Bush Is Sworn In, Exhorts Nation to Seek Higher Goals

George Bush took the oath of office as the nation’s 41st President on Friday and--sounding the keynote for a day replete with pageantry and tradition--vowed to “make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.”

Bush’s inaugural address was at once a celebration of American democracy and an exhortation to Americans to rise higher.

“America today is a proud, free nation, decent and civil,” the new President proclaimed. At the same time, proclaiming Americans more than “the sum of our possessions,” he declared: “America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral purpose.”

With the Capitol providing a gleaming backdrop for his inaugural address, Bush praised his political mentor, President Reagan, who left for California immediately after the ceremony. But as a stiff wind ruffled his hair, Bush repeatedly declared that “a new breeze is blowing.”

In particular, Bush reached out to the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress he now faces and appealed for a return to bipartisanship on the critical economic and foreign policy issues facing the country. “I am putting out my hand to you,” he said pointedly.

In the inaugural parade from the Capitol to the White House, Bush hopped out of his limousine three times and waved happily to the cheering crowds lining Pennsylvania Avenue--as if to underscore that he finally had stepped out of the more carefully choreographed Reagan’s shadow after serving loyally for eight years as his vice president.

It was a day of broad and deep emotion, of images of continuity and images of change.

There was Ronald Reagan, the most popular President at the end of his term since polling began after World War II, given a hero’s send-off.

250 in Bush Family

There was the Bush family, 250 strong, which had converged on the capital from 22 states and three foreign countries.

There was Boston policeman Ted Finochio, one of thousands of marchers in the noisy and colorful parade, saying: “We are all thrilled about the opportunity to be here.”

And most of all, there was Bush himself, taking the oath, delivering his address, leading the parade and briefly attending all 12 inaugural balls.

Barbara Bush, his wife of 44 years, and Mrs. Prescott Bush, his mother, stood nearby as he took the oath, his hand on the Bible used by George Washington when he took his oath 200 years ago.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist administered the oath three minutes after Bush legally became President at noon. The sky was overcast as the 64-year-old Bush, clad in a dark suit with no overcoat, stood in 50-degree weather, about 40 degrees warmer than the frigid January day four years ago that forced Reagan’s second inauguration indoors.

Minutes earlier, former Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana, who will celebrate his 42nd birthday Feb. 4, took the oath of office as vice president from Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Quayle used his great-grandfather’s 1890 Bible for the ceremony.

Bush, after repeating word for word the oath Washington had taken, turned to Reagan and said: “There is a man here who has earned a lasting place in our hearts--and in our history. President Reagan, on behalf of our nation, I thank you for the wonderful things you have done for America.”

Reagan, dressed in a dark overcoat and white scarf, nodded his appreciation and he and his wife, Nancy, wearing a red coat, both smiled as the dignitaries on the speaker’s platform and the throng of more than 100,000 gathered at the West Front of the Capitol joined in a sustained, standing ovation.

Saying that his first act as President would be to pray, Bush bowed his head as he led the throng in a brief prayer:

“Heavenly Father, we bow our heads and thank you for your love. Accept our thanks for the peace that yields this day and the shared faith that makes its continuance likely. Make us strong to do your work, willing to hear and heed your will and write on our hearts these words: ‘Use power to help people.’ ”

Saves the Specifics

Then, exuding confidence, Bush used broad brush strokes to describe his goals for the next four years. In the tradition of inaugural addresses, he saved the specifics of his program for a scheduled Feb. 9 address to a joint session of Congress.

Bush drew perhaps his heaviest applause as he denounced illegal drugs. “This scourge,” he pledged, “will stop.”

While promising to keep the nation’s alliances and friendships strong, he said: “We will continue the new closeness with the Soviet Union, consistent both with our security and with progress.”

In a tacit reminder that 52 American hostages were freed by Iran on the day of Reagan’s first inauguration after 444 days in captivity, Bush remembered that “there are today Americans who are held against their will in foreign lands and Americans who are unaccounted for.” Nine Americans remain hostages in the Middle East.

Budget Deficit

He vowed to work with Congress to try to balance a federal budget that has run up huge deficits throughout the Reagan years.

“We have more will than wallet,” he said, “but will is what we need.”

He said that he would “make the hard choices, looking at what we have and perhaps allocating it differently. . . . “

But then, returning to his celebration of the American spirit, he declared: “And then we will do the wisest thing of all. We will turn to the only resource we have that in times of need always grows: the goodness and courage of the American people.”

Acting to distinguish his stewardship from Reagan’s, Bush outlined a list of social ills that he intends to address from the Oval Office.

“My friends, we have work to do,” he declared. “There are the homeless, lost and roaming--there are children who have nothing, no love and normalcy--there are those who cannot free themselves of enslavement to whatever addiction--drugs, welfare, the demoralization that rules the slums. There is crime to be conquered, the rough crime of the streets.

“There are young women to be helped who are about to become mothers of children they cannot care for and might not love. They need our care, our guidance, and education; though we bless them for choosing life.”

That, however, was Bush’s only reference to education, despite his campaign pledge to be the “education President.” That fact was not lost on members of the American Council on Education, who, meeting in San Diego, expressed disappointment that Bush did not repeat that promise.

Environment, Ethics

Nor did Bush mention the environment, another frequent theme of his campaign, or his earlier promise to propose legislation aimed at improving ethics in government.

Instead, Bush used his address to express lofty ideals.

“It is right that the memory of Washington be with us today,” he said, “not only because this is our bicentennial inauguration, but because Washington remains the father of our country. He would, I think, be gladdened by this day. For today is the concrete expression of a stunning fact: our continuity these 200 years since our government began.”

Bush said that he is assuming the presidency “at a moment rich with promise.” While America enjoys unprecedented peace and prosperity, he said, “we can make it better.”

‘A New Breeze’

Using a phrase he frequently invoked during his 20-minute speech, Bush said: “A new breeze is blowing and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man’s heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient lifeless tree.”

In an implicit admission that he will have to work with a heavily Democratic Congress, Bush called for an end to the “chorus of discordant voices” and a return to the “old bipartisanship.”

Bush turned to House Speaker Jim Wright of Texas and Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell of Maine, leaders of the Democratic opposition in Congress, and said: “To my friends--and yes, I mean friends--in the loyal opposition--and yes, I mean loyal--I put out my hand.”

Wright nodded and gestured with a wave of his hand as Bush addressed him and Mitchell individually and added: “This is the age of the offered hand.”

‘Neither Prince Nor Pope’

While calling for a more moral approach to the nation’s problems, Bush said that a President “is neither prince nor Pope, and I do not seek ‘a window on men’s souls.’ ” In fact, he said, he favors greater tolerance toward different ways of life.

From the speaker’s platform, Bush proceeded to the President’s Room of the Capitol--where Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act--to formally submit his Cabinet nominations. Apart from the day’s ceremonies, that was his first and only formal action in pursuit of his presidential responsibilities.

Reagan, meanwhile, walked to the other side of the Capitol and, with his wife, boarded a helicopter for one last aerial tour of downtown Washington before flying to Andrews Air Force Base.

There, as a private citizen for the first time in eight years, he boarded Air Force One, the presidential jet--renamed Special Air Mission 2700 for this occasion--and lifted off for his retirement home in Bel-Air.

Asked later about his final farewell to Reagan, Bush said: “I was trying to keep the tears from running down my cheeks. After eight years of friendship, it was pretty tough.”