the president speech on independence day

‘Independence Day’ gave us the greatest presidential address in recent history

"We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!"

By James Clark | Published Jul 4, 2021 10:20 AM EDT

Welcome to That One Scene , a semi-regular series in which Marine veteran and pop culture omnivore James Clark waxes nostalgic about “that one scene” from a beloved movie. (Editor’s note: This article was originally published on July 3, 2018.)

Decades ago, director Roland Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin gave American audiences one of the greatest summer blockbusters of the 1990s. Independence Day helped cement Will Smith’s tenure as a top action star of the decade, gave us another excuse to listen to Jeff Goldblum quip and stutter between raised eyebrows, and delivered a perfect mix of camp and gratuitous destruction at a time when we weren’t so queasy about seeing national monuments laid to waste on screen.

Part doomsday sci-fi romp, part patriotic escapist fantasy, Independence Day had all the trappings of an instant summer classic — and that has a lot to do with one scene in the final act of the film. You know which one I’m talking about:

The scene takes place at Area 51, where the survivors of the brutal alien invasion gather to mount a last-ditch offensive to deliver mankind from the threat of annihilation. When President Thomas J. Whitmore (Bill Pullman), grabs the mic and addresses the beleaguered troops, he delivers the speech we’ve always wanted to hear from an actual president. In fact, if we were ever attacked by a war fleet of extraterrestrials, that scene would probably be required viewing for White House staff, according to former President Bill Clinton’s speechwriting director Michael Waldman.

“I wrote a book that was a collection of great presidential speeches, and if in fact the world had been invaded by aliens, this speech would have made the collection,” he told Complex in a June 23, 2016 roundtable discussion . “So that’s high praise.”

Surprisingly, the iconic scene — and it is iconic, so much so that people have actually delivered it during weddings — was written in just five minutes and was never meant to make it into the final cut as is, screenwriter Dean Devlin told Complex . But it’s a good thing it did, since the scene ends with Whitmore plugging the movie title when he concludes: “Today we celebrate our independence day!” And it turns out, that was deliberate.

“The main reason we did that is ’cause the studio at the time was threatening to change the title to Doomsday ,” Devlin told Complex. “So we thought, let’s get it into the speech.”

Not only did President Whitmore rally earth’s defenders for one final push against the alien menace, he also helped secure the film’s title, which is great, because… Doomsday? Are you fucking kidding me?

So, we know it’s good, but why is it so goddamn motivating? Well, partly because President Whitmore is the fictional leader we all wish was real. An actual presidential address under these circumstances would amount to a clipped statement followed by an all but-meaningless executive order given that the world is in flames, the military is in disarray, and we just nuked Houston . Sorry, but no carefully crafted statement delivered from a substitute Resolute Desk will cut it.

Instead, we get Whitmore as commander-in-chief in the very literal sense of the constitutional office. An ex-Air Force fighter pilot and Gulf War veteran, he’s more comfortable in a flightsuit and the cockpit of an F-16 (or an F-18 later in the film) than he is wearing a tie and sitting in a boardroom — something he’s criticized for by cable news hosts early on in the movie. But before personally taking to the sky to kick alien ass for America, and all mankind, he’s gotta rally his troops.

Related: ‘Independence Day’ Fails Prove The Aliens Should’ve Won »

“Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution — but from annihilation,” Whitmore says before pivoting to a more unifying message that pays homage to both the St. Crispin’s Day Speech from William Shakespeare’s Henry V, when the titular king rallies his men before leading them into battle, and to the poem, Do not go gentle into that good night , by Dylan Thomas:

“Should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice: We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We’re going to live on! We’re going to survive!”

If your response to the final lines of that speech was anything but “FUCK YEAH!” and a curious sensation of patriotic arousal, then you’re dead inside. (WARNING: If a moto-boner lasts more than four hours, call your local recruiter — that’ll take care of it immediately.)

And with that, Happy 4th of July. Let’s hope no alien invaders drop by, but if they do, then political leaders the world over should brush up on the finest presidential address in movie history.

James Clark is the former Deputy Editor of Task & Purpose. He is an Afghanistan War veteran and served in the Marine Corps as a combat correspondent. Contact the author here.

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The True Story Behind Bill Pullman's Famous Speech in 'Independence Day'

Bill Pullman drew inspiration from Bobby Kennedy for his recitation of the speech

Actor Bill Pullman reprised his role as American President Thomas J. Whitmore in 2016's Independence Day: Resurgence, the sequel to the 1996 film Independence Day .

This is great because Pullman made for a pretty decent president. The speech Whitmore orated in the original film before flying off for the final battle against the invading aliens has become a pop culture fixture , joining similar scenes from Braveheart and Hoosiers in the pantheon of cinematic inspirational speeches.

Here's the text, in case you forgot.

"Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind."

"'Mankind.' That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July , and you will once again be fighting for our freedom … Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution … but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist."

"And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: 'We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!' Today we celebrate our Independence Day!"

Good stuff, right? Filming the scene was also weirdly synchronistic: It was shot in front of the hanger that once housed the Enola Gay, one of the bombers that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan on Aug. 6, 1945. The scene was filmed exactly 50 years later.

A more prosaic bit of trivia about the speech: It ended with the film's title because, up until then, the movie was called ID4 ; Warner Bros. owned the rights to the title Independence Day . According to The Atlantic , screenwriters (and directors/producers) Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin added the line to the end of the speech , hoping it would convince the studio backing their film, 20th Century Fox, to fight for Independence Day , their preferred title. (Fox had been lobbying for Doomsday .) Devlin and Emmerich's efforts worked.

Complex has a fantastic oral history of the speech , in which Devlin revealed that he told Emmerich during the writing process they should give Whitmore "a kind of a St. Crispin's Day speech," referencing a similarly famous speech in Shakespeare's Henry V .

Devlin, by his own account, wrote the speech in "literally five minutes" as a placeholder, with the thought that it could always be changed later.

Pullman told Complex that he researched various acclaimed speeches from the 20th century to inform his recitation, drawing particular inspiration from a speech Robert Kennedy made shortly after finding out Martin Luther King, Jr., had been shot. He "just knocked this one out of the park," Devlin said. "None of us were prepared for it until his first rehearsal, and then we were just staring in awe and wonder."

Talking to Complex , Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice and Director of Speechwriting for President Bill Clinton from 1995-99, said, "I wrote a book that was a collection of great presidential speeches, and if in fact the world had been invaded by aliens, this speech would have made the collection, so that's high praise."

That said, the speech does contain a mangling of an even more famous line. Whitmore's declaration, "We will not go quietly into the night," seemed to be a reference to Dylan Thomas' classic poem "Do not go gentle into that good night," though Devlin and Emmerich haven't ever mentioned it. Interestingly, the poem is recited in full in Interstellar , the 2014 movie about humans trekking to other planets rather than the other way around.

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The Oral History of the President’s Speech in ‘Independence Day’

As ‘Independence Day Resurgence’ continues filming in the desert, re-live the most patriotic and motivational speech in cinematic history.

Image via 20th Century Fox

The Fourth of July is a simple holiday with a few beloved traditions. From coast to coast, the day calls for enjoying some beer, eating a few hot dogs, and trying not to lose a hand while blowing up miniature bombs. However, for 220 years we Americans celebrated the creation of our independent political state without even realizing that things could get even better. Then, in 1996, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin put out a film that would redefine summer blockbusters, launch the career of Will Smith , and give America even more to cheer for on the Fourth.

Independence Day  had it all. The explosions, aliens, and global destruction set a new standard (in a pre-9/11 world when you could blow up fake world monuments with little hesitation), earning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The world fell in love with Will Smith, who, combined with his role in  Bad Boys , became the leading action star of the decade. The film made over $800 million and became synonymous with the holiday that anchored its theme and story, joining the ranks of Halloween , Groundhog Day , and the marathon of Christmas movies that flood secondary cable channels every year.

Amongst all that, there is one scene in the epic that has persevered through two decades, and has stood above the CGI orgy that thrashes box offices each summer. To kick off the third act, President Thomas J. Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman, only has a few minutes before joining a ragtag team of volunteers who are about to launch a last-ditch effort against an all-powerful alien force. The military hero never got used to the neckties and bureaucratic compromise of politics, but in a short monologue, Whitmore delivers a rousing speech that immediately unites the surviving dregs of the desert who have gathered at Area-51 in the common desire to once again win back mankind's independence. 

Yes, an element of camp and nostalgia have increased the enduring love of this speech among the patriotic hordes that recite it every Fourth of July, but the truth behind this timeless scene only adds further to the greatest cinematic moment in the summer of '96. Not every 90-second sermon remains more engrained in the collective conscious than footage of the White House exploding, so we spoke to the people who made the scene happen (and also Bill Clinton's former speechwriter) to find out why. As Independence Day: Resurgence continues filming in the New Mexico desert and motors to a summer 2016 release, here is the full story on how one of the greatest speeches in cinematic history came to be, and how it very well may have influenced a future, real life president.

Dean Devlin : Not to get spiritual, but it felt like the whole experience in making this movie was somehow channeled. Roland and I wrote the original draft in about three weeks, and we didn’t do a whole lot of rewriting after that. I mean things like that just never happen. The day we filmed the speech was especially magical.

Michael Waldman : The ‘90s were this golden period between the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War on Terrorism where, at the time, Americans often wondered if we were going soft. Having a fighter pilot president killing aliens was a good escapist alternative history. Also, the White House got blown up over and over again every time I saw the preview; it was very exciting for those of us who worked there.

Roland Emmerich : We made the movie under quite a lot of time pressure because we wanted to beat the Warner movie [ Mars Attacks ] from Tim Burton that we knew about. We wrote the script really fast, optioned it, and then shot the movie in record time.

Devlin : The real trick to these movies and making the big action sequences work—and I’ve forgotten this sometimes and screwed it up—the characters really have to be humanized. Because you can have the greatest special effects in the world, but if you don’t care about the people in those effects, there’s no impact. So Roland and I took a lot of care in this third act to really give each character a big moment before we went into nonstop action so that you were really invested in them.

Vivica A. Fox : The significance of that scene was just generating huge momentum for the big attack, and the speech had to pull together in unity all the survivors. I loved how in that scene, you saw people from all different walks of life standing together and deciding we would not be defeated; that we would stand up and we would declare our Independence Day and fight back.

Devlin : I said to Roland, “It would be great if we could do a kind of a St. Crispin’s Day speech.” You know, where the king basically rallies the troops.

{ "id": 133151630 } “I went into the other room and literally in five minutes I whipped the speech out, put it into the script—we didn’t even read it. It was just a placeholder.” —Dean Devlin

Waldman : The speech is obviously very derivative of Shakespeare’s  Henry V  and his St. Crispin’s Day speech before the Battle of Agincourt, where King Henry leads his outnumbered men into battle. In the  Independence Day  speech the president says, “July Fourth will no longer be known as an American holiday…” Henry the Fifth says, “This day is called the Feast of St. Crispian, he that outlives this day and comes safe home will stand a-tip-toe when this day is named.” Basically, they took that and rewrote it. Shakespeare wasn’t gonna sue.

Devlin : Roland turned to me and said, “Oh great. We only have to write a speech as great as the St. Crispin’s Day speech. How are we going to do that?”

Waldman : The vast majority of presidential speeches are not to rally the troops before attacking aliens, but some statement about policy, about education grants or something like that. The key thing in writing a presidential speech is understanding the policies, the president’s policy approach, and their agenda. Usually we would talk with President Clinton about a week before a speech on what his policy and strategic goals were. Very frequently there was close work with the policy advisors, and then typically it would go to the president. Right before he would give it, there would be a meeting in the Oval Office or wherever where he would go over and grill everybody about what this word means and why this, why that, and in his case, he would add quite a bit.

Devlin : I said, “Let me kind of just vomit out something really fast now and then we’ll spend a lot of time on it later and really rewrite it and make it perfect.” So I went into the other room and literally in five minutes I whipped the speech out, put it into the script—we didn’t even read it. It was just a placeholder.

Emmerich : Dean said, “We can always change it.”

Image via Fox

Waldman : Hollywood over the decades has had this very interesting relationship with presidents, and Hollywood’s often portrayed the presidents it wish it had.

Emmerich : Bill is such a moderate man, and he totally knew in a weird way what he had to play. When we talked at the very beginning of the film, he said, “I am gonna play this a little bit like a John Wayne figure. Maybe a little bit unsure of himself, but at the end he’s very sure of what he has to do.”

Devlin : Earlier in the film, the president’s people are talking about the criticism in the press about how he always has to compromise and everything is kind of a half measure. So for him, this is a chance to go all the way. And not have to play politics.

Waldman : Liberal Hollywood, which liked Bill Clinton and liked his policies, usually felt uncomfortable in some way with him personally. A lot of liberals in Hollywood thought Bill Clinton was a compromiser, and so Bill Pullman got up there and told it like it is and said what he really thought, which everyone dreamed the real president would do.

{ "id": 133151631 } “there’s not a lot of phony baloney or posturing in those circumstances. That comes from some place deep down inside that is looking to calm that collective heart racing.” —bill pullman

Devlin : We always want our leaders to be great leaders. And just this idea that this guy wasn’t just a politician—he went in there. He saw the kids being nervous and he thought, “I’ve gotta rally them.” And really, all that was in my head as we started to work on that scene was, “How can he motivate them? How can he get them on their feet and get ready to fly?”

Bill Pullman : When I first read this scene, I remember thinking that I’d need to think about speeches, and about motivation. I started doing research and had a collection of great speeches from the 20th century. One of them was an amazing speech that Robert Kennedy gave about two minutes after he had been informed that Martin Luther King had been shot.

The recording of the speech just captured the incredible energy in the place. He says, “I regret to inform you that Martin Luther King has been shot.” You hear this horrific gasp from the people in the crowd. And you get the sense that everyone’s collective heart is just beating like a rabbit’s. Then, his ability to frame his thoughts and cite references to Greeks, and of course get over the connection to the fact that he knows something about this—he can speak to the pain because his own brother had been shot.

That was one of those things that always reminded me that there’s not a lot of phony baloney or posturing in those circumstances. That comes from some place deep down inside that is looking to calm that collective heart racing.

Devlin : I remember on the day that we went to shoot it, I had a panic attack. I was like “Oh my god. We never got to rewrite the speech.”

Pullman : Dean reminded me of that just yesterday, and I had forgotten about that part. I don’t think he ever mentioned to me that he planned on editing it. I knew it was really important to him.

Devlin : I came running on the set in a panic thinking, “We had screwed up.” This is a scene we were supposed to spend weeks on and we just never got around to it. And when I got there they were already rehearsing the speech. I was so nervous about it, but when he got to the end of the speech—all of the extras went crazy, applauding and screaming. I looked at Roland and he looked at me and we’re like, “I guess this speech is pretty darn good.”

Pullman : I don’t think we were given a lot of direction. We were shooting nights, and so everyone’s a little bit woozy, but somehow everyone involved in that scene was on the money.

Emmerich : That wasn’t the only thing we shot that day. We shot from the evening until the morning, because we were under so much pressure. I always call it the tragic hour, because there’s a lot of yelling, screaming, and crying because we have such a short amount of time.

Pullman : You’re just trying to do your work, and focus on what you’re concentrating on. There wasn’t a lot of discussion about “Give me more,” or “Do it less.” Really, kind of at the core of Roland, I think at a certain point, he believes that you’re gonna work at it and keep the lines fresh all the way through. Roland was focused on the close-ups and the lighting and the sound. I don’t think anyone was really paying attention to, you know, “Is this great?”

Devlin : Bill Pullman just knocked this one out of the park. None of us were prepared for it until his first rehearsal and then we were just staring in awe and wonder and going, “Man he just owned this thing.”

{ "id": 133151636 } “They just let it stay. Sometimes that’s how moments happen. If Bill Pullman delivers, why take that moment away from him and from the film?” —Vivica A. Fox

Emmerich : We had a good feeling when we shot it. It felt like Bill hit a home run with it, but when we saw it in a cut with the music and everything, we all said, “Oh my God.”

Pullman : The next night, it practically seemed like Dean came into my trailer, we were shooting nights, and we were still on the White House set, and he brought in this VHS and said, “Take a look at this.” It was a quick edit of the speech, and it didn’t change much from that first edit.

Emmerich : It was actually never really re-cut. The only thing which was later added was that one shot I did of Randy Quaid and his kids.

Fox : They just let it stay. Sometimes that’s how moments happen; they can just be so organic in the film. If Bill Pullman delivers, why take that moment away from him and from the film?

Pullman : When I saw it for the first time, I remember feeling like the real genius of it is the cutaways to the people in the crowd, the pilots, the soldiers. It had a Capraesque quality, a Capra kind of engagement with humanity. They were all really honest faces that weren’t straining for anything, but were incredibly present. That’s what was going to make the whole speech work.

Fox : I got chills when he delivered it. And then watching it with an audience; I’ll never forget being at the premiere of what, 20 years ago in Westwood Village, and just when that scene, when he did it it was like you could hear a pin drop; everybody was hanging on every single word that he said, and was proud; when he finished it, it was like “Yes! Let’s go kick some alien butt!”

Waldman : I would say that a lot of times when presidents are given words to speak on the screen, both then and now I would wince, because they are always so off. This was not off; this was pretty good.

Devlin : Have you ever gone on YouTube and searched the speech? People do it at weddings. They break into it at bars. It’s hilarious.

Pullman : We didn’t ever imagine that the speech was gonna explode into something that would be a little set piece within the whole story.

Waldman : I wrote a book that was a collection of great presidential speeches , and if in fact the world had been invaded by aliens, this speech would have made the collection, so that’s high praise, I guess.

Devlin : The only thing we changed was we added at the last minute the line, “Today we celebrate our Independence Day.” And the main reason we did that is ‘cause the studio at the time was threatening to change the title to “Doomsday.” So we thought, let’s get it into the speech.

Pullman : I remember that there suddenly came some interest in pushing up the date in the schedule on when we would shoot the speech, because Fox was considering pushing the title “Doomsday.” That would’ve been a horrible title, and I’ve gone through a couple movies that got stuck with bad titles. So it was urgent to get it in and to have the words, “Today we celebrate our Independence Day” to prove why that had to be the title. I felt the urgency to get it right.

{ "id": 133151635 } “Fox was considering pushing the title ‘Doomsday.’ That would’ve been a horrible title.” —bill pullman

Devlin : There was a concern because we wanted to make sure that this was the moment where it wasn’t about America saving the world. It was about mankind around the world coming together for a common good. And it’s interesting because when the film came out, there was a lot of confusion about that when Roland and I toured the world promoting the movie. People kept thinking, “Well isn’t this just saying that America has to be the world’s policeman?” We would always point back to that speech and say, “No. The whole purpose of that speech is to say, ‘Today we speak with one voice.’”

Waldman : Looking at the scene again, what comes to mind a little bit is George W. Bush’s most memorable moments from his presidency. The staging and iconography of his “Mission Accomplished” moment looks like they borrowed a lot from that movie. I mean, Bush wearing his fake fighter pilot outfit on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln [aircraft carrier] looks so much like this scene. And one of the high points of his presidency was when he jumped up on the fire truck at Ground Zero and spoke into a megaphone to the firefighters and the first responders and said, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you.” It is so similar to this scene.

Emmerich : After the speech, when Rob Loggia said to him, “What are you doing?” And he says, “I’m getting in the air. That’s where I belong.” And actually, I always think that George W. Bush stole that, when he was on his aircraft carrier. When I saw that during the Iraq War, I laughed really hard.

Emmerich : This speech was very different from what you’d normally hear from a president.

Waldman : Actually, there was one point that summer when scientists believed they had found some evidence of bacterial life on a meteorite that had come from Mars. It was pretty tenuous, if I recall, but anyway that’s what they thought, and so we wrote a speech for President Clinton and he went out and announced contact with life on Mars. It kind of was quickly forgotten, which is probably a good thing.

Fox : They did a screening at the White House for Bill Clinton, and he loved it. He loved it.  I was working and I couldn’t make it and I was bummed about that, but then later at an event in Washington D.C. I got to introduce myself to Bill Clinton and he was like “I loved you in Independence Day , Vivica!”

Emmerich : When we screened Independence Day in the White House for President Clinton and Hillary Clinton, afterwards Hillary said, “Well, it looks like Bill has to get his pilot license!”

Pullman : There’s a lot that goes into making a speech, and some of it is just the right character at the right time, and you know, I’m fortunate to have been in that position in a movie that has become such a classic.

Devlin : The popularity of this speech blows my mind. It absolutely blows my mind. It’s the thing that I look back in my career and have the most pride about. AFI did a thing recently of the top 10 speeches of all time in movies. And they listed ours at number two behind Patton’s speech.

{ "id": 133151642 } “I finally realized how big this speech was during the making of Independence Day Resurgence. Everyone’s asking, ‘Is there a speech?’” —Roland Emmerich

Pullman : I don’t know it by heart. I think of it as a circumstantial thing, you know, being there at that time, and having the words pour through you. That’s just so much more interesting.

Emmerich : I finally realized how big this speech was during the making of  Independence Day Resurgence . Everyone’s asking, “Is there a speech?”

Pullman : It’d be boring in a sequel to have a big speech to the troops or something again. That was never an option, really. You wouldn’t want to set yourself up for that kind of failure.

Emmerich : These things happen once in a lifetime. You can’t repeat stuff like that. There’s a lot of great emotional moments in  IDR , but there’s no place where a speech like this could fit, so we’re staying away from it. There are some speech-like moments, but I think having a president’s speech would just be like playing with fire.

Devlin : I like to make popcorn movies. It’s my passion. I love the genre. And traditionally, these kinds of movies aren’t celebrated as anything other than movies that make money and are populist. And to have this speech recognized almost separately from the film, it’s a very humbling thing.

Emmerich : Independence Day was so successful and is maybe holding up so well because it has all these very simple human stories. Dean and I met with Steven Spielberg after the film, because he wanted to be involved with the ride, which never happened, but he said to us, “You guys changed something, there’s something different now. Everybody has to see a summer movie differently.” And I knew exactly what he meant, which was combining very big images with very humanized stories. And he meant it; at that time he was shooting Lost World , and he said, “We’re changing the script now.”

Devlin : Spielberg said to Roland and I not long after the movie came out—it was the first time that different genres were combined to try and create a new genre. And that started to become the fashion: taking genres and gene-splicing them together.

Emmerich : In a way we unknowingly invented a new thing, with no plan. I see the influence of Independence Day everywhere: in all the Marvel movies, and all the superheroes of the DC Universe, there’s always an alien invasion, there’s always like a disaster element, but they always try to humanize the characters.

Devlin : The experience of making this movie was unlike anything that ever happened to me before or since. And it was just this odd thing where everything just kept going right every single day. We had no egos from any of the actors. They were all on board and all terrific. There are so many things that go wrong when you make a movie and so many problems and fights with the studio. It’s like every day we kept looking at each other going, “When’s the other shoe gonna drop? When is something gonna go wrong?” And it was kind of just this blessed process of making this film. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen or experienced.

Emmerich : It’s amazing how this speech took off. But hey, it’s out of your control, and I’m very proud that we did it, and we had no idea what impact this would have. We didn’t have any idea how successful the movie would be. Nobody was expecting this.

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The Uninspiring Story Behind the Most Inspiring Speech in Movie History

“Don’t forget,” Llywelyn Jones, a reader of my story on the original Independence Day , writes, “that President Bill Pullman’s speech is essentially Henry V’s Saint Crispin’s Day speech.”

It’s a very good point: President Whitmore’s iconic “ we will survive ” speech joined a canon of Inspirational Fictional Speeches that includes ones written not just by Shakespeare , but also by the writers of Braveheart and Gladiator and Invictus and Remember the Titans .

What’s especially notable about the Independence Day version of that genre, though—a version that has been celebrated and meme-ified online in the decades that followed the film’s 1996 release—is that the words of the speech were motivated by more than audience inspiration alone. According to the DVD commentary provided by Roland Emmerich ( Independence Day ’s director, co-writer, and executive producer) and Dean Devlin (its co-writer and producer), the speech’s language was also inspired by ... legal concerns.

As Emmerich and Devlin note, the last line of President Whitmore’s troops-rouser—“Today we celebrate our Independence Day!”—may have caused, within the film itself, an explosion of enthusiastic salutes among the rag-tag group of fighter pilots who would go on to save the world. And it may have caused a similar reaction among audiences. But it wasn’t in the pair’s original script. They tacked it on at the last minute.

The film we know today as Independence Day was initially going to be titled according to its now-nickname, ID4 , because Warner Bros.—not the film’s studio, 20th Century Fox—owned the rights to the title Independence Day. The movie’s writers wanted Independence Day for their name and wanted Fox to fight for it. So they added one more reference to “Independence Day” to their script. It came via President Whitmore’s speech. They hoped the addition would encourage Fox executives to go to bat for the title.

It worked. Two weeks after the line was added to the script, Fox won the rights to the title its creatives wanted . ID4 became Independence Day , and in the shift Emmerich and Devlin provided the world with two things: 1) an inspiring conclusion to an already-inspiring speech, and 2) yet one more example of how the behind-the-scenes workings of the studio industrial complex can contribute, almost in spite of themselves, to enduring cinematic moments.

Independence Day (1996)

Bill pullman: president thomas j. whitmore.

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• Quotes (16)

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[the President briefs the pilots before the final attack] 

President Thomas Whitmore : Good morning.

[PA doesn't work. Turns it on] 

President Thomas Whitmore : Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

[crowd cheers] 

Russel Casse : [Russell's final missile malfunctions]  Do me a favor. Tell my children... I love them very much.

[Sets a collision course] 

Russel Casse : All right, you alien assholes! In the words of my generation: Up... YOURS!

President Thomas Whitmore : Good luck, buddy!

Russel Casse : Ha-ha-ha! Hello, boys! I'm BAAAAAACK!

[His plane crashes into the unshielded alien ship, destroying it] 

Gen. Gray : Are you all right?

President Thomas Whitmore : I saw... its thoughts. I saw what they're planning to do. They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet... their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on... and we're next. Nuke 'em. Let's nuke the bastards.

President Thomas Whitmore : I don't understand, where does all this come from? How do you get funding for something like this?

Julius Levinson : You don't actually think they spend $20,000 on a hammer, $30,000 on a toilet seat, do you?

President Thomas Whitmore : The only mistake I ever made was to appoint a sniveling little weasel like you Secretary of Defense. However, that is a mistake, I am happy to say, that I don't have to live with. Mr. Nimzicki... you're fired.

Julius Levinson : Hey, hey, hey, don't you tell him to shut up! You'd all be dead now if it weren't for my David! None of you did anything to prevent this!

Gen. Gray : There was nothing we could do! We were totally unprepared for...

Julius Levinson : AAAHHH, don't give me unprepared! You knew about this for years! What,with that spaceship you found in New Mexico! What was it called... Roswell, New Mexico! And that other place... uh... Area 51, Area 51! You knew then! And you did nothing!

President Thomas Whitmore : Mr. Levinson, contrary to what you may have read in the tabloids, there is no Area 51. There is no spaceship...

Albert Nimzicki : Uh... excuse me, Mr. President? That's not entirely accurate.

David Levinson : What, which part?

Gen. Gray : Mr. President, I'd sure like to know what you're doing.

President Thomas Whitmore : I'm a combat pilot, Will. I belong in the air.

President Thomas Whitmore : Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Destroyed.

Gen. Gray : We've learned that NATO and western Allied installations were the first to be taken out. Then we were hit. They knew exactly where and how to hit us,

President Thomas Whitmore : And our forces?

Gen. Gray : We're down to 15 percent. If you calculate the time it takes to destroy a city and move on, we're looking at the worldwide destruction of every major city in the next 36 hours.

President Thomas Whitmore : We're being exterminated.

[Russell Casse needs an opening to attack during the final battle] 

President Thomas Whitmore : Okay, boys, let's give Mr. Casse some cover. Gentlemen, let's plow the road!

Patricia Whitmore : Is Mommy sleeping now?

President Thomas Whitmore : Yeah, Mommy is sleeping now.

President Thomas Whitmore : [addressing the nation]  If you feel compelled to leave these cities, please do so, in an orderly fashion.

[shot moves to very chaotic city street] 

President Thomas Whitmore : Doesn't anybody have any missiles left?

President Thomas Whitmore : What do you want us to do?

Captured Alien : Die. Die.

Constance : Now what do we do?

President Thomas Whitmore : Address the nation. There's gonna be a lot of frightened people out there.

Constance : Yeah? I'm one of 'em.

Patricia Whitmore : [speaking to her mother on the telephone]  Daddy let me watch Letterman.

President Thomas Whitmore : Traitor.

[deleted scene] 

President Thomas Whitmore : It's a fine line between standing behind a principle and hiding behind one. You can tolerate a little compromise, if you're actually managing to get something accomplished.

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Presidential Speeches

July 4, 1821: speech to the u.s. house of representatives on foreign policy, about this speech.

John Quincy Adams

July 04, 1821

While Secretary of State, Adams delivers a speech praising the virtues of America on Independence Day. He stresses that America has been devoted to the principles of freedom, independence and peace. This is an excerpt of the full speech. 

AND NOW, FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind?

Let our answer be this: America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity.

She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights.

She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own.

She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart.

She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right.

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.

But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy.

She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all.

She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.

She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example.

She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom.

The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force....

She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....

[America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

More John Quincy Adams speeches

Address to the Nation on Independence Day

July 4, 1986

My fellow Americans:

In a few moments the celebration will begin here in New York Harbor. It's going to be quite a show. I was just looking over the preparations and thinking about a saying that we had back in Hollywood about never doing a scene with kids or animals because they'd steal the scene every time. So, you can rest assured I wouldn't even think about trying to compete with a fireworks display, especially on the Fourth of July.

My remarks tonight will be brief, but it's worth remembering that all the celebration of this day is rooted in history. It's recorded that shortly after the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia celebrations took place throughout the land, and many of the former Colonists -- they were just starting to call themselves Americans -- set off cannons and marched in fife and drum parades.

What a contrast with the sober scene that had taken place a short time earlier in Independence Hall. Fifty-six men came forward to sign the parchment. It was noted at the time that they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. And that was more than rhetoric; each of those men knew the penalty for high treason to the Crown. ``We must all hang together,'' Benjamin Franklin said, ``or, assuredly, we will all hang separately.'' And John Hancock, it is said, wrote his signature in large script so King George could see it without his spectacles. They were brave. They stayed brave through all the bloodshed of the coming years. Their courage created a nation built on a universal claim to human dignity, on the proposition that every man, woman, and child had a right to a future of freedom.

For just a moment, let us listen to the words again: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.'' Last night when we rededicated Miss Liberty and relit her torch, we reflected on all the millions who came here in search of the dream of freedom inaugurated in Independence Hall. We reflected, too, on their courage in coming great distances and settling in a foreign land and then passing on to their children and their children's children the hope symbolized in this statue here just behind us: the hope that is America. It is a hope that someday every people and every nation of the world will know the blessings of liberty.

And it's the hope of millions all around the world. In the last few years, I've spoken at Westminster to the mother of Parliaments; at Versailles, where French kings and world leaders have made war and peace. I've been to the Vatican in Rome, the Imperial Palace in Japan, and the ancient city of Beijing. I've seen the beaches of Normandy and stood again with those boys of Pointe du Hoc, who long ago scaled the heights, and with, at that time, Lisa Zanatta Henn, who was at Omaha Beach for the father she loved, the father who had once dreamed of seeing again the place where he and so many brave others had landed on D-day. But he had died before he could make that trip, and she made it for him. ``And, Dad,'' she had said, ``I'll always be proud.''

And I've seen the successors to these brave men, the young Americans in uniform all over the world, young Americans like you here tonight who man the mighty U.S.S. Kennedy and the Iowa and other ships of the line. I can assure you, you out there who are listening, that these young are like their fathers and their grandfathers, just as willing, just as brave. And we can be just as proud. But our prayer tonight is that the call for their courage will never come. And that it's important for us, too, to be brave; not so much the bravery of the battlefield, I mean the bravery of brotherhood.

All through our history, our Presidents and leaders have spoken of national unity and warned us that the real obstacle to moving forward the boundaries of freedom, the only permanent danger to the hope that is America, comes from within. It's easy enough to dismiss this as a kind of familiar exhortation. Yet the truth is that even two of our greatest Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once learned this lesson late in life. They'd worked so closely together in Philadelphia for independence. But once that was gained and a government was formed, something called partisan politics began to get in the way. After a bitter and divisive campaign, Jefferson defeated Adams for the Presidency in 1800. And the night before Jefferson's inauguration, Adams slipped away to Boston, disappointed, brokenhearted, and bitter.

For years their estrangement lasted. But then when both had retired, Jefferson at 68 to Monticello and Adams at 76 to Quincy, they began through their letters to speak again to each other. Letters that discussed almost every conceivable subject: gardening, horseback riding, even sneezing as a cure for hiccups; but other subjects as well: the loss of loved ones, the mystery of grief and sorrow, the importance of religion, and of course the last thoughts, the final hopes of two old men, two great patriarchs, for the country that they had helped to found and loved so deeply. ``It carries me back,'' Jefferson wrote about correspondence with his cosigner of the Declaration of Independence, ``to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man, his right to self-government. Laboring always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to overwhelm us and yet passing harmless . . . we rowed through the storm with heart and hand . . . .'' It was their last gift to us, this lesson in brotherhood, in tolerance for each other, this insight into America's strength as a nation. And when both died on the same day within hours of each other, that date was July 4th, 50 years exactly after that first gift to us, the Declaration of Independence.

My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past. Believe me, if there's one impression I carry with me after the privilege of holding for 5\1/2\ years the office held by Adams and Jefferson and Lincoln, it is this: that the things that unite us -- America's past of which we're so proud, our hopes and aspirations for the future of the world and this much-loved country -- these things far outweigh what little divides us. And so tonight we reaffirm that Jew and gentile, we are one nation under God; that black and white, we are one nation indivisible; that Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world.

My fellow Americans, we're known around the world as a confident and a happy people. Tonight there's much to celebrate and many blessings to be grateful for. So while it's good to talk about serious things, it's just as important and just as American to have some fun. Now, let's have some fun -- let the celebration begin!

Note: The President spoke at 9:50 p.m. from the U.S.S. ``John F. Kennedy'' in New York Harbor. Earlier, on board the ship, he attended a USO show and a reenlistment and promotion ceremony for members of the crew. Following the fireworks display, the President went to the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills, NY, where he stayed overnight.

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Published on: July 3rd, 2020

15 Great Speeches to Remind America what Independence Day is About

This year we will celebrate the 244 th anniversary of American independence. This day does not only represent the creation of a new nation, but the creation of a new civilization, one founded on the principles of freedom, self-government, and equality. Here are 15 speeches to inspire new vigor for our founding principles. Looking at who and what we were will help us remember who and what we ought to be.

1. Patrick Henry, “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” 1775

Patrick Henry gave this speech in 1775 at the Virginia Convention. It took place only a few months after the assembly of the first Continental Congress had sent King George III a petition for the redress of grievances. Boston Harbor was also blockaded by the British in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party. Tensions were high, revolution seemed inevitable, but still many political leaders in Virginia held out hope that the relationship with Great Britain could be restored. Patrick Henry sought to dispel them of that notion.

Patrick Henry was a lawyer and had a reputation as one of the greatest opponents of British taxation. In this speech he argues passionately for independence. He made his case clear in the opening of his speech stating, “For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery…” He chides the assembly for indulging in “illusions of hope” for passively waiting “to be betrayed with a kiss” and for falling prey to the siren songs of the British.

He reminds the assembly of the lengths the colonists have gone to in order to plead their case to the British, “We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament.” He then states how the British have received such outreach, “Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne.”

Next is Henry’s powerful call to action, a call that would galvanize the colonies into declaring independence from Great Britain:

In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! … Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations; and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave… There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Read Patrick’s entire speech . Watch Patrick’s speech on YouTube .

2. Samuel Adams, “On American Independence” 1776

Samuel Adams was a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774, was a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, helped get the Constitution ratified in the Massachusetts Convention, and became Governor of Massachusetts in 1794.

In this speech Adams recognizes that this was not simply a battle that would determine the fate of two nations, but the fate of the world at large. He declared, “Courage, then, my countrymen; our contest is not only whether we ourselves shall be free, but whether there shall be left to mankind an asylum on earth for civil and religious liberty.”

Adams notes the ability of men to “deliberately and voluntarily” form for themselves a political society. He cites John Hampden, John Locke, and Algernon Sidney whose ideas and actions paved the way for such a feat. Of this new founding he states:

Other nations have received their laws from conquerors; some are indebted for a constitution to the suffering of their ancestors through revolving centuries. The people of this country, alone, have formally and deliberately chosen a government for themselves, and with open and uninfluenced consent bound themselves into a social compact. Here no man proclaims his birth or wealth as a title to honorable distinction, or to sanctify ignorance and vice with the name of hereditary authority. He who has most zeal and ability to promote public felicity, let him be the servant of the public. This is the only line of distinction drawn by nature. Leave the bird of night to the obscurity for which nature intended him, and expect only from the eagle to brush the clouds with his wings and look boldly in the face of the sun.

He like Patrick Henry then gives a call to action:

We have no other alternative than independence, or the most ignominious and galling servitude. The legions of our enemies thicken on our plains; desolation and death mark their bloody career, while the mangled corpses of our countrymen seem to cry out to us as a voice from heaven.

Lastly, Adams ends his address declaring the people of America the guardians of their own liberty. Then with an ode to the ancient Roman republic he ends stating, “Nothing that we propose can pass into a law without your consent. Be yourselves, O Americans, the authors of those laws on which your happiness depends.”

You can read Samuel Adams' full speech .

3. John Quincy Adams, “An Address Celebrating the Declaration of Independence” 1821

Adams begins the speech recounting the first settlers of the Plymouth colony and how they entered into a written covenant with one another on the eve of their landing. Of this event he states,

Thus was a social compact formed upon the elementary principles of civil society, in which conquest and servitude had no part. The slough of brutal force was entirely cast off; all was voluntary; all was unbiased consent; all was the agreement of soul with soul.

Adams continues to trace America’s historical and political development throughout the speech. He recalls how the British mistreated the colonists from the beginning, citing how Britain went against its own ideas and principles in denying the colonists representation and consent. He states, “For the independence of North America, there were ample and sufficient causes in the laws of moral and physical nature.”

Adams’ ode to the Declaration of Independence is most worth reading:

It was the first solemn declaration by a nation of the only legitimate foundation of civil government. It was the corner stone of a new fabric, destined to cover the surface of the globe. It demolished at a stroke the lawfulness of all governments founded upon conquest. It swept away all the rubbish of accumulated centuries of servitude. It announced in practical form to the world the transcendent truth of the unalienable sovereignty of the people. It proved that the social compact was no figment of the imagination; but a real, solid, and sacred bond of the social union. From the day of this declaration, the people of North America were no longer the fragment of a distant empire, imploring justice and mercy from an inexorable master in another hemisphere. They were no longer children appealing in vain to the sympathies of a heartless mother; no longer subjects leaning upon the shattered columns of royal promises, and invoking the faith of parchment to secure their rights. They were a nation, asserting as of right, and maintaining by war, its own existence. A nation was born in a day. […] [T]hat a new civilization had come, a new spirit had arisen on this side of the Atlantic more advanced and more developed in its regard for the rights of the individual than that which characterized the Old World. Life in a new and open country had aspirations which could not be realized in any subordinate position. A separate establishment was ultimately inevitable. It had been decreed by the very laws of human nature. Man everywhere has an unconquerable desire to be the master of his own destiny.

Adams goes on to pronounce that the Declaration was more than the “mere secession of territory” and the “establishment of a nation.” No, these things have occurred before, but the Declaration of Independence not only liberated America but ennobled all of humanity, he stated. 

You can read John Quincy Adams' entire speech here .

  4. Daniel Webster “Speech at the laying of the cornerstone of the capitol,” July 4, 1851.

Daniel Webster was one of the most prominent lawyers in the 19 th century, arguing over 200 cases before the Supreme Court. He also represented New Hampshire and Massachusetts in Congress and was Secretary of State under three presidents. Webster is also known for his speech in Congress, called the Second Reply to Hayne, which derided the theory of nullification espoused by John C. Calhoun.

Webster’s speech on the occasion of laying the Capital building’s cornerstone had a patriotic tone, He begins with the celebratory declaration, “This is America! This is Washington! And this the Capitol of the United States!”

Of the Founding generation Webster stated,

The Muse inspiring our Fathers was the Genius of Liberty, all on fire with a sense of oppression, and a resolution to throw it off; the whole world was the stage and higher characters than princes trod it… how well the characters were cast, and how well each acted his part…

He went on to speak about the tremendous sacrifice the men who signed the Declaration paid. “It was sealed in blood,” he stated. Of the liberty that the Founding generation bestowed upon successive generations Webster said,

Every man’s heart swells within him; every man’s port and bearing becomes somewhat more proud and lofty, as he remembers that seventy-five years have rolled away, and that the great inheritance of liberty is still his; his undiminished and unimpaired; his in all its original glory’ his to enjoy’ his to protect; and his to transmit to future generations.

Finally, Webster made clear that American liberty is unique among nations,

I have said, gentlemen, that our inheritance is an inheritance of American liberty. That liberty is characteristic, peculiar, and altogether our own. Nothing like it existed in former times, nor was known in the most enlightened States of antiquity; while with us its principles have become interwoven into the minds of individual men… […] And, finally another most important part of the great fabric of American liberty is, that there shall be written constitutions, founded on the immediate authority of the people themselves, and regulating and restraining all the powers conferred upon Government, whether legislative, executive, or judicial.

You can read Daniel Webster's entire speech here .

5. Frederick Douglass, “What to the slave is the 4 th of July?”  July 5, 1852

He spoke about the Founding Fathers as men of courage who “preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage.” Of the “fathers of this republic” he said, “They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory.”

Drawing a contrast between the Founders and the men of his generation advocating the positive good of slavery Douglass stated,

They believed in order; but not in the order of tyranny. With them, nothing was “settled” that was not right. With them, justice, liberty and humanity were “final;” not slavery and oppression. You may well cherish the memory of such men. They were great in their day and generation. Their solid manhood stands out the more as we contrast it with these degenerate times.

Douglass encouraged Americans to celebrate the Declaration as the ring-bolt to the chains of the United Sates’ destiny. “The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost,” he stated.

Douglass then rightly points out that America was not living up to its own ideals as laid out in the Declaration when it came to the millions of black men and women still enslaved. He stated,

Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Of Slavery’s effects on the American union he declared, “It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is a curse to the earth that supports it…”

He goes on to explain that this anniversary does not yet include black men and women. He stated, “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.” Yet Douglass was optimistic that this would soon change. He called the Constitution a “GLORIOUS LIBERTY DOCUMENT.” He exhorted the assembly to consider the Constitution’s preamble and ask themselves if slavery was listed as one of its purposes.

He finished his momentous speech by saying, 

Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation, which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. “The arm of the Lord is not shortened,” and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from the Declaration of Independence, the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age.

You can read Frederick Douglass' entire speech here .

6. Abraham Lincoln, Electric Cord Speech, 1858

In this speech often titled, “Speech at Chicago, Illinois” Abraham Lincoln replies to Senator Stephen Douglas’ conception of popular sovereignty. This was a theory that argued that each new territory should be able to decide whether or not to have slavery within their borders instead of allowing the federal government to decide. Lincoln saw this as a repeal of the Missouri Compromise which kept slavery relegated to the South.

To make his case against popular sovereignty and the expansion of slavery Lincoln argues that the adopters of the Constitution decreed that slavery should not go into the new territory and that the slave trade should be cut off within twenty years by an act of Congress. “What were [these provisions] but a clear indication that the framers of the Constitution intended and expected the ultimate extinction of that institution,” Lincoln asked the crowd.

After expounding upon the evils of slavery and recent actions to preserve the institution Lincoln turns to the Declaration of Independence for support. He stated,

We hold this annual celebration to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process of time of how it was done and who did it, and how we are historically connected with it; and we go from these meetings in better humor with ourselves—we feel more attached the one to the other and more firmly bound to the country we inhabit. In every way we are better men in the age, and race, and country in which we live for these celebrations. But after we have done all this we have not yet reached the whole. There is something else connected with it. We have besides these men—descended by blood from our ancestors—among us perhaps half our people who are not descendants at all of these men, they are men who have come from Europe—German, Irish, French and Scandinavian—men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us, but when they look through that old Declaration of Independence they find that those old men say that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men, that it is the father of all moral principle in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh of the men who wrote that Declaration, (loud and long continued applause) and so they are. That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.

You can read the entire Electric Cord speech here .

7. Abraham Lincoln, Address in Independence Hall, February 22, 1861

On Abraham Lincoln's inaugural journey to Washington as president-elect, he stopped in Philadelphia at the site where the Declaration of Independence had been signed. There he said,

I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army who achieved that Independence. I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the motherland; but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is a sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence.

You can read the entire address in Independence Hall here .

8. Abraham Lincoln, Fragments on the Constitution and Union, January 1, 1861

This short selection is not part of Lincoln’s tome of public speeches. One theory is that Lincoln wrote it while composing his first inaugural address. It is noteworthy because of Lincoln’s argument that what is most important about America are the principles and ideals it was founded upon. That principle, he states, is “Liberty to all.”

The  expression  of that principle, in our Declaration of Independence, was most happy, and fortunate.  Without  this, as well as  with  it, we could have declared our independence of Great Britain; but  without  it, we could not, I think, have secured our free government, and consequent prosperity. No oppressed, people will  fight,  and  endure,  as our fathers did, without the promise of something better, than a mere change of masters. The assertion of that principle, at that time, was the word, “fitly spoken” which has proved an “apple of gold” to us. The Union, and the Constitution, are the picture of silver, subsequently framed around it. The picture was made, not to conceal, or destroy the apple; but to adorn, and preserve it. The picture was made for the apple–not the apple for the picture.

Read the entire Fragments on the Constitution and Union selection here .

9. Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863

Aside from our original founding documents the Gettysburg address is perhaps the most important American creed ever written. It signifies America’s second founding or the moment our first founding more fully aligned with its own ideals. Since its decree America has begun to live in what Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom.” Here are selections from the address:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. […] It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

You can read the full Gettysburg Address here .

10. Winston Churchill, “The Third Great Title-Deed of Anglo-American Liberties” July 4, 1918

A great harmony exists between the spirit and language of the Declaration of Independence and all we are fighting for now. A similar harmony exists between the principles of that Declaration and all that the British people have wished to stand for, and have in fact achieved at last both here at home and in the self-governing Dominions of the Crown. The Declaration of Independence is not only an American document. It follows on Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights as the third great title-deed on which the liberties of the English-speaking people are founded.

Read Churchill's entire speech here .

11. Calvin Coolidge, “Speech on the 150 th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 5 1926

 Calvin Coolidge, the 30 th president of the United States, was sworn in after President Harding’s unexpected death. Harding’s administration was steeped in scandal. Coolidge is known for restoring integrity to the executive branch by rooting out corruption and being a model of integrity.

Coolidge gave his Fourth of July Speech in Philadelphia, the birthplace of our nation. There he pointed to the Liberty Bell as a great American symbol,

It is little wonder that people at home and abroad consider Independence Hall as hallowed ground and revere the Liberty Bell as a sacred relic. That pile of bricks and mortar, that mass of metal, might appear to the uninstructed as only the outgrown meeting place and the shattered bell of a former time, useless now because of more modern conveniences, but to those who know they have become consecrated by the use which men have made of them. They have long been identified with a great cause. They are the framework of a spiritual event.

Of the Declaration Coolidge stated,

It was not because it was proposed to establish a new nation, but because it was proposed to establish a nation on new principles, that July 4, 1776, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest days in history. Great ideas do not burst upon the world unannounced. They are reached by a gradual development over a length of time usually proportionate to their importance. This is especially true of the principles laid down in the Declaration of Independence. Three very definite propositions were set out in its preamble regarding the nature of mankind and therefore of government. These were the doctrine that all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that therefore the source of the just powers of government must be derived from the consent of the governed.

Of his trust in our Founding documents he said,

It is not so much, then, for the purpose of undertaking to proclaim new theories and principles that this annual celebration is maintained, but rather to reaffirm and reestablish those old theories and principles which time and the unerring logic of events have demonstrated to be sound. Amid all the clash of conflicting interests, amid all the welter of partisan politics, every American can turn for solace and consolation to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States with the assurance and confidence that those two great charters of freedom and justice remain firm and unshaken. Whatever perils appear, whatever dangers threaten, the Nation remains secure in the knowledge that the ultimate application of the law of the land will provide an adequate defense and protection.

Read Coolidge's full speech here .

12. John F. Kennedy, “Some Elements of the American Character” July 4, 1946

John F. Kennedy gave this speech as a candidate for Congress. In it he offers a robust defense of America’s founding. He lauds America’s religious character and derides the theory that America’s founders were concerned purely with economic interests. He explicitly states,

In recent years, the existence of this element in the American character has been challenged by those who seek to give an economic interpretation to American history. They seek to destroy our faith in our past so that they may guide our future. These cynics are wrong…

 Kennedy instead argues,

In Revolutionary times, the cry "No taxation without representation" was not an economic complaint. Rather, it was directly traceable to the eminently fair and just principle that no sovereign power has the right to govern without the consent of the governed. Anything short of that was tyranny. It was against this tyranny that the colonists "fired the shot heard 'round the world."

Kennedy then espouses a political theory of the American founding that relies on natural rights, 

The American Constitution has set down for all men to see the essentially Christian and American principle that there are certain rights held by every man which no government and no majority, however powerful, can deny. Conceived in Grecian thought, strengthened by Christian morality, and stamped indelibly into American political philosophy, the right of the individual against the State is the keystone of our Constitution. Each man is free.

You can read John F. Kennedy's full speech here .

13. Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” 1963

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech” is another great cry from another great man declaring that America was not living up to its founding principles.

King begins his speech by harkening back to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. He states, “This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice.” Yet, he argues, 100 years later black men and women are still not free. To right this wrong, he points to the Declaration,

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

King refused to believe that there was no hope. He said,

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

King’s dream inspired a nation to live up to its ideals. His beautiful words have become iconic,

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

 You can read and listen to "I Have a Dream" in full here .

14. Martin Luther King Jr. “The American Dream” Sermon Delivered at Ebenezar Baptist Church” July 4, 1965

In this sermon delivered on July 4, 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. locates the substance of the American dream within the Declaration of Independence. About the statement, “All men are created equal,” King states, “The first saying we notice in this dream is an amazing universalism. It doesn’t say “some men,” it says “all men.”

King goes on to explain to the congregation what separates the United States from other nations around the world.

 Then that dream goes on to say another thing that ultimately distinguishes our nation and our form of government from any totalitarian system in the world. It says that each of us has certain basic rights that are neither derived from or conferred by the state.

As the source of these inalienable rights King points to the fact that they are God-given. “Never before in the history of the world has a sociopolitical document expressed in such profound, eloquent, and unequivocal language the dignity and the worth of human personality,” he said.

King goes on to point out that America has not lived up to this dream. He describes America as being “divided against herself.” He argues that America cannot afford an “anemic democracy.”

He however professed hope that this dream will challenge America to remember her “noble capacity for justice and love and brotherhood.” He further challenged America to respect the “dignity and worth of all human personality” and to live up to the ideal that “all men are created equal.”

King clarifies that equality does not mean that every musician is a Mozart or every philosopher an Aristotle, but that all men are “equal in intrinsic worth.” He points to the Biblical concept of imago dei . He states, “[T]are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black is significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because every man is made in the image of God. He ends his sermon with these powerful words,

We have a dream. It started way back in 1776, and God grant that America will be true to her dream. I still have a dream this morning that truth will reign supreme and all of God’s children will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. And when this day comes the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.

Read Martin Luther King Jr.'s full sermon here .

15. Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on Independence Day” July 4, 1986

In this speech Reagan recalls the moment of the signing of the Declaration,

Fifty-six men came forward to sign the parchment. It was noted at the time that they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors. And that was more than rhetoric; each of those men knew the penalty for high treason to the Crown. ``We must all hang together,'' Benjamin Franklin said, ``or, assuredly, we will all hang separately.'' And John Hancock, it is said, wrote his signature in large script so King George could see it without his spectacles. They were brave. They stayed brave through all the bloodshed of the coming years. Their courage created a nation built on a universal claim to human dignity, on the proposition that every man, woman, and child had a right to a future of freedom.

Reagan also talked about the beautiful friendship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. He noted how they died on the same day, July 4 th , exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was their first gift to us, Reagan said.

My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith with them and all the great Americans of our past. Believe me, if there's one impression I carry with me after the privilege of holding for 5 ½ years the office held by Adams and Jefferson and Lincoln, it is this: that the things that unite us -- America's past of which we're so proud, our hopes and aspirations for the future of the world and this much-loved country -- these things far outweigh what little divides us. And so tonight we reaffirm that Jew and gentile, we are one nation under God; that black and white, we are one nation indivisible; that Republican and Democrat, we are all Americans. Tonight, with heart and hand, through whatever trial and travail, we pledge ourselves to each other and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world.

You can watch Ronald Reagan's speech here or read Reagan's speech here .

About Hillsdale in D.C.

Hillsdale in D.C. is an extension of the teaching mission of Hillsdale College to Washington, D.C. Its purpose is to teach the Constitution and the principles that give it meaning. Through the study of original source documents from American history—and of older books that formed the education of America’s founders—it seeks to inspire students, teachers, citizens, and policymakers to return the America’s principles to their central place in the political life of the nation.

About Hillsdale College

Hillsdale College is an independent liberal arts college located in southern Michigan. Founded in 1844, the College has built a national reputation through its classical liberal arts core curriculum and its principled refusal to accept federal or state taxpayer subsidies, even indirectly in the form of student grants or loans. It also conducts an outreach effort promoting civil and religious liberty, including a free monthly speech digest, Imprimis , with a circulation of more than 5.7 million. For more information, visit hillsdale.edu .

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Gerald R. Ford

Proclamation 4446—bicentennial independence day.

The Continental Congress by resolution adopted July 2, 1776, declared that thirteen American colonies were free and independent states. Two days later, on the fourth of July, the Congress adopted a Declaration of Independence which proclaimed to the world the birth of the United States of America.

In the two centuries that have passed, we have matured as a nation and as a people. We have gained the wisdom that age and experience bring, yet we have kept the strength and idealism of youth.

In this year of our Nation's Bicentennial, we enter our third century with the knowledge that we have achieved greatness as a nation and have contributed to the good of mankind. We face the future with renewed dedication to the principles embodied in our Declaration of Independence, and with renewed gratitude for those who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to preserve individual liberty for us.

In recognition of the two hundredth anniversary of the great historic events of 1776, and in keeping with the wishes of the Congress, I ask that all Americans join in an extended period of celebration, thanksgiving and prayer on the second, third, fourth and fifth days of July of our Bicentennial year--so that people of all faiths, in their own way, may give thanks for the protection of divine Providence through 200 years, and pray for the future safety and happiness of our Nation.

To commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the Congress, by concurrent resolution adopted June 26, 1963 (77 Stat. 944), declared that its anniversary be observed by the ringing of bells throughout the United States.

Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim that the two hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence be observed by the simultaneous ringing of bells throughout the United States at the hour of two o'clock, eastern daylight time, on the afternoon of the Fourth of July, 1976, our Bicentennial Independence Day, for a period of two minutes, signifying our two centuries of independence.

I call upon civic, religious, and other community leaders to encourage public participation in this historic observance. I call upon all Americans, here and abroad, including all United States flag ships at sea, to join in this salute.

As the bells ring in our third century, as millions of free men and women pray, let every American resolve that this Nation, under God, will meet the future with the same courage and dedication Americans showed the world two centuries ago. In perpetuation of the joyous ringing of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, let us again "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof."

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of June in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundredth.

Note: The full text of this proclamation is included as an example of the proclamations the President issued. All the proclamations issued by the President in 1976 are listed in Appendix B.

Gerald R. Ford, Proclamation 4446—Bicentennial Independence Day Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/257688

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WATCH: President Biden delivers July 4th remarks in the wake of another mass shooting

A shooting that left at least six people dead at an Independence Day parade in a Chicago suburb rattled Monday’s celebrations across the U.S. and further rocked a country already awash in turmoil over high court rulings on abortion and guns as well as hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Watch the event in the player above.

The latest mass shooting came as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together. It was supposed to be a day for taking off work, flocking to parades, devouring hot dogs and burgers at backyard barbecues and gathering under a canopy of stars and exploding fireworks.

“On a day that we came together to celebrate community and freedom, we are instead mourning the tragic loss of life and struggling with the terror that was brought upon us,” Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said.

The Highland Park parade began around 10 a.m. but was suddenly halted 10 minutes later after shots were fired. Hundreds of parade-goers — some visibly bloodied — fled the area, leaving behind chairs, baby strollers and blankets. Authorities brought a person of interest into custody Monday evening.

As the Highland Park community mourned, fireworks began thundering in neighboring towns and across the country. Pyrotechnics bloomed shortly after nightfall in Boston and New York City, where a kaleidoscope of color exploded over the Hudson River and illuminated skyscrapers.

READ MORE: Rural parents are less likely to say their pediatrician recommended COVID shots. Here’s why that matters

President Joe Biden, in remarks Monday celebrating 246 years of America’s independence, sought to reassure a nation both exhausted and unsettled by recent events.

“In recent days, there’s been reason to think this country is moving backwards, that freedom is being reduced, that rights we assumed were protected are no longer,” Biden said in remarks to military families and administration officials enjoying a picnic on the South Lawn of the White House. “I know it can be exhausting and unsettling, but tonight I want you to know we’re going to get through all of this.”

Biden said many people see a divided country, but “I believe we are more united than we are divided.”

He  tweeted  earlier in the day about the shooting, calling it “senseless gun violence that has yet again brought grief to an American community this Independence Day.”

“I will not give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence,” the president tweeted.

These are precarious times: An economic recession lurks, and the Highland Park shooting will weigh on a national psyche already raw from mass shootings like those seen recently at a Texas elementary school and a New York supermarket.

Sharp social and political divisions have also been laid bare by recent Supreme Court decisions overturning the constitutional right to abortion and striking down a New York law limiting who may carry a gun in public .

Nevertheless, many had reason to gather and celebrate for the first time in three years amid easing coronavirus precautions.

Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest returned to its traditional location in Brooklyn’s Coney Island neighborhood after two years elsewhere thanks to the pandemic.

“It’s beautiful to be back here,” Joey “Jaws” Chestnut told ESPN after winning the men’s competition by downing 63 hot dogs and buns — even as he momentarily put a protester who rushed the stage in a chokehold. Miki Sudo chomped 40 franks to win the women’s event.

Colorful displays were scheduled to light up the night sky from coast to coast. However, others, particularly in drought-stricken and wildfire-prone regions of the West, would forgo them.

Fireworks were the suspected cause behind a fire in Centerville, Utah, that led to the evacuation of dozens of homes and the cancellation of some of its Independence Day events, officials said.

It was a different matter in Phoenix, which is again going without fireworks — not because of the pandemic or fire concerns but supply-chain issues.

In emotional ceremonies across the country, some swore oaths of citizenship, qualifying them to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.

READ MORE: Jan. 6 testimony expose potential vulnerabilities for future Trump 2024 bid

During a ceremony for naturalized citizens held at Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told 52 people originally from 42 different countries that they were essential to building a strong labor force.

“Immigrants strengthen our workforce, and, in the process, help drive the resiliency and vitality of our economy,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for the Monday event.

For many, July 4 was also a chance to set aside political differences and to celebrate unity, reflecting on the revolution that gave rise to history’s longest-living democracy.

“There’s always something to divide or unite us,” says Eli Merritt, a political historian at Vanderbilt University whose upcoming book traces the fraught founding of the United States.

But he sees the Jan. 6 hearings probing last year’s storming of the U.S. Capitol as a reason for hope, an opportunity to rally behind democratic institutions. Even though not all Americans or their elected representatives agree with the committee’s work, Merritt is heartened by the fact that it’s at least somewhat bipartisan.

“Moral courage as a locus for Americans to place hope, the willingness to stand up for what is right and true in spite of negative consequences to oneself,” he said. “That is an essential glue of constitutional democracy.”

Calvan reported from New York, and Foody from Chicago. Associated Press reporters Michael Tarm and Roger Schneider in Highland Park, Illinois; Darlene Superville and Fatima Hussein in Washington; Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana; and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this story.

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Nation Jul 04

Georgian PM, president criticize each other over media freedom law on Independence Day

The president and prime minister of Georgia have lashed out at each other at a ceremony marking the country’s independence day

TBILISI, Georgia — The president and prime minister of Georgia on Sunday lashed out at each other at a ceremony marking the country’s independence day as strong tensions persist over a law that critics say will obstruct media freedom and damage Georgia’s bid to join the European Union .

The measure would require media and non-governmental organizations to register as “carrying out the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their budget from abroad. Opponents denounce it as “the Russian law” because of similar regulations there.

Large protests have repeatedly been held in the capital Tbilisi as the measure made its way through parliament. After the legislature passed the bill, President Salome Zourabichvili vetoed it on May 18, but the Georgian Dream party of Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and its backers have enough votes in parliament to override the veto.

“As the specter of Russia looms over us, partnership and rapprochement with Europe are the true path to preserving and strengthening our independence and peace. Those who sabotage and undermine this path trample upon and damage the peaceful and secure future of our country, hindering the path towards becoming a full member of the free and democratic world,” Zourabichvili said at the ceremony celebrating the 106th anniversary of Georgia’s declaration of independence from Russia.

At the same ceremony, Kobakhidze lauded Georgia’s development and sharply criticized Zourabichvili.

“It was the unity and reasonable steps of the people and their elected government that gave us the opportunity to maintain peace in the country for the past two years despite existential threats and multiple betrayals, including the betrayal of the president of Georgia.” he said.

In the evening, thousands of opponents of the measure marched along one of the main avenues of the capital. Some previous demonstrations against the law have brought clashes between protesters and police.

The European Union’s foreign policy arm has said “the adoption of this law negatively impacts Georgia’s progress on the EU path.” Critics say it may have been driven by Russia to thwart Georgia’s chances of further integrating with the West.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday announced that travel sections would be imposed on Georgian officials “who are responsible for or complicit in undermining democracy in Georgia” and “it remains our hope that Georgia’s leaders will reconsider the draft law and take steps to move forward with their nation’s democratic and Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Remarks by President   Biden at the 156th National Memorial Day Observance | Arlington,   VA

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington, Virginia

11:24 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, thank you, thank you. Please be seated.

One hundred and sixty years ago this month, in the midst of the Civil War, the first American soldier was laid to rest at these hallowed grounds. Private William Christman, a farmworker from Pennsylvania, had enlisted just seven weeks before. There was no formal ceremony to consecrate this new sanctuary, no fanfore — fanfare.

It came at a turning point in the war. As fighting shifted east, the casualties quickly mounted in the bloody, grinding campaign.

Over the next year, William would be joined in death, as he was in life, by his brother-in-arms in this final resting place. And these hills around us would be transformed from a former slave plantation into a national strine — shine for those American heroes who died for freedom, who died for us.

My fellow Americans, Jill, Vice President Harris, the Second Gentleman Emhoff, Secretary Austin, General Brown; most importantly, the veterans and service members, families, and survivors — we gather at this sacred place at this solemn moment to remember, to honor — honor the sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of women and men who’ve given their lives for this nation.

Each one, literally, a chain in the link — a link in the chain of honor stretching back to our founding days. Each one bound by common commitment — not to a place, not to a person, not to a President, but to an idea unlike any idea in human history: the idea of the United States of America.

Today, we bear witness to the price they paid. Every white stone across these hills, in every military cemetery and churchyard across America: a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a spouse, a neighbor — an American.

To everyone who has lost and loved someone in the service of our country, to everyone with a loved one still missing or unaccounted for, I know how hard it can be. It can reopen that black hole in the middle of your chest, bringing you back to the exact moment you got that phone call, heard that knock on the door, or held the hand when the last breath was taken. I know it hurts. The hurt is still real, still raw.

This week marks nine years since I lost my son, Beau. Our losses are not the same. He didn’t perish on the battlefield. He was a cancer victim from a consequence of being in the Army in Iraq for a year next to a burn pit — a major in the U.S. National — Army National Guard, living and working, like too many, besides that toxic burn pit.

And as it is for so many of you, the pain of his loss is with me every day, as it is with you — still sharp, still clear. But so is the pride I feel in his service, as if I can still hear him saying, “It’s my duty, Dad. It’s my duty.”

Duty. That was the code of — my son lived by and the creed all of you live by, the creed that generations of service members have followed into battle.

On the grounds around us lie fallen heroes from every major conflict in history to defend our independence, to preserve our Union, to defeat fascism; built powerful alliances, forged in fires of two world wars.

Members of the Greatest Generation, who 80 years ago next week, took to the beaches of Normandy and liberated a continent and literally saved the world.

Others who stood against communism in Korea and Vietnam.

And not far from here, in Section 60, lie over a thousand — a thousand — 7,054 women and men who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan and Iraq, who signed up to defeat terrorists, protect our homeland after 9/11.

Decade after decade, tour after tour, these warriors fought for our freedom and the freedom of others, because freedom has never been guaranteed. Every generation has to earn it; fight for it; defend it in battle between autocracy and democracy, between the greed of a few and the rights of many. It matters.

Our democracy is more than just a system of government. It’s the very soul of America. It’s how we’ve been able to constantly adapt through the centuries. It’s why we’ve always emerged from every challenge stronger than we went in. And it’s how we come together as one nation united.

And just as our fallen heroes have kept the ultimate faith with our country and our democracy, we must keep faith with them.

I’ve long said we have many obligations as a nation. But we only have one truly sacred obligation: to prepare those we send into battle and to pr- — take care of them and their families when they come home and when they don’t.

Since I took office, I’ve signed over 30 bipartisan laws supporting servicemen, veterans and their families and caregivers, and survivors.

Last year, the VA delivered more benefits and processed more claims than ever in our history. And the PACT Act, which I was proud to have signed, has already guaranteed one million claims helping veterans exposed to toxic materials during their service — one million.

For too long, after fighting for our nation, these veterans had to fight to get the right healthcare, to get the benefits they had earned. Not anymore.

Our nation came together to ensure the burden is no longer on them to prove their illness was service-related, whether it was Agent Orange or toxic waste, to ensure they protected them — they just have to protect the United States — because it’s assumed that their death was a consequence of the exposure.

On this day, we came together again to reflect, to remember, but above all, to recommit to the future they fought for — a future grounded in freedom, democracy, opportunity, and equality. Not just for some, but for all.

America is the only country in the world founded on an idea — an idea that all people are created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout their lives.

We’ve never fully lived up to that, but we’ve never, ever, ever walked away from it. Every generation, our fallen heroes have brought us closer.

Today, we’re not just fortunate heirs of their legacy. We have a responsibility to be the keepers of their mission. That — that truest memorial of their lives: the actions we take every day to ensure that our democracy endures, the very idea of America endures.

Ladies and gentlemen, 160 years ago, the first American solider was laid to rest on these hallowed grounds. There were no big ceremonies, no big speeches, no family mour- — family members to mourn their loss, just the quiet grief of the rolling green hills surrounding them.

Today, we join that grief with gratitude: gratitude to our fallen heroes, gratitude to the families left behind, and gratitude to the brave souls who continue to uphold the flame of liberty all across our country and around the world.

Because of them, all of them, that we stand here today. We will never forget that. We will never, ever, ever stop working for — to make a more perfect Union, which they lived and which they died for.

That was their promise. That’s our promise — our promise today to them. That’s our promise always.

God bless the fallen. May God bless their families. And may God protect our troops.

Thank you. (Applause.)

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Independence Day Speech

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Speaker 1: ( 00:01 ) Major, I’ll borrow that.

Speaker 2: ( 00:04 ) Sir.

Speaker 1: ( 00:06 ) Good morning. Good morning.

Speaker 1: ( 00:13 ) In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world, and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. Mankind, that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interest. Perhaps it’s fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom. Not from tyranny, oppression or persecution, but from annihilation. We’re fighting for our right to live, to exist. And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight. We’re going to live on. We’re going to survive. Today, we celebrate our independence day.

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