AmericanRhetoric.com

Ronald Reagan:
First Inaugural Address

delivered
20
January
1981

AUTHENTICITY CERTIFIED:
Text
version below
transcribed
directly
from
audio

Thank you. 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 everyfouryear
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 fixedincome
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?

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.
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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 selfrule,
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 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 all
of us need to
be reminded that the Federal
Government did not
create the
states. the states created the Federal Government.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.
Page
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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.

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’re sick, and provide opportunity to make them selfsufficient
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’ve just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s
strongest economy.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.
Page
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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 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 I'm
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 inaugural day in future years it should be
declared a day of prayer.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.
Page
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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 those
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 one 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 one 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're 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.

Transcription by
Michael
E. Eidenmuller. Property
of AmericanRhetoric.com. . Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.
Page
5