Sublime

Which was not strictly true—Johnson never found anything gladdening about political defeat. But it says much about his commitment to doing the right thing that he was willing even to entertain the possibility of sacrificing the presidency itself for the cause of a single bill.

In his memoirs, Johnson recalled that the “applause was less than overwhelming. But I was in it, and I had to continue. I wanted the whole nation to know how profoundly animosity and hatred waste the common effort and dissipate the common energy.” He could, he recalled, “only say what I deeply believed. I spoke off the cuff and from the heart.” An