John F. Kennedy in Profiles in Courage, by John F. Kennedy
On Principles & Values:
Politics obscures courage; but there is political courage
Senators, we hear, must be politicians--and politicians must be concerned only with winning votes, not with statesmanship or courage. Mothers may still want their favorite sons to grow up to be President, but, according to a famous
Gallup poll of some years ago, they do not want them to become politicians in the process.Does this current rash of criticism and disrespect mean the quality of the Senate has declined? Certainly not.
Does it mean, then, that the Senate can no longer boast of men of courage?
I am convinced that the complication of public business and the competition for the public's attention have obscured innumerable acts of political courage--large and small- -- performed almost daily in the Senate Chamber.
Source: Profiles In Courage, by Sen. John F. Kennedy, p. 2-3
Mar 18, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Compromise is essential for functioning government
The way we get along, I was told when I entered Congress, "is to go along." That includes the use of compromise, the sense of things possible. We should not be too hasty in condemning all compromise as bad morals. For politics and legislation are not
matters for inflexible principles.It is compromise that prevents each set of reformers from crushing the group on the extreme opposite end of the political spectrum. The legislator has some responsibility to conciliate those opposing forces within his
state and party and to represent them in the larger clash of interests on the national level; and he alone knows that there are few if any issues where all the truth and all the right and all the angels are on one side.
Some of my colleagues who are
criticized today as compromising "politicians" are simply engaged in the fine art of conciliating, balancing and interpreting the forces and factions of public opinion, an art essential to keeping our nation united and enabling our Government to function
Source: Profiles In Courage, by Sen. John F. Kennedy, p. 4-6
Mar 18, 2003
On Civil Rights:
Courage to apply equal rights to minorities
Sporadic instances of courage on isolated and unimportant issues have no great significance. To be important, courage must be exhibited on behalf of some large cause or rule. John Stuart Mill made a brave fight in
Parliament against the martial law cruelties of Governor Eyre in Jamaica.
He did it, as he points out in his autobiography, not from a mere feeling of humanitarian sympathy with maltreated Negroes, but to maintain the sacred principle that British subjects everywhere were under the rule of civil law, not of military license.
Senator Foraker, bravely intervening on behalf of the 160-odd Negro troopers dishonorably dismissed from the service after the Brownsville Affair, declared that he also was defending a greater cause than that of a few soldiers; the cause of a fair trial.
Source: Profiles In Courage, by Sen. John F. Kennedy, p. xii-xiii
Mar 18, 2003
On Free Trade:
Every industry wants higher tariffs on competitors
In my office today, for example, was a delegation representing New England textile mills, an industry essential to our prosperity. They want the tariff lowered on the imported wool they buy from Australia and they want the tariff raised on the finished
woolen goods imported from England with which they must compete.All of us in the Senate meet endless examples of such conflicting pressures, which only reflects the inconsistencies inevitable in our complex economy.
If we tell our constituents frankly that we can do nothing, they feel we are unsympathetic or inadequate. If we try and fail--usually meeting a counteraction from other Senators representing
other interests--they say we are like all the rest of the politicians. All we can do is retreat into the Cloakroom and weep on the shoulder of a sympathetic colleague--or go home and snarl at our wives.
Source: Profiles In Courage, by Sen. John F. Kennedy, p. 10-11
Mar 18, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Senators must balance conscience with constituents' views
A senator who is a man of conscience cannot ignore the pressure groups, his constituents, his party. He must judge for himself which path to choose, which step will most help or hinder the ideals to which he is committed. [But] he realizes once he begins
to weigh each issue in terms of his chances 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, then he has lost the very freedom of conscience which justifies
his continuance in office.But this is no real problem, some will say. Always do what is right, regardless of whether is it popular. Ignore the pressures, the temptations, the false compromises.
That is an easy answer--but it is easy only for those
who do not bear the responsibilities of elected office. Are we rightfully entitled to ignore the demands of our constituents even if we are able and willing to do so? The primary responsibility of a Senator is to represent the views of his state.
Source: Profiles In Courage, by Sen. John F. Kennedy, p. 12-13
Mar 18, 2003
On Government Reform:
Courage motivated by national interest over political gain
I am persuaded after long study of the record that the national interest, rather than private or political gain, furnished the basic motivation for the actions of those whose deeds are described [in this book]. This does not mean that many of them did
not seek to wring advantage out of the difficult course they had adopted. For as politicians they were clearly justified in doing so.Of course, the acts of courage described in this book would be more inspiring and would shine more with the
traditional luster of hero-worship if we assumed that each man forgot wholly about himself in his dedication to higher principles. But it may be that President John Adams, surely as disinterested as well as wise a public servant
as we ever had, came much nearer to the truth when he wrote in his "Defense of the Constitutions of the US": "It is not true, in fact, that any people ever existed who love the public better than themselves."
Source: Profiles In Courage, by Sen. John F. Kennedy, p.238
Mar 18, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Senator's loyalties split among party, state, & nation
Nine years in Congress have taught me the wisdom of Lincoln's words: "There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything, especially of Government policy, is an inseparable compound of the two, so that our best judgment of the
preponderance between them is continually demanded."This book is not intended to suggest that party regularity and party responsibility are necessary evils which should at no time influence our decisions. It is not intended to suggest that the
local interests of one's state or region have no legitimate right to consideration at any time. On the contrary, the loyalties of every Senator are distributed among his party, his state, his country and his conscience. On party issues, his party
loyalties are normally controlling. In regional disputes, his regional responsibilities will likely guide his course. It is on national issues, on matters of conscience which challenge party and regional loyalties, that the test of courage is presented.
Source: Profiles In Courage, by Sen. John F. Kennedy, p.242-243
Mar 18, 2003
On Principles & Values:
We all face tests of courage, with unions, friends, etc.
Not only do the problems of courage and conscience concern every officeholder in our land, however humble or mighty, they concern every voter in our land--and they concern those who do not vote, those who take no interest in Government.
For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, "holds office"; every one of us is in a position of responsibility.
These problems do not even concern politics alone--for the same basic choice of courage or compliance continually faces us all, whether we fear the anger of constituents, friends, a board of directors or our union,
whenever we stand against the flow of opinion on strongly contested issues. Politics merely furnishes one arena which imposes special tests of courage.
Source: Profiles In Courage, by Sen. John F. Kennedy, p.245-246
Mar 18, 2003
On Civil Rights:
We should not counsel patience and delay on equal rights
In 1963, Pres. Kennedy put the full power of the federal government on the side of those seeking integration because it was the right thing to do. When he mobilized the Alabama National Guard to admit two black students to the University of Alabama under
federal court order, Pres. Kennedy said, "We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as
we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him, if,
in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?"
Source: Profiles In Courage, Intro by Caroline Kennedy, p. xi-xii
Mar 18, 2003
On Principles & Values:
Profile in Courage award to honor those with courage
Our family has honored my family's commitment to public service by celebrating that commitment in others. In 1989, we established the
Profile in Courage Award, presented annually to an elected official who stands fast for the ideals upon which this country was founded, often at great personal risk.
These men and women, Republican and Democrat, serving at the local, state, and national level, are the heirs to the eight legendary senators chronicled in this book.
Our collective definition of courage has expanded since "Profiles in Courage" was written--today we honor those with the courage to compromise as well as those who stay the course.
Source: Profiles In Courage, Intro by Caroline Kennedy, p. xii
Mar 18, 2003
On Environment:
We all inhabit a small planet & breathe the same air
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy spoke of peace: "Let us not be blind to our differences--but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end our
differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."
Source: Profiles In Courage, Introduction by Caroline Kennedy, p. xi
Mar 18, 2003
Page last updated: Feb 21, 2019