When
four years ago we met to inaugurate a President, the
Republic, single-minded in anxiety, stood in spirit here.
We dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of a vision to
speed the time when there would be for all the people that
security and peace essential to the pursuit of happiness.
We of the Republic pledged ourselves to drive from the
temple of our ancient faith those who had profaned it; to
end by action, tireless and unafraid, the stagnation and
despair of that day. We did those first things first.
Our
covenant with ourselves did not stop there. Instinctively
we recognized a deeper need the need to find through
government the instrument of our united purpose to solve
for the individual the ever-rising problems of a complex
civilization. Repeated attempts at their solution without
the aid of government had left us baffled and bewildered.
For, without that aid, we had been unable to create those
moral controls over the services of science which are
necessary to make science a useful servant instead of a
ruthless master of mankind. To do this we knew that we
must find practical controls over blind economic forces
and blindly selfish men.
We
of the Republic sensed the truth that democratic
government has innate capacity to protect its people
against disasters once considered inevitable, to solve
problems once considered unsolvable. We would not admit
that we could not find a way to master economic epidemics
just as, after centuries of fatalistic suffering, we had
found a way to master epidemics of disease. We refused to
leave the problems of our common welfare to be solved by
the winds of chance and the hurricanes of disaster.
In
this we Americans were discovering no wholly new truth; we
were writing a new chapter in our book of self-government.
This
year marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
Constitutional Convention which made us a nation. At that
Convention our forefathers found the way out of the chaos
which followed the Revolutionary War; they created a
strong government with powers of united action sufficient
then and now to solve problems utterly beyond individual
or local solution. A century and a half ago they
established the Federal Government in order to promote the
general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to the
American people.
Today
we invoke those same powers of government to achieve the
same objectives.
Four
years of new experience have not belied our historic
instinct. They hold out the clear hope that government
within communities, government within the separate States,
and government of the United States can do the things the
times require, without yielding its democracy. Our tasks
in the last four years did not force democracy to take a
holiday.
Nearly
all of us recognize that as intricacies of human
relationships increase, so power to govern them also must
increase power to stop evil; power to do good. The
essential democracy of our Nation and the safety of our
people depend not upon the absence of power, but upon
lodging it with those whom the people can change or
continue at stated intervals through an honest and free
system of elections. The Constitution of 1787 did not make
our democracy impotent.
In
fact, in these last four years, we have made the exercise
of all power more democratic; for we have begun to bring
private autocratic powers into their proper subordination
to the public's government. The legend that they were
invincible above and beyond the processes of a
democracy has been shattered. They have been challenged
and beaten.
Our
progress out of the depression is obvious. But that is not
all that you and I mean by the new order of things. Our
pledge was not merely to do a patchwork job with
secondhand materials. By using the new materials of social
justice we have undertaken to erect on the old foundations
a more enduring structure for the better use of future
generations.
In
that purpose we have been helped by achievements of mind
and spirit. Old truths have been relearned; untruths have
been unlearned. We have always known that heedless
self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad
economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose
builders boasted their practicality has come the
conviction that in the long run economic morality pays. We
are beginning to wipe out the line that divides the
practical from the ideal; and in so doing we are
fashioning an instrument of unimagined power for the
establishment of a morally better world.
This
new understanding undermines the old admiration of worldly
success as such. We are beginning to abandon our tolerance
of the abuse of power by those who betray for profit the
elementary decencies of life.
In
this process evil things formerly accepted will not be so
easily condoned. Hard-headedness will not so easily excuse
hardheartedness. We are moving toward an era of good
feeling. But we realize that there can be no era of good
feeling save among men of good will.
For
these reasons I am justified in believing that the
greatest change we have witnessed has been the change in
the moral climate of America.
Among
men of good will, science and democracy together offer an
ever-richer life and ever-larger satisfaction to the
individual. With this change in our moral climate and our
rediscovered ability to improve our economic order, we
have set our feet upon the road of enduring progress.
Shall
we pause now and turn our back upon the road that lies
ahead? Shall we call this the promised land? Or, shall we
continue on our way? For "each age is a dream that is
dying, or one that is coming to birth."
Many
voices are heard as we face a great decision. Comfort
says, "Tarry a while." Opportunism says,
"This is a good spot." Timidity asks, "How
difficult is the road ahead?"
True,
we have come far from the days of stagnation and despair.
Vitality has been preserved. Courage and confidence have
been restored. Mental and moral horizons have been
extended.
But
our present gains were won under the pressure of more than
ordinary circumstances. Advance became imperative under
the goad of fear and suffering. The times were on the side
of progress.
To
hold to progress today, however, is more difficult. Dulled
conscience, irresponsibility, and ruthless self-interest
already reappear. Such symptoms of prosperity may become
portents of disaster! Prosperity already tests the
persistence of our progressive purpose.
Let
us ask again: Have we reached the goal of our vision of
that fourth day of March 1933? Have we found our happy
valley?
I
see a great nation, upon a great continent, blessed with a
great wealth of natural resources. Its hundred and thirty
million people are at peace among themselves; they are
making their country a good neighbor among the nations. I
see a United States which can demonstrate that, under
democratic methods of government, national wealth can be
translated into a spreading volume of human comforts
hitherto unknown, and the lowest standard of living can be
raised far above the level of mere subsistence.
But
here is the challenge to our democracy: In this nation I
see tens of millions of its citizens a substantial part
of its whole population who at this very moment are
denied the greater part of what the very lowest standards
of today call the necessities of life.
I
see millions of families trying to live on incomes so
meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them
day by day.
I
see millions whose daily lives in city and on farm
continue under conditions labeled indecent by a so-called
polite society half a century ago.
I
see millions denied education, recreation, and the
opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their
children.
I
see millions lacking the means to buy the products of farm
and factory and by their poverty denying work and
productiveness to many other millions.
I
see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad,
ill-nourished.
It
is not in despair that I paint you that picture. I paint
it for you in hope because the Nation, seeing and
understanding the injustice in it, proposes to paint it
out. We are determined to make every American citizen the
subject of his country's interest and concern; and we will
never regard any faithful law-abiding group within our
borders as superfluous. The test of our progress is not
whether we add more to the abundance of those who have
much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have
too little.
If
I know aught of the spirit and purpose of our Nation, we
will not listen to Comfort, Opportunism, and Timidity. We
will carry on.
Overwhelmingly,
we of the Republic are men and women of good will; men and
women who have more than warm hearts of dedication; men
and women who have cool heads and willing hands of
practical purpose as well. They will insist that every
agency of popular government use effective instruments to
carry out their will.
Government
is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for
the whole people. It can make constant progress when it
keeps abreast of all the facts. It can obtain justified
support and legitimate criticism when the people receive
true information of all that government does.
If
I know aught of the will of our people, they will demand
that these conditions of effective government shall be
created and maintained. They will demand a nation
uncorrupted by cancers of injustice and, therefore, strong
among the nations in its example of the will to peace.
Today
we reconsecrate our country to long-cherished ideals in a
suddenly changed civilization. In every land there are
always at work forces that drive men apart and forces that
draw men together. In our personal ambitions we are
individualists. But in our seeking for economic and
political progress as a nation, we all go up, or else we
all go down, as one people.
To
maintain a democracy of effort requires a vast amount of
patience in dealing with differing methods, a vast amount
of humility. But out of the confusion of many voices rises
an understanding of dominant public need. Then political
leadership can voice common ideals, and aid in their
realization.
In
taking again the oath of office as President of the United
States, I assume the solemn obligation of leading the
American people forward along the road over which they
have chosen to advance.
While
this duty rests upon me I shall do my utmost to speak
their purpose and to do their will, seeking Divine
guidance to help us each and every one to give light to
them that sit in darkness and to guide our feet into the
way of peace.
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