ABC Pool feed footage - 1964 Democratic National Convention - 8/26/1964 - 2 of 2 [Partial]

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:04]his duties with great ability, with keenness, with foresight, and with courage. It's an honor for me to present to you for a second in speech the honorable Robert F. Wagner, mayor of the city of New York.

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[00:01:13]Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

[00:01:18]Mr. chairman, my fellow delegates and friends, Shakespeare said, "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them."

[00:01:36]If ever there was a man whose greatness is built upon all three of these foundations unshakably, it is our president, our leader, and our candidate, Lyndon B. Johnson.

[00:01:58]His his natural equipment for the supreme responsibilities of the presidency are unmatched and unmatchable.

[00:02:11]And moreover, they have been demonstrated by deed. They need no affirmation.

[00:02:18]In preparation for this office, he has had a lifelong schooling unexampled almost unprecedented in this its range and variety and depth.

[00:02:33]Son of the soil, teacher, youth worker and depression fighter, congressman, senator, and the mightiest majority leader of the Senate in modern times, proteéé of Franklin D. Roosevelt and of Sam Raurn, lieutenant of Harry S. Truman and chosen deputy of John F. Kennedy.

[00:03:00]And then and then by the crulest thrust of fate the inheritor of the awful loneliness of supreme responsibility.

[00:03:12]This is the outline of the career and capacities of Lynden B. Johnson.

[00:03:19]Could a better training for presidency be conceived?

[00:03:24]And the final test that of performance.

[00:03:28]Could these supremely difficult responsibilities have been better borne in the interest of the American people, of the world's people by any man?

[00:03:42]Has the public acceptance of what he has achieved ever been equaled?

[00:03:49]The factual record makes all seem pale.

[00:03:54]and the Empire State for which I speak with its 17 million inhabitants with a range of interest, viewpoint and origin as broad as that of the nation and indeed of the world has a clear consensus. The Democrats of New York State are in unanimous accord in favor of the continued leadership of Lynden B.

[00:04:22]Johnson.

[00:04:34]of of our president.

[00:04:38]Chosen by faith and proven by act achievement.

[00:04:45]Unbound, unbound by labels, unfledneled by doctrine. This man of action, this natural man, this man of heroic size and boundless energy. This man who understands above all the strengths and frailties and needs of people as individuals, as groups, and as a whole.

[00:05:11]This supreme patriarch who speaks with words of peace in accents of strength.

[00:05:19]This man with ears for mankind's hopes and fears.

[00:05:24]This man is not just the candidate of our delegates assembled here. He is mankind's choice to continue as president of the United States. And New York New York is a state of cities, of suburbs, and of country people, too.

[00:05:49]For all of them, he is the great liberator of our aspirations.

[00:05:56]For a great new forward surge of progress towards heights still unseen but dreamt of for ages past. The silent poor in our cities and in our countryside turn eloquent eyes of newborn hope towards this man. For these and a host of other reasons which have their own voices, I am pleased to place upon the record of these proceedings the seconding accord of all of the people of the great state of New York the nomination of Lynden B. Johnson to continue as president of the United States.

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[00:07:55]let me conceive of the call of the role of states Alaska Mr. Chairman Mr. Chairman, >> Alaska is happy to yield to the distinguished lady from Florida.

[00:08:18]>> Chair recognizes the distinguished lady delegate from Florida, Mrs. Lloyd Damy, for the purpose of making emotion.

[00:08:31]Mrs. Where is she? Oh, I didn't see you.

[00:08:40]>> I recognize you.

[00:08:45]>> Mr. Chairman, I move to suspend the rules and nominate by acclamation as our candidate for the office of the President of the United States of America, the Honorable Lyndon Baines Johnson Heat up here.

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[00:11:27]Questions on the motion made by the distinguished lady delegate from by the distinguished lady delegate from Florida. Many is in favor of the motion will say I suppose no I the opinion of the chair 23 then in fact unanimously by the opinion of the chair being complying with parliamentary law again in the opinion of the chair 2/3 having voted in the affirmative the rules are suspended and the honorable Lyndon B Johnson is nominated by acclamation as our candidate.

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[00:19:48]Chair convention will be in honor.

[00:19:51]Members, delegates will be seated.

[00:19:58]because I have a very pleasant announcement to make to you after which you can show tremendous enthusiasm and affection.

[00:20:11]So I ask for silence.

[00:20:16]The chair appoints as a committee to escort the chair appoints the following committee.

[00:20:29]Governor John Connelly of Texas, a chairman, Governor Edmund G. Brown of California, Senator John Cast of Rhode Island, Congressman Carl Albert of Oklahoma, Mayor Richard J. Daly of Chicago, Governor Howard E. Hughes of Iowa, Patricia Robert Harris of the District of Columbia, Governor Edward T. Brethren of Kentucky, Senator Edmund S. Musky of Maine, Senator JW Fulbright of Arkansas, Mayor Robert F. wagon of New York to escort into the convention the president of the United States and the next president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson.

[00:21:52]Fellow delegates, Fellow Delegates, fellow delegates, fellow Americans, I have the high honor and the great privilege to present to you the President of the United States.

[00:22:15]A heat.

[00:22:43]Hey, Heat up here.

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[00:27:10]Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, my fellow Americans, my fellow Democrats, columnists and commentators.

[00:27:37]It's wonderful to be here with you tonight, but did we really need all of these lights on?

[00:28:01]I thank the convention for the honor it has done me.

[00:28:07]I will be with you tomorrow to begin the march toward an overwhelming victory for our party and for our nation.

[00:28:39]Four years ago, one of our greatest Americans stood before this Democratic convention, John F. Kennedy of the state of Massachusetts.

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[00:29:28]We grieved at his loss, but we carried on and we have fulfilled his program without clinching for one moment.

[00:29:50]In the last three days, the noble Democrats who are delegates to this convention have made a great start toward a great democratic victory.

[00:30:03]You have built a platform on which I am proud to stand.

[00:30:20]A platform built on solid performance and frame for a future of prosperity and peace.

[00:30:37]In your settlement of the problems of credentials, you have found a fair answer to honest differences among honorable men.

[00:30:54]You have struck a magnificent keynote through the eloquence of the gifted senator from Rhode Island, John Pastori.

[00:31:14]You have reaffirmed our enduring values.

[00:31:19]through your wise and beloved permanent chairman, Mr. Raburn's friend and his worthy successor, Speaker John McComic of the state of Massachusetts.

[00:31:43]No chairman of any platform committee ever guided a committee better or a party better than the Honorable Carl Albert of the state of Oklahoma.

[00:32:06]Well, I too have been working to carry out my obligation under a very old American tradition.

[00:32:16]For it is the traditional task of your presidential nominee to recommend for your deliberation a candidate for vice president of the United States.

[00:32:35]I have such a recommendation.

[00:32:48]I have reached it after consultations with the leaders of the Democratic Party in every section of this nation and at every level of our government.

[00:33:01]I have reached it after discussions with outstanding Americans in every area of our national life.

[00:33:11]I have reached it after long and prayerful private thought, consulting my own experience of that office and the burdens that it brings.

[00:33:26]All of this has had a single guide to find a man best qualified to assume the office of president of the United States should that day come.

[00:33:51]I have found such a man.

[00:34:06]He has been tested and proven in our democratic process of political campaign and election.

[00:34:16]He has had long and distinguished experience in public life, as an executive, and as a legislator, and every step has been marked by excellence and achievement.

[00:34:35]He knows the problems of all of our people in every part of our nation.

[00:34:44]He knows the world and he knows its problems.

[00:34:48]And he has shown understanding and a deep concern for the strength of our country and for the peace of the world.

[00:35:00]He matches energy in the right with compassion for the needs of others.

[00:35:08]He matches strong convictions with understanding of the convictions of others.

[00:35:18]If you select him, you can proudly say to the American people, "This is not a sectional choice.

[00:35:29]This is not merely just a way to balance the ticket.

[00:35:36]This is simply the best man in America for this job.

[00:35:58]The qualities that he brings to office will help make the vice presidency an important instrument of the executive branch.

[00:36:12]From that office, he can help connect Congress to the White House and he can help carry America around the world.

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[00:44:08]The clerk will call on the role of the states and the nomination for the office of vice President of the United States, Alabama.

[00:44:24]Mr. Chairman, this is Roy Davis McCoy, one of the co-chairman of the Alabama delegation to the Honorable Ruben L.

[00:44:34]Newton of Jasper.

[00:44:37]the first state in the union, the great state of Alabama, hereby proudly places in nomination as the next vice president of the United States of these Americas the great southern gentleman and a big great Democrat, the honorable Carl Sanders of Georgia and the great state of Alabama yields to the great state of Georgia in Sister Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, >> Mr. Chairman, >> the chairman will recognize the distinguished delegate, but uh his delegation is naturally happy and pleased that the chair would not interfere with the expression of the pleasure.

[00:45:24]>> Mr. Chairman, >> the distinguished governor of Georgia, Mr. Chairman, chair recognizes the delegate. I want to first of all thank the great state of Alabama and the true and loyal Democrats of the great state of Alabama for the honor that they paid me here tonight. But we believe in Georgia and throughout this country at Lyndon Baines Johnson, the president of the United States of America, our great leader, knows who is best to lead this country and who is best qualified. Can I ask President Johnson has said to this convention that the senator from Minnesota is the best qualified man in this country to be the vice president and I ask the state of Alabama to withdraw my name and join with Georgia in support of the president and his selection. Thank you.

[00:46:39]chair recognizes the chairman of the Alabama delegation.

[00:46:43]Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, the great state of Alabama is behind Lyndon B. Johnson 100%.

[00:46:56]Mr. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Chairman, the great state of Alabama has many sons and daughters in the land of the many lakes, the great state of Minnesota. So Alabama now proudly yields to the land of many lakes, the great state of Minnesota.

[00:47:25]At the request of the governor of Georgia, state of Alabama withdraws the nomination of Governor Sanders.

[00:47:40]>> She recognizes the chairman of the Minnesota delegation.

[00:47:51]And the chair has the great honor and the pleasure of introducing to this great convention one of America's great progressives in the most effective sense of that word.

[00:48:16]One who served with me in the House of Representatives and who was elected to the United States Senate.

[00:48:25]one of the great public servants of our country.

[00:48:29]It's a personal honor and I have a great pleasure in introducing to you, a great American, an outstanding legislator, the Honorable Eugene Matti, United States Senator from Minnesota.

[00:49:09]Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, distinguished delegates and visitors of this great democratic convention.

[00:49:23]I assure you that the name which I shall give to you as I finish my speech to you will be the same as that which the president of the United States has just named here.

[00:49:40]At no time in the recent history of any political party has a party presented to its convention.

[00:49:49]And beyond that, will it present to the people of this country two men who are so alike in energy, in ability, in experience, in dedication, and in compassion as the two men whom this Democratic Party will present to the people of this nation for approval in November of 1964.

[00:50:15]One of them from the state of Texas, the Lone Star State, and one from the state of Minnesota, the Northstar State.

[00:50:26]Neither of these men has been proved in one shining one shining hour, but each has been tested in the sole trial of time.

[00:50:37]They have known hardship and poverty and embed on the edge of despair.

[00:50:44]They know both the weaknesses and the strengths of America.

[00:50:48]And each of them and both of them are qualified to provide leadership for this party and for the United States of America.

[00:51:02]They will be leaders of the great Democratic Party.

[00:51:07]Our party and what a party it is.

[00:51:11]This the party which has been described as the party of war and the party of peace. We acknowledge this to be true.

[00:51:19]For when the safety of this nation and the honor of our people calls for military action, we have been prepared to take such action and we are prepared to take it today. We are also the party of peace.

[00:51:32]We are called upon as a party in power to make a commitment to the future to act in hope and to act in trust that a better world may be established.

[00:51:42]We have not hesitated and we have not delayed in expressing that trust and in working to establish the basis for peace itself.

[00:51:52]We are the party of poverty when poverty calls for action and it calls for action today in the midst of plenty.

[00:52:01]We are also, as you know, the party of plenty and the party of progress. We are the party of promises, but we are also the party of fulfillment in the achievement of these last 16 to 20 years in America.

[00:52:18]These two men have contributed greatly.

[00:52:22]We, the Democratic Party, are the party of history. We accept the tradition of America. We accept the history of the east, of the old and the new. We accept the history and the traditions of the south, of the old and of the new and of the changing south. And we accept the north and we accept the west. We accept all of this America as our America. and beyond that are willing to accept responsibility in every part of the world in which we have some power to influence peoples for good or to help them achieve the good in the full life.

[00:53:00]Now what the Republicans set against us in 1964 as their spokesman and their leaders two prophets of despair.

[00:53:13]They have the greatest nosayer in the history of this country.

[00:53:17]The man who has uttered the ultimate refusals in the three great tests to which the Congress of this United States has been placed in the last four years.

[00:53:28]He has stood outside the conference room of discussion and outside the conference room of decision, shouting objections from the corridors of time but refusing to come in and to take responsibility for decision, the testban treaty in which we acknowledge with trust in providence the powers which men had developed could be brought under some kind of moral control. But in this test he said no. He stood aside from this responsibility.

[00:54:02]The test of civil rights in which we were called upon to affirm our belief in the universality of human dignity and of human rights. Again this man who leads and who speaks for the Republican party excused himself. He stepped out of the scene. He would not accept responsibility. And finally, in the great effort to eliminate poverty and to make the economy of this country produce so as to meet the needs of our people and to make it possible for us to meet the needs and the obligations which we carry around the world. Again, his was a voice and his was a vote of no confidence. At a time when we were giving direct answer to every criticism which the Marxists have directed at our economy, proving that we could proceed without depression, proving that we could proceed without exploitation, proving that we could proceed without the class struggle and meet all of the needs of our people and meet our obligations of justice round the world.

[00:55:04]This man who now speaks for the Republican party, who now leads the Republican party, he did choose again to stand aside in a world of his own, a world in which the calendar has no years, in which the clock has no hands, in which his glasses have no lenses. And in that strange world, in that strange world in which he lives, the very pale horse of death and of famine looks just the same as the white horse of conquest and victory.

[00:55:44]I call upon you here tonight, Democrats all.

[00:55:48]This is a time to affirm America. This is a time for all of us to enter into the fabric of our own times and to accept the challenge of the history of the 20th century to declare our belief that reason and the power of reason can give some direction to human life and with the help of providence some direction to the movement of history itself. And so I call upon you here tonight to dedicate yourselves to the efforts of our party, to dedicate yourselves again in support of Lyndon Johnson and president, and to accept my good colleague, the friend of the president and my friend Hilbert Humphrey for vice president.

[00:56:48]Huh? Oh, yeah.

[00:57:05]Fellow delegates, the chair now recognizes a distinguished great American, a man who has had more to do with the great record this Congress will enact when it closes, the distinguished majority leader of the United States Senate, Mike Mansfield, Senator Magnus, Mr. President, my fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, the hour is getting late. The time for decision is near at hand. and the suspense is over.

[00:58:00]I am delighted to stand before you tonight in behalf of a man whom I know quite well. A man born in a small town in South Dakota, educated in that state, in Minnesota and in Louisiana.

[00:58:16]A man from Mid America who knows this country east, west, north, and south and understands it. A man who is well-versed in the field of foreign affairs. A man who is a born leader of men. I am delighted, happy, and proud to second the nomination of Hubert Humphrey for the Vice President of the United States.

[00:58:39]Thank you.

[00:58:58]For the purpose of making an introduction, the chair requests the distinguished governor from Illinois, Otto Kerner, to assume the chair.

[00:59:11]Governor Kerner.

[00:59:17]Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased and honored to introduce for a seconding speech the Honorable George Smatters, Senator from the state of Florida.

[00:59:32]Thank you. Thank you.

[00:59:36]Thank you, Chairman Turner.

[00:59:40]My fellow Americans, eight years ago at the Democratic convention and shortly before the nomination for vice president, I was called by my late beloved friend and our late great President John F.

[00:59:56]Kennedy and asked by him to place a nomination his name for vice president.

[01:00:02]I considered that to be a great honor.