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It is January 9, 1961.

President-elect Kennedy has returned to his native Massachusetts to speak to the state legislature.

In eleven days, he will be inaugurated as America’s 35th president.

VP Johnson, Mrs. Kennedy and the new president at the inaugural ball, January 20, 1961.

He begins by describing the singular role Massachusetts played in America’s founding.

”Its leaders have shaped our destiny long before the great republic was born,” he says, “and its principles have guided our footsteps in times of crisis as well as in times of calm.”

Kennedy meets with a group of Peace Corps volunteers. He created the program on March 1, 1961.

Kennedy then tells the legislators these principles are guiding him in assembling the new administration:

“I have been guided by the standard John Winthrop [a founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony] set before his shipmates [330 years ago] as they, too, faced the task of building a new government on a perilous frontier.

Castro, with glasses, sits in a tank in the opening hours of the Bay of Pigs operation, April 17, 1961.

’We must always consider,’ Winthrop said, ‘that we shall be as a city upon a hill--the eyes of all people are upon us.’”

‘And the eyes of the world are on us now,’ Kennedy says.

President and Mrs. Kennedy along with VP Johnson watch astronaut Alan Shepard become the first American in space, May 5, 1961.

“So, our governments, in every branch, at every level, national, state and local, must be as a city upon a hill--constructed and inhabited by men aware of their great trust and their great responsibilities.

And when at some future date the high court of history sits in judgment on each one of us, our success or failure, in whatever office we may hold, will be measured by the answers to four questions:

A white mob beats Freedom Riders in Birmingham, Alabama. May 14, 1961.

First, were we truly men of courage--with the courage to stand up to one's enemies--and the courage to stand up, when necessary, to one's associates--the courage to resist public pressure, as well as private greed?

East German workers construct the Berlin Wall, August 1961.

Secondly, were we truly men of judgment--with perceptive judgment of the future as well as the past--of our own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others--with enough wisdom to know that we did not know, and enough candor to admit it?

Stand-off between the US and the USSR at Berlin’s Checkpoint Charlie, October 1961. US tanks in the foreground; Soviet tanks in the background.

Third, were we truly men of integrity--men who never ran out on either the principles in which they believed or the people who believed in them--men whom neither financial gain nor political ambition could ever divert from the fulfillment of our sacred trust?

Magazine depiction of a family fallout shelter, 1961.

Finally, were we truly men of dedication--with an honor mortgaged to no single individual or group, and compromised by no private obligation or aim, but devoted solely to serving the public good and the national interest.”

“For of those to whom much is given, much is required,” Kennedy says.

Kennedy speaks with West Virginia coal miners, 1960.

And he closes with a promise:

“Courage--judgment--integrity--dedication--these are the historic qualities which will characterize our government's conduct in the years that lie ahead.”

Americans — each and every one of them — deserve nothing less.

I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda

Kennedy’s speech has been edited for brevity. You can find the entire speech here.