Hubert H. Humphrey Declaration of Candidacy for the Presidential Nomination given in Washington, D.C. on April 27, 1968.
"My fellow Americans, we're here today on important business, freedom's business, American's business, the Democratic Party's business, and in that order. These priorities of freedom, country, and party have guided me as I have sought to reach an important personal decision. Any man who has had the privilege of spending almost twenty years near the President and the Presidency as I have, must weigh very carefully the implications of seeking an office that demands perhaps more judgment, wisdom, and maturity than any single man possesses. Yet any man who has spent a lifetime, at least who has spent his adult life in public service, also knows within himself that he must be willing to give of himself, when and where he feels he can best serve what he believes in. And so my friends and fellow Americans, facing and knowing the hard realities of the office, yet also knowing the potential for good which lies within it, I shall seek the nomination of the Democratic Party.
(We want Humphrey...) Like it or not, you have him. Yes, as I said, I shall seek the nomination of the Democratic Party for the Presidency of the United States. My credentials, well, they may be stated rather simply: of a loving family; teacher; mayor of my city; senator from my state; vice-president of my country; grateful husband; proud father; believer in the American Dream-the concept of human brotherhood."
And I shall make everything that I do on one conviction: that this country, we the people of these United States, working in a spirit of unity, can overcome any obstacle, finally realizing the fullness of freedom, the prize of peace, in the happiness of human opportunity, both here and in the world. My fellow Americans, we are the people of today; we are the people of tomorrow, it is to the future that we look and we aspire. And I found some words are told me exactly what I want to tell you; you値l find them inscribed in the great literature. The future has several names: for the weak it is impossible, for the faint-hearted it is the unknown, for the thoughtful and the valiant it is ideals. The challenge is urgent, the test is large, the time is now -- on to victory!
