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Though rarely honored these days exactly on Feb. 22, his actual birth date, “Presidents’ Day” is officially still Washington’s birthday. And that’s entirely right and proper, as our first chief executive deserves every American’s gratitude.
Amid today’s bitter political discord, all should consider Washington’s example.
Yes, he — and the entire generation of the Founders — achieved greatness that none of their successors could hope to match.
That’s due partly to the historical ferment he lived through, but also to (riffing off a fellow whose birthday we celebrated last month) the content of his character.
Richard Brookhiser rescued this view of Washington in his landmark book, “Founding Father.”
Hidden behind myth, written off by revisionists as just another dead, white, male slave owner, Washington was in fact a man for the ages.
Born a Virginia aristocrat, he carefully cultivated his virtues — self-control, moderation, civility; his strengths physical and moral — to become the most widely admired presence first in the 13 colonies, then in the new nation.
He created two American institutions.
First was the army, which he commanded from 1775 to 1783, shaping a collection of ragtag, untrained and undisciplined soldiers into a fighting force that defeated the world’s superpower, Great Britain.
As president, he also set the future course of the US government itself, carefully setting precedents that had to last — amid the discord of his day over the precise form our government should take.
Yet his importance goes far beyond his resumé.
It was Washington who emphasized that America was a republic when he rebuked those who wanted a monarchy or an exalted president.
He drove that point home by stepping down after two terms to sit “under his own vine and under his fig tree” — his most cited bit of scripture, from Micah 4:4.
“Washington’s last service to his country was to stop serving,” writes Brookhiser.
He was also the only slaveholding founder to free his slaves.
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As Brookhiser wrote in these pages in 2012, “The principles of the American Revolution appear in the opening of the Declaration of Independence, but our enemies were not impressed. Samuel Johnson, the English writer and Tory, scoffed: ‘Why is it that the loudest yelps for liberty are heard from drivers of Negroes?’ ”
“At the end of his life,” writes Brookhiser, “Washington decided to do something about it.
“In 1799 he drew up a will directing that his slaves — more than one hundred — be freed at his wife Martha’s death. Those who were too old to work would be supported by his estate; those who were too young would be educated and freed at age 25. He singled out one man by name, William Lee, his former body servant, ‘for his faithful services during the Revolutionary War.’ ”
That is: “Washington at the end of his life acknowledged his and Lee’s shared experience as veterans. Rightly so: They had both fought to uphold the principle that all men are created equal.”
For all these reasons and more, there was no dissent when Henry Lee famously described Washington in death as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Unlike other notable presidents — Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, JFK, Reagan — Washington left no memorable lines which we continue to quote today. But, as Brookhiser tells us, “His life still has the power to inspire anyone who studies it.” Give it a try.