Governor of Novolpe, Speaker Thompson, President Powers, Lieutenant Governor mclarukan, members
of the General Court, constitutional officers, reverend clergy, ladies, and gentlemen.
I have welcomed this opportunity to address this historic body and through you,
the people of Massachusetts, to whom I am so deeply indebted for a lifetime
of friendship and trust. For fourteen years, I have placed my confidence in
the citizens of Massachusetts, and they have generously responded by placing their confidence in
me. Now, on the Friday after next, I am to assume new
and broader responsibilities. But I am not here to bid farewell to Massachusetts.
For forty three years, whether I was in London, or in Washington,
or in the South Pacific or elsewhere, this has been my home, and
God willing, wherever I serve, this shall remain my home. It was
here that my grandparents were born. It is here I hope that my grandchildren
will be born. I speak neither from false provincial pride nor artful political flattery,
For no man about to enter high office in this country can ever be
unmindful of the contributions which this state has made to our national greatness. Its
leaders have shaped our destiny long before the Great Republic was born. Its principles
have guided our footsteps in times of crisis as well as in times of calm.
Its democratic institutions, including this historic body, have served as beacon lights
for other nations as well as for our sister states. For what Pericles said
of the Athenians has long been true of this Commonwealth. We do not imitate,
for we are a model to others. And so it is that I
carry with me from this state through that high and lonely office to which I
now succeed. More than fond memories or firm friendships, the enduring quality of
Massachusetts, the common threads woven by the pilgrim and the puritan, the fishermen
and the farmer, the yankee and the immigrant, will not be and could
not be forgotten in this nation's executive mansion. They are an indelible part of
my life. My convictions, my view of the past, and my hopes
for the future. Allow me to illustrate. During the last sixty days I
have been at the task of constructing an administration. It has been a long
and deliberate process. Some have, how counciled greater speed. Others have counseled
more expedient tests, but I have been guided by the standard on Winthrop set
before his shipmates on the flagship Arabella three hundred and thirty one years ago.
As they too face the task are building a new government on a perilous frontier,
we must always consider he said that we shall be as a city upon
a hill the eyes of all people are upon us. Today the eyes of
all people are truly upon us. And our governments in every branch, at
every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon
a hill, constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trusts and their
great responsibilities. For we are setting out upon a voyage in nineteen sixty one
no less hazardous than that undertaken by the Arabella in sixteen thirty. We are
committing ourselves to tasks of state craft no less awesome than that of governing the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. Be said, as it was by terror without and disorder
within. History will not judge our endeavors, and a government cannot be selected
merely on the basis of color or creed or party affiliation. Neither will competence
and loyalty and stature, while assent you to the utmost suffice in times such
as these, for of those to whom much is given, much is required.
And when, at some future date, the high Court of History sits
in judgment on each one of us, recording whether in our brief span of
service, we fulfilled our responsibilities to the state. Our success or failure in
whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions.
First, were we truly men of courage, with the courage to stand
up to one's enemies, and the courage to stand up when necessary to one's
own associates, the courage to resist public pressure as well as private breed.
Secondly, were we truly men of judgment, with perceptive judgment of the future
as well as of the past, of our own mistakes as well as the
mistakes of others, with enough wisdom to know what we did not know,
and enough candor to admit it. Third, were we truly men of integrity?
Men who never ran out on either the principles in which they believe or
the people who believed in them. Men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition
could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust. Finally, were we
truly men of dedication, with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group,
and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving
the public good and the national interest. Courage, judgment, integrity, dedication.
These are the historic qualities of the Bay Colony and of the Bay State,
the qualities which this state have consistently sent to this chamber here in Beacon
Hill in Boston, and a Capitol Hill back in Washington. And these are
the qualities which, with God's help, this of Massachusetts hopes, will characterize
our government's conduct in the four stormy years that lie ahead. Humbly I ask
his help and that undertaking, but aware that on earth his will is worked
by men, I ask for your help and your prayers as I embark on
this new and solemn journey