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PRESIDENT GERALD R. FORD - TYPESCRIPT SIGNED - HFSID 67440

Gerald R. Ford signs a typescript of his swearing-in speech as president after the resignation of President Richard Nixon. It contains the oft-repeated phrase "our long national nightmare is over". Typescript signed: "Gerald R. Ford", 1p, 5½x7½.

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GERALD R. FORD
Gerald R. Ford signs a typescript of his swearing-in speech as president after the resignation of President Richard Nixon. It contains the oft-repeated phrase "our long national nightmare is over".
Typescript signed: "Gerald R. Ford", 1p, 5½x7½. In full: "I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad. In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openess [sic] and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end. 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...." This extraordinary typescript is an oft-repeated excerpt of Ford's swearing-in speech on Aug. 9, 1974, and marks a singular moment in United States history. President Richard Nixon had resigned as president earlier that day, at 11:35 a.m., and vice president Ford was sworn in as president at 12:03 p.m. Ford thus became the first person in United States history to become president and vice-president without being elected to either office; he was appointed vice president after the resignation of Spiro Agnew on Oct. 10, 1973. Ford delivered this speech in the East Room of the White House, and to the nation, at 12:05 p.m. after being sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. Less than a month later, on Sept. 8, Ford issued Proclamation 4311, a full pardon for any crimes that Nixon may have committed against the United States. In the pardon, Ford said that a trial against Nixon could endanger the tranquility of the nation. However, Ford's pardon of remains as one of the most controversial presidential pardons of all time and may very well have cost him the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter. Ford (1913-2006, born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska) had previously served as Nixon's Vice president (1973-1974) following the resignation of Vice president Spiro Agnew, becoming the only man to have held both of the nation's highest offices without being elected to either. Ford, who was previously a U.S. Congressman from Michigan (1949-1973; Minority Leader, 1965-1973), lost his bid for election to a full four-year term partially as a result of his controversial pardon of his predecessor. He was awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999. Ford was the nation's longest-lived former president, passing Ronald Reagan, who also died at the age of 93. Fine condition.

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