BRING BACK WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY

 As a child in school we celebrated the birth of George Washington every February 22nd. Washington was born on February 22, 1732 and his birthday was made into a Federal holiday in 1879. In 1968 Congress passed a law that some holidays like Washington's birthday, Labor Day and others would fall on Monday in order to give people a long weekend. So far so good but there was a movement by some in Congress during that time to change the law from Washington's birthday to Presidents Day but it was defeated. Over the years the people who preferred Presidents Day have been able to get their way even though the law was never changed. I am sure this came about with the help of mainstream media, politicians, and academia. It was an evolutionary process that somehow evolved into Presidents Day.  I don't know if there was a Communist conspiracy behind this change but it it plays right into their hands. The argument for Presidents Day has been that this day should not only honor the achievements of just one president but all presidents. In other words all presidents, good or bad have done things to contribute to our country's greatness. I can agree with that assessment to a point but I am still trying to find something positive that has been achieved by Joe Biden or James Buchanan. The bottom line is that Presidents Day diverts our attention away from our most important president. To use a modern hip term Washington was the GOAT, or the Greatest Of All Time.

 A friend of mine recently asked me if I could help his daughter with a term paper that she is doing on George Washington. I spent some time last Saturday at their home sharing what I knew about him. The thing that I wanted her to understand the most about George Washington was how essential he was to our founding and to our country. I wanted her to understand that America would not be a nation today without him. This is not to say that the other founding fathers weren't important such as John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and so many others. Quite simply put Washington was not Superman and could not found a great nation alone. He was the glue, however; that kept the American army together and without an army there was no United States of America. As a military commander Washington came to realize that he had to protect his army and keep it together at all costs. He came to realize that he could not defeat the British Army and Navy, which was the greatest in the world at that time in a head to head fight. His strategy was to keep the British from destroying his army. In other words not to put himself in a position where his army could be annihilated. 

 Robert E. Lee, who was a great admirer of Washington never learned this concept. It was his own father "Lighthorse" Harry Lee who eulogized Washington upon his death by saying that Washington was first in war, first in peace and first in the heart of his countrymen. "Light Horse" Harry Lee led Washington's cavalry. Lee was in a similar situation as Washington. He was leading a weaker army against a much superior one that was starving and low on essential supplies and food. He could not hope to defeat the North by costly frontal attacks and risking his army. Antietam and Gettysburg were a great example of the fact that Lee did not employ Washington's strategy. For that reason alone I rank Washington as a greater general than Lee. Because of his strict states rights view Lee's main goal was to protect Virginia. Jefferson Davis tried several times to compel Lee to focus on the Confederacy as a whole and not just the defence of Richmond and Virginia. A strong argument can be made that the most important theater in the Civil War was the western theater and not the eastern theater. That is where the North accomplished their primary strategic goals. Washington never confined himself to to a particular geographic area. He was focused on winning the war. Most of his service was in the northeast United States and only went to Virginia for the purpose of trapping the British at Yorktown. The bottom line is that if not for Washington we would probably not remember John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson or Patrick Henry. If not for Washington there would be no Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Harriett Tubman, Ulysses S Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur, Chester Nimitz, Martin Luther King or Ronald Reagan just to name a very few of our heroes. 

 

 Washington was a very ethical man. Although he was a slaveowner and originally did not want blacks in his army he was like Noah in a sense. The Bible says that for his generation Noah was a righteous man. Genesis 6:9 KJV: These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. For his generation Washington was a just man and perfect for his time. Washington, like most Southerners grew up with the institution of slavery. Due to the influence of people like Lafayette his views on slavery moderated during the war. After the war he quit the practice of selling slaves which helped to keep families together on his plantation and he is the only slaveholding founding father that I know of who freed his slaves upon his death. As far as Black soldiers he was finally forced by circumstances to use them and they became a sizeable part of the Continental Army. By comparison the Confederate Army refused to recruit black soldiers until one month before Lee surrendered. At least Washington was flexible enough to use them early in the war. Washington always seemed to understand that he was being watched not only by his contemporaries but by future generations of Americans. He had an unblemished reputation but also an unblemished character. Reputation is what others think of you but character is who you really are and what you do when people aren't watching. We have had far too many leaders of low reputation and moral character that are not worthy to hold the office of president. 

Washington led by example. He was personally and morally brave. He seemed to have divine protection. Washington was constantly exposed to gunfire but was never injured. During the French and Indian War battle of the Monongahela in which British General Braddock was killed and defeated after an ambush Washington was the only officer that was not injured. He was on horseback the whole time exposed and making himself a prime target. After the battle he found four bullet holes in his coat and the Indians said that they targeted him but could not hit him. They finally stopped trying to kill him because they said that his medicine was just too strong. In the Revolutionary War a British sharpshooter had him in his sights at point blank range but he said that he couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. Washington was ordered to halt by this British officer but he ignored him and calmly rode away as if he had all the time in the world. At the end of the war Washington could have been crowned King or appointed a dictator if he wanted ultimate power but he chose to step down and go home to his plantation. This is unprecedented behavior for someone in his position. By walking away from power he established a longstanding precedent for the American people. I believe this is one reason that America has always had a peaceful transition of power at election time. Even Britain's King George III said that Washington would be the greatest man in the world if he turned his back on power. He did and he was.

The second time that Washington was essential was during our Constitutional convention at Philadelphia in 1787. The Articles of Confederation weren't working as our form of government. We needed a stronger central government and a government with the power to tax. Washington was in favor of this concept because the Continental Congress had been unable to pay, supply and feed his troops effectively during the war. The convention was billed as a way to reform the Articles of Confederation. The Virginia delegation led by James Madison wanted to discard the Articles of Confederation and come up with a whole new form of government. Washington left his plantation again to serve his country in a different way. He became the president of the convention and only someone of his stature could keep the convention from ending in failure. Washington was the most loved, admired and respected man in America. He was a saint in the eyes of his people. There has never been a person more beloved by as many people during his lifetime than George Washington. Just like with the Continental Army he was the glue which kept the Constitutional Convention together until the Founders were able to complete our new Constitution. The Constitutional Convention started on May 25, 1787 and was ratified by Rhode Island on May 29, 1790.

 Under the new constitution Washington was unanimously elected president of the United States on April 6, 1789 and unanimously reelected in 1792. No president in American history has been elected and reelected unanimously except Washington. He approached the office of the president like everything else. I want to drive home the point again, Washington knew he was being watched not only by his contemporaries but by future generations. He truly was the father of our country. Like a real father with a newborn infant he protected our new nation by keeping us out of war. His goal was to keep us out of a war for at least a generation. Like a good father he set a good example by being honest and of good character. Although we had fought a long war with Britain he felt our best interest as a nation was to foster good relations with England rather than France. That was because we shared a common language and culture with them. Their government was more stable and less corrupt than France. They had been our ally but things were very chaotic over there. France was going through a bloody revolution that was based on atheistic values where our revolution had been based on Christian values. Washington faced much opposition from people like Thomas Jefferson and others who eventually came to be known as the Anti-Federalist party because they favored a closer relationship with France. Time has proven Washington to be right. After a generation we did fight the British again in the War of 1812 but America and Britain would eventually become the greatest of allies and that alliance lasts until this day. We have never developed the relationship with France that we have had with Britain. Washington wanted to retire after his first term as president but he felt that he should serve at leas two terms. He absolutely refused to serve more than two which set a precedent that was observed by every president until Democrat Franklin Roosevelt broke the tradition by being elected four times. The Republican's passed the 22nd Amendment as a result which limited presidents to two terms by law. In his farewell address Washington warned us against having political parties. Advice that we should have listened to.

 The idea of Presidents Day is jus another nail in our coffin in my view. It diverts our attention from focusing on the greatness of our founding. To lump Washington in with the likes of James Buchanan, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden really irks me. If he could see what the Democrats and the corrupt establishment Republicans have done to his beloved country he would roll over in his grave. If it was up to me I would do away with Presidents Day and bring back Washington's birthday. Matter of fact I would have a Washington's birthday month. You can never learn enough about Washington. It bothers me that most school children can tell you everything about Martin Luther King but hardly anything about Washington. I don't have a problem learning about MLK but it needs to sink into our brains that there would have been no Martin Luther King without Washington. As American's, if we keep our eyes focused on our two fathers we can never go wrong. Our Heavenly Father and the Father of our country.