Art credit: www.history.com
George
Washington’s Birthday
This
article, originally written by David Azerrad and published in 2012, is reprinted today,
President’s Day, at The Daily Signal:
Poor
George Washington. His birthday, spontaneously celebrated since the revolution
and formally declared a holiday in 1879, has slowly morphed into the insipid
Presidents Day you’ll hear about Monday.
Washington,
the “indispensable
man” of the revolution who was rightly extolled for being “first
in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” has now
been lumped together with the likes of James Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, Franklin
Pierce and John Tyler.
It
gets worse. Washington’s good name and great legacy are now shamelessly invoked
to justify positions that he would never have envisaged.
In
a Time Magazine special edition on Washington, historian Joseph Ellis
matter-of-factly remarks: “He began the political tradition that produced a
Union victory in the Civil War, the Federal Reserve Board, Social Security,
Medicare and, more recently, Obamacare.”
Washington,
who called on Americans to display “pious gratitude” for their Constitution and
warned against any “change
by usurpation,” is now a partisan of the sprawling welfare state and the unprecedented
individual mandate.
Ellis
even has the gall to hail Washington—the man who gracefully and voluntarily
relinquished power after two terms when he could have stayed on for life—as the
father of “strong executive leadership” and the precursor to Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, who stayed in office for an unprecedented 12 years.
The
true Washington still has much to teach us, in particular when it comes to the
presidency, foreign policy and religious liberty. Although much has changed in
the past two centuries, his sage advice and conduct in office have lost none of
their relevance, anchored as they are in the timeless principles of the
founding and a sober assessment of human nature.
Washington,
like every president after him, swore the following oath upon
taking office:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm)
that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States,
and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States.
Unlike
many presidents in the past 100 years, however, Washington took the oath
seriously and did not try to place himself above the Constitution.
He
understood himself to be the president of a republic in which the people,
through their elected representatives in Congress, make laws—not some visionary
leader who must define what progress requires and lead the unenlightened masses
there.
Washington
took care “that the laws be faithfully executed,” as when he quashed the
Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. He did not try to make the laws himself, either by
issuing executive orders that circumvented Congress or by regulating what could
not be legislated. He left behind no “signature” legislative accomplishments as
we would say today. He only used his veto twice—once on constitutional
grounds and once in his capacity as commander in chief.
Washington
gave, on average, only three public speeches a year while in office—including
the shortest
ever inaugural address. And, of course, he had to be persuaded to serve a
second term.
As
a president who took his bearings from the Constitution, Washington devoted
considerable attention to foreign policy. Our first president sought to
establish an energetic and independent foreign policy. He believed America
needed a strong military so that it could “choose peace or war, as our interest
guided by justice shall Counsel.” His Farewell
Address remains the preeminent statement of purpose for American foreign
policy.
No
survey of Washington’s legacy would be complete without acknowledging his
profound commitment to religious liberty. Many today seem to have lost sight of
the crucial distinction he drew between mere toleration and true religious
liberty. As he explained in the memorable letter
to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport:
All possess alike liberty of
conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is
spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another
enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.
On
Monday, as we celebrate our greatest president, let us remember why he—and not
Polk or, heaven forbid, Wilson—deserves a national holiday.
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