American History: Ford Leads Nation After Nixon Resigns
21 December 2011
U.S. Chief Justice Warren Burger administers the oath of office to Gerald Ford, whose wife, Betty, is at center
STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.
This week in our series, we tell the story of the thirty-eighth president of the United States.
GERALD FORD: “Mr. Chief Justice, my dear friends, my fellow Americans, the oath that I have taken is the same oath that was taken by George Washington and by every president under the Constitution. But I assume the presidency under extraordinary circumstances, never before experienced by Americans.”
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Gerald Ford was sworn into office on August ninth, nineteen seventy-four. Ford was vice president to Richard Nixon, who had announced the day before that he would resign.
If Nixon had not resigned, he might have been removed from office. Congress had been moving to charge him with corruption in the Watergate case.
At his swearing-in ceremony, the new president spoke about the nation’s future.
GERALD FORD: "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule."
He went on to say:
GERALD FORD: "As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate -- more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars -- let us restore the 'Golden Rule' to our political process and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate."
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