Quotes from U.S. Presidents on American Citizenship
George Washington
"Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations."
— George Washington’s Farewell Address, September 17, 1796
“Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”
— George Washington’s Farewell Address, September 17, 1796
John Adams
“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”
— Diary entry, Spring 1772.
“Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives. We ought to do all we can.”
— Letter to Benjamin Rush, April 18, 1808
Thomas Jefferson
"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."
— Letter to Richard Price, January 8, 17896
"A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society."
— Memo to George Hammond, May 29, 1792
"The moral duties which exist between individual and individual in a state of nature accompany them into a state of society."
— “Opinion on the Treaties with France” memo to President Washington, April 28, 1793.
"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals, our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties."
— Second inaugural address, March 4, 1805
James Madison
“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both”
— Letter to W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822.
James Monroe
“We must support our rights or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties. A people who fail to do it can scarcely be said to hold a place among independent nations. National honor is national property of the highest value. The sentiment in the mind of every citizen is national strength. It ought therefore to be cherished.”
— First inaugural address, March 4, 1817
“It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising their sovereignty.”
— First inaugural address, March 4, 1817
John Quincy Adams
“Our political creed is, without a dissenting voice that can be heard, that the will of the people is the source and the happiness of the people the end of all legitimate government upon earth”.
— Inaugural Address of John Quincy Adams, March 4th, 1825.
Andrew Jackson
“The people are the government, administering it by their agents; they are the government, the sovereign power.”
— Letter to William B Lewis, August 19, 1841.
Martin Van Buren
“The capacity of the people for self-government, and their willingness, from a high sense of duty and without those exhibitions of coercive power so generally employed in other countries…have also been favorably exemplified in the history of the American States”.
— Inaugural Address of Martin Van Buren on March 4, 1837
“The virtue and fortitude of the people have sometimes been greatly tried; yet our system, purified and enhanced in value by all it has encountered, still preserves its spirit of free and fearless discussion, blended with unimpaired fraternal feeling.”.
— Inaugural Address of Martin Van Buren on March 4, 1837
William Henry Harrison
“The danger to all well-established free governments arises from the unwillingness of the people to believe in its existence or from the influence of designing men diverting their attention from the quarter whence it approaches to a source from which it can never come”.
— Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison on March 4th, 1841.
“If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends…It looks to the aggrandizement of a few even to the destruction of the interests of the whole. The entire remedy is with the people.
— Inaugural Address of William Henry Harrison on March 4th, 1841. (On political parties)
John Tyler
“At peace with all the world, the personal liberty of the citizen sacredly maintained and his rights secured under political institutions deriving all their authority from the direct sanction of the people, with a soil fertile almost beyond example and a country blessed with every diversity of climate and production, what remains to be done in order to advance the happiness and prosperity of such a people?... The rest for the greater part might be left to their own energy and enterprise.”
— Second Annual Message of John Tyler on December 6th, 1841.
James Polk
“Numerous emigrants, of every lineage and language, attracted by the civil and religious freedom we enjoy and by our happy condition, annually crowd to our shores, and transfer their heart, not less than their allegiance, to the country whose dominion belongs alone to the people”.
— Third Annual Message of James Polk on December 7th, 1847.
Zachary Taylor
“Connected, as the Union is, with the remembrance of past happiness, the sense of present blessings, and the hope of future peace and prosperity, every dictate of wisdom, every feeling of duty, and every emotion of patriotism tend to inspire fidelity and devotion to it and admonish us cautiously to avoid any unnecessary controversy which can either endanger it or impair its strength, the chief element of which is to be found in the regard and affection of the people for each other”.
— Special Message to the U.S. Senate, January 23, 1850
Millard Fillmore
“Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among the people and our industry is fast accumulating the comforts and luxuries of life. This is in part owing to our peculiar position, to our fertile soil and comparatively sparse population; but much of it is also owing to the popular institutions under which we live, to the freedom which every man feels to engage in any useful pursuit according to his taste or inclination, and to the entire confidence that his person and property will be protected by the laws”.
— Third Annual Address, December 6, 1852.
Franklin Pierce
“It is the duty of the people of Kansas to discountenance every act or purpose of resistance to its laws. Above all, the emergency appeals to the citizens of the States, and especially of those contiguous to the Territory, neither by intervention of nonresidents in elections nor by unauthorized military force to attempt to encroach upon or usurp the authority of the inhabitants of the Territory.”
— Message Regarding Disturbances in Kansas, January 24, 1856
“No citizen of our country should permit himself to forget that he is a part of its Government and entitled to be heard in the determination of its policy and its measures, and that therefore the highest considerations of personal honor and patriotism require him to maintain by whatever of power or influence he may possess the integrity of the laws of the Republic”.
— Message Regarding Disturbances in Kansas, January 24, 1856
James Buchanan
“But be this as it may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of the Government of the United States to secure to every resident inhabitant the free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote. This sacred right of each individual must be preserved.”
— Inaugural Address, March 4, 1857.
“The Union is a sacred trust left by our Revolutionary fathers to their descendants, and never did any other people inherit so rich a legacy. It has rendered us prosperous in peace and triumphant in war. The national flag has floated in glory over every sea. Under its shadow American citizens have found protection and respect in all lands beneath the sun.”
— Message on Threats to the Peace and Existence of the Union, January 8, 1861
Abraham Lincoln
“Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well wisher to his posterity, swear by the blood of the Revolution, never to violate in the least particular, the laws of the country; and never to tolerate their violation by others.”
— Address before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield — January 27, 1838
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
— First inaugural address, March 4, 1861
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
— Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
Andrew Johnson
“The men of our race in every age have struggled to tie up the hands of their Governments and keep them within the law; because their own experience of all mankind taught them that rulers could not be relied on to concede those rights which they were not legally bound to respect.”
— Veto of the First Military Reconstruction Act , March 2 1867
“It is not necessary for me on this occasion to recapitulate, or to rehearse the argument that I have made in your behalf and in behalf of those great principles which lie at the foundation of free government, and which should be maintained and preserved by all people calling themselves free, patriotic, and intelligent.”
— Speech at Washington, D. C., July 1, 1869
Ulysses S. Grant
“Laws are to govern all alike — those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.”
— First Inaugural address, March 4, 1869
“The country having just emerged from a great rebellion, many questions will come before it for settlement in the next four years which preceding Administrations have never had to deal with. In meeting these, it is desirable that they should be approached calmly, without prejudice, hate, or sectional pride, remembering that the greatest good to the greatest number is the object to be attained. This requires security of person, property, and free religious and political opinion in every part of our common country, without regard to local prejudice. All laws to secure these ends will receive my best efforts for their enforcement.”
— First Inaugural address, March 4, 1869
Rutherford B. Hayes
“Nothing brings out the lower traits of human nature like office-seeking. Men of good character and impulses are betrayed by it into all sorts of meanness.”
— From the Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes, August 9, 1878
James A. Garfield
“Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. If the next centennial does not find us a great nation... it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.”
— July 4, 1876 Centennial address, The Works of James Abram Garfield: Volume 2 (1882).
Chester A. Arthur
“Men may die, but the fabrics of our free institutions remain unshaken.”
— Address Upon Assuming the Office of the President, September 22, 1881
Grover Cleveland
“The verdict of our voters which condemned the injustice of maintaining protection for protection's sake enjoins upon the people's servants the duty of exposing and destroying the brood of kindred evils which are the unwholesome progeny of paternalism. This is the bane of republican institutions and the constant peril of our government by the people. It degrades to the purposes of wily craft the plan of rule our fathers established and bequeathed to us as an object of our love and veneration. It perverts the patriotic sentiments of our countrymen and tempts them to pitiful calculation of the sordid gain to be derived from their Government's maintenance. It undermines the self-reliance of our people and substitutes in its place dependence upon governmental favoritism. It stifles the spirit of true Americanism and stupefies every ennobling trait of American citizenship.”
— Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1893
“Loyalty to the principles upon which our Government rests positively demands that the equality before the law which it guarantees to every citizen should be justly and in good faith conceded in all parts of the land. The enjoyment of this right follows the badge of citizenship wherever found, and, unimpaired by race or color, it appeals for recognition to American manliness and fairness.”
— Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1893
Benjamin Harrison
“We accept the man as a citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes the duties of citizenship without any knowledge as to what they are. The privileges of American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave that we may well insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our institutions. We should not cease to be hospitable to immigration, but we should cease to be careless as to the character of it. There are men of all races, even the best, whose coming is necessarily a burden upon our public revenues or a threat to social order. These should be identified and excluded.”
— Inaugural Address, Marth 4, 1899.
“If in any of the States the public security is thought to be threatened by ignorance among the electors, the obvious remedy is education. The sympathy and help of our people will not be withheld from any community struggling with special embarrassments or difficulties connected with the suffrage if the remedies proposed proceed upon lawful lines and are promoted by just and honorable methods. How shall those who practice election frauds recover that respect for the sanctity of the ballot which is the first condition and obligation of good citizenship? The man who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler's hat has renounced his allegiance.”
— Inaugural Address, Marth 4, 1899.
William McKinley
“There are some national questions in the solution of which patriotism should exclude partisanship. Magnifying their difficulties will not take them off our hands nor facilitate their adjustment. Distrust of the capacity, integrity, and high purposes of the American people will not be an inspiring theme for future political contests. Dark pictures and gloomy forebodings are worse than useless. These only becloud, they do not help to point the way of safety and honor.”
— March 4, 1901 inaugural address
Theodore Roosevelt
“The essential first man to be a good citizen is his possession of the home virtues which we think when we call a man by the emphatic adjective of manly. No man can be a good citizen who is not a good husband and good father, who is not honest in its dealings with other men and women, loyal to his friends and fearless in the presence of his enemies , who has not had a sound heart, a healthy mind and a healthy body, just as no amount of attention to civil rights will save a nation where domestic life is undermined, or there is a lack of virtues harsh military alone can ensure the position of a country in the world.
— “Duties of American Citizenship” address, January 26, 1883
“It should be obvious in this country that every man must devote a reasonable share of his time doing his duty in the political life of the community. No man has the right to shirk his political duties under whatever plea of pleasure or business.”
— “Duties of American Citizenship” address, January 26, 1883
“People who say they do not have time to attend to politics are simply saying they are unfit to live in a free community. Their place is under the despotism, or whether they simply do nothing but vote, you can take despotism tempered by an occasional plebiscite, like Napoleon seconds.”
— “Duties of American Citizenship” address, January 26, 1883
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
— May 7, 1918 editorial in the Kansas City Star
William Howard Taft
“I believe that the demand for citizenship is just, and that it is amply earned by sustained loyalty on the part of the inhabitants of the island.”
(Taft on the question of granting Puerto Ricans American Citizenship).
— Fourth Annual Message to Congress on December 3rd, 1912.
“The position of the United States in the moral, intellectual, and material relations of the family of nations should be a matter of vital interest to every patriotic citizen.”
— Fourth Annual Message to Congress on December 3rd, 1912.
Woodrow Wilson
“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”
— October 25, 1913 address at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Warren G. Harding
“I can vision the ideal republic, where every man and woman is called under the flag for assignment to duty for whatever service, military or civic, the individual is best fitted; where we may call to universal service every plant, agency, or facility, all in the sublime sacrifice for country, and not one penny of war profit shall inure to the benefit of private individual, corporation, or combination, but all above the normal shall flow into the defense chest of the Nation. There is something inherently wrong, something out of accord with the ideals of representative democracy, when one portion of our citizenship turns its activities to private gain amid defensive war while another is fighting, sacrificing, or dying for national preservation.”
— Inaugural Address of Warren G. Harding on March 4th, 1921.
“We ought to find a way to guard against the perils and penalties of unemployment. We want an America of homes, illumined with hope and happiness, where mothers, freed from the necessity for long hours of toil beyond their own doors, may preside as befits the hearthstone of American citizenship.”
— Inaugural Address of Warren G. Harding on March 4th, 1921.
“If we can prove a representative popular government under which the citizenship seeks what it may do for the government and country, rather than what the country may do for individuals, we shall do more to make democracy safe for the world than all armed conflict ever recorded.”:
— Readjustment on May 14, 1920
Calvin Coolidge
“But if we wish to continue to be distinctively American, we must continue to make that term comprehensive enough to embrace the legitimate desires of a civilized and enlightened people determined in all their relations to pursue a conscientious life. We can not permit ourselves to be narrowed and dwarfed by slogans and phrases. It is not the adjective, but the substantive, which is of real importance. It is not the name of the action, but the result of the action, which is the chief concern.”
— March 4, 1925 inaugural address
Herbert Hoover
“There are some principles that cannot be compromised. Either we shall have a society based upon ordered liberty and the initiative of the individual, or we shall have a planned society that means dictation no matter what you call it or who does it. There is no half-way ground. They cannot be mixed.”
— “This Challenge to Liberty” address to the 1936 Republican National Convention, courtesy of Addresses Upon the American Road (1933 - 1938), p. 216-227
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization."
— “Greeting to the American Committee for Protection of Foreign-born” address, January 9, 1940
“Since the beginning of our American history, we have been engaged in change -- in a perpetual peaceful revolution -- a revolution which goes on steadily, quietly adjusting itself to changing conditions--without the concentration camp or the quick-lime in the ditch. The world order which we seek is the cooperation of free countries, working together in a friendly, civilized society. This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory.”
— January 6, 1941 State of the Union address to the U.S. Congress
Harry Truman
“But we expect our citizens to put aside those old nationalistic or racial feuds. They have no place here. We welcome you not to a narrow nationalism but to a great community based on universal ideals. Those universal ideals are the brotherhood of man and the welfare not only of our own country but the whole world besides.”
— Address Before the National Conference on Citizenship on September 17th, 1952
“A man who uses the weapon of the "big lie" is not a good man. He should be rejected by all good citizens, regardless of party. Partisan feeling often runs high in election campaigns. That is understandable. But it should not lead us to permit the use of this dangerous Communist technique in American politics.”
— Address Before the National Conference on Citizenship on September 17th, 1952
Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The freedom of the individual and his willingness to follow real leadership are at the core of America's strength."
— June 9, 1946 commencement address at Norwich University, Vermont
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
— January 20, 1953 inaugural address
"The general limits of your freedom are merely these: that you do not trespass upon the equal rights of others."
— April 22, 1954 address to the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
— January 20, 1961 inaugural address
“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
— June 11, 1963 televised address
Lyndon B. Johnson
“Our citizens—naturalized or native-born—must also seek to refresh and improve their knowledge of how our government operates under the Constitution and how they can participate in it. Only in this way can they assume the full responsibilities of citizenship and make our government more truly of, by, and for the people.”
— Proclamation 3786—Citizenship Day and Constitution on May 24th, 1967
“Because all Americans just must have the right to vote. And we are going to give them that right. All Americans must have the privileges of citizenship regardless of race. And they are going to have those privileges of citizenship regardless of race.”
— Special Message to the Congress: The American Promise on March 15th, 1965
Richard Nixon
“This view of the Constitution will not allow us to pay honor to the idea unless we pay attention to the reality. It calls upon a citizen to not only be able to demand his rights, but also to know what they are.”
— Proclamation 3911—Citizenship Day and Constitution Week on May 13th, 1969
“United States citizenship, then, is also demanding. But the demands are more than matched by the benefits. Each citizen can help himself, his fellow citizens, and his nation if he takes some time out of his life to read and talk and think about the Constitution.”
— Proclamation 3911—Citizenship Day and Constitution Week on May 13th, 1969
Gerald Ford
“But America's strength has never rested on arms alone. It is rooted in our mutual commitment of our citizens and leaders in the highest standards of ethics and morality and in the spiritual renewal which our Nation is under- going right now.”
— President Gerald R. Ford's Remarks in Kansas City Upon Accepting the 1976 Republican Presidential Nomination on August 19, 1976.
“It is only fitting then that I should pledge to them and to you that I will be the President of all the people. Thomas Jefferson said the people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. And down the years, Abraham Lincoln renewed this American article of faith asking, "Is there any better way or equal hope in the world?”
— Gerald R. Ford's Remarks Upon Taking the Oath of Office as President on August 9th, 1974.
“Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”
— Gerald R. Ford's Remarks Upon Taking the Oath of Office as President on August 9th, 1974.
“It is the right direction because it follows the truly revolutionary American concept of 1776, which holds that in a free society the making of public policy and successful problemsolving involves much more than government. It involves a full partnership among all branches and all levels of government, private institutions, and individual citizens.”
— President Gerald R. Ford's Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress Reporting on the State of the Union on January 19, 1976
Jimmy Carter
“In a few days I will lay down my official responsibilities in this office, to take up once more the only title in our democracy superior to that of President, the title of citizen.”
— Farewell Address to the Nation on January 14th, 1981.
Ronald Reagan
“But in the end it is each citizen who is responsible for protecting the liberties set forth in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Therefore, while Citizenship Day is a day of celebration, it is also a day of remembrance and dedication.”
— Proclamation 4949 -- Citizenship Day and Constitution Week on June 24th, 1982
“Well, today then, one way to honor those who served or may still be serving in Vietnam is to gather here and rededicate ourselves to securing the answers for the families of those missing in action. I ask the Members of Congress, the leaders of veterans groups, and the citizens of an entire nation present or listening, to give these families your help and your support, for they still sacrifice and suffer.”
— Remarks at Memorial Day Ceremonies Honoring an Unknown Serviceman of the Vietnam Conflict on May 28, 1984
“Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: ``We the People.'' ``We the People'' tell the government what to do; it doesn't tell us. ``We the People'' are the driver; the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast.”
— Farewell Address to the Nation on January 11, 1989
“Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which ``We the People'' tell the government what it is allowed to do. ``We the People'' are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I've tried to do these past 8 years.”
— Farewell Address to the Nation on January 11, 1989
George H.W. Bush
“We cannot hope only to leave our children a bigger car, a bigger bank account. We must hope to give them a sense of what it means to be a loyal friend, a loving parent, a citizen who leaves his home, his neighborhood and town better than he found it. What do we want the men and women who work with us to say when we are no longer there? That we were more driven to succeed than anyone around us? Or that we stopped to ask if a sick child had gotten better, and stayed a moment there to trade a word of friendship?”
— Inaugural Address of George Bush on January 20th, 1989
Bill Clinton
“I challenge all our schools to teach character education, to teach good values and good citizenship. And if it means that teenagers will stop killing each other over designer jackets, then our public schools should be able to require their students to wear school uniforms.”
— State of the Union on January 23rd, 1996
“Now, each of us must hold high the torch of citizenship in our own lives. None of us can finish the race alone. We can only achieve our destiny together -- one hand, one generation, one American connecting to another.”
— State of the Union on January 23rd, 1996
“But our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in many lands. Across the world, we see them embraced, and we rejoice. Our hopes, our hearts, our hands, are with those on every continent who are building democracy and freedom. Their cause is America's cause.”
— First Inaugural Address January 20, 1993
George W. Bush
“All who swear the oath of citizenship are doing more than completing a legal process. You are making a lifetime pledge to support the values and the laws of America. The pledge comes with great privileges. It also comes with great responsibilities.”
— Remarks by President George W. Bush at a Naturalization Ceremony on July 10th, 2013
“The Founders themselves decided that when they declared independence and wrote our Constitution. You see, citizenship is not limited by birth or background. America at its best is a welcoming society.”
— Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People on September 20th 2001
“When people live in freedom, they do not willingly choose leaders who pursue campaigns of terror. When people have hope in the future, they will not cede their lives to violence and extremism. So around the world, America is promoting human liberty, human rights, and human dignity.”
— Farewell Address to the Nation on January 15th, 2009
Barack Obama
"Because as the saying goes, the most important title is not 'president' or 'prime minister'; the most important title is 'citizen.'"
— Speaking to the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on September 23rd, 2014
“It is citizens -- ordinary men and women, determined to forge their own future -- who throughout history have sparked all the great change and progress."
— Speaking to the Clinton Global Initiative in New York on September 23rd, 2014
Donald Trump
“As Americans, and American citizens, we are bound together in love, and loyalty, and friendship, and affection. We must look out for each other, care for each other, and always act in the best interests of our nation and all citizens living here today. We love each other. We’re proud of each other.”
— Remarks by President Trump at a Naturalization Ceremony on January 19, 2019
“The beauty and majesty of citizenship is that it draws no distinctions of race, or class, or faith, or gender or background. No matter where our story begins, whether we are the first generation or the tenth generation, we are all equal. We are one team and one people proudly saluting one great American flag.”
— Remarks by President Trump at a Naturalization Ceremony on January 19, 2019
“As long as the American people hold in their hearts deep and devoted love of country, then there is nothing that this nation cannot achieve. Our communities will flourish. Our people will be prosperous. Our traditions will be cherished. Our faith will be strong. And our future will be brighter than ever before.”
— Remarks by President Trump In Farewell Address to the Nation on January 19, 2021
Joe Biden
“And each of us has a duty and responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders – leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation — to defend the truth and to defeat the lies.”
— Inaugural Address by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on January 20th, 2021
“As I’ve always been clear, democracy is not a partisan issue. It’s an American issue.”
— Excerpts of Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by President Joe Biden on Democracy in Tempe, AZ on September 28th, 2023
