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The original documents are located in Box D25, folder "Republican National Convention,
Miami Beach, FL, August 6, 1968" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and
Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
1968
REPUBLICAN
REpublican NATiONAL CONVENTiON
FONTAINEBLEAU HOTEL-MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA 33139
(305) 531-8511
NEWS
X- applause
FOR RELEASE
NOT FOR RELEASE
ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
BEFORE DELIVERY
CONVENTION PERMANENT CHAIRMAN AND
MINORITY LEADER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BEFORE THE 29th REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
TUESDAY NIGHT, AUGUST 6, 1968
Delegates and fellow Americans:
I am deeply honored to have been selected as the permanent chairman of this,
the 29th, Republican Convention.
I am very grateful for the generous words of my good friend and strong right
arm in the House of Representatives, Congressman Les Arends of Illinois. And I'm
sure I speak for everybody here in congratulating Senator Ed Brooke of Massachusetts
on the outstanding job he has done as Temporary Chairman. Let's show him our
appreciation.
Tonight and throughout the next three months the magic word is choice.
A choice between the party which blundered into a war in Vietnam, and a
party with a record of peace through strength.
A choice between a party which debases the dollar, and a party which defends
it.
A choice between a party that raises income taxes, and a party that lowers
taxes.
A choice between the party which spends the country deeper and deeper into
inflation, and a party that puts the brakes on inflation.
A choice between a party which wastes your tax money, and a party which is
dedicated to efficiency in government a party that remembers that every dollar
FORD
the government spends comes out of your pocket.
LIBRARY
Republicans aim at helping all Americans get ahead -- but not at the expense
of each other.
(more)
25
Digitized from Box D25 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
-2-
A Republican Administration will mean that human rights and human dignity
will be shared by all Americans.
It will mean an America where a growing economy provides new jobs and new
markets. An America where consumer prices are not inflated beyond the reach of
your family budget.
It will mean an America where the farmer will get a fair return for what he
produces, the businessman will make a fair profit, and the worker will make a
fair wage. And nobody will go hungry.
Tonight all Americans are hungry -- hungry for peace. The people of America
are appalled by the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's mishandling of the war in
Vietnam.
Republicans stand ready to achieve peace through strength.
Under the Democrats our military strength has dangerously declined compared
to that of the Communist world. We must rebuild our military power to the point
where no aggressor will dare attack us -- or seize our ships.
Now and in the future let us negotiate peace from strength and not from
fear.
America must always be Number One among the nations of the world. Only an
America that is the leader can be a strong America in a world of peace.
Tonight all Americans are hungry -- hungry for new leadership and for new
courage that will make them proud of their country once again.
Americans are turning away from the past. They are turning away from
The lowest world prestige in American history.
The biggest deficit since World War II.
The most riots and civil disorders in American history.
The highest crime rate in American history.
The highest interest rates in a hundred years.
The highest cost of living and the heaviest tax burden in American history.
(more)
-3-
The most dangerous military capability gap and the worst credibility gap in
American history.
The longest war in American history.
Who isn't fed up to here with all this? All those who are fed up -- say aye.
Apparently, the ayes have it.
Did I hear somebody out there shout "NO?" Well, thank you, Hubert Humphrey.
All Americans are concerned about the direction in which this country is
heading.
To change this direction we must win not only the White House but the People's
House.
What would a Republican majority in the House of Representatives mean in
setting a new course for this Nation?
Because the voters in 1966 greatly strengthened the Republican minority in
the House -- the result has been one of the astounding success stories of our
times.
We completely rewrote the crime bill for a sweeping anti-crime crusade.
We created a corps of community service officers to assist over-burdened
city police.
We gave law enforcement officials new weapons against the crime syndicates.
We wrote strong anti-riot provisions into Federal law.
We cracked down on loan-sharking.
We passed sane and workable programs to protect the consumer with truth in
lending, cleaner meat and poultry, cleaner water and cleaner air.
House Republican pressure created a permanent Committee on Ethics.
House Republicans demanded and won a $6 billion cut in non-essential federal
spending.
House Republicans joined with their Senate colleagues to pass the first major
housing legislation opening the door for home ownership for low-income families.
(more)
-4-
A Republican program from start to finish.
House Republicans succeeded in getting the Johnson-Humphrey Administration to
stop dilly-dallying and to go ahead with a ballistic missile defense for the
protection of the American people.
House Republicans moved to revitalize state and local government by taking
the strings off funds to fight crime, combat juvenile deliquency, improve the
health of the Nation and the quality of our schools.
These are just a few of the constructive Republican accomplishments since
the 1966 election, with just 47 more Republican members in the House of
Representatives. Elect 31 more Republican congressmen -- a majority -- and we'll
work with a Republican President to really move this country forward.
It would mean an end to the feeling on the part of the American people that
the world is coming apart before their very eyes.
It would bring an end to the feeling of drift
the lack of national purpose.
It would give the Nation new leadership and new dedication to meaningful
ideals. Leadership which would draw on all sectors of American life and all
constructive minds for workable solutions.
It would mean that laws already on the books would be enforced. Criminals
and crime bosses would come under massive attack led by a Republican President
and a Republican attorney general.
It would mean new Republican programs
Legislation to meet the problems of the cities and depressed rural areas,
the problems of welfare, the problems of unemployment and underemployment and
crime
the need for better education, better housing and better health, the need
for a workable program for the efficient family farmer and for greater advancement
opportunities for all Americans.
An automatic cost-of-living adjustment and other improvements in Social
Security.
(more)
-5-
A program to share federal income tax revenue with the states and the cities.
Legislation to invest in human beings through on-the-job training programs
in industry, with a good-paying job when the trainee "graduates."
Republican programs to spur new industrial growth and new jobs in our
central cities and our depressed rural areas through tax incentives.
Laws to assure clean elections in America.
Reforms to reorganize the Congress... to make certain that federal programs
work...and not waste.
Legislation to overhaul our costly and failure-ridden welfare system and
move ahead with a Work-Incentive income and training program. Programs that will
make tax payers out of able-bodied tax eaters.
The country needs Republican leadership -- a Republican President, a
Republican Congress.
The country wants a change. That became clear in 1966 when the voters
changed the complexion of the House. That was a demand for New Directions in
this Nation. Now I see that response growing and swelling into a cry for a
change of command in 1968.
These are troubled times. Now we face the heavy task of leading our country
to greatness. It is a monumental task, but the candidate we nominate at this
convention will show America the way.
Ours will be a Republican campaign dedicated to freedom.
We will free the American people from the Vietnam War.
We will free the American economy from the bankrupt policies of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration.
We will free the economy from the disastrous policy of high interest. A
policy which is a crushing burden on your communities which must build new
schools, on the small businessman, the farmer, the home builder and home buyer.
We will free the efficient family farmer from the Democrats' cost-price
squeeze.
(more)
-6-
We will free American families from the deliberate policy of price inflation
which continuously pinches their pocketbooks.
This convention marks the beginning of a long and hard campaign. With the
help of the people it will mark the birth of a new America.
Together let us show our countrymen a Republican Party that is a faithful
reflection of the real America.
-- the America that not only preaches but practices decency and order;
-- the America that not only expects but extends courtesy and respect;
-- the America that combines freedom and self-discipline, justice and mercy,
compassion and reason;
-- the America that cherishes the dignity, and honors the opinions of others;
-- the America that rejects alike the violent weapon and the vicious whisper.
Together let us show our pride in being Americans and in being Republicans.
Our pride in our magnificent heritage of free political competition and choice.
Our pride in our ancient but adaptable system of majority rule with minority
rights.
Our goal is peace and understanding at home and abroad. No more platitudes,
no more unkept promises, no more politics as usual. Honesty, realism, decision
and action.
Let us demonstrate here and now that the Republican Party has the integrity,
has the intelligence, has the courage to save the Union once again.
###
REPUBLICAN
REpublican NATiONAL COMMiTTEE
1625 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20006
NATIONAL 8-6800
NEWS
EOR RELEASE
NOT FOR RELEASE
ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
BEFORE DELIVERY
CONVENTION PERMANENT CHAIRMAN AND
MINORITY LEADER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BEFORE THE 29th REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
TUESDAY NIGHT, AUGUST 6, 1968
Delegates and fellow Americans:
I am deeply honored to have been selected as the permanent chairman of this,
the 29th, Republican Convention.
I am very grateful for the generous words of my good friend and strong right
arm in the House of Representatives, Congressman Les Arends of Illinois. And I'm
sure I speak for everybody here in congratulating Senator Ed Brooke of Massachusetts
on the outstanding job he has done as Temporary Chairman. Let's show him our
appreciation.
Tonight and throughout the next three months the magic word is choice.
A chóice between the party which blundered into a war in Vietnam, and a
party with a record of peace through strength.
A choice between a party which debases the dollar, and a party which defends
it.
A choice between a party that raises income taxes, and a party that lowers
taxes.
A choice between the party which spends the country deeper and deeper into
inflation, and a party that puts the brakes on inflation.
A choice between a party which wastes your tax money, and a party which is
dedicated to efficiency in government a party that remembers that every dollar ORD
the government spends comes out of your pocket.
ERALD
LIBRARY
Republicans aim at helping all Americans get ahead -- but not at the expense
of each other.
(more)
-2-
A Republican Administration will mean that human rights and human dignity
will be shared by all Americans.
It will mean an America where a growing economy provides new jobs and new
markets. An America where consumer prices are not inflated beyond the reach of
your family budget.
It will mean an America where the farmer will get a fair return for what he
produces, the businessman will make a fair profit, and the worker will make a
fair wage. And nobody will go hungry.
Tonight all Americans are hungry -- hungry for peace. The people of America
are appalled by the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's mishandling of the war in
Vietnam.
Republicans stand ready to achieve peace through strength.
Under the Democrats our military strength has dangerously declined compared
to that of the Communist world. We must rebuild our military power to the point
where no aggressor will dare attack us -- or seize our ships.
Now and in the future let us negotiate peace from strength and not from
fear.
America must always be Number One among the nations of the world. Only an
America that is the leader can be a strong America in a world of peace.
Tonight all Americans are hungry -- hungry for new leadership and for new
courage that will make them proud of their country once again.
Americans are turning away from the past. They are turning away from
The lowest world prestige in American history.
The biggest deficit since World War II.
The most riots and civil disorders in American history.
The highest crime rate in American history.
The highest interest rates in a hundred years.
The highest cost of living and the heaviest tax burden in American history.
(more)
-3-
The most dangerous military capability gap and the worst credibility gap in
American history.
The longest war in American history.
Who isn't fed up to here with all this? All those who are fed up -- say aye.
Apparently, the ayes have it.
Did I hear somebody out there shout "NO?" Well, thank you, Hubert Humphrey.
All Americans are concerned about the direction in which this country is
heading.
To change this direction we must win not only the White House but the People's
House.
What would a Republican majority in the House of Representatives mean in
setting a new course for this Nation?
Because the voters in 1966 greatly strengthened the Republican minority in
the House -- the result has been one of the astounding success stories of our
times.
We completely rewrote the crime bill for a sweeping anti-crime crusade.
We created a corps of community service officers to assist over-burdened
city police.
We gave law enforcement officials new weapons against the crime syndicates.
We wrote strong anti-riot provisions into Federal law.
We cracked down on loan-sharking.
We passed sane and workable programs to protect the consumer with truth in
lending, cleaner meat and poultry, cleaner water and cleaner air.
House Republican pressure created a permanent Committee on Ethics.
House Republicans demanded and won a $6 billion cut in non-essential federal
spending.
House Republicans joined with their Senate colleagues to pass the first major
housing legislation opening the door for home ownership for low-income families.
(more)
-4-
A Republican program from start to finish.
House Republicans succeeded in getting the Johnson-Humphrey Administration to
stop dilly-dallying and to go ahead with a ballistic missile defense for the
protection of the American people.
House Republicans moved to revitalize state and local government by taking
the strings off funds to fight crime, combat juvenile deliquency, improve the
health of the Nation and the quality of our schools.
These are just a few of the constructive Republican accomplishments since
the 1966 election, with just 47 more Republican members in the House of
Representatives. Elect 31 more Republican congressmen -- a majority -- and we'll
work with a Republican President to really move this country forward.
It would mean an end to the feeling on the part of the American people that
the world is coming apart before their very eyes.
It would bring an end to the feeling of drift
the lack of national purpose.
It would give the Nation new leadership and new dedication to meaningful
ideals. Leadership which would draw on all sectors of American life and all
constructive minds for workable solutions.
It would mean that laws already on the books would be enforced. Criminals
and crime bosses would come under massive attack led by a Republican President
and a Republican attorney general.
It would mean new Republican programs
Legislation to meet the problems of the cities and depressed rural areas,
the problems of welfare, the problems of unemployment and underemployment and
crime the need for better education, better housing and better health, the need
for a workable program for the efficient family farmer and for greater advancement
opportunities for all Americans.
An automatic cost-of-living adjustment and other improvements in Social
Security.
(more)
-5-
A program to share federal income tax revenue with the states and the cities.
Legislation to invest in human beings through on-the-job training programs
in industry, with a good-paying job when the trainee "graduates."
Republican programs to spur new industrial growth and new jobs in our
central cities and our depressed rural areas through tax incentives.
Laws to assure clean elections in America.
Reforms to reorganize the Congress
to make certain that federal programs
work
and not waste.
Legislation to overhaul our costly and failure-ridden welfare system and
move ahead with a Work-Incentive income and training program. Programs that will
make tax payers out of able-bodied tax eaters.
The country needs Republican leadership -- a Republican President, a
Republican Congress.
The country wants a change. That became clear in 1966 when the voters
changed the complexion of the House. That was a demand for New Directions in
this Nation. Now I see that response growing and swelling into a cry for a
change of command in 1968.
These are troubled times. Now we face the heavy task of leading our country
to greatness. It is a monumental task, but the candidate we nominate at this
convention will show America the way.
Ours will be a Republican campaign dedicated to freedom.
We will free the American people from the Vietnam War.
We will free the American economy from the bankrupt policies of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration
We will free the economy from the disastrous policy of high interest. A
policy which is a crushing burden on your communities which must build new
schools, on the small businessman, the farmer, the home builder and home buyer.
We will free the efficient family farmer from the Democrats' cost-price
squeeze.
(more)
-6-
We will free American families from the deliberate policy of price inflation
which continuously pinches their pocketbooks.
This convention marks the beginning of a long and hard campaign. With the
help of the people it will mark the birth of a new America.
Together let us show our countrymen a Republican Party that is a faithful
reflection of the real America.
-- the America that not only preaches but practices decency and order;
-- the America that not only expects but extends courtesy and respect;
-- the America that combines freedom and self-discipline, justice and mercy,
compassion and reason;
-- the America that cherishes the dignity, and honors the opinions of others;
-- the America that rejects alike the violent weapon and the vicious whisper.
Together let us show our pride in being Americans and in being Republicans.
Our pride in our magnificent heritage of free political competition and choice.
Our pride in our ancient but adaptable system of majority rule with minority
rights.
Our goal is peace and understanding at home and abroad. No more platitudes,
no more unkept promises, no more politics as usual. Honesty, realism, decision
and action.
Let us demonstrate here and now that the Republican Party has the integrity,
has the intelligence, has the courage to save the Union once again.
###
1968
REPUBLICAN
REpublican NATiONAL CONVENTiON
NATURAL COMMITTEE
FONTAINEBLEAU HOTEL-MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA 33139
(305) 531-8511
NEWS
M Office Copy
FOR RELEASE
NOT FOR RELEASE
ADDRESS BY REP. GERALD R. FORD, R-MICH.
BEFORE DELIVERY
CONVENTION PERMANENT CHAIRMAN AND
MINORITY LEADER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
BEFORE THE 29th REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
TUESDAY NIGHT, AUGUST 6, 1968
Delegates and fellow Americans:
I am deeply honored to have been selected as the permanent chairman of this,
the 29th, Republican Convention.
I am very grateful for the generous words of my good friend and strong right
arm in the House of Representatives, Congressman Les Arends of Illinois. And I'm
sure I speak for everybody here in congratulating Senator Ed Brooke of Massachusetts
on the outstanding job he has done as Temporary Chairman. Let's show him our
appreciation.
Tonight and throughout the next three months the magic word is choice.
A choice between the party which blundered into a war in Vietnam, and a
party with a record of peace through strength.
A choice between a party which debases the dollar, and a party which defends
it.
A choice between a party that raises income taxes, and a party that lowers
taxes.
A choice between the party which spends the country deeper and deeper into
inflation, and a party that puts the brakes on inflation.
A choice between a party which wastes your tax money, and a party which is
dedicated to efficiency in government a party that remembers that every dollar
the government spends comes out of your pocket.
,RALD
LIBRARY
Republicans aim at helping all Americans get ahead but not at the expense
of each other.
(more)
25
-2-
A Republican Administration will mean that human rights and human dignity
will be shared by all Americans.
It will mean an America where a growing economy provides new jobs and new
markets. An America where consumer prices are not inflated beyond the reach of
your family budget.
It will mean an America where the farmer will get a fair return for what he
produces, the businessman will make a fair profit, and the worker will make a
fair wage. And nobody will go hungry.
Tonight all Americans are hungry -- hungry for peace. The people of America
are appalled by the Johnson-Humphrey Administration's mishandling of the war in
Vietnam.
Republicans stand ready to achieve peace through strength.
Under the Democrats our military strength has dangerously declined compared
to that of the Communist world. We must rebuild our military power to the point
where no aggressor will dare attack us -- or seize our ships.
Now and in the future let us negotiate peace from strength and not from
fear.
America must always be Number One among the nations of the world. Only an
America that is the leader can be a strong America in a world of peace.
Tonight all Americans are hungry -- hungry for new leadership and for new
courage that will make them proud of their country once again.
Americans are turning away from the past. They are turning away from
The lowest world prestige in American history.
The biggest deficit since World War II.
The most riots and civil disorders in American history.
The highest crime rate in American history.
The highest interest rates in a hundred years.
The highest cost of living and the heaviest tax burden in American history.
(more)
-3-
The most dangerous military capability gap and the worst credibility gap in
American history.
The longest war in American history.
Who isn't fed up to here with all this? All those who are fed up -- say aye.
Apparently, the ayes have it.
Did I hear somebody out there shout "NO?" Well, thank you, Hubert Humphrey.
All Americans are concerned about the direction in which this country is
heading.
To change this direction we must win not only the White House but the People's
House.
What would a Republican majority in the House of Representatives mean in
setting a new course for this Nation?
Because the voters in 1966 greatly strengthened the Republican minority in
the House -- the result has been one of the astounding success stories of our
times.
We completely rewrote the crime bill for a sweeping anti-crime crusade.
We created a corps of community service officers to assist over-burdened
city police.
We gave law enforcement officials new weapons against the crime syndicates.
We wrote strong anti-riot provisions into Federal law.
We cracked down on loan-sharking.
We passed sane and workable programs to protect the consumer with truth in
lending, cleaner meat and poultry, cleaner water and cleaner air.
House Republican pressure created a permanent Committee on Ethics.
House Republicans demanded and won a $6 billion cut in non-essential federal
spending.
House Republicans joined with their Senate colleagues to pass the first major
housing legislation opening the door for home ownership for low-income families.
(more)
-4-
A Republican program from start to finish.
House Republicans succeeded in getting the Johnson-Humphrey Administration to
stop dilly-dallying and to go ahead with a ballistic missile defense for the
protection of the American people.
House Republicans moved to revitalize state and local government by taking
the strings off funds to fight crime, combat juvenile deliquency, improve the
health of the Nation and the quality of our schools.
These are just a few of the constructive Republican accomplishments since
the 1966 election, with just 47 more Republican members in the House of
Representatives. Elect 31 more Republican congressmen -- a majority -- and we'll
work with a Republican President to really move this country forward.
It would mean an end to the feeling on the part of the American people that
the world is coming apart before their very eyes.
It would bring an end to the feeling of drift the lack of national purpose.
It would give the Nation new leadership and new dedication to meaningful
ideals. Leadership which would draw on all sectors of American life and all
constructive minds for workable solutions.
It would mean that laws already on the books would be enforced. Criminals
and crime bosses would come under massive attack led by a Republican President
and a Republican attorney general.
It would mean new Republican programs
Legislation to meet the problems of the cities and depressed rural areas,
the problems of welfare, the problems of unemployment and underemployment and
crime
the need for better education, better housing and better health, the need
for a workable program for the efficient family farmer and for greater advancement
opportunities for all Americans.
An automatic cost-of-living adjustment and other improvements in Social
Security.
(more)
-5-
A program to share federal income tax revenue with the states and the cities.
Legislation to invest in human beings through on-the-job training programs
in industry, with a good-paying job when the trainee "graduates."
Republican programs to spur new industrial growth and new jobs in our
central cities and our depressed rural areas through tax incentives.
Laws to assure clean elections in America.
Reforms to reorganize the Congress to make certain that federal programs
work and not waste.
Legislation to overhaul our costly and failure-ridden welfare system and
move ahead with a Work-Incentive income and training program. Programs that will
make tax payers out of able-bodied tax eaters.
The country needs Republican leadership -- a Republican President, a
Republican Congress.
The country wants a change. That became clear in 1966 when the voters
changed the complexion of the House. That was a demand for New Directions in
this Nation. Now I see that response growing and swelling into a cry for a
change of command in 1968.
These are troubled times. Now we face the heavy task of leading our country
to greatness. It is a monumental task, but the candidate we nominate at this
convention will show America the way.
Ours will be a Republican campaign dedicated to freedom.
We will free the American people from the Vietnam War.
We will free the American economy from the bankrupt policies of the
Johnson-Humphrey Administration.
We will free the economy from the disastrous policy of high interest. A
policy which is a crushing burden on your communities which must build new
schools, on the small businessman, the farmer, the home builder and home buyer.
We will free the efficient family farmer from the Democrats' cost-price
squeeze.
(more)
-6-
We will free American families from the deliberate policy of price inflation
which continuously pinches their pocketbooks.
This convention marks the beginning of a long and hard campaign. With the
help of the people it will mark the birth of a new America.
Together let us show our countrymen a Republican Party that is a faithful
reflection of the real America.
-- the America that not only preaches but practices decency and order;
-- the America that not only expects but extends courtesy and respect;
-- the America that combines freedom and self-discipline, justice and mercy,
compassion and reason;
-- the America that cherishes the dignity, and honors the opinions of others;
-- the America that rejects alike the violent weapon and the vicious whisper.
Together let us show our pride in being Americans and in being Republicans.
Our pride in our magnificent heritage of free political competition and choice.
Our pride in our ancient but adaptable system of majority rule with minority
rights.
Our goal is peace and understanding at home and abroad. No more platitudes,
no more unkept promises, no more politics as usual. Honesty, realism, decision
and action.
Let us demonstrate here and now that the Republican Party has the integrity,
has the intelligence, has the courage to save the Union once again.
# # #
nixon
GERALD FORD
Office Caber
REPUBLICAN
TOTAL
REpublican NATiONAL COMMiTTEE
AMERICAL OF
1625 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20006
NATIONAL 8-6800
NEWS
FOR RELEASE
Richard M. Nixon
Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech
Republican National Convention
Miami Beach, Florida
Thursday, August 8, 1968
Mr. Chairman, delegates to this convention, my fellow Americans.
Sixteen years ago I stood before this convention to accept your nomination
as the running mate of one of the greatest Americans of our time or of any
time, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Eight years ago I had the highest honor of accepting your nomination
for President of the United States.
Tonight, I again proudly accept that nomination for President of the
United States.
But I have news for you; this time there's a difference. This time we're
going to win.
We're going to win for a number of reasons. First, a personal one.
General Eisenhower, as you know, lies critically ill in the Walter Reed Hospital
tonight. I have talked, however, to Mrs. Eisenhower on the telephone. She
tells me that his heart is with us, and she says that there is nothing that he
lives more for, and there is nothing that would lift him more than for us to
win in November. And I say, let's win this one for Ike.
We're going to win because this great convention has demonstrated to the
nation that the Republican Party has the leadership, the platform and the purpose ORD
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that America needs.
We're going to win because you have nominated as my running mate a states-
man of the first rank, who will be a great campaigner and one who is fully
qualified to undertake the new responsibilities that I shall give to the next
Vice President of the United States. And he is a man who fully shares my
conviction and yours that after a period of forty years when power has gone
from the cities and the states to the Government in Washington, D.C., it's time
to have power go back from Washington to the states and the cities of this country
all over America.
We're going to win because at a time when America cries out for the unity
that this Administration has destroyed, the Republican Party after a spirited
contest for its nomination for President and Vice President stands united
before the nation tonight.
I congratulate Governor Reagan, I congratulate Governor Rockefeller, I
congratulate Governor Romney, I congratulate all those who have made the hard
fight that they have for this nomination. I know that you will all fight even
harder for the great victory that our Party is going to win in November,
because we're going to be together in that election campaign.
A Party that can unite itself will unite America.
My fellow Americans, most important, we're going to win because our cause
is right.
We make history tonight, not for ourselves, but for the ages.
The choice we make in 1968 will determine not only the future of America
but the future of peace and freedom of the world for the last third of the
Twentieth Century.
And the question that we answer tonight -- can America meet this great
challenge?
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For a few moments, let us look at America, let us listen to America, to
find the answer to that question.
As we look at America we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame.
We hear sirens in the night.
We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad.
We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other
at home.
And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in
anquish.
Did we come all this way for this?
Did American boys die in Normandy, Korea and in Valley Forge for this?
Listen to the answer to those questions.
It is another voice.
It is a quiet voice, in the tumult of the shouting. It is the voice of
the great majority of Americans, the forgotten Americans, the non-shouters,
the non-demonstrators.
They are not racists or sick; they are not guilty of the crime that
plagues the land.
They are black and they are white. They are native-born and foreign-born.
They are young and they are old.
They work in America's factories.
They run America's businesses.
They serve in Government.
They provide most of the soldiers who died to keep us free.
They give drive to the spirit of America.
They give lift to the American dream.
They give steel to the backbone of America.
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They are good people, they are decent people, they work and they save
and they pay their taxes and they care.
Like Theodore Roosevelt, they know that this country will not be a good
place for any of us to live in unless it's a good place for all of us to live
in.
And this I say to you tonight, is the real voice of America. In this
year 1968 this is the message that it will broadcast to America and the world.
Let's never forget that despite her faults, America is a great nation.
America is great because her people are great.
With Winston Churchill we say: "We have not journeyed all this way
across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the
prairies because we are made of sugar candy."
America is in trouble today not because her people have failed, but because
her leaders have failed.
What America needs are leaders to match the greatness of her people.
And this great group of Americans, the forgotten Americans and others,
know the great question Americans must answer by their votes in November, is
this: Whether we shall continue for four more years the policies of the last
five years.
This is their answer and this is my answer to that question.
When the strongest nation in the world can be tied down for four years in
a war in Vietnam with no end in sight; when the richest nation in the world
can't manage its own economy; when the nation with the greatest tradition of
the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness; when a nation has been
known for a century for equality of opportunity is torn by unprecedented racial
violence; and when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or
to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration, then it's
time for new leadership for the United States of America.
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My fellow Americans, tonight I accept the challenge and the commitment to
provide that new leadership for America.
I ask you to accept it with me.
Let us accept this challenge not as a grim duty but as an exciting adventure
in which we are privileged to help a great nation realize its destiny.
Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth, to see it like it is
and tell it like it is. To find the truth, to speak the truth and to live the
truth. That's what we will do.
We've had enough of big promises and little action.
The time has come for honest Government in the United States of America.
So tonight I do not promise the millenium in the morning.
I don't promise that we can eradicate poverty and end discrimination and
eliminate all danger of war in the space of four or even eight years. But I
do promise action, a new policy for peace abroad; a new policy for peace and
progress and justice at home.
Look at our problems abroad. Do you realize that we face the stark truth
that we are worse off in every area of the world tonight than we were when
President Eisenhower left office eight years ago? That's the record. There
is only one answer to such a record of failure, and that is a complete house-
cleaning of those responsible for the failures and that record. The answer is
the complete re-appraisal of America's policies in every section of the world.
We shall begin with Vietnam.
We all hope in this room that there's a chance that current negotiations
may bring an honorable end to that war, and we will say nothing during this
campaign that might destroy that chance.
If the war is not ended when the people choose in November, the choice
will be clear.
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For four years this Administration has had at its disposal the greatest
military and economic advantage that one nation has ever had over another in
a war in history.
For four years, America's fighting men have set a record for courage and
sacrifice unsurpassed in our history.
For four years this Administration has had the support of the Loyal
Opposition for the objective of seeking an honorable end to the struggle.
Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so
ineffectively.
If after all of this time and all of this sacrifice and all of this support
there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American
people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and the policies of
the past.
That is what we offer to America. And I pledge to you tonight that the
first priority foreign policy objective of our next Administration will be to
bring an honorable end to the war in Vietnam. We shall not stop there. We
need a policy to prevent more Vietnams.
All of America's peace-keeping institutions and all of America's foreign
commitments must be re-appraised. Over the past 25 years America has provided
more than 150 billion dollars in foreign aid to nations abroad.
In Korea and now again in Vietnam, the United States furnished most of
the money, most of the arms, most of the men to help the people of those
countries defend themselves against aggression.
We're a rich country, we're a strong nation, we're a populous nation, but
there are 200 million Americans and there are 2 billion people that live in the
free world and I say the time has come for other nations in the free world to
bear their fair share of the burden of defending peace and freedom around this
world.
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What I call for is not a new isolationism, it is a new internationalism,
in which America enlists it allies and its friends around the world in those
struggles in which their interest is as great as ours.
And now to the leaders of the Communist world we say: After an era of
confrontation, the time has come for an era of negotiation.
Where the world's super powers are concerned, there is no acceptable
alternative to peaceful negotiation.
Because this will be a period of negotiation, we shall restore the strenth
of America so that we shall always negotiate from strength and never from
weakness.
As we seek peace through negotiation, let our goals be made clear:
We do not seek domination over any other country.
We believe deeply in our ideas, but we believe they should travel on their
own power and not on the power of our arms.
We shall never be belligerent but we shall be as firm in defending our system
as they are in expanding theirs.
We believe this should be an era of peaceful competition, not only in the
productivity of our factories but in the quality of our ideas.
We extend the hand of friendship to all people, to the Russian people, to
the Chinese people, to all people in the world, and we shall work toward the
goal of an open world, open skies, open cities, open hearts, open minds.
The next eight years, my friends, this period in which we're entering, I
think we will have the greatest opportunity for world peace but also face the
greatest danger of world war of any time in our history.
I believe we must have peace. I believe that we can have peace. But I
do not under-estimate the difficulty of this task. Because, you see, the art
of preserving peace is greater than that of waging war and much more demanding.
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But I am proud to have served in an Administration which ended one war and kept
the nation out of other wars for eight years. It is that kind of experience
and that kind of leadership that America needs today and that we will give to
America with your help.
As we commit to new policies for America tonight, let me make one further
pledge:
For five years hardly a day has gone by when we haven't read or heard a
report of the American flag being spit on; an embassy being stoned; a library
being burned; or an ambassador being insulted someplace in the world. Each
incident reduced respect for the United States until the ultimate insult
inevitably occurred.
I say to you tonight that when respect for the United States of America falls
so low that a fourth rate military power like North Korea will seize an American
naval vessel on the high seas it's time for new leadership to restore respect
for the United States of America.
My friends, America is a great nation.
It is time we started to act like a great nation around the world. It is
ironic to note that when we were a small nation, weak militarily and poor
economically, America was respected. The reason was that America stood for
something more powerful than military strength or economic wealth.
The American Revolution was a shining example of freedom in action which
caught the imagination of the world.
Today too often America is an example to be avoided and not followed.
A nation that can't keep the peace at home won't be trusted to keep the
peace abroad.
A President who isn't treated with respect at home will not be treated
with respect abroad.
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A nation which can't manage its own economy can't tell others how to manage
theirs.
If we are to restore prestige and respect for America abroad, the place to
begin is at home in the United States of America.
My friends, we live in an age of revolution in America and in the world.
To find the answers to our problems let us turn to a revolution, a revolution that
will never grow old, the world's greatest continuing revolution, the American
Revolution.
The American Revolution was and is dedicated to progress, but our founders
recognized that the first requisite of progress is order.
There is no quarrel between progress and order because neither can exist
without the other.
So let us have order in America. Not the order that suppresses dissent
and discourages change, but the order which guarantees the right to dissent and
provides the basis for peaceful change.
And tonight it's time for some honest talk about the problem of order in
the United States.
Let us always respect as I do our courts and those who serve on them. But
let us also recognize that some of our courts in their decisions have gone too
far in weakening the peace forces as against the criminal forces in this
country.
Let those who have the responsibility to enforce our laws and our judges
who have the responsibility to interpret them be dedicated to the great principles
of civil rights.
Let them also recognize that the first civil right of every American is to
be free from domestic violence. And that right must be guaranteed in this
country.
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If we are to restore order and respect for law in this country, there's
one place we're going to begin. We're going to have a new Attorney General of
the United States of America.
I pledge to you that our new Attorney General will be directed by the President
of the United States to launch a war against organized crime in this country.
I pledge to you that the new Attorney General of the United States will be
an active belligerent against the loan sharks and the numbers racketeers who
rob the urban poor in our cities.
I pledge to you that the new Attorney General will open a new front against
the filth peddlers and the narcotics peddlers who are corrupting the lives of
the children of this country.
Because my friends, let this message come through clear from what I say
tonight: Time is running out for the merchants of crime and corruption in
American society.
The wave of crime is not going to be the wave of the future in the United
States of America.
We shall re-establish freedom from fear in America so that America can take
the lead in re-establishing freedom from fear in the world.
To those who say that law and order is the code word for racism, here is
a reply:
Our goal is justice, justice for every American.
If we are to have respect for law in America, we must have laws that deserve
respect.
Just as we cannot have progress without order, we cannot have order without
progress. And so as we commit to order tonight, let us commit to progress.
This brings me to the clearest choice among the great issues of this campaign.
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For the past five years we have been deluged by programs for the unemployed;
programs for the cities; programs for the poor. And we have reaped from these
programs an ugly harvest of frustration, violence and failure across the land.
Now our opponents will be offering more of the same, more billions for
government jobs, government housing, government welfare.
I say it's time to quit pouring billions of dollars into programs that
have failed in the United States of America.
To put it bluntly we're on the wrong road and it's time to take a new road to
progress.
Again, we turn to the American Revolution for our answer.
The war on poverty didn't begin five years ago in this country. It began
when this country began. It's been the most successful war on poverty in the
history of nations. There's more wealth in America today more broadly shared
than in any nation in the world.
We are a great nation, and we must never forget how we became great.
America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people,
but because of what people did for themselves over 190 years in this country.
It is time to apply the lessons of the American Revolution to our present
problems.
Let us increase the wealth of America so that we can provide more generously
for the aged and for the needy and for all those who cannot help themselves.
But, for those who are able to help themselves, what we need are not more
millions on welfare rolls, but more millions on payrolls in the United States
of America.
Instead of government jobs and government housing and government welfare,
let government use its tax and credit policies to enlist in this battle the
greatest engine of progress ever developed in the history of man, American
private enterprise.
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Let us enlist in this great cause the millions of Americans in volunteer
organizations who will bring a dedication to this task that no amount of money
could ever buy.
Let us build bridges, my friends, build bridges to human dignity across that
gulf that separates black America from white America.
Black Americans no more than white Americans do not want more government
programs to perpetuate dependency.
They don't want to be a colony in a nation.
They want the pride and the self-respect and the dignity that can only come
if they have an equal chance to own their own homes, to own their own businesses,
to be managers and executives as well as workers, to have a piece of the action
in the exciting ventures of private enterprise.
I pledge to you tonight that we shall have new programs which will provide
the equal chance.
We make great history tonight.
We do not fire a shot heard 'round the world, but we shall light the lamp
of hope in millions of homes across this land in which there is no hope today.
And that great light shining out from America will again become a beacon
of hope for all those in the world who seek freedom and opportunity.
My fellow Americans, I believe that historians will record that 1968 marked
the beginning of the American generation in world history.
Just to be alive in America, just to be alive, at this time is an experience
unparalleled in history. Here is where the action is.
Think. Thirty-two years from now most of Americans living today will
celebrate a new year that comes once in a thousand years.
Eight years from now, in the second term of the next President, we will
celebrate the 200th anniversary of the American Revolution.
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By our decision in this election, we -- all of us here, all of you listening
on television and radio -- will determine what kind of nation America will be
on its 200th birthday. We will determine what kind of a world America will
live in in the year 2000.
This is the kind of a day I see for America on that glorious Fourth eight
years from now.
I see a day when Americans are once again proud of their flag. When once
again at home and abroad, it is honored as the world's greatest symbol of liberty
and justice.
I see a day when the President of the United States is respected and his
office is honored because it is worthy of respect and worthy of honor.
I see a day when every child in this land, regardless of his background has
a chance for the best education that our wisdom and schools can provide, and
an equal chance to go just as high as his talents will take him.
I see a day when life in rural America attracts people to the country,
rather than driving them away.
I see a day when we can look back on massive break-throughs in solving the
problems of slums, pollution and traffic which are choking our cities to death.
I see a day when our senior citizens and millions of others can plan for
the future with the assurance that their government is not going to rob them of
their savings by destroying the value of their dollars.
I see a day when we will again have freedom from fear in America and freedom
from fear in the world.
I see a day when our nation is at peace and the world is at peace and everyone
on earth those who hope, those who aspire, those who crave liberty -- will
look to America as a shining example of hopes realized and dreams achieved.
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My fellow Americans, this is the cause I ask you to vote for. This is
the cause I ask you to work for. This is the cause I ask you to commit to -- not
just for victory in November, but beyond that into a new Administration.
The time when one man or a few leaders could save America is gone. We
need tonight nothing less than the total commitment and the total mobilization
of the American people if we are to succeed.
Government can pass laws. But respect for law can come only from people
who take the law into their hearts and into their minds -- and not into their
hands.
Government can provide opportunity, but opportunity means nothing unless
people are prepared to seize it.
A President can ask for reconciliation in the racial conflict that divides
Americans. But reconciliation comes only from the hearts of people.
And tonight, therefore, as we make this commitment -- let us look into our
hearts, and let us look down into the faces of our children.
Is there anything in the world that should stand in their way?
None of the old hatreds mean anything when you look down into the faces
of our children.
In their faces is our hope, our love and our courage.
Tonight I see the face of a child.
He lives in a great city. He is black. He is white. He is Mexican,
Italian, Polish. None of that matters. What matters is that he is an American
child.
That child in that great city is more important than any politician's
promise. He is America. He is a poet, he's a scientist, he's a great teacher,
he's a proud craftsman; he's everything we ever hoped to be and everything we
dare to dream to be.
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He sleeps the sleep of childhood; he dreams the dreams of a child.
Yet when he awakens, he awakens to a living nightmare of poverty, neglect
and despair.
He fails in school.
He ends up on welfare.
For him the American system is one that feeds his stomach and starves his
soul. It breaks his heart and in the end it may take his life on some distant
battlefield.
To millions of children in this rich land, this is their prospect for the
future.
But this is only part of what I see in America.
I see another child tonight.
He hears the train go by at night and he dreams of far away places he would
like to go.
It seems like an impossible dream, but he is helped on his journey through
life.
A father who had to go to work before he finished the sixth grade, sacri-
ficed everything he had so that his sons could go to college.
A gentle, Quaker mother, with a passionate concern for peace, quietly wept
when he went to war, but she understood why he had to go.
A great teacher, a remarkable football coach, an inspirational minister
encouraged him on his way.
A courageous wife and loyal children stood by him in victory and also in
defeat.
And in his chosen profession of politics, first therewere scores, then
hundreds, then thousands, and finally millions who worked for his success.
Tonight he stands before you nominated for President of the United States
of America.
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You can see why I believe so deeply in the American dream.
For most of us the American Revolution has been won; the American dream has
come true.
What I ask you to do tonight is to help me make that dream come true for
millions to whom it is an impossible dream today.
One hundred eight years ago, the newly elected President of the United
States, Abraham Lincoln, left Springfield, Illinois, never to return again. He
spoke to his friends gathered at the railroad station. Listen to his words:
"Today I leave you. I go to assume a greater task than devolved on General
Washington. The great God which helped him must help me. Without that great
assistance, I will surely fail. With it, I cannot fail."
Abraham Lincoln lost his life but he did not fail.
The next President of the United States will face challenges which in some
ways will be greater than those of Washington or Lincoln. For the first time
in our nation's history an American President will face not only the problem
of restoring peace abroad, but of restoring peace at home.
Without God's help and your help, we will surely fail; but with God's help
and your help, we shall surely succeed.
My fellow Americans, the long dark night for America is about to end.
The time has come for us to leave the valley of despair and climb the
mountain so that we may see the glory of the dawn -- a new day for America, a
new dawn for peace and freedom in the world.
###
agnew
REPUBLICAN
REpublican NATiONAL COMMiTTEE
CONAL COMMITTEE
1625 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20006
NATIONAL 8-6800
NEWS
FOR RELEASE
Spiro T. Agnew
Vice Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech
Republican National Convention
Miami Beach, Florida
Thursday, August 8, 1968
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. Before I make these few remarks,
I would like to introduce my wife, Judy, and half of my children, my oldest
daughter and what I call middle daughter, Pamela and Susan Agnew.
Mr. Chairman and my fellow delegates, fellow Republicans and my fellow
Americans. I stand here with a deep sense of the improbability of this
moment. Last night, when I faced these microphones to place in nomination
one of the truly great Americans of our time, Richard M. Nixon, I honestly
had no idea whatsoever that I would be back on this platform to accept this
nomination tonight.
Obviously I have had no time to prepare a profound message. But I do
want to emphasize my awareness that I have -- with the challenge of this high
office -- accepted a tremendous responsibility to the Party and to all Americans.
What can I bring to this moment in behalf of our Party and its great
Presidential Nominee? Well, perhaps a few objectives born of deep conviction:
1. The objective to analyze and help solve the problems of this nation
without dependence on the canned philosophies of liberalism or conversatism.
2. The objective to avoid the currently popular concept that the only
purpose of Government is to spend money and that all spending in a good cause
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is worthy, whether or not it will get results.
3. The objective that racial discrimination, unfair and unequal education
and unequal job opportunities must be eliminated, no matter whom that dis-
pleases. And I believe quite compatibly the observation that anarchy, rioting
or even civil disobedience has no constructive purpose in a constitutional
republic.
I look forward to sharing in an administration in which a President will
entrust his Vice President with vital responsibilities for the great problems
of the states and the cities. For I have a strong belief that changes must
be made and that the Nixon Administration will make those changes.
I know, I am positive, that there is a better way to balance the complex
relationship between Federal, state and local government than is presently
being exercised. I know that the Federal Government must work more constructively,
more creatively and above all more simply in meeting the problems of prejudice
and poverty in our cities.
I know there is a bright new world of ideas for cities such as cultural-
commercial-industrial centers and satellite cities that we are only beginning
to explore.
I know that America is reaching for the frontiers of space, and I am for
it. But I also know we must treat generously the old, the sick and the poor.
We must help build independence and pride in the black community and make black
Americans partners in our system.
I also know that more important than words in this campaign and in the
next administration will be action, the kind of action that flows from involve-
ment in the problems, and from the closest kind of relationship with the
people who are involved in the problems.
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In this campaign I will be speaking with those who, even as I have been,
are dealing with these great problems every day -- with the mayors like my
good friend, John Lindsay; the governors, the county executives and
commissioners. And I will be searching out their views and their priorities.
One last word about the campaign we are about to begin. I am dedicated
to a hard campaign, one that reaches into every area of the country and every
set of circumstances -- a campaign that brings the message of change to all the
people of America and that will lead from the top of the ticket to the bottom,
to a great decision for change in November.
I feel that the Vice President must represent more than a region or an issue
or a special interest.
I feel that more important than where a lot of people live is what a lot
of people think.
I feel more important on a national ticket than a partnership of political
expediency is an alliance of ideals. More important than a contrast of views
is a single focus.
The American people are a great people, proud of their individuality and
diversity. But still our strength is in unity and now as ever a unity of
leadership is imperative to restore the unity of America.
And unity in our nation depends on unity of leadership. Richard Nixon offers
that kind of leadership and I am honored to share in it.
Now I want to assure you of one thing. As a political animal and a
relatively sensitive individual who hopes he will never lose his sensitivity,
I am not unaware of what took place in this convention hall tonight. I am
aware that the reasons that motivated it were not directed at me in any personal
sense and were merely responsive of the opinions of those that took part in
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the nomination of that great Governor of Michigan, whom I consider my personal
friend, Governor Romney. Those motives were simply to provide the strongest
ticket for the Republican Party in November.
I recognize also that a Vice Presidential Nominee does not come to the
successful fruition of his nomination by virtue of his personality or his
attractiveness or his ability to generate a wave of enthusiasm on his own.
He comes here because he is the selection of the man who does all those things
on his own, the Presidential Nominee. I am privileged that that great future
President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, has seen fit to invest in me
his confidence to do the job. But I will not be satisfied, ladies and gentlemen,
I will not be satisfied under any circumstances, until I prove to you that
I am capable of doing a job for the Republican Party and the American people
in November.
I recognize that I am an unknown quantity to many of you and I can only
tell you of my dedication to work for Republican tickets and Republican
principles from now until the election.
It is my fervent hope, my good friends, that when I visit your state,
you will allow me to contribute in the way you consider most beneficial to
that purpose that we all endorse, that we all aspire to, total change to a
completely Republican-dominated political family, county, state, city and
Federal in November.
###
allice Caby
REPUBLICAN
REpublican NATiONAL COMMiTTEE
* )
1625 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20006
NATIONAL 8-6800
NEWS
FOR RELEASE
Spiro T. Agnew
Vice Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech
Republican National Convention
Miami Beach, Florida
Thursday, August 8, 1968
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. Before I make these few remarks,
I would like to introduce my wife, Judy, and half of my children, my oldest
daughter and what I call middle daughter, Pamela and Susan Agnew.
Mr. Chairman and my fellow delegates, fellow Republicans and my fellow
Americans. I stand here with a deep sense of the improbability of this
moment. Last night, when I faced these microphones to place in nomination
one of the truly great Americans of our time, Richard M. Nixon, I honestly
had no idea whatsoever that I would be back on this platform to accept this
nomination tonight.
Obviously I have had no time to prepare a profound message. But I do
want to emphasize my awareness that I have -- with the challenge of this high
office -- accepted a tremendous responsibility to the Party and to all Americans.
What can I bring to this moment in behalf of our Party and its great
Presidential Nominee? Well, perhaps a few objectives born of deep conviction:
1. The objective to analyze and help solve the problems of this nation
without dependence on the canned philosophies of liberalism or conversatism.
2. The objective to avoid the currently popular concept that the only
purpose of Government is to spend money and that all spending in a good cause
FORD & LIBRARY GERAL
-more-
-2-
is worthy, whether or not it will get results.
3. The objective that racial discrimination, unfair and unequal education
and unequal job opportunities must be eliminated, no matter whom that dis-
pleases. And I believe quite compatibly the observation that anarchy, rioting
or even civil disobedience has no constructive purpose in a constitutional
republic.
I look forward to sharing in an administration in which a President will
entrust his Vice President with vital responsibilities for the great problems
of the states and the cities. For I have a strong belief that changes must
be made and that the Nixon Administration will make those changes.
I know, I am positive, that there is a better way to balance the complex
relationship between Federal, state and local government than is presently
being exercised. I know that the Federal Government must work more constructively,
more creatively and above all more simply in meeting the problems of prejudice
and poverty in our cities.
I know there is a bright new world of ideas for cities such as cultural-
commercial-industrial centers and satellite cities that we are only beginning
to explore.
I know that America is reaching for the frontiers of space, and I am for
it. But I also know we must treat generously the old, the sick and the poor.
We must help build independence and pride in the black community and make black
Americans partners in our system.
I also know that more important than words in this campaign and in the
next administration will be action, the kind of action that flows from involve-
ment in the problems, and from the closest kind of relationship with the
people who are involved in the problems.
-more-
-3-
In this campaign I will be speaking with those who, even as I have been,
are dealing with these great problems every day -- with the mayors like my
good friend, John Lindsay; the governors, the county executives and
commissioners. And I will be searching out their views and their priorities.
One last word about the campaign we are about to begin. I am dedicated
to a hard campaign, one that reaches into every area of the country and every
set of circumstances -- a campaign that brings the message of change to all the
people of America and that will lead from the top of the ticket to the bottom,
to a great decision for change in November.
I feel that the Vice President must represent more than a region or an issue
or a special interest.
I feel that more important than where a lot of people live is what a lot
of people think.
I feel more important on a national ticket than a partnership of political
expediency is an alliance of ideals. More important than a contrast of views
is a single focus.
The American people are a great people, proud of their individuality and
diversity. But still our strength is in unity and now as ever a unity of
leadership is imperative to restore the unity of America.
And unity in our nation depends on unity of leadership. Richard Nixon offers
that kind of leadership and I am honored to share in it.
Now I want to assure you of one thing. As a political animal and a
relatively sensitive individual who hopes he will never lose his sensitivity,
I am not unaware of what took place in this convention hall tonight. I am
aware that the reasons that motivated it were not directed at me in any personal
sense and were merely responsive of the opinions of those that took part in
-more-
-4-
the nomination of that great Governor of Michigan, whom I consider my personal
friend, Governor Romney. Those motives were simply to provide the strongest
ticket for the Republican Party in November.
I recognize also that a Vice Presidential Nominee does not come to the
successful fruition of his nomination by virtue of his personality or his
attractiveness or his ability to generate a wave of enthusiasm on his own.
He comes here because he is the selection of the man who does all those things
on his own, the Presidential Nominee. I am privileged that that great future
President of the United States, Richard M. Nixon, has seen fit to invest in me
his confidence to do the job. But I will not be satisfied, ladies and gentlemen,
I will not be satisfied under any circumstances, until I prove to you that
I am capable of doing a job for the Republican Party and the American people
in November.
I recognize that I am an unknown quantity to many of you and I can only
tell you of my dedication to work for Republican tickets and Republican
principles from now until the election.
It is my fervent hope, my good friends, that when I visit your state,
you will allow me to contribute in the way you consider most beneficial to
that purpose that we all endorse, that we all aspire to, total change to a
completely Republican-dominated political family, county, state, city and
Federal in November.
###
Dirken
Sen TOB TO PLATFORN affire
CHAIRMAN,
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affice Capy
INTRODUCTION TO PLATFORM
MR. CHAIRMAN, DELEGATES AND ALTERNATES, AND FELLOW AMERICANS:
In Philadelphia one hundred eighty-one years ago, farseeing men
fashioned us a revolutionary new government -- a daring new system reposing
all power in the people.
Then, as they prepared to depart for their homes, venerable Benjamin
Franklin encountered a concerned citizen.
"Dr. Franklin," he was asked, "What have we got -- a monarchy or a
republic?"
At once he replied, "A republic -- if you can keep it."
I repeat those sage words; "A republic -- if you can keep it."
Seventy-four years later that challenge still echoed at Gettysburg.
There Abraham Lincoln posed the same deathless question -- whether a Nation
conceived in liberty and dedicated to equality can long endure.
It did endure.
Through foreign wars, through depressions, through political storms,
through economic tinkering and tampering, it has endured. Through New Deals
and Fair Deals, through New Frontiers and Great Societies, it has endured.
Yet, today we are challenged anew.
A Soviet leader declaims that ours is a rotten, decadent society.
God forbid our having to make the point -- but, should he try us, he'll
quickly find out what Americans really are!
One hears even here at home that we have a sick society. What nonsense!
Only radicals who traffic in trouble -- only extremists intolerant of modera-
tion -- only cerebrating pessimists bemused with a mote in America: 's eye --
say it.
No, my friends, we are not sick. We are not even indisposed. But we
are mismanaged.
Yes, the Great Society may be unwell. But the God-fearing, hard-working,
taxpaying, saving, enterprising millions who make this nation tick are clean
of mind, strong of heart, and brimming with faith in America.
I repeat, America is not ailing. But we are indignant. To see why,
let's first trace the further unfolding of our Nation.
Some two centuries ago, first in a rivulet, then in a torrent, our people
thrust out from the colonial seaboard across the mountains and plains to the
west, the south, the north, until the frontier closed at the Pacific. Then
they swirled together again. Thus grew our teeming urban centers, and our
rural economy became enmeshed with vibrant new industry. The vitality and
2.
productivity nurtured by this fabulous mix made us prosper as no nation before.
So, in time, we matured into the mightiest of nations -- the leader, the hope,
and the benefactor of the free world.
Twice we rescued the world from tyranny. Not once or twice, but time
and time again, we uplifted other peoples engulfed in desperation and despair.
Now, today, how strange this world has come to be!
Freedom we continue to succor abroad, but at home we abuse it, we
constrict it, we let it erode.
To every disaster, however distant, we swiftly respond with compassion,
but all too often ingratitude flows back across the seas.
Boldly we move to save the pound sterling, the franc, the lira, then let
our own currency dribble down the drain.
Oh, how cynical, how mocking, that political slogan -- "The Great Society!"
Never has an undeclared war embroiled America so long, never the casualty
toll so great, never the outcome so remote.
Never have we been so overextended the world around, never our prestige
so low, our alliances so weakened, our image so impaired.
Never has an Administration so disregarded the limits of our resources,
our patience, our unwillingness -- indeed, our inability -- to police and
sustain a bellicose and insatiable world. Open-hearted, yes open-handed, we
long have been -- but my friends, the time to reassess our generosity is now.
Never have we known a time in which foreign financial leaders have been
so fearful of America 's resolution to overcome fiscal crisis, and never before
an Administration so ready to justify such concerns.
Not for a century has interest -- the price of money -- been so high in
this land, yet never the drive to pour out public monies so great.
Never has the nation been so mired in debt -- never its budget so bloated,
the deficit SO huge, the spending so unrestrained except in all-out war. Once
upon a time people talked of the sky as the limit. Now we've been rocketed to
fiscal outer space.
Never have work-stoppages by public servants been more with us, solutions
so uncertain, and prospects for reasoned conduct so unsure.
Never have our farmers been so productive -- yet, save in depression,
never, for many, profits so low.
Never have consumers seen such an abundance of food and goods, but at
prices they flinch to pay.
It is said that the best things in life are free. Well, never has an
Administration labored so diligently -- or so successfully -- to prove that
nothing at all is free.
3.
Never have our cities writhed in such jeopardy and fear. The President's
own Commission depicts our domestic crisis as our most serious since the Civil
War. "Great Society" indeed!
Never promises SO lavish, performance so dismal, respecting our millions
of poor -- never their resentment so keen, their protest so violent, and never
relations among races so gravely impaired.
Never has obedience to law been so disdained, and never law enforcement
so hobbled by unwarranted regulations, strained court decisions, and official
solicitude for crime.
Now, let's just "tell it like it is": Must this free people forever
indulge lawlessness and violence? Must law-abiding citizens don bullet-proof
vests safely to take an evening stroll? Must we avoid our great cities by
night as if they were hamlets, guerrilla-infested, in Vietnam?
Worse still, never has the sanctity of life been so scorned. Young
Marines are brutally murdered in a Washington restaurant. A United States
Senator is assassinated while campaigning. A Christian crusader is martyred
for leading a march. Policemen in our Nation's Capital are shot down and the
killing condoned by a group that should know better. Desperadoes convert the
streets of Cleveland to bullet-swept lanes of a frontier town. "Get guns"
becomes a battle cry, and homicide a mere statistic. Clamor rises for gun
control, but how little is said, how little done, to restrain the finger
that pulls the trigger.
Little businesses serving city dwellers face ruin for lack of insurance
protection. Yes, there is relief -- a pooling of private and public funds --
but still no end to the tyranny of the looter, the blackmailer, the robber,
the arsonist.
My fellow Americans, let's again "tell it like it is": This lawlessness --
this official restraint in meeting lawlessness -- this indulged defiance of
authority -- are the straight road, the very short road, to anarchy and chaos.
But never has the sound of the trumpet been so uncertain, never our
leadership so hesitant, in rallying our people to salvage America's inheritance.
How tragic that our America the beautiful has been allowed to become
shamed, unhappy, embittered! Patriotism in some quarters seems to be a dirty
word. Sacrifice, except for thousands of youths who at this very moment
risk death in national cause, is outmoded. This ballyhooed "Great Society" --
the fancy of an English socialist six decades ago -- is not a new deal -- no,
not even a fair deal; it's just a straight-out misdeal. Humor it longer, and
it will destroy what the Founding Fathers wrought.
Clearly, my friends, the hour is late and our problems legion. It is
America's hour of need.
And that need -- so urgent, so undeniable -- is to depose this fumbling
Democratic Party -- to depose its inept leadership -- that party and those
4.
leaders oh, so long on promise, oh, so short in performance. An outraged,
heartbroken, shocked America joins us in this injunction to the Great Society --
a sentiment voiced by Oliver Cromwell three centuries ago:
"You have sat too long here for any good you have
been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with
you. In the name of God, go!"
And yet, among us still are those few who prefer the alluring political
promise, even with its failure, instead of progress that is dependable, orderly
and assured. Let such dreamers heed Lincoln's warning of a century and three
years ago: "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and
finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time or die by
suicide.
We of the Republican Party believe with Lincoln.
We hold, with him, that the legitimate needs of the people can be met
without forfeiting freedom.
We hold there can be progress without wanton spending, ruinous inflation,
and fiscal collapse.
We know there can be care for the needy -- and without the erosion of
dignity, without the federal domination, without the paternalism and waste
that demean human endeavor.
We of the Republican Party are eager -- and, yes, we are able and deter-
mined -- to meet those needs.
We really want to provide that progress.
We Republicans are literally champing at the bit to prove to every citizen,
just as we have proved before, that Republicans don't merely promise --
Republicans produce -- and we really care.
We call upon all Americans, regardless of party, regardless of section,
to join with us in retrieving this nation's birthright of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. When we sing "God Bless America," let us pray that
through God's grace we may become a confident, peaceful land again -- a land
where the larks can once again be heard above the guns and we truly become one
nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
It is not merely a political victory that concerns us here, but rather
the future of this Republic. Rolling down the years we still hear Ben
Franklin's challenge: "A republic -- if you can keep it."
Inspired with high purpose -- resolved that this land of liberty, with
its limitless promise for the generations after us, shall not perish from the
earth -- we now present for the favor of this Convention and our countrymen
a statement of principles and programs -- the 1968 Platform of our Party.
5.
In preparing this statement, we have called upon the best minds, the
noblest of inspiration, the highest of talents. For this Republic -- for
our Republican Party -- we believe it states the case for a just peace in
the world, for dependable progress for all our people, and for a new serenity
and unity in this troubled land.
August 6, 1968
Miami Beach, Florida
INTRODUCTION TO PLATFORM
MR. CHAIRMAN, DELEGATES AND ALTERNATES, AND FELLOW AMERICANS:
In Philadelphia one hundred eighty-one years ago, farseeing men
fashioned us a revolutionary new government -- a daring new system reposing
all power in the people.
Then, as they prepared to depart for their homes, venerable Benjamin
Franklin encountered a concerned citizen.
"Dr. Franklin," he was asked, "What have we got -- a monarchy or a
republic?"
At once he replied, "A republic -- if you can keep it."
I repeat those sage words; "A republic -- if you can keep it."
Seventy-four years later that challenge still echoed at Gettysburg.
There Abraham Lincoln posed the same deathless question -- whether a Nation
conceived in liberty and dedicated to equality can long endure.
It did endure.
Through foreign wars, through depressions, through political storms,
through economic tinkering and tampering, it has endured. Through New Deals
and Fair Deals, through New Frontiers and Great Societies, it has endured.
Yet, today we are challenged anew.
A Soviet leader declaims that ours is a rotten, decadent society.
God forbid our having to make the point -- but, should he try us, he'll
quickly find out what Americans really are!
One hears even here at home that we have a sick society. What nonsense!
Only radicals who traffic in trouble -- only extremists intolerant of modera-
tion -- only cerebrating pessimists bemused with a mote in America 's eye --
say it.
No, my friends, we are not sick. We are not even indisposed. But we
are mismanaged.
Yes, the Great Society may be unwell. But the God-fearing, hard-working,
taxpaying, saving, enterprising millions who make this nation tick are clean
of mind, strong of heart, and brimming with faith in America.
I repeat, America is not ailing. But we are indignant. To see why,
let's first trace the further unfolding of our Nation.
Some two centuries ago, first in a rivulet, then in a torrent, our people
thrust out from the colonial seaboard across the mountains and plains to the
west, the south, the north, until the frontier closed at the Pacific. Then
they swirled together again. Thus grew our teeming urban centers, and our
rural economy became enmeshed with vibrant new industry. The vitality and
2.
productivity nurtured by this fabulous mix made us prosper as no nation before.
So, in time, we matured into the mightiest of nations -- the leader, the hope,
and the benefactor of the free world.
Twice we rescued the world from tyranny. Not once or twice, but time
and time again, we uplifted other peoples engulfed in desperation and despair.
Now, today, how strange this world has come to be!
Freedom we continue to succor abroad, but at home we abuse it, we
constrict it, we let it erode.
To every disaster, however distant, we swiftly respond with compassion,
but all too often ingratitude flows back across the seas.
Boldly we move to save the pound sterling, the franc, the lira, then let
our own currency dribble down the drain.
Oh, how cynical, how mocking, that political slogan -- "The Great Society!"
Never has an undeclared war embroiled America so long, never the casualty
toll so great, never the outcome so remote.
Never have we been so overextended the world around, never our prestige
so low, our alliances so weakened, our image so impaired.
Never has an Administration so disregarded the limits of our resources,
our patience, our unwillingness -- indeed, our inability -- to police and
sustain a bellicose and insatiable world. Open-hearted, yes open-handed, we
long have been -- but my friends, the time to reassess our generosity is now.
Never have we known a time in which foreign financial leaders have been
so fearful of America 's resolution to overcome fiscal crisis, and never before
an Administration so ready to justify such concerns.
Not for a century has interest -- the price of money -- been so high in
this land, yet never the drive to pour out public monies so great.
Never has the nation been so mired in debt -- never its budget so bloated,
the deficit so huge, the spending SO unrestrained except in all-out war. Once
upon a time people talked of the sky as the limit. Now we've been rocketed to
fiscal outer space.
Never have work-stoppages by public servants been more with us, solutions
so uncertain, and prospects for reasoned conduct so unsure.
Never have our farmers been so productive -- yet, save in depression,
never, for many, profits so low.
Never have consumers seen such an abundance of food and goods, but at
prices they flinch to pay.
It is said that the best things in life are free. Well, never has an
Administration labored so diligently -- or so successfully -- to prove that
nothing at all is free.
3.
Never have our cities writhed in such jeopardy and fear. The President's
own Commission depicts our domestic crisis as our most serious since the Civil
War. "Great Society" indeed!
Never promises so lavish, performance so dismal, respecting our millions
of poor -- never their resentment so keen, their protest so violent, and never
relations among races so gravely impaired.
Never has obedience to law been so disdained, and never law enforcement
so hobbled by unwarranted regulations, strained court decisions, and official
solicitude for crime.
Now, let's just "tell it like it is": Must this free people forever
indulge lawlessness and violence? Must law-abiding citizens don bullet-proof
vests safely to take an evening stroll? Must we avoid our great cities by
night as if they were hamlets, guerrilla-infested, in Vietnam?
Worse still, never has the sanctity of life been so scorned. Young
Marines are brutally murdered in a Washington restaurant. A United States
Senator is assassinated while campaigning. A Christian crusader is martyred
for leading a march. Policemen in our Nation's Capital are shot down and the
killing condoned by a group that should know better. Desperadoes convert the
streets of Cleveland to bullet-swept lanes of a frontier town. "Get guns"
becomes a battle cry, and homicide a mere statistic. Clamor rises for gun
control, but how little is said, how little done, to restrain the finger
that pulls the trigger.
Little businesses serving city dwellers face ruin for lack of insurance
protection. Yes, there is relief -- a pooling of private and public funds --
but still no end to the tyranny of the looter, the blackmailer, the robber,
the arsonist.
My fellow Americans, let's again "tell it like it is": This lawlessness --
this official restraint in meeting lawlessness -- this indulged defiance of
authority -- are the straight road, the very short road, to anarchy and chaos.
But never has the sound of the trumpet been so uncertain, never our
leadership so hesitant, in rallying our people to salvage America's inheritance.
How tragic that our America the beautiful has been allowed to become
shamed, unhappy, embittered! Patriotism in some quarters seems to be a dirty
word. Sacrifice, except for thousands of youths who at this very moment
risk death in national cause, is outmoded. This ballyhooed "Great Society" --
the fancy of an English socialist six decades ago -- is not a new deal -- no,
not even a fair deal; it's just a straight-out misdeal. Humor it longer, and
it will destroy what the Founding Fathers wrought.
Clearly, my friends, the hour is late and our problems legion. It is
America's hour of need.
And that need -- so urgent, so undeniable -- is to depose this fumbling
Democratic Party -- to depose its inept leadership -- that party and those
4.
leaders oh, so long on promise, oh, so short in performance. An outraged,
heartbroken, shocked America joins us in this injunction to the Great Society --
a sentiment voiced by Oliver Cromwell three centuries ago:
"You have sat too long here for any good you have
been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with
you. In the name of God, go!"
And yet, among us still are those few who prefer the alluring political
promise, even with its failure, instead of progress that is dependable, orderly
and assured. Let such dreamers heed Lincoln's warning of a century and three
years ago: "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and
finisher. As a nation of free men we must live through all time or die by
suicide.
We of the Republican Party believe with Lincoln.
We hold, with him, that the legitimate needs of the people can be met
without forfeiting freedom.
We hold there can be progress without wanton spending, ruinous inflation,
and fiscal collapse.
We know there can be care for the needy -- and without the erosion of
dignity, without the federal domination, without the paternalism and waste
that demean human endeavor.
We of the Republican Party are eager -- and, yes, we are able and deter-
mined -- to meet those needs.
We really want to provide that progress.
We Republicans are literally champing at the bit to prove to every citizen,
just as we have proved before, that Republicans don't merely promise --
Republicans produce -- and we really care.
We call upon all Americans, regardless of party, regardless of section,
to join with us in retrieving this nation's birthright of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. When we sing "God Bless America," let us pray that
through God's grace we may become a confident, peaceful land again -- a land
where the larks can once again be heard above the guns and we truly become one
nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
It is not merely a political victory that concerns us here, but rather
the future of this Republic. Rolling down the years we still hear Ben
Franklin's challenge: "A republic -- if you can keep it."
Inspired with high purpose -- resolved that this land of liberty, with
its limitless promise for the generations after us, shall not perish from the
earth -- we now present for the favor of this Convention and our countrymen
a statement of principles and programs -- the 1968 Platform of our Party.
5.
In preparing this statement, we have called upon the best minds, the
noblest of inspiration, the highest of talents, For this Republic -- for
our Republican Party -- we believe it states the case for a just peace in
the world, for dependable progress for all our people, and for a new serenity
and unity in this troubled land.
August 6, 1968
Miami Beach, Florida
Goldwater
REPUBLICAN
REpublican NATiONAL COMMiTTEE
COMMITTEE
1625 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20006
NATIONAL 8-6800
NEWS
FOR RELEASE
NOT FOR RELEASE
BEFORE DELIVERY
AN ADDRESS BY THE HONORABLE BARRY GOLDWATER
Before the Republican National Convention
Miami Beach, Florida, August 5, 1968
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
Speech By
The Honorable Barry Goldwater
Republican National Convention
Miami, Florida
August 5, 1968
We are here, all of us, to select and then to support, the
men whose administration will move history's mightiest nation out
of a nightmare of doubt and disaffection and into the daylight of
confidence, compassion and creativity.
We are not here to accuse, we are not here to divide. We are
not here to bemoan the past. We gather here among other reasons
to assess the target which the preservation of freedom has assigned
us. This target is not to be found in this convention hall in Miami;
it is not to be found in the Republican Party anywhere. Our assigned
target is the winning of the Presidency, the taking of the House of
Representatives, the gaining of strength in the Senate, the gaining
of more Republican Governors and the accumulation of more seats in
the State Legislatures of our fifty states.
We are here to deliver a message to the future and to find a
meaning for today. We are nct here to moan about yesterday. We
can learn from yesterdays. We cannot live them nor go back to
them.
On one yesterday, four years ago, this convention rang with the
realization that more and more Americans were finding less and less
meaning in their lives and hope in their future.
For year after year since then, the Johnson-Humphrey administra-
tion has made promises, spent money, spun webs, divided our people
and wasted the substance of this nation.
-2-
But we cannot ask support merely on the rubble of their
record of broken promises. It is performance that we always have
offered and it is performance -- not promises -- that we must con-
tinue to offer.
Our Party stands now, stood then, and always has stood for
the philosophy that holds that the meaning of a man's life and the
hope of his future must come from within himself. It is not a gift
that a nation, a leader, a Congress or a political party can confer
upon him.
Our Party, our philosophy does not promise to give, and give --
so that it can get and get. Our philosophy says that if the prom-
isers and the power-seekers would only get out of the way, that
Americans would be free to perform, free to perform person by
person, people to people.
The meaningless that has marked and marred so many lives over
the past years is summed up in the single question and complaint
so many have voiced:
"What can I do? It's all beyond me." The callous response
from the Johnson-Humphrey administration has been: "Nothing. You
can do nothing. We must do it for you."
After January, 1969, two hundred million Americans can ask
that question again. What can I do?
And the Republican Administration will answer:
"Everything! You can do everything."
-3-
On that day, my friends, it will be people -- and not
politics -- that will have come back to power in these re-United
States.
On one yesterday, four years ago, black Americans in particular
felt that we had nothing to say to them. Our platform contained
long and strong denunciations of racism. It contained long and
strong commitments to civil rights. It stood head and shoulders
above the virtual blank on civil rights in the platform of the
other party. But black Americans felt we had nothing to say to
them.
Now they know different.
Let me say here today what I have said in one way or another
during my entire life: The merit of a man is only to be found
within himself and not on the surface of his skin. There, too,
and not on the surface of laws and political promises, will we
find the only enduring answers to love of brother, respect of self,
and the end of discrimination.
Black people do not need and no longer ask the promises and
the pie-in-the-sky of white politicians. They have had enough of
the promises of politics. They want a piece of the action. They
must have it! Republicans have never promised them anything more
and, mark this -- Republicans have never asked anything less for
all our citizens!
Because I feel this so deeply I will try to emphasize it
LIBRARI
most deeply.
-4-
Laws cannot change people. Promises cannot free people.
This tired, frustrated, sometimes fearful, sometimes embattled
land and all its people are sick to death of trying to build
brotherhood through bureaucracy and trying to end discrimination
through red tape.
This fruitful land cannot live or prosper in fear or in
frustration. It cannot replace the handshake with handcuffs.
It can't substitute social psalm singing for the right to earn
three square meals a day.
We can turn this thing around!
Black power, white power, green power -- red, white and blue
power; it all adds up to people power!
We are one people with many differences. Within the oneness
we can afford and respect those differences. But we cannot afford
privilege and partisanship in this matter.
This is not now and it never has been a political matter. It
is a matter of very simple right and wrong.
It is wrong to deny any man opportunity in this land. It is
wrong to administer justice unequally or to refuse to administer
justice at all. It is wrong in any way to use the power of the
state to oppress anyone and it is equally wrong to use the power
of the state to give advantages to one man and deny them to another.
The power of people finally to see what is right and to do
it, is the only real hope we have. The power of the state is not
-5-
and never has been the answer. People are the problem and people
are the answer.
And our country's next administration, our Republican adminis-
tration -- will unleash all of that power -- all of that people
power!
It will use every law we have -- just as we said we would
four long years ago. But it will know that the final answer is in
the constant reiteration for all our people of the flat truth: that
hate of race is wrong, dead wrong, ugly, vicious, sick, warped and
wrong, wrong, wrong.
America, heart, hand and soul is ready now to do what is right.
It knows what is right. It has been moving toward it.
In January we will be free to go all the way!
Freedom, my friends, is what it is all about.
Freedom is what has drawn us together and it is what guides us
as we meet.
Freedom drew us here today and freedom guided us four years
ago as freedom has always guided our Party.
The freedom in which we chose a government does not confer a
crown to rule, but only a consent to be led. And yet ruinous rule
has been the return we have reaped for four unfortunate years.
One man strategy has bogged us down in a bloody war that has
divided us at home, distorted us abroad, and deprived us of even
any widespread understanding of where we are going, how to get
there or even where we are now.
-6-
One-man partisanship has turned government into a factory
for the preparation of monuments to a personality rather than
being the performer of service to a people.
For four years, unless I badly miss my guess, millions of
Americans have just been waiting to tell a certain party that
this land is our land, yours and mine, and not the personal
preserve or ranch of any party or person.
Those millions get their chance this year. They get their
chance to say that Americans are individuals and not numbers in
some bureaucrat's computer!
They get their chance this year to say that we consent to
be governed, we do not elect to be ruled!
They get their chance this year to say that more of the same
won't do. That we are two hundred million separate and sovereign
souls in this country -- not a mob, not a herd, and certainly not
an ant-heap!
They get their chance this year to say that we understand that
government cannot give meaning to our life; that plans and promises
cannot give fullness to our life; that pleaders and politicians can-
not give dignity to our lives. Only we the people, one by one, can
do those things, achieve those things, earn and keep those things.
We all get our chance this year to say that we want to be set
free, left alone, treated like responsible men and women and
not helpless children.
-7-
I know that there are many issues that will occupy us during
this campaign. I know that many are of urgent importance in every
detail and that they will be discussed in detail, by our candidates.
We cannot discuss all of those details in this convention and
we could never have debated them in all the conventions of all the
elections of all the years of our entire history.
We do not assemble to quibble and to quarrel. We assemble to
select men and to state principles.
This convention is not a shopping list, it is a sign post --
not endlessly promising but emphatically pointing a way. We know
and the country knows what political shopping lists have led to.
They have led to the purchase of the worst possible political bar-
gains which now endanger freedom and its future.
The confidence of our people has been dashed nearly to death
in the yawning gaps of an administration that has put political
survival on an exactly even par with national survival. Republicans
warned of this four years ago. But that was yesterday. Tomorrow,
Republicans will restore confidence by electing men who, very
simply, will level with the American people and who will demand
that every man and woman paid by your tax dollars do the same!
The security of our people has been dissipated by the
absurdities of an administration that has permitted free world
alliances to crumble. Republicans warned of this four years ago.
FORD
But that was yesterday also. Tomorrow, Republicans will begin to
-8-
restore that security by reaching out once again to become part
of the world, to become a partner in the world and not a lonely
recluse, huddling at home behind a wall of regulations and secret
diplomacy and a dangerous isolationism.
And let me say that when a Republican administration sees
signs of freedom behind the Iron Curtain, as we now are seeing
in Czechoslovakia, it will not sit on its hands -- it will applaud
with those hands as loud as it can and ask, "How can we help?"
Republicans always will ask of men wanting to be free anywhere --
how can we help? And note that I said "ask" -- not "tell."
The integrity of our people has been abused in the massive
ego of an administration that has denounced dissent, dodged de-
bate, dodged justice and been insensitive to differences. Re-
publicans warned of this four years ago. But that was yesterday.
Tomorrow, a Republican administration will restore the integrity
of dissent and difference by electing candidates and following
principles dedicated to the notion that government is instituted
among men to protect their right to disagree and to be different
and never to diminish that right for its own convenience or even
its own political safety or survival.
The identity of our people has been distorted. in the defeatism
of an administration that has seen nothing but problems in the
exuberance of a generation, nothing but programs in the potential
-9-
of a nation, and nothing but slogans in the aspirations of what
can be the most productive, peaceful, understanding, achieving,
and exciting time in the history of mankind.
Now perhaps Republicans have been remiss here. Perhaps we
have, also, let a generation gap grow in our own thinking. Cer-
tainly it is true that the tide of liberty, even of libertarianism
that runs through all Republicanism has somehow escaped the notice
of some of those who most loudly call for liberty today.
Perhaps we too often have let the heart of Republicanism be
covered by the good, gray business suits of sound Republican respect
for honest trade, industry and labor. But, so help me, and as hard
as it will be for some who will hear me tonight to believe it, the
heart of Republicanism always has beaten with ardor and respect for
the youngest dreams of all -- the dreams of people. People libera-
ted to live their lives as they see fit so long as they do not
harm or hinder the lives of others.
That is. still the heart of Republicanism and in our minds we
know that heart is right.
Today there is talk of a "new politics" and yet all we see is
the same old weary politics of promise and program.
Republicans cannot tag their politics as new and many would
hesitate to tag it politics at all -- but they can tag their prin-
ciples as the politics of people, politics for people, and politics
by people -- politics with the goal of letting people be themselves!
-10-
Now there is ample evidence that I am not a politician --
but there also is ample evidence that I am a Republican!
And so this Republican, this one Republican among many peers
and many friends -- and a nation of neighbors in citizenship --
this one Republican who looks forward to getting back to Washington
even if it is the long way, this Republican asks of this convention
and this Party only one thing:
Pride in our principles and determination to follow them.
Ours are the principles of liberty and never has a world been
more ready for them or a generation more receptive.
Ours are the principles above all of the sovereignty of person
against all the pretensions of political power and programming.
We Americans are not cogs in a political machine.
We are not numbers on a triplicate form; we are free men and
women.
We are each of us a person, each of us important, each of us
born free and with a potential that should never be bounded by more
than our own ability and exertion.
Liberty such as this is found in the mood and in the manner
of a people and not in the guided tours of an elected elite. It
is found, rather, in the election of men who know that liberty's
way is walked one by one, by living, thinking, striving men and
women everywhere and that politics and politicians are assigned
only the job of guarding the way, keeping it open.
-11-
When they block. that way they must go, or liberty will go.
This convention will select the team who, with all our
citizens, will now tear down the roadblocks of political arro-
gance.
This convention will select the team who, with all of our
citizens, will retire the red-tape engineers of our long frus-
tration.
This convention will select the team who, with all our
citizens, will deliver this plain, clear and simple message in
a wonderful new year: The way is clear! Clear for those who are
not ashamed of being American; clear for those whose faith is
strong; clear for those of courage; clear for all Americans.
Let us provide the leadership, then follow it.
BERALD FORD LIBRARY
REPUBLICAN
REpublican NATiONAL COMMiTTEE
COMMITTEE
1625 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20006
NATIONAL 8-6800
NEWS
FOR RELEASE
NOT FOR RELEASE
BEFORE DELIVERY
AN ADDRESS BY THE HONORABLE BARRY GOLDWATER
Before the Republican National Convention
Miami Beach, Florida, August 5, 1968
FORD is LIBRARY GERALD
Speech By
The Honorable Barry Goldwater
Republican National Convention
Miami, Florida
August 5, 1968
We are here, all of us, to select and then to support, the
men whose administration will move history's mightiest nation out
of a nightmare of doubt and disaffection and into the daylight of
confidence, compassion and creativity.
We are not here to accuse, we are not here to divide. We are
not here to bemoan the past. We gather here among other reasons
to assess the target which the preservation of freedom has assigned
us. This target is not to be found in this convention hall in Miami;
it is not to be found in the Republican Party anywhere. Our assigned
target is the winning of the Presidency, the taking of the House of
Representatives, the gaining of strength in the Senate, the gaining
of more Republican Governors and the accumulation of more seats in
the State Legislatures of our fifty states.
We are here to deliver a message to the future and to find a
meaning for today. We are not here to moan about yesterday. We
can learn from yesterdays. We cannot live them nor go back to
them.
On one yesterday, four years ago, this convention rang with the
realization that more and more Americans were finding less and less
meaning in their lives and hope in their future.
For year after year since then, the Johnson-Humphrey administra-
tion has made promises, spent money, spun webs, divided our people
and wasted the substance of this nation.
-2-
But we cannot ask support merely on the rubble of their
record of broken promises. It is performance that we always have
offered and it is performance -- not promises -- that we must con-
tinue to offer.
Our Party stands now, stood then, and always has stood for
the philosophy that holds that the meaning of a man's life and the
hope of his future must come from within himself. It is not a gift
that a nation, a leader, a Congress or a political party can confer
upon him.
Our Party, our philosophy does not promise to give, and give --
so that it can get and get. Our philosophy says that if the prom-
isers and the power-seekers would only get out of the way, that
Americans would be free to perform, free to perform person by
person, people to people.
The meaningless that has marked and marred so many lives over
the past years is summed up in the single question and complaint
so many have voiced:
"What can I do? It's all beyond me." The callous response
from the Johnson-Humphrey administration has been: "Nothing. You
can do nothing. We must do it for you. "
After January, 1969, two hundred million Americans can ask
that question again. What can I do?
And the Republican Administration will answer:
"Everything! You can do everything."
-3-
On that day, my friends, it will be people -- and not
politics -- that will have come back to power in these re-United
States.
On one yesterday, four years ago, black Americans in particular
felt that we had nothing to say to them. Our platform contained
long and strong denunciations of racism. It contained long and
strong commitments to civil rights. It stood head and shoulders
above the virtual blank on civil rights in the platform of the
other party. But black Americans felt we had nothing to say to
them.
Now they know different.
Let me say here today what I have said in one way or another
during my entire life: The merit of a man is only to be found
within himself and not on the surface of his skin. There, too,
and not on the surface of laws and political promises, will we
find the only enduring answers to love of brother, respect of self,
and the end of discrimination.
Black people do not need and no longer ask the promises and
the pie-in-the-sky of white politicians. They have had enough of
the promises of politics. They want a piece of the action. They
must have it! Republicans have never promised them anything more
and, mark this -- Republicans have never asked anything less for
all our citizens!
Because I feel this so deeply I will try to emphasize it
most deeply.
-4-
Laws cannot change people. Promises cannot free people.
This tired, frustrated, sometimes fearful, sometimes embattled
land and all its people are sick to death of trying to build
brotherhood through bureaucracy and trying to end discrimination
through red tape.
This fruitful land cannot live or prosper in fear or in
frustration. It cannot replace the handshake with handcuffs.
It can't substitute social psalm singing for the right to earn
three square meals a day.
We can turn this thing around!
Black power, white power, green power -- red, white and blue
power; it all adds up to people power!
We are one people with many differences. Within the oneness
we can afford and respect those differences. But we cannot afford
privilege and partisanship in this matter.
This is not now and it never has been a political matter. It
is a matter of very simple right and wrong.
It is wrong to deny any man opportunity in this land. It is
wrong to administer justice unequally or to refuse to administer
justice at all. It is wrong in any way to use the power of the
state to oppress anyone and it is equally wrong to use the power
of the state to give advantages to one man and deny them to another.
The power of people finally to see what is right and to do
it, is the only real hope we have. The power of the state is not
-5-
and never has been the answer. People are the problem and people
are the answer.
And our country's next administration, our Republican adminis-
tration -- will unleash all of that power -- all of that people
power!
It will use every law we have -- just as we said we would
four long years ago. But it will know that the final answer is in
the constant reiteration for all our people of the flat truth: that
hate of race is wrong, dead wrong, ugly, vicious, sick, warped and
wrong, wrong, wrong.
America, heart, hand and soul is ready now to do what is right.
It knows what is right. It has been moving toward it.
In January we will be free to go all the way!
Freedom, my friends, is what it is all about.
Freedom is what has drawn us together and it is what guides us
as we meet.
Freedom drew us here today and freedom guided us four years
ago as freedom has always guided our Party.
The freedom in which we chose a government does not confer a
crown to rule, but only a consent to be led. And yet ruinous rule
has been the return we have reaped for four unfortunate years.
One man strategy has bogged us down in a bloody war that has
divided us at home, distorted us abroad, and deprived us of even
any widespread understanding of where we are going, how to get
there or even where we are now.
-6-
One-man partisanship has turned government into a factory
for the preparation of monuments to a personality rather than
being the performer of service to a people.
For four years, unless I badly miss my guess, millions of
Americans have just been waiting to tell a certain party that
this land is our land, yours and mine, and not the personal
preserve or ranch of any party or person.
Those millions get their chance this year. They get their
chance to say that Americans are individuals and not numbers in
some bureaucrat's computer!
They get their chance this year to say that we consent to
be governed, we do not elect to be ruled!
They get their chance this year to say that more of the same
won't do. That we are two hundred million separate and sovereign
souls in this country -- not a mob, not a herd, and certainly not
an ant-heap!
They get their chance this year to say that we understand that
government cannot give meaning to our life; that plans and promises
cannot give fullness to our life; that pleaders and politicians can-
not give dignity to our lives. Only we the people, one by one, can
do those things, achieve those things, earn and keep those things.
We all get our chance this year to say that we want to be set
free, left alone, treated like responsible men and women and
not helpless children.
-7-
I know that there are many issues that will occupy us during
this campaign. I know that many are of urgent importance in every
detail and that they will be discussed in detail, by our candidates.
We cannot discuss all of those details in this convention and
we could never have debated them in all the conventions of all the
elections of all the years of our entire history.
We do not assemble to quibble and to quarrel. We assemble to
select men and to state principles.
This convention is not a shopping list, it is a sign post --
not endlessly promising but emphatically pointing a way. We know
and the country knows what political shopping lists have led to.
They have led to the purchase of the worst possible political bar-
gains which now endanger freedom and its future.
The confidence of our people has been dashed nearly to death
in the yawning gaps of an administration that has put political
survival on an exactly even par with national survival. Republicans
warned of this four years ago. But that was yesterday. Tomorrow,
Republicans will restore confidence by electing men who, very
simply, will level with the American people and who will demand
that every man and woman paid by your tax dollars do the same!
The security of our people has been dissipated by the
absurdities of an administration that has permitted free world
alliances to crumble. Republicans warned of this four years ago.
But that was yesterday also. Tomorrow, Republicans will begin to
-8-
restore that security by reaching out once again to become part
of the world, to become a partner in the world and not a lonely
recluse, huddling at home behind a wall of regulations and secret
diplomacy and a dangerous isolationism.
And let me say that when a Republican administration sees
signs of freedom behind the Iron Curtain, as we now are seeing
in Czechoslovakia, it will not sit on its hands -- it will applaud
with those hands as loud as it can and ask, "How can we help?"
Republicans always will ask of men wanting to be free anywhere --
how can we help? And note that I said "ask" -- not "tell."
The integrity of our people has been abused in the massive
ego of an administration that has denounced dissent, dodged de-
bate, dodged justice and been insensitive to differences. Re-
publicans warned of this four years ago. But that was yesterday.
Tomorrow, a Republican administration will restore the integrity
of dissent and difference by electing candidates and following
principles dedicated to the notion that government is instituted
among men to protect their right to disagree and to be different
and never to diminish that right for its own convenience or even
its own political safety or survival.
The identity of our people has been distorted. in the defeatism
of an administration that has seen nothing but problems in the
exuberance of a generation, nothing but programs in the potential
-9-
of a nation, and nothing but slogans in the aspirations of what
can be the most productive, peaceful, understanding, achieving,
and exciting time in the history of mankind.
Now perhaps Republicans have been remiss here. Perhaps we
have, also, let a generation gap grow in our own thinking. Cer-
tainly it is true that the tide of liberty, even of libertarianism
that runs through all Republicanism has somehow escaped the notice
of some of those who most loudly call for liberty today.
Perhaps we too often have let the heart of Republicanism be
covered by the good, gray business suits of sound Republican respect
for honest trade, industry and labor. But, so help me, and as hard
as it will be for some who will hear me tonight to believe it, the
heart of Republicanism always has beaten with ardor and respect for
the youngest dreams of all -- the dreams of people. People libera-
ted to live their lives as they see fit so long as they do not
harm or hinder the lives of others.
That is still the heart of Republicanism and in our minds we
know that heart is right.
Today there is talk of a "new politics" and yet all we see is
the same old weary politics of promise and program.
Republicans cannot tag their politics as new and many would
hesitate to tag it politics at all -- but they can tag their prin-
ciples as the politics of people, politics for people, and politics
by people -- politics with the goal of letting people be themselves!
-10-
Now there is ample evidence that I am not a politician --
but there also is ample evidence that I am a Republican!
And so this Republican, this one Republican among many peers
and many friends -- and a nation of neighbors in citizenship --
this one Republican who looks forward to getting back to Washington
even if it is the long way, this Republican asks of this convention
and this Party only one thing:
Pride in our principles and determination to follow them.
Ours are the principles of liberty and never has a world been
more ready for them or a generation more receptive.
Ours are the principles above all of the sovereignty of person
against all the pretensions of political power and programming.
We Americans are not cogs in a political machine.
We are not numbers on a triplicate form; we are free men and
women.
We are each of us a person, each of us important, each of us
born free and with a potential that should never be bounded by more
than our own ability and exertion.
Liberty such as this is found in the mood and in the manner
of a people and not in the guided tours of an elected elite. It
is found, rather, in the election of men who know that liberty's
way is walked one by one, by living, thinking, striving men and
women everywhere and that politics and politicians are assigned
only the job of guarding the way, keeping it open.
-11-
When they block. that way they must go, or liberty will go.
This convention will select the team who, with all our
citizens, will now tear down the roadblocks of political arro-
gance.
This convention will select the team who, with all of our
citizens, will retire the red-tape engineers of our long frus-
tration.
This convention will select the team who, with all our
citizens, will deliver this plain, clear and simple message in
a wonderful new year: The way is clear! Clear for those who are
not ashamed of being American; clear for those whose faith is
strong; clear for those of courage; clear for all Americans.
Let us provide the leadership, then follow it.
Lindsay
Office Capy
REPUBLICAN
REpublican NATiONAL COMMiTTEE
COMMITTEE
1625 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20006
NATIONAL 8-6800
NEWS
FOR RELEASE
FRIDAY AM's
AUGUST 9, 1968
ADDRESS BY THE HON. JOHN V. LINDSAY,
MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK AND DELEGATE FROM NEW YORK STATE,
SECONDING THE NOMINATION OF GOV. SPIRO T. AGNEW
OF MARYLAND AS VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Miami Beach, Florida
August 9, 1968
Mr. Chairman, fellow Republicans:
I rise to second the nomination of Governor Spiro T. Agnew as the next
Vice President of the United States.
He has been an outstanding Governor of the State of Maryland, and his
Administration has fulfilled many of the purposes of the platform this convention
has adopted.
We wrote an intelligent, forward-looking platform on which our candidates
will conduct forthright campaigns. Our platform pledges the Republican Party to
a vigorous effort to transform our cities into centers of opportunity and progress.
There is no more compelling domestic need.
Governor Agnew's chief responsibility as a nominee is to carry to the
nation the Republican Party's conviction:
That we must have a change of government if we are to change the conditions
in our cities;
That we in the metropolitan areas must have national support instead of
bureaucratic interference;
-more-
QERALD FORD NEBRARY
-2-
That we need a new system of relationships between Federal and local
governments, a concert of action to contend with the expansion of the suburban
communities and the decline of the central cities;
That we must understand that justice is the cornerstone of our republic
and that without justice, the rule of law has no meaning;
And most important, the United States must have the kind of leadership
under which the rights of minorities are sheltered by the power of the majority.
For this is the only way a democracy can succeed.
Our platform also presents a mandate for peace abroad; a prerequisite for
progress at home.
These are the commitments the Republican Party has undertaken:
Commitments to change the course of this country;
To give it a leadership that can command our strength, a national purpose
that compels us to do what is right for America;
A commitment, finally, for change.
Only with a change at the highest levels of our government can this
country find itself again. Only then, will we be able to talk to each other again.
Only then will the ideals of America be given eloquent expression.
Governor Agnew knows the implications of the challenges before us. He has
been the chief executive of Baltimore County, which contains one of the nation's
largest cities. As Governor of Maryland, he has dealt with the problems of the
suburbs that make up the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States.
And by his proximity to Washington, he has direct experience with the
failures of this Administration in the critical task of shaping the future of an
urban America. Where they have failed, we must succeed. And, if we carry out
the promise of our platform, we will succeed.
-more-
-3-
This, then, is the year when once more we can speak as one people. This
is the year that a Republican Administration can bring the freshness of change to
a weary nation.
So let's address the American people as one party -- eager to articulate
the hopes and dreams of a free nation.
For last year's words belong to last year's language. But next year's words
must be given another voice.
8/9/68