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From @lex-luthor.ai.mit.edu:[e-mail] Tue Apr 13 21:00:22 1993
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1993 15:22-0400
From: The White House <[e-mail]>
Subject: President's Remarks at Jefferson Memorial 4.13.93
To: [e-mail]

                           THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary
_________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                             April 13, 1993


                      REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
               AT CEREMONY HONORING 250TH ANNIVERSARY
                  OF THE BIRTH OF THOMAS JEFFERSON


                         Jefferson Memorial
                          Washington, D.C.

12:42 P.M. EDT

         THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Colonel McCarty,
General Streeter, my fellow Americans.  I want to begin by offering
my compliments to the United States Marine Band and the Virginia Glee
Club, who have entertained us so well today.  I think we should give
them another hand.  (Applause.)

         Today we observe the birthday of perhaps the most
brilliant of our Founding Fathers in a setting Thomas Jefferson would
have very much approved.  One that joins the beauty of human
architecture with the rapturous side of nature, with the cherry
blossoms bursting all around us in a wreath.

         Mr. Jefferson used to say with some pride that the sun
never found him in bed, that he always rose early; and he was very
proud of the fact that well into his 70s he could ride a horse
several miles a day without tiring.  Well, in honor of his birthday I
rose early this morning, and finding no horses around the White
House, I ran over here and jogged around this magnificent Tidal
Basin, seeing many of my fellow citizens who were here even before me
at the dawn to see this magnificent sight.

         Today we have come to lay our wreath in honor of Thomas
Jefferson, as his likeness towers behind us.  And yet, no amount of
bronze can capture the measure of the man who helped to cut a path
for our nation, who personally forged the principles that continue to
guide us as Americans and as lovers of freedom.

         As has already been said, this monument was dedicated a
half a century ago on the 200th anniversary of Jefferson's birthday
by President Franklin Roosevelt, a worthy heir to the spirit of
Jefferson.  Were Jefferson here today, I think he would not want very
much to talk about America of his time; instead, he would be talking
about the America of our time.  He would certainly not be at a loss
for ideas about what we ought to be doing.  For he was a man blessed
with an eye for invention, an ear for music, the hands of a farmer,
the mind of a philosopher, the voice of a statesman and the soul of a
searcher for truth.

         The genius of Thomas Jefferson was his ability to get
the most out of today while never taking his eye off tomorrow, to
think big while enjoying the little things of daily life.  Perhaps
most important, he understood that in order for us to preserve our
timeless values, people have to change.  And free people need to
devise means by which they can change profoundly and still
peacefully.

         If you go back to this monument after the ceremony, you
will see on the wall in part the following quotation:

         "Laws and institutions must go hand-in-hand with the
progress of the human mind as that becomes more developed, more
enlightened, as new discoveries are made and new truths discovered,
and manners and opinions change.  With the change of circumstances,
institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times."

         A very modern statement from our third President.  In
his own time, the pace of change was enormous.  Just think back,
during Jefferson's presidency the steamboat made its debut,
revolutionizing travel.  The importing of slaves was banned paving
the way toward emancipation and the realignment of society.  And he
acquired the Louisiana Purchase for the then massive sum $15 million.
Turns out it was an awfully sound investment; it doubled the size of
our nation, it opened up a new frontier, and it enabled me to be born
in the United States of America -- and many of you as well, I
suspect.  (Applause.)

         But believe it or not, every step along the way Thomas
Jefferson was opposed.  There were people who opposed the Louisiana
Purchase, people who opposed his then radical conception of human
liberty, and both the power of individuals and the limitations of the
government.  He fought and he prevailed.

         I wonder what he would say about our time, in which the
pace of change is even greater.  I think he would take great pride in
the fact that we have now found ways to literally double the volume
of knowledge every few years.  But I think he would terribly
disappointed that our understanding in this country of the science
and mathematics that he loved so much is still so limited and so
inadequate when compared to that of many other nations.

         I think he would be delighted that the principles of
freedom for which he stood all his life finally resulted in the end
of the Cold War and the demise of communism.  But I think he would be
deeply disappointed that ethnic and racial and other hatreds had kept
this world such a dangerous and unstable place, in ways that are
blatantly unreasonable as he defined reason.

         I think he would be proud of the technological and
economic advances of this time, of the increasing interconnection of
peoples across national borders in a global economy.  But I think he
would be profoundly disturbed that even the richest countries are now
having enormous difficulty in finding enough jobs for their people,
including his own beloved United States, and that so much
technological advance seems to bring the destruction of much of the
environment, about which he cared so deeply.

         I think Jefferson would be impressed at the enormous
advances in health care.  He cared a lot about his health, and he
lived to be 83, largely by taking good care of himself.  And I think
he would be a little disappointed that more of us don't take better
care of ourselves and appalled to think that the United States is the
only advanced country where every person doesn't have access to
affordable health care -- something I hope we can change before long.
(Applause.)

         If you go up there and read what's on those walls, there
is an incredibly moving statement where Jefferson said he trembles to
think that God is just when he considers the real meaning of the
institution of slavery.  So I think he would be delighted at the
progress we have made in human rights and living together across
racial lines.  Because he had such a passionate belief in individual
liberty, I think he would be delighted by the range of personal
choices and freedom of speech that the American people enjoy today,
even to say things that he would find offensive, for he understood
the clear meaning of the First Amendment.

         But I think he would be appalled at the lack of self-
respect and self-control and respect for others, which manifest
itself in the kind of mindless violence to which this city and others
have been subject for the last several years, and appalled at the
millions of young people who will never know the full measure of
their freedom because they have been raised without order, without
love, without family, without even the basic safety which people need
to be able almost to take for granted in order to be citizens of a
real democracy.  In short, I think Thomas Jefferson would tell us
that this is one of those times when we need to change.

         Clearly, the call for change that Jefferson made he
intended to be echoed generation after generation after generation.
He believed if we set up the Constitution in the way that it was set
up, that Americans of courage and good sense would always, always
find themselves in the majority for change when they needed to be
there.  He believed in government constantly being reformed by reason
and popular will.

         That is what this administration is trying to do now.
We know that we have an economy that even in growth does not produce
new jobs.  We know that we have increased by four times the debt of
this nation over the last 12 years and we don't have much to show for
it.  We know that the people have now courageously asked us to take
on the problems of jobs and the deficit, the environment and
education and health care, to try to put our people first again and
make government work for them.

         The American people, deep in their bones, without even
thinking about it, are the agents of change that Thomas Jefferson
sought to write in perpetuity into our Constitution.  For in the end,
Thomas Jefferson understood that no politician, no government, no
piece of paper could do for the American people what they would have
to do for themselves.  He understood better perhaps than any of his
colleagues that the people of this country would always have to be
not only the protectors of their own liberty, but the agents of their
own transformation and change.

         But he also knew that government must be willing to
supply the tools of that change.  And that, very simply, is our task
today.  After all, what is a good education but a tool to a better
life.  What is a job but a tool to build self-sufficiency, self-
esteem and dignity for a worker and a family.

         As I look around this nation, I know that Thomas
Jefferson would be very proud and pleased by much of what has
happened here.  I suspect it would amuse and surprise him and make
him very proud to think that for most Americans on most days people
from 150 and more racial and ethnic groups live together in not only
peace and law abidingness, but also mutual respect and reinforcing
strength.  I think that would make him proud.  (Applause.)

         I think he would be proud of the generosity of spirit
that characterizes our people and manifests itself most clearly at a
time of national crisis and national tragedy.  After all, in
Jefferson's time people gave food and shelter to travelers who came
to their doors at night even when they were total strangers.
Jefferson himself at Monticello often offered his home over the years
to bone-weary travelers.

         Today many of our people would do the same thing.  But
together -- together -- we have not faced the problems of the bone-
weary travelers in our own land, nor have we faced the problems that
we all share in common.  We cannot turn the problems away.  It is
time for reasonable change.  It is time for the Americans in our time
to live up to the principles etched in stone in this magnificent
memorial.

         Just look at the beauty around us today.  Do you know
that in Mr. Jefferson's time almost all of this was a swamp?  People
avoided this place like the plague because they were afraid of the
plague.  But with a plan, with investments, with effort, with vision,
Americans transformed it.  And from this inhospitable terrain rose
the city before us, one of the most magnificent capitals in the
history of the world.  But the structures around us are simply
buildings.  They come to life only when they shake from the will of
the people.  That is what Thomas Jefferson knew.

         We are the inheritors of Jefferson's rich legacy.  On
this the 200th anniversary of his birth, we can honor him best by
remembering our own role in governing ourselves and our nation, to
speak, to move, to change, for it is only in change that we preserve
the timeless values for which Thomas Jefferson gave his life over two
centuries ago.

         Thank you, and God bless you all.  (Applause.)

                                 END12:56 P.M. EDT