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Welcome to U.S. history!
Bill Clinton's First
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. |
Back
to Bill Clinton
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
last updated
02/19/07
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