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The 200th anniversary of the Presidency was observed
as George Bush took the executive oath on the same Bible George
Washington used in1789. The ceremony occurred on a platform on the
terrace of the West Front of the Capitol. The oath of office was
administered by Chief Justice William Rehnquist. After the ceremony
the President and Mrs. Bush led the inaugural parade from the Capitol
to the White House, walking along several blocks of Pennsylvania
Avenue to greet the spectators.
"Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice President Quayle,
Senator Mitchell, Speaker Wright, Senator Dole, Congressman
Michel, and fellow citizens, neighbors, and friends: There is a man here who has earned a lasting place in our
hearts and in our history. President Reagan, on behalf of
our nation, I thank you for the wonderful things that you
have done for America. I've just repeated word for word the oath taken by George
Washington 200 years ago, and the Bible on which I placed my
hand is the Bible on which he placed his. It is right that
the memory of Washington be with us today not only because
this is our bicentennial inauguration but because Washington
remains the Father of our Country. And he would, I think, be
gladdened by this day; for today is the concrete expression
of a stunning fact: our continuity, these 200 years, since
our government began. We meet on democracy's front porch. A good place to talk
as neighbors and as friends. For this is a day when our
nation is made whole, when our differences, for a moment,
are suspended. And my first act as President is a prayer. I
ask you to bow your heads. Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your
love. Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day
and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make
us strong to do Your work, willing to heed and hear Your
will, and write on our hearts these words: "Use power to
help people." For we are given power not to advance our own
purposes, nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name.
There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve
people. Help us remember, Lord. Amen. I come before you and assume the Presidency at a moment
rich with promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time,
but we can make it better. For a new breeze is blowing, and
a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn. For in man's
heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The
totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like
leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree. A new breeze is
blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to
push on. There is new ground to be broken and new action to
be taken. There are times when the future seems thick as a
fog; you sit and wait, hoping the mists will lift and reveal
the right path. But this is a time when the future seems a
door you can walk right through into a room called tomorrow.
Great nations of the world are moving toward democracy
through the door to freedom. Men and women of the world move
toward free markets through the door to prosperity. The
people of the world agitate for free expression and free
thought through the door to the moral and intellectual
satisfactions that only liberty allows. We know what works: Freedom works. We know what's right:
Freedom is right. We know how to secure a more just and
prosperous life for man on Earth: through free markets, free
speech, free elections, and the exercise of free will
unhampered by the state. For the first time in this century, for the first time in
perhaps all history, man does not have to invent a system by
which to live. We don't have to talk late into the night
about which form of government is better. We don't have to
wrest justice from the kings. We only have to summon it from
within ourselves. We must act on what we know. I take as my
guide the hope of a saint: In crucial things, unity; in
important things, diversity; in all things, generosity. America today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil,
a place we cannot help but love. We know in our hearts, not
loudly and proudly but as a simple fact, that this country
has meaning beyond what we see, and that our strength is a
force for good. But have we changed as a nation even in our
time? Are we enthralled with material things, less
appreciative of the nobility of work and sacrifice? My friends, we are not the sum of our possessions. They
are not the measure of our lives. In our hearts we know what
matters. We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger
car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a
sense of what it means to be a loyal friend; a loving
parent; a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood, and
town better than he found it. And what do we want the men
and women who work with us to say when we're no longer
there? That we were more driven to succeed than anyone
around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had
gotten better and stayed a moment there to trade a word of
friendship? No President, no government can teach us to remember what
is best in what we are. But if the man you have chosen to
lead this government can help make a difference; if he can
celebrate the quieter, deeper successes that are made not of
gold and silk but of better hearts and finer souls; if he
can do these things, then he must. America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in
high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose
today. It is to make kinder the face of the Nation and
gentler the face of the world. My friends, we have work to
do. There are the homeless, lost and roaming. There are the
children who have nothing, no love and no normalcy. There
are those who cannot free themselves of enslavement to
whatever addiction -- drugs, welfare, the demoralization
that rules the slums. There is crime to be conquered, the
rough crime of the streets. There are young women to be
helped who are about to become mothers of children they
can't care for and might not love. They need our care, our
guidance, and our education, though we bless them for
choosing life. The old solution, the old way, was to think that public
money alone could end these problems. But we have learned
that that is not so. And in any case, our funds are low. We
have a deficit to bring down. We have more will than wallet,
but will is what we need. We will make the hard choices,
looking at what we have and perhaps allocating it
differently, making our decisions based on honest need and
prudent safety. And then we will do the wisest thing of all.
We will turn to the only resource we have that in times of
need always grows: the goodness and the courage of the
American people. And I am speaking of a new engagement in the lives of
others, a new activism, hands-on and involved, that gets the
job done. We must bring in the generations, harnessing the
unused talent of the elderly and the unfocused energy of the
young. For not only leadership is passed from generation to
generation but so is stewardship. And the generation born
after the Second World War has come of age. I have spoken of a Thousand Points of Light, of all the
community organizations that are spread like stars
throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in
hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led,
rewarding. We will work on this in the White House, in the
Cabinet agencies. I will go to the people and the programs
that are the brighter points of light, and I'll ask every
member of my government to become involved. The old ideas
are new again because they're not old, they are timeless:
duty, sacrifice, commitment, and a patriotism that finds its
expression in taking part and pitching in. We need a new engagement, too, between the Executive and
the Congress. The challenges before us will be thrashed out
with the House and the Senate. And we must bring the Federal
budget into balance. And we must ensure that America stands
before the world united, strong, at peace, and fiscally
sound. But of course things may be difficult. We need to
compromise; we've had dissension. We need harmony; we've had
a chorus of discordant voices. For Congress, too, has changed in our time. There has
grown a certain divisiveness. We have seen the hard looks
and heard the statements in which not each other's ideas are
challenged but each other's motives. And our great parties
have too often been far apart and untrusting of each other.
It's been this way since Vietnam. That war cleaves us still.
But, friends, that war began in earnest a quarter of a
century ago, and surely the statute of limitation has been
reached. This is a fact: The final lesson of Vietnam is that
no great nation can long afford to be sundered by a memory.
A new breeze is blowing, and the old bipartisanship must be
made new again. To my friends, and, yes, I do mean friends -- in the
loyal opposition and, yes, I mean loyal -- I put out my
hand. I am putting out my hand to you, Mr. Speaker. I am
putting out my hand to you, Mr. Majority Leader. For this is
the thing: This is the age of the offered hand. And we can't
turn back clocks, and I don't want to. But when our fathers
were young, Mr. Speaker, our differences ended at the
water's edge. And we don't wish to turn back time, but when
our mothers were young, Mr. Majority Leader, the Congress
and the Executive were capable of working together to
produce a budget on which this nation could live. Let us
negotiate soon and hard. But in the end, let us produce. The
American people await action. They didn't send us here to
bicker. They ask us to rise above the merely partisan. "In
crucial things, unity" -- and this, my friends, is crucial.
To the world, too, we offer new engagement and a renewed
vow: We will stay strong to protect the peace. The offered
hand is a reluctant fist; once made -- strong, and can be
used with great effect. There are today Americans who are
held against their will in foreign lands and Americans who
are unaccounted for. Assistance can be shown here and will
be long remembered. Good will begets good will. Good faith
can be a spiral that endlessly moves on. Great nations like great men must keep their word. When
America says something, America means it, whether a treaty
or an agreement or a vow made on marble steps. We will
always try to speak clearly, for candor is a compliment; but
subtlety, too, is good and has its place. While keeping our
alliances and friendships around the world strong, ever
strong, we will continue the new closeness with the Soviet
Union, consistent both with our security and with progress.
One might say that our new relationship in part reflects the
triumph of hope and strength over experience. But hope is
good, and so is strength and vigilance. Here today are tens of thousands of our citizens who feel
the understandable satisfaction of those who have taken part
in democracy and seen their hopes fulfilled. But my thoughts
have been turning the past few days to those who would be
watching at home, to an older fellow who will throw a salute
by himself when the flag goes by and the woman who will tell
her sons the words of the battle hymns. I don't mean this to
be sentimental. I mean that on days like this we remember
that we are all part of a continuum, inescapably connected
by the ties that bind. Our children are watching in schools throughout our great
land. And to them I say, Thank you for watching democracy's
big day. For democracy belongs to us all, and freedom is
like a beautiful kite that can go higher and higher with the
breeze. And to all I say, No matter what your circumstances
or where you are, you are part of this day, you are part of
the life of our great nation. A President is neither prince nor pope, and I don't seek
a window on men's souls. In fact, I yearn for a greater
tolerance, and easygoingness about each other's attitudes
and way of life. There are few clear areas in which we as a society must
rise up united and express our intolerance. The most obvious
now is drugs. And when that first cocaine was smuggled in on
a ship, it may as well have been a deadly bacteria, so much
has it hurt the body, the soul of our country. And there is
much to be done and to be said, but take my word for it:
This scourge will stop! And so, there is much to do. And tomorrow the work
begins. And I do not mistrust the future. I do not fear what
is ahead. For our problems are large, but our heart is
larger. Our challenges are great, but our will is greater.
And if our flaws are endless, God's love is truly boundless.
Some see leadership as high drama and the sound of
trumpets calling, and sometimes it is that. But I see
history as a book with many pages, and each day we fill a
page with acts of hopefulness and meaning. The new breeze
blows, a page turns, the story unfolds. And so, today a
chapter begins, a small and stately story of unity,
diversity, and generosity -- shared, and written, together.
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States
of America."
Friday, January 20, 1989