[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000-2001, Book III)]
[November 9, 2000]
[Pages 2516-2519]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Dinner Commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the White 
House
November 9, 2000

    Well, Mr. Sidey, we just saw the first 
example of your comment about doing without Air Force One: President 
Bush is having airplane trouble and will stay 
with us for the remainder of the evening. [Laughter] Actually, I've 
commiserated with all these people about what our new life is about to 
be like. And I understand that the worst part of it is that I will be 
lost for the first 4 months whenever I walk into a room,

[[Page 2517]]

because no one will be playing a song anymore. [Laughter]
    I want to thank Lady Bird Johnson and 
President and Mrs. Ford, President and Mrs. 
Carter, and President and Mrs. Bush, for being 
here.
    I thought that joke about Harry Truman living with his mother-in-law 
was particularly apt, since my mother-in-law 
is upstairs at this very moment. And she has agreed to let me live with 
her for the next 2 years, when I'm in Arkansas trying to build my 
library.
    I, like previous speakers, would like to acknowledge 
President and Mrs. Reagan and say that we miss them and wish them well. I'd also 
like to acknowledge a person who's been a particular friend of Hillary's 
and mine these last 8 years, who's suffered two losses in her family 
recently and could not be here tonight, but whom we care very much 
about, Margaret Truman Daniel. And 
we're thinking of her and wish her well.
    I would like to thank Senator and Mrs. 
Robb for being here and for their service to 
America. And I'd like to thank you, General Eisenhower. Thank you for coming. We're honored to have you here. 
And Ethel Kennedy, thank you for coming; and 
other members of Presidents' families.
    One of the most interesting things, to me, about living here these 
last 8 years is watching the threads of American history weave their way 
through the families of Presidents. The other day we had an actual 
ceremony here commemorating the 200th anniversary of the opening of the 
White House. And someone played John Adams and came up with his one 
footman and the horses and the old 18th-century carriage and got out. 
And then we had a little reception for all the Adams family members in 
the direct line of John and John Quincy Adams who were here. And it 
turned out that one of them had two sons in the United States Navy 
today, one of whom serves on a destroyer that is the twin to the U.S.S. 
Cole and was there when Hillary and I spoke with the families and at the 
memorial service a few days ago. It made me, once again, very grateful 
to be an American, as well as to have the opportunity to live here.
    I thank the members of the White House Historical Association, and 
especially Bob Breeden and Hugh 
Sidey. Hugh, I hope you won't mind--you've had 
fun at our expense--I was thinking, there are at least two of us up here 
at the table that you've said more nice things about tonight than you 
have in our entire career in public life. [Laughter] And we are 
immensely grateful. I was also thinking that between all of us, we've 
served so long, we've been here together about half as long as Helen 
Thomas has. And we're delighted to see you. 
[Laughter]
    I want to thank the members of the Marine Band. You know, I was a 
band boy in high school, which, if you were from Arkansas and over 6 
feet tall, was a bad thing to be. [Laughter] But I loved music from the 
time I was a child. And I think it would be fair to say that I doubt if 
any President has ever enjoyed the Marine Band as much as I have. I have 
loved every encounter I've ever had with them, and they are absolutely 
magnificent.
    I know that all of you noticed that every President who has spoken 
here tonight thanked Gary Walters and the White 
House staff. They were not going through the motions. They were not 
saying that because that was something they had to say. Until you've 
lived here and you realize how totally bizarre your life can get from 
time to time, it's impossible to express how grateful you are to people 
who make it normal, no matter what; who are always there for you at all 
hours of the day or night. When you're up in the polls and down in the 
polls, when you're celebrating your greatest triumph or the wheel runs 
off, they still try to make it a home. And then, when you have to get 
out and make it a public place, simultaneously, they do that as well.
    So Gary, from you to all the people that 
are down in the basement tonight keeping the lights on, making sure that 
the temperature works, all the people that you never see, to all these 
wonderful people who served our dinner tonight, we thank you from the 
bottom of our hearts. Thank you.
    History tells us that even as the city's planners debated the final 
design of this house, masons laid its stone foundations 4 feet thick. 
Like our Nation's Founders, these men were building a monument to 
freedom that they wanted to last. Over the course of two centuries, as 
all of you know--and we've seen some references tonight--this old house 
has withstood war and fire and bulldozers, just as its inhabitants have 
faced a stern test or two.
    In this remarkable audience are former residents, historians, and 
others who have very little

[[Page 2518]]

to learn about the White House. But I thought I would use, if I might, 
the story of the East Room, where we are now tonight, as just a 
metaphor. You've already heard that Dolly Madison cut down George 
Washington's picture here, and you may remember that it was said that 
the East Room began its existence as Abigail Adams' laundry room. But it 
was soon after that Thomas Jefferson, with Meriwether Lewis, unrolled 
maps on the floor amidst animal skins to plan what became known as the 
Lewis and Clark expedition, on this very floor. Whether you agree with 
all of Thomas Jefferson's policies or not, it's interesting; just in 
buying Louisiana and doing the Lewis and Clark expedition, he helped to 
make us the great continental nation that we are today.
    Now, a few years after that, President Lincoln introduced Ulysses 
Grant to well-wishers. You may remember that a lot of people in 
Washington didn't like General Grant. He was 5'4'', unimposing. He 
forgot to shave on some days when he was more interested in battle, and 
he was said to enjoy drink from time to time. And when some of the 
people in Washington were criticizing this rube from the hinterland 
because of his drinking habits, President Lincoln wryly suggested that 
he wished the person would find out what General Grant drank and give it 
to the other generals; it might end the war more quickly. [Laughter]
    In fact, that was one of many things that were untrue. There's not a 
single documented reference of Ulysses Grant ever being drunk on the 
job. I thought I would use this historic moment to clean his slate a 
little bit. [Laughter]
    But anyway, Grant was a little guy, and they were mobbing him here 
in this room, so he did something that I'm not sure I would have the 
courage to do. He jumped up on the sofa and stood there so that he would 
not be completely overrun by the crowd.
    It was here, more tragically, that just a couple of years later 
Abraham Lincoln lay in state; and here, quite fittingly, a century after 
that, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, one of the 
most important American acts of the last 50 years. Just 25 years ago, 
Gerald Ford took the oath of office and was sworn in as President here.
    We have had so many happy nights here, but I think I'll just mention 
one because she is here in this room. Not so very long ago, we 
celebrated the 50th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty 
Association, the embodiment of our commitment in the cold war to stand 
against communism. And on that occasion, we had this marvelous dinner 
with this sort of arced head table with all the heads of state, the 
largest number of heads of state ever to visit Washington at one time. 
They were entertained here by Jessye Norman, 
standing and singing alone. And we welcome you here tonight, again. 
Thank you very much.
    This place is a thrill to live in. You heard President Carter say 
that he told them he wanted to eat the things that the staff was eating. 
As it turned out, when I came here, we asked them to redo the kitchen so 
we could have dinner in the kitchen at night. And just about every night 
for 8 years, Hillary and Chelsea and I have had dinner in the little 
kitchen upstairs--which is interesting how low standards have sunk. 
Until Jackie and John Kennedy moved here, the First Family came 
downstairs to dinner every night, in a formal dining room, for 160 
years. Who knows? Maybe the next crowd will be eating on the roof. 
[Laughter]
    We have enjoyed being in the Solarium, where President Reagan 
convalesced after he was shot. We have family and friends there. And I 
spend a lot of my evenings alone working in the Treaty Room, as you just 
heard from Hugh Sidey, on the great walnut table 
that President Grant used for a Cabinet table. Shortly thereafter, it 
was used in that same room, which was Abraham Lincoln's waiting room, as 
the table on which the treaty ending the Spanish-American War was signed 
in 1898. Thereafter, it became known as the Treaty Table, and every 
single treaty signed in the United States in 102 years has been signed 
on that table: President Carter's Camp David accords; the treaty signed 
by Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan, ending the war between 
their two nations. It always reminds me that I am a temporary resident.
    Hillary and Chelsea and I will be forever grateful to the American 
people for letting us make the White House our home for what was, I find 
amazing now, 40 percent of my daughter's young life. From the day we 
moved in, Hillary devoted herself to 
preserving the White House, to the restoration of public rooms, to the 
selection of the bicentennial china we use tonight, to installing 
sculpture in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. I thank her for the work she 
has done

[[Page 2519]]

to make this a more vibrant living museum than ever.
    I thank Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Bush for the work they did, which Hillary was able to help complete, to adequately endow the 
White House Endowment Fund so that this house and its collections will 
be better preserved for all future visitors, and so that all people who 
come here will better understand our Nation's past.
    Now soon, we, too, will be part of that past. When I leave here, as 
we all must, I will depart with a great sense of gratitude. I'm being 
helped along the way by all of my friends who are determined to keep me 
humble and grounded.
    The other day, I went to a meeting of the bishops of the Church of 
God in Christ, and I thought I was being quite clever. I got up in front 
of these 400 bishops, and I said, ``I wanted to come here today because 
I wanted to be among some leaders who aren't term-limited.'' And the 
head bishop got up and said, ``Oh, Mr. President, we're all term-
limited.'' [Laughter]
    And so I say tonight, the White House has never belonged to any one 
of us. It will always belong to all of us. We do not yet know who the 
next occupant will be, but we can honor the service, the lives, and the 
families of the candidates who contested this election. We know how 
proud President and Mrs. Bush must be of their son, and 
rightly so. And we Americans should take great pride in the fact that 
this contest was fought to a close conclusion. It is not a symbol of the 
division of our Nation but the vitality of our debate, and it will be 
resolved in a way consistent with the vitality of our enduring 
Constitution and laws.
    I think tonight of the words of an Englishman, Charles Dickens, who 
visited here in 1842. Listen to what he said right after he attended one 
of the functions that they then called levees. Where I come from, that 
holds in the Mississippi River. [Laughter] But for years in the 19th 
century, the receptions that Presidents regularly held were called 
levees. He walked through the White House, listening to the Marine Band 
play, marveling at the crowd assembled. And here is how he described the 
event in his American notes: ``Every man, even among the miscellaneous 
crowd in the halls who were admitted without any orders or tickets to 
look on, appeared to feel that he was part of the institution.'' Well, 
that's still the way it ought to be.
    Every one of you, from the wealthiest to those who could not be 
called wealthy, of whatever race or region, whatever your background, 
whether you're dining here or working here, you are a part of the 
institution. You are the center of the Nation. The most important title 
in this house has ever been ``citizen.'' It is, after all, why we're 
still around here after 200 years.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:18 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Hugh Sidey, president, and Robert 
L. Breeden, chairman and chief executive officer, White House Historical 
Association; Margaret Truman Daniel, daughter of President Harry S. 
Truman; former First Ladies Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Barbara Bush, 
and Nancy Reagan; Lynda Robb, daughter of President Lyndon B. Johnson 
and Lady Bird Johnson; Gen. John Eisenhower, USA (Ret.), son of 
President Dwight D. Eisenhower; Ethel Kennedy, widow of Senator Robert 
F. Kennedy; Helen Thomas, Hearst Newspapers columnist and former United 
Press International reporter; Gary Walters, White House Chief Usher; 
soprano Jessye Norman; and Republican Presidential candidate Gov. George 
W. Bush of Texas. The transcript released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary also included the remarks of President Gerald R. Ford, 
President Jimmy Carter, President George Bush, and Mr. Sidey. The dinner 
was hosted by the White House Historical Association.