# Gerald Ford — "a government of laws and not of men" > [!quote] "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule." > — Gerald Ford, Remarks on Taking the Oath of Office as President, August 9, 1974 ## Context Ford spoke these words minutes after being sworn in, hours after [[Richard Nixon]] resigned rather than face near-certain impeachment and removal over Watergate — the gravest rule-of-law crisis of the modern presidency. Ford's task was to reassure a shaken country that the system had held: a president who placed himself above the law had been forced out, lawfully, without a coup or a constitutional rupture. ## Why this matters The phrase from [[John Adams]] returns at the precise moment it was most needed — as the verdict on a presidency that tried to obstruct justice and treat the office as a shield from accountability. Ford's line is the system's self-vindication: Watergate proved that "no man is above the law" was not a slogan but a working mechanism. It is the modern hinge of the whole tradition — and the standard against which any later claim that a president cannot be investigated or prosecuted must be measured. ## Verification - **Primary source:** [Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Remarks on Taking the Oath of Office, August 9, 1974 (PDF)](https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/sites/default/files/pdf_documents/library/document/0122/1252055.pdf); transcript via [CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gerald-fords-inaugural-remarks-august-9-1974/). - **Status:** Verbatim from the official text. Undisputed. (Speech drafted by counselor Robert Hartmann.) ## Related quotes - [[John Adams - a government of laws and not of men]] — the founding phrase Ford invokes. - [[Theodore Roosevelt - no man is above the law]] — the principle Watergate tested and confirmed. - [[George Washington - compliance with its laws]] — the peaceful-transfer precedent that held. - Featured in [[Presidents on the Rule of Law]].