Service is the supreme commitment of life.  I would rejoice to acclaim the era of the Golden Rule and crown it with the autocracy of service.  I pledge an administration wherein all the agencies of Government are called to serve, and ever promote an understanding of Government purely as an expression of the popular will.

One cannot stand in this presence and be unmindful of the tremendous responsibility.  The world upheaval has added heavily to our tasks.  But with the realization comes the surge of high resolve, and there is reassurance in belief in the God-given destiny of our Republic.  If I felt that there is to be sole responsibility in the Executive for the America of tomorrow I should shrink from the burden.  But here are a hundred millions, with common concern and shared responsibility, answerable to God and country.  The Republic summons them to their duty, and I invite co-operation.

I accept my part with single-mindedness of purpose and humility of spirit, and implore the favor and guidance of God in His Heaven.  With these I am unafraid, and confidently face the future.

I have taken the solemn oath of office on that passage of Holy Writ wherein it is asked:  “What doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” This I plight to God and country.

***

Calvin Coolidge
Inaugural Address
Wednesday, March 4, 1925

My Countrymen: 

No one can contemplate current conditions without finding much that is satisfying and still more that is encouraging.  Our own country is leading the world in the general readjustment to the results of the great conflict.  Many of its burdens will bear heavily upon us for years, and the secondary and indirect effects we must expect to experience for some time.  But we are beginning to comprehend more definitely what course should be pursued, what remedies ought to be applied, what actions should be taken for our deliverance, and are clearly manifesting a determined will faithfully and conscientiously to adopt these methods of relief.  Already we have sufficiently rearranged our domestic affairs so that confidence has returned, business has revived, and we appear to be entering an era of prosperity which is gradually reaching into every part of the Nation.  Realizing that we can not live unto ourselves alone, we have contributed of our resources and our counsel to the relief of the suffering and the settlement of the disputes among the European nations.  Because of what America is and what America has done, a firmer courage, a higher hope, inspires the heart of all humanity.