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NOT RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 22, 1974 OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY THE WHITE HOUSE REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT A RECEPTION FOR THE NATIONAL CITIZENS' COMMITTEE FOR FAIRNESS TO THE PRESIDENCY THE STATE FLOOR AT 5:17 P.M. EDT Rabbi Korff and all of our very distinguished guests and friends: I cannot tell you how much this tribute means to Mrs. Nixon and to me and to our two daughters and sons-in-law. I can only say that after I came into the room I heard what some of you were shouting and then I saw Rabbi Korff hold up his hand like that. (Laughter). He should have held up his hand like that. (Laughter) But what is more important than the numbers of years or months that one serves in this office is what one is able to accomplish while he is here. This is Washington's birthday, as we know, and it is, of course, highly symbolic that it is held, this meeting, in the East Room with the famous portrait of George Washington and Martha Washington on each side of me as I speak. At such a time we think of the history of our country, of those who made it, of the many who came here before Washington did and those who fought with him in the great battles of the Revoluntionary War. And we also think of the many who came here after Washington did. Some were born here. Most Americans today, however, trace their back- grounds to parents, grandparents, great grandparents who were not born here, but chose to come here and that is part of the greatness of America. It is the fact that out of this whole wide world we were able to draw people of all races and all religions and all backgrounds and they created what is America today. And it is because America is in a sense a microcosm of the whole world that America has a special opportunity at this particular time in our history to lead the whole world into an era of peace such as we have never known in this century and perhaps one such as has never been known in the history of the world. MORE