you have restated its principles and purposes in language that none can mistake and with a firm confidence in justice, freedom, and peace on earth that will raise the hearts and the hopes of mankind for that distant day when no one rattles a sabre and no one drags a cane. [applause] for all these things i am grateful to you. but i feel no exultation, no triumph. our troubles are all against us. some will say we are the war party. some will say we are reactionary. others will say that we stand for socialism. there will be inevitible cries

of -- it is time for a change and so on and so on. we'll hear all those things and many more besides but we will hear nothing that we have nch heard before. -- that we have not heard before. [cheers and applause] i am not too much concerned with partisan denunciations with epithets or rebukes because all americans know they are better off than before, and they know that the greatest danger to free enterprise in this country died with the great depression under the hammer blows of the democratic party. nor am i afraid that the precious two-party system is in

danger. the republican party looked brutally alive a couple weeks ago. and i mean both republican parties. [cheers and applause] nor am i afraid it is old and indolent. it will never be indolent that is as long as it looks forward and not back. as long as the youth see the dreams of america. you will hear many thoughtful people express the continuation of one party in power for 20 years. i don't bee little this attitude. but change for the sake of

change has no merit in itself. in our self-interest alone, if you please, it is the -- is it the purchase of wisdom to change for the sake of change to a party with a split personality? a leader who has been called upon to minister to a hopeless case of political skits freenia. yet the fear is correction in official positions. do you believe with hughes that guilt is personal and knows no

party? do you doubt the power of any political leader if he has the will to do so to set his own house in order without his neighbors having to burn it down? [cheers and applause] what does concern me in common with thinking part sanssans of both parties is not just winning this election but how it is won. how well we can take advantage of this great quadrennial debate sensibly and soberly. i hope and pray that we democrats request campaign not as a crusade to accident trm nature the opposing party as our opponent seemed to prefer, but as a great opportunity to educate and elevate a people whose destiny is leadership.

not alone in a rich and prosperous -- [cheers and applause] and even more than winning the nomination is -- in the end when the shouting dies, when the bands are gone and the lights are dim, there is the reality of responsibility in an hour of history with those gaunt rim defenders of materialism at home and ruthless, inscruteable and hostile power abroad. the ordeal of the 20th century, the bloodyest, most turbulent era of the whole is far from over.

let's face it. let's talk sense to the american people. let's tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pain. that we are now on the eve of great decisions. not easy zigs, like resistance when you are attacked, but a long patient costly struggle which alone can skr triumph over the great enemies of plan. war, poverty, and tyranny and the assaults on huge dignity which are the most grievance consequences of each. let's tell them that the victory that we won in the 20th century, this portal to the golden age, months of humanening newt. -- human enginuity. they do not fall before the trumpet blares or the politicians implications or even

a general's baton. [cheers and applause] they must stand shoulder to shoulder. the people are wise. wiser than the republicans think. and the democratic party is the people's party, not the labor party, not the farmer's party, not the ememployer's part, -- party, it is the party of no one because it is the party of everyone. [cheers and applause]

that is our mission. where we have desserted it, we failed. better we lose the election than mislead the people and better we lose than misgovern the people. help me to do the job of conflict and campaign. help me to do the job in these years of doubt and the crisis which stretches beyond the horizon of tonight's happy vision, and we will justify our glorious paths and the loyalty of silent millions who look to us for compassion, offer of proof understanding, and for honest purpose. thus we will serve our great tradition. i ask of you all i have. i will give you all i have, even as he who came in 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 of the of the democratic party, harry s. truman. [cheers and applause] and finally my friends in the staggering task that you have assigned me, i shall always try to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my god. [cheers and applause] >> watch gavel-to-gavel coverage

of the democratic convention live here on c-span. next is the speech of george mcgovern in 1972. jimmy carter's 1976 acceptance speech scomprks barack obama from 2008. >> tomorrow on "washington journal" rob christian son from the "news news and political observer." the political dynamics in north carolina heading into the november election. that by susan roberts. and ryan butler discusses gay and lesbian issues. >> c-span's gavel-to-gavel

coverage next week and online at c-span.org. featured speakers in >> we will build an american community again. the choice we offer is not conservative or liberal. in many ways, it is not even republican or democratic. it is different, it is new, and it will work. [cheers and applause] >> count your own opinion and connect with other c-span viewers.

conventionhub@ cspan.org/ campaign2012. >> the start of mcgovern's speech was delayed until after 2:00 a.m. eastern time. he spoke for about 22 minutes. >> my fellow citizens, i am happy to join you for this benediction of our friday sunrise service. [cheers and applause] [laughter] i assume that everyone here is

impressed with my control of this convention. my choice for vice president was challenged by only 39 other nominees. [cheers and applause] but i think we learned from watching the republicans four years ago, as they selected their vice-presidential nominee, that it pays to take a little more time. [cheers and applause] and i can tell you that eleanor 1htimer 1waspresit)-

i am proud to have former senator ted kennedy. my nomination is the gift of the most open political process in all of our political history. it is the sweet harvest of the work of tens of thousands of tireless volunteers, young and old alike literally funded by hundreds of thousands of small contributors in every part of this nation.

those who lingered on the brink of despair only a short time ago have been brought into this campaign heart, hand, head and soul, and i have been the beneficiary of the most remarkable political organization in the history of this country. [cheers and applause] it was a faith that can literally move mountains. it counts where glory begins and ends and say with my glory that i have such friends. this is the people's nomination, and next january, we will

restore the government to the people of this country. [cheers and applause] and i believe american politics will never be the same gain again. we are entering a new period of hopeful change in america. a period comparable to those eras that unleashed that remarkable period in the period of jefferson, jackson, and rooze -- roosevelt. i treasure this nomination, especially because it comes after vigorous competition with the ageless men and women our party has to offer. [cheers and applause]

he has offered us new ideas in education, terry san ford. and not conceding a single state to richard nixon. [cheers and applause] i should like to say to my friend, frank king, that ohio may have passed a few times in this convention, but tom eagleton and i are not going to pass ohio. [cheers and applause]

and i can say to governor gilligan, ohio is sometimes -- he is the unwitting unifier and the fundamental issue of this national campaign. [cheers and applause] and all of us are going to help him redeem a pledge he made 10 years ago that next year you won't have richard nixon to kick around anymore. [cheers and applause] we have