July 5, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, just moments before the biggest fireworks display in American history, President Ronald Reagan spoke in front of the Statue of Liberty aboard the USS John F. Kennedy. Reagan understood the profound nature of what the founders did back in 1776. We take you back to New York Harbor in 1986.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue here with our American stories, and we're
celebrating July fourth, all show long. On July fourth, nineteen
eighty six, President Ronald Reagan gave one of his best
speeches of his presidency and one of his least known.
It was a special day in New York City for
those of you old enough to remember, or for anybody
(00:31):
who was there, and I was. I was twenty five
at the time. Operations Selle was in full display, as
battleships and sailing ships of all kinds made their way
along the Hudson River, including the largest flotilla of tall
ships to appear in one place at one time in
modern history. It was also special because the restoration of
(00:53):
the Statue of Liberty was celebrated, and the Great Ladies Torch,
which had been extinguished on July four d or nineteen
eighty four, was relt two years later to the day.
That evening, aboard the USS John F. Kennedy, President Ronald
Reagan gave an address just moments before the largest public
fireworks display in American history was to begin. Here is
(01:18):
how President Reagan started things.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
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. My
(01:42):
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
(02:06):
and drum parades. But a contrast with the sober scene
that has 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
(02:27):
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.
(02:47):
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 ever every man, woman and child had a right
to a future of freedom.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Reagan then read what was and still is the boldest
political declaration ever written in human history.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
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 read
(03:36):
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 his statue
(04:01):
here just behind us, the hope that is America. It
is a hope that some day 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
(04:23):
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 puant' Hoc
who long ago scaled the heights, and with at that
time Liza Zanetta Hen who was at Omaha Beach for
(04:47):
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,
(05:10):
the young Americans in uniform all over the world, young
Americans like you here tonight, who manned the mighty U. S. S.
Kennedy and the Iowa and the other ships of the line.
I can assure you, you out there who are listening,
that these these young people are like their fathers and
(05:31):
their grandfathers, just as willing, just as brave, and we
can be just as proud. But our prayer to night
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.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Bragan then gave a brief history lesson about national unity
and times of disunity too, and the story of two
founders who lived out both.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
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 of 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
(06:27):
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
(06:48):
to get in the way. After a bitter and divisive campaign,
Jefferson defeated Adams for the presidency in eighteen hundred, and
the night before Jefferson's inauguration, Adams slipped away to Austin, disappointed,
broken hearted, and bitter. For years, their estrangement lasted. But
(07:08):
when when both had retired, Jefferson at sixty eight to
Monticello and Adams at seventy six 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 hiccops, but other subjects as well,
(07:32):
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
(07:54):
correspondence with his co signer of the Declaration of Independence,
to the times when be we set 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,
(08:15):
threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless. We rode
through the storm with heart and hand. It was their
last gift to us, this lesson in brotherhood, intolerance for
each other, this insight into America's strength as a nation.
And when both died on the same day, within hours
(08:38):
of each other, that date was July fourth, fifty years
exactly after that first gift to us, the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And here's how Reagan closed things out.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith
with them, And all the great Americans of our past asked,
believe me, if there's one impression I carry with me
after the privilege of holding for five and a half
years the office held by Adams, Jefferson and Lincoln, it
is this that the things that unite us, America's past
(09:17):
of which we're so proud, our hopes and aspirations for
the future of the world, and it is much loved country.
These things far out weigh what little divides us. And
so to night we are for reaffirmed that jew and gentile,
we are one nation under God. The black and White.
(09:41):
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 that has given light
to this land and hope to the world. My fellow Americans,
(10:06):
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.
(10:27):
Let the celebration begin.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
And you've been listening to Ronald Reagan aboard the USS
John F. Kennedy on July fourth, nineteen eighty six, the
Statue of Liberty in the backdrop, giving one of his
best and least known speeches here on our American Stories.
And we continue here with our American stories, and we're
celebrating July fourth, all show long. On July fourth, nineteen
eighty six, President Ronald Reagan gave one of his best
speeches of his presidency and one of his least known.
It was a special day in New York City for
those of you old enough to remember, or for anybody
(00:31):
who was there, and I was. I was twenty five
at the time. Operations Selle was in full display, as
battleships and sailing ships of all kinds made their way
along the Hudson River, including the largest flotilla of tall
ships to appear in one place at one time in
modern history. It was also special because the restoration of
(00:53):
the Statue of Liberty was celebrated, and the Great Ladies Torch,
which had been extinguished on July four d or nineteen
eighty four, was relt two years later to the day.
That evening, aboard the USS John F. Kennedy, President Ronald
Reagan gave an address just moments before the largest public
fireworks display in American history was to begin. Here is
(01:18):
how President Reagan started things.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
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. My
(01:42):
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
(02:06):
and drum parades. But a contrast with the sober scene
that has 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
(02:27):
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.
(02:47):
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 ever every man, woman and child had a right
to a future of freedom.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Reagan then read what was and still is the boldest
political declaration ever written in human history.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
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 read
(03:36):
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 his statue
(04:01):
here just behind us, the hope that is America. It
is a hope that some day 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
(04:23):
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 puant' Hoc
who long ago scaled the heights, and with at that
time Liza Zanetta Hen who was at Omaha Beach for
(04:47):
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,
(05:10):
the young Americans in uniform all over the world, young
Americans like you here tonight, who manned the mighty U. S. S.
Kennedy and the Iowa and the other ships of the line.
I can assure you, you out there who are listening,
that these these young people are like their fathers and
(05:31):
their grandfathers, just as willing, just as brave, and we
can be just as proud. But our prayer to night
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.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Bragan then gave a brief history lesson about national unity
and times of disunity too, and the story of two
founders who lived out both.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
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 of 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
(06:27):
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
(06:48):
to get in the way. After a bitter and divisive campaign,
Jefferson defeated Adams for the presidency in eighteen hundred, and
the night before Jefferson's inauguration, Adams slipped away to Austin, disappointed,
broken hearted, and bitter. For years, their estrangement lasted. But
(07:08):
when when both had retired, Jefferson at sixty eight to
Monticello and Adams at seventy six 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 hiccops, but other subjects as well,
(07:32):
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
(07:54):
correspondence with his co signer of the Declaration of Independence,
to the times when be we set 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,
(08:15):
threatening to overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless. We rode
through the storm with heart and hand. It was their
last gift to us, this lesson in brotherhood, intolerance for
each other, this insight into America's strength as a nation.
And when both died on the same day, within hours
(08:38):
of each other, that date was July fourth, fifty years
exactly after that first gift to us, the Declaration of Independence.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And here's how Reagan closed things out.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
My fellow Americans, it falls to us to keep faith
with them, And all the great Americans of our past asked,
believe me, if there's one impression I carry with me
after the privilege of holding for five and a half
years the office held by Adams, Jefferson and Lincoln, it
is this that the things that unite us, America's past
(09:17):
of which we're so proud, our hopes and aspirations for
the future of the world, and it is much loved country.
These things far out weigh what little divides us. And
so to night we are for reaffirmed that jew and gentile,
we are one nation under God. The black and White.
(09:41):
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 that has given light
to this land and hope to the world. My fellow Americans,
(10:06):
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.
(10:27):
Let the celebration begin.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
And you've been listening to Ronald Reagan aboard the USS
John F. Kennedy on July fourth, nineteen eighty six, the
Statue of Liberty in the backdrop, giving one of his
best and least known speeches here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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