I accept your nomination and your program. [applause] i should have preferred to hear those words uttered by stronger, myself. Better man than [applause] but after listening to the president s speech, i even feel better about myself. [applause] none of you, my friends, can really appreciate what is in my heart. I can only hope that you understand my words. They will be few. I have not sought the honor you have done me. Because it seek it aspired to another office, which was the full measure of my ambition. And one does not treat the of the people of illinois as an alternative or a consolation prize. I would not seek your nomination for the presidency because the burdens of that office stagger the imagination. Its potential for good or evil, now and in the years of our , smothers exultation and converts vanity to prayer. I ask the merciful father, the father of us all, to let this cup pass from me, but from such dread responsibility, one does not shrink in fear, in self interest, or in false humility. Cup may not pass from me except i drink it, thy will be done. [applause] that my heart has been troubled, that i have not sought this nomination, that i could not seek it in good conscious, that i would not seek it in honest self appraisal, is not to say that i value it the less. Rather, it is that i revere the office of the presidency of the united states. [applause] and now, my friends, that you have made your decision, i will fight to win that office with all my heart and my soul. [applause] and with your help, i have no doubt that we will win. [applause] you have summoned me to the with the gift of any people. I could not be more proud. Better men and i were at hand for this task. Towe it to you and to them make the day a good one for our country and for our party. That yourdent, too, selection of a candidate for Vice President will strengthen me and our party immeasurably in the hard work that lies ahead of all of us. I know you join me in gratitude and in respect for the great democrats and the leaders of our generation whose names you have considered here in this convention, whose vigor, whose character, whose devotion to the republic we love so well have won the respect of countless americans and have enriched our party. [applause] them, we shall lead them, because i have not changed in any respect since yesterday. Iur nomination, awesome as find it, has not enlarged my capacity, so i am profoundly grateful and emboldened by their comradeship and their fealty, and i have been deeply moved by their expressions of goodwill and support. And i cannot resist the urge to take the one opportunity that has been afforded me to pay my humble respects to a very great and good american, whom i am proud to call my kinsman, alvin barclay of kentucky. [applause] let me say i have been heartened by the conduct of this convention. You have disagreed, because as democrats, you care and you care deeply. But you have disagreed and argued without calling each other liars and thieves, without disspoiling our great without spoiling our great spoiledn, who have not any of our best traditions in any naked struggles for power, and you have written the platform that neither contradicts or evades, you have recordmed our partys. N language none can mistake that will raise the hearts and the hopes of mankind to that distant day where no one drags a chain. [applause] for all these things i am grateful to you, but i feel no exultation, no sense of triumph. Our troubles are all ahead of us. Others willit say we are the war party. Others will say we are reactionary. Others will say we standard for socialism. There will be the inevitable cries, it is time for a change and so on. We will hear all those things and many more besides, but we will hear nothing that we have not heard before. [applause] i am not too much concerned with partisan denunciations, with epithets and abuse, because the workingman, the farmer, the are allul businessman, better off than before and know that the greatest danger to free diedprise in this country with the great depression, under the hammer blows of the Democratic Party. [applause] that theafraid precious two party system is in danger. Certainly the Republican Party looked brutally alive a couple weeks ago, and i mean both republican parties. [applause] nor am i afraid that the Democratic Party is old in fat and indolent. After 150 years, it has been old for a long time, and it will never be indolent as long as it looks forward and not back, as long as it commands the allegiance of the young and the hopeful, who dream the dreams and see the vision of a better america and a better world. You will hear many sincere and thoughtful people expressed concern about the continuation of one party in power for 20 years. I do not belittle this attitude, but change for the sake of change has no absolute merit in itself. [applause] isour greatest hazard preservation of the values of western civilization, and our self interest alone, if you please, is it the part of wisdom to change for the sake of change to a party with a split personality . [applause] leader to a leader who we all respect, but has been called upon to minister to a hopeless case of political schizophrenia. [applause] is corruption in official positions, do you believe, with Charles Evans hughes, that guilt is personal and knows no party . Do you doubt the power of any political leader if he has the will to set his own house in order without his neighbors having to burn it down . [applause] what does concern me, in common with thinking partisans of both parties, is not just winning this election, but how it is one, how well we can how it is won, how well we can take advantage of this great quadrillion four neil opportunity to debate issues. Lose, we canwin or campaign not as a crusade to exterminate the opposing party, but is a great opportunity to educate and elevate the people whose destiny is leadership, not alone of a rich and prosperous country as in the past, but a ferment. [applause] and, my friends, even more important than winning the election is governing the nation. That is the test of a political party, the final test, when the to him alt and the shouting die when the tumult and the shouting die, when the lights are dim, there is a stark responsibility. In our history, haunted with those specters of strife, dissension, and materialism at home, and hostile power abroad. The ordeal of the 20th century, the bloodiest, most turbulent era of the whole christian age, is far from over. Patience, understanding, and implacable purpose may be our lot for years to come. Lets face it. Lets tell them the truth, that there are no games without pain no gains without pain, that we are now on the eve of great decisions, not easy decisions, like resistance when you are long, patient, costly struggle which alone can ensure triumph over the great enemies of man, war, power, tyranny, the assaults on the Human Dignity of man. Mocks the pretensions of individual human ingenuity. Imprecationcians or the generals baton. My friends, walls that must be stormed, Standing Shoulder to shoulder, unafraid of ugly truths, contemptuous of circuses, and demagoguery. Wise, wiser than the republicans think, and the Democratic Party is the peoples party. It is the party of everyone. [applause] that i think is our ancient mission. Where we have deserted it, we have failed. With your help, there will be no desertion now, better we lose the election then mislead the people. And it better we lose then we miss govern the people. Help me to do this job. We will justify our glorious past and the loyalty of silent millions who look to us for compassion, for understanding, and for honesty. Thus we will serve our great tradition greatly. I ask of you all you have. I will give you all i have, even ac who came here even as he who came here tonight and honored me, as he has honored you, the Democratic Party, by a lifetime of service and bravery that will find him an imperishable page in the history of the republic and of the , president Party President harry harry s truman. Friends, and the staggering task you have assigned me in the staggering task you have assigned me, i shall always try to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my god. [applause] we continue our look back at president ial conventions. Next, general dwight di or atept his partys nomination the 1952 Republican National convention in chicago. He defeated democratic nominee Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 election. This is courtesy of the dwight di or library and museum. Dwight eisenhower president ial library and museum. [applause]