I found myself thinking about presidential humility once again after I heard last week’s inaugural address. Its tone and pronouncements, of course, were about as far from Christian humility as one could imagine. (For instance, the first reference to God in the speech was the line “I was saved by God to make America great again”).
But can a presidential inaugural address reflect genuine humility?
Yes, it can. Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was an exercise in a humble reflection on God’s mysterious purposes in allowing both sides in the Civil War to suffer horrific casualties.
But in the twentieth century, my top contender for a genuinely humble inaugural address is the speech that Gerald Ford gave on August 9, 1974, the day that he was sworn in as the thirty-eighth president.
To a large extent, the circumstances in which Ford became president called for circumspection and modesty. Ford became president only because his predecessor, Richard Nixon, resigned as a result of the Watergate scandal. As the only president never to be elected to either the presidency or the vice-presidency, Ford was acutely aware that he could not claim a mandate from the voters.
So, instead of talking about his agenda, he talked about the importance of honesty and pledged to run a transparent administration. He emphasized the strength of the nation’s constitutional safeguards. Instead of focusing on himself, he spoke of his reverence for the office he was about to assume and for the nation’s form of government.
Rather than boast about his faith or assert that he was chosen by God, he repeatedly mentioned his need for the prayers of his fellow Americans.
And rather than assert that America’s interests came first, he pledged to seek the welfare of the entire world and to live in peace with other nations. “America will remain strong and united, but its strength will remain dedicated to the safety and sanity of the entire family of man, as well as to our own precious freedom,” he said.
But if the circumstances were partly the reason for Ford’s humility, his own character was another. Ford was never a self-promoter. He cared more about preserving institutions than advancing his own career, and he was quick to see the good in others, including his own political opponents. That’s why, for instance, he agreed to leave behind a eulogy for Jimmy Carter, the Democratic presidential candidate who defeated him in 1976. At Carter’s funeral earlier this month, that posthumous eulogy from Ford was read – just as Carter had delivered a eulogy at Ford’s own funeral, nearly twenty years earlier.
Ford’s humility probably stemmed from his temperament, but it also may have been a result of his Christian convictions. Ford rarely said much in public about his faith, but he was a devout Episcopalian who read the Bible daily while in office. His son Michael Ford attended Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. And Ford had a good relationship with the conservative Calvinists in Grand Rapids and the other parts of western Michigan that he had represented in Congress for most of his political career.
But rather than tout his own piety or attempt to use his faith for political advantage, Ford instead simply acknowledged his own need for prayer and divine help. That low-key approach didn’t resonate with all evangelical voters, but Ford did win support from some groups of conservative Protestants, especially in the Midwest. Because his former congressional district in western Michigan (which included Grand Rapids) was home to many members of the Christian Reformed Church and other Dutch Calvinist denominations, Ford was popular among many of the Christians who were affiliated with Calvin College (now Calvin University). But in most of the southern Bible Belt, he had much less support.
Yet regardless of how other Christians felt about it, I am convinced that humility was one of Ford’s most important character traits, because it is a cardinal Christian virtue.
The ancient Roman pagans did not admire humility in leaders. Nor, for that matter, did other pre-Christian societies in Europe. Humility is counterintuitive, and it makes little sense without God. If we don’t have a sense that God will defend us and deliver justice to the oppressed, we’ll be tempted to rely on our own strength to accomplish these aims. If we aren’t seeking God’s glory, we’ll probably seek our own instead.
But if we know that we belong to God and not to ourselves – and that others whom God has created do as well – we won’t have to worry so much about defending our own interests, and we will find delight in promoting things that are larger than ourselves. For a president, that will probably mean putting the country’s institutions and constitutional order ahead of their own political ambitions.
All of that, I think, is reflected in Ford’s inaugural address. That speech has not been remembered for its soaring heights of rhetoric or its magnificent promises. It contains no lines that are quite as memorable as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” or John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” But as an example of genuine humility, it is almost unequalled among presidential inaugural addresses.
For that reason, it’s worth re-reading – which is why I’ll close this post by reproducing it in its entirety.
Gerald R. Ford, August 9, 1974:
“Mr. Chief Justice, my dear friends, my fellow Americans:
“The oath that I have taken is the same oath that was taken by George Washington and by every President under the Constitution. But I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances never before experienced by Americans. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.
“Therefore, I feel it is my first duty to make an unprecedented compact with my countrymen. Not an inaugural address, not a fireside chat, not a campaign speech—just a little straight talk among friends. And I intend it to be the first of many.
“I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, and so I ask you to confirm me as your President with your prayers. And I hope that such prayers will also be the first of many.
“If you have not chosen me by secret ballot, neither have I gained office by any secret promises. I have not campaigned either for the Presidency or the Vice Presidency. I have not subscribed to any partisan platform. I am indebted to no man, and only to one woman—my dear wife—as I begin this very difficult job.
“I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it. Those who nominated and confirmed me as Vice President were my friends and are my friends. They were of both parties, elected by all the people and acting under the Constitution in their name. It is only fitting then that I should pledge to them and to you that I will be the President of all the people.
“Thomas Jefferson said the people are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. And down the years, Abraham Lincoln renewed this American article of faith asking, “Is there any better way or equal hope in the world?”
“I intend, on Monday next, to request of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate the privilege of appearing before the Congress to share with my former colleagues and with you, the American people, my views on the priority business of the Nation and to solicit your views and their views. And may I say to the Speaker and the others, if I could meet with you right after these remarks, I would appreciate it.
“Even though this is late in an election year, there is no way we can go forward except together and no way anybody can win except by serving the people’s urgent needs. We cannot stand still or slip backwards. We must go forward now together.
“To the peoples and the governments of all friendly nations, and I hope that could encompass the whole world, I pledge an uninterrupted and sincere search for peace. America will remain strong and united, but its strength will remain dedicated to the safety and sanity of the entire family of man, as well as to our own precious freedom.
“I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our Government but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad.
In all my public and private acts as your President, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.
“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.
“Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.
“As we bind up the internal wounds of Watergate, more painful and more poisonous than those of foreign wars, let us restore the golden rule to our political process, and let brotherly love purge our hearts of suspicion and of hate.
“In the beginning, I asked you to pray for me. Before closing, I ask again your prayers, for Richard Nixon and for his family. May our former President, who brought peace to millions, find it for himself. May God bless and comfort his wonderful wife and daughters, whose love and loyalty will forever be a shining legacy to all who bear the lonely burdens of the White House.
“I can only guess at those burdens, although I have witnessed at close hand the tragedies that befell three Presidents and the lesser trials of others.
“With all the strength and all the good sense I have gained from life, with all the confidence my family, my friends, and my dedicated staff impart to me, and with the good will of countless Americans I have encountered in recent visits to 40 States, I now solemnly reaffirm my promise I made to you last December 6: to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best I can for America.
“God helping me, I will not let you down.
“Thank you.”
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