In the U.S. Code, the third Monday in February is set aside to commemorate the birthday of George Washington, yet this has evolved into an unofficial Presidents Day.
This is too bad. Washington was one-of-a-kind and deserves the special recognition that the federal statutes afford him.
In modern America, Washington is at the same time ubiquitous and under-appreciated. On the one hand, his name is honored by the federal District of Columbia, numerous universities, and a state in the Pacific Northwest. His likeness adorns our currency and the monument to him in the nations capital is by law the tallest structure in the federal district.
On the other hand, Washingtons legacy seems to have little influence on modern political debates. Any Republican worth his salt will invoke the principles of Lincoln or Reagan with regularity; Democrats look to Wilson, FDR and LBJ for intellectual support in pursuing their agenda. Yet, one would search in vain to find very many political leaders citing George Washington as an authority on the issues of the day.
This is much more a poor reflection on us than it is on Washington.
Washingtons sterling political character is without peer in American history. Commanding a victorious revolutionary army during a time in which winning generals were expected to assume power for themselves, Washington instead surrendered his sword to the civilian Congress and retired to his Mount Vernon home. How many triumphant generals throughout history would have made such a selfless decision?
Washington's willingness to refuse power was essential to the creation of a republican system of government based on law and in which no individual is indispensable.
He understood that constitutional government was preferable to the monarchies that governed Europe, and he dedicated himself to supporting and defending the Constitution. In his Farewell Address, a true tour de force, Washington stressed the importance of preserving Americas constitutional arrangements:
It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position. The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes. To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them. If, in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit, which the use can at any time yield.
To study Washington's example is to understand his greatness and to agree that what was often said about him in his day is true: first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.
U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., was first elected to Congress in 2012.
