically, and more people are employed than
ever before in our history.
We are creating a nation once again vibrant, robust, and alive. But there are many mountains yet to climb.
We will not rest until every American enjoys the
fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity as our birthright.
It is our birthright as citizens of this great Republic, and we’ll meet this
challenge.
These will be years when Americans have restored their
confidence and tradition of progress; when our values of faith, family,
work, and neighborhood were restated for a modern age; when our economy was finally freed from government’s
grip; when we made sincere efforts at
meaningful arms reduction, rebuilding our defenses, our economy, and developing new technologies, and helped preserve peace in a troubled
world; when Americans courageously
supported the struggle for liberty, self-government, and free enterprise
throughout the world, and turned the tide of history away from
totalitarian darkness and into the warm sunlight of human
freedom.
My fellow citizens, our Nation is poised for
greatness. We must do what we know is right and do it with all
our might. Let history say of us, “These were golden years—when the American
Revolution was reborn, when freedom gained new life, when America reached for
her best.”
Our two-party system has served us well over the years, but never better than in those times of great challenge when we came
together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a
common cause.
Two of our Founding Fathers, a Boston lawyer named
Adams and a Virginia planter named Jefferson, members of that remarkable
group who met in Independence Hall and dared to think they could start
the world over again, left us an important lesson. They had
become political rivals in the Presidential election of 1800. Then years later,
when both were retired, and age had softened their anger, they began to speak
to each other again through letters. A bond was reestablished between those two
who had helped create this government of ours.
In 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, they both died.
They died on the same day, within a few hours of each other, and that day was
the Fourth of July.
In one of those letters exchanged in the sunset of their lives, Jefferson wrote:
“It carries me back to the times
when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in
the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right
to self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some
wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless…we rode
through the storm with heart and hand.”
Well, with heart and hand, let us stand as one today:
One people under God determined that
our future shall be worthy of our
past. As we do, we must not repeat the well-intentioned errors of
our past. We must never again abuse the trust of working
men and women, by sending their earnings on a futile chase after the
spiraling demands of a bloated Federal Establishment. You
elected us in 1980 to end this prescription for disaster, and I don’t believe
you reelected us in 1984 to reverse course.
At the heart of our efforts is one idea vindicated by 25
straight months of economic growth: Freedom and incentives unleash the
drive and entrepreneurial genius that are the core of human
progress. We have begun to
increase the rewards for work, savings, and investment; reduce the
increase in the cost and size of government and its interference in
people’s lives.
We must simplify our tax system, make it more fair, and bring
the rates down for all who work and earn. We must think anew and move
with a new boldness, so every American
who seeks work can find work; so the least among us shall have an equal
chance to achieve the greatest things—to be heroes who heal our sick, feed the
hungry, protect peace among
nations, and leave this world a better place.
The time has come for a new American emancipation—a great
national drive to tear down economic barriers and liberate the spirit of
enterprise in the most distressed areas of our country. My friends, together we can do this, and do
it we must, so help me God.
From new freedom will spring new opportunities for growth, a more productive,
fulfilled and united people, and a stronger America—an America that will lead the technological revolution, and also
open its mind and heart and soul to the treasures of literature, music, and
poetry, and the values of faith, courage, and love.
A dynamic economy, with more citizens working and paying
taxes, will be our strongest tool to bring down budget deficits. But an
almost unbroken 50 years of deficit spending has finally brought us to a
time of reckoning. We have come to a turning point, a moment for hard
decisions. I have asked the Cabinet and my staff a question, and now I
put the same question to all of you: If not us, who? And if not now,
when? It must be done by all of us going forward with a program aimed at
reaching a balanced budget. We can then begin reducing the national
debt.
I will shortly submit a budget to the Congress aimed at freezing government program
spending for the next year. Beyond that, we must take further steps to
permanently control Government’s power to tax and
spend. We must act now to
protect future generations from Government’s desire to spend its
citizens’ money and tax them into servitude when the bills come
due. Let us make it unconstitutional for the Federal Government
to spend more than the Federal Government takes in.
We have already started returning to the people and to State and local governments
responsibilities better handled by them. Now, there is a place for the Federal
Government in matters of social compassion. But our fundamental goals must be
to reduce dependency and upgrade the dignity of those who are infirm or
disadvantaged. And here a growing economy and support from family and community
offer our best chance for a society where compassion is a way of life, where the old and infirm are cared for, the
young and, yes, the unborn protected, and
the unfortunate looked after and made self-sufficient.
And there is another area where the Federal Government can play a part. As an older
American, I remember a time when people of different race, creed, or ethnic
origin in our land found hatred and prejudice installed in social custom and,
yes, in law. There is no story more heartening in our
history than the progress that we have made toward the “brotherhood of
man” that God intended for us.Let
us resolve there will be no turning back or hesitation on the road to an America rich in dignity and abundant with opportunity
for all our citizens.
Let us resolve that we the people will build an American
opportunity society in which all of us—white and black, rich and poor,
young and old—will go forward together arm in arm. Again, let us
remember that though our heritage is one of blood lines from every corner of
the Earth, we are all Americans pledged to carry on this last, best hope of man
on Earth.
I have spoken of our domestic goals and the limitations which we should put on our
National Government. Now let me turn to a task which is the primary
responsibility of National Government—the safety and
security of our people.
Today, we utter no prayer more fervently than the
ancient prayer for peace on Earth. Yet history has shown that peace will not
come, nor will our freedom be preserved, by good will alone. There are those in the world who scorn our
vision of human dignity and freedom. One nation, the Soviet Union, has
conducted the greatest military buildup in the history of man, building
arsenals of awesome offensive weapons.
We have made progress in restoring our defense capability. But much remains to be
done. There must be no wavering by us, nor any doubts by others, that America will meet her responsibilities to remain
free, secure, and at peace.
There is only one way safely and legitimately to reduce the cost of national
security, and that is to reduce the need for it. And this we are trying to do in negotiations
with the Soviet Union. We are not just discussing limits on a further
increase of nuclear weapons. We seek, instead, to reduce their number.
We seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face
of the Earth.
Now, for decades, we and the Soviets have lived under the threat of mutual assured
destruction; if either resorted to the use of nuclear weapons, the other could
retaliate and destroy the one who had started it. Is there either logic or
morality in believing that if one side threatens to kill tens of millions of
our people, our only recourse is to threaten killing tens of millions of
theirs?
I have approved a research program to find, if we can, a
security shield that would destroy nuclear missiles before they reach
their target. It wouldn’t kill people, it would destroy weapons. It
wouldn’t militarize space, it would help demilitarize the arsenals of
Earth. It would render nuclear weapons obsolete. We will meet with the
Soviets, hoping that we can agree on a way to rid the world of the
threat of nuclear destruction.
We strive for peace and security, heartened by the changes
all around us. Since the turn of the century, the number of
democracies in the world has grown fourfold. Human freedom is on the march, and
nowhere more so than our own hemisphere. Freedom is one
of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit.
People, worldwide, hunger for the right of self-determination, for those
inalienable rights that make for human dignity and progress.
America must remain freedom’s staunchest friend, for
freedom is our best ally.
And it is the world’s only hope, to conquer poverty
and preserve peace. Every blow we inflict against
poverty will be a blow against its dark allies of oppression and
war. Every victory for human freedom
will be a victory for world peace.
So we go forward today, a nation still mighty in its youth and powerful in its
purpose. With our alliances strengthened, with our economy leading the world to
a new age of economic expansion, we look forward to
a world rich in possibilities. And all this
because we have worked and acted together, not as members of political
parties, but as Americans.
My friends, we live in a world that is lit by lightning. So much is changing and
will change, but so much endures, and transcends time.
History is a ribbon, always unfurling; history is a journey. And as we continue our
journey, we think of those who traveled before us. We stand together again at
the steps of this symbol of our democracy—or we would have been standing at the
steps if it hadn’t gotten so cold. Now we are standing inside this symbol of
our democracy. Now we hear again the echoes of
our past: a general falls to his knees in the hard snow of Valley Forge;
a lonely President paces the darkened halls, and ponders his struggle to
preserve the Union; the men of the Alamo call out encouragement to each
other; a settler pushes west and sings a song, and the song echoes out
forever and fills the unknowing air.
It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted,
idealistic, daring, decent, and fair. That’s our heritage; that is our
song. We sing it still. For all our problems, our differences, we
are together as of old, as we raise our voices to the
God who is the Author of this most tender music. And may He continue to
hold us close as we fill the world with our sound—sound in unity,
affection, and love—one people under God, dedicated to the dream of
freedom that He has placed in the human heart, called upon now to pass
that dream on to a waiting and hopeful world.
Godbless you and may God bless America.