Vice President Biden, Mr. Chief Justice, members of the United States Congress, distinguished
guests, and fellow citizens:
Each time we gather to inaugurate a President we bear witness to the enduring strength of
our Constitution.
We affirm the promise of our democracy.
We recall that what binds this nation together is not the colors of our skin or the tenets
of our faith or the origins of our names.
What makes us exceptional -- what makes us American -- is our allegiance to an idea articulated
in a declaration made more than two centuries ago:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Today we continue a never-ending journey to
bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time.
For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they’ve never been
self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people
here on Earth.
(Applause.)
The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges
of a few or the rule of a mob.
They gave to us a republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each
generation to keep safe our founding creed.
And for more than two hundred years, we have.
Through blood drawn by lash and blood drawn
by sword, we learned that no union founded on the principles of liberty and equality
could survive half-slave and half-free.
We made ourselves anew, and vowed to move forward together.
Together, we determined that a modern economy
requires railroads and highways to speed travel and commerce, schools and colleges to train
our workers.
Together, we discovered that a free market
only thrives when there are rules to ensure competition and fair play.
Together, we resolved that a great nation
must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life’s worst hazards and
misfortune.
Through it all, we have never relinquished
our skepticism of central authority, nor have we succumbed to the fiction that all society’s
ills can be cured through government alone.
Our celebration of initiative and enterprise, our insistence on hard work and personal responsibility,
these are constants in our character.
But we have always understood that when times
change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges;
that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.
For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone
than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets
and militias.
No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our
children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring
new jobs and businesses to our shores.
Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people.
(Applause.)
This generation of Americans has been tested
by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience.
A decade of war is now ending.
(Applause.)
An economic recovery has begun.
(Applause.)
America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world
without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity
for risk and a gift for reinvention.
My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as
we seize it together.
(Applause.)
For we, the people, understand that our country
cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.
(Applause.)
We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising
middle class.
We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work;
when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship.
We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that
she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American; she is free,
and she is equal, not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.
(Applause.)
We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time.
So we must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code,
reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder,
learn more, reach higher.
But while the means will change, our purpose endures: a nation that rewards the effort
and determination of every single American.
That is what this moment requires.
That is what will give real meaning to our creed.
We, the people, still believe that every citizen
deserves a basic measure of security and dignity.
We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.
But we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that
built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.
(Applause.)
For we remember the lessons of our past, when twilight years were spent in poverty and parents
of a child with a disability had nowhere to turn.
We do not believe that in this country freedom
is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.
We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us at any time
may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm.
The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security,
these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us.
(Applause.)
They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country
great.
(Applause.)
We, the people, still believe that our obligations
as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.
We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray
our children and future generations.
(Applause.)
Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating
impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms.
The path towards sustainable energy sources
will be long and sometimes difficult.
But America cannot resist this transition, we must lead it.
We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries,
we must claim its promise.
That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure -- our
forests and waterways, our crop lands and snow-capped peaks.
That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God.
That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
We, the people, still believe that enduring
security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.
(Applause.)
Our brave men and women in uniform, tempered by the flames of battle, are unmatched in
skill and courage.
(Applause.)
Our citizens, seared by the memory of those we have lost, know too well the price that
is paid for liberty.
The knowledge of their sacrifice will keep us forever vigilant against those who would
do us harm.
But we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war; who turned sworn
enemies into the surest of friends -- and we must carry those lessons into this time
as well.
We will defend our people and uphold our values
through strength of arms and rule of law.
We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully
–- not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably
lift suspicion and fear.
(Applause.)
America will remain the anchor of strong alliances
in every corner of the globe.
And we will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad,
for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world than its most powerful nation.
We will support democracy from Asia to Africa, from the Americas to the Middle East, because
our interests and our conscience compel us to act on behalf of those who long for freedom.
And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of
prejudice –- not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant
advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity,
human dignity and justice.
We, the people, declare today that the most
evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides
us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall;
just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along
this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim
that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.
(Applause.)
It is now our generation’s task to carry
on what those pioneers began.
For our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters can earn
a living equal to their efforts.
(Applause.)
Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone
else under the law –- (applause) -- for if we are truly created equal, then surely
the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.
(Applause.)
Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the
right to vote.
(Applause.)
Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful
immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity -- (applause) -- until bright
young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from
our country.
(Applause.)
Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the
hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and
cherished and always safe from harm.
That is our generation’s task -- to make
these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness
real for every American.
Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of
life.
It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise
path to happiness.
Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all
time, but it does require us to act in our time.
(Applause.)
For now decisions are upon us and we cannot
afford delay.
We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat
name-calling as reasoned debate.
(Applause.)
We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.
We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial and that it will be up
to those who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to advance the
timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.
My fellow Americans, the oath I have sworn
before you today, like the one recited by others who serve in this Capitol, was an oath
to God and country, not party or faction.
And we must faithfully execute that pledge during the duration of our service.
But the words I spoke today are not so different from the oath that is taken each time a soldier
signs up for duty or an immigrant realizes her dream.
My oath is not so different from the pledge we all make to the flag that waves above and
that fills our hearts with pride.
They are the words of citizens and they represent
our greatest hope.
You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.
You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time -- not only
with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values
and enduring ideals.
(Applause.)
Let us, each of us, now embrace with solemn
duty and awesome joy what is our lasting birthright.
With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the
call of history and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom.
Thank you.
God bless you, and may He forever bless these United States of America.
(Applause.)