[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 46 (Monday, November 20, 2000)]
[Pages 2852-2855]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the White House Bicentennial Dinner

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 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 suffered two losses in her family recently 
and could not be here tonight, with 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

[[Page 2853]]

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 to 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 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 
Merriwether 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]

[[Page 2854]]

    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 re-do 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 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]

[[Page 2855]]

    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 with 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 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, former reporter, United 
Press International; soprano Jessye Norman; Robert L. Breeden, chairman 
and chief executive officer, White House Historical Association; Gary 
Walters, chief White House usher; and Republican Presidential candidate 
Gov. George W. Bush. 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 Hugh Sidey, 
president, White House Historical Association. The dinner was hosted by 
the White House Historical Association. A tape was not available for 
verification of the content of these remarks. This item was not received 
in time for publication in the appropriate issue.