From George Washington to Barack Obama, Presidents have used
inaugural addresses to articulate their hopes and dreams for a
nation. Collectively, these addresses chronicle the course of this
country from its earliest days to the present.
Inaugural addresses have taken various tones, themes and
forms. Some have been reflective and instructive, while others have
sought to challenge and inspire. Washington’s second inaugural
address on March 4, 1793 required only 135 words and is the
shortest ever given. The longest on record—8495 words—was delivered
in a snowstorm March 4, 1841 by William Henry Harrison.
Invoking a spirit of both history and patriotism, inaugural
addresses have served to reaffirm the liberties and freedoms that
mark our remarkable system of government. Many memorable and
inspiring passages have originated from these addresses.
This collection includes the great inaugural addresses of 38
presidents of the United States. It is our hope that this volume
will serve as an important and valuable reference for historians,
scholars and English learners.
目錄:
01 George Washington 1789-1797
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
02 John Adams 1797-1801
Inaugural Address
03 Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
04 James Madison 1809-1817
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
05 James Monroe 1817-1825
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
06 John Quincy Adams 1825-1829
Inaugural Address
07 Andrew Jackson 1829-1837
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
08 Martin Van Buren 1837-1841
Inaugural Address
09 William Henry Harrison 1841
Inaugural Address
10 James Knox Polk 1845-1849
Inaugural Address
11 Zachary Taylor 1849-1850
Inaugural Address
12 Franklin Pierce 1853-1857
Inaugural Address
13 James Buchanan 1857-1861
Inaugural Address
14 Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
15 Ulysses S. Grant 1869-1877
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
16 Rutherford B. Hayes 1877-1881
Inaugural Address
17 James A. Garfield 1881
Inaugural Address
18 Benjamin Harrison 1889-1893
Inaugural Address
19 Grover Cleveland 1893-1897
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
20 William McKinley 1897-1901
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
21 Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909
Inaugural Address
22 William Howard Taft 1909-1913
Inaugural Address
23 Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
24 Warren G. Harding 1921-1923
Inaugural Address
25 Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929
Inaugural Address
26 Herbert Hoover 1929-1933
Inaugural Address
27 Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-1945
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
Third Inaugural Address
Fourth Inaugural Address
28 Harry S. Truman 1945-1953
Inaugural Address
29 Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
30 John F. Kennedy 1961-1963
Inaugural Address
31 Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969
Inaugural Address
32 Richard Milhous Nixon 1969-1974
First Inaugural Address
33 Jimmy Carter 1977-1981
Inaugural Address
34 Ronald Reagan 1981-1989
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
35 George Bush 1989-1993
Inaugural Address
36 Bill Clinton 1993-2001
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
37 George W. Bush 2001-2009
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
38 Barack Obama 2009-
First Inaugural Address
Second Inaugural Address
內容試閱:
Barack Obama
First Inaugural Address
Tuesday, January 20, 200
[Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the
United States— becoming the first African American to serve in that
office—on January 20, 2009.
The son of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father,
Obama grew up in Hawaii. Leaving the state to attend college, he
earned degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law School.
Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, where he met and
married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1992. Their two daughters,
Malia Ann and Natasha Sasha were born in 1998 and 2001,
respectively. Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate in
1996 and served there for eight years. In 2004, he was elected by a
record majority to the U.S. Senate from Illinois and, in February
2007, announced his candidacy for President. After winning a
closely-fought contest against New York Senator and former First
Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Obama
handily defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican
nominee for President, in the general election.
When President Obama took office, he faced very significant
challenges. The economy was officially in a recession, and the
outgoing administration of George W. Bush had begun to implement a
controversial “bail-out” package to try to help struggling
financial institutions. In foreign affairs, the United States still
had troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and warfare had broken
out between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, illustrating the
ongoing instability of the Middle East.]
My Fellow Citizens:
I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for
the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our
ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as
well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this
transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The
words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the
still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst
gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has
carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in
high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to
the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of
Americans.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our
nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and
hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and
irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective
failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new
age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our
health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day
brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen
our
adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and
statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of
confidence across our land—a nagging fear that America’s decline is
inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are
serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a
short span of time. But know this, America—they will be met.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear,
unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances
and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for
far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time
has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to
reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to
carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from
generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal,
all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure
of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that
greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has
never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been
the path for the faint-hearted—for those who prefer leisure over
work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has
been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things—some
celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who
have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and
freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled
across oceans in search of a new life.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured
the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and
Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and
worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better
life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual
ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or
faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most
prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less
productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less
inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were
last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains
undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow
interests and putting off unpleasant decisions—that time has surely
passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves
off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of
our economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act—not
only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We
will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital
lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore
science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to
raise health care’s quality and lower its cost. We will harness the
sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our
factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and
universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do.
All this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions— who
suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their
memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has
already done; what free men and women can achieve when
imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to
courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted
beneath them—that the stale political arguments that have consumed
us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not
whether our government is too big or too small, but
whether it works—whether it helps families find jobs at a decent
wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where
the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is
no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s
dollars will be held to account—to spend wisely, reform bad habits,
and do our business in the light of day—because only then can we
restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
……