"If nominated, I will not run...if elected, I will not serve."
Michael
quote-- his history recollection is superior to mine, so my inclination is to
defer to him. Regardless, I'm interested in getting to the bottom of this, and
am looking for help.
The quote: "If nominated, I will not run...if elected, I will not serve"
(perhaps off by a word or two, but at least very close to that) was used by an
American political figure. My friend says it was stated by Lyndon Johnson. I
had believed the quote to be much older-- and for some reason i thought it was
stated by General Sherman in the 19th century.
Can anyone either--
1) shed some light on this, with a fairly definitive answer, or else
2) send me a link or website to help me fid out for myself?
Many thanks for any responses-- please send by email if possible.
Thanks,
Michael
/ QuikSand
The Sanity Inspector
was,
"If nominated by either party, I should preemptorily decline,
and even if unanimously elected, I should decline to serve."
This has been polished by time into the more familiar lines
today.
Obquote:
Sherman is not only a great soldier, but a great man. He is
one of the very great men in our country's history. He is an orator
with few superiors. As a writer he is among the first. As a general I
know of no man I would put above him. Above all - he has a fine
character - so frank, so sincere, so outspoken, so genuine. There is
not a false line in Sherman's character - nothing to regret.
--Ulysses S. Grant
--
bruce
The dignified don't even enter in the game.
--The Jam
Daniel P. B. Smith
quik...@aol.com (Michael) wrote:
> The quote: "If nominated, I will not run...if elected, I will not serve"
> (perhaps off by a word or two, but at least very close to that) was used
> by an American political figure. My friend says it was stated by Lyndon
> Johnson. I had believed the quote to be much older-- and for some reason i thought
> it was stated by General Sherman in the 19th century.
You're correct, it's Sherman, and The Sanity Inspector has already given
the correct words that Sherman wrote. (The way you have quoted it is a
"familiar misquotation.") I would add two things:
1) The phrase "Sherman statement" is sometimes used to mean "an
unequivocal denial of Presidential aspiration." Thus when someone
bruited about as Presidential possibility is acting coy and falsely
modest, reporters may try to call his bluff by saying "Are you willing
to make a 'Sherman statement?'"
2) Lyndon Johnson's words (scarfed from a Web search at
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/ops/vietnam.htm--though I
could quote the last line from memory:)
I do not believe that I should devote an hour or
a day of my time to any personal partisan
causes or to any duties other than the awesome
duties of this office -- the presidency of your
country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will
not accept, the nomination of my party for
another term as your president."
I remember this VERY distinctly. I hated Johnson and regarded him as
far and away the most dishonest man to hold the office of President in
my lifetime, Nixon and Clinton not excepted. I remember him declaring
solemnly that United States was ready to meet for negotiations with the
North Vietnamese at "any time and any place." I was out of touch doing
zoology field work for three weeks, and came back to hear that the North
Vietnamese had indeed proposed a DOZEN times and places--and Johnson had
rejected every single one of them.
So, they announced that Johnson would be making a major speech on
Vietnam that evening, and for the first and only time in my life, I set
up my tape recorder and taped it. He began, "Mah fellow Americans, I
have come to talk with you tonight of peace in Southeast Asia." Peace!
from the single man most responsible for the Vietnam war... Anyway, the
speech went on through the usual platitudes and crocodile tears and
then, at the end, he suddenly made this statement--which, as far as I
know, nobody was expecting and nobody was prepared for. My roommates
and I looked at each other in astonishment.
"Did he just say what I thought I heard him say?" one of them says.
"Gee, I think so," I said, "but I'm not sure." I backed up the tape and
replayed. Everyone in the room listened. And applauded. And then
began speculating on just HOW he was going to weasel his way out of this
one--because none of us believed for a second that he was serious.
--
Daniel P. B. Smith
current email address: dpbs...@bellatlantic.net
"Lifetime forwarding address:" dpbs...@alum.mit.edu
Dave Kifer
I remember it, but less distinctly, because I heard it at second
or third remove, probably on tape over Armed Forces Radio - Vietnam.
Whatever I thought of it at the time was not important enough to
make mention of it in my notebook or letters. Other things the man
was doing at the same time had more local impact. I might argue just
who was responsible for *starting* the war, though I won't argue that
LBJ was very much responsible for *losing* it. Ho Chi Minh, John Kennedy,
Robert McNamara, even good old Harry Truman and Ike, and a host of
other people had a great deal more to do with *starting* the war,
creating the circumstances making combat inevitable and committing
the first troops. LBJ simply screwed up actually running the war,
and I hope his ass is roasting for it!
The speech happened on the evening of 31 March 1968 in DC. Given the
working of the dateline as we have just watched with y2k, it may have
been very early morning of 1 April on the playing fields of the
Southeast Asia War Games:
Obquote:
"Sunday, 31 March, we spent the morning tearing down some old perimeter
bunkers, bunkers we had stayed in when we first arrived twenty-nine days
earlier, that were now surrounded by the compound. We were given the
afternoon off. Guard duty that night was quiet, but we were upset to hear
that President Johnson had stopped the bombing of North Vietnam.
[....]
April Fool's Day. 291 days to rotation as I made my first calculation of
the countdown that everyone made for themselves in Vietnam, and thought
I showed remarkable restraint by not starting my countdown on day 395.
I counted to thirteen months as the maximum time possible...."
--David C Kifer, excerpts of Vietnam journal
Dave USMC '66-'69 Vietnam '68
"Tam multi libri, tam breve tempus!"
(Et brevis pecunia.) [Et breve spatium.]
Kurt Foster
<choll...@mindspring.com> said:
[snip]
. Obquote:
. Sherman is not only a great soldier, but a great man. He is one of
. the very great men in our country's history. He is an orator with few
. superiors. As a writer he is among the first. As a general I know of
. no man I would put above him. Above all - he has a fine character - so
. frank, so sincere, so outspoken, so genuine. There is not a false line
. in Sherman's character - nothing to regret.
. -- Ulysses S. Grant
This reminds me of something attributed to Sherman in the PBS program
"The Civil War". After a meeting called by President Lincoln to discuss
strategy for ending the war and after, Sherman expressed his admiration
for Lincoln, saying something like, "Of all the men I have met, he showed
more of the qualities, both of greatness and of goodness, than any other."