It's Not Presidents Day

And it's not Presidents' Day or President's Day.

It's Washington's Birthday.

It really bothers me that people refer to this holiday as Presidents Day.  We've had plenty of bad presidents.  Jimmy Carter does not deserve a holiday.  I think James K. Polk was a very good president (I have him ranked fourth all time), but he doesn't deserve a holiday either.  George Washington does.  His birthday should be our second biggest national holiday after Independence Day (which we've also messed up, I covered that in July), but we've turned it into this stupid, meaningless holiday that people call Presidents Day.

The confusion apparently comes from the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968, which moved Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Veterans Day to Mondays.  Veterans Day was later restored to November 11.  Washington's Birthday was moved to the third Monday in February, which can be anywhere from February 15 to February 21, but never Washington's actual birthday of February 22.  Some years it is closer to Lincoln's birthday of February 12, so that's probably where we get this idea of Presidents Day.  As I covered in my last post, I'm completely in favor of Lincoln's birthday being a federal holiday, but we should make sure that Washington is honored the way he deserves to be honored.  Let's fix this holiday and call it by it's real name.  We should also either celebrate it on the fourth Monday in February or on February 22 every year.

I recently asked a simple question:  Who is the greatest American ever?  To me, it's between Washington and Lincoln.  I wanted to see if I was overlooking anybody.  My friends Darryl and Bobby (both history majors and teachers) said Martin Luther King Jr.  I wouldn't put him ahead of either Washington or Lincoln, but I think you can make a legitimate argument for him.  Other than that, who could be in the conversation?  We had some great Revolutionary Era leaders.  John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson are all probably in the top 15 Americans ever in my opinion, but you can't put any of them ahead of Washington.  We've had some great military leaders, but you can't put any of them ahead of Washington.  I personally think Washington is the third best president of all time, but the only president that you could possibly put ahead of Washington for greatest American ever is Abraham Lincoln.  And no politician who wasn't a president could be put ahead of Washington and Lincoln either.  If you're going to put somebody ahead of Washington, your choices are Lincoln or somebody who wasn't a politician, military leader, or Revolutionary Era leader.  It's hard to find somebody who you could make the argument for other than Martin Luther King Jr.

My answer to the question is George Washington.  He is the greatest military leader in our nation's history.  We've had plenty of good ones, but Washington outranks them all.  For his leadership during the Revolutionary War, Washington would be in the conversation for greatest American ever even if he had never been president.  Being president of the Constitutional Convention also helps his case.  It turns out he was a great president.  It is appropriate that Washington is the only president ever elected unanimously.  Maybe it will happen again, but I doubt I'll ever see it.  Others have come close.  James Monroe won the electoral college 231-1, Franklin Roosevelt won 523-8, Ronald Reagan won 525-13, and Richard Nixon won 520-17, but Washington won unanimously twice.

Washington's Farewell Address is famous for warning against political parties and permanent alliances.  It's funny that we've totally ignored Washington's advice.  I don't think there's any way to prevent political parties from existing, but I do love that Washington is our only president that didn't belong to a political party.  As for alliances, Washington was probably right in 1796.  The United States needed to be completely independent.  Today, we have permanent and necessary alliances.

Like many of our early presidents, Washington owned slaves.  Washington owned 124 slaves.  Washington freed his slaves in his will and he is the only president to free all of his slaves.

I haven't mentioned my favorite thing about Washington yet.  He was the most popular public figure in American history after leading the victory in the Revolutionary War.  Compare Washington to similar leaders such as Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon, and Lenin.  Washington did not cling to power the way those people did.  Instead, he gave it up voluntarily.  And he did this twice.  On December 23, 1783, Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.  And after two terms as president, Washington retired.  He could have kept winning presidential elections for the rest of his life if he wanted to.  When King George III was told that Washington would probably return to his farm after winning the war, he said, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

George Washington was the greatest man in the world in the eighteenth century.  He is the greatest American ever.

Happy Birthday George Washington!