Members of the Cabinet, members of the
White House Staff, all of our friends here:
I think the record should show that
this is one of those spontaneous things that
we always arrange whenever the President
comes in to speak, and it will be so
reported in the press, and we don't mind,
because they have to call it as they see it.
But on our part, believe me, it is
spontaneous.
You are here to say goodbye to us, and
we don't have a good word for it in
English—the best is au revoir.
We'll see you again.
I just met with the members of the
White House staff, you know, those who
serve here in the White House day in and
day out, and I asked them to do what I
ask all of you to do to the extent that you
can and, of course, are requested to do so:
to serve our next President as you have
served me and previous Presidents—because
many of you have been here for
many years—with devotion and dedication,
because this office, great as it is, can
only be as great as the men and women
who work for and with the President.
This house, for example—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. Many, and
most, in even smaller countries, are much
bigger. This isn't the finest house. Many
in Europe, particularly, and in China,
Asia, have paintings of great, great value,
things that we just don't have here and,
probably, will never have until we are
1,000 years old or older.
But this is the best house. It is the best
house, because it has something far more
important than numbers of people who
serve, far more important than numbers
of rooms or how big it is, far more
important than numbers of magnificent pieces
of art.
This house has a great heart, and that
heart comes from those who serve. I was
rather sorry they didn't come down, We
said goodbye to them upstairs. But they
are really great. And I recall after so many
times I have made speeches, and some of
them pretty tough, yet, I always come
back, or after a hard day—and my days
usually have run rather long—I would
always get a lift from them, because I
might be a little down but they always
smiled.
And so it is with you. I look around
here, and I see so many on this staff that,
you know, I should have been by your
offices and shaken hands, and I would love
to have talked to you and found out how
to run the world—everybody wants to tell
the President what to do, and boy, he
needs to be told many times—but I just
haven't had the time. But I want you to
know that each and every one of you, I
know, is indispensable to this Government.
I am proud of this Cabinet. I am proud
of all the members who have served in
our Cabinet. I am proud of our
sub-Cabinet. I am proud of our White House
Staff. As I pointed out last night, sure, we
have done some things wrong in this
Administration, and the top man always takes
the responsibility, and I have never ducked
it. But I want to say one thing: We can be
proud of it—5 1/2 years. No man or no
woman came into this Administration and
left it with more of this world's goods than
when he came in. No man or no woman
ever profited at the public expense or the
public till. That tells something about you.
Mistakes, yes. But for personal gain,
never. You did what you believed in.
Sometimes right, sometimes wrong. And
I only wish that I were a wealthy
man—at the present time, I have got to find a
way to pay my taxes—and if
I were, I would like to recompense you for
the sacrifices that all of you have made to
serve in government.
But you are getting something in
government—and I want you to tell this to
your children, and I hope the Nation's
children will hear it, too—something in
government service that is far more
important than money. It is a cause bigger
than yourself. It is the cause of making
this the greatest nation in the world, the
leader of the world, because without our
leadership, the world will know nothing
but war, possibly starvation or worse, in
the years ahead. With our leadership it
will know peace, it will know plenty.
We have been generous, and we will he
more generous in the future as we are
able to. But most important, we must be
strong here, strong in our hearts, strong
in our souls, strong in our belief, and
strong in our willingness to sacrifice, as
you have been willing to sacrifice, in a
pecuniary way, to serve in government.
There is something else I would like
for you to tell your young people. You
know, people often come in and say,
"What will I tell my kids?" They look at
government and say, sort of a rugged life,
and they see the mistakes that are made.
They get the impression that everybody is
here for the purpose of feathering his
nest. That is why I made this earlier
point—not in this Administration, not
one single man or woman.
And I say to them, there are many fine
careers. This country needs good farmers,
good businessmen, good plumbers, good
carpenters.
I remember my old man. I think that
they would have called him sort of a
little man, common man. He didn't consider
himself that way. You know what he was?
He was a streetcar motorman first, and
then he was a farmer, and then he had a
lemon ranch. It was the poorest lemon
ranch in California, I can assure you. He
sold it before they found oil on it.
[Laughter] And then he was a grocer. But
he was a great man, because he did his
job, and every job counts up to the hilt,
regardless of what happens.
Nobody will ever write a book,
probably, about my mother. Well, I guess all
of you would say this about your mother—
my mother was a saint. And I think of her,
two boys dying of tuberculosis, nursing
four others in order that she could take
care of my older brother for 3 years in
Arizona, and seeing each of them die,
and when they died, it was like one of
her own.
Yes, she will have no books written
about her. But she was a saint.
Now, however, we look to the future.
I had a little quote in the speech last
night from T.R. As you know, I kind of
like to read books. I am not educated,
but I do read books—and
the T.R. quote was a pretty good one.
Here is another one I found as I was
reading, my last night in the White House,
and this quote is about a young man. He
was a young lawyer in New York. He had
married a beautiful girl, and they had a
lovely daughter, and then suddenly she
died, and this is what he wrote. This was
in his diary.
He said, "She was beautiful in face and
form and lovelier still in spirit. As a flower
she grew and as a fair young flower she
died. Her life had been always in the sunshine.
There had never come to her a
single great sorrow. None ever knew her
who did not love and revere her for her
bright and sunny temper and her saintly
unselfishness. Fair, pure and joyous as a
maiden, loving, tender and happy as a
young wife. When she had just become a
mother, when her life seemed to be just
begun and when the years seemed so
bright before her, then by a strange and
terrible fate death came to her. And when
my heart's dearest died, the light went
from my life forever."
That was T.R. in his twenties. He
thought the light had gone from his life
forever—but he went on. And he not only
became President but, as an ex-President,
he served his country, always in the arena,
tempestuous, strong, sometimes wrong,
sometimes right, but he was a man.
And as I leave, let me say, that is an
example I think all of us should remember.
We think sometimes when things
happen that don't go the right way; we
think that when you don't pass the bar
exam the first time—I happened to, but
I was just lucky; I mean, my writing was
so poor the bar examiner said, "We have
just got to let the guy through." We think
that when someone dear to us dies, we
think that when we lose an election, we
think that when we suffer a defeat that
all is ended. We think, as T.R. said, that
the light had left his life forever.
Not true. It is only a beginning, always.
The young must know it; the old must
know it. It must always sustain us,
because the greatness comes not when things
go always good for you, but the greatness
comes and you are really tested, when
you take some knocks, some disappointments,
when sadness comes, because only
if you have been in the deepest valley can
you ever know how magnificent it is to
be on the highest mountain.
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.
And so, we leave with high hopes, in
good spirit, and with deep humility, and
with very much gratefulness in our hearts.
I can only say to each and every one of
you, we come from many faiths, we pray
perhaps to different gods—but really the
same God in a sense—but I want to say
for each and every one of you, not only
will we always remember you, not only
will we always be grateful to you but
always you will be in our hearts and you
will be in our prayers.
