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.
(Barrack H. Obama)
Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we
refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter;
and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth
that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations
(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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