nd happy
heart. Let us shape the hope of this day into the noblest chapter in our
history. Yes, let us build our bridge. A bridge wide enough and strong
enough for every American to cross over to a blessed land of new
promise.

May those generations whose faces we cannot yet see, whose names we
may never know, say of us here that we led our beloved land into a new
century with the American Dream alive for all her children; with the
American promise of a more perfect union a reality for all her people;
with America's bright flame of freedom spreading throughout all the
world.

From the height of this place and the summit of this century, let us go
forth. May God strengthen our hands for the good work ahead--and always,
always bless our America.

*****

George W. Bush First Inaugural Address Saturday, January 20, 2001

President Clinton, distinguished guests and my fellow citizens, the
peaceful transfer of authority is rare in history, yet common in our
country. With a simple oath, we affirm old traditions and make new
beginnings.

As I begin, I thank President Clinton for his service to our nation.

And I thank Vice President Gore for a contest conducted with spirit and
ended with grace.

I am honored and humbled to stand here, where so many of America's
leaders have come before me, and so many will follow.

We have a place, all of us, in a long story--a story we continue, but
whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a
friend and liberator of the old, a story of a slave-holding society that
became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the
world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer.

It is the American story--a story of flawed and fallible people, united
across the generations by grand and enduring ideals.

The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that
everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant
person was ever born.

Americans are called to enact this promise in our lives and in our laws.
And though our nation has sometimes halted, and sometimes delayed, we
must follow no other course.

Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and
democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind,
taking root in many nations.

Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country, it is the
inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry but do not own