‘Unshakeable sense of right and wrong’: US farewells Jimmy Carter

America’s five living presidents gathered to honour former President Jimmy Carter at his state, with family and colleagues paying tribute to a man of great integrity and faith who was ahead of his time.

All five of the living US presidents attended the state funeral for Jimmy Carter – America’s 39th President – in the Washington National Cathedral, with tributes being paid to the 39th president by colleagues, contemporaries and family members as a man of great integrity and faith who was ahead of his time.

The president’s casket was taken on Thursday morning down the steps of the US Capitol, where he was laid in state earlier this week, with the motorcade passing the White House on the way to the cathedral where the service began at 10am local time.

Attendees at the service included Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Vice President Kamala Harris – all of whom were sitting in the first two rows – with former vice presidents Al Gore and Mike Pence sitting in row three.

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, was also in attendance after announcing his resignation earlier this week.

The service was opened by Joshua Carter – one of the late president’s grandchildren – who talked about his grandfather’s religious faith and commitment to teaching Sunday school in his home town of Plains, Georgia, “every Sunday from World War II to Covid”.

Jimmy Carter was America’s oldest-lived former president – the first to make triple figures – and he died just 13 months after his wife Rosalynn with whom he enjoyed a 77-year marriage. He died on December 29 at the age of 100.

The flag-draped casket of former President Jimmy Carter is carried by a joint services body bearer team to Special Air Mission 39, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Picture: AFP

Speaking at the service, Mr Biden reflected on his nearly six-decade friendship with Mr Carter and wife Rosalynn that started in 1974 when he was a 31-year-old senator, recalling how he and Jill had visited the couple in April 2021 in Plains, Georgia, where they were greeted “like family”.

“I was the first senator outside of Georgia, maybe the first senator, to endorse his candidacy for president,” Mr Biden said.

“Jimmy Carter’s friendship taught me … that strength of character is more than title or the power we hold.

“It’s the strength to understand that everyone should be treated with dignity … We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbour,” he said.

“What are the values that animate our spirit? Do we operate from fear or hope, ego or generosity? Do we show grace? Do we keep the faith when it’s most tested?

“Keeping the faith with the best of humankind and the best of America is the story in my view, from my perspective, (of) Jimmy Carter’s life.”

He noted that Mr Carter rose from a house without running water or electricity to the pinnacle of power, yet was driven towards “making real the words of his saviour and the ideals of this nation”.

“The man had character. Jimmy held a deep Christian faith in God,” he said.

“In this life, any walk of faith can be difficult. It can be lonely, but it requires action to be the doers of the world.”

Mr Biden said that Mr Carter “saw well into the future” as a “white southern Baptist who led civil rights (and) a decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace, a brilliant nuclear engineer who led on nuclear non-proliferation (and) a hard-working farmer who championed conservation and clean energy”.

“Jimmy Carter also established a model post-presidency by making a powerful difference as a private citizen in America and … around the world,” Mr Biden said.

“To young people, to anyone in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter’s example.”

US military body bearers carry the flag-draped casket bearing the remains of Jimmy Carter from the Washington National Cathedral following his state funeral. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Stuart Eizenstat, who worked as Mr Carter’s chief domestic policy adviser, said the former president was “as close to being a renaissance man as any president entering the Oval Office in modern times”.

“He was skilled in an astonishing array of activities, farmer, businessman, nuclear engineer, naval, submarine officer, woodworker, painter, fly fisherman, music lover, poet, author, Sunday school teacher, creator of the Carter Centre and yes, loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather and Nobel Peace Prize winner,” Mr Eizenstat said.

He argued that Mr Carter’s religious values gave him an “unshakeable sense of right and wrong” which animated his support for civil rights at home and human rights abroad, “propelling him to major achievements as the only Democratic president elected between 1968 and 1992.”

“His faith brought integrity to the presidency after the Watergate and Vietnam eras. ‘I’ll never lie to you,’ he promised. It was a vow he fulfilled,” Mr Eizenstat said.

Arguing that the test for American presidents was not the number of years they served “but the duration of their accomplishments,” Mr Eizenstat argued that, by this measure, Mr Carter was “among the most consequential one term presidents in American history.”

He listed Mr Carter’s key accomplishments, noting that “this president from the deepest part of the Deep South, championed civil rights, appointing more people of colour and women to senior executive positions and judgeships than all previous 38 presidents before him.”

“Jimmy Carter was also the greatest environmental president since Theodore Roosevelt adding 80 million acres in Alaska to the national park system,” Mr Eizenstat said. “He provided the first incentives for conservation and inaugurated the era of clean energy.”

“He was the first president to make human rights a priority for US foreign policy, and this led directly to the release of 1000s of political prisoners in Latin America and stimulated them to a lasting democratic transition.”

Barack Obama greets George W. Bush (centre) following the state funeral. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Mr Eizenstat, a former US ambassador to the EU and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, said that Mr Carter helped usher in a “new era of hemispheric relations with the Panama Canal treaties, the toughest legislative battle of his presidency”.

“Jimmy Carter’s most lasting achievement, and the one I think he was most proud of, was to bring the first peace to the Middle East through the greatest act of personal diplomacy in American history – the Camp David Accords,” he said. “He may not be a candidate for Mount Rushmore, but he belongs in the foothills.”

Mr Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, said his grandfather’s life was a “testament to the goodness of God” and that he had the “courage and strength to stick to his principles, even when they were politically unpopular”.

He argued his grandfather was ahead of his time, describing him as the “first millennial” because of his support for causes that became more popular over time.

“Fifty years ago, he was a climate warrior who pushed for a world where we conserved energy, limited emissions, and traded our reliance on fossil fuels for expanded renewable sources,” Mr Carter said. “By the way, he cut the deficit, wanted to decriminalise marijuana, deregulated so many industries that he gave us cheap flights and … craft beer.”

“In my 49 years, I never perceived a difference between his public face and his private one. He was the same person no matter who he was with or where he was. And for me that’s the definition of integrity.”

Mr Carter spoke about the mission of the Carter Centre and its efforts to eliminate guinea worm disease, arguing it was an “ancient and debilitating disease of poverty” that had “existed from the dawn of humanity until Jimmy Carter”.

“When he started working on this disease, there were three and a half million cases in humans every year. Last year, there were 14,” he said. “He eradicated a disease with love and respect. He waged peace with love and respect. He led this nation with love and respect.”

Jimmy Carter’s casket is carried out of the National Cathedral in Washington. Picture: AFP

The son of former Republican President Gerald Ford, Steven, also read the eulogy written by his father for Mr Carter which shed light on how the friendship developed between the political rivals.

While Mr Carter defeated Mr Ford for the presidency in 1976, the two men became friends on a return flight from Cairo in 1981 after attending the funeral of Anwar El-Sadat, who was assassinated after signing up to the Camp David Accords brokered by Mr Carter in 1979.

Mr Carter and Mr Ford later agreed to deliver eulogies at one another’s funeral, with Steven reading the speech written by his father who died in 2006 at the age of 93.

“I wondered how awkward that long flight might be to Cairo, and it was a long flight. But the return trip was not nearly long enough for it was somewhere over the Atlantic that Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics,” Mr Ford said.

“Honesty and truth telling were synonymous with the name Jimmy Carter. Those traits were instilled in him by his loving parents, Lillian and Earl,” he said.

“He displayed that honesty throughout his life as a naval officer, state legislator, governor, president and world leader. For Jimmy Carter, honesty was not an aspirational goal. It was part of his very soul.”

Ted Mondale, the son of Mr Carter’s vice president Walter Mondale, also read the eulogy written by his father in 2015. Mr Mondale – who died in 2021- said that Mr Carter’s time in office “stood as a marker for Americans dedicated to justice and decency”.

“Carter was farsighted,” he said “He put aside his short-term political interests to tackle challenges that demanded sacrifice to protect our kids and grandkids from future harm.

“Very few people in the 1970s had heard the term climate change, yet Carter put his presidency on the line to pass laws to conserve energy, deregulate new oil and gas prices and invest in clean renewable alternatives to fossil fuels.”