Public Speaking: Dwight D. Eisenhower Farewell Address

First Stanza

Good evening my fellow americans, First, I should like to express my gratitude to the radio and television networks for the opportunities they have given me over the years to bring reports and messages to our nation. My special thanks goes to them for the opportunity of addressing you this evening.

Third Stanza

Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.

Fourth Stanza

Our people expect the President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of our nation. My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged into the intimate during the war and the immediate post-war period, and finally to the mutually interdependent during these last eight years. In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administrative have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the nation good, rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling of a gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.

Second Stanza

Three days from now, after a half century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office. In traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. This evening, I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen

Sixth Stanza

Throughout America's adventure in free government, out basic purposes have been to keep the peace, to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity, and integrity among peoples and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension, or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.

Fifth Stanza

We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts, America is today the strongest, the most influential, and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches, and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.