George Washington
Relevant to Our Times?

George Washington, the great marble man. Venerated by a nation which named its national capital, a state, and numerous lesser burgs (including seven in New Jersey alone) after him. A fixture on bills, coins and stamps. The subject of countless legends and myths, ranging from Parson Weems's cherry tree to wooden teeth. The Yankee Doodle of song, Father of his County, and excuse for countless "Presidents' Day" white sales.

But what relevance does Washington have in the dot com world? What do we gain from studying the life of our first president? In these Politically Correct times, one wag noted that the only thing less appealing than a dead white male is a dead white male on a horse (and a slaveholder at that). What sort of example is the Father of our country?

Like all of the Founders, Washington was a man of his times; but he was THE man of his time. He has been called "the indispensable man"; solider, statesman, president. He won relatively few battles, but won the war which created the United States, the greatest force for human freedom the world has ever seen. The war over, and longing to retire from public life, he answered his country's call and helped give the new Constitution the respectability it needed for ratification. Again somewhat reluctantly, he assented to become the first President, setting the standard to which all who followed him must aspire. (Some with greater success than others)

Washington, like his contemporary, Napoleon, might have been Emperor. His stature was such that he could have destroyed the experiment in liberty with a word. He could have tenaciously clung to power; instead, he retired to his farm. In marked contrast to our most recent erstwhile President, to Washington, honor, integrity, fidelity, probity, and character were the paramount virtues a President must possess and exemplify. Lesser men than our Founders, and a lesser leader than Washington, could not have succeeded in Founding a republic and setting it on the road to two centuries of success.

Overstating the importance of the Founders and Washington in particular would be difficult. The Founders wrestled with a the great question of the day: whether the people were competent to govern themselves. This question continues to be problematic; ever increasing numbers of "citizens" dismiss politics as irrelevant at best, evil at worst, and refuse to inform themselves about the process or participate therein. Many questioned whether a republic was possible; was not a Leviathan to rule over the people with absolute (albeit benevolent) power a necessity for order?

The Founders understood the necessity of republican virtue to the maintenance of a government of free men. In Washington, they found its epitome.

Republican virtue requires that people seek to serve the common good without thought of personal gain. The men and women who contest for office should be motivated not by a desire for wealth, power, or celebrity, but by a deeply held desire to serve the public good. They should understand that service is a sacrifice gladly made by people who believe that they are part of an enterprise bigger than they are themselves. They should willingly offer their talents to their country, resolved to preserve liberty, not to pursue individual gain. They should understand that service to others is the highest calling, that politics is perhaps the noblest of all callings, save perhaps the priesthood, and that it must be approached with the utmost humility.

Republican virtue requires that the people who serve be of impeccable character. They must be scrupulously honest, unquestionable fair, beyond personal reproach. Mind you, this does not mean that they must be saints, devoid of sin. If we insist upon saints to lead us, we shall have neither politicians nor priests. But public honesty - such that the people can believe that a politician's public utterances are, in fact, accurate - is an absolute necessity. If the people come to see those who would lead them as crass, dishonest, or self-serving, free government cannot survive.

Washington set the standard against which all who followed him must be measured. He demonstrated that a man, chosen by the people, can lead a great nation, wield immense power, and, yet, resist the temptation to employ that power for personal aggrandizement. To him fell the obligation to demonstrate the difference between a president and a monarch. He led by example, and left public life first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countryman, a position he has never relinquished.

And yet, and yet. The Founders, Washington included, were men, not demigods. He himself spoke eloquently to his soldiers of the necessity to fight the British, lest Americans become "slaves". Yet he participated in a practice which, even then, was regarded by the Founders, as a great moral evil.

Men ahead of their times can, nonetheless, be men of their times. There is a certain irony in the fact that the greatest apostles of liberty were also practitioners of its greatest antithesis. But they certainly predicted its eventual, indeed imminent, demise, and to an extent, appreciated their own hypocrisy. History must judge all the Founders, Washington included, by their accomplishments advancing human freedom, while not losing sight of their personal departures from what we today consider the self-evident requirements of their principles.

Washington should be remember not as an icon, but as a man. His probity, honor, and integrity stand as a conclusive rebuttal to the cynical view that politicians - and, first and foremost, Washington was a politician - must lack these qualities to succeed. He demonstrates that however flawed and fallen men might be, they can come together freely to govern themselves, rise above their pettiness and ambition, and selflessly serve the cause of liberty.

The most important right we possess as Americans, and the right which all others are designed to ensure, is the right to govern ourselves. Washington showed that it can be done. Comparing him with his successors, he demonstrated that "character counts", and provided us with a yardstick for measuring those who would serve. Liberty is no less important today than it was when the Founders fought for it. We would do well to reflect on what it cost them to secure it, and how they thought their posterity could preserve it. Perhaps, then, we will not permit it to slip through our fingers.