Profiles in Courage

"These, then, are some of the pressures which confront a man of conscience. He cannot ignore the pressure groups, his constituents, his party, the comradeship of his colleagues, the needs of his family, his own pride in office, the necessity for compromise and the importance of remaining in office. He must judge for himself which path to choose, which step will most help or hinder the ideas to which he is committed. He realizes that once he begins to weigh each issue in terms of his chance for re-election, once he begins to compromise away his principles on one issue after another for fear that to do otherwise would halt his career and prevent future fights for principle, then he has lost the very freedom of conscience which justifies his continuance in office. But to decide at which and on which issue he will risk his career is a difficult and soul-searching decision."

This quotation explains the conflict that underlies the work of a senator. In the end, a senator has to honor his or her conscience. However, Kennedy states first that a senator cannot simply ignore external influences and that these external influences are as much a part of the reality of public life as a senator’s own personal principles. Kennedy adds that every issue presents a chance for compromise. Such compromise can aid one's career yet erode one's principles.

"Whatever their differences, the American politicians whose stories are here retold [share] one heroic quality—courage. In the pages that follow, I have attempted to set forth their lives—the ideals they lived for and the principles they fought for, their virtues, and their sins, their dreams and their disillusionments, the praise they earned and the abuse they endured. All this may be set down on the printed page. It is ours to write about, it is ours to read about. But there was in the lives of each of these men something that it is difficult for the printed page to capture—and yet something that has reached the homes and enriched the heritage of every citizen in every part of the land."

This quote illustrates Kennedy's purpose in writing Profiles in Courage. Kennedy believes that courage is a heroic quality, one which every American should realize in their own lives. The lives of senators, in Kennedy's view, should serve as an example for all Americans. Kennedy notes that these senators are not perfect, and their lives are marked with many faults, but nevertheless their political careers contain moments that can serve as inspiration for citizens.

"The founding fathers could not have envisioned service in the Senate as providing an opportunity for ‘political courage,’ whereby men would endanger or end their careers by resisting the will of their constituents. For their very concept of the Senate, in contrast to the House, was of a body which would not be subject to constituent pressures. Each state, regardless of size and population, was to have the same number of Senators, as though they were ambassadors from individual sovereign state governments to the Federal Government, not representatives of the voting public."

This quote describes the original vision for the Senate. It is significant primarily for its contrasts with the Senate that exists today, in both size and function. In this original version of the Senate, constituent pressure and public opinion were minimized, in order to give this body independence. It is the independence of this original vision of the Senate that Profiles in Courage will praise by shedding light on the lives and careers of the senators described within.

"Though one of the most talented men ever to serve his nation, he had few of the personal characteristics which ordinarily give color and charm to the personality. But there is a fascination and nobility in this picture of a man unbending, narrow and intractable, judging himself more severely than his most bitter enemies judged him, possessing an integrity unsurpassed among the major political figures of our history, and constantly driven onward by his conscience and his deeply felt obligation to be worthy of his parents, their example, and their precepts."

This passage, a profile of John Quincy Adams, provides important elements of Kennedy's ideal of political courage. However, while John Quincy Adams's peculiar indifference to public opinion and social convention correlates strongly with the examples of political courage to be found in Profiles in Courage, it is not the deciding factor. Instead, it is his integrity—the readiness to do what he believes is right—cultivated through years of  rigorous self-judgment, that Kennedy believes is the source of Adams's courage.

"'You are supported by no party; you have too honest a heart, too independent a mind, and too brilliant talents, to be sincerely and confidentially trusted by any man who is under the domination of party maxims or party feelings....You may depend upon it then that your fate is decided....You ought to know and expect this and by no means regret it. My advice to you is steadily to pursue the course you are in, with moderation and caution however, because I think it the path of justice.'"

This quote, from President John Adams to his son, John Quincy Adams, underscores the importance of personal motivations to political life. This letter directly echoes John Kennedy's own beliefs as to the highly personal character of political courage. Like Kennedy, the elder Adams has a strong mistrust for political parties and their manipulations. While it can be easily drawn that the elder Adams's beliefs were a motivation for Kennedy's, the relevance of these conflicts from the 19th century to the 20th century  reinforces Kennedy's earlier claims as to their centrality in American political life.

"The cockpit in which this struggle between North and South was fought was the chamber of the United States Senate. The south, faced with the steadily growing population of the North as reflected in increasing majorities in the House of Representatives, realized that its sole hope of maintaining its power and prestige lay in the Senate. It was for this reason that the admission of new states into the Union, which threatened continuously to upset the precarious balance of power between the free and the slave states, between the agricultural and manufacturing regions, was at the heart of some of the great Senate debates in the first half of the nineteenth century."

This quote provides the historical and political context for the events discussed in Part 2. Of chief importance is the growing conflict between the Northern and Southern states. Kennedy lays out this conflict in political and economic terms; in these times, the Senate became a key battleground for the issues leading to and continuing beyond the Civil War.

"That very week he had written a friend: 'From my earliest youth, I have regarded slavery as a great moral and political evil....You need not fear that I shall vote for any compromise or do anything inconsistent with the past.'

But Daniel Webster feared that civil violence 'would only rivet the chains of slavery the more strongly.' And the preservation of the Union was far dearer to his heart than his opposition to slavery.

“And thus on that fateful January night, Daniel Webster promised Henry Clay his conditional support, and took inventory of the crisis about him. At first he shared the views of those critics and historians who scoffed at the possibility of secession in 1850. But as he talked with Southern leaders and observed ‘the condition of the country, [Webster] thought the inevitable consequences of leaving the existing controversies unadjusted would be Civil War.’”

This passage highlights what is arguably the most difficult examples in Profiles in Courage: that of Daniel Webster's participation in the Compromise of 1850. Kennedy illustrates the apparent conflict between Webster's own opposition to slavery as an “evil” and his willingness to prolong slavery by going along with the compromise. This appears as a clear violation of his own principles, and Webster simply appears wrong in his choice. However, this situation illustrates the peculiarity of Kennedy's ideal of political courage, which is as achievable in compromise as it is in obstinacy. Underlying Kennedy's argument for Senator Webster is the claim that secession was imminent in 1850, and that Webster believed it to be so, and chose to preserve the Union. Though this choice was distasteful, it demonstrates clearly the essence of Kennedy's ideal of political courage.

"Even though his speech was repudiated by many in the North, the very fact that one who represented such a belligerent constituency would appeal to understanding in the name of unity and patriotism was recognized in Washington and throughout the South as a bona fide assurance of Southern rights. Despite Calhoun's own intransigence, his Charleston Mercury praised Webster's address as ‘noble in language, generous and conciliatory in tone. Mr. Calhoun's clear and powerful exposition would have had something of a decisive effect if it had not been so soon followed by Mr. Webster's masterly playing.’  And the New Orleans Picayune hailed Webster for ‘the moral courage to do what he believes to be just in itself and necessary for the peace and safety of the country.’”

This quote describes the effect of Webster's speech: both its alienation of abolitionists in the North, and its warmer reception in the South. Kennedy's argument, illustrated by the Picayune quote, is that  Daniel Webster showed courage in setting patriotism and unity as the nation's primary interest. This resonates with Kennedy's view of national interest as the requirement for political courage. Moreover, the compromise to allow slavery was against Webster's personal convictions, but he nevertheless believed that the unity of the nation came first. 

"Labeled a traitor to his party and section and an ally of the Whigs and British, Benton openly lost the support of prominent candidates for the Missouri Legislature and was subject to all manner of personal attacks—as a nonresident, a defaulter in his debts, and one contemptuous of public opinion. Senator Benton, declared the Missouri Register, [was] "a demagogue and a tyrant at heart...the greatest egotist in Christendom....Where he goes, whatever he does, he shows but one characteristic—that of a blustering, insolent, unscrupulous demagogue."

This quote not only illustrates the immediate effect of Benton’s choice, but shows how Kennedy's political courage is seen from the perspective of its opponents. This concept of political courage Kennedy supports is not universal; in this instance, Benton's opponents see his disregard for public opinion as a form of demagoguery. As Kennedy himself explains in the Preface, their logic is not wrong: Benton is not just a public servant, but a representative. For him not to represent their wishes is problematic, to say the least. This shows the difficulty in isolating and expressing political courage.

"But even in death and defeat, Thomas Hart Benton was victorious. For his voice from the past on behalf of Union was one of the deciding factors that prevented Missouri from yielding to all the desperate efforts to drive her into secession along with her sister slave states. Fate had borne out of the wisdom of Benton's last report to this constituents as Senator: ‘I value solid popularity—the esteem of good men for good action. I despise the bubble popularity that is won without merit and lost without crime. [...] I have been Senator 30 years. [...] I sometimes had to act against the preconceived opinions and first impressions of my constituents; but always with full reliance upon their intelligence to understand me and their equity to do me justice—and I have never been disappointed.’”

This quote is important as it shows how senators whose actions place themselves in these positions of political jeopardy think about their decisions to do so. Senator Benton does not scorn popularity or esteem; indeed, he values it highly. However, two important arguments emerge from this concept: first, Benton's idea of "solid popularity," which refers to that which must be earned for right actions taken, and lost for crimes; secondly, Benton expresses a complicated yet significant idea—that his trust in his constituents' judgment requires him to trust in his own. Essentially, Benton believes that among a senator's obligations is to trust in his or her own judgment, rather than merely be led. This thought will become one of the hallmarks of Kennedy's idea of "political courage."

"Think you, sir, after the difficulties Texans have encountered to get into the Union, that you can whip them out of it? No, sir...we shed our blood to get into it...We were among the last to come into the Union, and being in, we will be the last to get out....I call on the friends of the Union from every quarter to come forward like men, and to sacrifice their differences upon the common altar of their country's good, and to form a bulwark around the Constitution that cannot be shaken. It will require manly efforts, sir, and they must expect to meet with prejudices that will assail them from every quarter. They must stand firm to the Union, regardless of all personal consequences."

In this quote, Sam Houston makes plain his opposition to both John Calhoun and the argument for secession. In doing so, Houston makes a clear connection between the ideal of Union and the measures needed to protect and preserve it: compromise and sacrifice. Furthermore, he calls out those who by prejudice or fear of "personal consequences" will not. The "country's good," in Houston’s mind, is the highest ideal, one that he has sacrificed to protect.

"'Fellow Citizens, in the name of your rights and liberty, which I believe have been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. In the name of my own conscience and my own manhood...I refuse to take this oath...[But] I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her. I shall make no endeavor to maintain my authority as Chief Executive of this state, except by the peaceful exercise of my functions. When I can no longer do this, I shall calmly withdraw from the scene...I am...stricken down because I will not yield those principles which I have fought for...The severest pang is that the blow comes in the name of the state of Texas.'"

This quote, taken from Sam Houston's last message as Governor of Texas, casts his decision to refuse swearing to the Confederacy as a conflict of loyalties: alone, Sam Houston refuses to break the oaths he has taken to the United States, and bring Texas "civil strife" in doing so. The final line of this oath emphasizes his sense of irony that his life's work of bringing Texas into the Union has been subverted by being asked to preside over the dissolution of that same Union.

"Thus by the end of the nineteenth century the Senate had come to very nearly its lowest ebb, in terms of power as well as prestige. The decline in Senatorial power had begun shortly after the end of Grant's administration. Prior to that time, the Senate, which had humiliated President Johnson and dominated President Grant, had reigned supreme in what was very nearly a parliamentary form of government.[...]But the peak of Congressional power passed as Presidents Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, and Cleveland successfully resisted Senatorial attempts to dictate Presidential appointments, and the government returned to the more traditional American system of the Constitution's checks and balances."

In this quote, Kennedy describes the historical context of the late-19th-century Senate, in particular its severe loss of influence and stature following the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. This decline, Kennedy adds, is accompanied by the growing trivialization and commercialization of Senate business. Kennedy’s opinion on this development is mixed: although the Senate loses its power and influence, the balance of power shifts back to that identified in the Constitution.

"There could be no doubt as to where Ross' sympathies lay, for this entire career was one of determined opposition to the slave states of the South, their practices and their friends. In 1854, when only twenty-eight, he had taken part in the mob rescue of a fugitive slave in Milwaukee. In 1856, he had joined that flood of antislavery immigrants to ‘bleeding’ Kansas who intended to keep it a free territory. Disgusted with the Democratic party of his youth, he had left that party, and volunteered in the Kansas Free State Army to drive back a force of proslavery men invading the territory. In 1862, he had given up his newspaper work to enlist in the Union army, from which he emerged a Major."

This quote illustrates the depth of Edmund Ross's personal and political feelings, as well as his commitment to them. Beginning in 1854, the events of his life detail his fervent opposition to slavery, beginning with his migration to Kansas and his service in the Union Army during the Civil War. This shows Ross’s ideals of justice, as well as his commitment to these ideals.

"It was a tremendous responsibility, and it was not strange that he upon whom it had been imposed by a fateful combination of conditions should have sought to avoid it, to put it away from him as one shuns, or tries to fight off, a nightmare. [...] I almost literally looked down into my open grave. Friendships, position, fortune, everything that makes life desirable to an ambitious man were about to be swept away by the breath of my mouth, perhaps forever. It is not strange that my answer was carried waveringly over the air and failed to reach the limits of the audience, or that repetition was called for by distant Senators on the opposite side of the Chamber."

This quote describes Kansas Senator Edmund Ross's mental and emotional state during the Johnson impeachment. As he is about to offer his vote of "not guilty," Ross likens his feeling of personal responsibility over the outcome as "a nightmare", and an "open grave."A stark comparison is created between the promises of a successful political career and the fellowship of his senators and the decision he feels he must undertake. Ross is completely cognizant that he will lose everything he has worked to achieve thus far in life; he does not want to vote this way, but feels he must.

"Silver suddenly acquired a political appeal as the poor man's friend—in contrast to gold, the rich man's money; silver was the money of the prairies and small towns, unlike gold, the money of Wall Street. Silver was going to provide an easy solution to everyone's problems—falling farm prices, high interest rates, heavy debts, and all the rest. Although the Democratic party since the days of Jackson and Benton had been the party of hard money, it rushed to exploit this new and popular issue—and it was naturally assumed that the freshman Democratic Senator from poverty-stricken Mississippi would enthusiastically join the right."

This quote describes the setting in which Lucius Lamar begins his career in the Senate. The author lays out the formidable regional and partisan influences. Kennedy emphasizes the sudden, widespread demand for silver in the Democratic Party to illustrate how the perception of public opinion can reverse long-held principles and distort decision-making. This observation sets the scene for Senator Lamar's eventual alienation from his party and his constituents. 

"Thus it is, my countrymen, you have sent me to the topmost mast, and I tell you what I see. If you say I must come down, I will obey without a murmur, for you cannot make me lie to you; but if you return me, I can only say that I will be true to love of country, truth, and God. [...] I have always thought that the first duty of a public man in a Republic founded upon the sovereignty of the people is a frank and sincere expression of his opinions to his constituents. I prize the confidence of the people of Mississippi, but I never made popularity the standard of my action. I profoundly respect public opinion, but I believe that there is in conscious rectitude of purpose a sustaining power which will support a man of ordinary firmness under any circumstances whatever."

This quote from Senator Lamar outlines his philosophy regarding the independence of senators. Senators, in his mind, have a duty to deliberate carefully, and not just follow the opinions of their constituents and backers. For the issue of silver, Lamar trusts in his own ability to understand the ability beyond his constituents' interests. However, Lamar's reason for this is the belief that the nation's interests come first, and unsound causes that would benefit his constituents are not something he will support.

"Those citizens who did take an active interest in the conduct of the Senate as the twentieth century got under way generally viewed it more with alarm than with pride. Throughout the nation there arose a remarkable array of reformers, muckrackers and good-government movements, represented in the Senate by a new breed of idealists and independents, men of ability and statesmanship who would have ranked with the more famous names of an earlier day. To arrest the dual trends of an electorate indifferent to their Senators and Senators indifferent to their electorate, the reformers, both in and out of the Senate, finally accomplished a long overdue change in the election machinery—the power of electing Senators was taken from the legislatures of the states and given directly to the people."

This quote provides context for the Seventeenth Amendment, which mandated the direct election of senators. Kennedy argues that the Senate had been detached from its constituents and responsibility, and instead primarily served the interests of political parties. Kennedy's observation is concomitant with the rise of the political machine in the late 19th century. However, this development would seem to jeopardize what is, to the author, the Senate's most important quality—its independence.

"In that chamber, men became slaves to emotion. The clash of anger and bitterness, in my judgment, never has been exceeded in the history of the United States. When the hour hands pointed to the arrival of noon, the chairman announced adjournment. The filibuster had won. The conference report which would have authorized the arming of American ships had failed of Senate approval....Tense excitement prevailed throughout the entire country, and especially in the Senate itself....I have felt from that day to this the filibuster was justified. I never have apologized for the part I took in it....[We] honestly believed that, by our actions in that struggle, we had averted American participation in the war."

This quotation from George Norris describes the tumultuous scene in the Senate during his March 4 filibuster of the initiative to arm American shipping. The mood he describes is one of total chaos and bitterness, amplified by fatigue and resentment. It speaks to both the deep fissures in American political life and the special role of the Senate in policymaking.

"It happens very often that one tries to do something and fails. He feels discouraged, and yet he may discover years afterward that the very effort he made was the reason why somebody else took it up and succeeded. I really believe that whatever use I have been to progressive civilization has been accomplished in the things I failed to do rather than in the things I actually did do."

This quote, said by Senator Norris to a friend, illustrates the intersection between Norris's personal philosophy and his approach to government. In light of his failures to keep the country out of World War I, and in his fight against special interests, Norris holds to the belief that the moral value of his actions may yet exceed their apparent practical value. This quote is prescient, as it foretells the type of reflection demonstrated with Profiles in Courage. Norris's idea of "progressive civilization" is deeply tied to his idea that one's own success is inconsequential to one's potential for genuine contribution.

"Liberalism implies particularly freedom of thought, freedom from orthodox dogma, the right of others to think differently from one's self. It implies a free mind, open to new ideas and willing to give attentive consideration...When I say liberty, I mean liberty of the individual to think his own thoughts and live his own life as he desires to think and live."

This quotation from Senator Robert Taft illustrates his personal philosophy of liberalism. As Kennedy writes, this is significant, given that Taft was a conservative, and frequently a reactionary. Kennedy cites these thoughts as important in light of Taft's political courage in maintaining his beliefs in the face of public criticism. In this argument, the inspiration for Kennedy's concept of "political courage" is closely tied to the ideals of liberalism.

"Motivation, as any psychiatrist will tell us, is always difficult to assess. It is particularly difficult to trace in the murky sea of politics. Those who abandoned their state and section for the national interest—men like Daniel Webster and Sam Houston, whose ambitions for higher office could not be hidden—laid themselves open to the charge that they sought only to satisfy their ambition for the Presidency. Those who broke with their party to fight for broader principles—men like John Quincy Adams and Edmund Ross—faced the accusation that they accepted office under one banner and yet deserted it in a moment of crisis for another."

This quote speaks to the multiple motivations that exist in cases of political courage. The basis of this quote is that politicians are never free from ambition, and that ambition is a real factor in their decisions. The type of accusations made against John Quincy Adams and Edmund Ross—selfishness and duplicity—are valid: despite their ideals to the contrary, one's responsibilities to his or her constituents are always real, and must be considered ahead of one's personal ambitions for higher office. However, the significance is more complicated than these senators' historical detractors would suggest.

"Some demonstrated courage through their unyielding devotion to absolute principle. Others demonstrated courage through their acceptance of compromise, through their advocacy of conciliation, through their willingness to replace conflict with co-operation. Surely their courage was of equal quality, though of different caliber. For the American system of Government could not function if every man in a position of responsibility approached each problem, as John Quincy Adams did, as a problem in higher mathematics, with but a limited regard for sectional needs and human shortcomings."

This quotation challenges one possible definition of political courage as pure stubbornness and insistence on principle, and instead expands the definition. However, this expansion proves nebulous. Kennedy implies that what is courageous in one situation might not be in another. While this makes his definition of courage harder to pin down, it better fits the unpredictable reality of government.