„My Američané, nemáme žádné pověření od Boha, abychom se chovali jako světový policajt.“
Zdroj: [Brož, Ivan, 2012, Encyklopedie amerických prezidentů, Nakladatelství XYZ, 189, 978-80-7388-629-5]
Benjamin Harrison byl 23. prezident Spojených států, příslušník Republikánské strany.
Než nastoupil do funkce, byl senátorem za stát Indiana. Od svých politických oponentů si vysloužil přezdívky Kid Gloves a Little Ben . Benjamin Harrison vládl čtyři roky. Jeho předchůdcem i následovníkem byl Grover Cleveland.
Byl vnukem Williama Henryho Harrisona, devátého prezidenta USA, a synem kongresmana Johna Scotta Harrisona. Vystudoval práva na Miami University a provozoval advokátní praxi, zúčastnil se občanské války v řadách Cumberlandské armády a získal hodnost brigádního generála.
V prezidentských volbách roku 1888 získal o téměř sto tisíc hlasů méně než Grover Cleveland, ve Sboru volitelů však měl převahu 233 ku 168. Jeho působení ve funkci byly charakterizováno silným protekcionismem, prosadil výrazné zvýšení dovozních cel, tzv. McKinleyův tarif. Příjmy z cel byly použity na penze pro válečné veterány. Za jeho prezidentování poprvé překročil státní rozpočet hranici miliardy dolarů, proto se tehdejšímu Kongresu říkalo Billion Dollar Congress. Také byl přijat Shermanův zákon, snažící se omezit vliv trustů. Prezident Harrison prosazoval energickou zahraniční politiku, investoval do armády a námořnictva, svolal jednání o užší integraci amerických států, usiloval o připojení Havaje a pokoušel se intervenovat v občanské válce v Chile. Snažil se omezit přistěhovalectví, za jeho vlády byla zřízena stanice na Ellis Islandu, prověřující zájemce o vstup do země. Harrison také chtěl udělit Afroameričanům volební právo, nepodařilo se mu však zlomit nesouhlas jižanských států. Vedl válku se Siouxy, v roce 1890 došlo k masakru u Wounded Knee. Během Harrisonova prezidentování došlo k rozvoji oblastí na západě, do Unie byly přijaty nové státy Severní Dakota, Jižní Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho a Wyoming. Podepsal zákon, který umožňoval státu vyvlastnit lesy, jejichž ochrana bude ve veřejném zájmu.
Byl prvním americkým prezidentem, jehož hlas byl zaznamenán fonografem, a také nechal do Bílého domu zavést elektřinu. Byl posledním prezidentem, který během působení ve funkci nosil plnovous.
V roce 1908 byla v Indianapolis odhalena jeho socha od Charlese Henryho Niehause. Byla po něm také pojmenována vojenská základna Fort Benjamin Harrison a loď třídy Liberty SS Benjamin Harrison.
Wikipedia
„My Američané, nemáme žádné pověření od Boha, abychom se chovali jako světový policajt.“
Zdroj: [Brož, Ivan, 2012, Encyklopedie amerických prezidentů, Nakladatelství XYZ, 189, 978-80-7388-629-5]
“I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth”
Speech in Rutland, Vermont (28 August 1891) as reported in The New York Times (29 August 1891), p. 5 http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9D01E0DD1339E033A2575AC2A96E9C94609ED7CF
Kontext: I cannot always sympathize with that demand which we hear so frequently for cheap things. Things may be too cheap. They are too cheap when the man or woman who produces them upon the farm or the man or woman who produces them in the factory does not get out of them living wages with a margin for old age and for a dowry for the incidents that are to follow. I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth or shapes it into a garment will starve in the process.
Inaugural address (1889)
Kontext: Is it not quite possible that the farmers and the promoters of the great mining and manufacturing enterprises which have recently been established in the South may yet find that the free ballot of the workingman, without distinction of race, is needed for their defense as well as for his own? I do not doubt that if those men in the South who now accept the tariff views of Clay and the constitutional expositions of Webster would courageously avow and defend their real convictions they would not find it difficult, by friendly instruction and cooperation, to make the black man their efficient and safe ally, not only in establishing correct principles in our national administration, but in preserving for their local communities the benefits of social order and economical and honest government. At least until the good offices of kindness and education have been fairly tried the contrary conclusion can not be plausibly urged.
First State of the Union Address (1889)
Kontext: When and under what conditions is the black man to have a free ballot? When is he in fact to have those full civil rights which have so long been his in law? When is that equality of influence which our form of government was intended to secure to the electors to be restored? This generation should courageously face these grave questions, and not leave them as a heritage of woe to the next. The consultation should proceed with candor, calmness, and great patience, upon the lines of justice and humanity, not of prejudice and cruelty. No question in our country can be at rest except upon the firm base of justice and of the law.
Inaugural address (1889)
Kontext: The virtues of courage and patriotism have given recent proof of their continued presence and increasing power in the hearts and over the lives of our people. The influences of religion have been multiplied and strengthened. The sweet offices of charity have greatly increased. The virtue of temperance is held in higher estimation. We have not attained an ideal condition. Not all of our people are happy and prosperous; not all of them are virtuous and law-abiding. But on the whole the opportunities offered to the individual to secure the comforts of life are better than are found elsewhere and largely better than they were here one hundred years ago.
Inaugural address (1889)
Kontext: Shall the prejudices and paralysis of slavery continue to hang upon the skirts of progress? How long will those who rejoice that slavery no longer exists cherish or tolerate the incapacities it put upon their communities? I look hopefully to the continuance of our protective system and to the consequent development of manufacturing and mining enterprises in the States hitherto wholly given to agriculture as a potent influence in the perfect unification of our people. The men who have invested their capital in these enterprises, the farmers who have felt the benefit of their neighborhood, and the men who work in shop or field will not fail to find and to defend a community of interest.
Inaugural address (1889)
Kontext: There is no constitutional or legal requirement that the President shall take the oath of office in the presence of the people, but there is so manifest an appropriateness in the public induction to office of the chief executive officer of the nation that from the beginning of the Government the people, to whose service the official oath consecrates the officer, have been called to witness the solemn ceremonial. The oath taken in the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant. The officer covenants to serve the whole body of the people by a faithful execution of the laws, so that they may be the unfailing defense and security of those who respect and observe them, and that neither wealth, station, nor the power of combinations shall be able to evade their just penalties or to wrest them from a beneficent public purpose to serve the ends of cruelty or selfishness.
First State of the Union Address (1889)
First State of the Union Address (1889)
First State of the Union Address (1889)
As quoted in A Call to America : Inspiring and Empowering Quotations from the 43 presidents of the United States (2002) by Bryan Curtis
“We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.”
Statement of 1888, as quoted in Treasury of Presidential Quotations (1964) by Caroline T. Hamsberger
First State of the Union Address (1889)
As quoted in "The Status of Annexed Territory and of its Free Civilized Inhabitants" (1901), North American Review, vol. 172, no. 530 (January 1901), p. 22.