Profiles in Courage

Profiles in Courage is a book by John F. Kennedy, describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight American senators from throughout the senate?s history. Those profiled crossed party lines and/or defied the public opinion of their constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and a loss in popularity because of their actions.

List of senators profiled

• John Quincy Adams from Massachusetts, for breaking away from the Federalist Party.
• Daniel Webster also from Massachusetts, for speaking in favor of the Compromise of 1850.
• Thomas Hart Benton from Missouri, for a lifetime of individualism and stubbornness.
• Sam Houston from Texas, for speaking against the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
• Edmund G. Ross from Kansas, for voting against the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, thus saving Johnson?s presidency.
• Lucius Lamar from Mississippi, for eulogizing Charles Sumner on the Senate Floor and other efforts to mend ties between the North and South during Reconstruction.
• George Norris from Nebraska, for speaking out against arming U.S. merchant ships during the United State?s neutral period in World War I.
• Robert A. Taft from Ohio, for criticizing the Nuremberg Trials for trying Nazi war criminals under what Taft considered ex post facto laws.