[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[January 20, 1993]
[Pages 1-3]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]




[[Page 1]]


Inaugural Address
January 20, 1993

    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's 
sake but change to preserve America's ideals: life, liberty, the pursuit 
of happiness. Though we marched to the music of our time, our mission is 
timeless. Each generation of Americans 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 unrivaled 
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 traveled slowly across the land by horseback and across the 
ocean by boat. Now, the sights and sounds of this ceremony are broadcast 
instantaneously to billions around the world. Communications and 
commerce are global. Investment is mobile. Technology is almost magical. 
And ambition for a better life is now universal.
    We earn our livelihood in America today in peaceful competition with 
people all across the Earth. Profound and powerful forces are shaking 
and remaking our world. And the urgent question of our time is whether 
we can make change our friend and not our enemy. This new world has 
already enriched the lives of millions of Americans who are able to 
compete and win in it. But when most people are working harder for less; 
when others cannot work at all; when the cost of health care devastates 
families and threatens to bankrupt our enterprises, great and small; 
when the fear of crime robs law-abiding citizens of their freedom; and 
when millions of poor children cannot even imagine the lives we are 
calling them to lead, we have not made change our friend.
    We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps, but we 
have not done so; instead, we have drifted. And that drifting has eroded 
our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence. Though 
our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. Americans have ever 
been a restless, questing, hopeful people. And we must bring to our task 
today the vision and will of those who came before us. From our 
Revolution to the Civil War, to the Great Depression, to the civil 
rights movement, our people have always mustered the determination to 
construct from these crises the pillars of our history. Thomas Jefferson 
believed that to preserve the very foundations of our Nation, we would 
need dramatic change from time to time. Well, my fellow Americans, this 
is our time. Let us embrace it.
    Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine 
of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be 
cured by what is right with America. And so today we pledge an end to 
the era of deadlock and drift, and a new season of American renewal has 
begun.
    To renew America, we must be bold. We must do what no generation has 
had to do before. We must invest more in our own people, in their jobs, 
and in their future, and at the same time cut our massive debt. And we 
must do so in a world in which we must compete for every opportunity. It 
will not be easy. It will require sacrifice, but it can be done and

[[Page 2]]

done fairly, not choosing sacrifice for its own sake but for our own 
sake. We must provide for our Nation the way a family provides for its 
children.
    Our Founders saw themselves in the light of posterity. We can do no 
less. Anyone who has ever watched a child's eyes wander into sleep knows 
what posterity is. Posterity is the world to come: the world for whom we 
hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we 
bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America does best: offer 
more opportunity to all and demand more responsibility from all. It is 
time to break the bad habit of expecting something for nothing from our 
Government or from each other. Let us all take more responsibility not 
only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our 
country.
    To renew America, we must revitalize our democracy. This beautiful 
Capital, like every capital since the dawn of civilization, is often a 
place of intrigue and calculation. Powerful people maneuver for position 
and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is 
down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and 
pays our way. Americans deserve better. And in this city today there are 
people who want to do better. And so I say to all of you here: Let us 
resolve to reform our politics so that power and privilege no longer 
shout down the voice of the people. Let us put aside personal advantage 
so that we can feel the pain and see the promise of America. Let us 
resolve to make our Government a place for what Franklin Roosevelt 
called bold, persistent experimentation, a Government for our tomorrows, 
not our yesterdays. Let us give this Capital back to the people to whom 
it belongs.
    To renew America, we must meet challenges abroad as well as at home. 
There is no longer a clear division between what is foreign and what is 
domestic. The world economy, the world environment, the world AIDS 
crisis, the world arms race: they affect us all. Today, as an older 
order passes, the new world is more free but less stable. Communism's 
collapse has called forth old animosities and new dangers. Clearly, 
America must continue to lead the world we did so much to make.
    While America rebuilds at home, we will not shrink from the 
challenges nor fail to seize the opportunities of this new world. 
Together with our friends and allies, we will work to shape change, lest 
it engulf us. When our vital interests are challenged or the will and 
conscience of the international community is defied, we will act, with 
peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary. The 
brave Americans serving our Nation today in the Persian Gulf, in 
Somalia, and wherever else they stand are testament to our resolve. But 
our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in 
many lands. Across the world we see them embraced, and we rejoice. Our 
hopes, our hearts, our hands are with those on every continent who are 
building democracy and freedom. Their cause is America's cause.
    The American people have summoned the change we celebrate today. You 
have raised your voices in an unmistakable chorus. You have cast your 
votes in historic numbers. And you have changed the face of Congress, 
the Presidency, and the political process itself. Yes, you, my fellow 
Americans, have forced the spring. Now we must do the work the season 
demands. To that work I now turn with all the authority of my office. I 
ask the Congress to join with me. But no President, no Congress, no 
Government can undertake this mission alone.
    My fellow Americans, you, too, must play your part in our renewal. I 
challenge a new generation of young Americans to a season of service: to 
act on your idealism by helping troubled children, keeping company with 
those in need, reconnecting our torn communities. There is so much to be 
done; enough, indeed, for millions of others who are still young in 
spirit to give of themselves in service, too. In serving, we recognize a 
simple but powerful truth: We need each other, and we must care for one 
another.
    Today we do more than celebrate America. We rededicate ourselves to 
the very idea of America, an idea born in revolution and renewed through 
two centuries of challenge; an idea tempered by the knowledge that, but 
for fate, we, the fortunate, and the unfortunate might have been each 
other; an idea ennobled by the faith that our Nation can summon from its 
myriad diversity the deepest measure of unity; an idea infused with the 
conviction that America's long, heroic journey must go forever upward.
    And so, my fellow Americans, as we stand at the edge of the 21st 
century, let us begin anew with energy and hope, with faith and 
discipline. And let us work until our work is done.

[[Page 3]]

The Scripture says, ``And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due 
season we shall reap, if we faint not.'' From this joyful mountaintop of 
celebration we hear a call to service in the valley. We have heard the 
trumpets. We have changed the guard. And now, each in our own way and 
with God's help, we must answer the call.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 12:01 p.m. at the West Front of the 
Capitol. Prior to the address, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist 
administered the oath of office.