Three times elected officials did the right thing.

It's not actually that difficult.

Now that chaos seems to be fully back in the national driver’s seat, it’s really too bad our politicians seem so helpless. I mean, you hear stories all the time about regular everyday people risking discomfort, reputation and even their lives to help a stranger in need. We just never hear about those whose job it is to help do anything more heroic than crossing their fingers.

There are actually countless histories of American politicians putting themselves at risk to do the right thing—and they aren’t all legendary Black heroes like Robert Smalls, either. We just don’t hear about them. I guess if we did, we might expect more out of our own elected officials… Anyway, here are three of my faves!

Oliver Morton

Do you think the photographer chose to focus on his beard, or do you think it was a request from Oliver himself?

Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton not only had one hell of a name, but was one hell of a dude. Governor of Indiana during the Civil War, Morton hated slavery. Back then, Democrats were the ones fighting in the name of white supremacy, so when they got a majority in the Indiana legislature potentially gaining control of the state militia, they had to be stopped.

Morton’s solution was to just not call them into session. He ran the entire state by himself, acquiring loans from the Federal Government and some rich friends, handing out money from the safe in his office. Not much of what he did was exactly legal, but his actions were paramount to the Union winning the Civil War. If the South had won, he would’ve faced a brutal fate, but since they lost, he was celebrated as a hero! He quit the governorship and got elected to the Senate in 1867, where he remained for a decade as the party leader.

But you don’t have to go that far back in time to find actual heroic acts from politicians. For example…