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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPresident Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon 50 years ago today.
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President Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon 50 years ago today.
I have promised to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best that I can for America. https://presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-signing-proclamation-granting-pardon-richard-nixon
September 08, 1974
Ladies and gentlemen:
I have come to a decision which I felt I should tell you and all of my fellow American citizens, as soon as I was certain in my own mind and in my own conscience that it is the right thing to do.
I have learned already in this office that the difficult decisions always come to this desk. I must admit that many of them do not look at all the same as the hypothetical questions that I have answered freely and perhaps too fast on previous occasions.
My customary policy is to try and get all the facts and to consider the opinions of my countrymen and to take counsel with my most valued friends. But these seldom agree, and in the end, the decision is mine. To procrastinate, to agonize, and to wait for a more favorable turn of events that may never come or more compelling external pressures that may as well be wrong as right, is itself a decision of sorts and a weak and potentially dangerous course for a President to follow.
I have promised to uphold the Constitution, to do what is right as God gives me to see the right, and to do the very best that I can for America.
I have asked your help and your prayers, not only when I became President but many times since. The Constitution is the supreme law of our land and it governs our actions as citizens. Only the laws of God, which govern our consciences, are superior to it.
As we are a nation under God, so I am sworn to uphold our laws with the help of God. And I have sought such guidance and searched my own conscience with special diligence to determine the right thing for me to do with respect to my predecessor in this place, Richard Nixon, and his loyal wife and family.
Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it. I have concluded that only I can do that, and if I can, I must.
There are no historic or legal precedents to which I can turn in this matter, none that precisely fit the circumstances of a private citizen who has resigned the Presidency of the United States. But it is common knowledge that serious allegations and accusations hang like a sword over our former President's head, threatening his health as he tries to reshape his life, a great part of which was spent in the service of this country and by the mandate of its people.
After years of bitter controversy and divisive national debate, I have been advised, and I am compelled to conclude that many months and perhaps more years will have to pass before Richard Nixon could obtain a fair trial by jury in any jurisdiction of the United States under governing decisions of the Supreme Court.
I deeply believe in equal justice for all Americans, whatever their station or former station. The law, whether human or divine, is no respecter of persons; but the law is a respecter of reality.
The facts, as I see them, are that a former President of the United States, instead of enjoying equal treatment with any other citizen accused of violating the law, would be cruelly and excessively penalized either in preserving the presumption of his innocence or in obtaining a speedy determination of his guilt in order to repay a legal debt to society.
During this long period of delay and potential litigation, ugly passions would again be aroused. And our people would again be polarized in their opinions. And the credibility of our free institutions of government would again be challenged at home and abroad.
In the end, the courts might well hold that Richard Nixon had been denied due process, and the verdict of history would even more be inconclusive with respect to those charges arising out of the period of his Presidency, of which I am presently aware.
But it is not the ultimate fate of Richard Nixon that most concerns me, though surely it deeply troubles every decent and every compassionate person. My concern is the immediate future of this great country.
In this, I dare not depend upon my personal sympathy as a long-time friend of the former President, nor my professional judgment as a lawyer, and I do not.
As President, my primary concern must always be the greatest good of all the people of the United States whose servant I am. As a man, my first consideration is to be true to my own convictions and my own conscience.
My conscience tells me clearly and certainly that I cannot prolong the bad dreams that continue to reopen a chapter that is closed. My conscience tells me that only I, as President, have the constitutional power to firmly shut and seal this book. My conscience tells me it is my duty, not merely to proclaim domestic tranquillity but to use every means that I have to insure it.
I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right.
I do believe that right makes might and that if I am wrong, 10 angels swearing I was right would make no difference.
I do believe, with all my heart and mind and spirit, that I, not as President but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy.
Finally, I feel that Richard Nixon and his loved ones have suffered enough and will continue to suffer, no matter what I do, no matter what we, as a great and good nation, can do together to make his goal of peace come true.
[At this point, the President began reading from the proclamation granting the pardon.]
"Now, therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from July (January) 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974."
[The President signed the proclamation and then resumed reading.]
"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety ninth."
doc03
(37,103 posts)we have Trump today.
I was thinking.
2naSalit
(94,087 posts)The greatest mistakes of the 20th century.
Still pissed off after all these years.
lastlib
(25,061 posts)Also - - - - - - Still pissed off after all these years. - - - - - -
ProfessorGAC
(71,014 posts)To me, this was especially egregious because many people went to jail over this, but the head of the team skated.
doc03
(37,103 posts)was worse but pardoning Nixon was certainly one of them.
harumph
(2,437 posts)The higher you ascend in poltitics and business, the more accountable you should become for illegal actions.
We have justice completely upside down in this country.
LittleGirl
(8,506 posts)I was 14 when he announced this and frankly, I was very upset. Nixon was a crook and horrible person and Ford should have never pardoned him. I'll never forgive Nixon or Ford for that nightmare. My first vote was for Jimmy Carter and unfortunately, he lost. Because of this whole nightmare and Jimmy losing, I didn't vote for decades. If politics came on the air during the news, I would literally change the channel. I hated politics. I came to my senses and voted for Obama and I've been hooked since.
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,947 posts)IMO someone talked to him and convinced him that putting party before country was the best for all concerned. We know that hasn't worked out.
SamKnause
(13,930 posts)50 years of criminals, cons, warmongers, and liars.
The republican party (aka the trump cult are useless, destructive, and and anti-American.)
BumRushDaShow
(145,221 posts)but got there anyway due to the corrupt GOP law-breakers who he replaced.
BluenFLA
(171 posts)It set this precedent that presidents can get away for their actions and thanks to the corrupt SCOTUS this is apparently the law of the land.
The country could have dealt with a trial for Nixon and would have sent a message to future presidents about breaking the law. Just look at the actions by Reagan and the Bushes with Iran/Contra and the Iraq War. Did any of them face justice? No. It's no wonder Trump went hog wild once he got into the Oval Office.