Here is the video clip of Reagan's inauguration. The entire
thing is split into seven parts. Scroll down for
the transcript.
It follows the full text transcript of
Ronald Reagan's Second Inaugural Address, delivered
in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C. -
January 21, 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
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.
Also called the
Persian Wars, the Greco-Persian Wars were
fought for almost half a century from 492 BC -
449 BC. Greece won against enormous odds. Here
is more:
