OPINION:
Last week, we had to suffer through, once again, the misery and degradation that is Presidents Day.
Let me repeat, for the slow kids in the class, that there is no such thing as Presidents Day in law. It exists only in the muddled minds of marketing majors, and with good reason. Who in the world could celebrate the mediocrities that have, by and large, populated the American presidency?
It makes more sense to note and celebrate the birth of George Washington, America’s first and greatest president, born in Virginia on Feb. 22, 1732.
He never went to college, having dropped out of school at the age of 15 to tend to the family farm, survey western Virginia and dabble in real estate. He wrote no books. He wasn’t a particularly gifted orator. He wasn’t the richest man of his time or place.
He was, however, a natural leader and fearless military officer. His greatest victory emerged from his most desperate gamble. In the depths of a cold Christmas night almost 250 years ago, the handful of soldiers remaining in the Continental Army waited for their turn to cross the Delaware River and head toward their enemy in hopes of surprising them on Christmas.
Most of them had less than a week left in their enlistments and were already preparing to head home.
It would have been easy for those soldiers to have slipped off into the night and taken the flickering hope of the American Revolution with them. However, just about all of them stayed to cross the river, march to Trenton, New Jersey, and surprise and defeat the Hessians there on Dec. 26, 1776. That victory, more than any other, changed the fortunes of the revolution.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise. In 1754, when he was just 22, Washington had been entrusted with commands by the British army during the French and Indian War. Twenty-five years later, he defeated that same British army — then considered the best in the world — in the Revolutionary War. Long before that final victory, he too had waited for his turn in the boats that cold Christmas night in 1776.
After the war and to secure a more perfect union, Washington guided the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention and enhanced its deliberations with his calming presence. Those deliberations were made easier by the certain knowledge among the delegates that Washington would be the first president of the new republic and by their confidence that he had no wish to be a king.
Washington voluntarily stepped down as president after two terms, setting a precedent that no one even thought to challenge until the republic unfortunately ran across Ulysses S. Grant and then the authoritarian and grasping Roosevelts.
For more than 250 years, Washington has set the standard for presidents, generals, leaders and all other Americans. To date, no one has entirely matched it. Even in death, he helped the nation he did so much to create. In the wake of a civil war that would have destroyed any other country or people, North and South managed to find common ground in the memory of Washington.
Construction of the monument that bears his name was restarted after the war and completed in 1884.
Washington’s wisdom still guides us. In his farewell address, he touched the core and essential part of the American experience and American governance: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. … Can it be that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue?”
In 1965, historian James Flexner called Washington the “indispensable man.” The British called him “The Fox” because of his consistent ability to elude their superior forces. His fellow citizens simply call him the “father of our country” because that is what he was. He made life better for everyone lucky enough to be an American, and because America has been a force for good in the world, he in turn made life better for just about everyone on the planet.
That is quite an achievement for one lifetime. So if you can spare a moment this month, make sure to think about the first and greatest president with whom the United States and its people were blessed, and be grateful.
• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.
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