A Few Appropriate Remarks

The Company You Keep

One of those bad boy bounty hunter reality cop shows was on the TV when I walked into the room. Of course, I got sucked into it for a moment before I gained the strength to propel myself from the room again. While staring at the TV, it occured to me that we tend to do what those around us do. We--corporately speaking--seldom rise above the general state of our peer group. I was reminded of the importance of the company that we keep.

Lincoln made this observation on the subject, in his Temperence Address:

"It is said by some, that men will think and act for themselves; that none will disuse spirits or anything else, merely because his neighbors do; and that moral influence is not that powerful engine contended for. Let us examine this. Let me ask the man who would maintain this position most stiffly, what compensation he will accept to go to church some Sunday and sit during the sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a trifle, I'll venture. And why not? There would be nothing irreligious in it: nothing immoral, nothing uncomfortable. Then why not? It is not because there would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? Then it is the influence of fashion; and what is the influence of fashion, but the influence that other people's actions have [on our own]?"

February 22, 1842: Address delivered before the Springfield Washington Temperance Society [Collected Works, p. 277] 

A Star Among the Clouds

It's well known that Lincoln, number 16, is among our greatest presidents. What hadn't occurred to me is that his administration was flanked by bad presidents. US News & World Report (Feb 26, 2007) recently showed survey results about the 10 worst presidents in US history. Here are those whose administrations were around the Lincoln era (worst rank/name/president number):

1. James Buchanan - 15
3. Andrew Johnson - 17
4. Franklin Pierce - 14
5. Millard Filmore - 13
6. John Tyler - 10
7. Ulysses S. Grant - 18
8. William Harrison - 9
10. Zachary Taylor - 12

Woah! A run from 12 through 15, then 17 and 18, too?! Had James Polk not broken the evil spell, the run would have started from number 9.

And how about that number 9? The fact that anyone included WIlliam Harrison on any list detracts from the quality of the list, in my opinion. Seriously, how can a guy who only served as president for 30 days make a list of any kind and be taken seriously (unless it's a list of shortest administrations, longest inaugural addresses, or presidents who died in office)?

Of course, these results reflect the opinons of a set of historians whom US News identified as liberal, although perhaps conservative among liberals. Other historians might well come up with another list altogether. Oh, and what tends to make historians judge a president as bad? "Inaction in the face of great historical challenges," according to US News.