To the editor:

I have just finished reading John Meacham’s 2018 book “The Soul of America,” and recommend it to anyone. He relates how great leaders and the nation surmounted crises in our history and how their successes can encourage us in any current crisis. It is not overtly political, reporting positively on Republicans (Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt) and Democrats (Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon Johnson). There is a statement near the end: On page 269 he quotes The Kansas City Star of May 7, 1918, reporting a statement of Theodore Roosevelt,

“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

Gus McClelland,

Lawrence