InauGural Addresses Of the PresiDents
(Lyndon Johnson)My
fellow countrymen, on this occasion, the oath I have taken before you and
before God is not mine alone, but ours together. (Herbert
Hoover) It is a dedication and consecration under God
to the highest office in service of our people. I assume this trust in the
humility of knowledge that only through the guidance of Almighty Providence
can I hope to discharge its ever-increasing burdens. (William
Howard Taft) I invoke the considerate sympathy and
support of my fellow-citizens and the aid of the Almighty God in the discharge
of my responsible duties.
(James Buchanan) In
entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of our fathers
for wisdom, (Thomas Jefferson)
acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations
proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness
hereafter; (John Quincy Adams)
knowing that "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain,"
(James Monroe)
with my feverent prayers to the Almighty that He will be graciously pleased
to continue to us that protection that he has already so conspicuously displayed
in our favor.
(George H.W. Bush) And
my first act as President is a prayer. I ask you to bow your heads:
Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank You for Your love. Accept our
thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes
its continuance likely. Make us strong to do Your work, willing to heed and
hear Your will. Amen.
(William Henry Harrison)I
deem the present occasion sufficiently important and solemn to justify me
in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound reverence for the Christian
religion and a thorough conviction that sound morals, religious liberty,
and a just sense of religious responsibility are essentially connected with
all true and lasting happiness.(George Washington)
In tendering this homage to the Great Author of every public and private
good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my
own... No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand
which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every
step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation
seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. (Warren
Harding) I must utter my belief in the divine inspiration
of the founding fathers. Surely there must have been God's intent in the
making of this new-world Republic.
(Zachary Taylor)I
congratulate you, my fellow-citizens, upon the high state of prosperity to
which the goodness of Divine Providence has conducted our common country.
Let us invoke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us
from small beginnings to the eminence we this day occupy. (John
Adams) And may that Being who is supreme over all,
the Patron of Order, the Fountain of justice, and the Protector in all ages
of the world of virtuous liberty, continue his blessing upon this nation
and its government and give it all possible success and duration consistent
with the ends of His providence.
(Calvin Coolidge)America
seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation,
lures her to thought of foreign dominions. The legions which she sends forth
are armed, not with the sword, but with the cross. The higher state to which
she seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin.
She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.
(Ulysses
S. Grant) I believe that our Great Maker is preparing
the world, in his own good time, to become one nation, speaking one language,
when armies and navies will be no longer required. (Dwight
D. Eisenhower) This is the hope that beckons us onward
in this century of trial. This is the work that awaits us all, to be done
with bravery, with charity, and with prayer to Almighty God.
(Theodore
Roosevelt) No people on earth have more cause
to be thankful than ours, and this is said reverently, in no spirit of boastfulness
in our own strength, but with gratitude to the Giver of Good who has blessed
us with the conditions which have enabled us to achieve so large a measure
of well-being and of happiness.
(Groover Cleveland)Above
all, I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose
goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He
will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently (Benjamin
Harrison) invoke and confidently expect the favor
and help of Almighty God—that He will give to me wisdom, strength, and fidelity,
and to our people a spirit of fraternity and a love of righteousness and
peace.
(Woodrow Wilson) I
summon all honest men, all patriotic, all forward-looking men, to my side.
God helping me, I will not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain
me (James Garfield)
upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government
I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God.
(Franklin D. Roosevelt) The
Almighty God has blessed our land in many ways. He has given our people stout
hearts and strong arms with which to strike mighty blows for freedom and
truth. He has given to our country a faith which has become the hope of all
peoples in an anguished world. So we pray to Him now for the vision to see
our way clearly—to see the way that leads to a better life for ourselves
and for all our fellow men—to the achievement of His will to peace on earth. (Harry
Truman) But I say to all men, what we have achieved
in liberty, we will surpass in greater liberty. Steadfast in our faith
in the Almighty, we will advance toward a world where man's freedom is secure.
To that end we will devote our strength, our resources, and our firmness
of resolve. With God's help, the future of mankind will be assured in a world
of justice, harmony, and peace. (Richard Nixon)
Our destiny offers, not the cup of despair, but the chalice of opportunity.
So let us seize it, not in fear, but in gladness...." 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. (Abraham
Lincoln) Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and
a firm reliance on him who has never forsaken this favored land are still
competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty. (Bill
Clinton)) When our founders boldly declared America's
independence to the world and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew that
America, to endure, would have to change...... Now, each in our way, and
with God's help, we must answer the call.
(James Polk)
I enter upon the discharge of the high duties which have been assigned me
by the people, again humbly supplicating that Divine Being who has watched
over and protected our beloved country from its infancy to the present hour
to continue His gracious benedictions upon us, that we may continue to be
a prosperous and happy people. (Franklin Pierce)
I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence
which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings
they have inherited.
(Jimmy Carter)
I have just taken the oath of office on the Bible my mother gave me a few
years ago, opened to a timeless admonition from the ancient prophet Micah:
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require
of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy
God." (Micah 6:8) (James Madison)
We have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that
Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings
have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom
we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our
fervent supplications and best hopes for the future.
(William McKInley)
Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our
fathers, who has so singularly favored the American people in every national
trial, and who will not forsake us so long as we obey His commandments and
walk humbly in His footsteps. (Ronald Reagan)
And may He continue to hold us close as we fill the world with our sound—sound
in
unity, affection, and love—one people under God, dedicated to the dream of
freedom that He has placed in the human heart, called upon now to pass that
dream on to a waiting and hopeful world. (George W. Bush)
I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power larger than
ourselves who creates us equal in His image.
(John F. Kennedy)
With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge
of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing
and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our
own.
(Rutherford Hayes).
Looking for the guidance of that Divine Hand by which the destinies of nations
and individuals are shaped,
(Martin
Van Buren) may it be among the dispensations of
His providence to bless our beloved country with honors and with length of
days. May her ways be ways of pleasantness and all her paths be peace! (Andrew
Jackson) Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that
Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands
from the infancy of our Republic to the present day, that He will so overrule
all my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens
that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a
united and happy people.
Excerpts were taken from The Inaugural Addresses of the
Presidents
edited by John Gabriel Hunt . But can be found at various web sites
including Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents at Bartelby.com
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