Thank you.  I appreciate this very much.  As President-elect Obama kindly pointed out during the campaign -- quite frequently, as a matter of fact -- I’ve been on the country’s payroll in one capacity or another for a half century.  In the course of my long career as a burden on the taxpayer, I’ve taken a few lumps.  But I’ve been more than fairly compensated by the many honors that have come my way over the years whether I deserved them or not.  Tonight surely ranks among the more unexpected of them, and the most appreciated. I am very grateful to the President-elect and to all of you for this very considerate gesture, and for allowing me to play a small role in the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, even if it isn’t the one I had in mind a few months ago.

Around noon tomorrow, I will have the honor of witnessing the next President take the oath of office, and the even greater honor of knowing that this extraordinary nation cannot and will not ever concede to be a captive to the mistakes and sins of our past.  It is a very gratifying thing to comprehend that the country one has served for a lifetime remains still a work in progress; that our greatness is unfinished; and that the impulsion behind Americans’ ceaseless striving toward a more perfect union is our love of the cause which it was founded to protect, the cause of liberty and justice.

The history that will be made tomorrow is not just a tribute to one man’s ability and accomplishment as impressive as they are.  It is a tribute to America, and proof that history itself has no power to hold us in place.  Ours is surely a magnificent history.  It has had its moments of shame and regret.  But our achievements are irrefutable proof that a nation conceived in liberty will prove stronger and more decent than any nation ordered to exalt the few at the expense of the many or made from a common race or culture or to preserve traditions that have no greater attribute than longevity.  And, yet, other nations have occupied a distinguished place in human history longer than we have.  They, too, acquired great wealth and power.  But they sought the false assurance of protecting their privileges by settling for things as they are.  Not us.  We are always on the move.

We understand -- we have always understood -- that no nation complacent in its greatness can long sustain it.  We have always known that we, too, must prove, as those who came before us proved, that a people free to act in their own interests, will perceive those interests in an enlightened way, will live as one nation, in a kinship of ideals, and make of our power and wealth a civilization for the ages, a civilization in which all people share in the promise and responsibilities of freedom.

Tomorrow, the President-elect will accept the burdensome privilege of leading America to its next accomplishments and its future greatness.  He has my sincere best wishes for his success, and my promise of assistance.  For his success will be our success.  The challenges and threats confronting him and us are numerous and daunting.  He has the greatest responsibility to help lead America through them.  But we, too, bear responsibilities for our progress, lesser than his, but a great privilege nonetheless.  We must meet them fully and help the President succeed at his.

We have our disagreements, we Americans. We contend regularly and enthusiastically over many questions.  Many are important questions, worth arguing about, and we should contend over them with one another.  It is not just our right, but our civic and moral obligation.

Our country doesn't depend on the heroism of every citizen. But all of us should be worthy of the sacrifices made on our behalf. We have to love our freedom, not just for the private opportunities it provides, but for the goodness it makes possible. We have to love it as much, even if not as heroically, as the brave Americans who defend us at the risk and often the cost of their lives. We must love it enough to argue about it, and to work together to serve its interests, in whatever way our abilities permit and our conscience requires, whether it calls us to arms or to altruism or to politics.

Americans deserve more than tolerance from one another. We deserve each other's respect, whether we think each other right or wrong in our views, as long as our character and our sincerity merit respect, and as long as we share, for all our differences, a mutual devotion to the sublime idea that this nation was conceived in -- that freedom is the inalienable right of mankind, and in accord with the laws of nature and nature's Creator.

Let us exercise our responsibilities as free people, and argue only when we must, and strive together for our common ends.  Let us remember, we are not enemies. We are compatriots defending ourselves from real enemies and difficult problems. So much more unites us than divides us.  We have nothing to fear from each other. When we argue it should remain an argument among friends; each of us struggling to hear our conscience, and heed its demands; each of us, despite our differences, united in our great cause, and respectful of the goodness in each other.

All lives are a struggle against selfishness. I have stumbled more than once in that struggle.  I have sometimes stood a little apart from institutions I willingly joined.  But had my life shared no common purpose, my qualities would not have amounted to much more than eccentricities. That's the benefit of service to a country that is an idea and a cause, a righteous idea and cause.  America and her ideals can spare us from the weaknesses in our own character.  There is no honor or happiness, for a country or a person, in just being strong enough to be left alone.

I would have preferred to have sworn again tomorrow the oath I first took more than fifty years ago.  But it would be an act of stunning ingratitude were I to resent the decision of the American people or dismiss the privilege I still possess: the privilege of serving in some capacity the country that has been so good to me.  And it would be a disgrace to use that privilege for ends that were not in the public interest.  So, I give my pledge to my former opponent, my new President, I will do the best I can to help you in the hard work ahead.  We will disagree now and again, but not always and not for personal reasons, and not, I assure you, over the purpose we share: the progress of the nation we love.

Good luck tomorrow to our new President, and in the days and years ahead.  May God bless him with wisdom and courage, and his presidency with success.  And may God continue to bless America, this nation of restless strivers; this land of freedom and justice and opportunity.

Thank you, again, and goodnight.

 

 

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