style="margin-top:40px; BROADSIDES

BROADSIDES
February 21, 2005

George Washington Day
Note: This is a reprint of an item I originally posted on February 17, 2003.

Today America pays tribute to its presidents. Unfortunately that group includes many lackluster chief executives, including the politically inept (James Buchanan, Ulysess Grant, Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter) and the morally inept (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Warren Harding, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton). These presidents are not worthy of a holiday-caliber commemoration.

Moreover, honoring all the presidents collectively on one day renders the holiday meaningless. That's why Congress should scrap Presidents Day and replace it with a holiday honoring the one person indispensable in the forging of the United States: George Washington.

As the Continental Army's commander-in-chief in the American Revolution, the most influential voice calling for a Constitutional Convention (over which he presided) and the first president of the United States, Washington occupies the center stage of American history. But more important than what Washington did is what he did not do. Though he would have had the military and popular support to do so, he firmly refused absolute power by explicitly dismissing suggestions that he make himself America's king.

In May of 1782—less than a year after the British surrendered to Washington at Yorktown—the Continental Army had yet to be paid by the new (and largely powerless) Congress established under the Articles of Confederation. In an attempt to resolve the issue of compensation, Colonel Lewis Nicola wrote his commander-in-chief expressing the opinion of many in the Continental Army that Washington make himself king of the United States. Washington's indignant reply reveals not only his exemplary character but his steadfast commitment to limited republican government:

Sir: With a mixture of great surprise and astonishment I have read with attention the Sentiments you have submitted to my perusal. Be assured Sir, no occurrence in the course of the War, has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the Army as you have expressed, and I must view with abhorrence, and reprehend with severety. For the present, the communication of them will rest in my own bosom, unless some further agitation of the matter, shall make a disclosure necessary.

I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my Country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable; at the same time in justice to my own feelings I must add, that no Man possesses a more sincere wish to see ample justice done to the Army than I do, and as far as my powers and influence, in a constitutional way extend, they shall be employed to the utmost of my abilities to effect it, should there be any occasion. Let me conjure you then, if you have any regard for your Country, concern for yourself or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from your Mind, and never communicate, as from yourself, or any one else, a sentiment of the like Nature.
--May 22, 1782

As the nation's first president, Washington established presidential precedents and traditions to which most of his successors adhere. He defined the office. In doing so he was guided by one objective, which he explained in his Farewell Address of 1796:

With me, a predominant motive has been to endeavour to gain time to our country to settle and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress without interruption, to that degree of strength and consistency, which is necessary to give it, humanly speaking, the command of its own fortunes.

Washington's policy triumphed. And today the United States has "the command of its own fortunes."

America should show its gratitude and respect by designating George Washington's birthday—February 22—a national holiday.

  • B. Sides @ 12:58 PM
  • Thousands of Deadly Islamic Terror Attacks Since 9/11


    Email
    broadsides@gmail.com


    Links
    SFC Paul R. Smith MoH Tribute
    CPL Jason L. Dunham MoH Tribute
    LT Michael P. Murphy MoH Tribute
    MA2 Michael Monsoor MoH Tribute
    MSG Woodrow W. Keeble MoH Tribute
    PFC Ross McGinnis MoH Tribute
    Any Soldier.com
    Any Marine.com
    Any Sailor.com
    Any Airman.com
    Coalition to Salute America's Heroes
    Statues of Servicemen Fund
    VFW Military Assistance Program
    Fisher House
    Wounded Warrior Project
    Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund
    Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund
    Adopt A Platoon
    Marines-Law Enforcement Foundation
    Special Ops Warrior Foundation
    America's Heroes of Freedom
    Adopt A Sniper
    Operation USO Care Package
    Operation Military Pride
    Books For Soldiers
    IraqiSchools.com
    Freedom's Angels
    Vets For Freedom
    Gathering of Eagles
    Faces of the Fallen

    James Lileks
    Leaning Towards The Dark Side
    Michael Yon
    ZombieTime
    Taco's SandGram
    Ranger Up
    One Marine's View
    Instapundit
    Michelle Malkin
    Bob Parks
    Jackie Mason
    Ron Silver
    Sgt. Stryker
    Tim Blair
    Jeff Jarvis
    Internet Haganah
    Little Green Footballs
    OxBlog
    Rightwing Sparkle
    Power Line
    Virginia Postrel
    Kyle Smith
    DefenseWatch
    CounterColumn

    Tech Central Station
    Drudge Report
    World Tribune
    Free Republic
    Global Security
    Society for Internet Research
    Terrorism Knowledge Base

    G. Gordon Liddy
    Bill Cunningham
    Quinn & Rose
    Laura Ingraham
    Mark Levin
    Rush Limbaugh
    Dennis Miller

    New York Post
    Washington Times
    Opinion Journal
    Washington Post
    The American Spectator
    London Telegraph
    Financial Times
    Times of London
    Jane's Defense
    AFIS

    Milton Friedman
    Thomas Sowell
    Claudia Rosett
    Victor Davis Hanson
    Mark Levin
    Larry Elder
    Mark Steyn
    Pete du Pont
    Charles Krauthammer
    Walter Williams
    David Horowitz
    Ann Coulter
    R. Emmett Tyrrell
    Michael Ledeen
    Larry Kudlow

    Reagan Presidential Library
    Landmark Legal Foundation
    Hoover Institution
    Protest Warrior
    Cato Institute
    National Center for Policy Analysis
    National Taxpayers Union
    Anti-CAIR
    American Enterprise Institute
    Americans Against Hate
    National Rifle Association
    National Right to Work Committee
    Reason Foundation

    Declaration of Independence
    The Constitution
    Congress
    The President
    U.S. Judiciary
    Department of Defense
    U.S. Central Command
    National Archives
    Library of Congress
    CIA World Factbook

    Institute of Official Cheer
    The Simpsons
    Callahan Online
    Tucker Max
    The Onion
    Day by Day
    Fugly
    Scrappleface
    The New York Times



    Archives
    current
    June 2002
    July 2002
    August 2002
    September 2002
    October 2002
    November 2002
    December 2002
    January 2003
    February 2003
    March 2003
    April 2003
    May 2003
    June 2003
    July 2003
    August 2003
    September 2003
    October 2003
    November 2003
    December 2003
    January 2004
    February 2004
    March 2004
    April 2004
    May 2004
    June 2004
    July 2004
    August 2004
    September 2004
    October 2004
    November 2004
    December 2004
    January 2005
    February 2005
    March 2005
    April 2005
    May 2005
    June 2005
    July 2005
    August 2005
    September 2005
    October 2005
    November 2005
    December 2005
    January 2006
    February 2006
    March 2006
    May 2006
    June 2006
    July 2006
    September 2006
    October 2006
    November 2006
    December 2006
    January 2007
    February 2007
    March 2007
    April 2007
    May 2007
    June 2007
    July 2007
    September 2007
    October 2007
    November 2007
    December 2007
    January 2008
    February 2008
    May 2008
    June 2008
    July 2008
    September 2008
    November 2008
    December 2008



    Credits
    design by maystar
    template via blogskins
    powered by blogger

    Powered by Blogger