Full Text
of President George W. Bush's
2nd Inaugural Speech
(Washington-AP,
Vice
President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President Bush,
President Clinton, reverend clergy, distinguished guests, fellow citizens:
On this day, prescribed by
law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the durable wisdom of our Constitution,
and recall the deep commitments that unite our country. I am grateful for the
honor of this hour, mindful of the consequential times in which we live, and
determined to fulfill the oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.
At this second gathering,
our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen
together. For a half century,
We have seen our
vulnerability - and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole
regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny - prone to ideologies
that feed hatred and excuse murder - violence will gather, and multiply in
destructive power, and cross the most defended borders, and raise a mortal
threat. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred
and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of
the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom.
We are led, by events and
common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land
increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope
for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the
world.
So it is the policy of the
This is not primarily the
task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms
when necessary. Freedom, by its nature, must be chosen, and defended by
citizens, and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities.
And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may
reflect customs and traditions very different from our own.
The great objective of
ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the
task is no excuse for avoiding it.
My most solemn duty is to
protect this nation and its people against further attacks and emerging
threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test
We will persistently
clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice
between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally
right.
We will encourage reform in
other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require
the decent treatment of their own people.
Some, I know, have
questioned the global appeal of liberty - though this time in history, four
decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time
for doubt. Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of
our ideals. Eventually, the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul.
We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept
the possibility of permanent slavery.
Today,
All who live in tyranny and
hopelessness can know: the
Democratic reformers facing
repression, prison, or exile can know:
The rulers of outlaw
regimes can know that we still believe as Abraham Lincoln did: "Those who
deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a
just God, cannot long retain it."
The leaders of governments
with long habits of control need to know: To serve your people you must learn
to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and
And all the allies of the
Today, I also speak anew to
my fellow citizens:
From all of you, I have
asked patience in the hard task of securing
A few Americans have
accepted the hardest duties in this cause - in the quiet work of intelligence
and diplomacy ... the idealistic work of helping raise up free governments ...
the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies. Some have shown their
devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives - and we will
always honor their names and their sacrifice.
All Americans have
witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest
citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and
allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is
fragile, and evil is real, and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a
cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself - and in your days you will
add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character.
America has need of idealism
and courage, because we have essential work at home - the unfinished work of
American freedom. In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show
the meaning and promise of liberty.
In America's ideal of
freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence,
instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition
of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the
G.I. Bill of Rights. And now we will extend this vision by reforming great
institutions to serve the needs of our time. To give every American a stake in
the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to
our schools, and build an ownership society. We will widen the ownership of
homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance - preparing our
people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every citizen an
agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater
freedom from want and fear, and make our society more prosperous and just and
equal.
In America's ideal of
freedom, the public interest depends on private character - on integrity, and
tolerance toward others, and the rule of conscience in our own lives.
Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice
of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and
sustained in our national life by the truths of Sinai, the Sermon on the Mount,
the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move
forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came
before - ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today, and
forever.
In America's ideal of
freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service, and mercy, and a heart
for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our
nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost
with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and
must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must
abandon all the habits of racism, because we cannot carry the message of
freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.
From the perspective of a
single day, including this day of dedication, the issues and questions before
our country are many. From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come
to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom?
And did our character bring credit to that cause?
These questions that judge
us also unite us, because Americans of every party and background, Americans by
choice and by birth, are bound to one another in the cause of freedom. We have
known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes - and I
will strive in good faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define
America. We felt the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under
attack, and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can
feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good, and the victims
of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice, and the captives
are set free.
We go forward with complete
confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom. Not because history runs on the
wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we
consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have
confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark
places, the longing of the soul. When our Founders declared a new order of the
ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when
citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now" -
they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has
an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by
liberty and the Author of Liberty.
When the Declaration of
Independence was first read in public and the Liberty Bell was sounded in
celebration, a witness said, "It rang as if it meant something." In
our time it means something still. America, in this young century, proclaims
liberty throughout all the world, and to all the
inhabitants thereof. Renewed in our strength - tested, but not weary - we are
ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom.
May God bless you, and may
He watch over the United States of America.