John F. Kennedy’s handwritten draft, January 17, 1961, first page

Kennedy and Sorensen again worked on the speech together on January 17, flying from Palm Beach to Washington, DC. During that same flight, Kennedy invited Time magazine reporter Hugh Sidey to read a few pages of the draft that Kennedy had just hastily scrawled in his notoriously bad handwriting.  When asked his opinion, Sidey said, “Gosh, Senator Kennedy, I just can’t read it.”

Transcript of page:

January 17, 1961

An inaugural is an end

as well as a beginning. Today I am

linked with the 34 others forever

and three of which are with us here

are with us today.

men who stood in

this same place took the same

oath, made the same commitment

to the preservation of the American constitution and

its promise

that I have made today.

We are a young people, but

an old Republic.  But though we

are old – at least as the life

of political systems are measured,

we must not forget that we

We are descended

from revolutionaries. I stand in succession . . .