Presidents Day Is a Time for Reflection

Today is Presidents Day in the United States. It is a long weekend holiday, meant to celebrate the first American President, George Washington, and the most popular and respected President, Abraham Lincoln.

Actually, their birthdays used to be celebrated separately, on February 22, which is Washington’s birthday, and February 12, which is Lincoln’s birthday. But, as we all know, bureaucrats love holidays, especially long weekends, and so the two celebrations were combined into one long-weekend federal holiday.

But, it remains that these two men, each a powerful and seminal leader in the history of the United States, are still, after two hundred years, the most revered leaders America has ever produced.

They were powerful in times that required clear vision and determination to save the country. Washington knew that the colonies would fail if he could not keep his continental army mustered and find the means, both financial and material, to defeat the British. Without George Washington’s unique dedication and persuasive powers, there would not have been a United States. He was offered the position of king after the colonies had freed themselves from British rule. He chose to stand for election, saying that Americans had not fought and died simply to replace one king with another.

President Washington was a stickler for hard work and never allowed himself or his men to sit back and feel sorry for themselves. He said several times :  “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

And, goodness knows, in that fiercely cold and soul-destroying winter at Valley Forge, he could easily have given in to pity, if nothing else, and told his army to go home and forget about independence. Instead, he stayed with them, suffering the same deprivations of warmth and food as they, and it was this, his personal willingness to walk the way of hardship with the lowliest of his recruits, that made his call to arms and courage so compelling. Washington is truly the Father of the Nation.

Abraham Lincoln was called to another battle, that of saving the Union from breaking up over the question of slavery. His personal position was clear : "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

But, he tried everything possible to prevent civil war and to accommodate the slave states as best he could, within his convictions and the will of the majority of the American people, who were opposed to slavery. He was convinced that : "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Finally, he mustered the US Army, made up of volunteers and recruits from all the free states, and under his leadership, these brave men suffered great hardship, too, and often wondered what was the sense of going on. But, Lincoln told them why the fight was honorable and critical for the future of America at Gettysburg : "Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
Lincoln fought the good fight. He freed the slaves. He held the Union together against all odds…he who was the son of a poor woman from the midwest countryside. He taught himself, he got an education in law, he ran for office in Illinois and won. He was prepared to sacrifice himself for the cause of equality. And sacrifice he did, at Ford Theater on that fateful night of April 14, 1865, when he was shot and killed for his efforts on behalf of freedom and equality.

President Lincoln has left us more words of wisdom than most of the men who have served as President of the United States, but the advice below is my personal Lincoln favorite.

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."

In this eventful election year, all Americans, voters and candidates alike, would do well to reflect on the words and deeds of these two great American leaders.