Lyndon B. Johnson photo

The President's Toast at a Dinner Honoring the Vice President, the Speaker, and the Chief Justice

February 02, 1965

Mr. Vice President, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, ladies and gentlemen:

We are honored tonight to have all of you here--from all parts of our land--to join with us in honoring three great offices and the three great Americans who occupy them.

When our system was conceived, our forefathers took great care to separate the executive, legislative, and judicial powers--and that concept has served us faithfully and well.

Yet tonight we come together to celebrate not the separation of powers but the unity of purposes among the various branches of our great American Government.

In this century--and perhaps in all our history--there have been few other times when there has been such dose accord in the purposes of the executive, legislative, and judiciary.

Among all three there is a common determination that now, while we are a strong and united people, we shall strive on-against all odds and past all obstacles--to fulfill the ideals to which America is dedicated.

In these efforts for peace, for liberty, and for justice, the three men we honor have each shown uncommon courage, great dedication, and unusual zeal.

The Office of the Vice President is held now by a man who has long been in the forefront of America's mighty effort to lead the world toward lasting peace--a man who is valuable to our Nation and invaluable to me, Hubert Humphrey.

The Office of the Speaker is held by a man who has devoted an honored lifetime to strengthening the cause of liberty in the world and always enlarging the meaning of liberty here at home--John McCormack.

The Office of Chief Justice is held by a man who has written his name large on the rolls of freedom as a courageous champion of justice and as a faithful servant of the people--Earl Warren.

I am proud to share with all of them the public trust.

I am privileged to share with each of them warm and understanding friendship.

So, ladies and gentlemen, in good friendship and good fellowship, I ask you to join me in raising your glasses to the Vice President, to the Speaker of the House, to the Chief Justice--and to our one Nation, united and indivisible, under God.

Note: The President proposed the toast at a dinner in the State Dining Room at the White House held in honor of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, Speaker of the House John W. McCormack, and Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren.

Lyndon B. Johnson, The President's Toast at a Dinner Honoring the Vice President, the Speaker, and the Chief Justice Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/241060

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