February is the shortest month of the year, but it seems to have the most holidays. The number was trimmed down slightly when Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s birthday were traded out for the combined Presidents Day, which always lands on a Monday to make a long weekend. While the extra day off may be a relief to some workers and students, it has resulted in less acknowledgement of two of the finest presidents our nation has ever known, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Looking back at classic films, it’s obvious that Abraham Lincoln was the most beloved past president during the early 20th century.
Today’s moment of movie wisdom is from “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939). It takes place 90 minutes into this 129-minute film. In this scene, interim senator Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) has been disgraced, dishonored, and completely disillusioned because his character was viciously maligned to keep him from interfering with a graft-riddled bill which had been in the works for months in his state. The humiliated young patriot pays a final visit to his favorite spot in the capital, the Lincoln Memorial. His secretary and friend, Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), finds him there. She reminds him of the struggles which Lincoln and all other great men faced in their battles to make a difference, inspiring him not to give up.
“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” begins when a senator in an unnamed state dies suddenly. This sends that state’s politicians into a panic, since they are all corrupt servants of one powerful business tycoon, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold). The senior senator, Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), is trying to pass a bill including the Willet Creek dam, a neat piece of graft which will benefit Taylor. Thus, it’s crucial that they find a man who won’t interfere with the proceedings. Against the advice of Taylor and the other politicians, Governor Hopper (Guy Kibbee) appoints young Boy Ranger leader Jefferson Smith as the interim senator, arguing that he’s too naive to discover anything.
It turns out that Senator Paine was best friends with Jeff’s father, a newspaperman who was shot years ago for defending lost causes. Jeff is ecstatic to be serving his country alongside a man he idolizes, having no clue Paine compromised all his ideals years ago to stay in office. In D.C., Jeff is assigned wise-cracking secretary Saunders to keep him out of trouble. He is very eager to do something in his new position, so Paine suggests he write a bill for the boys’ camp he wants to start. Little does the slick senator know that Jeff intends to use the same property involved in the dam project. All the forces of the Taylor machine are unleashed to keep Jeff from destroying the carefully built empire. However, the once cynical Clarissa has been changed by Jeff’s idealism, so together they strive to take down the machine.
The Scene
When Jeff first arrives in Washington, he runs around town sightseeing like an excited 10-year-old tourist. His new colleagues can’t believe his innocence and enthusiasm, since they are all very hardened from years in politics. One of Jeff’s main destinations is the Lincoln Memorial. He’s so reverent and humbled to walk into the monument of a great man, who clearly is a hero and inspiration to him. During his visit, the camera shows us other visitors to the monument, taking in their faces, as Jeff is. We see a grandfather helping his young grandson read the patriotic dedication, while a black man looks on with profound gratitude for the freedom the late president helped him to enjoy.
In the scene we’re discussing today, Jeff’s mindset is completely different from what it was when he first visited the monument. While he was inspired, idealistic, and hopeful on the first visit, he is completely devastated when he returns. His bags are packed, and he’s ready to head home as a defeated man. Clarissa guesses she’ll find him there, and she observes his unstifled weeping at a distance. As she approaches him, he tries to hide his tears. After they make a little small talk, they come to the serious topics they have in mind.
Jeff tells Saunders that her impression of him as a naïve sucker was completely accurate. Now that he’s seen the dirty dealings of politics first-hand, he has lost all faith in the American ideals he cherished his whole life. Saunders is clearly saddened to see how low Jeff has sunk, but she knows that a man like him can’t give up on his beliefs so easily.
Its Significance
Saunders challenges Jeff by asking him what he will tell all the boys who look up to him. What will he say when they ask him why he quit without even trying to fight? Naturally, Jeff grows defensive, snapping, “Well, what do you expect me to do? An honorary stooge like me against the Taylors and Paines and machines and lies?”By this point in the film, Clarissa has transformed from being a bitter cynical person, as Jeff is now, to being hopeful and loving. Jeff inspired this change in her, so she knows just what to say to soften his heart:
“Your friend, Mr. Lincoln, had his Taylors and Paines. So did every other man who ever tried to lift his thought up off the ground. Odds against them didn’t stop those men. They were fools that way. All the good that ever came into this world came from fools with faith like that. You know that, Jeff. You can’t quit now! Not you. They aren’t all Taylors and Paines in Washington. That kind just throw big shadows, that’s all. You didn’t just have faith in Paine or any other living man. You had faith in something bigger than that. You had plain, decent, everyday, common rightness, and this country could use some of that. Yeah, so could the whole cockeyed world, a lot of it. Remember the first day you got here? Remember what you said about Mr. Lincoln? You said he was sitting up there, waiting for someone to come along. You were right. He was waiting for a man who could see his job and sail into it, that’s what he was waiting for. A man who could tear into the Taylors and root them out into the open. I think he was waiting for you, Jeff. He knows you can do it; so do I.”
The Spirit of Lincoln
The monuments in Washington, D.C. are much more than buildings to Jeff. He is deeply moved by their significance and the importance of the men and events they commemorate. When he is drafting his bill, he tells Saunders that he wants to put the Capitol Dome into the document. He wants the spirit of what our country represents to be alive in the words he presents to Congress, since the whole point of his bill is to make a place for boys to gain a deeper understanding of what their country represents.“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” is such a powerful film that every scene includes some moment of movie wisdom. Nevertheless, the scene in the Lincoln Moment is a crucial turning point in the story, since it’s when Jeff realizes that the bitter truth about Washington shouldn’t be his reason for surrender but his call to arms.
By this scene, his faith has been so badly shaken that he doubts the very principles on which our country was founded. We can’t blame him either. When one sees so much greed, corruption, and dishonesty taking place in our government, it’s easy to lose faith in the whole spirit of democracy. However, if we remember the legacy of real people like Abraham Lincoln and fictional characters like Jefferson Smith, we’ll realize that it’s always worthwhile to keep fighting for freedom.
