First In The Hearts Of His Countrymen
Posted by Rebecca Teti in News on Monday, February 16, 2009 4:52 PM
Mattress salesmen to the contrary, and meaning no disrespect to the greatest boss ever, who’s never been wrong before, it’s not Presidents’ Day today.
It’s George Washington’s birthday.
I think it makes a difference, which I’ll explain after a short history of how we came to be confused.
It is hard to overstate the esteem in which the first generations of Americans held George Washington. A man known for his upright character, he was the champion of our national liberty many times over: first, by leading our revolution to victory; then by refusing a crown. When he surrendered his commission as Commander-in-Chief after the war, the world gasped in astonishment that a man could voluntarily turn down the reins of power. King George III asked what Washington would do and was told by an American painter, “he’ll go back to his farm.” Marveled the king, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
He was the central player in our Constitutional Convention; his judicious presidency set the pattern for what that office should be, and when he relinquished the office, he became one of the first men in history ever to turn over executive power voluntarily, rather than by death or assassination. It was another revolution.
He wrote frequently about the principles of the American founding and was a champion of religious liberty. At any point in the fledgling life of our nation, when we were weak, poor and underpopulated, Washington could have set us on a different course. He was the man who taught us to be free.
His birthday, therefore, has been celebrated in the individual states since the time of his death, and has been a formal national holiday since 1885. In 1968, Congress passed an act making the third Monday in February the official Washington’s birthday celebration. That has never changed.
The confusion comes because Lincoln’s birthday also falls in February, and after his assassination in 1865, many states celebrated Lincoln’s birthday as well. So great was the people’s respect for Lincoln, many of them began to think of the Washington’s birthday observance as a day to remember both Washington, the founder, and Lincoln, the re-founder, of the nation.
Hence the term “Presidents’ Day,” which has never existed as an official holiday, and only coloquially included Lincoln. Over time, however, the denomination “Presidents’” has led to a confusion about what we’re celebrating—as if the holiday were a commemoration of the office itself. (Yay! We have a president!)
And that’s where I begin to have a pet peeve. This is America, the land of the free, where we bow to the principles of liberty, and not to any man. Washington’s birthday, properly understood, is not so much a tribute to Washington, as an annual re-dedication to the principles he embodied. Make the day into “Presidents’ Day” and we immediately empty of it of any principle and make it a celebration of high office and the men fortunate enough to achieve it. (Even though there are good things we can say about them, do we really want to celebrate Nixon and Clinton?) What principles does the day embody now? If you can’t answer, you now understand why no one can really celebrate it anymore, except by manufacturer’s sales.
Americans are not meant to idolize their presidents. They’re meant to hold their presidents to the standards of liberty.
Believe me, Washington would not approve.
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