On the evening of July 4, 1986, President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech that few Americans remember, but none who heard it could forget. Standing on the deck of the USS John F. Kennedy in New York Harbor at the base of the Statue of Liberty, he marked the monument’s 100th anniversary with words that cut deeper than any headline from the day. As fireworks lit the harbor, Reagan spoke about the promises etched into the American identity: freedom, resilience, and the sacred duty of each generation to defend them.
The address came during Liberty Weekend, a nationally broadcast celebration of the statue’s restoration. But unlike the pageantry that preceded it, Reagan’s remarks were quiet, serious, and deeply personal. He spoke of immigrants who passed through Ellis Island, of men and women who left everything behind to begin again, and of the hope that made it all possible. His voice carried the weight of history but never lost sight of the individual stories that shaped it.