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Welcome to U.S. history!
Jimmy Carter's Inaugural
Address:
| FOR myself and for our Nation, I want to
thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land. |
| In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once
again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss
Julia Coleman, used to say: "We must adjust to changing times and still hold to
unchanging principles." |
| Here before me is the Bible used in the inauguration
of our first President, in 1789, and I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my
mother gave me a few years ago, opened to a timeless admonition from the ancient prophet
Micah: |
| "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and
what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk
humbly with thy God." (Micah 6:8) |
| This inauguration ceremony marks a new beginning, a
new dedication within our Government, and a new spirit among us all. A President may sense
and proclaim that new spirit, but only a people can provide it. |
| 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 new dream to set forth today, but
rather urge a fresh faith in the old dream. |
| Ours was the first society openly to define itself in
terms of both spirituality and of human liberty. It is that unique self-definition which
has given us an exceptional appeal, but it also imposes on us a special obligation, to
take on those moral duties which, when assumed, seem invariably to be in our own best
interests. |
| You have given me a great responsibility—to stay
close to you, to be worthy of you, and to exemplify what you are. Let us create together a
new national spirit of unity and trust. Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and
your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes. |
| Let us learn together and laugh together and work
together and pray together, confident that in the end we will triumph together in the
right. |
| 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. |
| Let our recent mistakes bring a resurgent commitment
to the basic principles of our Nation, for we know that if we despise our own government
we have no future. We recall in special times when we have stood briefly, but
magnificently, united. In those times no prize was beyond our grasp. |
| But we cannot dwell upon remembered glory. We cannot
afford to drift. We reject the prospect of failure or mediocrity or an inferior quality of
life for any person. Our Government must at the same time be both competent and
compassionate. |
| We have already found a high degree of personal
liberty, and we are now struggling to enhance equality of opportunity. Our commitment to
human rights must be absolute, our laws fair, our natural beauty preserved; the powerful
must not persecute the weak, and human dignity must be enhanced. |
| We have learned that "more" is not
necessarily "better," that even our great Nation has its recognized limits, and
that we can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems. We cannot afford to do
everything, nor can we afford to lack boldness as we meet the future. So, together, in a
spirit of individual sacrifice for the common good, we must simply do our best. |
| Our Nation can be strong abroad only if it is strong
at home. And we know that the best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate
here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation. |
| To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others.
We will not behave in foreign places so as to violate our rules and standards here at
home, for we know that the trust which our Nation earns is essential to our strength. |
| The world itself is now dominated by a new spirit.
Peoples more numerous and more politically aware are craving and now demanding their place
in the sun—not just for the benefit of their own physical condition, but for basic
human rights. |
| The passion for freedom is on the rise. Tapping this
new spirit, there can be no nobler nor more ambitious task for America to undertake on
this day of a new beginning than to help shape a just and peaceful world that is truly
humane. |
| We are a strong nation, and we will maintain strength
so sufficient that it need not be proven in combat—a quiet strength based not merely
on the size of an arsenal, but on the nobility of ideas. |
| We will be ever vigilant and never vulnerable, and we
will fight our wars against poverty, ignorance, and injustice—for those are the
enemies against which our forces can be honorably marshaled. |
| We are a purely idealistic Nation, but let no one
confuse our idealism with weakness. |
| Because we are free we can never be indifferent to
the fate of freedom elsewhere. Our moral sense dictates a clearcut preference for these
societies which share with us an abiding respect for individual human rights. We do not
seek to intimidate, but it is clear that a world which others can dominate with impunity
would be inhospitable to decency and a threat to the well-being of all people. |
| The world is still engaged in a massive armaments
race designed to ensure continuing equivalent strength among potential adversaries. We
pledge perseverance and wisdom in our efforts to limit the world's armaments to those
necessary for each nation's own domestic safety. And we will move this year a step toward
ultimate goal—the elimination of all nuclear weapons from this Earth. We urge all
other people to join us, for success can mean life instead of death. |
| Within us, the people of the United States, there is
evident a serious and purposeful rekindling of confidence. 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 a respect for diversity; |
| —that we had found productive work for those
able to perform it; |
| —that we had strengthened the American family,
which is the basis of our society; |
| —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; |
| —and that we had enabled our people to be proud
of their own Government once again. |
| I would hope that the nations of the world might say
that we had built a lasting peace, built not on weapons of war but on international
policies which reflect our own most precious values. |
| These are not just my goals, and they will not be my
accomplishments, but the affirmation of our Nation's continuing moral strength and our
belief in an undiminished, ever-expanding American dream. |
Back
to Jimmy Carter
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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