We have the ability.  We have the know-how.  In partnership with the American people, we will achieve these objectives.

As our 200th anniversary approaches, we owe it to ourselves and to posterity to rebuild our political and economic strength.  Let us make America once again and for centuries more to come what it has so long been—­a stronghold and a beacon-light of liberty for the whole world.

Thank you.

***

State of the Union Address
Gerald R. Ford
January 19, 1976

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of the 94th Congress, and distinguished guests: 

As we begin our Bicentennial, America is still one of the youngest nations in recorded history.  Long before our forefathers came to these shores, men and women had been struggling on this planet to forge a better life for themselves and their families.

In man’s long, upward march from savagery and slavery—­throughout the nearly 2,000 years of the Christian calendar, the nearly 6,000 years of Jewish reckoning—­there have been many deep, terrifying valleys, but also many bright and towering peaks.

One peak stands highest in the ranges of human history.  One example shines forth of a people uniting to produce abundance and to share the good life fairly and with freedom.  One union holds out the promise of justice and opportunity for every citizen:  That union is the United States of America.

We have not remade paradise on Earth.  We know perfection will not be found here.  But think for a minute how far we have come in 200 years.

We came from many roots, and we have many branches.  Yet all Americans across the eight generations that separate us from the stirring deeds of 1776, those who know no other homeland and those who just found refuge among our shores, say in unison: 

I am proud of America, and I am proud to be an American.  Life will be a little better here for my children than for me.  I believe this not because I am told to believe it, but because life has been better for me than it was for my father and my mother.  I know it will be better for my children because my hands, my brains, my voice, and my vote can help make it happen.

It has happened here in America.  It has happened to you and to me.  Government exists to create and preserve conditions in which people can translate their ideas into practical reality.  In the best of times, much is lost in translation.  But we try.  Sometimes we have tried and failed.  Always we have had the best of intentions.

But in the recent past, we sometimes forgot the sound principles that guided us through most of our history.  We wanted to accomplish great things and solve age-old problems.  And we became overconfident of our abilities.  We tried to be a policeman abroad and the indulgent parent here at home.