Ronald Reagan Speech
President Reagan's Second Inaugural Address
Monday, January 21st, 1985
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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