Posted on 02/17/2014 10:51:10 AM PST by Reagan79
Sometimes I recoil a little when somebody declares that there can be an American president greater than George Washington. Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee declared Washington, “First in the hearts of his countrymen.” Washington is great for many things, but perhaps he is greatest for the manner in which he surrendered power not once but twice.
One of the best recent commentaries written on Washington is David Boaz’s, “The Man Who Would Not Be King.” In the piece from 2006, Boaz wonderfully sums up the depth of Washington’s immense character and what that means for liberty and America. The entire commentary is worth reading but the conclusion is especially poignant:
From his republican values Washington derived his abhorrence of kingship, even for himself. The writer Garry Wills called him “a virtuoso of resignations.” He gave up power not once but twice – at the end of the revolutionary war, when he resigned his military commission and returned to Mount Vernon, and again at the end of his second term as president, when he refused entreaties to seek a third term. In doing so, he set a standard for American presidents that lasted until the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose taste for power was stronger than the 150 years of precedent set by Washington.
Give the last word to Washington’s great adversary, King George III. The king asked his American painter, Benjamin West, what Washington would do after winning independence. West replied, “They say he will return to his farm.”
“If he does that,” the incredulous monarch said, “he will be the greatest man in the world.”
Washington’s moral model of leadership is timeless. In everything he said and did, he affirmed the spirit of the American Revolution. His fellow Virginian, Thomas Jefferson noted, Washington would “rather be in his grave than in his present situation [the presidency]; that he had rather be on his farm than to be made Emperor of the world.” All Americans should study Washington because he is the embodiment the principles of liberty. His peers would all argue and did, that in America there was no leader who possessed greater virtue. Charles Francis Adams, the son of President John Quincy Adams, declared of Washington:
More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself. If there be one quality more than another in his character which may exercise a useful control over the men of the present hour, it is the total disregard of self when in the most elevated positions for influence and example.
Thanx. I’m old but not enough to remember.
Some quotes from the words of George Washington:
“Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?”
“Nothing is more essential, than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular Nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded...The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”
“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”
George Washington shared the sympathies of the true early Americans.
“The Romans and their Empire were but a bauble in comparison to the Jews.” —President John Adams
Yup. Of course it all depends on how you define “greatness.”
To my mind it requires facing and defeating enormous obstacles. Coolidge might very well have had the potential to be as great as the other three, but never got the opportunity to demonstrate it, since nothing much happened while he was president.
Washington of course faced the need to literally invent a new nation, of a type that had never existed before. Lincoln faced the greatest of all existential threats to this nation. Reagan faced and defeated an ideology that most assumed was on its way to eventual victory.
I don’t, oddly enough, consider WWII to be a comparable challenge. As Churchill said after Hitler (idiotically) chose to declare war on the USA. “It’s all over but the shouting. (Paraphrasing.)
With the US in the war, the disparity in resources was just too great.
Post of the thread.
In my mind, "greatness" means not rocking the boat, even if it is your boat to rock.
Washington set the tone. Lincoln, Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson and every POTUS during and after were reactionaries.
Coolidge wouldn't react if you hit him with a Taser.
That's pretty close to perfect in my book.
But he married a widow.
I rather suspect Cal would have reacted if a formidable insurrection had been launched.
Because he didn’t actively seek the office, reluctantly accepted it, did his best to run the country in the interest of all of the people rather than any party, strengthened the position without stepping outside of the Constitution, declined to accept regal designations for himself and turned down any more than two terms. He was an honest, honorable man and few who have followed him can even come close.
My flag will wave proudly for you this Saturday, Mr President!
Washington was a pretty amazing farmer, introducing many unique agricultural ideas. Despite growing up within Virginia’s tobacco culture, he was an early proponent of abandoning tobacco for wheat, corn, oats, rye, and other grains that would help feed the growing population in America.
He raised over 60 different crops and used scientifically monitored crop rotations. He also was highly interested in developing more effective fertilizers, improved plow designs, innovative grain treading techniques (for which he built an eight-sided barn), and bred the first mules in America. He truly loved farming.
Relinguishing power is really the greatest gift we received from this greatest of US presidents, amid a torrent of great gifts we received from George Washington.
How vile that modern schools seek to downplay his noble contributions and slander him and the other great founding fathers. The commie government schools have really turned history on its head. Now all that matters for greatness is skin color and being PC, while the true great ones are denigrated.
That is great way of putting it. I have always cherished reluctant leaders who lead from necessity and not from a desire for power.
And this is George Washington's birthday and not President's Day. There are a lot of Presidents that couldn't tote his wooden teeth.
A Free Mason who never took communion and reportedly converted to Catholaism on his death bed to a Jesuit. Better credentials than an undocumented Halfrican. Yes they all worship the great god of the universe.
Brilliant sentiments eloquently stated. Thank you. A nice tribute to Washington in this thread.
If you look at it only in terms of industrial production, then victory was inevitable. But the Germans almost got modern weapons before us, and that would have changed things.
If our first President was anything like our current one we would have been carved up between England, France and Spain before 1800.
No one was ever quite like him. I think this quote sums him up nicely:
"In all history few men who possessed unassailable power have used that power so gently and self-effacingly for what their best instincts told them was the welfare of their neighbors and all mankind."
James Thomas Flexner, in Washington : The Indispensable Man (1984), Introduction, p. xiv.
And let's not forget Martha (referred to once he was CiC and then president as "Lady Washington"). She was always there for him, and theirs was a marriage that helped found this great country.
Here, a painting of their wedding:
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