 Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, and Mrs. Reagan, accompanied by Senator and Mrs. Paul Laxall. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Paul Wyrick, the National Chairman of the Free Congress Political Action Committee and Committee for Effective State Government, sponsors of tonight's event. It is my pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to this wonderful occasion and to introduce our Master of Ceremonies, Senator Bill Armstrong of Colorado. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Paul, and thank you, friends. Paul, over the years, you've done so much for the conservative movement that it is beyond our recounting. And tonight, we are all especially grateful to you for inviting us to this Laxall family reunion. Thank you for inviting us to come. Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me a great deal of pleasure now to ask Father Gomar DePau, the President of the Catholic Traditionalist Movement, to come to the microphone for the invocation. Father, the head table. On my right, you have already met Dr. DePau, next to him, the most talented and dynamic women in America today, Michelle Laxall. On Michelle's left is the Chairman of the Republican Break, who is accompanied tonight by Paul Wyrick, Joyce and Paul. And we are so honored tonight to have the First Lady with us. Thank you very much for coming, Mrs. Reagan. And on my immediate right, the wife of our guest of honor, Carol Laxall. Carol. A distinguished astronaut and Senator, Jake Garn and Kathleen, Senator and Mrs. Garn. My distinguished colleague from Wyoming, Malcolm Wallop and French Wallop. So truly and surely, and with such great faithfulness and persistence embodies everything that is good and great about America. It is a great privilege for me tonight to introduce the President of the United States, Mr. President. Thank you very much. Thank you, Senator Armstrong. Thank you all, ladies and gentlemen. It's wonderful to be here tonight and to celebrate with you the long-standing friendship that Nancy and I have had with Paul and Carol. As most of you know, Paul and I were elected governors of our respective states at about the same time. So you can see we started even. I had California and one of the biggest economies in the nation. Paul had Nevada and Howard Hughes. You know, even in those early days, I knew that Paul and I would be close. We had a lot in common, like Tahoe, for example. There were those who said a straight shooter like Paul could never make it in Washington. But sure enough, Paul disposed of problems here just as easily as he disposed of them in Nevada. Because he had the best possible training for Washington. He was a rancher and a herder, and they have exactly the same sort of disposal problems in that business that we have in politics. But while we're all familiar with Paul's accomplishments here in Washington, I don't think we should overlook what he achieved in Nevada. You know, there's an old mining town there called Virginia City that proudly boasts that it has six churches and 110 saloons. Paul changed all that. When he was finished, Virginia City had six churches, 110 saloons, and one Republican club. Paul, Senator, I hope you'll forgive me for having a little fun here tonight. The truth is, ladies and gentlemen, this isn't the easiest set of remarks that I've ever been asked to give. And that comes from someone who's had to give a fair number of speeches. Come to think of it, Paul, you probably had to sit through more of them than either one of us wants to admit. And I know that finding the right word or expression can oftentimes mean the difference between hurting or helping, between doing this job well or not so well. But sometimes the words just aren't there. The task is really impossible. I guess that was what Lincoln felt at Gettysburg. He knew there are occasions when words must be brief because the feelings are so deep. And this evening is one such occasion. In the first place, I'm not sure I know what I could say to add to the understanding of Paul Laxalt by those of you who know and love him so well. In Paul Weirich's article in the current issue of the conservative digest, the title fittingly enough is, The Character of Paul Laxalt. There's a story about the time that Barry Goldwater was scheduled to campaign in Nevada in 1964. Everyone told Paul, or not everyone, but there were that certain group of people that told Paul he could probably win his race for the Senate, but only if he didn't identify himself too closely with the senator. Paul's reply, Listen, Barry Goldwater is my friend. If I snubbed him now, I could never look him in the face again. I would rather lose. And Paul did lose by 84 votes. But that kind of courage and sense of values would later make him part of the nation's history. One of the guiding stars for a political revolution that has shaken America and the world. All of you know too the story of Paul's family. Perhaps some of you have seen the book written about his father by one of his brothers, Sweet Promised Land. There's a wonderful picture of the elder Laxalt on the cover. He's looking out across the Sierra Nevada. Seeing him in a moment's pause on some high ridge, Robert Laxalt wrote, With the wind tearing at his wild thickness of iron gray hair and flattening his clothes to his lean frame, you could understand why this was what he was meant to be. Seeing Paul as I have, calm in crisis, resolute in duty, warm in friendship, I also knew why this was what he was meant to be. That he too had a destiny, a destiny to be a great leader of our nation and one of the foremost Americans of our time or of any time. I remember back in 76, Paul was a minority of one among the Republican governors and he gave the first of his three speeches nominating me for president. Come to think of it, Senator, I've had to sit through a few of your speeches too. Anyway, recently he gathered those speeches in a little book. After his last one in 1984, Paul notes, Back at the hotel that same evening, a man with tears in his eyes shook my hand and said simply, Great speech, Paul. The road to this had been a long one. He sat by reverses and heartbreaks and finally crowned with victory. My friend's words made all the travails worthwhile, he said. And then he adds, in that little book, the man shaking my hand was President Ronald Reagan. Well you bet it was and again tonight those tears aren't very far away. The friend who understands you creates you, a wise man once said. Paul created because he always understood and for that I am and shall always be grateful. But I'm humbled too knowing that so often he chose to give of himself for Nancy, for me, and always for America, his sweet promised land. So yes, I owe a great deal to Paul Laxalt. But how really does that make me any different from everyone else in this room? And every other man, woman and child who enjoys the blessing of freedom in this wonderful country tonight. There's another story Paul tells in his little book. Now like anyone, he was nervous appearing in 1984 before the packed arena and a huge nationwide television audience. But he says, that feeling quickly disappeared when I looked down from the podium and saw the Nevada state flag with the words, battle-born inscribed upon it. Well that's his story, his state story, but our story too, and especially our centuries story. At the time has been more tranquil. Many of us would have preferred some other career perhaps, or at least a little more leisure time. I know Paul would have made a lot more trips to a place called Marletta in the Sierra Nevada. But history did hit us with a freight train, and we were battle-born. The events of our century, world wars and totalitarian governments, so momentous, so rife with human suffering, so gravely threatened our shining city on a hill, our sweet promised land, so we could not shirk nor deny the duty that we saw before us. And tonight, we thank God that we saw our duty and did it, and that our efforts have been rewarded with not just a glimmer, but a glow of light as this dark century comes to its close. And to the scholars who someday will seek the origin of that sudden brilliance, that sudden outburst of freedom's light in the closing decades of the 20th century, one we pray God will continue to grow brighter. I say to them, look to the sun of the high mountains and the peasant herders, the son of the Sierra and the immigrant Basque family. Look to a man, to a friend, to an American who gave of himself so that others might live in freedom, so that his country and his father's country might always be a light unto the nations. A shining city on a hill and that sweet promised land. Paul Axalt is more than deserving of the honor we do him tonight. We bring honor on ourselves for recognizing that fact. He is truly a man for all seasons. And he's our friend, our good friend. God bless him.