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�199 2 C O N V E N T I O N
PROCEEDINGS
The Convention welcomes the next President of the United States. Governor Bill Clinton.
Pholo byjuonito M Colt, e 1992
Acceptance Speech to the
Democratic National Convention
by Governor Bill Clinton
from Arkansas
G
OVERNOR CLINTON: Governor
Richards, Chairman Brown, Mayor
Dinkins, our great host (Applause), my
fellow delegates and my fellow Americans,
I am so proud of Al Gore. (Applause)
"In the name of all those
who do the work and
pay the taxes, raise the
kids, and play by the
rules, the hardworking
Americans who make
up our forgotten middle
class, I proudly accept
your nomination
for President of the
United States."
Gov. Bill Clinton
He said he came here tonight because he
always wanted to do the warm-up for
Elvis. Well, I ran for President this year
for one reason and one reason only: I
wanted to come back to this convention
and finish that speech I started four years
ago. (Applause)
Last night Mario Cuomo taught us how a
real nominating speech should be given.
(Applause) He also made it clear why we
have to steer our ship of state on a new
course. Tonight I want to talk with you
about my hope for the future, my faith in
the American people, and my vision of the
kind of country we can build together.
I salute the good men who were my
compajiions on the campaign trail: Tom
Harkin (Applause), Bob Kerrey
316
(Applause), Doug Wilder (Applause), Jerry
Brown (Applause) and Paul Tsongas.
(Applause)
One sentence in the Platform we built says
it all. The most important family policy,
urban policy, labor policy, minority pohcy,
and foreign policy America can have is an
expanding entrepreneurial economy of
high-wage, high-skilled jobs. (Applause)
And so, in the name of all those who do the
work and pay the taxes, raise the kids, and
play by the rules, in the name of the
hardworking Americans who make up our
forgotten middle class, I proudly accept
your nomination for President of the
United States.
(Spontaneous demonstration)
I am a product of that middle class, and
when I am President, you will be forgotten
no more. (Applause)
We meet at a special moment in history,
you and I . The Cold War is over. Soviet
communism has collapsed, and our values—freedom, democracy, individual
rights, free enterprise—they have triumphed all around the world. And yet
just as we have won the Cold War abroad,
we are losing the battles for economic
opportunity and social justice here at
home. (Applause)
�THURSDAY • J U L Y
Now that we have changed the world, it's
time to change America. (Applause)
I have news for the forces of greed and the
defenders of the status quo: Your time has
come and gone. It's time for a change in
America. (Applause)
Tonight 10 million of our fellow Americans
are out of work. Tens of millions more
work harder for lower pay. The incumbent
President says unemployment always goes
up a little before a recovery begins, but
unemployment only has to go up by one
more person before a real recovery can
begin. (Applause) And Mr. President, you
are that man. (Applause)
This election is about putting power back
in your hands and putting the government
back on your side. It's about putting
people first. (Applause)
You know, I've said that all across the
country, and whenever I do, someone '
always comes back at me, as a young man
did just this week at a town meeting at the
Henry Street Settlement on the Lower
East Side of Manhattan.
16
As a child, I watched her go off to work
each day at a time when it wasn't always
easy to be a working mother.
As an adult, I watched her fight off breast
cancer, and again she has taught me a
lesson in courage. And always, always,
always she taught me to fight.
That's why I'll fight to create high-paying
jobs so that parents can afford to raise
their children today.
That's why I'm so committed to make sure
every American gets the health care that
saved my mother's life (Applause) and that
women's health care gets the same attention as men's. (Applause)
"TTits election is about
putting power back in
your hands and
putting the government
back on your side. It's
about putting people
first."
Gov. Bill Clinton
That's why IH fight to make sure women
in this country receive respect and dignity,
whether they work in the home, out of the
home or both. (Applause)
You want to know where I get my fighting
spirit? It all started with my mother.
Thank you, Mother. I love you. (Applause)
Tonight, as plainly as I can, I want to tell
you who I am, what I believe, and where I
want to lead America. (Applause)
When I think about opportunity for all
Americans, I think about my grandfather.
He ran a country store in our little town of
Hope. There were no food stamps back
then, so when his customers, whether they
were White or Black, who worked hard
and did the best they could, came in with
no money, well, he gave them food anyway. He just made a note of it. So did I .
I never met my father. He was killed in a
car wreck on a rainy road three months
before I was born, driving from Chicago to
Arkansas to see my mother.
Before I was big enough to see over the
counter, I learned from him to look up to
people other folks looked down on.
(Applause)
After that, my mother had to support us,
so we lived with my grandparents while
she went back to Louisiana to study
nursing. I can still see her clearly tonight
through the eyes of a three-year-old,
kneehng at the railroad station and
weeping as she put me back on the train to
Arkansas with my grandmother.
My grandfather just had a high school
education—a grade school education—but
in that country store he taught me more
about equahty in the eyes of the Lord than
all my professors at Georgetown, more
about the intrinsic worth of every individual than all the philosophers at Oxford,
more about the need for equal justice
under the law than all the jurists at Yale
Law School. (Applause)
He said, "That sounds good, Bill, but
you're a politician. Why should I trust
you?"
She endured that pain because she knew
her sacrifice was the only way she could
support me and give me a better life. My
mother taught me. She taught me about
family and hard work and sacrifice. She
held steady through tragedy after tragedy,
and she held our family—my brother and
I—together through tough times.
If you want to know where I come by the
passionate commitment I have to bringing
people together without regard to race, it
all started with my grandfather.
(Applause)
317
�992 CONVENTION
PROCEEDINGS
I learned a lot from another person too: a
person who for more than 20 years has
worked hard to help our chUdren, paying
the price of time to make sure our schools
don't fail them. Someone who traveled our
state for a year, studying, learning, listen7 am fed up with
ing, going to PTA meetings, school board
politicians in
meetings, town hall meetings, putting
Washington lecturing together a package of school reforms
recognized around the Nation, and doing it
the rest of us about
all while building a distinguished legal
family values. Our
career and being a wonderful, loving
families have values.
mother.
But our government
That person is my wife.
doesn't.'
(Standing ovation)
"Those who play by the
rules and keep the faith
have gotten the shaft,
and those who cut
comers and cut deals
have been rewarded."
Gov. BiU Clinton
Hillary taught me. She taught me that all
children can leam and that each of us has
a duty to help them do it.
So if you want to know why I care so much
about our children and our future, it all
started with Hillary. I love you.
(Applause)
Frankly, I am fed up with politicians in
Washington lecturing the rest of us about
family values. Our families have values.
But our government doesn't. (Applause)
I want an America where family values
live in our actions, not just in our
speeches. (Applause) An America that
includes every family. Every traditional
family and every extended family. Every
two-parent family. Every single-parent
family. And every foster family. Every
family. (Applause)
I do want to say something to the fathers
in this country who have chosen to abandon their children by neglecting their child
support: Take responsibility for your
children or we will force you to do so.
(Applause) Because governments don't
raise children; parents do. And you
should. (Applause)
And I want to say something to every child
in America tonight who is out there trying
to grow up without a father or a mother: I
know how you feel. You are special too.
318
You matter to America. And don't you
ever let anybody tell you you can't become
whatever you want to be. (Applause) And
if other politicians make you feel like you
are not a part of their family, come on and
be part of ours. (Applause)
(Chants of "We want B i l i n
The thing that makes me angriest about
what has gone wrong in the last 12 years
is that our government has lost touch with
our values, while our politicians continue
to shout about them. I'm tired of it!
(Applause)
I was raised to believe the American
Dream was built on rewarding hard work.
But we have seen the folks in Washington
tum the American ethic on its head.
For too long those who play by the rules
and keep the faith have gotten the shaft,
and those who cut corners and cut deals
have been rewarded. (Applause)
People are working harder than ever,
spending less time with their children,
working nights and weekends at their jobs
instead of going to PTA and Little League
or Scouts. And their incomes are still going
down. (Applause) Their taxes are still
going up. And the costs of health care,
housing and education are going through
the roof. (Applause)
Meanwhile, more and more of our best
people are falling into poverty even though
they work 40 hours a week. (Applause)
Our people are pleading for change, but
government is in the way. It has been
hijacked by privileged private interests. It
has forgotten who really pays the bills
around here. (Applause) It has taken
more of your money and given you less in
return. We have got to go beyond the
brain-dead politics in Washington and give
our people the kind of government they
deserve, a government that works for
them. (Applause)
A President ought to be a powerful force
for progress. But right now I know how
President Lincoln felt when General
McClellan wouldn't attack in the Civil
War. He asked him, "If you're not going to
use your army, may I borrow it?"
(Laughter)
�THURSDAY . J U L Y
And so I say: George Bush, if you won't
use your power to help America, step
aside. I will. (Applause)
(Chants of "We want Bill!")
Our country is falling behind. The President is caught in the grip of a failed
economic theory. We have gone from first
to 13th in the world in wages since Reagan
and Bush have been in office.
Four years ago candidate Bush said,
"America is a special place, not just
another pleasant country somewhere on
the UN roll call between Albania and
Zimbabwe." Now, under President Bush,
America has an unpleasant economy stuck
somewhere between Germany and Sri
Lanka. (Applause)
And for most Americans, Mr. President,
life's a lot less kind and a lot less gentle
than it was before your administration
took office. (Applause)
>
(Chants of "Bush must go!")
Listen, do it some more.
(Chants of "Bush must go!")
Our country has fallen so far so fast that
just a few months ago the Japanese prime
minister actually said he felt sympathy for
the United States. Sympathy. When I am
your President (Applause), the rest of the
world will not look down on us with pity
but up to us with respect again.
(Applause)
What is George Bush doing about our
economic problems?
Now, four years ago he promised 15
milhon new jobs by this time, and he's
over 14 million short. Al Gore and I can do
better. (Applause)
He has raised taxes on the people driving
pickup trucks and lowered taxes on the
people riding in limousines. We can do
better.
He promised to balance the budget, but he
hasn't even tried. In fact, the budgets he
has submitted to Congress nearly doubled
the debt. Even worse, he wasted billions
and reduced our investments in education
and jobs. We can do better. (Applause)
16
So if you are sick and tired of a government that doesn't work to create jobs, if
you're sick and tired of a tax system that's
stacked against you, if you're sick and
tired of exploding debt and reduced investments in our future, or if, like the great
civil rights pioneer Fannie Lou Hamer,
you're just plain old sick and tired of being
sick and tired (Applause), then join us,
work with us, win with us and we can
make our country the country it was
meant to be. (Applause)
Now, George Bush talks a good game, but
he has no game plan to rebuild America,
from the cities to the suburbs to the
countryside, so that we can compete and
win again in the global economy. I do.
(Applause)
He won't take on the big insurance companies and the bureaucracies to control
health costs and give us affordable health
care for all Americans, but I will.
(Applause)
He won't even implement the recommendations of his own commission on AIDS,
but I will. (Applause)
He won't streamline the federal government and change the way it works, cut
100,000 bureaucrats and put 100,000 new
police officers on the streets of American
cities, but I will. (Applause)
"American companies
must act like American
companies again,
exporting products, not
jobs."
Gov. BiU Clinton
He's never balanced a government budget,
but I have 11 times. (Applause)
He won't break the stranglehold the
special interests have on our elections and
the lobbyists have on our government, but
I will. (Applause)
He won't give mothers and fathers the
simple chance to take some time off from
work when a baby is born or a parent is
sick, but I will. (Applause)
We're losing our farms at a rapid rate, and
he has no commitment to keep family
farms in the family, but I do. (Applause)
He's talked a lot about drugs, but he
hasn't helped people on the front line to
wage that war on drugs and crime. But I
will. (Applause)
319
�1992
CONVENTION
PROCEEDINGS
He won't take the lead in protecting the
environment and creating new jobs in
environmental technologies for the 21st
century, but I will. (Applause) And you
know what else? He doesn't have Al Gore,
and I do. (Laughter and applause)
Because we are committed in this Convention and in this Platform to making these
changes, we are, as Democrats, in the
words that Ross Perot himself spoke today,
"a revitalized Democratic Party."
(Applause)
Just in case you didn't notice, that's Gore
with an E on the end. (Laughter and
applause)
I am well aware that all those millions of
people who rallied to Ross Perot's cause
wanted to be in an army of patriots for
change. Tonight I say to them, join us,
and together we will revitalize America.
(Applause)
And Greorge Bush—George Bush won't
guarantee a woman's right to choose; I
will.
(Spontaneous demonstration)
Listen. Hear me now. I am not proabortion; I am pro-choice, strongly.
(Applause) I believe this difficult and
painful decision should be left to the
women of America. (Applause)
I hope the right to privacy can be protected
and we wilHiever again have to discuss
this issue on political platforms.
(Applause) But I am old enough to remember what it was like before Roe v.
Wade, and I do not want to return to the
time when we made criminals of women
and their doctors. (Applause)
"The New Covenant is
Jobs, education, health care—these are not
a solemn agreement
just commitments from my lips; they are
between the people and the work of my life. (Applause)
their government based
Our priorities must be clear; we will put
not simply on what
our people first again. (Applause) But
each of us can take but priorities without a clear plan of action are
what all of us must
just empty words. To turn our rhetoric
into reality, we've got to change the way
give to our Nation."
government does business, fundamentally.
Until we do, well continue to pour billions
"We offer opportunity.
of dollars down the drain.
We demand
responsibility. We will The Republicans have campaigned against
big government for a generation, but have
build an American
you noticed? They've run this big governcommunity again."
ment for a generation (Applause) and they
Gov. Bill Clinton
haven't changed a thing. They don't want
to fix government; they still want to
campaign against it, and that's all.
(Applause)
But, my fellow Democrats, it's time for us
to realize we've got some changing to do
too. There is not a program in government
for every problem, and if we want to use
government to help people, we have got to
make it work again. (Applause)
320
Now, I don't have all the answers, but I do
know the old ways don't work. Trickledown economics has sure failed. And big
bureaucracies, both private and public,
they've failed too.
That's why we need a new approach to
government, a government that offers
more empowerment and less entitlement.
More choices for young people in the
schools they attend—in the public schools
they attend. (Applause) And more choices
for the elderly and for people with disabilities and the long-term care they receive.
(Applause) A government that is leaner,
not meaner; a government that expands
opportunity, not bureaucracy; a government that understands that jobs must
come from growth in a vibrant and vital
system of free enterprise.
I call this approach a New Covenant, a
solemn agreement between the people and
their government based not simply on
what each of us can take but what all of us
must give to our Nation. (Applause)
We offer our people a new choice based on
old values. We offer opportunity. We
demand responsibihty. We will build an
American community again. The choice
we offer is not conservative or liberal. In
many ways, it is not even Republican or
Democratic. It is different. It is new. And
it will work. (Applause) It will work
because it is rooted in the vision and the
values of the American people.
�THURSDAY ' J U L Y
Of all the things George Bush has ever
said that I disagree with, perhaps the
thing that bothers me most is how he
derides and degrades the American
tradition of seeing and seeking a better
future. He mocks it as the "vision thing."
(Applause)
But just remember what the Scripture
says: "Where there is no vision, the people
perish." (Applause)
I hope nobody in this great hall tonight or
in our beloved country has to go through
tomorrow without a vision. I hope no one
ever tries to raise a child without a vision.
I hope nobody ever starts a business or
plants a crop in the ground without a
vision. For where there is no vision, the
people perish. (Applause)
One of the reasons we have so many
children in so much trouble in so many
places in this Nation is because they hjive
seen so little opportunity, so little responsibility, so little loving, caring community,
that they literally cannot imagine the life
we are calling them to lead. (Applause)
And so I say again: Where there is no
vision, America will perish. What is the
vision of our New Covenant?
An America with millions of new jobs and
dozens of new industries, moving confidently toward the 21st century.
An America that says to entrepreneurs
and businesspeople: We will give you
more incentives and more opportunity
than ever before to develop the skills of
your workers and to create American jobs
and American wealth in the new global
economy. (Applause) But you must do
your part. You must be responsible.
American companies must act like American companies again, exporting products,
not jobs. (Applause)
That's what this New Covenant is all
about.
An America in which the doors of college
are thrown open once again to the sons
and daughters of stenographers and
steelworkers. (Applause) We will say:
Everybody can borrow the money to go to
college. But you must do your part. You
must pay it back (Applause), from your
16
paychecks or, better yet, by going back
home and serving your communities.
(Applause)
Just think of it. Think of it. Millions of
energetic young men and women serving
their country by poUcing the streets or
teaching the children or caring for the
sick. (Applause) Or working with the
elderly and people with disabilities. Or
helping young people to stay off drugs and
out of gangs, giving us all a sense of new
hope and limitless possibilities.
"Remember what the
Scripture says: "Where
there is no vision, the
people perish.'"
Gov. Bill Clinton
That's what this New Covenant is all
about. (Applause)
An America in which health care is a
right, not a privilege (Applause), in which
we say to all of our people: Your government has the courage finally to take on the
health care profiteers and make health
care affordable for every family.
(Applause) But you must do your part.
Preventive care, prenatal care, childhood
immunization—saving lives, saving
money, saving famihes from heartbreak.
That's what the New Covenant is all
about.
An America in which middle-class incomes, not middle-class taxes, are going
up.
An America, yes, in which the wealthiest
few, those making over $200,000 a year,
are asked to pay their fair share.
(Applause)
An America in which the rich are not
soaked, but the middle class is not
drowned, either. (Applause)
Responsibihty starts at the top.
That's what the New Covenant is all
about.
An America where we end welfare as we
know it. We will say to those on welfare:
You will have, and you deserve, the
opportunity, through training and education, through child care and medical
coverage, to liberate yourself. (Applause)
But then, when you can, you must work,
because welfare should be a second
chance, not a way of life. (Applause)
That's what the New Covenant is all
about.
321
�992
CONVENTION
PROCEEDINGS
An America with the world's strongest
defense, ready and willing to use force
when necessary.
That is our Pledge of Allegiance, and that's
what the New Covenant is all about.
(Applause)
An America at the forefront of the global
effort to preserve and protect our common
environment—and promoting global
growth.
How do I know we can come together and
make change happen? Because I have seen
it in my own state. In Arkansas, we are
working together, and we're making
progress. No, there's no Arkansas Miracle,
but there are a lot of miraculous people.
(Applause) And because of them, our
schools are better, our wages are higher,
our factories are busier, our water is
cleaner and our budget is balanced. We're
moving ahead. (Applause)
An America that will not coddle tyrants,
from Baghdad to Beijing. (Applause*)
An America that champions the cause of
freedom and democracy from Eastern
Europe to Southern Africa—and in our
own hemisphere, in Haiti and Cuba.
(Applause)
"We must say to every
American: Look
beyond the stereotypes
that blind us. We need
each other—all of us.
We don't have a person
to waste."
"This is America.
There is no them.
There is only us."
Gov. BiU Clinton
The end of the Cold War permits us to
reduce defense spending while still maintaining the strongest defense in the world,
but we must plow back every dollar of
defense cuts into building American jobs
right here at home. (Applause) I know
well that the'world needs a strong
America, but we have learned that
strength begins at home. (Applause)
But the New Covenant is about more than
opportunities and responsibilities for you
and your famihes. It's also about our
common community.
Tonight every one of you knows deep in
your heart that we are too divided. It is
time to heal America. (Applause)
And so we must say to every American:
Look beyond the stereotypes that blind us.
We need each other—all of us—we need
each other. We don't have a person to
waste, and yet for too long pohticians have
told the most of us that are doing all right
that what's really wrong with America is
the rest of us—them.
Them, the minorities. Them, the liberals.
Them, the poor. Them, the homeless.
Them, the people with disabilities. Them,
the Gays.
We've gotten to where we've nearly
them'ed ourselves to death. (Applause)
Them, and them, and them. (Applause)
But this is America. There is no them.
There is only us. (Applause)
One Nation, under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. (Applause)
322
I wish I could say the same thing about
America under the incumbent President.
He took the richest country in the world
and brought it down. (Applause)
We took one of the poorest states in
America and lifted it up. (Applause)
And so I say to all of those, in this campaign season who would criticize Arkansas, come on down. (Applause) Especially
if you're from Washington, come on down.
(Applause)
Sure, youll see us strugghng against some
of the problems we haven't solved yet, but
you'll also see a lot of great people doing
amazing things, and you might even leam
a thing or two. (Applause)
In the end, my fellow Americans, this New
Covenant simply asks us all to be Americans again—old-fashioned Americans for a
new time. Opportunity, responsibility,
community.
When we pull together, America will pull
ahead. Throughout the whole history of
this country, we have seen, time and time
and time again, that when we are united
we are unstoppable. (Applause)
We can seize this moment, make it exciting and energizing and heroic to be American again. We can renew our faith in each
other and in ourselves. We can restore our
sense of unity and community.
As the Scripture says, "our eyes have not
yet seen, nor our ears heard, nor our
minds imagined" what we can build.
(Applause)
�THURSDAY ' J U L Y
But I can't do this alone. No President
can. We must do it together. It won't be
easy, and it won't be quick. We didn't get
into this mess overnight, and we won't get
out of it overnight. But we can do it—with
commitment, creativity, diversity and
drive. (Applause)
We can do it. We can do it. (Applause)
We can do it. We can do it. We can do it.
(Chants of "We can do it!")
I want every person in this hall and every
person in this land to reach out and join us
in a great new adventure, to chart a bold
new future.
As a teenager, I heard John Kennedy's
summons to citizenship. And then, as a
student at Georgetown, I heard that call
clarified by a professor named Carol
Quigley, who said to us that America was
the greatest Nation in history because^pur
people had always believed in two things—
that tomorrow can be better than today
and that every one of us has a personal
moral responsibility to make it so.
(Applause)
That kind of future entered my life the
night our daughter, Chelsea, was bom. As
I stood in the delivery room, I was overcome with the thought that God had given
me a blessing my own father never knew—
the chance to hold my child in my arms.
Somewhere at this very moment a child is
being bom in America. Let it be our cause
to give that child a happy home, a healthy
family and a hopeful future. Let it be our
cause to see that that child has a chance to
live to the fullest of her God-given capacities. (Applause)
Let it be our cause to see that child grow
up strong and secure, braced by her
challenges but never struggling alone,
with family and friends and a faith that in
America, no one is left out; no one is left
behind. (Applause)
Let it be our cause that when this child is
able, she gives something back to her
children, her community and her country.
Let it be our cause that we give this child
a country that is coming together, not
coming apart, a country of boundless
hopes and endless dreams, a country that
16
once again lifts its people and inspires the
world. Let that be our cause, our commitment and our New Covenant. (Applause)
My fellow Americans, I end tonight where
it all began for me—I still beheve in a
place called Hope. God bless you, and God
bless America.
(Standing ovation and spontaneous demonstration)
ANNOUNCER: Jennifer HoUiday, ladies
and gentlemen.
Remarks by Jennifer Holliday
M
S. HOLLIDAY: When Bill Clinton
was a young man dreaming one day
of going into politics, he had a second love:
music. Along with two friends (Applause),
a band was formed, and though his career
launched him away from the music he
loved, a fellow band member, Randy
CJoodron, became a successful musician
and songwriter.
"Somewhere at this very
moment a child is being
bom in America. Let it
be our cause to give that
child a happy home, a
healthy family and a
hopeful future. Let it be
our cause to see that
that child has a chance
to live to the fullest of
her God-given
capacities."
"With a faith that in
America, no one is left
out; no one is left
behind."
Gov. BiU Clinton
Inspired by the dedicated people who
worked with the Governor, Randy and
Arthur Hamilton have captured in words
and music the spirit of this campaign and
the feehngs of our candidate.
To join us now is the Philander Smith
College from Arkansas, and the name of
the song is "Circle of Friends."
Now joining our circle of friends is a young
man we all met on Monday night, young
Reggie Jackson. You remember?
(Applause)
One more to join our circle is not only that,
but he's also Governor CUnton's brother,
Roger. All the way from Arkansas to Los
Angeles to New York, please welcome
Roger Clinton.
"Circle of Friends" was sung by
Jennifer Holliday, Reggie Jackson
and Roger Clinton
(Musical interlude)
323
�ANNOUNCEMENT SPEECH
O L D STATE H O U S E , LITTLE R O C K . A R K A N S A S
O C T O B E R 3, 1991
Thank you ail for being here today, for your friendship and support
tor giving me the opportunity to serve as your Governor for 11 yean, forfillingm life
y
mil of blessings b y n anything I ever deserved.
eo d
I want to thank especially Hillary and Chelsea for taking this big
step in our life's journey together. Hillary, for being my wife, my friend, and m
y
partner in our efforts to build a better future for the children and families of Arkansas
and America. Chelsea, in w y she is only now coming to understand, has b e our
as
en
constant joy and reminder of what our public efforts are really all about: a better life
for all who will w r for it, a better future for the next generation.
ok
All of you, in different ways, have brought me here today, to step
b y n a life and a job I love, to m k a commitment to a larger cause: preserving the
eo d
ae
Amencan Dream _. restoring the h p s of the forgotten middle class - reclaiming the
oe
future for our children.
I refuse to be pan of a generation that celebrates the death of
communism abroad with the loss of the American Dream at home.
I refuse to b a pan of a generation thatfoilsto compete in the
e
global e o o y and so c n e n hard-working Americans to a life of struggle without
cnm
o dm s
reward or security.
That is why I stand here today, because I refuse to stand b and let
y
our children b c m part of the first generation to do worse than their parents. I don't
eo e
want my child or your child to b part of a country that's coming apart instead o
e
f
coming together.
O e 25 yean ago, I had a professor at Georgetown who taught me
vr
that America was the greatest country in history because our people believed in and
acted on two simple ideas: first that the future can be better than the present and
second that each of us has a personal, moral responsibility to make it so.
That fundamental truth has guided my public career, and brings
m here today. It is w a w ' e d v t d ourselves to here in Arkansas. I'm proud o
e
h t ev e oe
f
what we've done here in Arkansas together. Proud of the work we've d n to b c m a
oe
eo e
laboratory of democracy and innovation. And proud that we've done it without giving
up the things we cherish and honor most about our way of life—solid, middle-class
values of work, faith, family, individual responsibility and community.
A I've traveled across our state, I've found that everything we
s
believe tn, everything w ' e fought for, is threatened b an administration that refuses
ev
y
to take care of our own. has turned its b c on the middle class, and is afraid to change
ak
while the world is changing.
The historic events in the Soviet Union in recent months teach us
an important lesson: National security begins at home. For the Soviet Empire never
lost to us on thefieldof battle. Their system rotted from the inside out from
economic, political and spiritual failure.
To be sure, the collapse of communism requires a new national
security policy. I applaud the President's recent initiative in reducing nuclear weapons.
It is an important beginning. But m k no mistake—the end of the Cold W r is not
ae
a
the end of threats to America. The world is still a dangerous and uncertain place. The
first and most solemn obligation of the President is to keep America strong and safe
from foreign dangers and p o oe democracy around the world.
rmt
•The country it
headed in the
wrong direction
fast, slipping
behind, losing
our way ... and
ail w e have out
of Washington
is status quo
paralysis. N o
vision, no
action. |ust
neglect,
selfishness and
division.'
�c
But w cannot build a sate and secure world unless w can first
e
e
m k America strong at home. It is our ability to take care oi our o n at h m that
ae
w
o e
gives us the strength to stand u for w a w believe around the world.
p
ht e
A* Governor for 1 yean, working to preserve and create jobs in a
1
global economy, I know our competition for the future is Germany and the rest o
f
Europe, japan and the rest of Asia. A d I k o that w are losing America's leadenhip
n nw
e
in the world because we're losing the Amencan Dream right here at home.
Middle class people are spending more houn on the job. spending
less time with their children, bringing h m a smaller paycheck to p y more for health
o e
a
care and housing and education. Our streets are meaner, our families are broken, our
health care is the cosdiest in the world and w get less for it
e
The country is headed in the wrong direction fast slipping behind,
losing our w y _ and all we have out of W s i go is status q o paralysis. N vision,
a
ahn t n
u
o
n action. Just neglect, selfishness and division.
o
For 12 yean. Republicans h v tried to divide us — race against
ae
race—so w get mad at each other and not at them. They want us to look at each
e
other across a racial divide so w don't tum and look to the White House and ask. W y
e
h
are all of our incomes going d w ? W y are all o us losing jobs? W y are w losing
on h
f
h
e
our future?
Where i c m from w k o about race-baiting. They've used it to
o e
e nw
divide us for yean. I know this tactic well and I'm not g m to let them get a a with
o g
wy
it
For 12 yean, the Republicans have talked about choice without
really believing in it George Bush says he w ns school choice even if it bankrupts the
at
public schools, and yet he's more than willing to m k it a crime for the w m n o
ae
o e f
America to exercise their individual right to choose.
For 12 yean, the Republicans have been telling us that America's
problems aren't their problem. They washed their hands of responsibility for the
e o o y and education and health care and social policy and turned it over to fifty
cnm
states and a thousand points of light Well, here tn Arkansas we've d n our best to
oe
create jobs and educate our people. And each o us has tried to b one o those
f
e
f
thousand points of light But I can tell you, w e e there is no national vision, n
hr
o
national partnenhip, no national leadenhip, a thousand points o light leaves a lot o
f
f
darkness.
"We cannot
W must provide the answen, the solutions. And w will. We're
e
e
going to tum this country around and get it m vn again, and we're going to fight for build a ule and
oi g
secure world
the hard-working middle-class families of Amenca for a change.
unless we can
M k no mistake. This election is about change: in our party, in
ae
first make
our national leadership, and in our country.
America strong
And we're not going to get positive change just b Bush-bashing.
y
W have to d a better job of the old-fashioned w r of confronting the real problems at home.*
e
o
ok
o real people and pointing the w y to a better future. That is our challenge in 1992.
f
a
Today, as w stand on the threshold of a n w era, a n w
e
e
e
millennium, I believe we need a n w kind o leadenhip, leadenhip committed to
e
f
change. Leadenhip not mired in the politics o the past not limited b old ideologies.
f
y
Proven leadership that knows h w to reinvent g v r m n to help solve the real
o
o en e t
problems of real people.
That is why today I a declaring m candidacy for President o the
m
y
f
United States. Together 1 believe w can provide leadenhip that will restore the
e
Amencan Dream, that willfightfor the forgotten middle class, that will provide more
opportunity, insist on more responsibility, and create a greater sense of community for
�this great country.
The change w must m k isn't liberal or conservative, it's both,
e
ae
and it's different The small towns and main streets o Amenca aren't like the corridors
f
and back r o s ot Washington. People out here don't care about the idle rhetoric o
om
f
"left" and "right" and -liberal" and "conservative" and all the other words that have
"Make no
m d our politics a substitute for action. These families are crying out desperately for
ae
s m o e w o believes the promise of America is to help them with their struggle to mistake. This
o en h
election is
get ahead, to offer them a green light instead o a pink slip.
f
about change:
This must be a campaign of ideas, not slogans. W don't need
e
another President w o doesn't k o what he wants to d for America. Fm going to tell in our party, in
h
nw
o
our national
you in plain language what I intend to do as President H w w can meet the
o e
challenges w tact—that's the test for ail the Democratic candidates in this
e
leadership, and
campaign. Americans k o what we're up against Let's show them what we're for.
nw
in our country."
W need a n w covenant to rebuild America. It's just c m o
e
e
o mn
sense. Government's responsibility is to create m r opportunity. The people's
oe
responsibility is to m k the most of it
ae
In a Clinton Administration, w are going to create opportunity for
e
all. W ' e got to g o this economy, not shrink it W need to give people incentives to
ev
rw
e
m k long-term investment m America and reward people w o produce g o s and
ae
h
od
services, not those w o speculate with other people's money. W ' e got to invest more
h
ev
m n y in emerging technologies to help keep high-paying jobs here at home. W ' e
oe
ev
got to convert from a defense to a domestic economy.
W ' e got to expand world trade, tear d w barrien. but demand
ev
on
fair trade policies if we're going to provide g o jobs for our people. The Amencan
od
people don't want to run from the world. W must m e the competition and win.
e
et
Opportunity for all means world-class skills and world-class
education. W n e more than " h t o s and e py rhetoric—we need standards
e ed
p oo p "
mt
and accountability and excellence in education. O this issue, I'm proud to say that
n
Arkansas has led the way.
In a Clinton Administration, students and parents and teachen will
get a rzal education President
Opportunity for ail means pre-school for every child w o needs it
h
and an apprenticeship program for kids w o don't want to g to college but do want
h
o
g o jobs. It m a s teaching e e y o y with a job to read, and passing a domestic GI
od
en
vr b d
Bill that would give every young American the chance to borrow the m n y necessary
oe
to g to college and ask them to p y it back either as a small percentage of their
o
a
income over time or through national service as teachen or policemen or nurses or
child care workers.
In a Clinton Administration, everyone will b able to get a college
e
loan as long as they're willing to give something back to their country in return.
Opportunity for ail means reforming the health care system to
control costs, improve quality, expand preventive and long-term care, maintain
consumer choice, and cover everybody. And w don't have to bankrupt the taxpayen to
e
d it W d have to take on the big insurance companies and health care
o
e o
bureaucracies and get s m real cost control into the system. I pledge to the American
o e
people that in the first year of a Clinton Administration w will present a plan to
e
Congress and the American people to provide affordable, quality health care for all
Americans.
Opportunity for all means making our cities and our streets safe
from crime and drugs. Across America, citizens are banding together to take their
streets and neighborhoods back. In a Clinton Administration, we'll b on their side—
e
�•Opportunity ter
all means
world-class skills
and world-claw
education.'
::
•r .
with new initiatives like community policing, drug treatment for those w o need it
h
and boot camps for first-time offenders.
Opportunity for ail means making taxes fair. I'm not out to soak
therich.I wouldn't mind being nch. But I d believe the rich should p y their fair
o
a
share. For 12 years, the Republicans have raised taxes on the middle class. It's time to
give the middle class tax relief.
Finally, opportunity for all means w must protect our
e
environment and d v l p an energy policy that relies more on conservation and clean
e eo
natural gas so all our children will inherit a world that is cleaner, safer, and more
beautiful.
But hear m now. I honestly believe that if w try to d these
e
e
o
things, w will still not solve the problems of today or m v into the next century with
e
oe
confidence unless w d what President Kennedy did and ask every American citizen to
e o
assume personal responsibility for the future of our country.
The government o e our people more opportunity, but w all
ws
e
have to m k the m s o it through responsible citizenship.
ae
ot f
W should insist that people m v off welfare rolls and o t work
e
oe
no
rolls. W should give people on welfare the skills they need to succeed, but w should
e
e
demand that e e y o y w o can work g to work and b c m a productive m m e o
vr b d h
o
eo e
e br t
society.
W should insist on the toughest possible child support
e
enforcement Governments don't raise children, parents do. A d w e they don't their
n hn
children p y forever, and so d we.
a
o
A d w have got to say, as we've tried to d in Arkansas, that
n e
o
students have a responsibility to stay in school. If you drop out for no g o reason, you
od
should lose your driver's license. But if s important to remember that the most
irresponsible p o l of ail in the 1980s were those at the top—not those w o were
e pe
h
doing worse, not the hard-working middle class, but those w o sold out our savings
h
and loans with b d deals and spent billions on wasteful takeovers and mergers, m n y
a
oe
that could have b e spent to create better products and n w jobs.
en
e
D you k o that in the 1980s, while middle-class income went
o
nw
down, charitable giving b working people went up? And whilerichpeople's incomes
y
went up, charitable giving b the wealthy went dowa W y Because our leaders had
y
h?
an ethic of get it while you can and to heck with everybody else.
Hw can you ask people who work or w o are p o to b h v
o
h
or
e ae
responsibly w e they k o that the heads of our biggest companies raised their o n
hn
nw
w
p y in the last d c d b four times the percentage their workers' p y w n up? Three
a
ea e y
a et
times as much as their profits went up. W e they ran their companies into the
hn
ground and their e po e s were on the street, what did they d ? They bailed out with
m l ye
o
golden parachutes to a cushy life. That's just wrong.
T d y Roosevelt and Harry Truman and John K n e y didn't
ed
e nd
hesitate to use the bully pulpit of the presidency. They changed America b standing
y
up for whatsrightW e the Salomon Brothers abused the treasury markets, the
hn
President was silent W e therip-offartists looted our S&L's, the President w s
hn
a
silent In a Clinton Administration, when people sell their companies and their
workers and their country d w theriver,they'll get called on the carpet W ' e going
on
er
to insist that they invest in this country and create jobs for our people.
In die 1980s, Washington failed us, too. W spent m r m n y on
e
oe o e
the present and the past and less on the future. W spent $500 billion to recycle assets
e
in the S&L mess, but w couldn't afford S5 billion for unemployed workers or to give
e
every kid in this country the chance to be in Head Start W can d better 1 that
e
o
�andwewiiL
A Clinton Administration w n t spend our m n y on programs that
o
oe
don't solve problems and a g v r m n that doesn't work. I want to reinvent
o en e t
government to m k it more efficient and m r effective. I want to give citizens more
ae
oe
choices in the services they get, and e p w r them to m k those choices. That's what
mo e
ae
we've tried to do in Arkansas. W' e balanced the b d e every year and improved
ev
u gt
services. W ' e treated taxpayers like our customers and our bosses, because they are.
ev
I want the American people to k o that a Clinton Administration
nw
will defend our national interests abroad, put their values into our social policy at
home, and spend their tax m n y with discipline. We'll put government back on the
oe
side of the hard-working middle-class families o Amenca w o think most o the help
f
h
f
goes to those at the top of the ladder, s m g e to the bottom, and no one speaks for
o e os
them. '
But w need m r than n w laws, new promises, or n w programs.
e
oe
e
e
W need a n w spirit of community, a sense that w are all in this together. If w have
e
e
e
e
no sense of community, the American Dream will continue to wither. Our destiny is
bound up with the destiny o every other American. We're all in this together, and w
f
e
willriseor fall together.
A few yean ago, Hillary and I visited a classroom in Los Angeles, in
an area plagued b drugs and gangs. W talked to a dozen sixth-graders, whose
y
e
number one concern was being shot going to and from school Their second worry was
turning 12 or 13 and being forced to join a g n or b beaten. And finally, they were
ag
e
worried about their o n parents' drug abuse.
w
Nearly half a century ago, I was b m not far from here, in Hope,
o
Arkansas. M mother had been wd w d three months before I w s bom. I w s raised
y
io e
a
a
for four yean b m grandparents, while she went back to nuning school They didn't
y y
have much money. I spent a lot o time with m great-grandparents. By any standard,
f
y
they were poor. But w didn't ba e other people. W took responsibility for ourselves
e
lm
e
and for each other because w k e w could d better. I was raised to believe in the
e nw e
o
Amencan Dream, infamilyvalues, in individual responsibility, and in the obligation of
"We need a
government to help people w o w r doing the best they could.
h ee
New Covenant
It's a long w y in America from that lovingfamilywhich is
a
embodied today in a picture on m wail in the Governor's office o m at the age of six to rebuild
y
f e
holding m great-grandfather's hand to an America where children on the streets of
y
America. It'*
our cities don't k o w o their grandparents are and have to worry about their o n just common
nw h
w
parents' drug abuse.
sense.
I tell you, b making c m o cause with those children w give
y
o mn
e
Government's
n w life to the American dream. A d that is our generation's responsibility — to form responsibility is
e
n
a N w Covenant _ more opportunity for all, more responsibility from everyone, and a to create more
e
greater sense of c m o purpose.
o mn
opportunity.
I believe with all m heart that together w can m k this happen.
y
e
ae
The people's
W can usher in a n w era of progress, prosperity and renewal W can. W must This
e
e
e
e
responsibility is
is not just a campaign for the presidency—it is a campaign for the future, for the
to make the
forgotten hard-working middle classfamilieso America who deserve a government
f
most of It."
that fights for them. A campaign to k e America strong at h m and around the
ep
o e
world. Join with us. I ask for your prayen, your help, your hands, and your hearts.
Together we can make America great agam, and build a community of hope that will
inspire the world.
�T H E PUBLIC PAPERS
AND ADDRESSES OF
F R A N K L I N D.
EOOSEVELT
W I T H A SPECIAL I N T R O D U C T I O N
AND E X P L A N A T O R Y NOTES BY
P R E S I D E N T ROOSEVELT
Volume Five
T H E PEOPLE APPROVE
1936
R A N D O M H O U S E • N E W YORK • 1938
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Z2,S06Z2H6©
6C:TT
96/82/SO
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r e
79 CI' ^ ^ Fighting to Save a Great and Precious Form of Government for Ourselves and the
World"—Acceptance of the Renomination for
the Presidency, Philadelphia, Pa. June 27,1936
Senator Robinson, Members of the Democratic Convention, my
friends:
ERE, and in every community throughout the land,
we are met at a time o£ great moment to the future
of the Nation. I t is an occasion to be dedicated to
the simple and sincere expression of an attitude
1 _ toward problems, the determination of which will
profoundly affect America.
I come not only as a leader of a party, not only as a candidate
for'high office, but as one upon whom many critical hours have
imposed and still impose a grave responsibility.
For the sympathy, help and confidence with which Americans
have sustained me in my task I am grateful. For their loyalty I
salute the members of our great party, in and out of political life
230
coo®
zisoezmeo
6C:TT
96/8Z.'Z0
�Acceptance of the Renomination for the Presidency
in every part of the Union. I salute those of other parties, especially those in the Congress of the United States who on so many
occasions have put partisanship aside. I thank the Governors of
the several States, their Legislatures, their State and local officials
who participated unselfishly and regardless of party in our efforts
to achieve recovery and destroy abuses. Above all I thank the
millions of Americans who. have bome disaster bravely and have
dared to smile through the storm.
America" m i l not forget these recent years, will not forget that
the rescue was not a mere party task. It was the concern of all of
us. In bur strength we rose together, rallied our energies together,
applied the old rules of common sense, and together survived.
In those days we feared fear. That was why we fought fear.
And today, my friends, we have won against the most dangerous
of our foes. We have conquered fear.
But I cannot, with candor, tell you that all is well with the
world. Clouds of suspicion, tides of ill-will and intolerance gather
darkly in many places. In our own land we enjoy indeed a fullness of life greater than that of most Nations. But the rush of
modem civilization itself has raised for us new difficulties, new
problems which must be solved if we are to preserve to the United
States the political and economic freedom for which Washington
and Jefferson planned and fought.
Philadelphia is a good city in which to write American history.
This is fitting ground on which to reaffiim the faith of our fathers;
to pledge ourselves to restore to the people a wider freedom; to
give to 1936 as the founders gave to 1776—an American way of
life.
That very word freedom, in itself and of necessity, suggests
freedom from some restraining power. In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy —from the eighteenth century royalists who held special privileges from the
crown. I t was to perpetuate their privilege that they governed
without the consent of the governed; that they denied the right
of free assembly and free speech; that they restricted the worship
231
�Acceptance of the Renomination for the Presidency
of God; that they put the average man's property and the average
man's life in pawn to the mercenaries of dynastic power; that they
regimented the people.
And so it was to win freedom from the tyranny of political
autocracy that the American Revolution was fought. That vic' tory gave the business of governing into the hands of the average
man, who won the right with his neighbors to make and order
his own destiny through his own Government. Political tyranny
was wiped out at Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.
Since that struggle, however, man's inventive genius released
new forces in our land which reordered the lives of our people.
The age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the
telegraph and the radio; mass production, mass distribution — all
of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it
a new problem for tbbse who sought to remain free.
For out of this modem civilkation economic royalists carved
new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentrapon of
control over material things. Through new uses of corporations,
banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture,
of labor and capital—all undreamed of by the fathers — the whole
structure of modem life was impressed into this royal service.
There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands
of small business men and merchants who sought to make a
worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They
were no more free than the worker or the farmer. Even honest
and progressive-minded men of wealth, aware of their obligation
to their generation, could never know just where they fitted into
this dynastic scheme of things.
It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes
of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached
out for control over Government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service
new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and
their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.
232
�Acceptance of the Renomination for the Presidency
The hours men and women worked, the wages they received,
the conditions of their labor— these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship. The savings of the average family, the capital of the
small business man, the investments set aside for old age—other
people's money—these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in.
Those who tilled the soil no longer reaped the rewards which
were their right- The.small measure of their gains was decreed
by men in distant cities.
Throughout the Nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became
privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.
An old English judge once said: "Necessitous men are not free
men." Liberty requires opportunity to make a living—a living
decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives
man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.
For too many of us the political equality we once had won wasmeaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had
concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control
over other people's property, other people's money, other people's
labor—other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer
free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness.
Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen
could appeal only to the organized power of Government. The
collapse of 1929 showed up the despotism for what it was. The
election of 1932 was the people's mandate to end it. Under that
mandate it is being ended.
The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the Government, but they have
maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They
granted that the Government could protect the citizen in his
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�Acceptance of the Renomination for the Presidency
right to vote, but they denied that the Government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right
to live.
Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is
no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal
opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.
These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow
the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that
we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American
institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain
they seek to hide behind the Flag and the Constitution. In their
blindness they forget what the Flag and the Constitution stand
for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for
freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule
and the overprivileged alike.
The brave and clear platform adopted by this. Convention, to
which I heartily subscribe, sets forth that Government in a modem civilization has certain inescapable obligations to its citizens,
among which are protection of the family and the home, the establishment of a democracy of opportunity, and aid to those overtaken by disaster.
But the resolute enemy within our gates is ever ready to beat
down our words unless in greater courage we will fight for them.
For more than three years we have fought for them. This Convention, in every word and deed, has pledged that that fight will
go on.
The defeats and victories of these years have given to us as a
people a new understanding of our Government and of ourselves.
Never since the early days of the New England town meeting
have the affairs of Government been so widely discussed and so
clearly appreciated. I t has been brought home to us that the only
effective guide for the safety of this most worldly of worlds, the
greatest guide of all, is moral principle.
"We do not see faith, hope and charity as unattainable ideals,
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�Acceptance of the Renomination for the Presidency
but ve use them as stout supports of a Nation fighting the fight
for freedom in a modern civilization.
Faith—in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships.
Hope—renewed because we know so well the progress we
have made.
Charity —in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity
literally translated from the original means love, the love that
understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver,
but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves.
We seek not merely to make Government a mechanical implement, but to give it the vibrant personal character that is the very
embodiment of human charity.
We are poor indeed if this Nation cannot afford to lift from
every recess of American life the dread fear of the unemployed
that they are not needed in the world. We cannot afford to accumulate a deficit in the books of human fortitude.
In the place of the palace of privilege we seek to build a tern
pie out of faith and hope and charity.
' I t is a sobering thing, my friends, to be a servant of this great
cause. We try in our daily work to remember that the cause belongs not to us, but to the people. The standard is not in the
hands of you and me alone. It is carried by America. We seek
daily to profit from experience, to leam to do better as our task
proceeds.
Governments can err. Presidents do make mistakes, but the
immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the
cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales.
Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a
spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government
frozen in the ice of its own indifference.
There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This
generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.
In this world of ours in other lands, there are some people, who,
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in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to
have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their
heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded
their democracy.
I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient
hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a
great and successful war. I t is not alone a war against want and
destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it
is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a
great and precious form of government for ourselves and for
the world.
I accept the commission you have tendered me. I join with you.
I am enlisted for the duration of the war.
80 ([A Letter Urging Governor Herbert H. Lehman, of New York, to Become a Candidate for
Reelection. June 29,1936
Dear Herbert:
:
Fon. some weeks, and particularly since the close of the New
York State legislative session, I have been giving careful thought
to some matters of grave importance to the country, and especially their relationship to the State of New York. May I repeat
to you what I have already told you —that I was deeply disappointed when you stated that you would not again be a candidate for Governor; though at the same time, as you know, I fully
appreciate the valid personal reasons which impelled you to make
the statement and sympathized with you in those reasons.
Nevertheless I am writing frankly and with deepest sincerity
to tell you what I conceive to be the other side of the picture.
For many years you and I have worked for many kinds of social
legislation; much legislation of this type has been enacted, but
at the same time much remains unfulfilled.
Our State was and still is among the pioneers, and today the
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159 Remarks Commending Management and Labor Leaders on
the Railroad Settlement. ]uly 8, 1948
I W A N T to congratulate you gentlemen on
this settlement. It is great for our country.
I wanted to see this thing sctded as it should
be done, by bargaining and not in any other
way. You did this on your own hook, and
I feel very good about it. I congratulate all
of you on it. I am satisfied that you would
like to have this publicly known as a setdement on your own hook, and I am going to
ask you gentlemen to go out of here and tell
the press exacdy what happened and what
the agreement is.
Again I want to congratulate you.
NOTE: The dispute was settled when the unions
agreed to accept a wage increase of 15 J/J cents an
hour for firemen and engineers and the railroads
agreed to revise cenain rules to the advantage of the
employees. The agreement ended the 61-day period
of operation and control of the railroads by the
Army under Executive Order 9957 (3 CFR, 19431948 Comp., p. 701).
160 Address in Philadelphia Upon Accepting the Nomination
of the Democratic National Convention. July 15,1948
I A M SORRY that the microphones arc in
the way, but I must leave them the way
they are because I have got to be able to see
what I am doing—as I am always able to
see what I am doing.
I can't tell you how very much I appreciate the honor which you have just conferred upon me. I shall continue to try to
deserve it.
I accept the nomination.
And I want to thank this convention for
its unanimous nomination of my good friend
and colleague, Senator Barkley of Kentucky.
He is a great man, and a great public servant.
Senator Barkley and I will win this election
and make these Republicans like it—don't
you forget that!
We will do that because they are wrong
and we are right, and I will prove it to you
in just a few minutes.
This convention met to express the will
and reaffirm the beliefs of the Democratic
Party. There have been differences of opinion, and that is the democratic way. Those
differences have been setded by a majority
vote, as they should be.
406
Now it is time for us to get together and
beat the common enemy. And that is up
to you.
We have been working together for victory in a great cause. Victory has become a
habit of our party. It has been elected four
times in succession, and I am convinced it
will be elected a fifth time next November.
The reason is that the people know that
the Democratic Party is the people's party,
and the Republican Party is the party of
special interest, and it always has been and
always will be.
The record of the Democratic Party is
written in the accomplishments of the last
16 years. I don't need to repeat them. They
have been very ably placed before this convention by the keynote speaker, the candidate for Vice President, and by the
permanent chairman.
Confidence and security have been brought
to the people by the Democratic Party.
Farm income has increased from less than
Ss'/z billion in 1932 to more than $18 billion in 1947. Never in the world were the
farmers of any republic or any kingdom or
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�Harry S. Truman, ig^fS
any other country as prosperous as the farmers of the United States; and if they don't
do their duty by the Democratic Party, they
arc the most ungrateful people in the world!
Wages and salaries in this country have
increased from 29 billion in 1933 to more
than $128 billion in 1947. That's labor, and
labor never had but one friend in politics,
and that is the Democratic Party and Franklin D . Roosevelt.
And I say to labor what I have said to the
farmers: they are the most ungrateful people in the world if they pass the Democratic
Party by this year.
The total national income has increased
from less than $40 billion in 1933 to $203
billion in 1947, the greatest in all the history of the world. These benefits have been
spread to all the people, because it is the
business of the Democratic Party to see that
the people get a fair share of these things.
This last, worst 80th Congress proved just
the opposite for the Republicans.
The record on foreign policy of the Democratic Party is that the United States has
been turned away pcrmanendy from isolationism, and we have convened the greatest
and best of the Republicans to our viewpoint
on that subject.
The United States has to accept its full
responsibility for leadership in international
affairs. We have been the backers and the
people who organized and started the United Nations, first started under that great
Democratic President, Woodrow Wilson, as
the League of Nations. The League was
sabotaged by the Republicans in 1920. And
we must see that the United Nations continues a strong and growing body, so we
can have everlasting peace in the world.
We removed trade barriers in the world,
which is the best asset wc can have for peace.
Those trade barriers must not be put back
into operation again.
July 15
[160]
We have started the foreign aid program,
which means the recovery of Europe and
China, and the Far East. We instituted the
program for Greece and Turkey, and I will
say to you that all these things were done
in a cooperative and bipartisan manner.
The Foreign Relations Committees of the
Senate and House were taken into the full
confidence of the President in every one of
these moves, and don't let anybody tell you
anything else.
As I have said time and time again, foreign
policy should be the policy of the whole
Nation and not the policy of one party or
the other. Partisanship should stop at the
water's edge; and I shall continue to preach
that through this whole campaign.
I would like to say a word or two now on
what I think the Republican philosophy
is; and I will speak from actions and from
history and from experience.
The situation in 1932 was due to the policies of the Republican Party control of the
Government of the United States. The Republican Party, as I said a while ago, favors
the privileged few and not the common
everyday man. Ever since its inception, that
party has been under the control of special
privilege; and they have completely proved
it in the 80th Congress. They proved it by
the things they did to the people, and not
for them. They proved it by the things they
failed to do.
Now, let's look at some of them—just a
few.
Time and time again I recommended extension of price control before it expired
June 30, 1946. I asked for that extension
in September 1945, in November 1945, in
a Message on the State of the Union in
1946; and that price control legislation did
not come to my desk until June 30, 1946,
on the day on which it was supposed to expire. And it was such a rotten bill that
407
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July 15
Public Papers of the Presidents
I couldn't sign it. And 30 days after that,
they sent me one just as bad. I had to sign
it, because they quit and went home.
They said, when OPA died, that prices
would adjust themselves for the benefit of
the country. They have been adjusting
themselves all right! They have gone all
the way off the chart in adjusting themselves,
at the expense of the consumer and for the
benefit of the people that hold the goods.
I called a special session of the Congress
in November 1947—November 17, 1947—
and I set out a ro-point program for the
welfare and benefit of this country, among
other things standby controls. I got nothing. Congress has still done nothing.
Way back 4 /2 years ago, while I was in
the Senate, we passed a housing bill in the
Senate known as the Wagner-Ellender-Taft
bill. It was a bill to clear the slums in the
big cities and to help to erect low-rent housing. That bill, as I said, passed the Senate
4 years ago. It died in the House. That
bill was reintroduced in the 80th Congress
as the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill. The
name was slightly changed, but it is practically the same bill. And it passed the
Senate, but it was allowed to die in the
House of Representatives; and they sat on
that bill, and finally forced it out of the
Banking and Currency Committee, and the
Rules Committee took charge, and it still
is in the Rules Committee.
But desperate pleas from Philadelphia in
that convention that met here 3 weeks ago
couldn't get that housinti bill passed. They
passed a bill they called a housing bill, which
isn't worth the paper it's written on.
In the field of labor we needed moderate
legislation to promote labor-management
harmony, but Congress passed instead that
so-called Taft-Hartley Act. which has disrupted labor-management relations and vvill
cause strife and bitterness for vcars to come
,
408
if it is not repealed, as the Democratic platform says it ought to be repealed.
On the Labor Department, the Republican
platform of 1944 said, if they were in power,
that they would build up a strong Labor
Department. They have simply torn it up.
Only one bureau is left that is functioning,
and they cut the appropriation of that so
it can hardly function.
I recommended an increase in the minimum wage. What did I get? Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
I suggested that the schools in this country
are crowded, teachers underpaid, and that
there is a shortage of teachers. One of our
greatest national needs is more and better
schools. I urged the Congress to provide
S300 million to aid the States in the present
educational crisis. Congress did nothing
about it. Time and again I have recommended improvements in the social security
law, including extending protection to those
not now covered, and increasing the amount
of benefits, to reduce the eligibility age of
women from 65 to 60 years. Congress
studied the matter for 2 years, but couldn't
find the time to extend or increase the benefits. But they did find time to take social
security benefits away from 750,000 people,
and they passed that over my veto.
I have repeatedly asked the Congress to
pass a health program. The Nation suffers
from lack of medical care. That situation
can be remedied any time the Congress wants
to act upon it.
Everybody knows that I recommended to
the Congress the civil rights program. I
did that because I believed it to be my duty
under the Constitution. Some of the members of my own party disagree with me violently on this matter. But they stand up and
do it openly! People can tell where they
stand. But the Republicans all professed
to be for these measures. But Con-
�Harry S. Truman, 1948
gress failed to act. They had enough men
to do it, they could have had cloture, they
didn't have to have a filibuster. They had
enough people in that Congress that would
vote for cloture.
Now everybody likes to have low taxes,
but wc must reduce the national debt in
times of prosperity. And when tax relief
can be given, it ought to go to those who
need it most, and not those who need it
least, as this Republican rich man's tax bill
did when they passed it over my veto on
the third try.
The first one of these was so rotten that
thev couldn't even stomach it themselves.
They finally did send one that was somewhat
improved, but it still helps the rich and
sticks a knife into the back of the poor.
Now the Republicans came here a few
weeks ago, and they wrote a platform. I
hope you have all read that platform. They
adopted the platform, and that platform had
a lot of promises and statements of what
the Republican Party is for, and what they
would do if they were in power. They
promised to do in that platform a lot of
things I have been asking them to do that
they have refused to do when they had the
power.
The Republican platform cries about cruelly high prices. I have been trying to get
them to do something about high prices ever
since they met the first time.
Now listen! This is equally as bad, and
ns cynical. The Republican platform comes
out for slum clearance and low-rental housing. I have been trying to get them to pass
that housing bill ever since they met the
first time, and it is still resting in the Rules
Committee, that bill.
The Republican platform favors educational opportunity and promotion of education. I have been trying to get Congress
to do something about that ever since they
July 15 [160]
came there, and that bill is at rest in the
House of Representatives.
The Republican platform is for extending and increasing social security benefits.
Think of that! Increasing social security
benefits! Yet when they had the opportunity, they took 750,000 off the social security rolls!
I wonder if they think they can fool the
people of the United States with such poppycock as that!
There is a long list of these promises in
that Republican platform. If it weren't so
late, I would tell you all about them. I
have discussed a number of these failures of
the Republican 80th Congress. Every one
of them is important. Two of them are of
major concern to nearly every American
family. They failed to do anything about
high prices, they failed to do anything about
housing.
My duty as President requires that I use
every means within my power to get the laws
the people need on matters of such importance and urgency.
I am therefore calling this Congress back
into session July 26th.
On the 26th day of fuly, which out in
Missouri we call "Turnip Day," I am going
to call Congress back and ask them to pass
laws to halt rising prices, to meet the housing crisis—which they are saying they are
for in their platform.
At the same time I shall ask them to act
upon other vitally needed measures such as
aid to education, which they say they are for;
a national health program; civil rights legislation, which they say they are for; an increase in the minimum wage, which I doubt
very much they are for; extension of the
social security coverage and increased benefits, which they say they are for; funds for
projects needed in our program to provide
public power and cheap electricity. By
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July 15
Public Papers of the Presidents
indirection, this 80th Congress has tried to
sabotage the power policies the United States
has pursued for 14 years. That power lobby
is as bad as the real estate lobby, which is
sitting on the housing bill.
I shall ask for adequate and decent laws
for displaced persons in place of this antiSemitic, anti-Catholic law which this 80th
Congress passed.
Now, my friends, if there is any reality
behind that Republican platform, we ought
to get some action from a short session of the
80th Congress. They can do this job in 15
days, if they want to do it. They will still
have time to go out and run for office.
They are going to try to dodge their responsibility. They are going to drag all the
red herrings they can across this campaign,
but I am here to say that Senator Barkley and
I are not going to let them get away with it.
Now, what that worst 80th Congress does
in this special session will be the test. The
American people will not decide by listening
to mere words, or by reading a mere platform. They will decide on the record, the
record as it has been written. And in the
record is the stark truth, that the batde lines
of 1948 are the same as they were in 1932,
when the Nation lay prostrate and helpless
as a result of Republican misrule and
inaction.
In 1932 we were attacking the citadel of
special privilege and greed. Wc were fighting to drive the money changers from the
temple. Today, in 1948, we are now the
defenders of the stronghold of democracy
and of equal opportunity, the haven of the
ordinary people of this land and not of the
favored classes or the powerful few. The
battle cry is just the same now as it was in
1932, and I paraphrase the words of Franklin D . Roosevelt as he issued the challenge,
in accepting nomination in Chicago: "This
is more than a political call to arms. Give
me your help, not to win votes alone, but to
win in this new crusade to keep America
secure and safe for its own people."
Now my friends, with the help of God
and the wholehearted push which you can
put behind this campaign, we can save this
country from a continuation of the 80th
Congress, and from misrule from now on.
I must have your help. You must get
in and push, and win this election. The
country can't afford another Republican
Congress.
VOTE: The President spoke at 2 a.m. in Convention
Hall in Philadelphia. The address was carried on
a nationwide radio broadcast.
161 Statement by the President Upon the Death of
General Pershing. July 15, 1948
I T BECOMES my sad duty to announce that
John J. Pershing, General of the Armies of
the United States, a great American, died
this morning at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington.
Embodied in General Pershing's character were all those soldierly qualities that are
essential to a great captain: brilliant leadership, steadfast courage, tireless energy, unswerving loyalty, and constant devotion to
410
duty. He had a genius for organization, as
everyone who served under him will bear
witness. In World War I , he led the greatest army this country had, up to that time,
been called upon to assemble.
The sorrow at his passing will not be confined to his own country. Friend and foe
alike have publicly paid tribute to his loyalty to duty, his ability to lead and inspire,
his wisdom and courage under extreme
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OFFICIAL PKOCKEDIKGS OF DKMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
i
"Mora important than winning the election isffoverninfrthe nation.
Thai ifi the tost of a political party—the acid,finallent. When the tumull and thofthoutlngdie, when the bands are gone and the lights are
dimmed, there in tho stark reality of rcsponnibllity in an hour of history haunted with those gaunt, grim Bpocters of strife, diseension and
materialism at home, and ruthlow, inscrutable and hostile power
abroad."
Tonight the world in even darker, tho t&ak of governing oven
greater. But with "Realiam and Reoponslbinty" for our motto, America will become again thai what we once we the guiding star of the
hopes of free men. (Appioute)
The moments of Amecican groatnoos have been thone when its lead*
CM havo awakened the strength that lies in no one man. In no government, but in people.
Today we stand for p act. for un end to the strategy of terror, for
making the world safe lor dlsarmoment There must be enlisted in
these causes the full ati aigth of people's commitment to human values and moral principled.
It ia that strength tha we ask you to give ua as we meet here in
Los Aifgeles tonight, a fnitod political Party, on the threshold of a
great campaign to awak^ our country, to restore her purpose, to exerI
cise her reaponsibility.
We have just spoken |r pride and our thanks to one of the two men
who will lead un—that iiHtingulohcd, that talentad veteran in the
vital buistness of makir democracy work—Lyndon B. Johrwon of
Tcxax. (ApplauM»)
And now we pledge our fealty to the man who above all others will
in the next yoftrs be the instrument of our highest purpose.
He is a man bravo antf atrong in his own right. Ho is a man who
(embodies the hopes of th : generation which is rising to power in the
world. He is a man w-hoai passion for peaei wu* bred in the agony of
war. This man, too, has Ishown that capamty to draw forth the unquestionable power for gdod which no dictator can match, no dictator
can meet or long deny. H e devotion to the ideal* of lijberal democracy
HwiureR our Nation swiftland steady progres? toward tho full promise
of our American heritagoj. His nomination restorea the best hopes of
the American past, the hope of vision, the hope of vitality, the hope of
victory. He will lead our lpeople Into a new and spacious era, not for
us alone but for our trou Jed, trembling world, and we will do it with
the vjgoroup support of a 1 of us who havo fought our Party's battles
in the paat And who have I ved to fight again.
The Democratic Party roudiy pritcnU to the Nation, to the world,
to the futuie, our next Pi isident, John F. Kennedy. (Applause. Standing Applaui c)
rer
ADDRESS OF THE HONORABLE JOHN F. KENNEDY
ACCEPTING tHE NOMINATION 1'OR TUB
PRKSIDHNCT OF THE UNITED STATES
T Serutfor kennedy: Gov< rnor Stevenson, Senator Johnson, Mr. Butter, Senator Symington. S mator Humphrey, Speaker R*yburn, Follow
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OFFICIAL P R O C E B W O S OF T H E
DBMOCV
Bcmocrata, I want to express my thanks to Govwnor Stevens on for
his generous and haart-waming jatroductlon. (Applause)
It was taj great honor to place his name in nomination at the 1966
Democratic Convention, and I am delighted to have his support and
his eounael and his advice in tha coming rsontha ahead. (Applause)
With a deap sensa of duty and high resolve, I accept your nomination. (Applause)
I accept It with a full and grateful heart—without reaervalion—
and with only one obligation—the obligation to devote every effort of
body, mind and spirit to lead our Parly back to victory and our Nation bade to greatnesa.
I am grateful, too, that yon have providedroewith such an eloquent
Btatement of our Party's platform. Pledgas which are made so eloquently are made to be kept. T h e Rights of Man"—the civil and economic rights essential to the human dignity of all men—are indeed
our goal and our first prindplea. This w a Platform on which I can
run with enthnslaam and conviction. (Aflplauso)
A M I am grateful, finally, that I cai rely in the coming knonths on
so mjony others—on a distinguished nn ling-mate who brings unity to
our ticket and strength to our Platfon , Lyndon Johnson |Applause)
one of the most articulate atatesi en of our time. Adfcai Steven:Applause)~*-on a great spokesman for our needs as a Nation and
le, Stuart Symington (Applause —and on that fighting camr whose support J welcome, PresMent Harry 8. Truman—on my
illng companion in Wisconsin and West Virginia, Senator Hubert
Humphrey. (Apptanse) On Paul Butler, our devoted and courageous
Chairman. (Applause)
I feel a lot safer now that th are on my side again. (Laughter)
/And, I am proud of tho contrast ith our Republican compotiton. For
their nnkft are apparently so thi that not one challenger ha> come
forth with both tho eompeteiue ind the courage to make theirs an
; open convention. (Applause) f
I un fully aware of the fact
the Democratic Party, by nominate
ing someone of my faith, has ta « on what mnny regarf as a new
and lhazardous risk—new, at leaJt, since 1928. But I tool at it this
way: tha Democratic Party has once again placed its confidence in
the American people, and in. thoi ability to render a free, fair judgment. And you have, at the same time, placed your confidence in me,
and In my ability to render a fre „ fair judgment (Applause)—to uphold the Constitution and my oat i of office—and to reject any kind of
religious pressure or obligation that might directly or indirectly interfere with my conduct of the Pzesic ency in tha national interest.
(Applause) My record of fourteen yews eupporling public eduoation
—«i pporting complete separation of c mrch and stato—and resisting
prei lure from any aouree on any iss le should be clear by now to
eveirone. (Applause)
I nope that no American, considering the really critical issues facing Ithis country, will waste hi? franchise by voting either fair me or
against tne solely on account of my rcl glous affUfatton. It is iot relevant. (Applause) I want to strets, wMt some other political or religious leader may havo said on this sflbject. It is not relevant what
Abuses n
relevant
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and
DBMOCEATIO NATIONAL COWVJWTION
abuacs mar have existed In otber countrice or in other Mmea. It is not
relevant what preeaurea, if any, might conceivably bo brought to bear
on me. I atn UUing yoa now what yon are entitled to know: that my
declBiona on every public policy will be my own—as an American, a
Democrat and a freeman. (Applause)
' Under any circumstances, however, the victory we seek In November wfll not be easy. We all know that In our hearts. We recognize the
power of the forces that will be aligned against us. We know they will
invnks the name of Abraham Lincoln on behalf of their candidate—
despite tho fact that the political career of their candidate has often
seemed to show charity toward none and malleo for all. (Applaase)
We know that it will not be eaay to campaign against a man who
has spoken or voted on every known side of every known Issue. Mr.
Nixon may feel it is his turn now, after the New Deal and the Fair
Deal—but before he deals, someone hadi better cut the cards. (Laughter and applause)
'
That "someone" may be theraSIUpnsof Amerfeans who voted for
President Eisenhower but balk a histfouldba, self-appointed successor. tFor just as historians tell ut that Kiehard I was not fit to fill the
shoes of bold Henry II—end tint BIdiard Oromwcil was not fit C
o
wear tha mantle of Ms uncle—they might odd in future years that
Blchard Nixon did not measure to the pootstepa of Dwfght D. Eisanbowsr. (Applause)
Perhaps he could carry en tho party tides—the policies of Nixon,
Hanson, Dirksen end Goldwntcr. ut this Nation cannot afford such a
luxury. Perhaps we could better fford a Coolidge following Harding.
And perhaps we could afford a lerco| following Fillmore. But after
Buchanan this nationl needed atilncolaf-afterTaft we needed a WS1eon—after Hoover to needed Franldln Boosevelt . . . And after
eight years Of drugged andfitfulsleep, this notion needs strong, crea^ ttve Democratic leadership in the (White House. (Applause)
But we are not merely running agai lat Mr, Nixon. Our task ia not
merely one of itemizing Bepublidon fai ures. Nor is that wholly necessary. For the families forced fntm th! form will know how to vote
without our telling them. The unemple 'cd minors and textile workers
will know how to Vote. The old people 11thout medical care—tha families without a decent homo—theFparen s of children without adequate
food or schooia—cfcoy all know that J.fd time for a change. (Applause)
But I think the American people ex] act more from us then cries of
indignation and attack. The times ai J too grave, the challenge too
urgent, and the stakes too hlgh-i-to p« emit the customary passions of
political debate. We arc not heije to c me the darkness, but to light
the candle that cai guide us thrpugh t lat darkness to a safe and sane
future. (Ajtlausef) As Wlnstert Chur hill said on taking office some
twenty yeaife ago / if we open al quan il between the present and the
past, we shall be in danger of lositag the future.
Today our concern must be (with that future. For the world ia
Changing. The old era is ending. Tha old ways will not do.
Abroad, the balance of power j is Bhi Ctlng. There are new and more
terrible weapons—new and uncertain nations—new pressures of population andf deprivation. One-third of pie world, it has been aald, may
4
1
>
faclie or
relerelihrhat
241
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242
OITICIAL FRDCflEpINCS OF T H E
be free—but on»«tI»inl Is the victiin of cruel repression—and tho other
ortfr-thlrd is rocked by the psngs of poverty, hunger and envy. More
energy ia released by the awakening of these new nations thnn by the
fission of the atom itself.
Meanwhile, Communist influence has penetrated further into Asia,
stood astride the Middle East and now festers some ninety mileK off
the coast of Florida. Friends have slipped Into neulraltty—and neutrals into hostility. As our keynoter reminded us, the ProBidont who
began his career by going to Korea ends it by staying away from
Japan. (Applause)
The world has been close to war before—but now man. ^ho ha* survived all previous tbreata to his existence, has taken into his mortal
hands the power to exterminate the entire species some seven times
oyer.
Here at home, the changing face of the future is equally revolutionary. The New Deal and the Fafr Deal were bold measures for their
generations—but thih is a new ganeration.
A technological revolution on the farm has led to an output explo[0n—but we have not yet learned to harness that exploiiiun usefully,
while protecting our farmers' right to iill parity income.
An urban population revolution ha overcrowded our schools, clutup our suburbs, and increased thi squalor of our slums,
peaceful revolution for hujnan r] fbta—demanding an end to radiscrixnination in all parts of our lammunity life—has strained at
leashes imposed by timid exejeutfve eaciership. (Applause)
L medical revolution has ctftende* the life of our dder citieen*
/ without providing the dignity and so urity those later yeans deserve
And a revolution of automation flndc machines raplacfng men in the
mines and mills of America, without •eplacing their incomes or their
training or their needs lo pay th« fa lily doctor, grocer and landlord.
There has also been a change—a , ippage—in our intellectual and
moral atrength. Seven lean yeafls of d With and famine have withered
a field of ideas. Blight ha# descended in our regulatory agencies—-and
a dry rot, beginning in Washington, Bs seeping into every corner of
America—in the payola mentality, iH* expense account, wsv of life,
the confusion between what it legal and what is right. Too many
Americans have lost their way. their will and Ihelr sense of historic
purpose.
It is a lime, in short, for a nfw got cmtion of Ieadcrship«-neu' men
J.o cupe with new problems and vpy opj orlunities.
All over the world, particularly in the newer notions, young men
are coming Ut power—men whotarc n t bound by the traditions of the
past—mon who are not blinded, by th : old fears and hatfes and rivalries—young men who can east.off thfe old SIOEJUIR anil delusions and
suspicions.
1
The Republican nominee-to-bs, of course, is also a young man. But
his approach is as old aa McCinley. < laughter and applause) His
party is the party of the past, uis speeches are generalities from Foor
Richard's Almanac. Their platlbrm, made up of leftover Democratic
planks has the courage of oi r old convictionB. Their pledge is a
pledge to the status quo—and bday there can ba no status quo.
S
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242
DBMOOBATIC NATIONAL CONVBNTIOK
For I etand tonight facing west on what was once the laat frontier.
From the lands that stretch three thousand milos behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and someUmes their
lives to build a new world hore in the West. They ^ere nut the captives of tfteir own doubtr., the prisonors of their own price lags. Their
motto was not "ovory man for himself"—but "all for the common
cause " They were determinod to make that new world strong and
free, to overcome its hazards and its hardRhips. to conquer the enemies that threatened from without and within.
Today some would say that those struggles are all over—that all
the horizons have been explored—that oil the battles have been won
—that there is no longer an American frontier.
But I trust that no one in this vast ajwinblage will agree with those
sentiments. For the problems arc not oil aolved and the battles are not
>aU won—and we stand today on the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of the IBM's—a frontier ot unknown opportunities and perils—a
frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats.
W« drow Wilson's New Freedom promised our nation o new political a: d economic fijamework. tranklin Hjoosevelfi New Deal promised I icurrty and si ccor lo thdse in needi But the NeW Frontier of
: which I speak is no; a set of Promises—It is a set of Challenges. It
sums jp not what I intend to »lfer the American people, but what I
lnten< tnnthaf therh. It appeal i to their p^lde, not to their pocketbook
—it 1 >lds out the promise of nore sacrifice Instead of more security.
Bui I tell you the New Frontier Is here, whether we seek it or not.
Beyor i that frontier are the Uncbflrtod areas of science and space,
unaob ed problems of peace aikd war, unfeonquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered qiiestiona of poverty and surplus. It
would be easier ti> shrink bscklfrom that frontier, to look to the safe
mediofcrity of the past, to bo lulled by good inter :ions and high rhetoric—*id those who prefer that course should no cast their votes for
me, rfgsrdless of Party.
Bud I believe the times deml nd invention, inn vatiort, imagination,
decision. I am OSking each of you to be new f sneers on that New
Frontier. My call ia to the young in heart, regairdlesa of age—to the
stout n spirit, regardless ol Pirty—to all who respond lo the Scriptural :all-. "I*e strong and of i good courage; be not afraid, neither
be the a dismayed."
t
Pol courage—not complacency—if our need today—leadership—
not Sfflesmanship. And the onls valid test of leadership is the ability
to lead, and bad vigorously. ((Applause) IA. tired notion, said David
Lloyd George?'* * Tory natior —and the jUnited States today cannot
afford to be either ti red or Tory (Applaus«)
There may be those who wig i to hear more—more promises to this
groupl or that—more harsh rhi toric about the men in the Kremlinmore Usurances of a golden t turc, where laitea are always low and
aubsidlos ever high. Rut my p -omisea are in the platform you have
adoptld—our onds will not be von by rhetoric and we can have faith
in the future only if wo have faith in oureelvea.
For the harsh facts of the m Ltter are that wc rtand oji this frontier
over Main whether
at « turning-point in history. ' Ve must pk-ove al
j
ritfeenu
i the
Or their
landlord,
teal end
Withered
iU—and
oraar of
• lof life.
oa many
' klstoric
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i
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(E) 0 . 8 9 0 : 7 S . 0 : 3 N . 3 6 0 0 3 f 7
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PKOCEBDINOB OF T H B
DEKOOfUXK
this nttim—or any nation so conceived—can long endure—Whether
our society—<with its freedom of choice, its brodth of opportunity, its
range of alternatives—can compete with the single-minded advance of
the Communist system.
Can a nation organized and governed such as ours endure? That ia
the real question. Have we the narvc and the wfll? Can we carry
through in an age where we will witness not only new breakthroughs
in weapons of destruction—but also a race for mastery of the sky and
tha rain, the ocean and the tides, the far side of space and the inside
of men's minds?
Are we up to the task—are we equal ta tha challenge? Are we willIng to match the Russian saeriflce of the present for the fuluro—or
must we soeriflce our future in order to enjoy the present 7
That is the question of the New Frontier, That Is the choice our
nation muafc make—a choice that lief not merely between two men or
two parties, but between the publiq interest and private comfort—
between national greatness and n lonal dsclioe—botween she fresh
atmosphere of ' noriwfey"—baafr of profress and the stale, d
ng mediocrity.
ten detorained dedication and
| AH mankind waits upon our
ion. A whole woHd looks to see
what we will do. Wa cannot fail
trust, wi cannot fail to try.
l It has bfeen a long road from thj first snowy day in Now Hampshire to tl Is crowded convention cl' . Now begins another long jour... all over Ameriea. Give me
rrsy, takin : mo into your cities and]
vote. (Applause) tltecall with
your help, your hand, your voice,
me the wt rda of Isaiah: "They thi wait upon the Lord shall renew
with wings as eagles; they shall
their etrei jth; they shall mount
, and n t be weary."
wail upon the I>ord,
atlup
As we f ice the coming challenge, we too, B.
wc bp equal to the
ltd aak t at He renew our strong h. Then
aha prevail. Thank
st. Thn we shall not be weary, fad then
iou. (Sc&l ding applause)
Chairmt n Collins: Ladles and g( itlemen, please re lain in the Coli
(eum unti after the delegation has 1 ft.
the Church of
I have ha honor to present Eld r Leo J . : luir,
Jesus Chifst of Latter Day Saints who will pronoi lee the benedielion.
other lands
free from a
fellowship c
And our
in the wore
that Then
our vision
wait with '
that they v
dent waltin
tialtothev
Our Fat)
will be the
the world i
phat and tl
Wc remi
through h
should clot
buUd the <
pairer of tl
We hav.
these
strange pc
of Joel ca
shares ant
and later
swords Int
Father,
the confldi
Micah aiu
swords ba
to learn w
We yea
that these
youth, and
us the ai
achieve t)
ated, bavi
We
marching
him to a
the Kingo
In this
ask Thy
land of A
hearts of
of God ea
in the
Orrrcux.
244
l
Bl NEDICTION B Y E L D I I LEO J . MUIS OF- THE
CHUl CH O F JESUS CHRIS' OF LAT TER I I Y PAINTS
Elder
light a
ca. We
jf the
inavflnly
with dial
Thy a
witnessed this
'air: Our heavenly Fat ior, we h* ve
nt exhibition of 1 ic greatnef a of t S s land of Amer.ve heard from these atkesmcn ve y confdent expressions
[Ameriea Bftd we
'ether, that Thou hast iieo, throi
on to the greatness of this land! of Arferica, for one of
it American Prophets hi a said that) this i a land above all
Ckairrr
Anl
�Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-1964
ice, Jack. If they (
sy will have to be very •
you, Mr. President.
's twenty-eighth news conjffice at the White House at
ugust 26, 1964.
• White House released the
igned by four examining
Johnson has no symptomt.
ntinues to be superb. Phy«ing the examination of the
nen, lower intestinal tract,
1. His blood pressure U
reason why he should not
rous life."
i Recommending
President.
it
the problems of
nd a fair answer
among honorable men.
n magnificent keynote
ce of the gifted Senator
ohn Pastore. You have
>ng values through your
manent Chairman, Mr.
J his worthy successor,
rmack of the State of
ly Platform Committee
littee better or a party
irable Carl Albert of the
been working to carry
nder a very old Ameris the traditional task of
ninee to recommend for
andidate for Vice Prcsiates.
:ommendation. I have
f^
••
nf.
if
reached it after consultations with the leaders of the Democratic Party in every section
,n this Nation, and at every level of our Government. I have reached it after discussions
with outstanding Americans in every area
, ,| our national life. I have reached it after
lung and prayerful private thought, consulting my own experience of that office, and
1 he burdens that it brings.
All of this has had a single guide—to find
1 man best qualified to assume the office of
!' resident of the United States should that
,:.;v come. I have found such a man.
He has been tested and proven in our
! lemocratic process of political campaign
nd election. He has had long and dis•iniiuished experience in public life as an
. \ecutive and as a legislator. And every
u p has been marked by excellence and
hievement.
He knows the problems of all of our
eople in every part of our Nation. He
nows the world and he knows its problems,
ind he has shown understanding and a deep
nncern for the strength of our country
nd for the peace of the world. He matches
nergy in the right with compassion for the
-iceds of others. He matches strong conKtions with understanding of the convic:ons of others.
If you select him, you can proudly say to
lie American people, "This is not a sectional
lu>ice." This is not just merely the way
'•'< lialance the ticket. This is simply the best
man in America for this job.
541
Aug. 27 [541]
The qualities that he brings to office will
help make the Vice Presidency an important
instrument of the executive branch. From
that office he can help connect Congress to
the White House, and he can help carry
America around the world.
I want to say to you that I will feel
strengthened knowing that he is at my side
at all times in the great work of your country and your Government.
Nothing has given me greater support in
the past 9 months than my knowledge of
President Kennedy's confidence that I could
continue the task that he began. I have
found a man that I can trust in the same
way. This confidence and this recommendation are not mine alone. They represent
the enthusiastic conviction of the great majority of the Democratic Party in the United
States.
They will, I believe—they will, I am
sure, receive the overwhelming support of
the American people. I hope that you will
choose as the next Vice President of the
United States my close, my longtime, my
trusted colleague, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota.
NOTE: The President spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Convention Hall at Atlantic
City, N.J. In his opening words he referred to
Speaker of the House John W. McCormack of
Massachusetts, permanent chairman of the Convention. Later he referred to Senator John O.
Pastore of Rhode Island, keynote speaker at the
Convention, and House Majority Leader Carl Albert
of Oklahoma, platform chairman.
Remarks Before the National Convention Upon Accepting
the Nomination. August 27, 1964
Chairman McCormac\,
my fellow
Amer-
I accept your nomination.
I accept the duty of leading this party to
ictory this year.
And I thank you, I thank you from the
bottom of my heart for placing at my side
the man that last night you so wisely selected
to be the next Vice President of the United
States.
IOO9
�[54i ]
Aug. 27
Public Papers of the Presidents
I know I speak for each of you and all of
you when I say he proved himself tonight
in that great acceptance speech. And I speak
for both of us when I tell you that from
Monday on he is going to be available for
such speeches in all 50 States!
We will try to lead you as we were led
by that great champion of freedom, the man
from Independence, Harry S. Truman.
But the gladness of this high occasion
cannot mask the sorrow which shares our
hearts. So let us here tonight, each of us,
all of us, rededicate ourselves to keeping
burning the golden torch of promise which
John Fitzgerald Kennedy set aflame.
And let none of us stop to rest until we
have written into the law of the land all the
suggestions that msdt up the John Fitzgerald Kennedy program. And then let us
continue to supplement that program with
the kind of laws that he would have us
write.
Tonight wc offer ourselves—on our record and by our platform—as a party for all
Americans, an ail-American party for all
Americans. This prosperous people, this
land of reasonable men, has no place for
petty partisanship or peevish prejudice. The
needs of all can never be met by parties of
the few. The needs of all cannot be met
by a business party or a labor party, not by a
war party or a peace party, not by a southern
party or a northern party.
Our deeds will meet our needs only if we
arc served by a party which serves all our
people.
We are members together of such a party,
the Democratic Party of 1964.
We have written a proud record of accomplishments for all Americans.
If any ask what we have done, just let
them look at what we promised to do. For
those promises have become our deeds.
And the promises of tonight I can assure
10X0
you will become the deeds of tomorrow.
We are in the midst of the largest and
the longest period of peacetime prosperity in
our history. And almost every American
listening to us tonight has seen the results
in his own life.
But prosperity for most has not brought
prosperity to all. And those who have received the bounty of this land—who sit tonight secure in affluence and safe in power—
must not now turn from the needs of their
neighbors.
Our party and our Nation will continue
to extend the hand of compassion and the
hand of affection and love to the old and the
sick and the hungry. For who among us
dares to betray the command: "Thou shalt
open thine hand—unto thy brother, to thy
poor, and to thy needy, in thy land."
The needs that we seek to fill, the hopes
that we seek to realize, are not our needs,
our hopes alone. They are the needs and
hopes of most of the people.
Most Americans want medical care for
older citizens. And so do 1.
Most Americans want fair and stable
prices and decent incomes for our farmers.
.And so do I .
Most Americans want a decent home in a
decent neighborhood for all. And so do I .
Most Americans want an education for
every child to the limit of his ability. And
so do I .
Most Americans want a job for every man
who wants to work. And so do I .
Most Americans want victory in our war
against poverty. And so do I .
Most Americans want continually expanding and growing prosperity. And so do I .
These are your goals. These are our
goals. These are the goals and vvill be the
achievements of the Democratic Party.
These are the goals of this great, rich Nation. These are the goals toward which
�Lyndon B. Johnson, 7963-/964
i will lead, if the American people choose
:ij t'ollow.
' For 30 years, year by year, step by step,
.oie bv vote, men of both parties have built
a solid foundation for our present prospernv. Too many have worked too long and
too hard to see this threatened now by poli, KS which promise to undo all that we have
,;nnc together over all these years.
I believe most of the men and women in
uis hall tonight, and I believe most Ameri. .ins. understand that to reach our goals in
..nr own land, we must work for peace
unong all lands.
America's cause is still the cause of all
nuinkind.
Over the last 4 years the world has begun
1 respond to a simple American-belief: the
0
I.diet that strength and courage and renonsibility are the keys to peace.
Since 1961, under the leadership of that
i^reat President, John F. Kennedy, we have
earned out the greatest peacetime buildup
t>f national strength of any nation at any
Mine in the history of the world.
1 report tonight that we have spent 530
Ullion more on preparing this Nation in the
J years of the Kennedy administration than
would have been spent if we had followed
1 lie appropriations of the last year of the
previous administration.
1 report tonight as President of the United
Slates and as Commander in Chief of the
Armed Forces on the strength of your counirv. and I tell you that it is greater than
any adversary. I assure you that it is greater
than the combined might of all the nations,
in all the wars, in all the history of this
planet. And I report our superiority is
growing.
Weapons do not make peace. Men make
peace. And peace comes not through
•Mrength alone, but through wisdom and
patience and restraint.
Aug. 27 [541]
And these qualities under the leadership
of President Kennedy brought a treaty banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere. And
a hundred other nations in the world joined
us.
Other agreements were reached and other
steps were taken. And their single guide
was to lessen the danger to men without increasing the danger to freedom.
Their single purpose was peace in the
world.
And as a result of these policies, the world
tonight knows where we stand and our
allies know where we stand, too. And our
adversaries have learned again that we will
never waver in the defense of freedom.
The true courage of this nuclear age lies
in the quest for peace.
There is no place in today's world for
weakness. But there is also no place in
today's world for recklessness. We cannot
act rashly with the nuclear weapons that
could destroy us all. The only course is to
press with all our mind and all our will to
make sure, doubly sure, that these weapons
are never really used at all.
This is a dangerous and a difficult world
in which we live tonight. I promise no easy
answers. But I do promise this. I pledge
the firmness to defend freedom, the strength
to support that firmness, and a constant,
patient effort to move the world toward
peace instead of war.
And here at home one of our greatest
responsibilities is to assure fair play for all
of our people.
Every American has the right to be treated
as a person. He should be able to find a job.
He should be able to educate his children, he
should be able to vote in elections and he
should be judged on his merits as a person.
Well, this is the fixed policy and the
fixed determination of the Democratic Party
and the United States of America.
roir
�[54i ] Aug. 27
Public Papers of the Presidents
So long as I am your President I intend
to carry out what the Constitution demands—and justice requires—equal justice
under law for all Americans.
We cannot and we will not allow this
great purpose to be endangered by reckless
acts of violence. Those who break the
law—those who create disorder—whether
in the North or the South—must be caught
and must be brought to justice.
And I believe that every man and woman
in this room tonight join me in saying that
in every part of this country the law must
be respected and violence must be stopped.
And wherever a local officer seeks help
or Federal law is broken, I have pledged
and I will use the full resources of the Federal Government.
Let no one tell you that he can hold back
progress and at the same time keep the
peace. This is a false and empty promise.
To stand in the way of orderly progress is
to encourage violence.
And I say tonight to those who wish us
well—and to those who wish us ill—the
growing forces in this country are the forces
of common human decency, and not the
forces ot bigotry and fear and smear.
Our problems are many and are great.
But our opportunities are even greater.
And let me make this clear. I ask the
American people for a mandate—not to preside over a finished program—not just to
keep things going, I ask the American people for a mandate to begin.
This Nation—this generation—in this
hour, has man's first chance to build the
Great Society—a place where the meaning of
man's life matches the marvels of man's
labor.
We seek a nation where every man can
find reward in work and satisfaction in the
use of his talents. We seek a nation where
every man can seek knowledge, and touch
1012
beauty, and rejoice in the closeness of family
and community.
We seek a nation where every man can,
in the words of our oldest promise, follow
the pursuit of happiness—not just security—
but achievements and excellence and fulfillment of the spirit.
So let us join together in this great task.
Will you join me tonight in rebuilding
our cities to make them a decent place for
our children to live in?
Will you join me tonight in starting a program that will protect the beauty of our
land and the air that we breathe?
Won't you join me tonight in starting a
program that will give every child educadon
of the highest quality that he can take?
So let us join together in giving every
American the fullest life which he can
hope for. For the ultimate test of our civilization, the ultimate test of our faithfulness
to our past, is not in our goods and is not in
our guns. It is in the quality—the quality
of our people's lives and in the men and
women that we produce.
This goal can be ours. We have the resources; we have the knowledge. But tonight we must seek the courage.
Because tonight the contest is the same
that we have faced at every turning point in
history. It is not between liberals and conservatives, it is not between party and party,
or platform and platform. It is between
courage and timidity. It is between those
who have vision and those who see what can
be, and those who want only to maintain
the status quo. It is between those who
welcome the future and those who turn
away from its promises.
This is the true cause of freedom. The
man who is hungry, who cannot find work
or educate his children, who is bowed by
want—that man is not fully free.
For more than 30 years, from social secu-
rity to t
diligentlman. A
are freer
sue thei
to raise
nf our L
And <
(hat this
I am
mine to
NringinL
Vation t
unity ir.
i truly 1
\mericr.
I'.ist or '
.'v erect,
or strife
The 1
netore 1
urcat c.
crossed.
Our t
a shape
'•cauty.
:t will b.
1 knoOelrtno
1
:
542
I
Mr. Che,
.;iid gent:
All of
'.ot Sena
All of
1 little b.
All of
ileal no;
hate to ti
a:or Gof
-
�Lyndon B. Johnson, 7965-/964
)seness ot family
every man can,
promise, follow
)t just security—
:llence and fulthis great task,
it in rebuilding
Jecent place for
n starting a probeauty of our
athe?
In in starting a
child education
e can take?
in giving every
which he can
test of our civionr faithfulness
id is not in
ity—the quality
n the men and
rity to the war against poverty, wc have
diligently worked to enlarge the freedom of
.nan. And as a result, Americans tonight
are freer to live as they want to live, to pursue their ambidons, to meet their desires,
to raise their families than at any time in all
or our glorious history.
And every American knows in his heart
that this is right.
1 am determined in all the time that is
nine to use all the talents that I have for
Vinging this great, lovable land, this great
V.uion of ours, together—together in greater
unity in pursuit of this common purpose.
[ truly believe that we someday will see an
America that knows no North or South, no
!'.ast or West—an America that is undivided
creed or color, and untorn by suspicion
..r strife.
The Founding Fathers dreamed America
! aore it was. The pioneers dreamed of
;rcat cities on the wilderness that they
. rossed.
Our tomorrow is on its way. It can be
shape of darkness or it can be a thing of
cauty. The choice is ours, it is yours, for
: v. iil be the dream that we dare to dream.
f know what kind of a dream Franklin
! );:lano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman
1
1
Ve have the re'.edge. But tost is the same
urning point in
berals and con'arty and party.
It is between
between those
10 see what can
ly to maintain
-•en those who
lose who turn
treedom. The
mot find work
o is bowed by
free.
om social secu-
Aug. 28 [542]
and John F. Kennedy would dream i f they
were here tonight.
And I think that I know what kind of a
dream you want to dream.
Tonight we of the Democratic Party confidently go before the people offering answers,
not retreat; offering unity, not division; offering hope, not fear or smear.
We do offer the people a choice, a choice
of conunuing on the courageous and the
compassionate course that has made this
Nation the strongest and the freest and the
most prosperous and the most peaceful nation in the history of mankind.
To those who have sought to divide us
they have only helped to unite us.
To those who would provoke us we have
turned the other cheek.
So as we conclude our labors, let us tomorrow turn to our new task. Let us be
on our way!
NOTE: The President spoke in late evening at the
Democratic National Convention in Convention Hall
at Atlantic City, N.I. In his opening words he referred to Speaker of the House John W. McCormack
of Massachusetts, permanent chairman of the
Convention.
The nomination took place on the President's 56th
birthday. A birthday party in his honor was held
in the ballroom at Convention Hall.
542 Remarks in Atlantic City Before the Democratic
National Committee. August 28, 1964
'/r. Chairman, Mr. Vice President, ladies
nid gentlemen:
All of us are planning to go home—but
ot Senator Humphrey.
All of us are planning to get out and relax
• little bit—but not Senator Humphrey!
'
All of us think Hubert Humphrey is the
leal nominee for Vice President. But—I
1 itc to tell you this, Hubert-—so does Sen•lor Goldwater, or at least that is what he
told the press before your speech last night.
I am happy to be permitted to come here
and visit with you this morning, particularly
to thank you for your service to the Democratic Party. Hubert and I are leaving
shortly for a session this weekend, and it is
not going to be an organizational one. We
came to the Senate back in 1949 together,
and he and I have had very little difficulty
getting organized.
1013
�Richard Nixon, igys
make this pledge to Sammy. I want to
make it to everybody here, whether you
aappen to be black or white, or young or
old, and all of those who are listening. I
believe in the American dream. Sammy
Davis believes in it. We believe in it because we have seen it come true in our
own lives.
But I can assure you, my friends, that
•he American dream can't be fully real-cd until every person in this country has
in equal chance to see it come true in
;iis life.
Today I pledge to you we have worked
:oward that goal over the past 4 years,
we are going to work toward it over the
next 4 years. And I want you to know that
we are grateful for the celebrities who
have stuck their necks out—stuck their
.ccks out, taken the chance, as they have,
mat they might lose some support, because
mcy realize it is important to get into a
• ampaign that affects their future and the
future of their country and the future of
;hcir children.
Now, I would like to just close on one
note about you. This is your first election
ampaign. It will not be your last. I know
m: many of you will go into public serve. I hope all of you will continue to par'vipate in politics.
As you go along, some of you will go
nto business. Some of you may go into
show business. Some of you may go into
ome other kind of activity where some-
Aug. 23
[266]
body is going to come up to you one
election year and say, "Stay out of the
campaign because you might risk some
money, you might risk some customers or
clients or whatever the case might be."
And I just want to urge you, don't ever
do that, because what you do for America
is more important than anything you do
for yourself. That is what really counts.
I want all of you, the young voters of
America listening here and those who
might be listening on television now, simply to know this: I have been trying to
work for your future. We have had some
disappointments, but we have had some
successes, and I am going to talk about
both tomorrow as I make the acceptance
speech.
But should the opportunity come to
serve 4 more years, I am not going to be
resting on what we have done in the
past. I am going to be thinking of these
wonderful young faces I see out here,
your enthusiasm, your idealism, your hard
work. This is your first vote, and years
from now I just hope you can all look back
and say it was one of your best votes.
Thank you.
m
i n
NOTE: The President spoke at 11:23 P the Miami Marine Stadium. He spoke without
referring to notes.
Pam Powell was national chairman of Young
Voters for the President, and Sammy Davis,
Jr., was master of ceremonies for the entertainment portion of the rally.
;
-66
Remarks on Accepting the Presidential Nomination
of the Republican National Convention.
August 23, 1972
•\tr. Chairman, delegates to this conven'•••nn, my fellow Americans:
Four vears ago, standing in this very
place, I proudly accepted your nomination
for President of the United States.
With your help and with the votes of
787
I
�[265]
t
•V
•J:
4 -,
Aug. 22
Public Papers of the Presidents
tors, a commentator for the ABC network,
and he asked me—as we were trying to
talk over the rather, shall we say, quiet
audience at the moment—he asked me
what was going to happen to the youth
vote.
He said he was beginning to wonder
whether I had concluded that perhaps the
estimates that the youth vote was just
automatically going to go to our opponents
might be a little high. I can say this, and
I want to give you an answer that I want
you to think about a bit. I don't think the
youth vote is in anybody's pocket. I don't
think it ever will be. I think young people
are not Jikely to vote party label. I think
they are going to vote what they believe in.
They are going to be independent. I think
the young people of America are going to
listen to both candidates. They are casting
their first vote, they want it to be a good
vote.
We have just as good a shot at it as the
other side, and we are going to get it—
with your help.
Now, I want to express appreciation to
all of the celebrities—that is the word we
use for them, for Sammy Davis, Jr., and
the marvelous groups that you have been
hearing here, to Pam Powell—and I want
to ask all of you to realize what it means
for them to be here.
Now, my business is the business of
politics. I t is a very honored business. I
hope lots of you get into it, maybe full
time. But I want you to know that when
you are in politics you assume—you have
to under our system—that what you are
trying to do is to get somewhat over half
the vote and the other man, or woman, as
the case might be, is going to get somewhat less than half.
Now, in show business, which is Sammy
Davis, Jr.'s business, and the business of
786
others who are here, they are not trying
to get half; they are trying to pleaie
everybody. So you see, when somebody in
show business comes and participates in a
political rally, he or she is doing something that is a very great personal sacrifice
and even a personal risk.
I heard on Monday night one of the
television commentators question Sammy
Davis, Jr., when he was sitting there with
Mrs. Nixon in the Presidential box. He
pointed out what I have known and what
Sammy Davis, of course, quickly agreed
with, that he had been a very enthusiastic
supporter of President Kennedy when we
ran against each other in i960. He said
he was still a very good friend of the
Kennedy family. Then the commentator
said, "What is your reaction, Sammy, to
the fact that many people who have been
your friends and your supporters, perhaps many who think you are great in
show business, think maybe that you have
turned against them and that you have
done so"—as he put it—"you have sort
of sold out because you were invited to
the White House to see the President?"
Well, just let me give you the answer.
You aren't going to buy Sammy Davis, Jr.,
by inviting him to the White House. You
are going to buy him by doing something
for America, and that is what we are
doing.
When Sammy and I and his wife were
chatdng there that day, I want you to
know it was one of the most moving experiences for me and I hope it was for
him. We talked about our backgrounds.
We both came from rather poor families.
We both have done rather well. [Laughter]
I know Sammy is a member of the other
party. I didn't know, when I talked to him,
what he would be doing in this election
campaign. But I do know this. I want to
�[266]
Aug. 23
Public Papers of the Presidents
millions of Americans, we won a great
victory in 1968.
Tonight, I again proudly accept your
nomination for President of the United
States.
Let us pledge ourselves to win an even
greater victory this November, in 1972.
I congratulate Chairman Ford. I congratulate Chairman Dole, Anne Armstrong and the hundreds of others who
have laid the foundation for that victory
by their work at this great convention.
Our platform is a dynamic program for
progress for America and for peace in the
world.
Speaking in a very personal sense, I
express my deep gratitude to this convention for the tribute you have paid to the
best campaigner in the Nixon family—
my wife Pat. In honoring her, you have
honored millions of women in America
who have contributed in the past and will
contribute in the future so very much to
better government in this country.
Again, as I did last night when I was
not at the convention, I express the appreciation of all of the delegates and of
all America for letting us see young
America at its best at our convention. As
I express my appreciation to you, I want
to say that you have inspired us with your
enthusiasm, with your intelligence, with
your dedication at this convention. You
have made us realize that this is a year
when we can prove the experts' predictions wrong, because we can set as our goal
winning a majority of the new voters for
our ticket this November.
1
-i
i
1
Representative Gerald R. Ford was permanent chairman of the 1972 Republican National
Convention; Senator Robert Dole was chairman of the Republican National Committee;
and Anne Armstrong was secretary of the
convention.
788
I pledge to you, all of the new voten
in America who are listening on television
and listening here in this convention hall,
that I will do everything that I can over
these next 4 years to make your support
be one that you can be proud of, because
as I said to you last night, and I feel it
very deeply in my heart: Years from now
I want you to look back and be able to
say that your first vote was one of the best
votes you ever cast in your life.
Mr. Chairman, I congratulate the delegates to this convention for renominating
as my running mate the man who has just
so eloquently and graciously introduced
me, Vice President Ted Agnew.
I thought he was the best man for the
job 4 years ago.
I think he is the best man for the job
today.
And I am not going to change my mind
tomorrow.
Finally, as the Vice President has indicated, you have demonstrated to the Nation that we can have an open convention
without dividing Americans into quotas.
Let us commit oursekes to rule out
every vestige of discrimination in this
country of ours. But my fellow Americans,
the way to end discrimination against
some is not to begin discrimination against
others.
Dividing Americans into quotas is
totally alien to the American tradition.
Americans don't want to be part of a
quota. They want to be part of America.
This Nation proudly calls itself the United
States of America. Let us reject any
philosophy that would make us the divided people of America.
In that spirit, I address you tonight, my
fellow Americans, not as a partisan of
party, which would divide us, but as a
partisan of principles, which can unite us.
�Richard Nixon,
Six weeks ago our opponents at their
onvcntion rejected many of the great
principles of the Democratic Party. To
those millions who have been driven out
of their home in the Democratic Party,
•. . e say come home. We say come home not
:o another party, but we say come home
to the great principles we Americans beheve in together.
And I ask you, my fellow Americans,
onight to join us not in a coalition held
•ogether only by a desire to gain power. I
ask you to join us as members of a new
American majority bound together by our
common ideals.
I ask everyone listening to me tonight—
Democrats, Republicans, independents,
:o join our new majority—not on the basis
- the party label you wear in your lapel,
hat on the basis of what you believe in
our hearts.
In asking for your support I shall not
ih.'. ell on the record of our Administration
••:-hich has been praised perhaps too gen•vously by others at this convention.
We have made great progress in these
ast 4 years.
It can truly be said that we have
anged America and that America has
anged the world. As a result of what
'•. have done, America today is a better
ace and the world is a safer place to
• e in than was the case 4 years ago.
We can be proud of that record, but
• e shall never be satisfied. A record is not
inething to stand on; it is something to
hid on.
Tonight I do not ask you to join our
majority because of what we have
••"'nc in the past. I ask your support of the
'
"•'inciples I believe should determine
\:nerica's future.
The choice in this election is not be'•'•••ccn radical change and no change. The
igys
Aug. 23
[266]
choice in this election is between change
that works and change that won't work.
I begin with an article of faith.
It has become fashionable in recent
years to point up what is wrong with what
is called the American system. The critics
contend it is so unfair, so corrupt, so unjust, that we should tear it down and
substitute something else in its place.
I totally disagree. I believe in the American system.
I have traveled to 80 countries in the
past 25 years, and I have seen Communist
systems, I have seen Socialist systems, I
have seen systems that are half Socialist
and half free.
Every time I come home to America. I
realize how fortunate we are to live in this
great and good country.
Every time I am reminded that we have
more freedom, more opportunity, more
prosperity than any people in the world,
that we have the highest rate of growth of
any industrial nation, that Americans have
more jobs at higher wages than in any
country in the world; that our rate of inflation is less than that of any industrial
nation, that the incomparable productivity of America's farmers has made it
possible for us to launch a winning war
against hunger in the United States, and
that the productivity of our farmers also
makes us the best fed people in the world
with the lowest percentage of the family
budget going to food of any country in the
world.
We can be very grateful in this country
that the people on welfare in America
would be rich in most of the nadons of
the world today.
Now, my fellow Americans, in pointing
up those things, we do not overlook the
fact that our system has its problems.
Our Administration, as you know, has
789
;-2::4—74-
�[266]
Aug. 23
Public Papers of the Presidents
provided the biggest tax cut in history, but
taxes are still too high.
That is why one of the goals of our next
Administration is to reduce the property
tax which is such an unfair and heavy
burden on the poor, the elderly, the wage
earner, the fanner, and those on fixed
incomes.
As all of you know, we have cut inflation in half in this Administration, but we
have got to cut it further. We must cut it
further so that we can continue to expand
on the greatest accomplishment of our
new economic policy: For the first time
in 5 years wage increases in America are
not being eaten up by price increases.
As a result of the millions of new jobs
created by our new economic policies,
unemployment today in America is less
than the peacetime average of the sixties,
but we must continue the unparalleled
increase in new jobs so that we can
achieve the great goal of our new prosperity—a job for every American who wants
to work, without war and without inflation. The way to reach this goal is to stay
on the new road we have charted to move
America forward and not to take a sharp
detour to the left, which would lead to a
dead end for the hopes of the American
people.
This points up one of the clearest
choices in this campaign. Our opponents
believe in a different philosophy.
Theirs is the politics of paternalism,
where master planners in Washington
make decisions for people.
Ours is the politics of people—where
people make decisions for themselves.
The proposal that they have made to
pay $1,000 to every person in America
insults the intelligence of the American
voters.
Because you know that every politician's
790
promise has a price—the taxpayer pays
the bill.
The American people are not going to
be taken in by any scheme where Government gives money with one hand and
then takes it away with the other.
Their platform promises everything to
everybody, but at an increased net in the
budget of $144 billion, but listen to what
it means to you, the taxpayers of the country. That would mean an increase of 50
percent in what the taxpayers of America
pay. I oppose any new spending programs
which will increase the tax burden on the
already overburdened American taxpayer.
And they have proposed legislation
which would add 82 million people to the
welfare rolls.
I say that instead of providing incentives for millions of more Americans to
go on welfare, we need a program which
will provide incentives for people to get
off of welfare and to get to work.
We believe that it is wrong for anyone
to receive more on welfare than for someone who works. Let us be generous to
those who can't work without increasing
the tax burden of those who do work.
And while we are talking about welfare, let us quit treating our senior citizens
in this country like welfare recipients.
They have worked hard all of their lives
to build America. And as the builders of
America, they have not asked for a handout. What they ask for is what they have
earned—and that is retirement in dignity
and self-respect. Let's give that to our
senior citizens.
Now, when you add up the cost of all
of the programs our opponents have proposed, you reach only one conclusion:
They would destroy the system which has
made America number one in the world
economically.
�Richard
ixpayer pays
not gomg to
icre Governa hand and
ther.
verything to
d net in the
•ten to what
of the coun:rease of 50
of America
^ programs
rden on the
in taxpayer.
legislation
eople to the
ding incennericans to
,r
which
opie to get
irk.
for anyone
a for someenerous to
increasing
lo work,
ibout welior citizens
recipients,
their lives
)uilders of
or a handthey have
in dignity
at to our
r
:ost of all
have pronclusion:
vhich has
he world
h
Nixon,
Listen to these facts: Americans today
uv one-third of all of their income in
•.axes. If their programs were adopted,
Americans would pay over one-half of
what they earn in taxes. This means that
:: their programs are adopted, American
•. acre earners would be working more for
•-0 Government than they would for
•..j nisei ves.
Once we cross this line, we cannot turn
ack because the incentive which makes
:hc American economic system the most
productive in the world would be
cestroyed.
Theirs is not a new approach. I t has
ecn tried before in countries abroad, and
: an tell you that those who have tried
have lived to regret it.
We cannot and we will not let them do
•.his to America.
Let us always be true to the principle
-::at has made America the world's most
rosperous nation—that here in America
1 person should get what he works for
and work for what he gets.
Let me illustrate the difference in our
rosophies. Because of our free economic
;em. what we have done is to build a
mat building of economic wealth and
.'•ney in America. It is by far the tallest
•hiding in the world, and we are still
adding to it. Now because some of the
indows are broken, they say tear it
own and start again. We say, replace
.e windows and keep building. That is
m difTerence.
Let me turn now to a second area where
v beliefs are totally different from those
: our opponents.
Four years ago crime was rising all over
America at an unprecedented rate. Even
ir Nation's Capital was called the crime
apital of the world. I pledged to stop the
igjs
Aug. 23
[266]
rise in crime. In order to keep that pledge,
I promised in the election campaign that
I would appoint judges to the Federal
courts, and particularly to the Supreme
Court, who would recognize that the first
civil right of every American is to be free
from domestic violence.
I have kept that promise. I am proud
of the appointments I have made to the
courts, and particularly proud of those I
have made to the Supreme Court of the
United States. And I pledge again tonight, as I did 4 years ago, that whenever
I have the opportunity to make more appointments to the courts, I shall continue
to appoint judges who share my philosophy that we must strengthen the peace
forces as against the criminal forces in the
United States.
We have launched an all-out offensive
against crime, against narcotics, against
permissiveness in our country.
I want the peace officers across America
to know that they have the total backing
of their President in their fight against
crime.
My fellow Americans, as we move toward peace abroad, I ask you to support
our programs which will keep the peace
at home.
Now, I turn to an issue of overriding
importance not only to this election, but
for generations to come—the progress we
have made in building a new structure of
peace in the world.
Peace is too important for pardsanship.
There have been five Presidents in my political lifedme—Franklin D. Roosevelt,
Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John
F. Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson.
They had differences on some issues, but
they were united in their belief that where
the securitv of America or the peace of
79'
�[266]
Aug. 23
Public Papers of the Presidents
the world is involved we are not Republicans, we are not Democrats. We are
Americans, first, last, and always.
These five Presidents were united in
their total opposidon to isoladon for
America and in their belief that the interests of the United States and the interests of world peace require that America
be strong enough and intelligent enough
to assume the responsibilities of leadership
in the world.
They were united in the conviction
that the United States should have a defense second to none in the world.
They were all men who hated war and
were dedicated to pfeace.
But not one of these five men, and no
President in our history, believed that
America should ask an enemy for peace
on terms that would betray our allies and
destroy respect for the United States all
over the world.
As your President, I pledge that I shall
always uphold that proud bipartisan
tradition. Standing in this Convention
Hall 4 years ago, I pledged to seek an
honorable end to the war in Vietnam. We
have made great progress toward that
end. We have brought over half a million
men home, and more will be coming
home. We have ended America's ground
combat role. No draftees are being sent
to Vietnam. We have reduced our casualties by 98 percent. We have gone the extra
mile, in fact we have gone tens of thousands of miles trying to seek a negotiated
settlement of the war. We have offered a
ceasefire, a total withdrawal of all American forces, an exchange of all prisoners
of war, internationally supervised free
elections with the Communists participating in the elections and in the supervision.
There are three things, however, that
we have not and that we will not offer.
792
We will never abandon our prisoners of
war.
Second, we will not join our enemies in
imposing a Communist government on
our allies—the 17 million people of South
Vietnam.
And we will never stain the honor of the
United States of America.
Now I realize that many, particularly
in this political year, wonder why we insist on an honorable peace in Vietnam.
From a political standpoint they suggest
that since I was not in office when over a
half million American men were sent
there, that I should end the war by agreeing to impose a Communist government
on the people of South Vietnam and just
blame the whole catastrophe on my
predecessors.
This might be good politics, but it would
be disastrous to the cause of peace in the
world. If, at this time, we betray our
allies, it will discourage our friends abroad
and it will encourage our enemies to engage in aggression.
In areas like the Mideast, which are
danger areas, small nations who rely on
the friendship and support of the United
States would be in deadly jeopardy.
To our friends and allies in Europe,
Asia, the Mideast, and Latin America, I
say the United States will continue its
great bipartisan tradition—to stand by
our friends and never to desert them.
Now in discussing Vietnam, I have
noted that in this election year there has
been a great deal of talk about providing
amnesty for those few hundred Americans
who chose to desert their country rather
than to serve it in Vietnam. I think it is
time that we put the emphasis where it
belongs. The real heroes are 2'/a million
young Americans who chose to serve their
country rather than desert it. I say to you
�Richard Nixon,
JUT prisoners of
our enemies in
government on
>eople of South
he honor of the
iy, particularly
ler why we ine in Vietnam,
it they suggest
:e when over a
ien were sent
: war by agreest government
tnam and just
ophe on my
s, but it would
icace in the
betray our
riends abroad
nemies to en-
c
.t, which are
who rely on
f the United
opardy.
; in Europe,
i America, I
continue its
to stand by
t them,
im, I have
ar there has
it providing
1 Americans
mtry rather
[ think it is
;is where it
million
, serve their
' say to you
•onight, in these times when there is so
much of a tendency to run down those
w ho have served America in the past and
who serve it today, let us give those who
serve in our Armed Forces and those who
have served in Vietnam the honor and
the respect that they deserve and that
they have earned.
Finally, in this connection, let one thing
he clearly understood in this election campaign: The American people will not
tolerate any attempt by our enemies to
interfere in the cherished right of the
American voter to make his own decision
with regard to what is best for America
without outside intervention.
Now it is understandable that Vietnam
iias been a major concern in foreign pol;.:v. But we have not allowed the war in
Vietnam to paralyze our capacity to
initiate historic new policies to construct
a lasting and just peace in the world.
When the history of this period is written, I believe it will be recorded that our
most significant contributions to peace resulted from our trips to Peking and to
.'. loscow.
The dialogue that we have begun with
he People's Republic of China has re• I need the danger of war and has increased
1 he chance for peaceful cooperation between two great peoples.
Within the space of 4 years in our relations with the Soviet Union, we have
moved from confrontation to negotiation,
nd then to cooperation in the interest of
ace.
We have taken the first step in limiting
'He nuclear arms race.
We have laid the foundation for further limitations on nuclear weapons and
eventually of reducing the armaments in
the nuclear area.
We can thereby not only reduce the
o
igja
Aug. 23
[266]
enormous cost of arms for both our countries, but we can increase the chances for
peace.
More than on any other single issue, I
ask you, my fellow Americans, to give us
the chance to continue these great initiatives that can contribute so much to the
future of peace in the world.
It can truly be said that as a result of
our initiatives, the danger of war is less
today than it was; the chances for peace
are greater.
But a note of warning needs to be
sounded. We cannot be complacent. Our
opponents have proposed massive cuts in
our defense budget which would have the
inevitable effect of making the United
States the second strongest nation in the
world.
For the United States unilaterally to
reduce its strength with the naive hope
that other nations would do likewise would
increase the danger of war in the world.
It would completely remove any incentive of other nations to agree to a mutual
limitation or reduction of arms.
The promising initiatives we have undertaken to limit arms would be destroyed.
The security of the United States and
all the nations in the world who depend
upon our friendship and support would be
threatened.
Let's look at the record on defense expenditures. We have cut spending in our
Administration. It now takes the lowest
percentage of our national product in 20
years. We should not spend more on
defense than we need. But we must never
spend less than we need.
What we must understand is, spending
what we need on defense will cost us
money. Spending less than we need could
cost us our lives or our freedom.
So tonight, my fellow Americans, I say.
793
f
i
i
�[266]
Aug. 23
Public Papers of the Presidents
let us take risks for peace, but let us never
risk the security of the United States of
America.
It is for that reason that I pledge that
we will condnue to seek peace and the
mutual reduction of arms. The United
States, during this period, however, will
always have a defense second to none.
There are those who believe that we
can entrust the security of America to the
good will of our adversaries.
Those who hold this view do not know
the real world. We can negotiate limitation of arms, and we have done so. We
can make agreements to reduce the danger of war, and we have done so.
But one unchangeable rule of international diplomacy that I have learned over
many, many years is that, in negotiations
between great powers, you can only get
something if you have something to give
in return.
That is why I say tonight: Let us always
be sure that when the President of the
United States goes to the conference table,
he never has to negotiate from weakness.
There is no such thing as a retreat to
peace.
My fellow Americans, we stand today
on the threshold of one of the most exciting and challenging eras in the history of
relations between nations.
We have the opportunity in our time
to be the peacemakers of the world, because the world trusts and respects us and
because the world knows that we shall
only use our power to defend freedom,
never to destroy it; to keep the peace,
never to break it.
A strong America is not the enemy of
peace; it is the guardian of peace.
The initiadves that we have begun can
result in reducing the danger of arms, as
well as the danger of war which hangs
794
over the world today.
Even more important, it means that the
enormous creative energies of the Rm.
sian people and the Chinese people and
the American people and all the great
peoples of the world can be turned away
from production of war and turned toward production for peace.
In America it means that we can undertake programs for progress at home
that will be just as exciting as the great
initiatives we have undertaken in building
a new structure of peace abroad.
My fellow Americans, the peace dividend that we hear so much about has too
often been described solely in monetary
terms—how much money we could take
out of the arms budget and apply to our
domestic needs. By far the biggest dividend, however, is that achieving our goal
of a lasting peace in the world would reflect the deepest hopes and ideals of all
of the American people.
Speaking on behalf of the American
people, I was proud to be able to say in
my television address to the Russian people in May: We covet no one else's territory. We seek no dominion over any
other nation. We seek peace not only for
ourselves, but for all the people of the
world.
This dedication to idealism runs
through America's history.
During the tragic War Between the
States, Abraham Lincoln was asked
whether God was on his side. He replied,
"My concern is not whether God is on
our side, but whether we are on God's
side."
May that always be our prayer for
America.
We hold the future of peace in the
world and our own future in our hands.
Let us reject therefore the policies of
:iic
iru
tht
in:
�Richard Nixon,
,,.e uho whine and whimper about our
rations and call on us to tum inward,
l et us not turn away from greatness.
The chance America now has to lead
wav to a lasting peace in the world
jv never come again.
With faith in God and faith in our, \es and faith in our country, let us
•,- the vision and the courage to seize
• moment and meet the challenge be:.•'.* slips away.
• >:\ \our television screen last night, you
.. 1 he cemetery in Leningrad I visited
• mv trip to the Soviet Union—where
1
i i noo people died in the siege of that
•. timing World War I I .
\; the cemetery I saw the picture of a
ear-old girl. She was a beautiful child.
• mime was Tanya,
mad her diary. It tells the terrible
01 war. In the simple words of a
.m! -he wrote of the deaths of the mem• s of her family. Zhenya in December,
m
mnic in January. Then Leka. Then
igys
Aug. 24
[267]
Uncle Vasya. Then Uncle Lyosha. Then
Mama in May. And finally—these were
the last words in her diary: "All are dead.
Only Tanya is left"
Let us think of Tanya and of the other
Tanyas and their brothers and sisters
everywhere in Russia, in China, in America, as we proudly meet our responsibilities for leadership in the world in a
way worthy of a great people.
I ask you, my fellow Americans, to join
our new majority not just in the cause of
winning an elecdon, but in achieving a
hope that mankind has had since the
beginning of civilization. Let us build a
peace that our children and all the children of the world can enjoy for generations to come.
NOTE: The President spoke at 10:27 p.m. in
Convention Hall, Miami Beach, Fla. His remarks were broadcast live on radio and
television.
The President spoke from a prepared text.
An advance text of his remarks was released
on the same day.
Remarks at the American Legion's Annual National
Convention in Chicago, Illinois. August 24, 1972
••.ir.andcr Geiger, my comrades in the
• ncan Legion, those who are here
••• : ie Legion Auxiliary, all of our very
>< pushed guests, and all of the past
.manders and others who are distin'ir-il quests here on the platform:
i is indeed a very great honor for me
m-ar before this convenuon. I t seems
• is is my week to appear before con-ns. Rut having first addressed a
"•"•1 convention when I was a junior
•'nr from the State of California back
»- year 1951, I know that we do not
--s partisan politics, so I won't tell you
• h partv nominated me.
;
:
;
What I would like to say today is
that, first, I am aware of the magnificent
tradition of the Legion, the fact that we
think in terms of our country; we recognize that partisan differences really don't
matter where the national defense is involved and where the peace and security
of America is involved. We are not Republicans, we are not Democrats, we are
Americans. And that is what the Legion
feels.
My friend Don Johnson—I was saying
to Commander Geiger that he was the
tallest man who had been commander of
the Legion since Johnson, and they are
795
1
1
�Aug. 23 / Administration
of Ronald Reagan, 1984
to do with who's been in charge in these 50
years, every 10th year, when they laid out
those districts. And maybe if we do that,
the people of this country will begin to see
not that there has been pure government of
and by the people, but that there has been
a deliberate thwarting of what the people,
as a whole, have made evident they want.
And then maybe the people will go to the
polls with a little idea of redressing a grievance in mind.
Well, that's enough of that. I thank you
all very much for letting us be here.
You know, I've been an after-luncheon
speaker for a long time, many years, but
this is the first time that I've been a luncheon speaker and no lunch, because I have
to go on—[laughing]—some more is scheduled before the evening takes place.
-jV
Thank you all. God bless you all.
C
Note: The President spoke at 1:09 p.m. in
the Chantilly Ballroom at the Loew's Anatole Hotel.
In his remarks, the President referred to
the Vice President.
Remarks Accepting the Presidential Nomination at the Republican
National Convention in Dallas, Texas
Augusts, 1984
The President. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice
President, delegates to this convention, and
fellow citizens: In 75 days, I hope we enjoy
a victory that is the size of the heart of
Texas. Nancy and I extend our deep thanks
to the Lone Star State and the "Big D " —
the city of Dallas—for all their warmth and
hospitality.
Four years ago I didn't know precisely
every duty of this office, and not too long
ago, I learned about some new ones from
the first graders of Corpus Christi School in
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Little Leah
Kline was asked by her teacher to describe
my duties. She said: "The President goes to
meetings. He helps the animals. The President gets frustrated. He talks to other Presidents." How does wisdom begin at such an
early age?
Tonight, with a full heart and deep gratitude for your trust, I accept your nomination for the Presidency of the United States.
I will campaign on behalf of the principles
of our party which lift America confidently
into the future.
America is presented with the clearest
political choice of half a century. The distinction between our two parties and the
different philosophy of our political opponents are at the heart of this campaign and
America's future.
I've been campaigning long enough to
1174
know that a political party and its leadership can't change their colors in 4 days. We
won't, and no matter how hard they tried,
our opponents didn't in San Francisco. We
didn't discover our values in a poll taken a
week before the convention. And we didn't
set a weathervane on top of the Golden
Gate Bridge before we started talking about
the American family.
The choices this year are not just between two different personalities or between two political parties. They're between two different visions of the future,
two fundamentally different ways of governing—their government of pessimism,
fear, and limits, or ours of hope, confidence,
and growth.
Their government sees people only as
members of groups; ours serves all the
people of America as individuals. Theirs
lives in the past, seeking to apply the old
and failed policies to an era that has passed
them by. Ours learns from the past and
strives to change by boldly charting a new
course for the future. Theirs lives by promises, the bigger, the better. We offer
proven, workable answers.
Our opponents began this campaign
hoping that America has a poor memoryWell, let's take them on a little stroll down
memory lane. Let's remind them of how a
4.8-percent inflation rate in 1976 became
�Administration
-luncheon
vears, but
n a lunchise I have
? is schedje.
)9 p.m. in
>ew's Anareferred to
iblican
its leader4 days. We
they tried,
mcisco. We
JO'
ken a
d v,o didn't
the Golden
ilking about
ot just belies or be"hey're bethe future,
ays of govpessimism,
confidence,
)le only as
ves all the
uals. Theirs
,ply the old
t has passed
ie past and
rting a new
es bv promWe offer
, campaign
or memory,
stroll down
•m of how a
976 became
back-to-back years of double-digit inflation—the worst since World War I—punishing the poor and the elderly, young couples
striving to start their new lives, and working people struggling to make ends meet.
Inflation was not some plague borne on
the wind; it was a deliberate part of their
official economic policy, needed, they said,
to maintain prosperity. They didn't tell us
that with it would come the highest interest
rates since the Civil War. As average
monthly mortgage payments more than
iloubled, home building nearly ground to a
•Kilt; tens of thousands of carpenters and
others were thrown out of work. And who
c ontrolled both Houses of the Congress and
the executive branch at that time? Not us,
not us.
Campaigning across America in 1980, we
aw evidence everywhere of industrial decline. And in rural America, farmers' costs
A ere driven up by inflation. They were
levastated by a wrongheaded grain embargo and were forced to borrow money at
xorbitant interest rates just to get by. And
many of them didn't get by. Farmers have
•o fight insects, weather, and the marketplace; they shouldn't have to fight their
own government.
The high interest rates of 1980 were not
talked about in San Francisco. But how
ibout taxes? They were talked about in San
I rancisco. Will Rogers once said he never
inet a man he didn't like. Well, if I could
paraphrase Will, our friends in the other
oarty have never met a tax they didn't like
• r hike.
Under their policies, tax rates have gone
ip three times as much for families with
' hildren as they have for everyone else
over these past three decades. In just the 5
cars before we came into office, taxes
roughly doubled.
Some who spoke so loudly in San Franciso of fairness were among those who
'rought about the biggest single, individual
:-ix increase in our history in 1977, calling
or a series of increases in the Social Securi'v payroll tax and in the amount of pay
ubject to that tax. The bill they passed
' ailed for two additional increases between
now and 1990, increases that bear down
hardest on those at the lower income levels.
The Census Bureau confirms that, be-
of Ronald Reagan, 1984 / Aug. 23
cause of the tax laws we inherited, the
number of households at or below the poverty level paying Federal income tax more
than doubled between 1980 and 1982. Well,
they received some relief in 1983, when
our across-the-board tax cut was fully in
place. And they'll get more help when indexing goes into effect this January.
Our opponents have repeatedly advocated eliminating indexing. Would that really
hurt the rich? No, because the rich are already in the top brackets. But those working men and women who depend on a costof-living adjustment just to keep abreast of
inflation would find themselves pushed into
higher tax brackets and wouldn't even be
able to keep even with inflation because
they'd be paying a higher income tax.
That's bracket creep; and our opponents
are for it, and we're against it.
It's up to us to see that all our fellow
citizens understand that confiscatory taxes,
costly social experiments, and economic tinkering were not just the policies of a single
administration. For the 26 years prior to
January of 1981, the opposition party controlled both Houses of Congress. Every
spending bill and every tax for more than a
quarter of a century has been of their
doing.
About a decade ago, they said Federal
spending was out of control, so they passed
a budget control act and, in the next 5
years, ran up deficits of $260 billion. Some
control.
In 1981 we gained control of the Senate
and the executive branch. With the help of
some concerned Democrats in the House
we started a policy of tightening the Federal budget instead of the family budget.
A task force chaired by Vice President
George Bush—the finest Vice President this
country has ever had—it eliminated unnecessary regulations that had been strangling
business and industry.
And while we have our friends down
memory lane, maybe they'd like to recall a
gimmick they designed for their 1976 campaign. As President Ford told us the night
before last, adding the unemployment and
inflation rates, they got what they called a
misery index. In 76 it came to \2V2 percent. Thev declared the incumbent had no
1175
rj.!
i
; »
.i
�Aug. 23 / Administration
of Ronald Reagan, 1984
right to seek reelection with that kind of a
misery index. Well, 4 years ago, in the 1980
election, they didn't mention the misery
index, possibly because it was then over 20
percent. And do you know something?
They won't mention it in this election
either. It's down to 11.6 and dropping.
By nearly every measure, the position of
poor Americans worsened under the leadership of our opponents. Teenage drug use,
out-of-wedlock births, and crime increased
dramatically. Urban neighborhoods and
schools deteriorated. Those whom government intended to help discovered a cycle of
dependency that could not be broken. Government became a drug, providing temporary relief, but addiction as well.
And let's get some facts on the table that
our opponents don't want to hear. The biggest annual increase in poverty took place
between 1978 and 1981—over 9 percent
each year, in the first 2 years of our administration. Well, I should—pardon me—I
didn't put a period in there. In the first 2
years of our administration, that annual increase fell to 5.3 percent. And 1983 was the
first year since 1978 that there was no appreciable increase in poverty at all.
Pouring hundreds of billions of dollars
into programs in order to make people
worse off was irrational and unfair. It was
time we ended this reliance on the government process and renewed our faith in the
human process.
In 1980 the people decided with us that
the economic crisis was not caused by the
fact that they lived too well. Government
lived too well. It was time for tax increases
to be an act of last resort, not of first resort.
The people told the liberal leadership in
Washington, "Try shrinking the size of government before you shrink the size of our
paychecks."
Our government was also in serious trouble abroad. We had aircraft that couldn't fly
and ships that couldn't leave port. Many of
our military were on food stamps because of
meager earnings, and reenlistments were
down. Ammunition was low, and spare
parts were in short supply.
Many of our allies mistrusted us. In the 4
years before we took office, country after
country fell under the Soviet yoke. Since
January 20th, 1981, not 1 inch of soil has
fallen to the Communists.
1176
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4
more years!
^
The President. All right.
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more yearsl^l*
more years!
The President. But worst of all, Americans
were losing the confidence and optimism
about the future that has made us unique in
the world. Parents were beginning to doubt
that their children would have the better
life that has been the dream of every American generation.
We can all be proud that pessimism is
ended. America is coming back and is more
confident than ever about the future. Tonight, we thank the citizens of the United
States whose faith and unwillingness to give
up on themselves or this country saved us
all.
Together, we began the task of controlling the size and activities of the government by reducing the growth of its spending while passing a tax program to provide
incentives to increase productivity for both
workers and industry. Today, a working
family earning $25,000 has about $2,900
more in purchasing power than if tax and
inflation rates were still at the 1980 level.
Today, of all the major industrial nations
of the world, America has the strongest economic growth; one of the lowest inflation
rates; the fastest rate of job creation—6Vi
million jobs in the last year and a half—a
record 600,000 business incorporations in
1983; and the largest increase in real, aftertax personal income since World War I I .
We're enjoying the highest level of business
investment in history, and America has renewed its leadership in developing the vast
new opportunities in science and high technology. America is on the move again and
expanding toward new eras of opportunity
for everyone.
Now, we're accused of having a secret.
Well, if we have, it is that we're going to
keep the mighty engine of this nation
revved up. And that means a future of sustained economic growth without inflation
that's going to create for our children and
grandchildren a prosperity that finally will
last.
Today our troops have newer and better
�Administration
4 more years! 4
, (|iiipment; their morale is higher. The
vtter armed they are, the less likely it is
| .v will have to use that equipment. But
, heaven forbid, they're ever called upon
,, defend this nation, nothing would be
• nore immoral than asking them to do so
.v]th weapons inferior to those of any possiiilo opponent.
U e have also begun to repair our valuaalliances, especially our historic NATO
nhance. Extensive discussions in Asia have
nabled us to start a new round of diploo.itic progress there.
In the Middle East, it remains difficult to
• iniz an end to historic conflicts, but we're
.[ discouraged. And we shall always mainun our pledge never to sell out one of our
;oM'st friends, the State of Israel,
i :ioser to home, there remains a struggle
i survival for free Latin American States,
aiu's of ours. They valiantly struggle to pre. nt Communist takeovers fueled massively
. i he Soviet Union and Cuba. Our policy is
iiipif: We are not going to betray our
• nds. reward the enemies of freedom, or
•imt fear and retreat to become Ameri:i policies—especially in this hemisphere.
None of the four wars in my lifetime
.me about because we were too strong. It's
M akness that invites adventurous adversar- io make mistaken judgments. America is
ia most peaceful, least warlike nation in
o-horn history. We are not the cause of all
• his of the world. We're a patient and
i' rous people. But for the sake of our
• loin and that of others, we cannot
mit our reserve to be confused with a
>. of resolve.
Ion months ago, we displayed this re• ' in a mission to rescue American stu•••nis on the imprisoned island of Grenada.
>' mocratic candidates have suggested that
mi- oould be likened to the Soviet invasion
Uehumstan
Audience. Boo-o-o!
/" President.
the crushing of human
oi - in Poland or the genocide in Cambo:
R
4 more yearsl 4
)f all, Americans
e and optimism
ade us unique in
ginning to doubt
have the better
\ of every Amerlat pessimism is
)ack and is more
the future. Tois of the United
illingness to give
rountry saved us
task of controls of the govemivth of its spendigram to provide
uctivity for both
jday, a working
about $2,900
i ..an if tax and
t the 1980 level.
industrial nations
:he strongest eco: lowest inflation
ob creation—6V4
lar and a half—a
incorporations in
lase in real, afterWorld War I I .
: level of business
America has reveloping the vast
ce and high techmove again and
as of opportunity
3
having a secret,
it we're going to
3 of this nation
is a future of suswithout inflation
our children and
y that finally will
:
i"hence. Boo-o-o!
President. Could you imagine Harry
"nan. John Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey,
^ "op Jackson making such a shocking
'miarison?
I '"iwrice. No!
of Ronald Reagan, 1984 / Aug. 23
The President. Nineteen of our fine young
men lost their lives on Grenada, and to
even remotely compare their sacrifice to
the murderous actions taking place in Afghanistan is unconscionable.
There are some obvious and important
differences. First, we were invited in by six
East Caribbean States. Does anyone seriously believe the people of Eastern Europe or
Afghanistan invited the Russians?
Audience. No!
The President. Second, there are hundreds of thousands of Soviets occupying
captive nations across the world. Today, our
combat troops have come home. Our students are safe, and freedom is what we left
behind in Grenada.
There are some who've forgotten why we
have a military. It's not to promote war; it's
to be prepared for peace. There's a sign
over the entrance to Fairchild Air Force
Base in Washington State, and that sign says
it all: "Peace is our profession."
Our next administration
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4
more years!
The President. All right.
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4
more years!
The President. I heard you. And that administration will be committed to completing the unfinished agenda that we've
placed before the Congress and the Nation.
It is an agenda which calls upon the national Democratic leadership to cease its obstructionist ways.
We've heard a lot about deficits this year
from those on the other side of the aisle.
Well, they should be experts on budget
deficits. They've spent most of their political careers creating deficits. For 42 of the
last 50 years, they have controlled both
Houses of the Congress.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. And for almost all of those
50 years, deficit spending has been their
deliberate policy. Now, however, they call
for an end to deficits. They call them ours.
Yet, at the same time, the leadership of
their party resists our every effort to bring
Federal spending under control. For 3 years
straight, they have prevented us from
adopting a balanced budget amendment to
newer and better
1177
�Aug. 23 / Administration
of Ronald Reagan, 1984
the Constitution. We will continue to fight
for that amendment, mandating that government spend no more than government
takes in.
And we will fight, as the Vice President
told you, for the right of a President to veto
items in appropriations bills without having
to veto the entire bill. There is no better
way than the line-item veto, now used by
Governors in 43 States to cut out waste in
government. I know. As Governor of California, I successfully made such vetos over
900 times.
Now, their candidate, it would appear,
has only recently found deficits alarming.
Nearly 10 years ago he insisted that a $52
billion deficit should be allowed to get
much bigger in order to lower unemployment, and he said that sometimes "we need
a deficit in order to stimulate the economy."
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. As a Senator, he voted to
override President Ford's veto of billions of
dollars in spending bills and then voted no
on a proposal to cut the 1976 deficit in half.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. Was anyone surprised by
his pledge to raise your taxes next year if
given the chance?
Audience. No!
The President. In the Senate, he voted
time and again for new taxes, including a
10-percent income tax surcharge, higher
taxes on certain consumer items. He also
voted against cutting the excise tax on automobiles. And he was part and parcel of that
biggest single, individual tax increase in history—the Social Security payroll tax of
1977. It tripled the maximum tax and still
didn't make the system solvent.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. If our opponents were as
vigorous in supporting our voluntary prayer
amendment as they are in raising taxes,
maybe we could get the Lord back in the
schoolrooms and drugs and violence out.
Something else illustrates the nature of
the choice Americans must make. While
we've been hearing a lot of tough talk on
crime from our opponents, the House
Democratic leadership continues to block a
critical anticrime bill that passed the Republican Senate by a 91-to-l vote. Their
1178
burial of this bill means that you and your
families will have to wait for even safer
homes and streets.
There's no longer any good reason to
hold back passage of tuition tax credit legislation. Millions of average parents pay their
full share of taxes to support public schools
while choosing to send their children to parochial or other independent schoob.
Doesn't fairness dictate that they should
have some help in carrying a double
burden?
When we talk of the plight of our cities,
what would help more than our enterprise
zones bill, which provides tax incentives for
private industry to help rebuild and restore
decayed areas in 75 sites all across America?
If they really wanted a future of boundless
new opportunities for our citizens, why
have they buried enterprise zones over the
years in committee?
Our opponents are openly committed to
increasing our tax burden.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. We are committed to stopping them, and we will.
They call their policy the new realism,
but their new realism is just the old liberalism. They will place higher and higher
taxes on small businesses, on family farms,
and on other working families so that government may once again grow at the people's expense. You know, we could say they
spend money like drunken sailors, but that
would be unfair to drunken
sailors—[laughter]
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more years! 4
more years!
The President. All right. I agree.
Audience. 4 more years! 4 more yearsl 4
more years!
The President. I was going to say, it would
be unfair, because the sailors are spending
their own money. [Laughter]
Our tax policies are and will remain
prowork, progrowth, and profamily. We
intend to simplify the entire tax system—to
make taxes more fair, easier to understand,
and, most important, to bring the tax rates
of every American further down, not up.
Now, if we bring them down far enough,
growth will continue strong; the underground economy will shrink; the world will
•••.•at a i
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they should
ng a double
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t of our cities,
our enterprise
incentives for
Id and restore
TOSS America?
3 of boundless
citizens, why
ones over the
committed to
,t .i path to our door; and no one will be
io hold America back; and the future
:il be ours.
Muiwrice. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
//„ President. All right. Another part of
mture, the greatest challenge of all, is
, iluce the risk of nuclear war by reduc;he levels of nuclear arms. I have ad, ~s (i parliaments, have spoken to parlia.•r.<.- in Europe and Asia during these last
\ears, declaring that a nuclear war
,,;,,( be won and must never be fought.
ihose words, in those assemblies, were
. m l with spontaneous applause.
!'here are only two nations who by their
: i ment can rid the world of those
umlav weapons—the United States of
i m a and the Soviet Union. For the sake
,r children and the safety of this Earth,
: k the Soviets—who have walked out of
nmotiations—to join us in reducing
. es. ridding the Earth of this awful
l
ii.
niu^d to stopnew realism,
he old liberalr and higher
family farms,
s so that govv at the peo.odd say they
ilors. but that
ilors—[laughmore yearsl 4
ree.
nore yearsl 4
> say, it would
are spending
will remain
-ofamily. We
ix system—to
0 understand,
the tax rate!
own, not up.
1 far enough,
: the underhe world will
•n we leave this hall tonight, we
•m to place those clear choices before
: ilow citizens. We must not let them
mtiised by those who still think that
M ' -lands for gross national promises.
• .•...•iilcr] But after the debates, the posii ipers. the speeches, the conventions,
• li-vision commercials, primaries, cau.md slogans—after all this, is there
• my doubt at all about what will
m il we let them win this November?
••
' • nence. No!
• /'resident. Is there any doubt that
•A ill raise our taxes?
'• i'lu-nee. No!
* /'resident. That they will send inflamo orbit again?
f-'iieiice. No!
• /'resident. That they will make gov• nt bigger then ever?
• -m we. No!
/'resident. And deficits even worse?
• --nence. No!
• /'resident. Raise unemployment?
iu-nee. No!
••• President. Cut back our defense pre• mess?
' '-Hence. No!
• President. Raise interest rates?
•• -iierice. No!
'
;
of Ronald Reagan, 1984 / Aug. 23
The President. Make unilaterial and
unwise concessions to the Soviet Union?
Audience. No!
The President. And they'll do all that in
the name of compassion.
Audience. Boo-o-o!
The President. It's what they've done to
America in the past. But if we do our job
right, they won't be able to do it again.
Audience. Reagan! Reagan! Reagan!
The President. It's getting late.
Audience. Reagan! Reagan! Reagan!
The President. All right. In 1980 we asked
the people of America, "Are you better off
than you were 4 years ago?" Well, the
people answered then by choosing us to
bring about a change. We have every
reason now, 4 years later, to ask that same
question again, for we have made a change.
The American people joined us and
helped us. Let us ask for their help again to
renew the mandate of 1980, to move us
further forward on the road we presently
travel, the road of common sense, of people
in control of their own destiny; the road
leading to prosperity and economic expansion in a world at peace.
As we ask for their help, we should also
answer the central question of public service: Why are we here? What do we believe
in? Well for one thing, we're here to see
that government continues to serve the
people and not the other way around. Yes,
government should do all that is necessary,
but only that which is necessary.
We don't lump people by groups or special interests. And let me add, in the party
of Lincoln, there is no room for intolerance
and not even a small comer for anti-Semitism or bigotry of any kind. Many people
are welcome in our house, but not the
bigots.
We believe in the uniqueness of each individual. We believe in the sacredness of
human life. For some time now we've all
fallen into a pattern of describing our
choice as left or right. It's become standard
rhetoric in discussions of political philosophy. But is that really an accurate description of the choice before us?
Go back a few years to the origin of the
terms and see where left or right would
1179
ill
�Aug.
23 / Administration
of Ronald Reagan, 1984
take us if we continued far enough in either
direction. Stalin. Hitler. One would take us
to Communist totalitarianism; the other to
the totalitarianism of Hitler.
Isn't our choice really not one of left or
right, but of up or down? Down through
the welfare state to statism, to more and
more government largesse accompanied
always by more government authority, less
individual liberty and, ultimately, totalitarianism, always advanced as for our own
good. The alternative is the dream conceived by our Founding Fathers, up to the
ultimate in individual freedom consistent
with an orderly society.
We don't celebrate dependence day on
the Fourth of July. We celebrate Independence Day.
Audience. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. We celebrate the right of
each individual to be recognized as unique,
possessed of dignity and the sacred right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. At
the same time, with our independence goes
a generosity of spirit more evident here
than in almost any other part of the world.
Recognizing the equality of all men and
women, we're willing and able to lift the
weak, cradle those who hurt, and nurture
the bonds that tie us together as one nation
under God.
Finally, we're here to shield our liberties,
not just for now or for a few years but
forever.
Could I share a personal thought with
you tonight, because tonight's kind of special to me. It's the last time, of course, that
I will address you under these same circumstances. I hope you'll invite me back to
future conventions. Nancy and I will be forever grateful for the honor you've done us,
for the opportunity to serve, and for your
friendship and trust.
I began political life as a Democrat, casting my first vote in 1932 for Franklin
Delano Roosevelt. That year, the Democrats called for a 25-percent reduction in
the cost of government by abolishing useless commissions and offices and consolidating departments and bureaus, and giving
more authority to State governments. As
the years went by and those promises were
forgotten, did I leave the Democratic Party,
or did the leadership of that party leave not
just me but millions of patriotic Democrats
1180
who believed in the principles and philosophy of that platform?
One of the first to declare this was a
former Democratic nominee for President—Al Smith, the Happy Warrior, who
went before the Nation in 1936 to say, on
television—or on radio that he could no
longer follow his party's leadership and that
he was "taking a walk." As Democratic
leaders have taken their party further and
further away from its first principles, it's no
surprise that so many responsible Democrats feel that our platform is closer to their
views, and we welcome them to our side.
Four years ago we raised a banner of bold
colors—no pale pastels. We proclaimed a
dream of an America that would be "a shining city on a hill."
We promised that we'd reduce the
growth of the Federal Government, and we
have. We said we intended to reduce interest rates and inflation, and we have. We
said we would reduce taxes to provide incentives for individuals and business to get
our economy moving again, and we have.
We said there must be jobs with a future
for our people, not government make-work
programs, and, in the last 19 months, as I've
said, 6 V million new jobs in the private
2
sector have been created. We said we
would once again be respected throughout
the world, and we are. We said we would
restore our ability to protect our freedom
on land, sea, and in the air, and we have.
We bring to the American citizens in this
election year a record of accomplishment
and the promise of continuation.
We came together in a national crusade
to make America great again, and to make
a new beginning. Well, now it's all coming
together. With our beloved nation at peace,
we're in the midst of a springtime of hope
for America. Greatness lies ahead of us.
Holding the Olympic games here in the
United States began defining the promise of
this season.
Audience. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
The President. All through the spring and
summer, we marveled at the journey of the
Olympic torch as it made its passage east to
west. Over 9,000 miles, by some 4,000 runners, that flame crossed a portrait of our
nation.
From our Gotham City, New York, to the
�•T"i
and philoso-
Administration
idle of Liberty, Boston, across the Appa.Lilian springtime, to the City of the Big
-iioulders, Chicago. Moving south toward
ul.inta, over to St. Louis, past its Gateway
\ h . across wheatfields into the stark
v.iutv of the Southwest and then up into
•in' still, snowcapped Rockies. And, after
ircling the greening Northwest, it came
iown to California, across the Golden Gate
nd finally into Los Angeles. And all along
:.o way, that torch became a celebration of
ooorica. And we all became participants in
celebration.
• ich new story was typical of this land of
;rv There was Ansel Stubbs, a youngster
o<). who passed the torch in Kansas to 4ir-old Katie Johnson. In Pineville, Kenckv. it came at 1 a.m., so hundreds of
opie lined the streets with candles. At
opelo. Mississippi, at 7 a.m. on a Sunday
ining, a robed church^choir sang "God
- America" as the torch went by.
• ii.it torch went through the Cumberland
•
past the Martin Luther King, Jr., Me: ial. down the Santa Fe Trail, and along.• Hills- the Kid's grave.
:; Richardson, Texas, it was carried by a
i car-old boy in a special wheelchair. In
' -t Virginia the runner came across a line
ioat children and let each one pass the
n lor a few feet, and at the end these
o esters' hands talked excitedly in their
o i.uuuiuge. Crowds spontaneously began
ne America the Beautiful" or "The
Hymn of the Republic."
d then, in San Francisco a Vietnamese
icrant. his little son held on his shouldodged photographers and policemen
aeer a 19-year-old black man pushing
-Vvear-old white woman in a wheel< i is she carried the torch.
I' I riends, that's America.
\-<dinice. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!
• President. We cheered in Los Angetlie flame was carried in and the giant
pic torch burst into a billowing fire in
I the teams, the youth of 140 nations
'hied on the floor of the Coliseum,
ai that moment, maybe you were
i- as I was with the uniqueness of what
-ildnu place before a hundred thousand
'' in the stadium, most of them citil
this was a
for Presi'arrior, who
6 to say, on
ie could no
hip and that
Democratic
further and
:iples, it's no
sible Demooser to their
to our side,
nner of bold
roclaimed a
d be "a shinreduce the
lent, and we
educe intere have. We
i provide insiness to get
ad we have.
a future
i uke-work
onths, as I've
the private
^e said we
i throughout
id we would
our freedom
nd we have,
tizens in this
omplishment
i.
ional crusade
and to make
:'s all coming
:ion at peace,
time of hope
ad of us.
; here in the
he promise of
rc
:
A.!
ie spring and
oumey of the
assage east to
ne 4,000 runirtrait of our
:
of Ronald Reagan, 1984 / Aug. 23
zens of our country, and over a billion
worldwide watching on television. There
were athletes representing 140 countries
here to compete in the one country in all
the world whose people carry the bloodlines of all those 140 countries and more.
Only in the United States is there such a
rich mixture of races, creeds, and nationalities—only in our melting pot.
And that brings to mind another torch,
the one that greeted so many of our parents
and grandparents. Just this past Fourth of
July, the torch atop the Statue of Liberty
was hoisted down for replacement. We can
be forgiven for thinking that maybe it was
just worn out from lighting the way to freedom for 17 million new Americans. So, now
we'll put up a new one.
The poet called Miss Liberty's torch the
"lamp beside the golden door." Well, that
was the entrance to America, and it still is.
And now you really know why we're here
tonight.
The glistening hope of that lamp is still
ours. Every promise, every opportunity is
still golden in this land. And through that
golden door our children can walk into tomorrow with the knowledge that no one
can be denied the promise that is America.
Her heart is full; her door is still golden,
her future bright. She has arms big enough
to comfort and strong enough to support,
for the strength in her arms is the strength
of her people. She will carry on in the
eighties unafraid, unashamed, and unsurpassed.
In this springtime of hope, some lights
seem eternal; America's is.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless
America.
Note: The President spoke at 9:11 p.m. at
the Dallas Convention Center. Prior to the
President's speech, the delegates watched a
film which concluded with the introduction
of the President.
Following
the convention
proceedings,
the President and Mrs. Reagan attended a
reception at the convention center for o f f i cials and guests of the Republican
National
Convention.
v York, to the
1181
•I:
•i ;
i
i(
�GEORGE BUSH •
••uidistance from the sojnould be one. The West,
s spiritual unity on the altar
what this prize celebrates
: this prize was first given,
lallenges ahead of us are far
No one any longer believes
: future. No generation has
nore secure world,
obsession with the tactical
by confusing the plausible
d, "World history with its
s with the even speed of a
s but then with irresistible
discern the Lord's march
cloak and let oneself be be
if self-righteousness amidst
sk for a moment of silent
•ps so that we can grasp the
GEORGE
BUSH
REPUBLICAN
889
ACCEPTS THE
NOMINATION
is America:... a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand
points of light in a broad and peaceful sky."
"THIS
derided as a "wimp" and
a "preppie," trailed the Democratic nominee, Michael Dukakis, by 17
points in opinion polls when he entered the New Orleans Convention Hall
on August 18, 1988.
George Bush (with the aid of Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan) defined himself and his philosophy with his acceptance speech, which
helped change the poll ratings dramatically. The speech clarified the differences between himself and his opponent on criminal punishment, the
perception of patriotism (some civil libertarians had objected to the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms), and taxation: a key line
was "Read my lips, no new taxes." ("Read my lips" was a vogue emphasizer, showing the speaker to be familiar with youthful lingo. A similar
device, "Go ahead, make my day"—a movie tough-guy challenge parodied by President Reagan—was used subtly to kid about his dissimilarity
with his old boss: "Go ahead, make my twenty-four-hour time period."
Subtleties rarely get across in convention hall speeches.)
The "mission" theme, providing a bridge between his combat service
and goals for the nation, was a subtlety that worked; the pledge at the
conclusion was a sledgehammer blow to widen the difference on the
Pledge of Allegiance "issue."
RONALD REAGAN'S V I C E - P R E S I D E N T ,
•
Q
I
•
accept your nomination for president. I mean to run hard, to fight
hard, to stand on the issues—and I mean to win.
There are a lot of great stories in politics about the underdog winning, and this is going to be one of them.
And we're going to win with the help of Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana,
a young leader who has become a forceful voice in preparing America's
workers for the labor force of the future, what a superb job he did here
�890
•
P O L I T I C A L SPEECHES
tonight. Bom in the middle of the century, in the middle of America, and
holding the promise of the future—I'm proud to have Dan Quayle at my
side.
Many of you have asked, "When will this campaign really begin?"
Well, I've come to this hall to tell you, and to tell America: tonight is the
night.
For seven and a half years, I have helped the president conduct the most
difficult job on earth. Ronald Reagan asked for, and received, my candor.
He never asked for, but he did receive, my loyalty. And those of you who
saw the president's speech this week, and listened to the simple truth of
his words, will understand my loyalty all these years.
But now you must see me for what I am: the Republican candidate for
president of the United States. And now I tum to the American people to
share my hopes and intentions, and why and where I wish to lead.
And so tonight is for big things. But I'll try to be fair to the other side. I'll
try to hold my charisma in check. And I reject the temptation to engage in
personal references. My approach this evening is. as Sergeant Joe Friday
used to say. "Just the facts, ma'am."
And after all, after all, the facts are on our side.
I seek the presidency for a single purpose, a purpose that has motivated
millions of Americans across the years and the ocean voyages. I seek the
presidency to build a better America. It's that simple, and that big.
I'm a man who sees life in terms of missions—missions defined and
missions completed. And when I was a torpedo bomber pilot they defined
the mission for us. And before we took off we all understood that no
matter what, you try to reach the target. And there've been other missions
for me—Congress and China, the CIA. But I am here tonight, and I am
your candidate, because the most important work of my life is to complete
the mission that we started in 1980. How, and how do we complete it? We
build on it.
The stakes are high this year and the choice is crucial, for the differences
between the two candidates are as deep and wide as they have ever been in
our long history.
Not only two very different men, but two very different ideas of the
future will be voted on this election day.
And what it all comes down to is this: my opponent's view of the world
sees a long, slow decline for our country, an inevitable fall mandated by
impersonal historical forces.
But America is not in decline. America is arisingnation.
He sees America as another pleasant country on the UN roll call, some-
�GEORGE BUSH •
America, and
Quayle at my
really begin?"
tonight is the
nduct the most
d, my candor.
>se of you who
imple truth of
i candidate for
lean people to
10 lead,
other side. I'll
n to engage in
ant Joe Friday
hu .iiotivated
i;es. I seek the
latbig.
s defined and
: they defined
stood that no
.ther missions
^ht, and I am
is to complete
mplete it? We
he differences
e ever been in
ideas of the
v of the world
mandated by
ill call, some-
891
where between Albania and Zimbabwe. And I see America as the leader, a
unique nation with a special role in the world.
And this has been called the American century, because in it we were
the dominant force for good in the world. We saved Europe, cured polio,
went to the moon, and lit the world with our culture. And now we're on
the verge of a new century, and what country's name will it bear? I say it
will be another American century.
Our work is not done; our force is not spent.
There are those who say there isn't much of a difference this year. But,
Amenca. don't let 'em fool ya.
Two parties this year ask for your support. Both will speak of growth
and peace. But only one has proved it can deliver. Two parties this year ask
for your trust, but only one has earned it.
Eight years ago I stood here with Ronald Reagan, and we promised,
together, to break with the past and return America to her greatness. Eight
years later look afwhat the Amencan people have produced: the highest
level of economic growth in our entire history, and the lowest level of
world tensions in more than fifty years.
Some say this isn't an election about ideology, that it's an election about
competence. Well, it's nice of them to want to play on our field. But this
election isn't only about competence, for competence is a narrow ideal.
Competence makes the trains nin on time but doesn't know where they're
going. Competence is the creed of the technocrat who makes sure the gears
mesh but doesn't for a second understand the magic of the machine.
The truth is. this election is about the beliefs we share, the values that
we honor, and the principles that we hold dear.
But, since someone brought up competence—consider the size of our
triumph: a record number of Americans at work, a record high percentage
of our people with jobs, a record high of new businesses, high rate of new
businesses, a record high rate of real personal income.
These are facts. And one way you know our opponents know the facts is
that;to attack our record they have to misrepresent it. They call it a "Swiss
cheese economy ." Well, that's the way it may look to the three blind mice.
But when they were in charge it was all holes and no cheese.
You know the litany. Inflation was 13 percent when we came in. We got
it down to 4. Interest rates, interest rates were more than 21. And we cut
them in half. Unemployment, unemployment was up and climbing, and
now it's the lowest in fourteen years.
My friends, eight years ago this economy was flat on its back—intensive
care. And we came in and gave it emergency treatment—got the tempera-
jun
\ms
m>|ch.
eciteat
Is to
I
bre
de,
use
f. It
ierthe
tucogy,
:sult
j-and
itive
: , videly
' 1 lists in
'^t'c Times
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;:! i n Lan' ' iv York
i good
iety of
�89 2 a
P O L I T I C A L SPEECHES
ture down by lowering regulation, and got the blood pressure down when
we lowered taxes. And pretty soon the patient was up, back on his feet and
stronger than ever.
And now who do we hear knocking on the door but the same doctors
who made him sick. And they're telling us to put them in charge of the
case again. My friends, they're lucky we don't hit them with a malpractice
suit!
We've created seventeen million new jobs the pastfiveyears, more than
twice as many as Europe and Japan combined. And they're good jobs. The
majority of them created in the past six years paid an average of more than
$22,000 a year. And someone better take "a message to Michael": tell
him .that we have been creating good jobs at good wages. The fact is, they
talk and we deliver. They promise and we perform.
And there are millions of young Americans in their twenties who barely
remember the days of gas lines and unemployment lines. And now they're
-marrying and starting careers. And to those young people I say, "You have
the opportunity you deserve, and I'm not going to let them take it away
from you."
The leaders of this expansion have been the women of America, who
helped create the new jobs and filled two out of every three of them. And to
the women of America I say, "You know better than anyone that equahty
begins with economic empowerment. You're gaining economic power,
and I'm not going to let them take it away from you."
There are millions of Americans who were brutalized by inflation. We
arrested it, and we're not going to let it out on furlough. And we're going
to keep that Social Security trust fund sound and out of reach of the big
spenders. To America's elderly I say, "Once again you have the security
that is your right, and I'm not going to let them take it away from you."
I know the liberal Democrats are worried about the economy. They're
worried it's going to remain strong. And they're right, it is, with the right
leadership it will remain strong.
But let's be frank. Things aren't perfect in this country. There are people
who haven't tasted the fruits of the expansion. I've talked to farmers about
the bills they can't pay. And I've been to the factories that feel the strain of
change. And I've seen the urban children who play amid the shattered
glass and the shattered lives. And there are the homeless. And you know,
it doesn't do any good to debate endlessly which policy mistake of the
seventies is responsible. They're there. And we have to help them.
But what we must remember if we're to be responsible, and compassionate, is that economic growth is the key to our endeavors.
I want growth that stays, that broadens that touches, finally, all Ameri-
�GEORGE BUSH •
ssure down when
ick on his feet and
the same doctors
a in charge of the
ivith a malpractice
e years, more than
^'re good jobs. The
erage of more than
: to Michael": tell
s. The fact is, they
venties who barely
s. And now they're
lelsay, "You have
them take it away
n of America, who
ree ^f them. And to
n>
that equality
4 economic power,
.•d by inflation. We
i. And we're going
of reach of the big
i have the security
way from you."
economy. They're
it is, with the right
y. There are people
^d to farmers about
at feel the strain of
mid the shattered
5S. And you know,
icy mistake of the
help them.
ible. and compaswors.
finally, all Amcn-
893
cans, trom the hollows of Kentucky to the sunlit streets of Denver, from
the suburbs of Chicago to the broad avenues of New York, and from the oil
fields of Oklahoma to the farms of the Great Plains.
And can we do it? Of course we can. We know how. We've done it. And
it we continue to grow at our current rate, we will be able to produce thirty
million jobs in the next eight years. And we will do it—by maintaining our
commitment to free and fair trade, by keeping government spending
down, and by keeping taxes down.
Our economic life is not the only test of our success. One issue overwhelms all the others, and that's the issue of peace.
And look at the world on this bright August night. The spirit of democracy is sweeping the Pacific rim. China feels the winds of change. New
democracies assert themselves in South America. And one by one the
unfree places fall, not to the force of arms but to the force of an idea-,
freedom works.
And we have a new relationship with the Soviet Union—the INF treaty,
the beginning of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the beginning
of the end of the Soviet proxy war in Angola, and with it the independence
of Namibia. Iran and Iraq move toward peace.
It's a watershed. It is no accident.
It happened when we acted on the ancient knowledge that strength and
clarity lead to peace; weakness and ambivalence lead to war. You see,
weakness tempts aggressors. Strength stops them. I will not allow this
country to be made weak again. Never.
The tremors in the Soviet world continue. The hard earth there has not
yet settled. Perhaps what is happening will change our world forever. And
perhaps not. A prudent skepticism is in order. And so is hope. But either
way, we're in an unprecedented position to change the nature of our relationship. Not by preemptive concession, but by keeping our strength. Not
by yielding up defense systems with nothing won in return, but by hard,
cool engagement in the tug and pull of diplomacy.
My life has been lived in the shadow of war; I almost lost my life in one.
And I hate war. Love peace. And we have peace. And I am not going to
let anyone take it away from us.
Our economy is strong but not invulnerable, and the peace is broad but
can be broken. And now we must decide. We will surely have change this
year, but will it be change that moves us forward, or change that risks
retreat?
In 1940, when I was barely more than a boy, Franklin Roosevelt said we
shouldn't change horses in midstream. My friends, these days the world
moves even more quickly, and now, after two great terms, a switch will be
that
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•
POLITICAL
SPEECHES
made. But when you have to change horses in midstream, doesn't it make
sense to switch to one who's going the same way?
An election that's about ideas and values is also about philosophy. And
I have one.
At the bright center is the individual. And radiating out from him or her
is the family, the essential unit of closeness and of love. For it's the family
that communicates to our children—to the twenty-first century—our culture, our religious faith, our traditions and history.
From the individual to the family to the community, and then on out to
the town, to the church and the school, and, still echoing out, to the
country, the state, and the nation—each doing only what it does well, and
no more. And I believe that power must always be kept close to the individual, close to the hands that raise the family and run the home.
I am guided by certain traditions. One is that there's a God and he is
good, and his love, while free, has a self-imposed cost; we must be good to
one another.
I believe in another tradition that is, by now, imbedded in the national
soul. It's that learning is good in and of itself. You know, the mothers of
the Jewish ghettos of the East would pour honey on a book so the children
would know that learning is sweet. And the parents who settled hungry
Kansas would take their children in from the fields when a teacher came.
That is our history.
And there is another tradition. And that's the idea of community—a
beautiful word with a big meaning, though liberal Democrats have an odd
view of it. They see "community" as a limited cluster of interest groups,
locked in odd conformity. And in this view, the country waits passive
while Washington sets the rules.
But that's not what community means, not to me. For we are a nation of
communities, of thousands and tens of thousands of ethnic, religious,
social, business, labor union, neighborhood, regional, and other organizations, all of them varied, voluntary, and unique.
This is America: the Knights of Columbus, the Grange, Hadassah, the
Disabled American Veterans, the Order of Ahepa, the Business and Professional Women of America, the union hall, the Bible study group, LULAC,
Holy Name—a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points
of light in a broad and peaceful sky.
Does government have a place? Yes. Government is part of the nation of
communities—not the whole, just a part.
And I don't hate government. A government that remembers that the
people are its master is a good and needed thing.
And I respect old-fashioned common sense, and I have no great love for
�GEORGE BUSH •
n, doesn't it make
philosophy. And
t from him or her
For it's the family
century—our culmd then on out to
lioing out. to the
t it does well, and
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s a God and he is
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of community—a
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we are a nation of
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ad other organizage, Hadassah. the
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a thousand points
art of the nation of
•members that the
no great love for
89 5
the imaginings of the social planners. You see, I like what's been tested
and found to be true. For instance:
Should public school teachers be required to lead our children in the
Pledge of Allegiance? My opponent says no—and I say yes.
Should society be allowed to impose the death penalty on those who
commit crimes of extraordinary cruelty and violence? My opponent says
no—but I say yes.
And should our children have the right to say a voluntary prayer, or
even observe a moment of silence in the schools? My opponent says no—
but I say yes.
And should free men and women have the right to own a gun to protect
their home? My opponent says no—but I say yes.
And is it right to believe in the sanctity of life and protect the lives of
innocent children? My opponent says no—but I say yes. You see we must
change—we've got to change from abortion to adoption. And let me tell
you this—Barbara and I have an adopted granddaughter. On the day of her
christening we wept with joy. I thank God that her parents chose life.
I'm the one who believes it is a scandal to give a weekend furlough to a
hardened first-degree killer who hasn't even served enough time to be
eligible for parole.
I'm the one who says a drug dealer who is responsible for the death of a
policeman should be subject to capital punishment.
And I'm the one who will not raise taxes. My opponent now says he'll
raise them as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like
that, you know that's one resort he'll be checking into. And I—my opponent won't rule out raising taxes. But I will, and the Congress will push me
to raise taxes, and I'll say no, and they'll push, and I'll say no, and they'll
push again. And I'll say to them. Read my lips, no new taxes.
Let me tell you more about the mission on jobs. My mission is: thirty in
eight—thirty million jobs in the next eight years.
Every one of our children deserves afirst-rateschool. The liberal Democrats want power in the hands of the federal government, and I want
power in the hands of the parents. And I will encourage merit schools. I
w;ll give more kids a Head Start. And I'll make it easier to save for college.
I want a drug-free America, and this will not be easy to achieve. But I
" ant to enlist the help of some people who are rarely included. Tonight I
challenge the young people of our country to shut down the drug dealers
around the world. Unite with us, work with us.
Zero tolerance isn't just a policy; it's an attitude. Tell them what you
think of people who underwrite the dealers who put poison in our society.
And while you're doing that, my administration will be telling the dealers.
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�896
•I
Q POLITICAL
SPEECHES
"Whatever we have to do we'll do. but your day is over, you are history."
I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure the disabled are included
in the mainstream. For too long they've been left out. But they're not going
to be left out any more.
And I am going to stop ocean dumping. Our beaches should not be
garbage dumps, and our harbors should not be cesspools. And I'm going
to have the FBI trace the medical wastes, and we're going to punish the
people who dump those infected needles into our oceans, lakes, and rivers.
Let's clean the air. We must reduce the harm done by acid rain.
And I'll put incentives back into the domestic energy industry, for I
know from personal experience there is no security for the United States in
further dependence on foreign oil.
In foreign affairs, I'll continue our policy of peace through strength. I'll
.-move toward further cuts in strategic and conventional arsenals of both
the United States and the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc and NATO. I'll
modernize and preserve our technological edge, and that includes strategic defense. And a priority, ban chemical and biological weapons from the
face of the earth. That will be a priority with me. And I intend to speak for
freedom, stand for freedom, be a patient friend to anyone. East or West,
who will fight for freedom.
It seems to me the presidency provides an incomparable opportunity for
"gentle persuasion."
And I hope to stand for a new harmony, a greater tolerance. We've come
far, but I think we need a new harmony among the races in our country.
And we're on a journey into a new century, and we've got to leave that
tired old baggage of bigotry behind.
Some people who are enjoying our prosperity are forgetting—forgotten
what it's for. But they diminish our triumph when they act as if wealth is
an end in itself.
And there are those who've dropped their standards along the ways, as
if ethics were too heavy and slowed their rise to the top. There's graft in
city hall and there's greed on Wall Street and there's influence peddling in
Washington, and the small corruptions of everyday ambition.
But, you see, I believe public service is honorable. And every time I hear
that someone has breached the public trust, it breaks my heart.
And I wonder sometimes if we've forgotten who we are. But we're the
people who sundered a nation rather than allow a sin called slavery—and
we're the people who rose from the ghettos and the deserts.
And we weren't saints, but we lived by standards. We celebrated the
individual, but we weren't self-centered. We were practical, but we didn't
�GEORGE BUSH O
^ou are history."
bled are included
they're not going
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every time I hear
heart.
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ts.
e celebrated the
4I, but we didn't
897
live only for material things. We believed in getting ahead, but blind ambition wasn't our way.
The fact is. prosperity has a purpose. It's to allow us to pursue "the
better angels," to give us time to think and grow. Prosperity with a purpose means taking your idealism and making it concrete by certain acts of
goodness. It means helping a child from an unhappy home leam how to
read—and I thank my wife, Barbara, for all her work in helping people to
read and all her work for literacy in this country. It means teaching troubled children through your presence that there is such a thing as reliable
love. Some would say it's soft and insufficiently tough to care about these
things. But where is it written that we must act if we do not care, as if we're
not moved? Well, I am moved. I want a kinder, and gentler nation.
Two men this year ask for your support. And you must know us.
As for me, I've held high office and done the work of democracy day by
day. Yes, my parents were prosperous; and their children sure were lucky.
But there were lessons we had to leam about life. John Kennedy discovered poveny when he campaigned in West Virginia; there were children
who had no milkT And young Teddy Roosevelt met the new America when
he roamed the immigrant streets of New York. And I learned a few things
about life in a place called Texas. And when I was working on this part of
the speech, Barbara came in and asked what I was doing, and I looked up
and I said I'm working hard. And she said, "Oh, dear, don't worry. Relax.
Sit back. Take off your shoes and put up your silver foot."
Now, we moved to west Texas forty years ago, forty years ago this year.
And the war was over, and we wanted to get out and make it on our own.
And those were exciting days. We lived in a little shotgun house, one
room for the three of us. Worked in the oil business and then started my
own.
And in time we had six children. Moved from the shotgun to a duplex
apartment to a house. And lived the dream—high school football on Friday nights. Little League, neighborhood barbecue.
People don't see their own experience as symbolic of an era, but of
course we were. And so was everyone else who was taking a chance and
pushing into unknown territory with kids and a dog and a car. But the big
thing I learned is the satisfaction of creating jobs, which meant creating
opportunity, which meant happy families, who in tum could do more to
help others and enhance their own lives. I learned that a good done by a
single good job could be felt in ways you can't imagine.
It's been said that I'm not the most compelling speaker, and there are
actually those who claim that I don't always communicate in the clearest,
most concise way. But I dare them to keep it up. Go ahead, make my
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�898
•
P O L I T I C A L SPEECHES
twenty-four-hour time period. Now, I may not be the most eloquent but I
learned that early on that eloquence won't draw oil from the ground. And I
may sometimes be a little awkward, but there's nothing self-conscious in
my love of country. And I'm a quiet man, but I hear the quiet people others
don't—the ones who raise the family, pay the taxes, meet the mortgage.
And I hear them and I am moved, and their concerns are mine.
A president must be many things. He must be a shrewd protector of
America's interests, and he must be an idealist who leads those who move
for a freer and more democratic planet.
And he must see to it that government intrudes as little as possible in the
lives of the people: and yet remember that it is right and proper that a
nation's leader take an interest in the nation's character. And he must be
able to define—and lead—a mission.
For seven and a half years I've worked with a president—I've seen what
crosses that big desk. I've seen the unexpected crisis that arrives in a cable
in a young aide's hand. And I've seen the problems that simmer on for
decades and suddenly demand resolution. And I've seen modest decisions
made with anguish, and crucial decisions made with dispatch.
And so I know that what it all comes down to, this election—what it all
comes down to, after all the shouting and the cheers—is the man at the
desk. And who should sit at that desk.
My friends, I am that man.
I say it—I say it without boast or bravado. I've fought for my country,
I've served, I've built—and I'll go from the hills to the hollows, from the
cities to the suburbs to the loneliest town on the quietest street, to take our
message of hope and growth for every American to every American.
I will keep America moving forward, always forward—for a better
America, for an endless, enduring dream and a thousand points of fight.
This is my mission. And I will complete it.
Thank you. You know, it is customary to end an address with a pledge,
or saying, that holds a special meaning. And I've chosen one that we all
know by heart, one that we all learned in school. And I ask everyone in
this great hall to stand and join me in this. We all know it.
" I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to
the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all."
Thank you. God bless you. •
�rHE
L'lection year, the stakes for
urselves to become compla-
THIRTY-SECOND REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
497
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. We are using up prime
time.
Thank you very much. You arc singing our song.
mission undertaken by our
.publican leader, Dwight
i of the American people in
decency, compassion and
>f peace and prosperity. And
m and strength, will lead
of the ^SO's. That is the
ther. joined by millions of
lents, must undertake in the
:
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH BY
THE HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN
REPUBLICAN NOMINEE FOR PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED STATES
FORMER GOVERNOR OF
THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
GOVERNOR REAGAN.
an's ni^ht. He is the man
hear. Let me then conclude
1 cold this convention last
^arty standardbearer for the
d in spirit and purpose, go
one of victory not only for
res of America and the cause
vhich had been interrupted
ipplauded and cheered for
. ntlemen, if you will please
ome down and that has got
and I assure you the film is
.igan was presented.)
r appoints the following
t Governor Reagan to the
itative Philip Crane of I I of California; Senator John
nder Jagc of Michigan.
• have all awaited, the next
aid Reagan of California.
u. Thank you very much.
— Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Prcsidcnt-to-bt, this
convention, my fellow citizens of this great nation:
With A deep awareness of the responsibility conferred by your trust, I
accept your nomination for the Presidency of the United States. I do so with
deep gracitude and 1 think also I might interject, on behalf of all of us, our
thanks to Detroit and the people of Michigan and to this city for the warm
hospitality.
I thank you for your wholehearted response to my recommendation in
regard to George Bush as the candidate for Vice President.
I am very proud of our party tonight. This convention has shown to all
America a party united, with positive programs for solving the nation's problems; a party to build a new consensus with all those across the land who share a
community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood,
peace and freedom.
Now, I know that we have had a iiuarrel or two, but only as to the method
of attaining a goal. There was no argument here about the goal. As President, I
will establish a liaison with the fifty Governors to encourage them to eliminate,
wherever it exists, discrimination against women. I will monitor federal laws to
ensure their implementation and to add statutes if they are needed.
More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country, to
renew the American spirit and sense of purpose. I want to carry our message to
every American, regardless of party affiliation, who is a member of this community of shared values.
Never before in our history have Americans been called upon to face three
grave threats to our very existence, any one of which could destroy us. We face a
disintegrating economy, a weakened defense, and an energy policy based on the
sharing of scarcity.
The major issue of this campaign is the direct political, personal and moral
responsibility of Democratic Party leadership — in the White House and in the
Congress — for this unprecedented calamity which has befallen us. They tell us
�498
OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE
they have done the most that could humanly be done. They say that the United
States has had its day in the sun; that our nation has passed its zenith. They
expect you to tell your children that the American people no longer have the will
to cope with their problems; that the future will be one of sacrifice and few
opportunities.
My fellow citizens, I utterly reject that view.
The American people, the most generous on earth, who created the highest
standard of living, are not going to accept the notion that we can only make a
better world for others by moving backwards ourselves. Those who believe we
can, have no business leading this nation.
I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under
mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national
will and purpose. We have come together here because the American people
deserve better from those to whom they entrust our nation's highest offices —
we stand united in our resolve to do something about it.
We need a rebirth of the American tradition of leadership ac tvery level of
government and in private life as well. The United States of America is unique
in world history because it has a genius for leaders — many leaders — on many
levels. But, back in 1976, Mr. Carter said, "Trust me. " And a lot of people did.
Now. many of those people are out of work. Many have seen their savings eaten
away by inflation. Many others on fixed incomes, especially the elderly, have
watched helplessly as the cruel tax of inflation wasted away their purchasing
power. And, today, a great many who trusted Mr. Carter wonder if we can
survive the Carter policies of national defense.
"Trust me" government asks that wc concentrate our hopes and dreams on
one man; that we trust him to do what is best for us. Well, my view of
government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that
transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs — in the people.
The responsibility to live up to that trust is where// belongs, in their elected
leaders. That kind of relationship, between the people and their elected leaders,
is a special kind of compact.
Three hundred and sixty years ago, in 1620, a group of families dared to
cross a mighty ocean to build a future for themselves in a new world. When they
arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, they formed what they called a "compact,"
an agreement among themselves to build a community and abide by its laws.
This single act — the voluntary binding together of free people to live
under the law — set the pattern for what was to come.
A century and a half later, the descendants of those people pledged their
lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to found this nation. Some forfeited
their fortunes and their lives; none sacrificed honor.
Four score and seven years later, Abraham Lincoln called upon the people
of all America to renew their dedication and their commitment to a government
of, for, and by the people.
�THIRTY-SECOND REPUBUCAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
ey say that the United
issed its zenith. They
10 longer have the will
e of sacrifice and few
ho created the highest
t we can only make a
Those who believe we
destroy itself under
eroding our national
the American people
n's highest offices —
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of America is unique
y leaders — on many
id a lot of people did.
•n their savings eaten
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vay their purchasing
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Well, my view of
: in those values that
,'S — inthe people,
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of families dared to
/ world. When they
called a "compact,''
1 abide by its laws.
free people to live
•opie pledged their
ion. Some forfeited
ed upon the people
nt to a government
499
Isn't it once again time to renew our compact of freedom; to pledge to each
other all that is best in our lives; all that gives meaning to them, for the sake of
this, our beloved and blessed land?
Together let us make this a new beginning. Let us make a commitment to
care for the needy; to teach our children the virtues handed down to us by our
families; to have the courage to defend those values and virtues and the
willingness to sacrifice for them.
Let us pledge to restore, in our time, the American spirit of voluntary
service, of cooperation, of private and community initiative; a spirit that flows
like a deep and mighty river through the history of our nation.
As your nominee, I pledge to you to restore to the federal government the
capacity to do the people's work without dominating their lives. I pledge to you
a government that will not only work well, but wisely; its ability to act
tempered by prudence, and its willingness to do good balanced by the knowledge that government is never more dangerous than when our desire to have it
help us blinds us to its great power to harm us.
The first Republican President once said, "While the people retain their
virturand their vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or
folly can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years."
If Mr. Lincoln could see what has happened in the last three and a half
years, he might hedge a little on that statement. But, with the virtues that are
our legacy as free people and with the vigilance that sustains liberty, we still
have time to use our renewed compact to overcome the injuries that have been
done to America these three and a half years.
First, we must overcome something the present administration has cooked
up: a new and altogether indigestible economic stew, one part inflation, one
part high unemployment, one part recession, one part runaway taxes, one part
deficit spending, seasoned with an energy crisis. It is an economic stew that has
turned the national stomach!
Ours are not problems of abstract economic theory. These are problems of
flesh and blood; problems that cause pain and destroy the moral fiber of real
people who should not suffer the indignity of being told by the government that
it is all somehow their fault. We do not have inflation because, as Mr. Carter
says, we have lived too well.
The head of the government which has utterly refused to live within its
means and which has, in the last few days, told us that this coming year's deficit
will be $60 billion, dares to point the finger of blame at business and labor, both
of which have been engaged in a losing struggle just trying to stay even.
High taxes, we are told, are somehow good for us, as if, when government
spends our money it isn't inflationary, but when we spend it, it is.
Those who preside over the worst energy shortage in our history tell us to
use less, so that we will run out of oil, gasoline and natural gas a little more
�500
OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE
slowly. Conservation is desirable, of course, for we must not waste energy. But
conservation is not the sole answer to our energy needs.
America must get to work producing more energy. The Republican
program for solving economic problems is based on growth and productivity.
Large amounts of oil and natural gas lay beneath our land and off our
shores, .untouched because the present administration seems to believe the
American people would rather see more regulation, more taxes and more
controls than more energy.
Coal offers a great potential. So does nuclear energy produced under
rigorous safety standards. It could supply electricity for thousands of industries
and millions of jobs and homes. It must not be thwarted by a tiny minority
opposed to economic growth which often finds friendly ears in regulatory
agencies for its obstructionist campaigns.
Now, make no mistake. We will not permit the safety of our people or our
environmental heritage to be jeopardized, but we are going to reaffirm that the
economic prosperity of our people is a fundamental part of our environment.
Our problems are both acute and chronic, yet all we hear from those in
positions of leadership are the same tired proposals for more government
tinkering, more meddling and more control — all of which led us to this sorry
state in the first place.
Can anyone look at the record of this administration and say, "Well done"?
Can anyone compare the state of our economy when the Carter administration
took office with where we are today and say, "Keep up the good work"? Can
anyone look at our reduced standing in the world today and say, "Let's have four
more years of this"?
I believe the American people are going to answer these questions as you
have answered them in the first week of this November and their answer will be:
"No, wc have had enough!" And, then it will be up to us beginning next
January 20th to offer an administration and Congressional leadership of competence and more than a little courage.
We must have the clarity of vision to see the difference between what is
essential and what is merely desirable; and then the courage to bring our
government back under control.
It is essential that we maintain both the forward momentum of economic
growth and the strength of the safety net beneath those in our society who need
help. We also believe it is essential that the integrity of all aspects of Social
Security be preserved.
Beyond these essentials, I believe it is clear our federal government is
overgrown and overweight. Indeed, it is time for our government to go on a
diet. Therefore, my first act as Chief Executive will be to impose an immediate
and thorough freeze on federal hiring.
�THIRTY-SECOND REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
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o bring our
of economic
ry who need
as of Social
vernment is
: to go on a
i immediate
501
Then, we are going to enlist the very best minds from business, labor and
whatever quarter to conduct a detailed review of every department, bureau and
agency that lives by federal appropriation. We ate going to enlist the help and
ideas of many dedicated and hard-working government employees at all levels
who want a more efficient government just as much as the rest of us do. I know
that many of them are demoralized by the confusion and waste they confront in
their world as a result of failed and failing policies.
Our instructions to the groups we enlist will be simple and direct. We will
remind them that government programs exist at the sufferance of the American
taxpayer and are paid for with money earned by working men and women. Any
programs that represent a waste of their money — a theft from their
pocketbooks — must have that waste eliminated or that program must go. It
must be by Executive Order where possible, by Congressional action wherenecessary. Everything that can be run more effectively by state and local
government we should turn over to state and local government, along with the
funding sources to pay for it. We are going to put an end to the money
merry-go-round where our money becomes Washington's money, to be spent by
states and cities exactly the way the federal bureaucrats tell us it has to be spent.
I will not accept the excuse that the federal government has grown so big
and powerful that it is beyond the control of any President, any administration
ot Congress. We arc going to put an end to the notion that the American
taxpayer exists to fund the federal government. The federal government exists to
serve the American people. On January 20th we are going to reestablish that
truth.
Also on that date we are going to initiate action to get substantial relief for
our taxpaying citizens and action to put people back to work. None of this will
be based on any new form of monetary tinkering or fiscal sleight-of-hand. We
will simply apply to government the common sense that we all use in our daily
lives.
Work and family are at the center of our lives, the foundation of our
dignity as a free people. When we deprive people of what they have earned, or
takeaway their jobs, we destroy their dignity and undermine their families. We
can t support families unless there are jobs; and we can t have jobs unless the
people have both money to invest and the faith to invest it.
These are concepts that stem from an economic system that for more than
200 years has helped us master a continent, create a previously undreamed-of
prosperity for our people and has fed millions of others around the globe. That
system will continue to serve us in the future if our government will stop
ignoring the basic values on which it was built and stop betraying the trust and
good will of the American workers who keep it going.
The American people are carrying the heaviest peacetime tax burden in our
nation's history — and it will grow even heavier, under present law, next
January. We are taxing ourselves into economic exhaustion and stagnation,
crushing our ability and incentive to save, invest and produce.
�502
OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE
This must stop! We must halt this fiscal self-destruction and restore sanity
to our economic system. I have long advocated a 30 percent reduction in income
tax rates over a period of three years. This phased tax reduction would begin
with a 10 percent "down payment" tax cut in 198 1, which the Republicans in
Congress and I have already proposed. A phased reduction of tax rates would go a
long way toward easing the heavy burden on the American people. But we
should not stop there.
Within the context of economic conditions and appropriate budget
priorities during each fiscal year of my Presidency, I would strive to go further.
This would include improvement in business depreciation taxes so we can
stimulate investment in order to get plants and equipment replaced, put more
Americans back to work and put our nation back on the road to being competitive in world commerce. We will also work to reduce the cost of government as a
percentage of our Gross National Product.
par
the
equ
Sov
The first task of national leadership is to set realistic and honest priorities
in our policies and our budget, and I pledge that my administration will do that.
Eas:
When I tallf of tax cuts, I am reminded that every major tax cut in this
century has strengthened the economy, generated renewed productivity and
ended up yielding new revenues for the government by creating new investment, new jobs and more commerce among our people.
plai
beei
The present administration has been forced by us Republicans to play
follow-the-leader with regard to tax cuts. But in this election year wc must take
with the proverbial "grain of salt" any tax cut proposed by those who have
already given us the greatest single tax increase in our nation's hisrory.
When those in leadership give us tax increases and tell us we must also do
with less, have they thought about those who have always had less — especially
the minorities? This is like telling them that just as they step on that first rung
ol the ladder of opportunity, the ladder is being pulled up from under them.
That may be the Democratic leadership's message to the minorities, but it won't
be our message.
up ••
hut
den
drcv
yesr
whc
Was
hyp.
Thanks to the economic policies of the Democratic Party, millions of
Americans find themselves out of work. Millions more have never even had a fair
chance to learn new skills, hold a decent job, or secure for themselves or their
families a share in the prosperity of this nation.
milii
actu:
after
the n
was r
of th.
does
It is time to put America back to work, to make our cities and towns
resound with the confident voices of men and women of all races, nationalities
and faiths, bringing home to their families a paycheck they can cash for honest
money.
but I
men .
for ar
Ours will be: we have to move ahead, but we are not going to leave anyone
behind.
For those without skills, we will find a way to help them get new skills.
ship h
�THIRTY-SECOND REPUBUCAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
restore sanity
ion in income
would begin
(.publicans in
es would go a
>ple. But we
riate budget
o go further,
•• so we can
-s
cd, put more
mg competi. ernment as a
est priorities
i will do that.
;x cut in this
iuctivity and
; new investcans to play
.ve -^ust take
s
10 have
listory.
must also do
— especially
at first rung
indcr them,
but it won't
leave anyone
millions of
cn had a fair
Ives ot their
and towns
lationalities
\ for honest
ew skills.
503
For those without job opportunities, we will stimulate new opportunities,
particularly in the inner cities where they live.
For those who abandoned hope, we will restore hope and we will welcome
them into a great national crusade to make America great again.
When we move from domestic affairs and cast our eyes abroad, we see an
equally sorry chapter in the record of the present administration.
— A Soviet combat brigade trains in Cuba, just 90 miles from our shores.
— A Soviet army of invasion occupies Afghanistan, further threatening
our vital interests in the Middle East.
— America's defense strength is at its lowest ebb in a generation, while the
Soviet Union is vastly outspending us in both strategic and conventional arms.
— Our European allies, looking nervously at the growing menace Irom the
East, turn to us for leadership and fail to find it.
— And, incredibly, more than 50 — as you have been told from this
platform so eloquently already — more than 50 of our fellow Americans have
been held captive for eight months by a dictatorial foreign power that holds us
up to ridicule before the world.
Adversaries large and small test our will and seek to confound our resolve,
but we are given weakness when we need strength; vacillation when the times
demand firmness.
The Carter Administration lives in the world of make-believe. Every day it
dreams up a response to that day's troubles, regardless of what happened
yesterday and what will happen tomorrow. But you and I live in a real world
where disasters are overtaking our nation without any real response from
Washington.
I condemn this make-believe, its self-deceit and, above all, its transparent
hypoctisy.
For example, Mr. Carter says he supports the volunteer army, but he lets
military pay and benefits slip so low that many of our enlisted personnel are
actually eligible for food stamps. Rcenlistment rates drop and just recently,
after he fought all week against a proposed pay increase for men and women in
the military, he then helicoptered out to the carrier, the U.S.S. Nimitz. which
was returning from long months of duty in the Indian Ocean, and told the crew
of that ship that he advocated better pay for them and their comrades! Where
does he stand now that he is back on shore?
I will tell you where / stand. 1 do not favor a peacetime draft or registration,
but I do favor pay and benefit levels that will attract and keep highly motivated
men and women in our volunteer forces and an active reserve trained and ready
for an instant call in case of an emergency.
You know, there may be a sailor at the helm of the ship of state, but the
ship has no rudder. Critical decisions are made at times almost in comic fashion,
�504
OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE
but who can laugh? Who was not embarrassed when the administration handed
a major propaganda victory in the United Nations to the enemies of Israel, our
staunch Middle East ally for three decades, and then claimed that the American
vote was a "mistake," the result of a "failure of communication" between the
President, his Secretary of State and his U . N . Ambassador?
Who does not feel a growing sense of unease as our allies, facing repeated
instances of an amateurish and confused administration, reluctantly conclude
that America is unwilling or unable to fulfill its obligation as leader of the free
world?
Who does not feel rising alarm when the question in any discussion of
foreign policy is no longer, "Should we do something?", but "Do we have the
capacity to do anything?"
The administration which has brought us to this state is seeking your
endorsement lor four more years of weakness, indecision, mediocrity and
incompetence. No Amerkfn should vote until he or she has asked, is the United
States stronger and more respected now than it was three and a half years ago? Is
the world today a safer place in which to live?
It is the responsibility of the President of the United States, in working for
peace, to ensure that the safety of our people cannot successfully be threatened
by a hostile foreign power. As President, fulfilling that responsibility will be my
number one priority.
We arc not a warlike people. Quite the opposite. We always seek to live in
peace. We resort to force infrequently and with great reluctance — and only
after we have determined that it is absolutely necessary. We are awed, and
rightly so, by the forces of destruction at loose in the world in this nuclear era.
But neither can we be naive or foolish. Four times in my lifetime America has
gone to war, bleeding the lives of its young men into the sands of beachheads,
the fields of Europe and the jungles and rice paddies of Asia. We know only too
well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong. It is when they
are weak that tyrants are tempted.
We simply cannot learn these lessons the hard way again without risking
our destruction.
Of all the objectives we seek, first and foremost is the establishment of
lasting world peace. We must always stand ready to negotiate in good faith,
ready to pursue any reasonable avenue that holds forth the promise of lessening
tensions and furthering the prospects of peace. But let our friends and those who
may wish us ill take note: the United States has an obligation to its citizens and
to the people of the world never to let those who would destroy freedom dictate
the future course of life on this planet. I would regard my election as proof that
we have renewed our resolve to preserve world peace and freedom. This nation
will once again be strong enough to do that.
This evening marks the last step, save one, of a campaign that has taken
Nancy and me from one end of this great nation to the other, over many months
THIRTY
and thousands and t
choose a President;
burdens on those v
It is impossib
which God has gra
express the extraon
Americans.
Everywhere v
Republicans who c
together in that o
peace and freedom
arc disturbed, but
Paine had in mind
Revolution — "Vi
Nearly 150 y
dent told the genei
destiny." I believe
destiny.
Tonight, let
ask you not simph
hold me responsib
which knows no ei
aries; the spirit tl
from every corner
Some say th;i
. all across this lam:
still there, ready i
done. We have r
creating policies t
America back to
The time is
reform and to fri
The time is
policy is one that
example, not by
The time is
improve others. I
friends and allies
And, the ti
people by anothi
He said, " .
country preachin
�THIRTY-SECOND REPUBUCAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
T handed
rael, our
American
A-een the
505
and thousands and thousands of miles. There are those who question the way we
choose a President; who say that our process imposes difficult and exhausting
burdens on those who seek the office. I have not found it so.
It is impossible to capture in words the splendor of this vast continent
which God has granted as our portion of his creation. There are no words to
express the extraordinary strength and character of this breed of people we call
Americans.
Everywhere we have met thousands of Democrats, Independents and
Republicans who come from all economic conditions, all walks of life, bound
together in that community of shared values of family, work, neighborhood,
peace and freedom. They are concerned, yes, but they are not frightened. They
are disturbed, but not dismayed. They are the kind of men and women Tom
Paine had in mind when he wrote — during the darkest days of the American
Revolution — "We have it in our power to begin the world over again."
Nearly 150 years after Tom Paine wrote those words, an American President told the generarion of the Great Depression that it had a "rendezvous with
destiny." I believe this generation of Americans today also has a rendezvous with
destiny.
*
Tonight, let us dedicate ourselves to renewing the American compact. I
ask you not simply to "trust me." but to trust your values — our values — and to
hold me responsible for living up to them. I ask you to trust that American spirit
which knows no ethnic, religious, social, political, regional or economic boundaries; the spirit that burned with zeal in the hearts of millions of immigrants
from every corner of the earth who came here in search of freedom.
Some say that spirit no longer exists. But I have seen it — I have felt it —
all across this land; in the big cities, the small towns and in rural America. It is
still there, ready to blaze into life if you and I are willing to do what has to be
done. We have to do the practical things, the down-to-earth things such as
creating policies that will stimulate our economy, increase productivity and put
America back to work.
The time is mm- to limit federal spending; to insist on a stable monetary
reform and to free ourselves from imported oil.
The time is nuw to resolve that the basis of a firm and principled foreign
policy is one that takes the world as it is and seeks to change it by leadership and
example, not by harangue, harassment or wishful thinking.
The time is nine to say that we shall seek new ftiendships and expand and
improve others, but we shall not do so by breaking our word or casting aside old
friends and allies.
And, the time is nine to redeem promises once made to the American
people by another candidate, in another time and another place.
He said, " . . . For three long years I have been going up and down this
country preaching that government — federal, state and local — costs too
�506
OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE
THIRT
much. I shall not stop that preaching. As an immediate program of action, we
must abolish useless offices. We must eliminate unnecessary functions of
government . . .
". . . we must consolidate subdivisions of government and, like the
private citizen, give up luxuries which we can no longer afford."
And then he said, " I propose to you, my friends, and through you that
government of all kinds, big and little, be made solvent and that the example be
set by the President of the United States and his Cabinet."
Those were Franklin Delano Roosevelt's words as he accepted the nomination for President in 1932.
The time is now, my fellow Americans, to recapture our destiny, to take it
into our own hands. To do this it will take many of us working together. I ask
you tonight all over this land to volunteer your help in this cause so that we can
carry our message throughout the land.
*
Isn't it time that we, the people, carried out those unkept promises? That
we pledge to each other and to all America on this July day 48 years later that
now we intend to do just that!
I have thought of something that is not a part of my speech, and I worry
whether I should do it. Can we doubt that only a Divine Providence placed this
land, this island of freedom, here as a refuge for all those people in the world who
yearn to breathe free — Jews and Christians enduring persecution behind the
Iron Curtain, the boat people of Southeast Asia, of Cuba and of Haiti, the
victims of drought and famine in Africa, the Freedom Fighters in Afghanistan,
and our own countrymen held in savage captivity.
I will confess that I have been a little afraid to suggest what I am going to
suggest. 1 am more afraid not to.
Can we begin our crusade joined together in a moment of silent prayer.
(A moment of silence followed.)
Let us not de
we do not live in
these days, but v
As Govcrnoi
have a God. Let
We will re.
remember the qu:
We would praist
neighbors, friend
and justice have
We have d
instilled in us a
We express
moment in whii
solutions that de
despair, the sigh
masses which fit
Give each o;
the answers. Gu
And now n
"Where tlv
where there is dis
hope; where thei
"Grant thai
understood as to
receive; it is in p
born to eternal I
And now n
God bless America.
(Throughout this speech, Governor Reagan was interrupted many times
by applause and cheers and enthusiastic demonstrations.)
THE PERMANENT CHAIRMAN. — The next President of the United States
asked me to quiet this place down. I always do what a President tells me to do.
Ladies and gentlemen, I now recognize Dr. Donald G. Lester, Executive
Presbyter of the Detroit Presbytery, for the purpose of offering the benediction.
THE PERM.
while the Reaga
Ladies and
hope I will be pa
bunch of Delega
great.
And you h.
President and V
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Michael Waldman
Description
An account of the resource
<p>Michael Waldman was Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting from 1995-1999. His responsibilities were writing and editing nearly 2,000 speeches, which included four State of the Union speeches and two Inaugural Addresses. From 1993 -1995 he served as Special Assistant to the President for Policy Coordination.</p>
<p>The collection generally consists of copies of speeches and speech drafts, talking points, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, handwritten notes, articles, clippings, and presidential schedules. A large volume of this collection was for the State of the Union speeches. Many of the speech drafts are heavily annotated with additions or deletions. There are a lot of articles and clippings in this collection.</p>
<p>Due to the size of this collection it has been divided into two segments. Use links below for access to the individual segments:<br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+1">Segment One</a><br /><a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=43&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=2006-0469-F+Segment+2">Segment Two</a></p>
Creator
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Michael Waldman
Office of Speechwriting
Date
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1993-1999
Identifier
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2006-0469-F
Extent
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Segment One contains 1071 folders in 72 boxes.
Segment Two contains 868 folders in 66 boxes.
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Text
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Original Format
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paper
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Convention '96: 1996 Acceptance - Other Speech Sources [1]
Creator
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Office of Speechwriting
Michael Waldman
Is Part Of
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Box 46
<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36404"> Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7763296">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
Identifier
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2006-0469-F Segment 2
Provenance
A statement of any changes in ownership and custody of the resource since its creation that are significant for its authenticity, integrity, and interpretation. The statement may include a description of any changes successive custodians made to the resource.
White House Staff and Office Files
Publisher
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William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum
Format
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Adobe Acrobat Document
Medium
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Preservation-Reproduction-Reference
Date Created
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6/3/2015
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7763296
42-t-7763296-20060469F-Seg2-046-012-2015