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Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Herbert H. Lehman
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| Parent | Parent Candidate |
| Contributor | Thomas Walker |
| Post Date | , 12:am |
| Description | Herbert H. Lehman (1878-1963) entered politics in 1928. Franklin Roosevelt, aspiring to be Governor of New York, convinced Lehman to join him on the Democratic Party ticket as a candidate for the office of lieutenant Governor. Lehman spent the next 35 years of his life dedicated to public service.
While Roosevelt catapulted into the presidency during the 1932 elections, the voters of New York elected Lehman to the governorship by a wide margin over his Republican opponent.
Remarks at the Presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Posthumously to Herbert H. Lehman
January 28, 1964
Mr. Secretary, Mrs. Lehman, members of the family, and friends of Herbert Lehman, ladies and gentlemen:
In December, one of my first and most rewarding acts was to confer the Presidential Medal of Freedom for distinguished achievements on 33 individuals. The brilliance of that occasion was marred by the absence of two men: John Kennedy, who conceived and planned these new civil honors, and Herbert Lehman, whose death in New York occurred just minutes before his departure to Washington to receive this award from a grateful Nation.
Today it is altogether fitting that in special ceremony we present Herbert Lehman's Medal of Freedom to the one person who shared his life and his hopes, his triumphs and his disappointments, who was always with him in sunshine and in sorrow. Edith Lehman was the indispensable companion. When the days were dark or the mornings seemed far away, Edith Lehman was always there. No one knows this better than the friends of Herbert Lehman who are gathered here today.
The Nation is diminished when a patriot dies. Senator Lehman was an unusual man. He believed in the worth of the human being. He rejoiced and he agonized in the cause of freedom. He was civilized and calm when all around him were confused. He did not accept the view of the grey-minded and the doom-hangers that the corrupted currents of this world would overwhelm us.
He believed, as Aristotle had said, that excellence is much labored for by the race of man. He believed in the goodness and the rightness of the individual citizen and in that arena he fought his long fight. What a happy legacy he leaves to his family and to his State and to his Nation, an estate that will always endure, for it consists of love and loyalty for his country.
Under Secretary of State George W. Ball: Mr. President, the citation.
THE PRESIDENT [reading].
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