smoking is bad
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Welcome to the Speech Archives.
You have discovered one of the most comprehensive on-line collections of speech texts of contemporary American History. Here you can read the speeches and backgrounds of many of the most influential and poignant speakers of the recorded age. To help put each speaker in historical context, we have also provided a brief timeline of historical events.
To learn about the speaker and what he or she was talking about, click on the background link. To skip the background and read the text of the speech only, click on the speech link. To listen to an audio sample, click on the audio link, and to watch a short video excerpt, click on the video link. Additional background stories and audio and video links will be added as each episode of Great American Speeches airs on PBS over the next five weeks.
Speeches are arranged sequentially by era. To find a particular speech, scroll down through the page, or you can jump to a specific decade by using the 10-year timebar below
This is a day of national consecration, and I am certain that on this day my fellow Americans expect that, on my induction into the presidency, I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impels...