George Washington’s birthday is February 22, a date that was once observed as a standalone national holiday. Over time, the federal observance was shifted to the third Monday in February and merged in popular understanding with Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, becoming what is now commonly known as Presidents’ Day.
“Washington has come to personify the American Republic,” stated President Calvin Coolidge. President Herbert Hoover argued that “what we have need of today in this celebration is to renew in our people the inspiration that comes from George Washington as a founder of human liberty, as the father of a system of government, as the builder of a system of national life.”
The Founding Fathers represented some of the best minds in political philosophy, but one individual stands out for his leadership, prudence, character, and for holding the Republic together—George Washington, who “was the indispensable man of the epoch.” “We can all see the brilliant flourishes of Jefferson’s pen, Madison’s constitutional handiwork, or the success of Hamilton’s economic policies, and that can cause us to overlook or underestimate the magnitude of Washington’s achievement,” wrote Matthew Spalding, a constitutional scholar and biographer of Washington.
Washington’s leadership was the capstone of the new Republic—from his service as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, to President of the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, to serving as the first President of the United States under the newly ratified Constitution. It was Washington who quelled rebellions, such as the Newburgh Conspiracy and the Whiskey Rebellion, against the new government and facilitated the often fierce political and policy disagreements between the Federalist and Anti-Federalist factions.
Washington was the “cooler head” who dealt with the competing policy ideas of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. He rejected calls to establish him as a king; in fact, he willingly resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief and later established the precedent of the two-term presidency, demonstrating a peaceful exchange of power when John Adams was elected president in 1797.
It was Washington’s character that was his leading attribute. “Yet in every crisis, and for every role they turned to Washington,” stated President Herbert Hoover in his reflection upon Washington. Hoover noted that throughout colonial America, the American Revolution, the establishment of the Constitution, and the governance of the early Republic, Americans leaned upon Washington.
As Hoover stated:
They forced upon him the command of Indian fighters; they made him a general against trained British troops; they demanded that he be a constitutionalist and a national statesman; they insisted he must guide his country through the skillful ambushes of European kings; they summoned him to establish the nonexistent credit of an insolvent infant nation. Why did his brilliant fellow patriots always thus turn to him?
“The answer of history is unmistakable: They brought their problems to Washington because he had more character, a finer character, a purer character, than any other man of his time,” noted Hoover.
In his Farewell Address, which has been characterized as one of the most eloquent statements of American political philosophy, Washington directed the young Republic to faithfully uphold and follow the Constitution. As Washington stated:
This government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in its distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution, which at any time exists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is very sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the People to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.
Washington, who held the Philadelphia Convention together, fully understood the pressures, factions, and trials the Constitution would face. Even so, he advised the nation to follow the Constitution and not treat it as a flexible set of guidelines. “Without the moral authority of Washington, it is doubtful whether the Constitution could have been either agreed upon in the Convention or ratified by the states,” argued Minnesota Governor Theodore Christianson.
Washington’s contemporaries agreed. “Be assured,” as James Monroe reminded Thomas Jefferson, “his influence carried this government.”
The Constitution not only represented the rule of law but also national unity. Washington understood the importance of a written Constitution—a document that limits government to specific powers and serves as a beacon of liberty.
President Calvin Coolidge stated that George Washington “represents our independence, our Constitution, our liberty.” Further, Coolidge stated:
The place of Washington in history is secure. He stands as a world figure. He ranks as a great captain, a foremost statesman, and the supreme patriot. Without him it is difficult to comprehend how independence could have been won. Holding at all times the complete affection of all his soldiers and the highest confidence of his fellow countrymen, his approval aided greatly in the adoption of the Constitution, his honesty opposed any repudiation of the debts of his country, and his character gave to the office of the presidency a position and influence which contributed greatly to stability in the formative period of our government.
It was Washington who selected Alexander Hamilton as the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton is considered the “father of American capitalism,” and it was his economic policies that brought stability to the early Republic.
“As President he [Washington] was always an exponent of sound and honest public finance. He advocated the payment of our debts in full to holders of record, and the assumption by the Nation of the debts incurred by the various States to carry on the Revolution. His support of financial integrity, because it was morally right, strengthened the Union,” reflected Coolidge on Washington’s support of Hamilton’s economic policies.
Further, Washington understood the importance of religion, morality, and education for the survival of the Republic and the Constitution. These values, he believed, were the responsibility of every American.
“He desired his system of education to be thoroughly American and thoroughly national. It was to support the people in a knowledge of their rights, in the creation of a republican spirit, and in the maintenance of the Union,” noted Coolidge.
“The true eulogy of Washington is this mighty Nation. He contributed more to its origins than any other man. The influence of his character and of his accomplishments has contributed to the building of human freedom and ordered liberty, not alone upon this continent but upon all continents,” stated Hoover.
It is often argued that Washington was not as brilliant as Jefferson, Madison, or Franklin. However, Washington does not receive enough credit for his political thought or, more importantly, for his leadership, which held the nation together. As Coolidge reflected:
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 him to serve and inspire his fellow men.
President Warren G. Harding argued that “it is good to meet and drink at the fountains of wisdom inherited from the Founding Fathers of the republic.” Unfortunately, Washington’s Birthday will go unnoticed by many Americans. Today, our republic is adrift, and we need a restoration of the principles that Washington helped define.
“I wonder what the great Washington would utter in warning, in his passionate love of the republic and his deep concern about the future welfare, if he could know the drift of today,” asked President Harding.
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