Liberty, restraint, a role model for all: Remembering Washington

"First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." ~ from Henry Lee's eulogy of George Washington

Though today marks the celebration, tomorrow the 22nd actually marks the 290th anniversary of our first president's birthday, the Father of our Country, the indispensable George Washington. And to set the record straight, today's holiday is not “Presidents’ Day.” No such holiday exists in law. Contrary to popular belief and the efforts of salesmen throughout the land, no congress nor president has ever changed this celebration (as far too few states across our land still acknowledge that truth). Nonetheless, it is in fact a celebration of George Washington’s birthday.

There are so many traits to admire about Washington, despite our misdirected woke generation's knee-jerk judgementalism of the past through a modern lens. Given the relentless war on America by our elites, it’s more important than ever to honor our heroes, starting with the man who started it all. So first, let's cover that: Washington and America’s liberty, because without the first we wouldn't have the second...

Historians have called Washington the “indispensable man.” Without him, we would have no country. ...

Washington wasn’t just the leader of our War of Independence, defeating what was the greatest military power in the world in the last quarter of the 18th century. Since the Continental Congress was so weak and indecisive, Washington was the de facto head of state from the time he took command of the Continental Army in 1775.

Before he became our first president, Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Only the love his countrymen had for him could have united the nation — Federalists and Anti-Federalists alike — around the United States Constitution. He saved America once during the revolution and saved it again in its tumultuous aftermath. Washington built America with a sword and a pen.

Do you like living in a country where the rights of citizens are enshrined in a written Constitution and a method was established therein for popular sovereignty? You can thank Washington. ...

The “woke” mob hates Washington because it hates America. If it can take him down, it can get anyone. ... He was a slaveowner — a generation that can afford the luxury of criticizing the past by contemporary standards tells us. Slavery was a great evil, and one which existed for most of human history and on every habitable continent. It exists today, in other guises.

That China has enslaved the Uyghurs didn’t keep it from the honor of hosting this year’s Winter Olympics. The children who sew soccer shirts in Asian factories (some for as little as a penny an hour) are slaves in all but by name.

Karl Marx (whose writings serve as the basis for the international movement that seeks to destroy America) was a racist and an antisemite, a fact that no Marxist party has ever acknowledged. Marxism itself is a form of slavery. The masses of Cuba, Venezuela and North Korea may not have actual manacles on their wrists and ankles, but their subjugation is just as complete as if they did. An army of Simon Legrees guards their borders to keep the field hands on the plantation.

A little more than 100 years after the beginning of the war to end slavery in America, the Soviets and their East German stooges built a wall to stop their slaves from escaping. ...

A nation that allows its heroes to be debunked is doomed. And so, as the 290th anniversary of his birth approaches, let us drink a toast that echoed throughout the land when our republic was young — “To Washington and liberty.” Without the first, we wouldn’t have the second.

Also of note was Washington's restraint, a key tenet of who the man truly was... something not only our current occupant could stand to observe, but also our neighbors to the north, and many others abroad...

Washington is remembered today not only for virtues of bearing, decorum, and personal integrity, but also for making the right choices when they mattered most. ...

Cynics note that Washington was ambitious, but that is beside the point; great men must always be ambitious. A friend and biographer of Abraham Lincoln wrote that Lincoln’s ambition was “a little engine that knew no rest.” What makes a great man in power is not lack of ambition, but restraint. Washington waited for power until he was summoned by the people, and he laid it down of his own accord. In so doing, he set the great republican precedents: Power is given by the people, and it is theirs to give and nobody’s to retain too long.

Restraint also guided Washington’s approach to the law. The people had adopted the Constitution, and it was Washington’s job to obey it. In his Farewell Address, he cautioned that “the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all. . . . Resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.”

And to riff off of an MLK line, what was overall remarkable about George Washington was the content of his character, demonstrative of his status as a role model for all...

Hidden behind myth, written off by revisionists as just another dead, white, male slaveowner, Washington was in fact a man for the ages.

Born a Virginia aristocrat, he carefully cultivated his virtues — self-control, moderation, civility; his strengths physical and moral — to become the most widely admired presence first in the 13 colonies, then in the new nation.

He created two American institutions [shaping the US Army and setting the future course of American government itself]... Yet his importance goes far beyond his résumé. It was Washington who emphasized that America was a republic when he rebuked those who wanted a monarchy or an exalted president.

Likewise, he set the precedent for presidential limits by refusing entreaties that he accept a third term. “Washington’s last service to his country was to stop serving,” writes Richard Brookhiser [in his landmark 1997 book, “Founding Father”]. He was also the only slaveholding founder to free his slaves.

For all these reasons and more, there was no dissent when Henry Lee famously described Washington in death as “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”

Far-left efforts like the 1619 Project now claim that many Americans have no reason to honor Washington. But far more accurate is the understanding reflected in the musical “Hamilton”: One of the show’s most compelling moments is the entry of Gen. George Washington as the American rebels suddenly face 32,000 British troops in New York Harbor.

It’s not just his dramatic, staccato lines (“We’re outgunned. Outmanned. Outnumbered. Outplanned”), but the fact that the guy playing him is black. The show powerfully, magically, claims America’s founders for all of today’s Americans. The principles they fought for belong to us all.

That last piece also made mention towards the end that unlike other notable presidents, Washington left no memorable lines that we continue to quote today. But maybe that's because far too often they're lost on a modern society that's too caught up in its own inundation of meaningless chaff really. So maybe let's rectify that with a few, shall we? It might become clear to us why he's not quoted more in these times...

"Government is at best a petulant servant and at worst a tyrannical master."

"Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Experience has taught us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession, and when the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

"But if the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity, and a minority is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put at one stroke to republican government, and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter."

"Be Americans. Let there be no sectionalism, no North, South, East or West. You are all dependent on one another and should be one in union. In one word, be a nation. Be Americans, and be true to yourselves."

"Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains taken to bring it to light."

"Let me ask you, sir, when is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not?"

"Where are our Men of abilities? Why do they not come forth to save their Country?"

"Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do--then do it with all your strength."

"Do not let anyone claim tribute of American patriotism if they even attempt to remove religion from politics."

"It is impossible to govern the world without God. It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and humbly implore his protection and favor."

"Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of Thy son, Jesus Christ, that living in Thy fear, and dying in Thy favor, I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy son, Jesus Christ."