George Washington was so amazing. One of the things that was so amazing about him was his astonishly selfless use of power. As the poet Robert Frost put it:
"George Washington was one of the few men in all of human history who was not carried away by power."
Due to his immense popularity, he was offered a kingship. He could have become the first King of the United States. Many people wanted him to do so. He turned it down.
Then he was offered President-for-Life. He could have become President-for-Life of the United States, a dictator in effect. All he had to do was say "Yes." He turned it down.
He could have become Prime Minister, ruling for as long as his party stayed in power. He turned it down.
Instead he became the first civilian President of a country, something the world had never seen before.
Then the Continental Congress debated what to call the new president. Suggestions included "His Highness," "His Excellency," "His Mightiness," and "His Elected Highness." Washington opposed all these exalted titles and settled for a simple "Mr. President."
The simple truth is that the United States would not have won the eight-year War of the Revolution without him. He was the absolutely indispensable person in that struggle.
He was not a great general. He did not have the strategic and tactical genius of a Caesar, a Napoleon, an Alexander. He did have some experience in the French-Indian War some two decades earlier, but his experience of battle was not extensive.
In fact, he was beaten by the British many times. He had a couple of striking victories, notably Trenton and Princeton, but he lost many more battles than he won. The thing was, though, he just wouldn't give up.
Throughout the entire war, his troops were outnumbered and outgunned. He was always short on supplies, horses, wagons, weapons. His troops were poorly clothed and fed.
Constantly Washington wrote to the Continental Congress trying to obtain more supplies for his troops. The Congress, short on money, always gave the same reply: They gave him permission to comandeer whatever supplies he needed from the surrounding territory.
Washington always refused. He argued that to take supplies from his fellow Americans at gunpoint would be to undermine some of the very principles that the Revolutionary Army was fighting for.
The lowest point came during the winter of 1778 at Valley Forge. It was bitter cold. The stories of troops leaving bloody tracks in the snow from bare feet are not fiction. The stories of the sentries of each watch having to borrow clothes from the last sentry are not exaggeration. The troops had not been paid for months; desertions were common.
Washington held it all together by sheer willpower. He simply would not admit defeat. Again and again he regrouped and rallied the troops after defeats.
It didn't hurt either that the troops knew that he was looking after them as best he could, that he would not sacrifice their lives needlessly, and that he had demonstrated his personal courage under withering fire many times.
By refusing to lose the war, Washington finally won it. In 1781 the British surrendered at Yorktown.
As President of his new country, Washington knew that everything he did was setting a precedent. For instance, he appointed to his new Cabinet people from the left and the right, politicians, business leaders, labor leaders. His Cabinet was the only true non-partisan one in our country's history.
After being elected President for two terms, he could have easily won a third term. He turned it down, feeling that two terms was enough, and not wanting to set a precedent of clinging to power.
He was the only so-called Founding Father to free his slaves.
In his Farewell Address to his country, he said at the end:
"I shall also carry with me the hope that my country will never cease to view my defects and errors with indulgence, and that...my faults and incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as myself must be to the mansions of rest."
What a remarkable human being.
On your birthday, George Washington, I salute you.
—jim sloman, for 2/22/02
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