Nixon's Resignation Speech August 8, 1974
Richard Milhous Nixon was the first United States president in
history to resign from office. The continuing Watergate scandal and the
likelihood of impeachment prompted Nixon to resign, although he admitted to no
wrongdoing. He was eventually pardoned for all possible crimes by his successor,
President Gerald Ford.
Good evening:
This is the 37th time I have spoken to you from this
office, where so many decisions have been made that shaped the history of this
Nation. Each time I have done so to discuss with you some matter that I believe
affected the national interest.
In all the decisions I have made in my public life, I
have always tried to do what was best for the nation. Throughout the long and
difficult period of Watergate, I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make
every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected
me....
In the past few days, however, it has become evident to
me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to
justify continuing that effort. As long as there was such a base, I felt
strongly that it was necessary to see the constitutional process through to its
conclusion, that to do otherwise would be unfaithful to the spirit of that
deliberately difficult process and a dangerously destabilizing precedent for the
future.
But with the disappearance of that base, I now believe
that the constitutional purpose has been served, and there is no longer a need
for the process to be prolonged.
I would have preferred to carry through to the finish,
whatever the personal agony it would have involved, and my family unanimously
urged me to do so. But the interests of the Nation must always come before any
personal considerations.
From the discussions I have had with Congressional and
other leaders, I have concluded that because of the Watergate matter, I might
not have the support of the Congress that I would consider necessary to back the
very difficult decisions and carry out the duties of this office in the way the
interests of the Nation will require.
I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my
term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my body. But as President, I
must put the interests of America first. America needs a full-time President and
a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home
and abroad.
To continue to fight through the months ahead for my
personal vindication would almost totally absorb the time and attention of both
the President and the Congress in a period when our entire focus should be on
the great issues of peace abroad and prosperity without inflation at home.
Therefore, I shall resign the Presidency effective at
noon tomorrow. Vice President Ford will be sworn in as President at that hour in
this office....
By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened
the start of that process of healing which is so desperately needed in
America.
I regret deeply any injuries that may have been done in
the course of the events that led to this decision. I would say only that if
some of my judgments were wrong—and some were wrong—they were made in what I
believed at the time to be the best interest of the nation.
To those who have stood with me during these past
difficult months—to my family, my friends, to many others who joined in
supporting my cause because they believed it was right—I will be eternally
grateful for your support.
And to those who have not felt able to give me your
support, let me say I leave with no bitterness toward whose who have opposed me,
because all of us, in the final analysis, have been concerned with the good of
the country, however our judgments might differ....
For more than a quarter of a century in public life, I
have shared in the turbulent history of this era, have fought for what I
believed in. I have tried, to the best of my ability, to discharge those duties
and meet those responsibilities that were entrusted to me.
Sometimes I have succeeded and sometimes I have failed,
but always I have taken heart from what Theodore Roosevelt once said about the
man in the arena, “whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives
valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again because there is not effort
without error and shortcoming, but who does actually strive to do the deed, who
knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy
cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievements who at
the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly....”
To have served in this office is to have felt a very
personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so
with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.
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