Inaugural (就职的) Address by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

THE PRESIDENT: Chief Justice Roberts, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice President Pence, distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans:

This is Americans day. This is democracy’s day. A day of history and hope. Of renewal and     1    . Through a crucible (磨炼) for the ages America has been tested a new and America has risen to the     2    .

Today, we celebrate the     3     not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy. The     4    of the people has been heard and has been heeded. We have learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.

So now, on this hallowed ground where just days ago violence sought to shake this Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God,     5     to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries. We look ahead in our uniquely American way — restless, bold, optimistic — and set our     6     on the nation we know we can be and we must be.

Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. But we still have far to go. We will     7     forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility. Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build. And much to gain.

Few periods in our nation’s history have been more challenging or difficult than the one we’re in now. A once-in-a-century virus silently     8     the country. it’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War IL Millions of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be     9     no longer.

A cry for survival comes from the planet itself. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear.

And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.

To overcome these challenges—to restore the soul and to     10     the future of America—requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity.