Title:  State of the Union Addresses of John F. Kennedy

Author:  John F. Kennedy

Release Date:  February, 2004 [EBook #5041] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 11, 2002] [This file was last updated on March 19, 2003]

Edition:  11

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

*** Start of the project gutenberg EBOOK of addresses by John F. Kennedy ***

This eBook was produced by James Linden. 
Additional editing by Jose Menendez.

The addresses are separated by three asterisks:  ***

Dates of addresses by John F. Kennedy in this eBook: 
  January 30, 1961
  January 11, 1962
  January 14, 1963

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State of the Union Address
John F. Kennedy
January 30, 1961

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of the Congress: 

It is a pleasure to return from whence I came.  You are among my oldest friends in Washington—­and this House is my oldest home.  It was here, more than 14 years ago, that I first took the oath of Federal office.  It was here, for 14 years, that I gained both knowledge and inspiration from members of both parties in both Houses—­from your wise and generous leaders—­and from the pronouncements which I can vividly recall, sitting where you now sit—­including the programs of two great Presidents, the undimmed eloquence of Churchill, the soaring idealism of Nehru, the steadfast words of General de Gaulle.  To speak from this same historic rostrum is a sobering experience.  To be back among so many friends is a happy one.

I am confident that that friendship will continue.  Our Constitution wisely assigns both joint and separate roles to each branch of the government; and a President and a Congress who hold each other in mutual respect will neither permit nor attempt any trespass.  For my part, I shall withhold from neither the Congress nor the people any fact or report, past, present, or future, which is necessary for an informed judgment of our conduct and hazards.  I shall neither shift the burden of executive decisions to the Congress, nor avoid responsibility for the outcome of those decisions.

I speak today in an hour of national peril and national opportunity.  Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure.  The outcome is by no means certain.  The answers are by no means clear.  All of us together—­this Administration, this Congress, this nation—­must forge those answers.

But today, were I to offer—­after little more than a week in office—­detailed legislation to remedy every national ill, the Congress would rightly wonder whether the desire for speed had replaced the duty of responsibility.