Ronald Reagan
First Inaugural Address
Tuesday, January 20, 1981

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-4-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, causing 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 are 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.

From time to time, we have 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. 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 our factories, teach our 
children, keep our homes, and heal us when we are sick - professionals, 
industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truckdrivers. 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 opportunity 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 
and 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 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 is 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 are 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 are 
in a time when there are no heroes 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 are 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. 
They 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.

I have used the words "they" and "their" in speaking of these heroes. I 
could say "you" and "your" because I am 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.

We shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. 
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 are sick, 
and provide opportunities 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 an 
unequivocal and emphatic "yes." To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did 
not take the oath I have 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. Is it 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 of our struggle for independence a man who might have 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 questions upon 
which rests 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 ensure 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 so 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 our adversaries in today's world 
do not have. 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, and 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 Inauguration Day in future years it should be 
declared a day of prayer.

This is the first time in history that this ceremony has been held, as 
you have 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 monuments to heroism is the Potomac River, and on the far 
shore the sloping hills of Arlington National Cemetery with its row on 
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 one of those markers is a monument to the kinds 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 one such 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 artillery 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.

Ronald Reagan
Second Inaugural Address
Monday, January 21, 1985

Senator Mathias, Chief Justice Burger, Vice President Bush, Speaker 
O'Neill, Senator Dole, Reverend Clergy, members of my family and 
friends, and my fellow citizens:

This day has been made brighter with the presence here of one who, for 
a time, has been absent - Senator John Stennis.

God bless you and welcome back.

There is, however, one who is not with us today: Representative Gillis 
Long of Louisiana left us last night. I wonder if we could all join in 
a moment of silent prayer. (Moment of silent prayer.) Amen.

There are no words adequate to express my thanks for the great honor 
that you have bestowed on me. I will do my utmost to be deserving of 
your trust.

This is, as Senator Mathias told us, the 50th time that we the people 
have celebrated this historic occasion. When the first President, 
George Washington, placed his hand upon the Bible, he stood less than a 
single day's journey by horseback from raw, untamed wilderness. There 
were 4 million Americans in a union of 13 States. Today we are 60 times 
as many in a union of 50 States. We have lighted the world with our 
inventions, gone to the aid of mankind wherever in the world there was 
a cry for help, journeyed to the Moon and safely returned. So much has 
changed. And yet we stand together as we did two centuries ago.

When I took this oath four years ago, I did so in a time of economic 
stress. Voices were raised saying we had to look to our past for the 
greatness and glory. But we, the present-day Americans, are not given 
to looking backward. In this blessed land, there is always a better 
tomorrow.

Four years ago, I spoke to you of a new beginning and we have 
accomplished that. But in another sense, our new beginning is a 
continuation of that beginning created two centuries ago when, for the 
first time in history, government, the people said, was not our master, 
it is our servant; its only power that which we the people allow it to 
have.

That system has never failed us, but, for a time, we failed the system. 
We asked things of government that government was not equipped to give. 
We yielded authority to the National Government that properly belonged 
to States or to local governments or to the people themselves. We 
allowed taxes and inflation to rob us of our earnings and savings and 
watched the great industrial machine that had made us the most 
productive people on Earth slow down and the number of unemployed 
increase.

By 1980, we knew it was time to renew our faith, to strive with all our 
strength toward the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with an 
orderly society.

We believed then and now there are no limits to growth and human 
progress when men and women are free to follow their dreams.

And we were right to believe that. Tax rates have been reduced, 
inflation cut dramatically, and more people are employed than ever 
before in our history.

We are creating a nation once again vibrant, robust, and alive. But 
there are many mountains yet to climb. We will not rest until every 
American enjoys the fullness of freedom, dignity, and opportunity as 
our birthright. It is our birthright as citizens of this great 
Republic, and we'll meet this challenge.

These will be years when Americans have restored their confidence and 
tradition of progress; when our values of faith, family, work, and 
neighborhood were restated for a modern age; when our economy was 
finally freed from government's grip; when we made sincere efforts at 
meaningful arms reduction, rebuilding our defenses, our economy, and 
developing new technologies, and helped preserve peace in a troubled 
world; when Americans courageously supported the struggle for liberty, 
self-government, and free enterprise throughout the world, and turned 
the tide of history away from totalitarian darkness and into the warm 
sunlight of human freedom.

My fellow citizens, our Nation is poised for greatness. We must do what 
we know is right and do it with all our might. Let history say of us, 
"These were golden years - when the American Revolution was reborn, 
when freedom gained new life, when America reached for her best."

Our two-party system has served us well over the years, but never 
better than in those times of great challenge when we came together not 
as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause.

Two of our Founding Fathers, a Boston lawyer named Adams and a Virginia 
planter named Jefferson, members of that remarkable group who met in 
Independence Hall and dared to think they could start the world over 
again, left us an important lesson. They had become political rivals in 
the Presidential election of 1800. Then years later, when both were 
retired, and age had softened their anger, they began to speak to each 
other again through letters. A bond was reestablished between those two 
who had helped create this government of ours.

In 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, they 
both died. They died on the same day, within a few hours of each other, 
and that day was the Fourth of July.

In one of those letters exchanged in the sunset of their lives, 
Jefferson wrote: "It carries me back to the times when, beset with 
difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, 
struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right to 
self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever 
ahead threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless ... we rode 
through the storm with heart and hand."

Well, with heart and hand, let us stand as one today: One people under 
God determined that our future shall be worthy of our past. As we do, 
we must not repeat the well-intentioned errors of our past. We must 
never again abuse the trust of working men and women, by sending their 
earnings on a futile chase after the spiraling demands of a bloated 
Federal Establishment. You elected us in 1980 to end this prescription 
for disaster, and I don't believe you reelected us in 1984 to reverse 
course.

At the heart of our efforts is one idea vindicated by 25 straight 
months of economic growth: Freedom and incentives unleash the drive and 
entrepreneurial genius that are the core of human progress. We have 
begun to increase the rewards for work, savings, and investment; reduce 
the increase in the cost and size of government and its interference in 
people's lives.

We must simplify our tax system, make it more fair, and bring the rates 
down for all who work and earn. We must think anew and move with a new 
boldness, so every American who seeks work can find work; so the least 
among us shall have an equal chance to achieve the greatest things - to 
be heroes who heal our sick, feed the hungry, protect peace among 
nations, and leave this world a better place.

The time has come for a new American emancipation - a great national 
drive to tear down economic barriers and liberate the spirit of 
enterprise in the most distressed areas of our country. My friends, 
together we can do this, and do it we must, so help me God.

From new freedom will spring new opportunities for growth, a more 
productive, fulfilled and united people, and a stronger America - an 
America that will lead the technological revolution, and also open its 
mind and heart and soul to the treasures of literature, music, and 
poetry, and the values of faith, courage, and love.

A dynamic economy, with more citizens working and paying taxes, will be 
our strongest tool to bring down budget deficits. But an almost 
unbroken 50 years of deficit spending has finally brought us to a time 
of reckoning. We have come to a turning point, a moment for hard 
decisions. I have asked the Cabinet and my staff a question, and now I 
put the same question to all of you: If not us, who? And if not now, 
when? It must be done by all of us going forward with a program aimed 
at reaching a balanced budget. We can then begin reducing the national 
debt.

I will shortly submit a budget to the Congress aimed at freezing 
government program spending for the next year. Beyond that, we must 
take further steps to permanently control Government's power to tax and 
spend. We must act now to protect future generations from Government's 
desire to spend its citizens' money and tax them into servitude when 
the bills come due. Let us make it unconstitutional for the Federal 
Government to spend more than the Federal Government takes in.

We have already started returning to the people and to State and local 
governments responsibilities better handled by them. Now, there is a 
place for the Federal Government in matters of social compassion. But 
our fundamental goals must be to reduce dependency and upgrade the 
dignity of those who are infirm or disadvantaged. And here a growing 
economy and support from family and community offer our best chance for 
a society where compassion is a way of life, where the old and infirm 
are cared for, the young and, yes, the unborn protected, and the 
unfortunate looked after and made self-sufficient.

And there is another area where the Federal Government can play a part. 
As an older American, I remember a time when people of different race, 
creed, or ethnic origin in our land found hatred and prejudice 
installed in social custom and, yes, in law. There is no story more 
heartening in our history than the progress that we have made toward 
the "brotherhood of man" that God intended for us. Let us resolve there 
will be no turning back or hesitation on the road to an America rich in 
dignity and abundant with opportunity for all our citizens.

Let us resolve that we the people will build an American opportunity 
society in which all of us - white and black, rich and poor, young and 
old - will go forward together arm in arm. Again, let us remember that 
though our heritage is one of blood lines from every corner of the 
Earth, we are all Americans pledged to carry on this last, best hope of 
man on Earth.

I have spoken of our domestic goals and the limitations which we should 
put on our National Government. Now let me turn to a task which is the 
primary responsibility of National Government - the safety and security 
of our people.

Today, we utter no prayer more fervently than the ancient prayer for 
peace on Earth. Yet history has shown that peace will not come, nor 
will our freedom be preserved, by good will alone. There are those in 
the world who scorn our vision of human dignity and freedom. One 
nation, the Soviet Union, has conducted the greatest military buildup 
in the history of man, building arsenals of awesome offensive weapons.

We have made progress in restoring our defense capability. But much 
remains to be done. There must be no wavering by us, nor any doubts by 
others, that America will meet her responsibilities to remain free, 
secure, and at peace.

There is only one way safely and legitimately to reduce the cost of 
national security, and that is to reduce the need for it. And this we 
are trying to do in negotiations with the Soviet Union. We are not just 
discussing limits on a further increase of nuclear weapons. We seek, 
instead, to reduce their number. We seek the total elimination one day 
of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth.

Now, for decades, we and the Soviets have lived under the threat of 
mutual assured destruction; if either resorted to the use of nuclear 
weapons, the other could retaliate and destroy the one who had started 
it. Is there either logic or morality in believing that if one side 
threatens to kill tens of millions of our people, our only recourse is 
to threaten killing tens of millions of theirs?

I have approved a research program to find, if we can, a security 
shield that would destroy nuclear missiles before they reach their 
target. It wouldn't kill people, it would destroy weapons. It wouldn't 
militarize space, it would help demilitarize the arsenals of Earth. It 
would render nuclear weapons obsolete. We will meet with the Soviets, 
hoping that we can agree on a way to rid the world of the threat of 
nuclear destruction.

We strive for peace and security, heartened by the changes all around 
us. Since the turn of the century, the number of democracies in the 
world has grown fourfold. Human freedom is on the march, and nowhere 
more so than our own hemisphere. Freedom is one of the deepest and 
noblest aspirations of the human spirit. People, worldwide, hunger for 
the right of self-determination, for those inalienable rights that make 
for human dignity and progress.

America must remain freedom's staunchest friend, for freedom is our 
best ally.

And it is the world's only hope, to conquer poverty and preserve peace. 
Every blow we inflict against poverty will be a blow against its dark 
allies of oppression and war. Every victory for human freedom will be a 
victory for world peace.

So we go forward today, a nation still mighty in its youth and powerful 
in its purpose. With our alliances strengthened, with our economy 
leading the world to a new age of economic expansion, we look forward 
to a world rich in possibilities. And all this because we have worked 
and acted together, not as members of political parties, but as 
Americans.

My friends, we live in a world that is lit by lightning. So much is 
changing and will change, but so much endures, and transcends time.

History is a ribbon, always unfurling; history is a journey. And as we 
continue our journey, we think of those who traveled before us. We 
stand together again at the steps of this symbol of our democracy - or 
we would have been standing at the steps if it hadn't gotten so cold. 
Now we are standing inside this symbol of our democracy. Now we hear 
again the echoes of our past: a general falls to his knees in the hard 
snow of Valley Forge; a lonely President paces the darkened halls, and 
ponders his struggle to preserve the Union; the men of the Alamo call 
out encouragement to each other; a settler pushes west and sings a 
song, and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air.

It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, 
daring, decent, and fair. That's our heritage; that is our song. We 
sing it still. For all our problems, our differences, we are together 
as of old, as we raise our voices to the God who is the Author of this 
most tender music. And may He continue to hold us close as we fill the 
world with our sound - sound in unity, affection, and love - one people 
under God, dedicated to the dream of freedom that He has placed in the 
human heart, called upon now to pass that dream on to a waiting and 
hopeful world.

God bless you and may God bless America.

