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Presidents 1.343 words
The only chief executive to serve more than two terms,
President Roosevelt took office for the third time as Europe and Asia
engaged in war. The oath of office was administered by Chief Justice
Charles Evans Hughes on the East Portico of the Capitol. The
Roosevelts hosted a reception fo several thousand visitors at the
White House later that day.
"On each national day of Inauguration since 1789, the
people have renewed their sense of dedication to the United
States. In Washington's day the task of the people was to create
and weld together a Nation. In Lincoln's day the task of the people was to preserve
that Nation from disruption from within. In this day the task of the people is to save that Nation
and its institutions from disruption from without. To us there has come a time, in the midst of swift
happenings, to pause for a moment and take stock- to recall
what our place in history has been, and to rediscover what
we are and what we may be. If we do not, we risk the real
peril of isolation, the real peril of inaction. Lives of Nations are determined not by the count of
years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit. The life of
a man is threescore years and ten: a little more, a little
less. The life of a Nation is the fullness of the measure of
its will to live. There are men who doubt this. There are men who believe
that democracy, as a form of government and a frame of life,
is limited or measured by a kind of mystical and artificial
fate that, for some unexplained reason, tyranny and slavery
have become the surging wave of the future--and that freedom
is an ebbing tide. But we Americans know that this is not true. Eight years ago, when the life of this Republic seemed
frozen by a fatalistic terror, we proved that this is not
true. We were in the midst of shock--but we acted. We acted
quickly, boldly, decisively. These later years have been living years--fruitful years
for the people of this democracy. For they have brought to
us greater security and, I hope, a better understanding that
life's ideals are to be measured in other than material
things. Most vital to our present and to our future is this
experience of a democracy which successfully survived crisis
at home; put away many evil things; built new structures on
enduring lines; and, through it all, maintained the fact of
its democracy. For action has been taken within the three-way framework
of the Constitution of the United States. The coordinate
branches of the Government continue freely to function. The
Bill of Rights remains inviolate. The freedom of elections
is wholly maintained. Prophets of the downfall of American
democracy have seen their dire predictions come to
naught. No, democracy is not dying. We know it because we have seen it revive--and grow. We know it cannot die--because it is built on the
unhampered initiative of individual men and women joined
together in a common enterprise--an enterprise undertaken
and carried through by the free expression of a free
majority. We know it because democracy alone, of all forms of
government, enlists the full force of men's enlightened
will. We know it because democracy alone has constructed an
unlimited civilization capable of infinite progress in the
improvement of human life. We know it because, if we look below the surface, we
sense it still spreading on every continent--for it is the
most humane, the most advanced, and in the end the most
unconquerable of all forms of human society. A Nation, like a person, has a body--a body that must be
fed and clothed and housed, invigorated and rested, in a
manner that measures up to the standards of our time. A Nation, like a person, has a mind--a mind that must be
kept informed and alert, that must know itself, that
understands the hopes and the needs of its neighbors--all
the other Nations that live within the narrowing circle of
the world. A Nation, like a person, has something deeper, something
more permanent, something larger than the sum of all its
parts. It is that something which matters most to its
future--which calls forth the most sacred guarding of its
present. It is a thing for which we find it difficult--even
impossible to hit upon a single, simple word. And yet, we all understand what it is--the spirit--the
faith of America. It is the product of centuries. It was
born in the multitudes of those who came from many
lands--some of high degree, but mostly plain people--who
sought here, early and late, to find freedom more
freely. The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in
human history. It is human history. It permeated the ancient
life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the Middle Ages. It
was written in Magna Charta. In the Americas its impact has been irresistible. America
has been the New World in all tongues, and to all peoples,
not because this continent was a new-found land, but because
all those who came here believed they could create upon this
continent a new life--a life that should be new in
freedom. Its vitality was written into our own Mayflower Compact,
into the Declaration of Independence, into the Constitution
of the United States, into the Gettysburg Address. Those who first came here to carry out the longings of
their spirit, and the millions who followed, and the stock
that sprang from them--all have moved forward constantly and
consistently toward an ideal which in itself has gained
stature and clarity with each generation. The hopes of the Republic cannot forever tolerate either
undeserved poverty or self-serving wealth. We know that we still have far to go; that we must more
greatly build the security and the opportunity and the
knowledge of every citizen, in the measure justified by the
resources and the capacity of the land. But it is not enough to achieve these purposes alone. It
is not enough to clothe and feed the body of this Nation, to
instruct, and inform its mind. For there is also the spirit.
And of the three, the greatest is the spirit. Without the body and the mind, as all men know, the
Nation could not live. But if the spirit of America were killed, even though the
Nation's body and mind, constricted in an alien world, lived
on, the America we know would have perished. That spirit--that faith--speaks to us in our daily lives
in ways often unnoticed, because they seem so obvious. It
speaks to us here in the Capital of the Nation. It speaks to
us through the processes of governing in the sovereignties
of 48 States. It speaks to us in our counties, in our
cities, in our towns, and in our villages. It speaks to us
from the other Nations of the hemisphere, and from those
across the seas--the enslaved, as well as the free.
Sometimes we fail to hear or heed these voices of freedom
because to us the privilege of our freedom is such an old,
old story. The destiny of America was proclaimed in words of
prophecy spoken by our first President in his first
Inaugural in 1789-words almost directed, it would seem, to
this year of 1941: "The preservation of the sacred fire of
liberty and the destiny of the republican model of
government are justly considered. . . deeply, . . . finally,
staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the
American people." If you and I in this later day lose that sacred fire--if
we let it be smothered with doubt and fear- then we shall
reject the destiny which Washington strove so valiantly and
so triumphantly to establish. The preservation of the spirit
and faith of the Nation does, and will, furnish the highest
justification for every sacrifice that we may make in the
cause of national defense. In the face of great perils never before encountered, our
strong purpose is to protect and to perpetuate the integrity
of democracy. For this we muster the spirit of America, and the faith
of America. We do not retreat. We are not content to stand still. As
Americans, we go forward, in the service of our country, by
the will of God."
Jan. 20, 1941