To my friends—­and yes, I do mean friends—­in the loyal opposition—­and yes, I mean loyal:  I put out my hand.  I am putting out my hand to you, Mr. Speaker.  I am putting out my hand to you Mr. Majority Leader.  For this is the thing:  This is the age of the offered hand.  We can’t turn back clocks, and I don’t want to.  But when our fathers were young, Mr. Speaker, our differences ended at the water’s edge.  And we don’t wish to turn back time, but when our mothers were young, Mr. Majority Leader, the Congress and the Executive were capable of working together to produce a budget on which this nation could live.  Let us negotiate soon and hard.  But in the end, let us produce.  The American people await action.  They didn’t send us here to bicker.  They ask us to rise above the merely partisan.  “In crucial things, unity”—­and this, my friends, is crucial.

To the world, too, we offer new engagement and a renewed vow:  We will stay strong to protect the peace.  The “offered hand” is a reluctant fist; but once made, strong, and can be used with great effect.  There are today Americans who are held against their will in foreign lands, and Americans who are unaccounted for.  Assistance can be shown here, and will be long remembered.  Good will begets good will.  Good faith can be a spiral that endlessly moves on.

Great nations like great men must keep their word.  When America says something, America means it, whether a treaty or an agreement or a vow made on marble steps.  We will always try to speak clearly, for candor is a compliment, but subtlety, too, is good and has its place.  While keeping our alliances and friendships around the world strong, ever strong, we will continue the new closeness with the Soviet Union, consistent both with our security and with progress.  One might say that our new relationship in part reflects the triumph of hope and strength over experience.  But hope is good, and so are strength and vigilance.

Here today are tens of thousands of our citizens who feel the understandable satisfaction of those who have taken part in democracy and seen their hopes fulfilled.  But my thoughts have been turning the past few days to those who would be watching at home, to an older fellow who will throw a salute by himself when the flag goes by, and the women who will tell her sons the words of the battle hymns.  I don’t mean this to be sentimental.  I mean that on days like this, we remember that we are all part of a continuum, inescapably connected by the ties that bind.

Our children are watching in schools throughout our great land.  And to them I say, thank you for watching democracy’s big day.  For democracy belongs to us all, and freedom is like a beautiful kite that can go higher and higher with the breeze.  And to all I say:  No matter what your circumstances or where you are, you are part of this day, you are part of the life of our great nation.

A President is neither prince nor pope, and I don’t seek a window on men’s souls.  In fact, I yearn for a greater tolerance, an easy-goingness about each other’s attitudes and way of life.