I need not argue these principles to you, my fellow-countrymen: they
are your own, part and parcel of your own thinking and your own
motive in affairs. They spring up native amongst us. Upon this as a
platform of purpose and of action we can stand together.
And it is imperative that we should stand together. We are being
forged into a new unity amidst the fires that now blaze throughout
the world. In their ardent heat we shall, in God's providence, let us
hope, be purged of faction and division, purified of the errant
humors of party and of private interest, and shall stand forth in the
days to come with a new dignity of national pride and spirit. Let
each man see to it that the dedication is in his own heart, the high
purpose of the nation in his own mind, ruler of his own will and
desire.
I stand here and have taken the high and solemn oath to which you
have been audience because the people of the United States have
chosen me for this august delegation of power and have by their
gracious judgment named me their leader in affairs. I know now what
the task means. I realize to the full the responsibility which it
involves. I pray God I may be given the wisdom and the prudence to do
my duty in the true spirit of this great people. I am their servant
and can succeed only as they sustain and guide me by their confidence
and their counsel. The thing I shall count upon, the thing without
which neither counsel nor action will avail, is the unity of
America--an America united in feeling, in purpose, and in its vision
of duty, of opportunity, and of service. We are to beware of all men
who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the nation to their
own private profit or use them for the building up of private power;
beware that no faction or disloyal intrigue break the harmony or
embarrass the spirit of our people; beware that our Government be
kept pure and incorrupt in all its parts. United alike in the
conception of our duty and in the high resolve to perform it in the
face of all men, let us dedicate ourselves to the great task to which
we must now set our hand. For myself I beg your tolerance, your
countenance, and your united aid. The shadows that now lie dark upon
our path will soon be dispelled and we shall walk with the light all
about us if we be but true to ourselves--to ourselves as we have
wished to be known in the counsels of the world and in the thought of
all those who love liberty and justice and the right exalted.