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15. Edward M. Kennedy: "Chappaquiddick"

My fellow citizens:

I have requested this opportunity to talk to the people of Massachusetts
about the tragedy which happened last Friday evening. This morning I
entered a plea of guilty to the charge of leaving the scene of an
accident. Prior to my appearance in court it would have been improper for
me to comment on these matters. But tonight I am free to tell you what
happened and to say what it means to me.

On the weekend of July 18, I was on Martha's Vineyard Island participating
with my nephew, Joe Kennedy -- as for thirty years my family has
participated -- in the annual Edgartown Sailing Regatta. Only reasons of
health prevented my wife from accompanying me.

On Chappaquiddick Island, off Martha's Vineyard, I attended, on Friday
evening, July 18, a cook-out, I had encouraged and helped sponsor for
devoted group of Kennedy campaign secretaries. When I left the party,
around 11:15 P.M., I was accompanied by one of these girls, Miss Mary Jo
Kopechne. Mary J was one of the most devoted members of the staff of
Senator Robert Kennedy. She worked for him for four years and was broken
up over his death. For this reason, and because she was such a gentle,
kind, and idealistic person, all of us tried to help her feel that she
still had a home with the Kennedy family.

Mary Jo Kopechne

There is not truth, not truth whatever, to the widely circulated
suspicions of immoral conduct that have been leveled at my behavior and
hers regarding that evening. There has never been a private relationship
between us of any kind. I know of nothing in Mary Jo's conduct on that or
nay other occasion -- the same is true of the other girls at that party --
that would lend any substance to such ugly speculation about their
character.

Nor was I driving under the influence of liquor.
Little over one mile away, the car that I was driving on the unlit road
went of a narrow bridge which had no guard rails and was built on a left
angle to the road. The car overturned in a deep pond and immediately
filled with water. I remember thinking as the cold water rushed in around
my head that I was for certain drowning. Then water entered my lungs and I
actual felt the sensation of drowning. But somehow I struggled to the
surface alive.

I made immediate and repeated efforts to save Mary Jo be diving into
strong and murky current, but succeeded only in increasing my state of
utter exhaustion and alarm. My conduct and conversations during the next
several hours, to the extent that I can remember them, make no sense to me
at all.

Although my doctors informed me that I suffered a cerebral concussion, as
well as shock, I do not seek to escape responsibility for my actions by
placing the blame either in the physical, emotional trauma brought on by
the accident, or on anyone else. I regard as indefensible the fact that I
did not report the accident to the policy immediately.

Instead of looking directly for a telephone after lying exhausted in the
grass for an undetermined time, I walked back to the cottage where the
party was being held and requested the help of two friends, my cousin,
Joseph Gargan and Phil Markham, and directed them to return immediately to
the scene with me -- this was sometime after midnight -- in order to
undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne. Their
strenuous efforts, undertaken at some risk to their own lives also proved
futile.

All kinds of scrambled thoughts -- all of them confused, some of them
irrational, many of them which I cannot recall, and some of which I would
not have seriously entertained under normal circumstances -- went through
my mind during this period. They were reflected in the various
inexplicable, inconsistent, and inconclusive things I said and did,
including such questions as whether the girl might still be alive
somewhere out of that immediate area, whether some awful curse did
actually hang over all the Kennedys, whether there was some justifiable
reason for me to doubt what has happened and to delay my report, whether
somehow the awful weight of this incredible incident might, in some way,
pass from my shoulders. I was overcome, I'm frank to say, by a jumble of
emotions, grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock.
Instructing Gargan and Markham not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night,
I had them take me to the ferry crossing. The ferry having shut down for
the night, I suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across,
nearly drowning once again in the effort, and returned to my hotel about 2
A.M. and collapsed in my room.

I remember going out at one point and saying something to the room clerk.
In the morning, with my mind somewhat more lucid, I made an effort to call
a family legal advisor, Burke Marshall, from a public telephone on the
Chappaquiddick side of the ferry and belatedly reported the accident to
the Martha's Vineyard police.

Today, as I mentioned, I felt morally obligated to plead guilty to the
charge of leaving the scene of an accident. No words on my part can
possibly express the terrible pain and suffering I feel over this tragic
incident. This last week has been an agonizing one for me and for the
members of my family, and the grief we feel over the loss of a wonderful
friend will remain with us the rest of our lives.

These events, the publicity, innuendo, and whispers which have surrounded
them and my admission of guilt this morning raises the question in my mind
of whether my standing among the people of my state has been so impaired
that I should resign my seat in the United States Senate. If at any time
the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator's
character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not in
my opinion adequately perform his duty and should not continue in office.
The people of this State, the State which sent John Quincy Adams, and
Daniel Webster, and Charles Sumner, and Henry Cabot Lodge, and John
Kennedy to the United States Senate are entitled to representation in that
body by men who inspire their utmost confidence. For this reason, I would
understand full well why some might think it right for me to resign. For
me this will be a difficult decision to make.

It has been seven years since my first election to the Senate. You and I
share many memories -- some of them have been glorious, some have been
very sad. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has
made my life worthwhile.
And so I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this
through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion.
In making it, I seek your prayers -- for this is a decision that I will
have finally to make on my own.

It has been written a man does what he must in spite of personal
consequences, in spite of obstacles, and dangers, and pressures, and that
is the basis of human morality. Whatever may be the sacrifices he faces,
if he follows his conscience -- the loss of his friends, his fortune, his
contentment, even the esteem of his fellow man -- each man must decide for
himself the course he will follow. The stories of the past courage cannot
supply courage itself. For this, each man must look into his own soul.
I pray that I can have the courage to make the right decision. Whatever is
decided and whatever the future holds for me, I hope that I shall have
been able to put this most recent tragedy behind me and make some further
contribution to our state and mankind, whether it be in public or private
life.

Thank you and good night.

　