“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher.” — Abraham Lincoln, 1838 Voltaire once said, “Common sense is not so common.” Nearly three centuries later, that...

I recently read about a group of explorers who located a ship deep beneath the dark, cold waters off Antarctica: a vessel whose very name says a great deal about the man who once led her. Ernest Shackleton’s greatness didn’t come from a great feat. It came from the humility to set aside his own ambition the moment his men...

During his years in wartime London, U.S. Ambassador John Gilbert Winant absorbed the suffering around him. He was known for walking the streets during the Blitz, talking with ordinary people, sharing in their daily fears, helping to strengthen their resolve. Londoners remembered him for his compassion and accessibility. Historians consistently note how deeply he internalized the city’s suffering. He carried...

John Gilbert Winant was one of the rarest of figures in public life: a three-term Republican governor from New Hampshire whose leadership wasn’t calculated but instinctive; a public servant who treated humility as a strength, and a diplomat who put principle ahead of political convenience. Yet for all the steadiness he gave to others, he struggled to find a place...

“There’s a difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.” United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said that. But it was not part of any written Supreme Court opinion or legal case. While it’s been widely quoted as Stewart’s judicial philosophy, there is no record of it in any official Supreme Court...

Moments of character often define a person—sometimes even a nation. I first came across Senator Ross’s story when reading President Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage. What I discovered was that political courage was as difficult then as it is today. Throughout our history, politicians have faced those defining moments when principle collides with pressure, when conscience demands both courage and character....

I happened across Frances Perkins while searching files at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library. She was the first woman in U.S. history to serve in a cabinet post, as Secretary of Labor under the most consequential president of the era. She shined brightest, not in seeking headlines, but in advancing the rights and well-being of ordinary Americans. Born in...

In addition to dismantling federal agencies and undercutting states’ rights, Donald Trump has launched a systematic assault on the foundations of American democracy. He’s attacked the independence of the judiciary and the free press, politicized the Justice Department and intelligence agencies, and weakened the system of checks and balances meant to safeguard the republic. In Trump world, the ideals of...

How do we reconcile the integrity of a leader to whom service to the country was exemplary, but held slaves in service to him? Washington D.C. is far too often remembered for its scandals than its triumphs—a reality that would have stunned and saddened our first president. Yet history’s true measure lies with those who chose conscience over expedience, and...

“The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.” – Henry David Thoreau I first read Walden back in high school. At the start, the pace felt slow, but once I settled into the rhythm, I was pulled in. Henry David Thoreau wasn’t simply a nature lover; he was...