Wally Decker
The real George Washington
“(George) Washington knew he was part of something bigger than himself.
He had helped create a nation, but it didn’t belong to him. So after eight years fashioning the office of the presidency, he did something simple and exemplary: He went home.”
Washington warned the nation in his 1796 Farewell Address, that love of power will tend to create a real despotism in America unless proper checks and balances are maintained to limit government power:
Despotism (noun) ˈde-spə-ˌti-zəm a system of government in which the ruler has unlimited power. Synonyms = tyranny, dictatorship, fascism, authoritarianism
https://www.heritage.org/commentary/the-man-who-would-not-be-king
What does the first president of a new nation, spawned by violent revolutionary war against the world’s mightiest imperial power, say upon his departure?
George Washington in 1796 warns his fellow countrymen (blacks and women could not vote at this time) “the habits of thinking in a free Country” should prevail and that the division of powers between the different “spheres of government” (i.e. branches) should be jealously guarded. But he suspected that this would not be the case over time and that one branch of government would prevail over the others (a new monarch?) and that this would be “the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.”
“It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective Constitutional spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. 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”
A soldier by profession and a surveyor by trade, Washington was first and foremost a man of action. George Washington described his move to the presidency as feeling “like a culprit who is going to the place of his execution”.
Reluctant to leave retirement, he viewed the office as an “Ocean of difficulties”.
Upon departing, he emphasized his service was a “sacrifice of duty”.
Farmer, surveyor, father of his country, general of the armies and president. George Washington carried numerous titles in his incredible lifetime. But, the most important one to the history of America might very well be the title he chose not to accept – king.
https://www.quantico.marines.mil/News/Article/879211/the-man-who-would-not-be-king/
Washington’s Birthday or Presidents Day?
Monday is a Federal Holiday. And the federal government still officially calls Monday’s holiday “Washington’s Birthday”.
BTW: George Washington’s birthday is actually February 22.
In 1971, Congress moved the birthday celebration of our first president to the 3rd Monday in February (to create a 3-day weekend) as part of the “Uniform Monday Holiday Act”.
*Presidents Day gained popularity back in the 1980s as a way to celebrate all US Presidents (including George) along with retailers to sell mattresses, furniture and appliances.
Learn more: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/facts/the-truth-about-presidents-day
