PRESIDENT Clinton drew inspiration from the murdered civil rights leader, Martin Luther King to urge Americans to realise his dream of a country which treats all its citizens as equal. He made his appeal on a day which celebrated both his inauguration for a second and last term and the memory of the slain black leader.
The President painted an idyllic picture of a United States of America where "our streets will echo again with the laughter of our children because no one will try to shoot them or sell them drugs any more. There will be new miracles of medicine and our children will sleep free from the threat of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons".
In a visionary style inaugural address, the President appealed to the Republican controlled Congress to join him in his pledge "to live our true creed".
Reminding the members of Congress that the people had returned to office a president of one party and a Congress of another, Mr Clinton said that "surely they did not do this to advance the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship".
He promised to adopt the Republican philosophy of less interference from Washington. "Today we can declare government is not the problem and government is not the solution. We the American people, we are the solution."
This was an echo back to the insistence by President Reagan on taking office that government was "the problem". It was a deliberate attempt by the re elected Democratic president to end that divisive debate. Whether he will succeed or not remains to be seen.
Mr Clinton proclaimed that "the voice of the people will always speak louder than the din of narrow interest" but the past weeks have been dominated by the din of the controversy between the two parties over the future of the Republican Speaker Mr Newt Gingrich, following his admission of ethics violations.
Sounding at times like a southern preacher, President Clinton urged his listeners to "lift our eyes towards the challenges that await us in the next century". And "guided by the ancient vision of a promised land, let us set our sights upon a land of New Promise".
The unifying words and phrases were a contrast with Mr Clinton's inaugural speech of four years ago when he demanded "dramatic change" and promised to use the power of government to make a better United States.
Yesterday, he promised a government for a new century that is "smaller, lives within its means and does more with less".
Unity and racial harmony was another strong theme in his 20 minute address. The "divide of race has been America's constant curse. Each new wave of immigrants gives new targets to old prejudices. Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretence of religious or political conviction, are no different."
Using the strongest language of his address, the President said that these prejudices "have nearly destroyed us in the past. They plague us still. They fuel the fanaticism of terror and torment the lives of millions in fractured nations around the world."
"We cannot - we will not - succumb to the dark impulses that lurk in the far regions of the soul everywhere. We shall overcome them, and we shall replace them with the generous spirit of a people who feel at home with one another," he promised.
Foreign policy was barely mentioned. In a brief reference to the rest of the world he said: "The world is no longer divided into two hostile camps. Instead now we are building bonds with nations that once were our adversaries. Growing connections of commerce and culture give us a chance to lift the fortunes and spirits of people the world over."
Education was another strong theme: "Our schools will have the highest standards in the world, igniting the spark of possibility in the eyes of every girl and every boy. And the doors of higher education will be open to all."
Mr Clinton reviewed the achievements of the US since its foundation at the end of the 18th century. But the century that was now ending was to he marvelled at. "America became the world's mightiest industrial power; saved the world from tyranny in two World Wars and a long cold war; and time and again, reached across the globe to millions who longed for the blessings of liberty.
"Along the way, Americans produced the great middle class and security in old age; built unrivalled centres of learning and opened public schools to all; split the atom and explored the heavens; invented the computer and the microchip; and deepened the wellspring of justice by making a revolution in civil rights for African Americans and all minorities, and extending the circle of citizenship, opportunity, and dignity to women.
The much abused "bridge" metaphor was absent from the speech until the closing passage when the President concluded: "Yes, let us build our bridge, a bridge wide enough and strong enough for every American to cross over to a blessed land of new promise."
That was the preacher speaking rather than a President who will soon be plunged into budgetary battles with a hostile Congress and who still faces investigations into Whitewater and campaign abuses. But on the day that was in it, he was entitled to speak of visions.