FEBRUARY 22, 2021 – Most likely no American outside our family knows that today is the birthday of our Swedish cousin, Mats-Åke Svensson. Sadly, I’ll bet that all too few Americans know it’s George Washington’s birthday today as well. Back when America was great, every school kid knew February 22 as Washington’s birthday. Then in 1971 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, and George’s birthday—an official holiday since 1885—was moved to the third Monday in February and renamed, “President’s Day.”
Upon exploring the history of the day that celebrates all presidents, including the scoundrels, I discovered that the rationale was quintessentially American—a combination of labor unions gunning for more time off and retailers knowing that more time off by labor would boost sales. Because nothing is free under capitalism (or truthfully, any economic system) this gain in workers’ vacation time and retailers revenue came at a price: collective amnesia regarding Washington’s birthday.
It’s a slippery slope. If school kids no longer learn the date of Washington’s birthday, before you know it, they won’t learn about Washington. The whole country will go to hell in a hand-basket. “Will”? Wait! It already did under the president who couldn’t tell anything but a lie.
To get the slavery question out of the way, let’s stipulate that Washington was a slaveowner. Bad.
Now to the good. Over the years I’ve read much about George the surveyor, the farmer, the general, the politician, the president, the stateman. My conclusion: without his leadership, the American Revolution would’ve been crushed. Without his unifying influence after adoption of the Constitution, early disintegration would’ve been our fate. Adams and Jefferson were already at each other’s throats in the early 1790s. Washington kept a lid on the split by agreeing to serve a second term as president.
His greatest gift to prosperity was his voluntary retirement after just two terms as president—thus setting a precedent not only for compliance with the Constitution and the peaceful transition of power but for a sensible, non-mandatory limit to eight years in office. This latter precedent was observed until FDR ran for re-election in 1940—which led to later passage of the 22nd Amendment, limiting the president to two terms.
Another endowment from Washington was his Farewell Address, published in September 1796. If you haven’t read it lately, you should. The words are Hamilton’s, but the thoughts are solidly Washington’s.
Between the aforementioned benefactions was Washington’s response to the Whiskey Rebellion—an early post-Revolutionary strain of “Don’t tread on me!” and “No new taxes!” Washington’s actions were decidedly anti-libertarian. They served to impress national unity on factionalism, but they prompted the subsequent “Jeffersonian Split”—a strain of “go it alone” that’s very much with us to this day.
Now that you know it’s my cousin’s birthday today, remember that it’s George’s too. And remember too that not only was Washington the father of our country, but that he took an early stand for the “United” in the “United States of America.”
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
