First Inaugural Address

Summary

Richard Nixon was sworn in on 20 January 1969, after a year of the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, riots in many cities, and a divided Democratic convention in Chicago. He had narrowly defeated Hubert Humphrey, who sat on the platform with Lyndon Johnson. Less than a month earlier the crew of Apollo 8 had read Genesis on Christmas Eve while orbiting the moon. Both the war and the moon shape the address. Nixon begins with "the orderly transfer of power" as a celebration of "the unity that keeps us free," then names the honor he seeks: "The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker." The country's crisis, he says, is the reverse of the one FDR faced in 1933; Americans are "rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth." A crisis of the spirit needs an answer of the spirit, and he borrows Lincoln's "better angels of our nature." The most quoted passage asks for quieter speech. America has "suffered from a fever of words," from inflated, angry, and bombastic rhetoric, and "We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another." Government promises to listen to "the voices of quiet anguish." Nixon then marks a limit: "we are approaching the limits of what government alone can do," and progress must come from citizens building "a great cathedral of the spirit," one stone at a time. Abroad, "After a period of confrontation, we are entering an era of negotiation," and he wants "an open world" in which no people live "in angry isolation." He closes with the view of the earth from Apollo 8, quoting Archibald MacLeish on "riders on the earth together," and seeks a peace "with healing in its wings," words from Malachi. The war continued for four more years and Nixon resigned in 1974, but the speech still poses its own measure for judging him and his successors.

Plot or Argument

• Majesty of an orderly transfer

  Nixon greets the outgoing and defeated leaders and calls the peaceful transfer of power a celebration of the unity that keeps the nation free.

• The title of peacemaker

  He names peacemaking as history's greatest honor and a summons to greatness at a moment when the times favor peace.

• Rich in goods, ragged in spirit

  Reversing FDR's material crisis, he diagnoses a crisis of the spirit and invokes Lincoln's better angels.

• Lower voices, listening government

  Nixon condemns a fever of words, promises that government will listen, commits to racial equality, and calls for citizen effort beyond government.

• Negotiation and the view from the moon

  He opens an era of negotiation, seeks an open world, consecrates his office to peace, and closes with the Apollo 8 view of the earth.

Lessons

• A fever of words

  Nixon diagnoses inflated, angry, and bombastic rhetoric as a national illness and asks Americans to lower their voices so their words "can be heard as well as our voices." The lesson asks whether civil speech is a precondition of self-government, and what it costs a leader to ask for it.

  • What three kinds of rhetoric does Nixon name?
  • Why does he say lowering voices "would be a simple thing," and is it?
  • Can a leader ask others to speak quietly without being accused of silencing dissent?

• Peacemaker as the highest title

  Nixon redefines national honor in terms of peacemaking rather than victory, seeking a peace that is "not victory over any other people." He spoke while more than half a million American troops were in Vietnam, and the war continued until 1973. Students can weigh the promise against the record without dismissing the ideal.

  • What kind of peace does Nixon describe in the line borrowed from Malachi?
  • How does "an era of negotiation" connect to his later opening to China?
  • Does a later record cancel the value of a public ideal stated at an inauguration?

• The limits of government alone

  After listing the programs of the previous third of a century, Nixon says "we are approaching the limits of what government alone can do" and calls for citizens building "a great cathedral of the spirit." He asks for "small, splendid efforts" reported in neighborhood newspapers rather than national journals.

  • What tasks does Nixon say government must still pursue?
  • What does the cathedral image suggest about the kind of work citizens must do?
  • How does Nixon's "government and people together" compare with Kennedy's "Ask not"?

Context

In 1968 the Tet Offensive turned opinion against the war, Johnson withdrew from the race, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, riots followed in many cities, and protest and police violence marked the Democratic convention in Chicago. Nixon won with about 43 percent of the popular vote against Humphrey and Wallace. Apollo 8 orbited the moon in December 1968.

Composition

Nixon delivered the address on the East Portico on 20 January 1969. The text follows the Project Gutenberg #4938 transcription. It quotes FDR's 1933 inaugural, Lincoln's first inaugural, Archibald MacLeish's essay on the Apollo 8 photographs, and Malachi 4:2.

Reception

The "lower our voices" passage and the peacemaker sentence are the most quoted lines. Nixon's opening to China and arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union are often linked to the speech's "era of negotiation," while the continuing war and the Watergate scandal, which ended in his resignation in August 1974, have shaped how the address is read.

Comparisons

• Inaugural Address

  Kennedy in 1961 promised to "pay any price, bear any burden"; Nixon, eight years and one war later, promises negotiation and asks for lowered voices. Compare the two Cold War tones.

• Inaugural Address (Lyndon Baines Johnson)

  Johnson in 1965 described the Great Society with confidence in federal programs; Nixon in 1969 credits those programs and then declares the limits of government alone.

• Tear Down This Wall (Brandenburg Gate Address)

  Reagan in 1987 speaks at the Berlin Wall in a closing phase of the Cold War; set his demand beside Nixon's "open world" and "era of negotiation" to see two strategies toward the same adversary.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• The reversal of FDR's 1933 crisis: "rich in goods, but ragged in spirit."
• The passage on the "fever of words" and the call to lower voices.
• The admission that "we are approaching the limits of what government alone can do."
• The Apollo 8 image and the MacLeish quotation at the close.

Key terms and names

Peacemaker

The title Nixon calls history's greatest honor; it echoes Matthew 5:9.

Fever of words

Nixon's image for the inflated, angry, and bombastic rhetoric of the late 1960s.

Era of negotiation

Nixon's promise of open communication with adversaries after a period of confrontation.

Apollo 8

The December 1968 mission that first orbited the moon and photographed the earth rising over the lunar horizon.

Healing in its wings

A phrase from Malachi 4:2 that Nixon applies to the kind of peace he seeks.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension Whom does Nixon quote from 1933, and how does he say today's crisis is "the reverse"?
2. Comprehension What three kinds of rhetoric does Nixon say have caused a "fever of words"?
3. Interpretation Why does Nixon begin by praising the orderly transfer of power?
4. Interpretation How does the Apollo 8 image support his argument about peace on earth?
5. Interpretation Why does Nixon place racial equality inside his call to "go forward together"?
6. Big Question Is a crisis of the spirit something a government can address, or only citizens, families, and churches?
7. Big Question Should a leader's public ideals be judged separately from his later conduct?

Faith Connections

• Matthew 5:9 (Scripture)

  "Blessed are the peacemakers" stands behind Nixon's claim that peacemaker is history's greatest title; the beatitude promises blessing, not historical honor, which students can weigh.

• Augustine, City of God XIX.12 (Church Fathers)

  Augustine argues that all people, even those who make war, desire peace as their end; compare Nixon's claim that "the people of the world want peace."

• Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address (Great Conversation)

  Nixon borrows Lincoln's "better angels of our nature," spoken on the eve of civil war; compare how each President appeals to shared goodness in a divided nation.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Nixon argues that America's crisis is spiritual rather than material, that it can be met by lowering voices, listening, pursuing equal dignity, and joining citizen effort to government, and that the nation should seek the honor of peacemaker abroad through negotiation backed by sufficient strength.

Rhetorical device: Antithesis. "We have found ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth." Paired contrasts state the paradox of 1969 America.

Debate: Resolved: That restoring civil public speech is a precondition for solving national problems.

Memory Work

greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker

orderly transfer of power, we celebrate the unity that keeps us free

Writing Prompts

Essay: Explain how Nixon diagnoses a "crisis of the spirit" and evaluate whether his proposed remedies match the diagnosis.

Comparison with Inaugural Address: Compare the Cold War tone of Kennedy's 1961 inaugural with Nixon's 1969 "era of negotiation": what had changed in eight years?

Medical Lens

Presidential inaugurals concern constitutional politics and national crisis; they have no medical content for this library's lens.

Creative Prompts

• Classroom

  Find the three quotations Nixon borrows (FDR, Lincoln, MacLeish) and the scriptural echo from Malachi, and explain what authority each lends the argument at its point in the speech.

• Dialogue

  Write a conversation between a college protester and a veteran just home from Vietnam, both listening to Nixon's call to "stop shouting at one another."

• Essay

  Argue whether "To lower our voices would be a simple thing" is a realistic request in a divided nation, using evidence from the speech and from 1968.

Further Reading

• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States, Avalon Project / GPO

  Parallel official texts for classroom comparison.

• The Rhetorical Presidency, Jeffrey K. Tulis

  A study of how inaugural and other presidential speech reshaped the office.

• American Political Oratory, Survey histories of U.S. public address

  Place this inaugural among other civic speeches of its decade.