With a little help from Jefferson, Kennedy, & FDR

In a few days, President-Elect Barack Obama will give his inaugural address. In many ways, the words spoken at this solemn occasion foreshadow the character of the leadership to come. Slate, the daily online magazine, invited people to take a crack at writing an inaugural speech for Barack Obama, offering them the ability to remix words and turns of phrase from all previous 55 inaugural speeches. On January 19, Slate will publish The People's Inaugural Address, a speech that is truly of, by, and for the people. “Combining words from every inaugural address from George Washington to George W. Bush plus ideas and input from the everyday American allows us to create something defined by the country,” said David Plotz, Slate's Editor.

It is an intriguing conceit for our “Yes, We Can” president, but it also toys with some interesting ideas about authorship that have been simmering in the media for awhile—that we all borrow and appropriate and take what's familiar and make it new. Here are some words of inspiration from previous inaugural addresses.

Thomas Jefferson
March 4, 1801

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

John F. Kennedy
January 20, 1961

Now the trumpet summons us again, not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are, but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation," a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
March 4, 1933

Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men. . . . Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence.