The Project Gutenberg EBook of Inaugural Presidential Address, by
William Jefferson Clinton

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Title: Inaugural Presidential Address

Author: William Jefferson Clinton

Release Date: June 12, 2008 [EBook #10510]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INAUGURAL PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ***

The following 1600 words comprise William Jefferson Clinton's
Inaugural Presidential Address given from noon to 12:15 P.M.,
January 20, 1993.

[Capitals represent emphasis, extra commas represent pauses,
long pauses are represented by ellipses (. . .).]

Bill Clinton's Inaugural Address

My fellow citizens, today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal.
This ceremony is held in the depth of winter, but by the words we speak
and the faces we show the world, we force the spring. A spring reborn in
the world's oldest democracy, that brings forth the vision and courage
to reinvent America. When our founders boldly declared America's
independence to the world, and our purposes to the Almighty, they knew
that America, to endure, would have to change. Not change for change
sake, but change to preserve America's ideals: life, liberty, the
pursuit of happiness.

Though we march to the music of our time, our mission is timeless.
Each generation of American's must define what it means to be an American.
On behalf of our nation, I salute my predecessor, President Bush, for his
half-century of service to America . . . and I thank the millions of men
and women whose steadfastness and sacrifice triumphed over depression,
fascism and communism.

Today, a generation raised in the shadows of the Cold War assumes new
responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom, but
threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues. Raised in
unrivalled prosperity, we inherit an economy that is still the world's
strongest, but is weakened by business failures, stagnant wages,
increasing inequality, and deep divisions among OUR OWN people.

When George Washington first took the oath I have just sworn to uphold,
news travelled slowly across the land by horseback, and across the ocean
by boat. Now the