Senator Hatfield, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice
President Bush, Vice President Mondale, Senator Baker, Speaker
O'Neill, Reverend Moomaw, and my fellow citizens: To a few of us
here today, this is a solemn and most momentous occasion; and
yet, in the history of our Nation, it is a commonplace
occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in
the Constitution routinely takes place as it has for almost two
centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are.
In the eyes of many in the world, this every-4-year ceremony we
accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.
Mr. President, I want our fellow citizens to know how much
you did to carry on this tradition. By your gracious cooperation
in the transition process, you have shown a watching world that
we are a united people pledged to maintaining a political system
which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any
other, and I thank you and your people for all your help in
maintaining the continuity which is the bulwark of our Republic.
The business of our nation goes forward. These United States
are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions.
We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained
inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic
decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and
the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives
of millions of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, causing
human misery and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied
a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes
successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full
productivity.
But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with
public spending. For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit,
mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary
convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to
guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic
upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond
our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then,
should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound
by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve
tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding--we are going to
begin to act, beginning today.
The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several
decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but
they will go away. They will go away because we, as Americans,
have the capacity now, as we have had in the past, to do whatever
needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of
freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to
our problem; government is our problen. From time to time, we
have been tempted to believe that society has become too complex
to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is
superior to government for, by, and of the people. But if no one
among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has
the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and
out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek
must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher
price.
We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern
must be for a special interest group that has been too long
neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial
divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of
men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our
mines and our factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and
heal us when we are sick--professionals, industrialists,
shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truckdrivers. They are, in
short, "We the people," this breed called Americans.
Well, this administration's objective will be a healthy,
vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunity for all
Americans, with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination.
Putting America back to work means putting all Americans back to
work. Ending inflation means freeing all Americans from the
terror of runaway living costs. All must share in the productive
work of this "beginning" and all must share in the bounty of a
revived economy. With the idealism and fair play which are the
core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and
prosperous America at peace with itself and the world.
So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that
has a government--not the other way around. And this makes us
special among the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no
power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check
and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having
grown beyond the consent of the governed.
It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the
Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the
distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government
and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need
to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the
States; the States created the Federal Government.
Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my
intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it
work--work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride
on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not
smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.
If we look to the answer as to why, for so many years, we
achieved so much, prospered as no other people on Earth, it was
because here, in this land, we unleashed the energy and
individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been
done before. Freedom and the dignity of the individual have been
more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth.
The price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have
never been unwilling to pay that price.
It is no coincidence that our present troubles parallel and
are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives
that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government.
It is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to
limit ourselves to small dreams. We are not, as some would have
us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in
a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in
a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the
creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national
renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our
strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope.
We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say
that
we are in a time when there are no heroes just don't know where
to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory
gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed
all of us and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a
counter--and they are on both sides of that counter. There are
entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who
create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They are individuals
and families whose taxes support the Government and whose
voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and
education. Their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values
sustain our national life.
Now, I have used the words "they" and "their" in
speaking of these heroes. I could say "you" and
"your" because I am addressing the heroes of whom I speak--you,
the citizens of this blessed land. Your dreams, your hopes, your
goals are going to be the dreams, the hopes, and the goals of
this administration, so help me God.
We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of
your makeup. How can we love our country and not love our
countrymen, and loving them, reach out a hand when they fall,
heal them when they are sick, and provide opportunities to make
them self-sufficient so they will be equal in fact and not just
in theory?
Can we solve the problems confronting us? Well, the answer
is an unequivocal and emphatic "yes." To paraphrase Winston
Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the
intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's
strongest economy.
In the days ahead I will propose removing the roadblocks
that have slowed our economy and reduced productivity. Steps will
be taken aimed at restoring the balance between the various
levels of government. Progress may be slow--measured in inches
and feet, not miles--but we will progress. Is it time to reawaken
this industrial giant, to get government back within its means,
and to lighten our punitive tax burden. And these will be our
first priorities, and on these principles, there will be no
compromise.
On the eve of our struggle for independence a man who might
have been one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr.
Joseph Warren, President of the Massachusetts Congress, said to
his fellow Americans, "Our country is in danger, but not to be
despaired of.... On you depend the fortunes of America. You are
to decide the important questions upon which rests the happiness
and the liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of
yourselves."
Well, I believe we, the Americans of today, are ready to act
worthy of ourselves, ready to do what must be done to ensure
happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children and our
children's children. And as we renew ourselves here in our own
land, we will be seen as having greater strength throughout the
world. We will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of
hope for those who do not now have freedom.
To those neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will
strengthen our historic ties and assure them of our support and
firm commitment. We will match loyalty with loyalty. We will
strive for mutually beneficial relations. We will not use our
friendship to impose on their sovereignty, for our own
sovereignty is not for sale.
As for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential
adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest
aspiration of the American people. We will negotiate for it,
sacrifice for it; we will not surrender for it--now or ever.
Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our
reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of
will. When action is required to preserve our national security,
we will act. We will maintain sufficient strength to prevail if
need be, knowing that if we do so we have the best chance of
never having to use that strength.
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in
the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral
courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries
in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans
do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism
and prey upon their neighbors.
I am told that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are
being held on this day, and for that I am deeply grateful. We are
a nation under God, and I believe God intended for us to be free.
It would be fitting and good, I think, if on each Inauguration
Day in future years it should be declared a day of prayer.
This is the first time in history that this ceremony has been
held, as you have been told, on this West Front of the Capitol.
Standing here, one faces a magnificent vista, opening up on this
city's special beauty and history. At the end of this open mall
are those shrines to the giants on whose shoulders we stand.
Directly in front of me, the monument to a monumental man: George
Washington, Father of our country. A man of humility who came
to greatness reluctantly. He led America out of revolutionary
victory into infant nationhood. Off to one side, the stately
memorial to Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence
flames with his eloquence. And then beyond the Reflecting Pool
the dignified columns of the Lincoln Memorial. Whoever would
understand in his heart the meaning of America will find it in
the life of Abraham Lincoln. Beyond those monuments to heroism
is the Potomac River, and on the far shore the sloping hills of
Arlington National Cemetery with its row on row of simple white
markers bearing crosses or Stars of David. They add up to only a
tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom.
Each one of those markers is a monument to the kinds of hero
I spoke of earlier. Their lives ended in places called Belleau
Wood. The Argonne, Omaha Beach, Salerno and halfway around the
world on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin
Reservoir, and in a hundred rice paddies and jungles of a place
called Vietnam.
Under one such marker lies a young man--Martin Treptow--who
left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France
with the famed Rainbow Division. There, on the western front, he
was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under
heavy artillery fire.
We are told that on his body was found a diary. On the
flyleaf under the heading, "My Pledge," he had written these
words: "America must win this war. Therefore, I will work,
I will save, I will sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight
cheerfully and do my utmost, as if the issue of the whole
struggle depended on me alone."
The crisis we are facing today does not require of us the
kind of sacrifice that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of
others were called upon to make. It does require, however, our
best effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to
believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that
together, with God's help, we can and will resolve the problems
which now confront us.
And, after all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are
Americans.