About this Item
Exhibited at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential SiteFeatured on the Inspired by History podcast?Our research has failed to turn up even one other delivered manuscript ? The Reading Copy ? of an Inaugural Address having reached the market.?https://vimeo.com/1012299840?share=copy?When George Washington delivered an inaugural address in 1789, he created a precedent that every President has followed since. The address is the first official act of the new President following the swearing in, and sets the tone for his administration. People flock from all over the country to be present when the President lays forth his vision, and in the age of radio and television, untold millions hear or watch the historic moments themselves.Some inaugural addresses are great speeches still quoted today. Abraham Lincoln?s second inaugural address famously called for healing a torn nation, saying ?With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation?s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.?In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt reanimated faith in a Depression-scarred country, opining ?We have nothing to fear but fear itself.? And in 1961, John F. Kennedy inspirationally declared, ?And so my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you?ask what you can do for your country.? The inaugural address is the embodiment of the President, and his plans and hopes for the future. It is also a great tribute and reaffirmation to our political system.Today?s inauguration is read from a teleprompter. A manuscript may exist somewhere, but it is a draft. Historically, Presidents held paper speeches. Some of these ?reading copies,? the actual speeches held and read by the Presidents during the address, still survive. The Franklin Roosevelt Museum and Library has his. Abraham Lincoln?s is at the Library of Congress. So is the one delivered by Thomas Jefferson. The National Archives, which also is the umbrella for the many Presidential libraries, has John Kennedy?s reading copy. Our research did not disclose a surviving reading copy not in an institution.President Benjamin Harrison and a Political DynastyThe Harrison family is a political dynasty. For generations, from the dawn of our country until the 20th century, its members served the public good, long before the Kennedys or the Bushes or Roosevelts. Two Harrisons were President. Benjamin Harrison was the great-grandson of Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, and son of Congressman John Scott Harrison. During the Civil War, Benjamin was a Colonel commanding the 70th Indiana Regiment, which served with Sherman in the Atlanta campaign and participated in the major battles there. In the midst of that campaign he was promoted to command a brigade in the 20th Corps. Late in 1864 the unit was transferred to Gen. George Thomas? army and fought at Nashville. After the war Harrison returned to Indiana to practice law, and being from a prominent political family, soon became involved in Republican politics. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1880 and served in that body from 1881-1887. During his term Harrison was a prominent spokesperson for his party, supporting high tariffs to bring in revenue, and advocating spending the money on internal improvements to expand American business and industry, and generous pensions for veterans and their widows. Believing that education was necessary to help the black population rise to political and economic equality with whites, he supported aid for education. And bucking his party, he opposed the Chinese Exclusion Act. He showed real courage at that time in standing up for both black and Chinese Americans, when it was anything but popula.
Seller Inventory # 7725
Contact seller
Report this item
