Where else, in a non-totalitarian country, but in the political profession is the individual

expected to sacrifice all--including his own career--for the national good (27)?

Former President, John F. Kennedy had a fascination with political courage, and it
shines through in his book, Profiles In Courage. The book consists of eight short
accounts of courageous United States Senators who put their careers on the line for
what they believed to be right.

Kennedy begins his book by describing from his own experience the tremendous
pressures of holding public office. There is the desire, and necessity to please the
people who voted you into office. In order to maintain a position in government, you
almost always need to keep your constituents happy. Kennedy likens the situation an
office holder is in to having a raven perched there on his Senate desk, croaking
Nevermore as he casts the vote that stakes his political future (28). Kennedy says
however, that voters do select Senators to act out of their own judgement, and that in
order to properly lead, sometimes, Senators need to ignore the demands of voters.

The first Senator the book addresses is John Quincy Adams. Adams was son of the
prominent Federalist President and founding father John Adams. Despite his
tremendous talent and family name, Adams rapidly became very unpopular. Starting out
in the Federalist Party, Adams quickly gained criticism for having the courage to support
Jeffersons Louisiana Purchase, which went against the Federalist Partys stance.
During this time in American History, the nation was strongly divided into parties, and
people were expected to follow one or the other party. John Quincy Adams refused to

do this, and in short, ended up with no allies, and no party to back him. He was simply
too firm in his beliefs to stick to any one partys viewpoint on every issue. Adams fought
for whatever he believed to be best for the United States, issue to issue. This took
courage, in that Adams was left to fend for himself with no support but from his father.

The second Senator is John Webster. Kennedy analyzed how Daniel Webster, a
Senator from Massachusetts, had the courage to support compromising with the
southern states, who were threatening secession. Believing that keeping the Union
together was of the highest priority, he gave a speech about why the North and South
needed to reach agreement in order to keep the country one country. This speech,
being given by a northern Senator, calmed the angry Southerners intent on secession.
Kennedy quoted the Journal of Commerce, saying Webster did more than any other
man in the whole country, and at a greater hazard of personal popularity, to stem and
roll back the torrent of sectionalism which in 1850 threatened to overthrow the pillars of
the Constitution and the Union (93) Daniel Webster took tremendous hits on his
popularity, but he courageously fought for what he believed to be right, and in the end, it
postponed the Civil War.

A third Senator Kennedy spoke of was Thomas Benton. Benton was a Senator from
Missouri, which was a slave state. Benton was a slave owner himself, and even brought
his slaves with him to Washington, but he was not a good Southerner in that he was
opposed to secession, and he was willing to fight anything that might have led to
secession. He therefore opposed annexing Texas, which would add another slave state
and cause more divisiveness. His stance on this made him hated by his fellow

Southerners. Benton also refused to take part in debates in the Senate on slavery that
he felt were aimed only at uniting the Southern states and dividing the country. He
became vastly unpopular, and ended up losing his senate seat in Missouri. Thomas
Benton described himself like this, I am Southern by my birth--Southern by my
convictions, interests and connections, and I shall abide the fate of the South in
everthing in which she has right on her side (118). Because of his audacity to not side
with his fellow Southerners on every issue, he took tremendous abuse, and was turned
against.

Kennedys Profiles In Courage is well-written and uses lots of dialogue and old journal
entries, which effectively paints each situation clearly. It also analyzes that political
courage has tremendous cost. The first three Senators all paid tremendous political
costs. Each refused to conform to the beliefs of others, but rather continued in their fight
for what they believed to be right. Political courage is extremely costly, and it very often
is fruitless, but when one looks back on it many years later, one cannot help but find it
extremely admirable, no matter what the person was fighting for.