6 Presidential Addresses 



be done and of the limitations under which it must 

 be done, but those who know least. 



In the aggregate, quite as much wrong is com 

 mitted by improper denunciation of public servants 

 who do well as by failure to attack those who do 

 ill. There is every reason why the President, who 

 ever he may be and to whatever party he may be 

 long, should be held to a sharp accountability alike 

 for what he does and for what he leaves undone. 

 But we injure ourselves and the nation if we fail to 

 treat with proper respect the man, whether he is po 

 litically opposed to us or not, who in the highest 

 office in our land is striving to do his duty according 

 to the strength that is in him. 



We have had Presidents who have acted very 

 weakly or unwisely in particular crises. We have 

 had Presidents the sum of whose work has not been 

 to the advantage of the Republic. But we have 

 never had one concerning whose personal integrity 

 there was so much as a shadow of a suspicion, or 

 who has not been animated by an earnest desire 

 to do the best possible work that he could for the 

 people at large. Of course infirmity of purpose or 

 wrong-headedness may mar this integrity and sin 

 cerity of intention; but the integrity and the good 

 intentions have always existed. We have never 

 had in the Presidential chair any man who did not 

 sincerely desire to benefit the people and whose own 

 personal ambitions were not entirely honorable, al 

 though as much can not be said for certain aspirants 

 for the place, such as Aaron Burr. 



