Holman W. Jenkins Jr. Quotes
Humanity never met a dictator or demagogue who said, “I’m a bad person. I want to do bad things.” The worst among us always feel justified.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
Perhaps the most famous quotation in all of Political Science is this one. What is fascinating is that 74 years earlier, Shelly, the most famous of the English Poets expressed the same idea in one of his great poems. See {627920}. The last sentence of this quote is often excluded.
Fremont and some of the Radical Republicans wanted Lincoln immediately to declare the slaves of the rebelling states free. As a major general in charge of an area, he wrote a military order emancipating all the slaves in his jurisdiction. President Lincoln countermanded the order as soon as he found out. He wanted Fremont to only free the slaves whose owners were actively working against the union. Lincoln needed to hold the border states like Maryland in the Union and was working on a plan whereby slave owners who were loyal to the Union would be economically compensated when their slaves were freed. If loyal slaveholders in Fremont’s area would lose their slaves with no compensation, Lincoln feared that the otherwise loyal border states would be driven to the confederacy thus shifting the balance of power. Lincoln had his own plan for emancipation and would not allow Fremont to alter that. As a result of this speech, the Radical Republicans nominated Fremont to run against Lincoln. For a few weeks he looked like he would run, but then he and Lincoln made a deal. Lincoln fired Montgomery Blair, Fremont’s arch enemy, from the cabinet, and Fremont withdrew from the election.
Roosevelt, after refusing to run for a third term in 1908, decided to run in 1912:
The Priest was the right wing demagogic radio host of his day. Virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Black, he was threatened with excommunication by the Catholic Church, which finally ordered him to cease us weekly radio show and stop the political hate.
Arguing the need to limit the power of the legislature:
He was expelled from Parliament for such.
Historically, most dictators have announced their worst intentions and in many cases were not believed by much of the world who then learned that they had made a serious error.
He served a 20 year sentence. Unlike many of the other Nazis, upon reflection of his experience, he came to realize the wisdom of Lord Acton’s observation about power. See {292904}.
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. is a columnist, editorial writer and member of the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. He writes the twice-weekly column, "Business World," which appears in the paper and online every Wednesday and Saturday. He earned a bachelor's degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges and a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Aside from writing for The Wall Street Journal, he has also written for Policy Review and National Review.
