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| William McKinley |
– 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.
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
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| 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.
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
in New York City, Ronald Reagan reminded the assembled world leaders of the “fellowship of the human race.” He praised the human spirit:
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
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| Reagan at the UN |
“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
