Profiles In Courage Section: Book Reports
Each person must stand up for what they believe in and be willing to take the consequences, if they wanted to make the country a better place to live. Response In Profiles In Courage, the late President John F. Kennedy, then a Massachusetts Senator, paid tribute to a number of Americans, primarily U.S. Senators, who distinguished themselves through acts of political courage. None of the subjects were portrayed as perfect or beyond reproach. Kennedy showed very strongly, in fact, the ethical ambivalence of some of the classic figures in American history in this work. The point he sought to make is not about how heroes were made of different stuff than others. This book is about how human beings can, in a time of moral crisis, find the courage to follow their own truth in the face of opposition. This is a work eminently worth reading, both for historical value, and for inspiration. There were three examples that Kennedy mentions in his book that were particularly interesting. They are: President John Quincy Adams who expressed inner courage in the face of his father's legacy; Senator Daniel Webster who stood by his word in the endless preservation of the Union; and Edmund G. Ross who "preserved for ourselves and prosterity constitutional government in the United States." As a young Senator from Massachusetts, John Quincy Adams faced personal struggles as he ever-attempted to live up to his father's legacy.
Because Adams was the son of a prominent Federalist President, he was personally scarred when he received a condemning letter from A Federalist which said, ".. thou hast fallen!" (pg. 27) He had served the Massachusetts Legislature and United States Senate as a Federalist. It was clear in a letter that Adams wrote to his father that it was a goal of the younger Adams to achieve approval of his father. He writes, …I may again at the end of the week give a better account of myself. I wish, sir, you would give me in writing some instructions with regard to the use of my time, and advise me how to proportion my studies and play, and I will keep them by me, and endeavor to follow them. (pg. 30) This letter was written when Adams was nine years of age. His early feelings of inadequacy were evident in this letter. Furthermore, Adams writes at the age of forty-five in his diary, "I have done nothing to distinguish it (his life) by usefulness to my country and to mankind… weakness and infirmities have sometimes… constantly paralyzed my efforts of good." (pg. 30) Adams forever yearned to change mankind the way the elder John Adams had. It took a lot of courage on the part of Adams to overcome this feeling of insecurity. Despite this, Adams distinguished himself as a brilliant Secretary of State, independent President, and an eloquent member of Congress, Minister to The Hague, Emissary to England, Minister to Prussia, Minister to Russia, and much more. Such a legacy has never been paralleled in history since. A second chapter that showed incredible courage, was that of Daniel Webster, a ingenious Congressman who expressed his firm beliefs with eager passion in the heat of bitter contest.
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