conservatism as a diverse and uniting ideology. senator goldwater lost to president johnson in the 1964 general election, winning only six states and earning less than 39% of the popular vote. this speech is just over 40 minutes and our coverage is from nbc news. ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah his ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> thank you. ♪ glory, glory, hallelujah his truth is marching on ♪ ♪ glory, glory hallelujah ♪ glory, glory hallelujah ♪ his truth is marching on ♪ glory, glory hallelujah ♪ glory, glory hallelujah ♪ glory, glory hallelujah ♪ his truth is marching on ♪ glory, glory hallelujah ♪ glory, glory hallelujah ♪ glory, glory hallelujah ♪ his truth is marching on

[ applause ] >> my good friend and great republican dick nixon and your charming wife, pat, my running mate, that wonderful republican who served us so well for so long, bill miller, and his wife stephanie, to thureston martin who has done such a commendable job in chairing this convention,

to mr. herbert hoover, who i hope is watching, and to that -- that great american and his w e wife, general and mrs. eisenhower. to my own wife, my family, and to all of my fellow republicans here assembled and americans across this great nation, from this moment united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable

greatness of the whole man. together -- together we will win. i accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. i accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and i seek your continued help and your continued guidance. my fellow republicans, our cause is too great for any man to feel worthy of it. our task would be too great for any man, did he not have with him the hearts and the hands of this great republican party. and i promise you tonight that

every fiber of my being is concentrated to our cause that nothing shall be lacking from the struggle that can be brought to it by enthusiasm, by devotion and plain hard work. in this world, no person, no party can guarantee anything. but what we can do and what we shall do is to deserve victory and victory will be our, and victory will be ours. the good lord raised this mighty republican -- republic to be a home for the brave and to flourish as the land of the free.

not to stagnate in the swamp land of collectivism, not to cringe before the bullying of communism. now, my fellow americans, the tide has been running against freedom. our people have followed false prophet. we must and we shall return to proven ways, not because they are old, but because they are true. we must, and we shall, set the tides running again in the cause of freedom.

and this party with its every action, every word, every breath, and every heartbeat has but a single resolve, and that is freedom. freedom made orderly to this nation by our constitutional government, freedom under a government limited by the laws of nature, and of nature's god. freedom balanced so that order, lacking liberty, will not become the slavery of the prison shell. balanced so that liberty, lacking order, will not become the license of the mob and of the jungle.

now, we americans understand we have earned it, we have lived for it, and we have died for it. this nation and its people are freedom's model, in a searching world. we can be freedom's missionaries in a doubting world. but, ladies and gentlemen, first we must renew freedom's vision in our own hearts and in our own homes. during four futile years, the administration, which we shall replace, has -- has distorted

and lost that vision. it has talked and talked and talked and talked the words of freedom, but it has failed and failed and failed in the works of freedom. now, failures cement the wall of shame in berlin, failures block the sands of shame at the bay of pigs, failures mark the slow death of freedom in laos, failures infest the jungles of vietnam and failure haunts the houses of our once great alliances and undermine the greatest bulwark ever erected by free nations, the nato community.

failures proclaim lost leadership, obscure purpose, weakening will, and the risk of inciting our sworn enemies to new aggressions and to new excesses. and because of this administration, we are a world divided, we are a nation become, we have lost the brisk pace of diversity, and the genius of individual creativity. we are plotting along at a pace set by centralized planning, red tape, rules without responsibility and regimention without recourse. rather than useful jobs in our

country, our people have been offered bureaucratic make work, rather than moral leadership, they have been given bread and circuses, given spectacles and, yes, they have even been given scandals. tonight, there is violence in our streets, corruption in our highest offices, aimlessness among our youth, and anxiety among our elders, and there is a virtual despair among the many who look beyond material success for the inner meaning of their lives. and where examples of morality should be set, the opposite is seen. small men, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest

levels of public service into mere personal opportunity. now, certainly simple honesty is not too much to demand of men in government. we find it in most. republicans demand it from everyone. they demand it from everyone no matter how exalted or protected his position might be. now, the -- the growing menace in our country tonight to personal safety, to life, to limb, and property, in homes, in churches,

on the playgrounds and places of business, particularly in our great cities, is the mounting concern or should be of every thoughtful citizen in the united states. security from domestic violence, no less than from foreign aggression, is the most elementary and fundamental purpose of any government. and a government that cannot fulfill this purpose is one that cannot long command the loyalty of its citizens. history shows us it demonstrates that nothing, nothing prepares the way for tyranny more than

the failure of public officials to keep the streets safe from bullies and marauders. now, we republicans see all this as more, much more than the result of mere political differences or mere political mistakes. we see this as the result of a fundamentally and absolutely wrong view of man. his nature, and his destiny. those who seek to live your lives for you, to take your liberties in return for relieving you of yours, those who elevate the state and downgrade the citizen must see ultimately a world in which

earthly power can be substituted for divine will and this nation -- this nation was founded upon the rejection of that notion and upon the acceptance of god as the author of freedom. now those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. and let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create

the most hellish tyrannies. absolute power does corrupt. and those who seek it must be suspect and must be uphold. their mistake stems from false notions, ladies and gentlemen, of equality. equality rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.

fellow republicans, it is the cause of republicanism to resist concentrations of power, private or public, which enforce such conformity and inflict such despotism. it is a cause of republicanism to ensure that power remains in the hands of the people, and so help us god, that is exactly what a republican president will do with the help of a republican congress.

it is further the cause of republicanism to restore a clear understanding of the tyranny of man over man in the world at large. it is our cause to dispel the foggy thinking, which an voices hard decisions in the delusion that a world of conflict will somehow mysteriously resolve itself into a world of harmony. if we just don't rock the boat or irritate the forces of aggression, and this is hog wash. it is further the cause of republicanism to remind

ourselves and the world that only the strong can remain free, that only the strong can keep the peace. now, i need not remind you or my fellow americans regardless of party that republicans have shouldered this hard responsibility and marched in this cause before. it was republican leadership under dwight eisenhower that kept the peace and passed along to this administration the mightiest arsenal for defense the world has ever known. and i need not remind you that it was the strength and the believable will of the eisenhower years that kept the

peace by using our strength, by using it in the formosa straits and in lebanon and by showing it courageously at all times. it was during those republican years that the thrust of communist imperialism was blunted. it was during those years of republican leadership that this world moved closer not to war, but closer to peace than at any other time in the last three decades. and i need not remind you, but i will, that it's been during

democratic years that our strength to deter war has stood still and even gone into a planned decline. it has been during democratic years that we have weakly stumbled into conflict, timidly refusing to draw our own lines against aggression, deceitfully refusing to tell even our own people of our full participation and tragically letting our finest men die on battlefields unmarked by purpose, unmarked by pride, or the prospect of victory. yesterday, it was korea. tonight, it is vietnam.

make no bones of this, don't try to sweep this under the rug, we are at war in vietnam. and yet, the president, who is the commander in chief of our forces, refuses to say, refuses to say, mind you, whether or not the objective over there is victory. and his secretary of defense continues to mislead, and misinform the american people, and enough of it has gone by. and i need not remind you the will. it has been during democratic

years that a billion persons were cast into communist captivity and their fate cynically sealed. today, today, in our beloved country we have an administration which seems eager to deal with communism in every coin known, from gold to wheat, from consulates to confidences and even human freedom itself. now the republican cause demands that we brand communism as the principle disturber of peace in the world today. indeed, we should brand it as the only significant disturber of the peace. and we must make clear that

until its goals or conquests are absolutely renounced and its relations with all nations tempered, communism and the governments it now controls are enemies of every man on earth who is or wants to be free. now, we here in america can keep the peace, only if we remain vigilant and only if we remain strong. only if we keep our eyes open, and keep our guard up can we prevent war.

and i want to make this abundantly clear, i don't intend to let peace or freedom be torn from our grasp because of lack of strength or lack of will, and that i promise you americans. i believe that we must look beyond the defense of freedom today to its extension tomorrow. i believe that the communism which boasts it will bury us will instead give way to the forces of freedom.

and i can see in the distant and yet recognizable future the outlines of a world worthy of our dedication, our every risk, our every effort, our every sacrifice along the way. yes, a world that will redeem the suffering of those who will be liberated from tyranny. i can see and i suggest that all thoughtful men must contemplate the flowering of an atlantic civilization, the whole of europe reunified and freed, trading openly across its borders, communicating openly across the world. now, this is a goal far, far more meaningful than a moonshot.

it is a truly inspiring goal for all three men to set for themselves during the latter half of the 20th century. i can see and all three men must thrill to the advance of the atlantic civilization joins by its great ocean whiz to the united states. what a destiny, what a destiny can be ours to stand as a great central pillar, linking europe, the americas, and the venerable and vital peoples and cultures of the pacific. i can see a day when all the americas, north and south, will be linked in a mighty system, a system in which the errors and misunderstandings of the past will be submerged one by one in a rising tide of prosperity and

interdependence. we know that the misunderstanding of centuries are not to be wiped away in a day or wiped away in an hour, but we pledge, we pledge that human sympathy, what our neighbors to the south call an attitude of simpatico, no less than enlightened self-interest will be our guide. and i can see this atlantic civilization galvanizing and guarding emergent nations everywhere. now, i know that free is not the fruit of every soil. i know that our own freedom was achieved through centuries by unremitting efforts of brave and wise men. and i know that the road to freedom is a long and a challenging road.

and i know also that some men may walk away from it, that some men resist challenge, accepting the false security of governmental paternalism. and i pledge that the america i envision in the years ahead will extend its hand in help in teaching and in cultivation so that all new nations will be at least encouraged, encouraged to go our way, so that they will not wander down the dark alleys of tyranny or the dead end streets of collectivism. my fellow republicans, we do no

man a service by hiding freedom's light under a bushel of mistake n humanity. slug i seek an america proud of its past, proud of its ways, proud of its dreams, and determined actively to proclaim them. but our example to the world must like charity begin at home. in our vision of a good and decent future, free and peaceful, there must be room, room for deliberation of the energy and the talent of the individual.

otherwise our vision is blind at the outset. we must assure a society here which while never abandoning the needy or forsaking the helpless nurtures incentives and opportunities for the creative and the productive. we must know the whole good is the product of many single contributions. and i cherish a day when our children once again will restore as heroes the sort of men and women who unafraid and undaunted pursue the truth, strive to cure disease, subdue and make fruitful our natural environment and produce the inventive

engines of production, science and technology. this nation, whose creative people have enhanced this entire span of history should again thrive upon the greatness of all those things which we, we as individual citizens can and should do. and during republican years, this, again, will be a nation of men and women, of families proud of their roles, jealous of their responsibilities, and unlimited in their aspirations, a nation where all who can will be self-reliant.

we republicans see in our constitutional form of government the great framework which assures the orderly, the dynamic fulfillment of the whole man, and we see the whole man as the great reason for instituting orderly government in the first place. we see -- we see in private property an economy based upon and fostering private property the one way to make government a durable ally of the whole man, rather than his determined enemy. we see in the sanctity of private property the only durable foundation for constitutional government in a free society.

and beyond that we see in cherished diversity of ways, diversity of thoughts, of motives and accomplishments, we don't seek to live anyone's life for him. we only seek -- only seek to secure his rights. guarantee him opportunity, guarantee him opportunity to strive with government performing only those needed and constitutionally sanctioned tasks which cannot otherwise be performed. we republicans seek a government that attends to its inherent

responsibilities of maintaining a stable monetary and fiscal climate and encouraging a free and a competitive economy and enforcing law and order. thus, do we seek inventiveness, diversity and creative difference within a stable order, where we republicans define government's role where needed at many, many levels. preferably, though, the one closest to the people involved. our towns and our cities, and

our regional contacts and only then the national government. that, let me remind you, is the ladder of liberty, built by decentralized power. on it also we must have balance between the branches of government at every level. balance, diversity, creative difference, these are the elements of the republican equation. republicans grecian republicans greet heartily to disagree on many, many of their

applications. slug but we have never disagreed on the basic fundamental issues of why you and i are republicans. this is a party, this republican party is a party for free men, not for blind followers, and not for conformists. in fact, in 1858, abraham lincoln said this is a republican party, and i quote him because he probably could have said it during the last week or so. it was composed of strange, discordant, and even hostile

elements, end of the quote in 1958. yet all of these elements agreed on one paramount objective. to arrest the progress of slavery and place it in the course of ultimate extinction. today, as then, but more urgently and more broadly than then, the task of preserving and enlarging freedom at home and of safeguarding it from the forces of tyranny abroad is great enough to challenge all our resources and to require all our strength. anyone who joins us in all sincerity we welcome.

those -- those who do not care for our cause we don't expect to enter our ranks in any case. and let our republicanism so focused and so dedicated not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels. i would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.

thank you. thank you. thank you. and let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. the beauty of the very system we republicans are pledged to restore and revitalize, the beauty of this federal system of ours is in its reconciliation of diversity with unity. we must not see malice in honest

differences of opinion, and no matter how great, so long as they are not inconsistent with the pledges we have given to each other in and through our constitution. our republican cause is not to level out the world or make its people conform in computer regimented sameness. our republican cause is to free our people and light the way for liberty throughout the world. ours is a very human cause for

very humane goals. this party, its good people, and its unquenchable devotion to freedom will not fulfill the purposes of this campaign, which we launch here and now, until our cause has won the day, inspired the world, and shown the way to a tomorrow worthy of all our yesteryears. i repeat, i accept your nomination with humbleness, with pride, and you and i are going to fight for the goodness of our land. thank you.

american history tv primetime continues tonight with a look at the 1964 presidential campaign of barry goldwater. it begins at 8:00 eastern with the contenders, a two-hour discussion of the life and career of the republican nominee. at 10:05 p.m. eastern, barry goldwater's nomination acceptance speech. and at 10:50, a look at his role in the conservation movement in the 1950s and '60s. at c-span.org you can watch our public affairs and political

programming anytime at your convenience. on your desktop, laptop or mobile device. here's how. go to our home page, c-span.org, and click on the video library search bar. here you can type in the name of a speaker, the sponsor of a bill, or even the event topic. review the list of search results and click on the program you'd like to watch or refine your search with our many search tools. if you're looking for our most current programs and you don't want to search the video library, our home page has many current programs ready for your immediate viewing such as today's "washington journal" or the events we covered that day. c-span.org is a public service of your cable or satellite provider, so if you're a c-span watcher, check it out at c-span.org. coming up next, environmental historian brian allen drake explores barry goldwater's commitment to environmental preservation and looks at how this commitment evolved over his lifetime. the kansas city public library