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Four years ago I stood before the Grand Old Party's convention and I put into nomination the name of our candidate for the nation's highest office. ... When I stood before you then, America was a shaken nation - humbled at home, humiliated abroad. In four short years, President Reagan has helped rebuild the confidence of the American people - confidence in themselves, their country, and, yes, confidence in our president....

I can't think of a better symbol of America's great New Beginning, our national renewal, than that awful moment in that first year of this man's presidency. The date was March 30, 1981, when our new President, who had made us all believe in ourselves again, was victim of an assassin's attack. ... He made jokes about it: ''Please fellas,'' he said to his doctors on the way to surgery to save his life, ''please tell me you're all Republicans.''

... We're all Republicans, Mr. President, but we're Democrats, too, and independents, one and all. First and foremost, we are all Americans. Man, woman, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, farmer, pensioner. We are indivisible in our resolve to protect and preserve this most just, most prosperous, and free society on this sweet promised land.