Following are excerpts from the speech today in Nashua, N.H., by Senator John McCain of Arizona declaring his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination, as recorded by the Federal News Service, a private transcription agency:

I do not announce my candidacy to satisfy my personal ambitions. My life has already been blessed more than I deserve. I don't begin this mission with any sense of entitlement. America doesn't owe me anything. I am the son and grandson of Navy admirals, and I was born into America's service. It wasn't until I was deprived of her company that I fell in love with America. And it has been my honor to serve her and her great cause -- freedom. I have never lived a day since that I wasn't more than thankful for the privilege.

It is because I owe America more than she has ever owed me that I am a candidate for President of the United States.

I run for President of the United States because I want to return our Government back to whom it belongs -- the people -- so that, so that Americans can believe once again that public service is a summons to duty and not a lifetime of privilege. I run because I believe deeply in the greatness of America's destiny and in the goodness of our cause. We are a lantern of freedom and opportunity to the world, the bright beacon of hope that our fathers died to bequeath us and our children will be asked to defend. Unless we restore the people's sovereignty over government, renew their pride in public service, reform our public institutions to meet the demands of a new day, and reinvigorate our sense of national purpose, we will deny our destiny; we will abandon the cause our founding fathers called glorious.

The first responsibility of the next President will be to keep our country safe so that we might secure for ourselves and humanity a future worthy of our highest aspirations. That obligation requires -- that obligation requires a Commander in Chief who has the experience to understand and lead a volatile and changing world. Although the next century will hold many dangers for America and our cause, it will more than ever be an age of untold possibilities for good. It is our destiny to seize this opportunity to build a safer, freer and more prosperous nation and a world free of the tyranny that has made the passing century such a violent one. . . .