[A message from the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site. Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States and a member of the Ohio Alpha Chapter of Phi Delta Theta at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.]

January 6, 2021

Dear Presidential Site Friends, Neighbors, and fellow Citizens,

Today’s demonstrations began as an expression of first amendment rights. But the afternoon’s violence at the U.S. Capitol was an unacceptable assault on our American system of self-government, and merits formal condemnation and censure. We deserve better as a country, and we must hold each other accountable if we are to carry on this grand experiment in self-government started by the founders over two centuries ago.

Political strife has wracked our country before—and will again—but our greatest strength remains in the rule of law, and the bulwark of justice embodied in our constitution. Few American presidents have articulated these core principles as thoughtfully and persuasively as Benjamin Harrison, as he did post-presidency in Old Forge, New York, on July 27, 1895. The following excerpt, while lengthy, is well worth reading:

“…(A)fter all the discomforts and inconveniences which this depressing day impresses upon us, I am glad to know that your patriotism has triumphed. That your love of the flag is not of the fair weather kind.

And, after all this beautiful emblem of liberty never shines so well as when its background is dark…

That flag stands to us for a sentiment for institutions. In itself-in the combination of colors that made it, in the bunting of silk of which it is made, there is nothing. It is what it stands for that makes it dear to us. It is not this land of ours, wide and rich as it is; it is not this wonderful scenery that opens to us here-these mountain peaks, these great lakes, these enticing summer grounds, nor the great plains of the west, where, while we rest, the farmer is pushing the plow to fill the grainaries to feed the world; it is not this stretch of land, these rivers and mountains; it is not the products of these; it is not Wall Street; it is not the produce exchange; it is not bulk meats; It is nothing that has bulk. It is something that lives in the heart; it is an enshrined sentiment that makes this flag, and it stands for a glorious history…

It speaks to us of Lexington and Concord, of Valley Forge, of Saratoga, of Yorktown, and of all these great achievements. We look upon it and think of Washington. We look again and see the benign face of Abraham Lincoln. We look again, and Grant and Sherman and Sheridan are revealed to us. We see upon its folds the story of Vicksburg and Chickamauga and Chattanooga, of Gettysburg and Appomattox. It is this story that is woven into it that makes it precious to us. It is the thought that it inspires. It is that for which it stands—A union of states, a government of the people, for they made it; by the people for they conduct it; and for the people for it has missed its object if it does not accomplish their good.

It stands for a government of law for a civil organization; for a constitution that has assigned powers. It stands for the thought that our people have pledged their loyalty to a system of laws of their own making, subject to be changed by them; but, while they are laws, demanding the allegiance of every man and woman in the country…

What can any man do against that flag? Let him have mounted ever so high on the roll of honor; let him have entrenched himself ever so strongly in the affections of the people – if he lifts his hand against that flag, he falls at once.

He can lead no following against it or against our free institutions. We have not forgotten as a people to esteem and honor greatness in men. We have a veneration, deep, abiding and fervent for the great men who have served this country; but we love them because they have served it. No one of them has been so great that he could steal away the hearts of the people from their love of it. We have in this at once the explanation of the guarantee of the performance of our civil institutions.

Why is it that that the South American countries that have imitated our example and organized republican governments, have been so racked and tortured with revolutions. It is because they have not learned this great lesson-to give their affections and allegiance to institutions, to a constitution and not to a man. In their impetuosity, in their wild, unregulated thoughts of liberty, they follow a cockade, and are continually led into revolution.

I congratulate you, my countrymen, that it has become our settled habit to give our love to institutions, to the institutions for which that beautiful emblem stands…”

As a non-partisan presidential site, it is incumbent upon us to call on our fellow citizens near and far to remember their allegiance and pledged loyalties. History demands no less, and we owe it to future generations to fiercely guard their liberties, as almost a half billion citizens of this great country have sought to do before us in ways large and small.

We are Americans, and our allegiance is to the constitution. Our “love of the flag is not of the fair weather kind.”

Very sincerely yours,
Charles A. Hyde
President & CEO
Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site
https://bhpsite.org/