Ronald Reagan
First Inaugural Address
Tuesday, January 20, 1981
(watch the speech)
For the first time, an inauguration ceremony was held on the terrace of the
West Front of the Capitol. Chief Justice Warren Burger administered the oath
of office to the former broadcaster, screen actor, and Governor of California.
In the election of 1980, the Republicans won the White House and a majority
in the Senate. On inauguration day, American hostages held by the revolutionary
government of Iran were released.
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 fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions
of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, causing 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
are 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.
From time to time, we have been tempted to believe that society has become too
complex to be managed by self-rule, 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. 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 our factories,
teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we are sick—professionals,
industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truckdrivers. They are, in
short, "We the people," this breed called Americans....
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 need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States;
the States created the Federal Government....
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....
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 have 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. Is it 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 of our struggle for independence a man who might have 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 questions upon which rests 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 ensure 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....
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....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....
The crisis we are facing today...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.