Regardless of political leanings, America on Wednesday inaugurated her 46th president, Joe Biden.
What message did his Inauguration Day speech portray? We go down memory lane to other memorable speeches:
George Washington, 1789
“The magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my Country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens, a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence.”
Thomas Jefferson, 1801
“Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.”
Abraham Lincoln, 1865
“With malice toward none, charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.”
Theodore Roosevelt, 1905
“Much has been given (to) us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to (each) other and duties to ourselves, and we can shirk neither.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
John F. Kennedy, 1961
“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”
Ronald Reagan, 1981
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
George H.W. Bush, 1989
“The American people await action. They didn’t send us here to bicker. They ask us to rise above the merely partisan.”
Bill Clinton, 1993
“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
Barack Obama 2009
“Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those that prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.
Donald Trump 2017
Americans ‘want great schools for their children, safe neighbourhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.
Joe Biden 2021
We’ve learned again that democracy is precious, democracy is fragile and, at this hour my friends, democracy has prevailed.
