Excerpts from Reagan's acceptance address
This convention has shown to all America a party united, with positive programs for solving the nation's problems; a party ready to build a new concensus with all those across the land who share a community of values embodied in these words: family, work, neighborhood, peace, and freedom.. . .
I know we have had a quarrel or two in our party, but only as to the method of attaining a goal. There was no argument about the goal. As president, I will establish a liason with the 50 governors to encourage them to eliminate, wherever it exists, discrimination against women. I will monitor federal laws to ensure their implementation and to add statutes if they are needed.
More than anything else, I want my candidacy to unify our country; to renew the American spirit and sense of purpose.. . .
We need a rebirth of the American tradition of leadership at every level of government and in private life as well.. . .
My view of government places trust not in one person or one party, but in those values that transcend persons and parties. The trust is where it belongs -- in the people. The responsibility to live up to that trust is where it belongs, in their elected leaders.. . .
Three hundred and sixty years ago, in 1620, a group of families dared to cross a mighty ocean to build a future for themselves in a new world. When they arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, they formed what they called a "compact"; an agreement among themselves to build a community and abide by its laws.. . .
Isn't it once again time to renew our compact of freedom; to pledge to each other all that is best in our lives; all that gives meaning to them -- for the sake of this, our beloved and blessed land?
Together, let us make this a new beginning. Let us make a commitment to care for the needy; to teach our children the values and the virtues handed down to us by our families; to have the courage to defend those values and the willingness to sacrifice for them.
Let us pledge to restore, in our time, the American spirit of voluntary service, of cooperation, of private and community initiative; a spirit that flows like a deep and mighty river through the history of our nation.. . .
"I propose to you, my friends, and through you that government of all kinds, big and little be made solvent and that the example be set by the President of the United States and his cabinet."
So said Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention in July, 1932.
The time is now, my fellow Americans, to recapture our destiny, to take it into our own hands.
