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President Obama Takes Oath of Office
— January 21, 2013
Obama's Second Inaugural Address
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It follows the full text transcript of
Barack Obama's Second Inaugural Address, delivered at
the West Front of the U.S. Capitol at Washington D.C. - January 21, 2013.
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Vice President
Biden, Mr. Chief Justice,
Members of the U.S.
Congress,
Distinguished
guests, and fellow citizens, |
Each time we gather
to inaugurate a President, we bear witness to
the enduring strength of our Constitution. We
affirm the promise of our democracy. We recall
that what binds this Nation together are not the
colors of our skin or the tenets of our faith or
the origins of our names. What makes us
exceptional--what makes us American--is our
allegiance to an idea, articulated in a
declaration made more than two centuries ago:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that
all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness.
Today we continue a never-ending journey to
bridge the meaning of those words with the
realities of our time, for history tells us that
while these truths may be self-evident, they
have never been self-executing; that while
freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured
by His people here on Earth.
The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace
the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a
few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a
republic, a government of and by and for the
people, entrusting each generation to keep safe
our founding creed. For more than 200 years, we
have. Through blood drawn by lash and blood
drawn by sword, we learned that no union founded
on the principles of liberty and equality could
survive half slave and half free. We made
ourselves anew and vowed to move forward
together. Together, we determined that a modern
economy requires railroads and highways to speed
travel and commerce; schools and colleges to
train our workers. Together, we discovered that
a free market only thrives when there are rules
to ensure competition and fair play. Together,
we resolve that a great nation must care for the
vulnerable and protect its people from life's
worst hazards and misfortunes. Through it all,
we have never relinquished our skepticism of
central authority, nor have we succumbed to the
fiction that all society's ills can be cured
through government alone. Our celebration of
initiative and enterprise, our insistence on
hard work and personal responsibility, these are
constants in our character.
We have always understood that when times
change, so must we; that fidelity to our
founding principles requires new responses to
new challenges; that preserving our individual
freedoms ultimately requires collective action,
for the American people can no more meet the
demands of today's world by acting alone than
American soldiers could have met the forces of
fascism or communism with muskets and militias.
No single person can train all the math and
science teachers we will need to equip our
children for the future or build the roads and
networks and research labs that will bring new
jobs to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must
do these things together as one Nation and one
people.
This generation of Americans has been tested by
crises that steeled our resolve and proved our
resilience. A decade of war is now ending.
An economic recovery has begun.
America's possibilities are limitless, for we
possess all the qualities this world without
boundaries demands: youth and drive, diversity
and openness, an endless capacity for risk, and
a gift for reinvention.
My fellow Americans, we are made for this
moment, and we will seize it so long as we seize
it together.
For we, the People, understand that our country
cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well
and a growing many barely make it.
We believe America's prosperity must rest upon
the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We
know America thrives when every person can find
independence and pride in their work, when the
wages of honest labor liberate families from the
brink of hardship. We are true to our creed when
a little girl born into the bleakest poverty
knows she has the same chance to succeed as
anybody else because she is an American, she is
free, and she is equal, not just in the eyes of
God but also in our own.
We understand outworn programs are inadequate to
the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas
in technology to remake our government, revamp
our Tax Code, reform our schools, and empower
our citizens with the skills they need to work
harder, learn more, and reach higher. But while
the means will change, our purpose endures. A
nation that rewards the effort and determination
of every single American, that is what this
moment requires. That is what will give real
meaning to our creed.
We, the people, still believe that every citizen
deserves a basic measure of security and
dignity. We must make the hard choices to reduce
the cost of health care and the size of our
deficit. But we reject the belief that America
must choose between caring for the generation
that built this country and investing in the
generation that will build its future.
For we remember the lessons of our past, when
twilight years were spent in poverty and parents
of a child with a disability had nowhere to
turn. We do not believe, in this country,
freedom is reserved for the lucky or happiness
for the few. We recognize that no matter how
responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at
any time, may face a job loss or a sudden
illness or a home swept away in a terrible
storm. The commitments we make to each other,
through Medicare and Medicaid and Social
Security, these things do not sap our Nation;
they strengthen us.
They do not make us a nation of takers; they
free us to take the risks that make this country
great.
We, the people, still believe our obligations as
Americans are not just to ourselves but to all
posterity. We will respond to the threat of
climate change, knowing the failure to do so
would betray our children and future
generations.
Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of
science, but none can avoid the devastating
impact of raging fires and crippling drought and
more powerful storms. The path toward
sustainable energy sources will be long and
sometimes difficult, but America cannot resist
this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede
to other Nations the technology that will power
new jobs and new industries; we must claim its
promise. That is how we will maintain our
economic vitality and our national treasure, our
forests and waterways, our croplands and
snow-capped peaks. That is how we will preserve
our planet, commanded to our care by God. That
is what will lend meaning to the creed our
Fathers once declared.
We, the people, still believe that enduring
security and lasting peace do not require
perpetual war. Our brave men and women in
uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are
unmatched in skill and courage. Our citizens,
seared by the memory of those we have lost, know
too well the price that is paid for liberty. The
knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us
forever vigilant against those who would do us
harm. But we are also heirs to those who won the
peace and not just the war, who turned sworn
enemies into the surest of friends, and we must
carry those lessons into this time as well.
We will defend our people and uphold our values
through strength of arms and rule of law. We
will show the courage to try and resolve our
differences with other Nations peacefully, not
because we are naive about the dangers we face
but because engagement can more durably lift
suspicion and fear.
America will remain the anchor of strong
alliances in every corner of the globe, and we
will renew those institutions that extend our
capacity to manage crisis abroad, for no one has
a greater stake in a peaceful world than its
most powerful Nation. We will support democracy
from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the
Middle East, because our interests and our
conscience compel us to act on behalf of those
who long for freedom. We must be a source of
hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized,
the victims of prejudice, not out of mere
charity but because peace in our time requires
the constant advance of those principles that
our common creed describes: tolerance and
opportunity, human dignity and justice.
We, the people, declare today that the most
evident of truths, that all of us are created
equal, is the star that guides us still, just as
it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls and
Selma and Stonewall, just as it guided all those
men and women, sung and unsung, who left
footprints along this great Mall to hear a
preacher say we cannot walk alone, to hear a
"King"' proclaim that our individual freedom is
inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul
on Earth.
It is now our generation's task to carry on what
those pioneers began, for our journey is not
complete until our wives, our mothers, and
daughters can earn a living equal to their
efforts.
Our journey is not complete until our gay
brothers and sisters are treated like anyone
else under the law, for if we are truly created
equal, then surely the love we commit to one
another must be equal as well.
Our journey is not complete until no citizen is
forced to wait for hours to exercise the right
to vote. Our journey is not complete until we
find a better way to welcome the striving,
hopeful immigrants who still see America as a
land of opportunity; until bright young students
and engineers are enlisted in our workforce
rather than expelled from our country.
Our journey is not complete until all our
children, from the streets of Detroit to the
hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of
Newtown, know they are cared for and cherished
and always safe from harm. That is our
generation's task--to make these words, these
rights, these values of life and liberty and the
pursuit of happiness real for every American.
Being true to our founding documents does not
require us to agree on every contour of life. It
does not mean we will all define liberty in
exactly the same way or follow the same precise
path to happiness. Progress does not compel us
to settle centuries-long debates about the role
of government for all time, but it does require
us to act in our time.
For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot
afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for
principle or substitute spectacle for politics
or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We
must act, knowing our work will be imperfect. We
must act, knowing today's victories will be only
partial and that it will be up to those who
stand here in 4 years and 40 years and 400 years
hence to advance the timeless spirit once
conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.
My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn
before you today, similar to the one recited by
others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath to
God and country, not party or faction, and we
must faithfully execute that pledge during the
duration of our service. But the words I spoke
today are not so different from the oath that is
taken each time a soldier signs up for duty or
an immigrant realizes her dream. My oath is not
so different from the pledge we all make to the
flag that waves above and that fills our hearts
with pride. They are the words of citizens and
they represent our greatest hope.
You and I, as citizens, have the power to set
this country's course. You and I, as citizens,
have the obligation to shape the debates of our
time, not only with the votes we cast but with
the voices we lift in defense of our most
ancient values and enduring ideals. Let each of
us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome
joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common
effort and common purpose, with passion and
dedication, let us answer the call of history
and carry into an uncertain future that precious
light of freedom.
Thank you. God bless you, and may He forever
bless these United States of America.
See also
American Timeline
More History
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