The Presidency as Moral Leadership

There is something very special about the Presidential office, no doubt, and that something has often produced notable changes in its occupants. Sometimes the change has been toward a mere surface respectability, as in the case of Harding; more often, it has represented a growth in courage, breadth of thinking, and vision. Men of considerable dimensions take on an awesome bigness once they assume the office. The biography of Abraham Lincoln, for example, is essentially the story of a somewhat aimless, shifty politician who became a President of iron purpose and profound humanity. Average men discover unexpected wisdom and strength within themselves. The classically mediocre Chester Arthur, for years a routine politician who was little disturbed by grafting, suddenly emerged a stanch champion of clean government. The most inadequate men find at least the discernment to recognize their inadequacy. I am not fit for this office . . . , Warren Harding would tell intimates as he roamedl the house where Abraham Lincoln had lived

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