Reagan's
First Inaugural Address
January 20, 1981
Thank you.
Senator Hatfield, Mr. Chief Justice, Mr. President, Vice President
Bush, Vice President Mondale, Senator Baker, Speaker O’Neill,
Reverend Moomaw, and my fellow citizens:
To a few
of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion.
And, yet, in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence.
The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution
routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few
of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many
in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal
is nothing less than a miracle.
Mr. President,
I want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on
this tradition. By your gracious cooperation in the transition
process you have shown a watching world that we are a united people
pledged to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual
liberty to a greater degree than any other. And I thank you and
your people for all your help in maintaining the continuity which
is the bulwark of our republic.
The business
of our nation goes forward.
These United
States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions.
We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations
in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes
thrift and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly
alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery
and personal indignity.
Those who
do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system
which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining
full productivity. But great as our tax burden is, it has not
kept pace with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit
upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future
for the temporary convenience of the present.
To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social,
cultural, political and economic upheavals.
You and I,
as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but
for only a limited period of time. Why then should we think that
collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?
We must act
today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding
-- we’re going to begin to act beginning today. The economic
ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will
not go away in days, weeks or months, but they will go away. They
will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as
we have had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve
this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
In this present
crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government
is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to
believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule,
that government by an elite group is superior to government for,
by and of the people. But if no one among us is capable of governing
himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone
else?
All of us
together -- in and out of government -- must bear the burden.
The solutions we seek must be equitable with no one group singled
out to pay a higher price. We hear much of special interest groups.
Well our concern must be for a special interest group that has
been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries, or
ethnic and racial divisions and it crosses political party lines.
It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our
streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep
our homes and heal us when we’re sick. Professionals, industrialists,
shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truck drivers. They are, in
short, “We the people.” This breed called Americans.
Well, this
Administration’s objective will be a healthy, vigorous,
growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all Americans
with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. Putting America
back to work means putting all Americans back to work. Ending
inflation means freeing all Americans from the terror of runaway
living costs.
All must
share in the productive work of this “new beginning,”
and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy.
With the
idealism and fair play which are the core of our system and our
strength, we can have a strong, prosperous America at peace with
itself and the world. So as we begin, let us take inventory.
We are a
nation that has a government -- not the other way around. And
this makes us special among the nations of the earth. Our Government
has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time
to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs
of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.
It is my
intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment
and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers
granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the states
or to the people.
All of us
-- all of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did
not create the states; the states created the Federal Government.
Now, so there
will be no misunderstanding, it’s not my intention to do
away with government. It is rather to make it work -- work with
us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government
can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity,
not stifle it. If we look to the answer as to why for so many
years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth,
it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual
genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before.
Freedom and
the dignity of the individual have been more available and assured
here than in any other place on earth. The price for this freedom
at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay
that price.
It is no
coincidence that our present troubles parallel and are proportionate
to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from
unnecessary and excessive growth of Government.
It is time
for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves
to small dreams. We’re not, as some would have us believe,
doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that
will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that
will fall on us if we do nothing.
So, with
all the creative energy at our command let us begin an era of
national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage
and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We
have every right to dream heroic dreams.
Those who
say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes -- they
just don’t know where to look. You can see heroes every
day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number,
produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond.
You meet heroes across a counter -- and they’re on both
sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves
and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity.
There are
individuals and families whose taxes support the Government and
whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art and
education. Their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values sustain
our national life.
Now, I have
used the words “they” and “their” in speaking
of these heroes. I could say “you” and “your”
because I’m addressing the heroes of whom I speak -- you,
the citizens of this blessed land. Your dreams, your hopes, your
goals are going to be the dreams, the hopes and the goals of this
Administration, so help me God.
How can we
love our country and not love our countrymen? And loving them
reach out a hand when they fall, heal them when they’re
sick and provide opportunity to make them self-sufficient so they
will be equal in fact and not just in theory? Can we solve the
problems confronting us? Well the answer is a unequivocal and
emphatic yes. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take
the oath I’ve just taken with the intention of presiding
over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.
In the days
ahead I will propose removing the roadblocks that have slowed
our economy and reduced productivity. Steps will be taken aimed
at restoring the balance between the various levels of government.
Progress may be slow -- measured in inches and feet, not miles
-- but we will progress. It is time to reawaken this industrial
giant, to get government back within its means and to lighten
our punitive tax burden. And these will be our first priorities,
and on these principles there will be no compromise.
On the eve
or our struggle for independence a man who might’ve been
one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren,
president of the Massachusetts Congress, said to his fellow Americans,
“Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. On
you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important
question upon which rest the happiness and the liberty of millions
yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves.”
Well I believe
we the Americans of today are ready to act worthy of ourselves,
ready to do what must be done to insure happiness and liberty
for ourselves, our children and our children’s children.
And as we renew ourselves here in our own land we will be seen
as having greater strength throughout the world. We will again
be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who
do not now have freedom.
To those
neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will strengthen
our historic ties and assure them of our support and firm commitment.
We will match loyalty with loyalty. We will strive for mutually
beneficial relations. We will not use our friendship to impose
on their sovereignty, for our own sovereignty is not for sale.
As for the
enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they
will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the American
people. We will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it; we will not
surrender for it -- now or ever. Our forbearance should never
be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged
as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our
national security, we will act. We will maintain sufficient strength
to prevail if need be, knowing that if we do we have the best
chance of never having to use that strength.
Above all
we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of
the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free
men and women. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let
that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon
their neighbors.
I am told
that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are being held on this
day; for that I am deeply grateful. We are a nation under God,
and I believe God intended for us to be free. It would be fitting
and good, I think, if on each inaugural day in future years it
should be declared a day of prayer.
This is the
first time in our history that this ceremony has been held, as
you’ve been told, on this West Front of the Capitol.
Standing
here, one faces a magnificent vista, opening up on this city’s
special beauty and history. At the end of this open mall are those
shrines to the giants on whose shoulders we stand. Directly in
front of me, the monument to a monumental man. George Washington,
father of our country. A man of humility who came to greatness
reluctantly. He led America out of revolutionary victory into
infant nationhood. Off to one side, the stately memorial to Thomas
Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence flames with his eloquence.
And then beyond the Reflecting Pool, the dignified columns of
the Lincoln Memorial. Whoever would understand in his heart the
meaning of America will find it in the life of Abraham Lincoln.
Beyond those
moments, monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the
far shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery with
its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses or Stars
of David. They add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that
has been paid for our freedom.
Each on of
those markers is a monument to the kind of hero I spoke of earlier.
Their lives ended in places called Belleau Wood, the Argonne,
Omaha Beach, Salerno and halfway around the world on Guadalcanal,
Tarawa, Pork Chop Hill, the Chosin Reservoir, and in a hundred
rice paddies and jungles of a place called Vietnam. Under such
a marker lies a young man, Martin Treptow, who left his job in
a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to France with the famed
Rainbow Division.
There, on the Western front, he was killed trying to carry a message
between battalions under heavy fire.
We are told
that on his body was found a diary. On the flyleaf under the heading,
“My Pledge,” he had written these words: “America
must win this war. Therefore I will work, I will save, I will
sacrifice, I will endure, I will fight cheerfully and do my utmost,
as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone.”
The crisis
we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice
that Martin Treptow and so many thousands of others were called
upon to make. It does require, however, our best effort, and our
willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity
to perform great deeds; to believe that together with God’s
help we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us.
And after
all, why shouldn’t we believe that? We are Americans.
God bless
you and thank you. Thank you very much.
