This is the script of the second version of the show, which ran from 1993 to 2001. Bill Clinton was added and given a speaking part, voiced by Clinton himself. Maya Angelou was the narrator, and Pete Renoudet was Abraham Lincoln.

Narrator: We. We the people.

Group: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Narrator: With these words from the Declaration of Independence, we defined ourselves as a nation. These few words embody the American dream. Without that dream, we would not be Americans.

Narrator: In 1787, after a bitter and bloody war against British rule, the thirteen American states which had united to win independence sent representatives to a Constitutional Convention. Charged with creating a document that would implement the principles of democracy for which they had fought so long and risked so much.

Chairman: Gentlemen, many issues have been resolved here and some have been set aside. Yet can we not agree that these constitutional liberties must extend to those Americans purchased and raised as slaves?

Speaker: I assure you, Mr. Chairman, if this convention fails to insert some security to the southern states against an emancipation of slaves, we can never receive the plan.

George Washington: My good countrymen, the warmest friends this Constitution has do not contend that it is free from imperfections. But there is a constitutional door open for change. I think the people can decide on the alterations and ammendments which time may prove necessary.

Benjamin Franklin: General Washington, Sir.

George Washington: Mr. Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin: Fellow delegates, I cannot help expressing a wish that every member of this convention who may still have objections to it, would with me doubt a little of his own infallability, and put his name to this instrument.

Narrator: And, so it was that we the people, in an age ruled by monarchs and tyrants, established a government bound by the wishes and desires of the governed. That first generation of citizens soon chose George Washington as America's first president. We were going to be a land of opportunity in which the spirit of freedom would grow and expand with the American frontier. Yet planted in our path every step of the way were the seeds of unresolved conflict.

Speaker: The Federal Government's Tarriff is hereby declared null, void, and no law in the State of South Carolina.

Various Crowd Members: Hear, hear. We must protect our rights to slaves. You're darn right!

Speaker: If we do not stop such intrusion, federal laws will one day extend to all trade in the south.

Various Crowd Members: We'd sooner die! Keep out the Yankees!

Narrator: But Americans have always had a gift for summoning leaders equal to the deadliest crises. And one of them was President Andrew Jackson. Brilliant, rough hewn, courageous.

Andrew Jackson: There's nothing that I shudder at more than the idea of separation of this Union. I tell you, if a single drop of blood be shed in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find.

Narrator: In the end, though, the conflict would not be averted by words, by threats, by compromise, or by laws, though many good men and women struggled to settle it in those ways. One of them was a humble, plain spoken citizen, a self-taught lawyer named Abraham Lincoln.

Stephen Douglas: I tell you that this doctrine of Lincoln's declaring that all men are made equal by the Declaration of Independence and by Divine providence is a monstrous heresy.

Spectators: He's a Know-Nothing! You tell 'em!

Abraham Lincoln: My fellow citizens, I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. A house divided against itself cannot stand.

Spectator: Ha! That's what you think, you long drink of water!

Abraham Lincoln: Yes, my friend, that's what I think. If you have listened to suggestions to believe that all men are not created equal, let me entreat you to come back. If the Declaration of Independence is not the truth, let us get the statute book in which we find it and tear it out. Who is so bold to do it?

Spectators: No one! I won't! Not I!

Abraham Lincoln: If it is not true, let us tear it out!

Spectators: Never!

Abraham Lincoln: Let us stick to it then. Let us stand firmly by it.

Narrator: Abraham Lincoln lost that election of 1858, but in losing, he won. For the people did not forget this impassioned man from the prairie, who could not bring himself to violate the essential justice of the American dream. Two years later they sent him to the White House. By then, the time for reasonable words had passed.

Abraham Lincoln: I know there is a God, and that he hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming. I know his hand is in it.

Narrator: We Americans had given Lincoln the hardest task any American president would ever face.

Abraham Lincoln: When our nation was formed, we had slaves among us. Yet that does not destroy the principle that is the charter of our liberties. Now is the time for decision, for firm, persistent, resolute action. I shall act as I deem best calculated to make America a union of hearts and hands, as well as states. I wish to do justice to all.

Narrator: So the blood of Americans was shed in a great Civil War. And when it was over, the nation had been preserved, and the institution of slavery was gone forever. But the prejudice and injustices it left in its wake would test every generation of Americans down to our own. Still, the dream endured. As the frontiers of America pushed on to the Pacific Ocean and beyond, as waves of immigrants swelled our population, new voices would rise to insist again and again that "We the People" must mean all the people. Freedom is a land without boundaries. The work of America will never be done. Each new generation will be asked to discover the part it must play. And each new generation will leave unfinished tasks for the generations that follow, as long as the dream endures.

Narrator: In this Hall of Presidents, we look upon a mirror of ourselves, the leaders we have chosen to safeguard our rights and our ideals, to imagine the future, and to embrace its challenges. Ladies and gentlemen, the Presidents of the United States.

Narrator: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and the current President of the United States, Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton: My fellow citizens, we are the heirs of the great American Revolution. As this millennium draws to a close and the 21st century approaches, let us pause to honor the very idea of America. America mirrors the world's diversity, yet it remains united in its struggle to uphold fundamental freedoms. We believe our nation's happiness still evolves from liberty, from opportunity, and from the vision of equality set forth by our country's Declaration of Independence. And today our nation stands as a symbol of freedom and inspiration to people all around the world. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. And there is nothing wrong with the world that cannot be cured by the ideals that America represents. Those principles have no borders. And we look forward to a day when those principles extended beyond our borders will have circled the globe. The quest for democracy must continue until all the people of the world enjoy the freedom we must always fight to preserve. The sprit of America is as bright and hopeful today as it was in July of 1776. And we are ready to carry our great national experiment forward into the next millennium.

Narrator: If the experience of these extraordinary men adds up to any one thing, it is this: To be true to the American dream, one must have the wisdom to remember and the courage to change. In honoring these men, protectors of our heritage, servants of our dream, guides to the future we face together, we honor the enduring meaning of America. We. We the People hear in their voices the voice of our own hearts. President Abraham Lincoln:

Abraham Lincoln: My fellow countrymen, I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy so long together. It was that all should have an equal chance, that all are created equal. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Most governments have been based on the denial of rights. Ours began by affirming our rights. Let us turn this government into the channel in which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose upon another creature. True democracy makes no inquiry about the color of the skin, or place of birth, or any other circumstance or condition. We propose to give all a chance. We expect the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant wiser, and all better and happier together. Let it be as nearly reached as we can. For the struggle of today is not altogether for today. It is for the vast future also. So may our children, and our children's children for a thousand generations rejoice under those glorious institutions bequeathed us by Washington and continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us by a united country.

Chorus:

Glory, glory, hallelujah.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
Glory, glory, hallelujah.
His truth is marching on.
Amen, Amen.