July 16, 1964 - Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona accepted the Republican Presidential nomination in San Francisco tonight with a call to his party “to free our people and light the way for liberty throughout the world.”
Communism, he said, must be made to “give way to the forces of freedom.”
“The sanctity of private property,” he said, “is the only durable foundation for constitutional government in a free society.”
“Extremism in the defense of liberty,” Senator Goldwater declared, “is no vice — moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
The Senator, nominated on the first ballot at last night’s session of the 28th Republican National Convention, received a thunderous ovation when he appeared in the Cow Palace tonight for the closing session.
As he spoke, dedicating his campaign to what he called “the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man,” he was constantly interrupted by the enthusiasm of the delegates, who had never given serious thought to choosing anyone else.
Earlier tonight, the delegates nominated Goldwater’s choice for the Vice-Presidential nomination, Representative William E. Miller of New York, without a dissenting vote.
The nomination of 50-year-old Miller was almost routine business, as the great hall waited in suspense for the appearance of its hero.
Goldwater, mild-mannered, bespectacled, speaking usually in a quiet voice and with almost no gestures, did not disappoint his listeners — the conservatives who at this convention wrested the Republican party from its quarter-century of control by moderate forces.
He laid down a strong line of active resistance to Communism abroad and what he pictured as state planning at home.
Goldwater offered no quarter to the moderate Republican forces that fought him throughout his campaign for the nomination and who succumbed reluctantly to the power of his delegates in San Francisco. Some moderate delegates were reported to be angered at the militant tone of the speech and the absence of an olive branch to them.
Goldwater made no direct mention of the civil rights issue that at times divide the convention. Instead, he laid heavy emphasis on the sanctity of property and on the necessity for maintaining law and order.
He gave this picture of what Republicanism offered:
“We do not seek to live anyone’s life for him. We seek only to secure his rights and guarantee him opportunity to strive, with Government performing only those needed and constitutionally sanctioned tasks which cannot otherwise be performed.
“We seek a government that attends to its inherent responsibilities of maintaining a stable monetary and fiscal climate, encouraging a free and competitive economy, and enforcing law and order.”
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