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.
God bless you and may God bless America.
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