By Ed Smith
Historian Jon Meacham offered an insightful and oftentimes humorous perspective on the key elements of leadership at the closing General Session of the 2015 Legislative Summit in Seattle.
The author of the best-selling “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power” at one point offered this rather unusual take on the Declaration of Independence.
“The Declaration of Independence is a subcommittee report,” he said to much laughter. “That’s kind of depressing when you go back to your subcommittee.”
More than that, Meacham explained, the document was a profound break with the political and philosophical perspective of the day. Jefferson, drawing on the Enlightenment, produced a document that called for a profound shift from hereditary privilege to one that elevated individual destiny and reason.
“The vessel for that shift was the pen of Thomas Jefferson,” he said, at the time a 33-year-old from Virginia.
It was a document that demonstrated the first of the lessons he said the legislators in the room should draw from history: “Great political leaders seem to be in tune with the culture and the intellectual currents of their times.”
The second lesson is to learn on the job and from mistakes. John F. Kennedy’s ability to learn from the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 led him to behave differently when he encountered the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Had he not, Meacham said, 100 million Americans might have died in a nuclear holocaust.
Similarly, Jefferson’s inaction in the face of British invasion when he was governor of Virginia later shaped his thinking when he saw the opportunity to make the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon. Instead of trying to amend the Constitution to allow the purchase—his first instinct—he decided instead to act boldly and assume the power to himself. It was a precedent later presidents looked to as they expanded the power of the executive.
And finally, Meacham said, never forget the crucial element of compromise. From Andrew Jackson to Abraham Lincoln to Ronald Reagan, all were masters of the art.
Reagan, who famously called the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” later stood in Red Square and forged a deal with the Soviets.
“He understood of strength and seeming implacability would have the desired effect to shake up the Soviet Union.”
In a closing note sure to resonate with those who deal with the sharp elbows of politics on a daily basis, he said: “You have to be able to deal with reality as it comes to you. If you insist on 100 percent you’re not going to last very long.”
Ed Smith is NCSL’s director of Digital Communications.
Email Ed