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Carter's first acts as President came against the background of a notably subdued Inaugural Address. Even many of his supporters found it disappointing. It was more effective when read than when heard in Carter's singsong cadence. It contained no calls to glory, no "finest hour" rhetoric. Carter took a rather humble stance toward the American people and the rest of the world. His pledge to liberty ("We can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere") provided a marked contrast to John Kennedy's ringing "We shall bear any burden" of another age. The speech offered some typical Carterian balances: warnings that we cannot do everything and exhortations that we must try to do nearly everything. Carter said he wants to be remembered as a President who furthered racial equality, helped provide jobs for everyone, and strengthened the American family. But he also said that "we can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems." He held out the startling vision of total nuclear disarmament, or at least a first step toward it. He was alluding to the signing of a new strategic arms limitation agreement with the U.S.S.R. Two days earlier, in a speech plainly aimed at the new American leader, Soviet Party Boss Leonid Brezhnev also gave top priority to a new pact before the SALT Ι treaty expires in October. Said Brezhnev: "Time will not wait."
But Carter also pledged to maintain military strength "so sufficient that it need not be proven in combat." These "yes, but" formulations can be irritating, suggesting an attempt to have it both ways. But they may be closer to complex reality than simpler, more one-sided assertions. Typical of the Carter approach was his statement that he had no new American dream to offer, but wanted the old dream renewed, that Americans must adjust to changing times but cling to unchanging principles.
That last thought he attributed to his high school teacher in Plains, Julia Coleman, who encouraged his interest in literature, art and music and who died in 1973. Immediately after Miss Coleman in the speech came Micah (few other American politicians would hazard such a juxtaposition), an Old Testament prophet who lived during the Assyrian conquest of Israel in the 8th century B.C. and thundered against moral evils (notably the rapacity of "land grabbers," the injustice of rulers and the smug belief that Yahweh would take care of everything). It was, on balance, a strongly religious speech—too simply pietistic perhaps. But it was also an accurate expression of Carter's faith—a faith shared by a great many Americans.
Carter had finished polishing his Inaugural Address only a couple of days earlier, working in longhand and with a typewriter at the large desk in the study of his ranch-style house in Plains. Speechwriter Patrick Anderson had written the first version, but Carter wrote at least three more drafts, sometimes spreading the paragraphs out like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and Scotch-taping them into a new arrangement. In the final version, Anderson said, he recognized "only a few sentences here and there" of his own work.