American Presidents and the Rhetoric of Virtue

William McKinley

“We hope that all who are represented here may be moved to higher and nobler effort for their own and the world's good.”

– President William McKinley, Buffalo, New York, September 5, 1901

As the nation’s political and symbolic leaders, United States presidents have long encouraged public virtue. Until this week, that is, when virtue seems to get lost in the muck, as President Donald Trump posted a bizarre video that depicts him as a fighter pilot, wearing a royal crown, divebombing peaceful demonstrators with his own fecal matter.

Trump’s disgusting video, which his political movement has solidly supported, invites us to put aside the day’s horrors, the unspeakable disgrace, the indelible contempt that Trump has brought to our nation, and to remember that American presidents have regularly urged their fellow citizens to live virtuous lives, to follow the honorable course, and to do right by one another. For one of the President’s traditional roles is to bring out our best. And this is exactly what previous presidents have undertaken – over, over, and over. Until now. Let us not wallow in disgust and Trump’s infantile behavior. Let us, instead, remember uplifting rhetoric’s long tradition. Let us remember history’s finest lessons! We can begin with our first president.

McKinley's Last Speech: Inclusive, Rational, Persuasive

 

George Washington

George Washington immediately set his new nation’s moral tone. In his First Inaugural Address, he offered his fellow citizens principles of honor and moral behavior. Indeed, Washington took it for granted that, despite their policy disagreements, the opposing political movements would all forever agree on basic principles: honor, freedom, and justice. He further asserted that only good and moral people could enjoy free government and command the world’s admiration: 

“… the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect of the world.”

The Father of Our Country continued:

“… there is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.”

A population that forgets virtue has forsaken happiness! Words to ponder indeed. The Father of Our Country set the tone, and Abraham Lincoln, who was perhaps, our greatest president, continued it while facing the most trying circumstances.


Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Even during the trials of the American Civil War, a violent struggle like no other that our nation has experienced, the President of the United States urged reconciliation, forgiveness, and mutual respect.

Abraham Lincoln, who preserved the Union, was perhaps the most elegant speaker our nation has ever produced. And maybe the wisest. Let us consider the words that concluded his Second Inaugural Address in 1865. He gave that speech at the end of the Civil War, a time when grief, hatred, and bloody horror spread across the entire land, when few households had not lost a husband, son, or brother, and urged the warring parties to unite with forgiveness and kindness:

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

“With malice toward none!” Not just victory, but “a just, and a lasting peace.”

Did the reunited nation fully live up to Lincoln’s plea? Of course not. A disgruntled Southerner soon shot Lincoln dead. As the years passed, the nation was wracked by the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, racial segregation, the myth of the Lost Cause, and the violent oppression of civil rights.

Abraham Lincoln and the Definition of “Liberty:” A Lesson for Our Time

Nevertheless, Lincoln urged the nation to do what was right, to live virtuously, and to overcome our differences. We would all – all of us – have been better off if we had lived by his rules. Lincoln tried, almost with his dying breath, to put the United States on the right path.


John F. Kennedy

John Kennedy was, in his own way, as eloquent as Lincoln. Like Washington and Lincoln, he encouraged patriotism and selflessness. In his Inaugural Address, Kennedy stated a model of virtue and citizenship that should inspire every American patriot:

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Not only did he urge Americans to “ask what you can do for your country,” but, recognizing that national power brings moral obligations, Kennedy encouraged the entire world to work for freedom and justice:

“My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

(That, by the way, was my mother’s favorite passage from Kennedy’s great speech.) A decorated veteran of World War II, Kennedy knew that the United States led the free world and that other nations looked to us for an example.

John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address: A Call to Service


Ronald Reagan

John Kennedy was not the last president to express moral sentiments as the leader of the free world! Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly

Reagan at the UN

in New York City, Ronald Reagan reminded the assembled world leaders of the “fellowship of the human race.” He praised the human spirit:

“The responsibility of this assembly -- the peaceful resolution of disputes between peoples and nations -- can be discharged successfully only if we recognize the great common ground upon which we all stand: our fellowship as members of the human race, our oneness as inhabitants of this planet, our place as representatives of billions of our countrymen whose fondest hope remains the end to war and to the repression of the human spirit.”

Reagan perfectly well understood the traumas of human history, the injustices that people have wreaked upon one another. Nevertheless, he urged the United Nations to look past those horrors to create a better world:

“Yes, the deeds of infamy or injustice are all recorded, but what shines out from the pages of history is the daring of the dreamers and the deeds of the builders and the doers.”

Dreamers and builders and doers! Can we live by Reagan’s wisdom? That was in the old days, of course, when American leadership was unquestioned. 

The Lesson to Remember!

For the lesson that Reagan, and many other presidents, have taught is a lesson in rhetorical leadership.

Of course, I could go on. In his Second Inaugural Address, President William McKinley, a heartfelt conservative, told the nation to move past party loyalty: “There are some national questions in the solution of which patriotism should exclude partisanship.” Alas, McKinley’s simple lesson seems to have vanished in the mists. A century later, President Barack Obama reminded the United States that, “In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned.” 

Yes, greatness must indeed be earned. Boasting and bragging make no one great. Sadly, we now seem to live in an era in which people mock virtue. We now live in an era when the current President of the United States celebrates the vilest behavior imaginable. Now, yes, the reader might respond that not all presidents have been virtuous people. The reader might remark that the United States has not always done right. That’s not the point: we all have faults. The most important thing is that, recognizing their role as leaders, American presidents have consistently spoken to guide the nation onto a right path.

Leadership is not all about power, cruelty, and violence. The most powerful leadership is moral leadership. The most powerful leadership comes when we inspire ourselves and others to be our best, to strive for excellence, to live lives of compassion, justice, and, yes, virtue. The most powerful leadership is to guide people on the right path.

The most disturbing part of Donald Trump’s disgusting doggy-doo video is not just that he published it, for nothing that Trump does surprises me. No, the most disturbing part is that his leading supporters not only tolerate, but excuse and even celebrate Trump as he leads the United States into depravity. Yes, leaders can move us down, just as they can move us up.

Still, all is not lost. Our forebears still guide us. We can still act “with malice toward none.” We can still remember to “ask what you can do for your country.” High school history students across the country were taught those lessons. Our presidents’ wise speeches laid down our moral principles. Let us remember them. Let us try to live by them. For true conservativism comes from true traditions, and a proud line of American presidents have handed those traditions down to us. Let us live by them.

by William D. Harpine

Copyright 2025 by William D. Harpine

Image of William McKinley, public domain, Library of Congress  

Image of Abraham Lincoln, public domain, Library of Congress

Image of Ronald Reagan, Public Domain, Ronald Reagan Library

Barack Obama’s Speech about Fatherhood: Building upon a Rock

Barack Obama

On Father’s Day, June 15, 2008, future President Barack Obama told fathers to build upon a rock. He advised fathers to uphold their responsibilities (like men, not boys, he said). He encouraged government and society to support fatherhood and family life instead of oppressing them. He gave this speech at the First Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, a largely African American megachurch. Like all ceremonial speakers, Obama praised and blamed. He praised good fathers. He urged negligent fathers to fulfill their duties. Like all good ceremonial speakers, his praise promulgated values and led to policy: for, after all, why should we praise something unless we seek to emulate it?

Obama began by quoting the Bible (Matthew 7:24-25): “Whoever hears these words of mine, and does them, shall be likened to a wise man who built his house upon a rock.” Building on that theme, Obama said that Jesus Christ was the rock, but so was the church’s founding Bishop, and, for the occasion, so were fathers.

Father’s Day was, according to Obama, a day to recognize that family is society’s rock, and the father is part of the family’s rock. He did not misogynistically place the father at the pinnacle, but, rather, as an essential part:

“Of all the rocks upon which we build our lives, we are reminded today that family is the most important. And we are called to recognize and honor how critical every father is to that foundation.”

Continuing, Obama lamented that too many fathers disappear from their families’ lives:

“But if we are honest with ourselves, we’ll admit that what too many fathers also are missing — missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.” 

Unlike pure liberals, who blame everything on society; unlike pure conservatives, who blame everything on individuals, Obama called for broad-spectrum reform. We must, he said, help our children in every way:

“Yes, we need more cops on the street. Yes, we need fewer guns in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them. Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more after-school programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities.

“But we also need families to raise our children. We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception. We need them to realize that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child — it’s the courage to raise one.”

“The courage to raise” – “courage,” Obama said, a rock-like word on which to build our children’s future.

Turning to public policy, Obama encouraged societies to support families. He said that government should make “it easier for fathers who make responsible choices and harder for those who avoid them.” He called for the end of marriage penalties. He encouraged training, opportunities, and government programs to help families raise children:

“We should help these new families care for their children by expanding maternity and paternity leave, and we should guarantee every worker more paid sick leave so they can stay home to take care of their child without losing their income.”

Continuing, Obama discussed the gift of hope. We must, implied, build our families upon that rock. So, as he ended, Obama praised fathers, asked irresponsible fathers to transform themselves, and invited society to support families instead of abandoning them to face their problems alone. Just before his concluding prayer, Obama reminded families of their most basic obligation:

“That is our ultimate responsibility as fathers and parents. We try. We hope. We do what we can to build our house upon the sturdiest rock.”

Ceremonial speakers praise and blame. But why? Remember, when we praise, we should emulate. Is it enough to praise? Shouldn’t we also learn? Indeed, what purpose do we serve if we learn and fail to act? The alternative is to abandon hope in an empty world, an world of cynicism and despair. To live as a healthy nation, we must have responsible parents and a caring society. Neither, standing alone, is enough. Those are rocks on which to build.

Obama did not build his policy proposals on statistics, expert opinion, or subtle analogies. He built them on values.

The history of rhetoric offers us too few speeches about fathers. (Or about mothers, for that matter!) If we abandon family responsibility, do we have a rock left on which to build?


In memory of my own father, a man so devoted and too little appreciated. Special thanks to all fathers. Happy Father's Day!

by William D. Harpine

Earlier Posts:

Kristin Urquiza's Brief Story about Her Father

Ayanna Pressley's Mother's Day Speech: How Did She Use Language to Make Her Point?

Copyright © 2024, Willliam D. Harpine

Image: Official White House photo

Barack Obama's HBCU Convention Speech Leads Us to Ask: Why Do People Celebrate Unreason?

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Earlier today, former President Barack Obama's commencement speech to the Historically Black Colleges and Universities made the statement, which I analyzed in my previous blog post, that we should abandon any illusion that the people in power always know what's best. Obama said:

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

The absurdity to which Obama alludes has long passed the point of self-parody. Donald Trump, the President of the United States, talked about disinfectant injections? To refresh our memories, here are his exact words from a few weeks ago:

"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me."

The absurdity of Trump's suggestion should be obvious to anyone. Anyone at all. The disconnection from reality is complete. The United States leads the world in coronavirus deaths. Yet Trump's supporters continue to support him.

Indeed, the Trump Administration's outrageous celebration of incompetence and ignorance has brought such tragic consequences – yet President Trump’s core voters continue to support him. Opinion poll aggregator Five Thirty Eight shows that 44% of the public approves of Mr. Trump’s performance as president, which is not badly out of line with the ratings that other presidents have received at a comparable point in their first terms. A recent CBS poll found that “Americans continue to say they trust medical professionals for virus information, but Republicans also rank President Trump about as highly among their trusted sources, even as others give him his lowest marks to date for handling the outbreak.” That's right: a man who talked about injecting bleach and alcohol into patients continues to receive massive support for medical information. Why?

First, for centuries, the President of the United States has been among the most prestigious of all world leaders. Few would have thought of questioning the wisdom of Dwight Eisenhower or John Kennedy during an international crisis. People might not always agree with them, but they would receive respect. People would know that the president has access to tremendous information sources, and assume that the president is wise and will tend to act in the nation’s interest. Republicans still largely consider President Trump to be one of their own and support him loyally.

Second, mass media programs constantly tell us that our leaders are wise. We’ve all seen episodes of The West Wing. In that show, President Bartlet handled crises every week with calm confidence and a deft hand. I cannot imagine that many political scientists or other qualified people would consider that glowing depiction to be remotely realistic. President Bartlet is a fantasy figure.

We should have gotten over that hero-worshiping attitude a long time ago. Yes, President Kennedy handled the Cuban Missile Crisis skillfully to avert war, but his work during the Bay of Pigs invasion was beyond idiotic. (He and his staff planned a disastrous invasion without looking at a map!) And anyone who has read the Watergate White House transcripts should see, above all else, that President Richard Nixon and his advisors were not only evil, but careless, shortsighted, and incompetent: not only did they decide to commit felonies with hardly a second thought, but Nixon tape-recorded them doing it.

We could learn from the Federalist Papers. The founders of our republic never thought that our leaders would always be capable and beneficent. Instead, they designed a system of government whose purpose was to check our leaders’ power and stop anyone from becoming a king. They recognized, as today’s public too often does not, that the people at the top sometimes don’t know what they’re doing. Toward that end, in Federalist #47, Alexander Hamilton himself emphasized that the various powers of government needed to be separated to prevent any person or group from becoming too powerful. His attitude was to trust the system, not the leaders.

This does not mean that we should be cynical about everything our leaders do. Neither does it justify us in becoming so cynical that we believe one idiotic conspiracy theory after another. It does mean that we should use the critical thinking and research skills (that are too rarely taught in schools) so we can think for ourselves and make rational judgments. Nobody who thinks twice about it could possibly respect a president who advocated bleach injections. The problem is, too many people respect the presidency so much that they don't evaluate his statements for even a moment.

Link: The Rhetoric of Conspiracy Theories

Instead, let me mention the advice that my classmates and I received from the Provost of the College of William and Mary when I enrolled in the fall of 1969: “Respect your professor’s superior knowledge, but do not be intimidated by it.” We could say something like that about our political leaders: show them respect when they deserve it, but don't follow them blindly. We cannot rely blindly on authorities and must often analyze important issues for ourselves. However, thinking for yourself does not mean blindly believing whatever you want. It means to look at the evidence, weigh probabilities, and make carefully reasoned judgments. That’s hard work. But the Trump administration's failures show us that, if our republic is to endure, that’s what we need to do.

Yes, we communication professionals too often think logic and reasoning are more persuasive than they really are. Yes, powerful men and women need to be careful about what they say. And, yes, the schools need to teach more about research and thinking skills: multiple choice tests are of little use after you graduate. But, equally, the citizens of a constitutional republic need to be responsible listeners. I'll try to write more about that in a few days, especially about the fallacy of appeal to authority.

Image: White House photo

In His HBCU Commencement Speech, Barack Obama Reminds Us That The People at the Top Don't Always Know What They're Doing

Earlier today, former President Barack Obama gave a virtual commencement address to a consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Speaking from a home office, he congratulated the graduates, talked with them about economic justice, and discussed racial equality. But let’s not miss his main point: he honed in on the key problem of the American republic, which is the lack of government expertise.

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump and his top staff have repeatedly rejected the advice of qualified experts, while implementing inconsistent policies that have been so ineffective that the European medical journal Lancet took the bold, unusual step of editorializing against American public health policy.

And, truly, American public health policy during the pandemic has been terrible. President Trump stood up on national television and talked, in all seriousness, about injecting disinfectants into coronavirus patients. He advocated an unproven and eventually discredited drug, hydroxychloroquine, as a coronavirus treatment. As a consequence of the United States’ failure to fully implement basic public health measures like extensive testing and contact tracing, the United States leads the world – by far – in coronavirus deaths. As of this writing, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine reports 88,675 confirmed coronavirus deaths in the United States, and the number continues to grow.

Link: Ceremonial Speakers Teach Us Cultural Values

And indeed, as former President Obama pointed out in his speech today, the pandemic has shown us that the people at the top sometimes have no idea what they are doing. Indeed, there is no reason that the United States, the world’s most powerful industrial nation, should lead the world in pandemic deaths.

I have written many times that ceremonial speeches like Obama’s HBCU commencement speech today are not just empty show. While congratulating the graduates, President Obama reminded us of values that many millions of us seem to have forgotten. In particular, he spoke against the idea that people who have no idea what they are doing deserve unlimited respect and obedience. I hope that we were all listening.

Follow-up: President Trump's bad ideas have not greatly harmed his popularity. Why not?

P.S. I clicked on FoxNews.com after writing this. Conspiracy theories and personal attacks against Obama's speech are already starting. What else could they say?