January 20, 2001
President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, the peaceful transfer of authority is rare
in history, yet common in ou President George W. Bush’s Inaugural Address
r country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new beginnings.
As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to our nation.
And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with spirit and ended with grace.
I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of America’s leaders have come before me, and so many
will follow.
We have a place, all of us, in a long story–a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the
story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that
became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.
It is the American story–a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and
enduring ideals.
The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves
a chance, that no insignificant person was ever born.
Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our laws. And though our nation has sometimes
halted, and sometimes delayed, we must follow no other course.
Through much of the last century, America’s faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it
is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations.
Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country, it is the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we
carry but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. And even after nearly 225 years, we have a long way yet
to travel.
While many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise, even the justice, of our own country. The ambitions
of some Americans are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the circumstances of their birth. And
sometimes our differences run so deep, it seems we share a continent, but not a country.
We do not accept this, and we will not allow it. Our unity, our union, is the serious work of leaders and citizens
in every generation. And this is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.
I know this is in our reach because we are guided by a power larger than ourselves who creates us equal in His image.
And we are confident in principles that unite and lead us onward.
America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds,
lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens. Every child must be taught these principles.