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    "label": "Text of Remarks by the President to be delivered to the annual convention of the National Exchange Clubs [Ford Speech or Statement]",
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    "title": "Text of Remarks by the President to be delivered to the annual convention of the National Exchange Clubs [Ford Speech or Statement]",
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            "logicalDate": "1976-07-12",
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    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/37/3449/7344937/content/library/document/0248/whpr19760712-023.pdf",
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    "ocrText": "Digitized from Box 28 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nEMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL\nJULY 12,1976\n8:48 P.M. (EDT)\nOffice of the White House Press Secretary\nTHE WHITE HOUSE\nTEXT OF REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT\nTO BE DELIVERED TO THE ANNUAL CONVENTION\nOF THE NATIONAL EXCHANGE CLUBS\nSHERATON PARK HOTEL\nTonight I want to share with you briefly my personal feelings about two days that will\nalways stay fresh in my memory. Last Sunday and Monday--our great two hundredth\nbirthday party--were two of the most stirring and memorable days of my life.\nI saw celebrations in five historic places in those two days Valley Forge, Philadelphia,\nWashington, New York and Monticello. What I saw was no more than a small part of our\nnational festivities. But I could feel a spirit of renewal take hold across our country.\nIt is for that spirit that America's 200th Fourth of July will be remembered.\nThere had been some fears this Independence Day would fizzle--or explode. Some\nthought it would be nothing more than an occasion for hollow self-congratulation.\nOthers thought it would be cheapened by commercialism- a Bicentennial bought and\nsold. Still others, remembering a past decade of discord, feared the day would\ndemonstrate national divisiveness, rather than national unity. Those fears proved\ngroundless. I had a feeling they would, from my own experience last year at the\nvery first Bicentennial event.\nWhen I watched the faces of the people who lined the road from Lexington to Concord,\nI could see our great celebration would be a success--and it was. Americans enjoyed\ntheir national birthday party. And more than that--it renewed our sense of purpose.\nA great tide of rejoicing washed across the land, removing many remnants of past\nbitterness. Millions of Americans felt their hearts swell with a sense of pride some\nthought they had forgotten.\nThat feeling was summed up in the words of one American interviewed as he watched the\nfireworks at the Washington Monument on Sunday night. \"It gave me a feeling of\nHow great this country is, \" he said, \"How beautiful the people are.\"\nAmericans realized once again that America is an exciting idea. From the Fourth of\nJuly weekend I felt a new optimism emerging, a new era of good feeling in America.\nThe pageantry and the fireworks did not create those feelings, nor did the historic\nanniversary. They merely provided the spark for a spirit that was always there,\nwaiting to be rekindled in the American people. It blazed across the country on\nJuly the Fourth.\n(MORE)\n- 2 -\nThat day has gone, but the spirit remains. Now, while it still burns brightly, we\nmust provide new focal points for our new optimism -- new ways of exercising our\nrenewed pride in America. There is so much still to be achieved. In our third\ncentury we must continue to increase the freedom and opportunity available to all\nAmericans. We must conquer disease, and unlock the secrets of the earth and the\nuniverse. And we must make our people secure -- in their jobs, on their streets,\nand in a peaceful world.\nLocal activities and service programs are ,one way to focus our national energy on\nthese challenges. The National Exchange Clubs have fostered such activities for over\n65 years. Your projects are of national importance -- but they are selected and carrie\nout by local people, sensitive to the special needs of their communities.\nNeighborhoods and churches, schools and civic groups can keep America as proud and\nactive every day as it was on the Fourth of July. You can help maintain America's\nrenewed confidence in itself. Your projects will bring Americans together, and keep\nus whole. You can give historic meaning to your motto, by making this time of\nnational rebirth an era of \"unity for service. 11\nAmerica's government, too, should be a focal point for national pride. It must nurture\nall the energy and spirit we saw on July Fourth, for the good of all the American\npeople.\nBut to do so, the great instrument of our government must be used wisely and\ncautiously. It can only be an instrument of pride if every government official,\nelected or appointed, is willing and able to be a model of personal integrity. Each\nmust set himself or herself the standard of a George Washington, a Thomas Jefferson\nor an Abraham Lincoln.\nWe are not all going to attain the greatness of such historic figures -- but we can\nall be guided by their wisdom and their ideals. We can all aspire to achieve the\ngoal set by George Washington at the Constitutional Convention, when he said: \"Let\nus raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands\nof God. 11\nIn this way we will sustain not just the spirit of a single historic weekend -- but\nthe spirit of two centuries.\n#\n#\n#"
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