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Welcome to U.S. history!
Ronald Reagan's Second Inaugural Address:
| 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. |
Back
to Ronald Reagan
Executive Oath of Office
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and
defend the Constitution of the United States."
United States Constitution, Article II,
Section 1, Clause 8
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back in Time
1George Washington, 2John
Adamsl, 3Thomas Jefferson, 4James Madison, 5James
Monroe, 6John Quincy Adams, 7Andrew Jackson, 8Martin
Van Buren,9William H Harrison,10John Tyler,11James K
Polk, 12Zachary Taylor, 13Millard Fillmore,14Franklin
Pierce,15James Buchanan,16Abraham Lincoln, 17Andrew
Johnson, 18Ulysses S Grant,19Rutherford B Hayes, 20James A Garfield, 21Chester
A. Arthur, 22Grover
Cleveland,23Benjamin Harrison, 24Grover Cleveland, 25William
McKinley,26Theodore Roosevelt, 27William H. Taft,28Woodrow Wilson, 29Warren
G. Harding,30Calvin Coolidge,31Herbert Hoover,32Franklin
D Roosevelt,33Harry S.
Truman, 34Dwight D Eisenhower,35John F Kennedy, 36Lyndon
B Johnson, 37RichardN. Nixon, 38Gerald R Ford, 39James E
Carter,40Ronald
W. Reagan, 41George
HerbertW. Bush, 42Bill Clinton,
43George Walker Bush 44
Barack H. Obama
last updated
07/14/09
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