罗拉德.里根第二任就职演讲

罗拉德.里根第二任就职演讲

Second Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan .
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 inpidual 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 peo

罗拉德.里根第二任就职演讲

ple 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
…… 此处隐藏：12657字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……