Inaugural Addresses: The First Inauguration of Richard Nixon
The first inauguration of Richard Nixon as the 37th President of the United States took place on January 20, 1969. The ceremony was held at the east portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Chief Justice Earl Warren administered the presidential oath of office to Nixon. It was a turbulent time in American history. The Vietnam War was ongoing, and the nation was still in shock from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in the previous year. Race riots and protests against the war had taken place and the nation looked to a change in its leadership to reassure the nation.
Nixon's address was 2,128 words long, and he began by asking his audience to share in "the majesty of" the orderly tranition of political power. He noted how advances in space travel had resulted in the discovery of "new horizons on earth." Nixon projected his thoughts forward to the forthcoming bicentennial and to the beginning of the next millennium, and wondered, "What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will live in, whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes"? He went on to state:
"The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America—the chance to help lead the world at last out of the valley of turmoil, and onto that high ground of peace that man has dreamed of since the dawn of civilization. If we succeed, generations to come will say of us now living that we mastered our moment, that we helped make the world safe for mankind. This is our summons to greatness. I believe the American people are ready to answer this call."
Nixon noted the progress that had been made in the middle of the 20th century in science, industry and agriculture, stating "We have learned at last to manage a modern economy to assure its continued growth. We have given freedom new reach, and we have begun to make its promise real for black as well as for white." He described the youth of America as "the hope of tomorrow" and he said: "I know America's youth. I believe in them. We can be proud that they are better educated, more committed, more passionately driven by conscience than any generation in our history."
Nixon saw the nation as on the verge of "the achievement of a just and abundant society". He hearkened back to 1932 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt "addressed a Nation ravaged by depression and gripped in fear." Nixon said that the nation's modern problems were different than those faced by FDR, stating:
"Our crisis today is the reverse. We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth. We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them. To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit. To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves. When we listen to 'the better angels of our nature,' we find that they celebrate the simple things, the basic things—such as goodness, decency, love, kindness. Greatness comes in simple trappings. The simple things are the ones most needed today if we are to surmount what divides us, and cement what unites us."
Nixon commented on how the previous years had been difficult ones, rife with negativity. In words that may be applicable to our current time, he said:
"America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another—until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices."
He proposed an antidote for this:
"For its part, government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways—to the voices of quiet anguish, the voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart—to the injured voices, the anxious voices, the voices that have despaired of being heard. Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in. Those left behind, we will help to catch up. For all of our people, we will set as our goal the decent order that makes progress possible and our lives secure. As we reach toward our hopes, our task is to build on what has gone before—not turning away from the old, but turning toward the new."
Nixon commented that in the last three decades "government has passed more laws, spent more money, initiated more programs, than in all our previous history." He pledged to keep pursuing "our goals of full employment, better housing, excellence in education; in rebuilding our cities and improving our rural areas; in protecting our environment and enhancing the quality of life—in all these and more, we will and must press urgently forward." He went on to say: "The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep."
Nixon cautioned that the nation was "approaching the limits of what government alone can do." He appealed to the citizenry, stating, "without the people we can do nothing; with the people we can do everything." He appealed for a prosperity that crossed racial lines. He said:
"No man can be fully free while his neighbor is not. To go forward at all is to go forward together. This means black and white together, as one nation, not two. The laws have caught up with our conscience. What remains is to give life to what is in the law: to ensure at last that as all are born equal in dignity before God, all are born equal in dignity before man."
On the international stage, Nixon appealed to former enemies, stating: "Those who would be our adversaries, we invite to a peaceful competition—not in conquering territory or extending dominion, but in enriching the life of man." He also said that he viewed the exploration of space as "a new adventure to be shared." He called on other nations to join with the United States to "reduce the burden of arms, to strengthen the structure of peace, to lift up the poor and the hungry." But like almost every president before him, he warned other nations not to mistake American's call for peace as a sign of weakness, stating "let us leave no doubt that we will be as strong as we need to be for as long as we need to be."
Nixon reflected on his past experiences as he neared the conclusion of his remarks. He said:
"Over the past twenty years, since I first came to this Capital as a freshman Congressman, I have visited most of the nations of the world. I have come to know the leaders of the world, and the great forces, the hatreds, the fears that divide the world. I know that peace does not come through wishing for it—that there is no substitute for days and even years of patient and prolonged diplomacy. I also know the people of the world. I have seen the hunger of a homeless child, the pain of a man wounded in battle, the grief of a mother who has lost her son. I know these have no ideology, no race. I know America. I know the heart of America is good. I speak from my own heart, and the heart of my country, the deep concern we have for those who suffer, and those who sorrow. I have taken an oath today in the presence of God and my countrymen to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. To that oath I now add this sacred commitment: I shall consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon, to the cause of peace among nations."
Nixon closed his remarks by commenting on how, recently, "the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon's gray surface on Christmas Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth—and in that voice so clear across the lunar distance, we heard them invoke God's blessing on its goodness." He quoted poet Archibald MacLeish, and then said, "however far we reach into the cosmos, our destiny lies not in the stars but on Earth itself, in our own hands, in our own hearts." He concluded by saying:
"We have endured a long night of the American spirit. But as our eyes catch the dimness of the first rays of dawn, let us not curse the remaining dark. Let us gather the light. Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity. So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness—and, "riders on the earth together," let us go forward, firm in our faith, steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers; but sustained by our confidence in the will of God and the promise of man."
Nixon's presidency began with so much promise, full of potential, only to be brought down by pettiness and other less savory human emotions and failings.
Nixon's address was 2,128 words long, and he began by asking his audience to share in "the majesty of" the orderly tranition of political power. He noted how advances in space travel had resulted in the discovery of "new horizons on earth." Nixon projected his thoughts forward to the forthcoming bicentennial and to the beginning of the next millennium, and wondered, "What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will live in, whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes"? He went on to state:
"The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America—the chance to help lead the world at last out of the valley of turmoil, and onto that high ground of peace that man has dreamed of since the dawn of civilization. If we succeed, generations to come will say of us now living that we mastered our moment, that we helped make the world safe for mankind. This is our summons to greatness. I believe the American people are ready to answer this call."
Nixon noted the progress that had been made in the middle of the 20th century in science, industry and agriculture, stating "We have learned at last to manage a modern economy to assure its continued growth. We have given freedom new reach, and we have begun to make its promise real for black as well as for white." He described the youth of America as "the hope of tomorrow" and he said: "I know America's youth. I believe in them. We can be proud that they are better educated, more committed, more passionately driven by conscience than any generation in our history."
Nixon saw the nation as on the verge of "the achievement of a just and abundant society". He hearkened back to 1932 when Franklin Delano Roosevelt "addressed a Nation ravaged by depression and gripped in fear." Nixon said that the nation's modern problems were different than those faced by FDR, stating:
"Our crisis today is the reverse. We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth. We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them. To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit. To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves. When we listen to 'the better angels of our nature,' we find that they celebrate the simple things, the basic things—such as goodness, decency, love, kindness. Greatness comes in simple trappings. The simple things are the ones most needed today if we are to surmount what divides us, and cement what unites us."
Nixon commented on how the previous years had been difficult ones, rife with negativity. In words that may be applicable to our current time, he said:
"America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another—until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices."
He proposed an antidote for this:
"For its part, government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways—to the voices of quiet anguish, the voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart—to the injured voices, the anxious voices, the voices that have despaired of being heard. Those who have been left out, we will try to bring in. Those left behind, we will help to catch up. For all of our people, we will set as our goal the decent order that makes progress possible and our lives secure. As we reach toward our hopes, our task is to build on what has gone before—not turning away from the old, but turning toward the new."
Nixon commented that in the last three decades "government has passed more laws, spent more money, initiated more programs, than in all our previous history." He pledged to keep pursuing "our goals of full employment, better housing, excellence in education; in rebuilding our cities and improving our rural areas; in protecting our environment and enhancing the quality of life—in all these and more, we will and must press urgently forward." He went on to say: "The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep."
Nixon cautioned that the nation was "approaching the limits of what government alone can do." He appealed to the citizenry, stating, "without the people we can do nothing; with the people we can do everything." He appealed for a prosperity that crossed racial lines. He said:
"No man can be fully free while his neighbor is not. To go forward at all is to go forward together. This means black and white together, as one nation, not two. The laws have caught up with our conscience. What remains is to give life to what is in the law: to ensure at last that as all are born equal in dignity before God, all are born equal in dignity before man."
On the international stage, Nixon appealed to former enemies, stating: "Those who would be our adversaries, we invite to a peaceful competition—not in conquering territory or extending dominion, but in enriching the life of man." He also said that he viewed the exploration of space as "a new adventure to be shared." He called on other nations to join with the United States to "reduce the burden of arms, to strengthen the structure of peace, to lift up the poor and the hungry." But like almost every president before him, he warned other nations not to mistake American's call for peace as a sign of weakness, stating "let us leave no doubt that we will be as strong as we need to be for as long as we need to be."
Nixon reflected on his past experiences as he neared the conclusion of his remarks. He said:
"Over the past twenty years, since I first came to this Capital as a freshman Congressman, I have visited most of the nations of the world. I have come to know the leaders of the world, and the great forces, the hatreds, the fears that divide the world. I know that peace does not come through wishing for it—that there is no substitute for days and even years of patient and prolonged diplomacy. I also know the people of the world. I have seen the hunger of a homeless child, the pain of a man wounded in battle, the grief of a mother who has lost her son. I know these have no ideology, no race. I know America. I know the heart of America is good. I speak from my own heart, and the heart of my country, the deep concern we have for those who suffer, and those who sorrow. I have taken an oath today in the presence of God and my countrymen to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. To that oath I now add this sacred commitment: I shall consecrate my office, my energies, and all the wisdom I can summon, to the cause of peace among nations."
Nixon closed his remarks by commenting on how, recently, "the Apollo astronauts flew over the moon's gray surface on Christmas Eve, they spoke to us of the beauty of earth—and in that voice so clear across the lunar distance, we heard them invoke God's blessing on its goodness." He quoted poet Archibald MacLeish, and then said, "however far we reach into the cosmos, our destiny lies not in the stars but on Earth itself, in our own hands, in our own hearts." He concluded by saying:
"We have endured a long night of the American spirit. But as our eyes catch the dimness of the first rays of dawn, let us not curse the remaining dark. Let us gather the light. Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity. So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness—and, "riders on the earth together," let us go forward, firm in our faith, steadfast in our purpose, cautious of the dangers; but sustained by our confidence in the will of God and the promise of man."
Nixon's presidency began with so much promise, full of potential, only to be brought down by pettiness and other less savory human emotions and failings.