On Monday both George Washington’s Birthday and Presidents’ Day were recognized. Washington’s Birthday is overshadowed by the generic President’s Day, but all presidents do not achieve equal greatness.
The relevance of George Washington endures, while the contributions of others fade. Following are excerpts of what Dr. Matthew Spalding wrote of Washington,
George Washington was by all accounts “the indispensable man” of the American Founding. He was the military commander who led a ragtag Continental army to victory against the strongest and best trained military force in the world. Crucial to the success of the Constitutional Convention, his personal support of the new Constitution, more than anything else, assured its final approval. His election to the presidency—the office having been designed with him in mind—was essential to the establishment of the new nation.
“Be assured,” James Monroe reminded Thomas Jefferson, “his influence carried this government.”
While it is often thought that the separation of church and state marks the divorce of religion and politics in America, Washington’s conception of religious liberty was almost exactly the opposite. His understanding of free government requires the moralization of politics, which includes—and requires—the expansion of religious influence in our politics. For Washington, religious liberty meant that religion, in the form of morality and the moral teachings of religion, was now free to exercise an unprecedented influence over private and public opinion by shaping mores, cultivating virtues, and in general providing an independent source of moral reasoning and authority.
We take for granted the peaceful transferal of power from one President to another, but it was Washington’s relinquishing of power in favor of the rule of law—a first in the annals of modern history—that made those transitions possible. “The moderation and virtue of a single character,” Thomas Jefferson tellingly noted, “probably prevented this Revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish.” His peaceful transfer of the presidency to John Adams in 1797 inaugurated one of America’s greatest democratic traditions. King George III said that Washington’s retirement, combined with his resignation 14 years earlier, “placed him in a light the most distinguished of any living man” and made him “the greatest character of the age.”
George Washington was a strong supporter of the Constitution. It established a limited but strong national government, created an energetic executive, and formed the legal framework necessary for a commercial republic. By the Constitution, our government is limited and structured to prevent encroachment, with “as much vigour as is consistent with the perfect security of Liberty” yet strong enough “to maintain all in the secure and tranquil enjoyment of the rights of person and property.” As a result, it is our strongest check against tyranny and the best guardian of our freedoms. Washington reminds us that it deserves our support and fidelity. Until formally changed “by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People,” he wrote, the Constitution is “sacredly obligatory upon all.”
Ignoring the Constitution and allowing the rule of law to be weakened, Washington sternly warns us, is done at our own peril. Americans must always guard against “irregular oppositions” to legitimate authority and “the spirit of innovation” that desires to circumvent the principles of our Constitution. Nor should we overlook Washington’s abiding concern about the corrupting power of the state. He warns us that government tends to encroach on freedom and consolidate power: “A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.” In the long run, disregard for the rule of law allows “cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men” to subvert the people and take power illegitimately by force or fraud. This, he reminds us, is “the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”
We have had great presidents including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Calvin Coolidge, and Ronald Reagan. None have risen to the level of George Washington. Calvin Coolidge concluded his remarks about George Washington in his address to a Joint Session of Congress on the 195th anniversary of Washington’s birth,
We have seen many soldiers who have left behind them little but the memory of their conflicts; but among all the victors the power to establish among a great people a form of self-government, which the test of experience has shown will endure, was bestowed upon Washington and Washington alone. Many others have been able to destroy. He was able to construct. That he had around him many great minds does not detract from his glory. His was the directing spirit without which there would have been no independence, no Union, no Constitution, and no Republic. His ways were the ways of truth. He built for eternity. His influence grows. His stature increases with the increasing years. In wisdom of action, in purity of character, he stands alone. We cannot yet estimate him. We can only indicate our reverence for him and thank the Divine Providence which sent his to serve and inspire his fellow men.
Since many of our fellow Americans do not understand the true nature of George Washington and the founding of our nation, our nation and the American people are now in great peril.