24. Ronald Reagan - First Inaugural Address
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
英语演讲24. Ronald Reagan - First Inaugural Address
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