Remarks at the Memorial Services for Hubert H. Humphrey at the Capitol

At critical times in our history, the United States has been blessed by great people who, just by being themselves, give us a vision of what we are at our best and of what we might become. Hubert Humphrey was such a man.

In a time of impending social crisis, 30 years ago, his was the first voice I ever heard, a lone voice, persistently demanding basic human rights for all Americans. It was the most difficult moral and social issue that my own generation would have to face. In those early days, his was a clear voice, a strong voice, a passionate voice which recruited others to join in a battle in our own country so that equal rights of black people could be gained to vote, to hold a job, to go to school, to own a home.

I first met Hubert Humphrey when he was Vice President—torn because his heart was filled with love and a yearning for peace, while at the same time he was meticulously loyal to a President who led our Nation during an unpopular war.

I also remember him in a time of political defeat, courageously leading a divided Democratic Party, losing his uphill campaign for President by just a few votes. But he was a big man, and without bitterness he gave his support to the new President, and then came back later to the Senate to serve his Nation once again.

For the last year of his life I knew him best, and that's when I needed him most. Despite campaign disagreements and my own harsh words spoken under pressure and in haste, it was not his nature to forget how to love or to forgive.

He has given me freely what I need-the support and understanding of a close and true friend, the advice of a wise and honest counselor.

When he first visited me in the Oval Office, I felt that he should have served there. I know that he's been an inspiration and a conscience to us all, but especially to the leaders of our Nation—to Harry Truman, to Dwight Eisenhower, to John Kennedy, to Lyndon Johnson, to Richard Nixon, to Gerald Ford, and to me. We and our families are here today to testify that Hubert Humphrey may well have blessed our country more than any of us.

His greatest personal attribute was that he really knew how to love. There was nothing abstract or remote about it. He did not love humanity only in the mass. You could feel it in the scope of his concern, in his words, in the clasp of his hands, in the genuine, eager interest in his eyes as he looked at you.

He always spoke up for the weak and the hungry and for the victims of discrimination and poverty. He never lost sight of our own human possibilities. He never let us forget that in our democratic Nation we are a family, bound together by a kinship of purpose and by mutual concern and respect. He reminded us that we must always protect and nurture the other members of our national family.

Yesterday, as messages poured in to me as President and to the members of the Humphrey family from throughout the world, I realized vividly that Hubert Humphrey was the most beloved of all Americans, and that his family encompassed not just the people of the United States but of all people everywhere.

He asked, as the Vice President has said, that this service be a celebration, and in a way that's what it is. Even as we mourn his death, we celebrate because such a man as Hubert Humphrey was among us. The joy of his memory will last far longer than the pain and sorrow of his leaving.