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Richard Nixon: Resignation Address
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“…Only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain,” – President Richard Milhous Nixon, 1974
Despite monumental responsibility and an overwhelming duty to uphold the laws, customs and morale of the United States, each president at the end of the day is still human, subject to the same infallibility as those they govern.
The speech President Richard M. Nixon, the 37th chief executive, would deliver on Aug. 9, 1974 to White House staff was not an illustration of great oratory skill or sharp wit, but a portrait of an infallible man and a president, humbled by defeat.
Stained by his own participation in the break-in of the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C., and the operation’s cover-up, Nixon addressed the nation the night before to announce he would be the first president in history to resign from office. However, it was the words he delivered in his farewell address not to the nation, but those he worked with in the People’s House—the White House—that capture the humanity of this man:
This house… I was thinking of it as we walked down this hall, and I was comparing it to some of the great houses of the world that I have been in. This isn't the biggest house… This isn't the finest house... But this is the best house…This house has a great heart, and that heart comes from those who serve.
And so I say to you on this occasion, as we leave, we leave proud of the people who have stood by us and worked for us and served this country. We want you to be proud of what you have done. We want you to continue to serve in government, if that is your wish.
Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.
NEXT: Gerald Ford, Long National Nightmare
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