Happy Birthday!

Yes, it's "Happy Birthday" time again. Today, it's George Washington's birthday, maybe. First, let me vent about the silly Presidents Day that took the place of Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays. Established in 1971 by Richard Nixon it's a "holiday set aside to honor all Presidents," he said adding, "even myself," it is ridiculous. Why in the world would we want to honor the likes of the two Johnsons, Harrison ("Tippecanoe" who was President for a month), "and Tyler, too," Buchanan, Harding, and others, including our last five Presidents? OK, OK, I guess people have their favorites and I know some folks disagree with me, but back to George Washington. Let me start by saying February 22nd isn't/wasn't really Washington's birthday/date. He was born on February 11th, 1731. But the British still worked under the old Julian Calendar (Julius Caesar, 45 BC) and didn't kick over to the updated Gregorian Calendar (Pope Gregory XIII, 1582). Remember the Protestant Reformation, Henry VIII and his dispute with the Catholic Church and pope? That explains it. When Britain adopted the Gregorian Calendar, to catch up, it added one year and 11 days. That is February 11th, 1731 became February 22nd, 1732. (The year is easy to remember. It is the square root of 3--1.732!) Of course, now officially, thanks to Presidents Day, I guess Washington's birthday is a moving date, the third Monday of each year. Grrr..... Now, for fun, Washington didn't chop down a cherry tree and tell his father, when questioned, "I cannot tell a lie" and admit his guilt. That was made up by Washington's first biographer, Parson Weems, to illustrate George's honesty. And Washington didn't have wooden teeth. Oh, he had false teeth, several dentures' worth. Some of those teeth were his own extracted ones, sheep teeth, and even ivory choppers. Gee, I feel a bit like I just told a bunch of kids there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny! That Washington was one of three or four key factors in the United States winning its independence did not make him a great President. (Without Washington, the colonies lose the Revolutionary War, pure and simple. Just like without the assistance of nations such as France, Spain, and the Netherlands, the colonists would have lost.) The qualities he possessed surely led to a great President, but the fact that he was the winning general did not necessarily--he wasn't President yet. Also, that Washington led the Constitutional Convention, was the presiding officer, was also a very important thing. That someone of the stature and prestige in the eyes of most early Americans supported the Constitution carried a lot of weight. Remember, a lot of leaders, such as Patrick Henry, John Dickinson, Thomas Jefferson, and John Hancock (at least early on) held strong doubts about if not opposition to this new document called the Constitution. Washington's backing was significant. Again, he wasn't yet President. But when the Constitution was written, namely Article II dealing with the Executive, it was pretty much a forgone conclusion that Washington would be the first President. (I know, I know. "Washington wasn't the first President!" Yes, he was, under the Constitution. But if we include the old the Second Continental Congress--the defacto government of the now declared independent United States--and the Articles of Confederation, there were up to a dozen previous presidents--note I didn't capitalize the "p." Look up names like Peyton Randolph and John Hanson. And note, like Washington, Randolph and Hanson came from Virginia. That was no accident. Virginia was the most populous and wealthiest state.) Like Winston Churchill in the darkest days of the Second World War holding Britain together, Washington did similarly with the young US. There was no guarantee the experiment with self-rule would succeed. In fact, many, especially in Europe, believed that it would fail and these brash colonists would come crawling back to Britain, like a puppy dog with its tail between its legs. Washington's personality, characteristics like courage, honesty, and foresight, along with the prestige he held among Americans kept the US from what many thought would be quick collapse. The specifics are there to discover. In what I think is the best single-volume biography of Washington, His Excellency, Joseph Ellis wrote this. "Benjamin Franklin was wiser than Washington; Alexander Hamilton was more brilliant; John Adams was better read; Thomas Jefferson was more intellectually sophisticated; James Madison was more politically astute. Yet each and all of these prominent figures acknowledged that Washington was their unquestioned superior, the Foundingest Father of them all." That pretty much sums it up. Happy Birthday, George Washington!

Happy Birthday!

Today is the 213th birthday of Abraham Lincoln. It is worth commemorating. Most surveys/rankings of US Presidents place Lincoln at the top, the best. I've seen a few, very few, that don't. But I would say that most thoughtful/knowledgeable people who know about the American past rate Lincoln as our greatest President. Although he did much more as President, the two things that obviously stand out are freeing the slaves and winning the Civil War. Through the Emancipation Proclamation and 13th Amendment (passed after his death) slavery was abolished. Despite the mistaken notion that the Emancipation Proclamation didn't free any slaves, it did free slaves, many of them, perhaps as many as 100,000 or so. Of course, as some historians, textbooks, and history teachers claim, the Emancipation was a military measure designed to help win/end the Civil War. That it was mere bluster, only freeing slaves where they couldn't be practically freed, is wrong. There was a reason the newly emancipated blacks referred to Lincoln in Biblical terms, "Father Abraham." And that reason was he had freed many of them. In addition, the Emancipation got the ball rolling, no mean feat. Constitutionally and, I suppose, legally slavery was ended by the 13th Amendment. Eric Foner's brilliant book, The Fiery Trial, and the hit movie Lincoln detail the story behind Lincoln's efforts to enact the 13th Amendment. (By the way, the wording of the Amendment, "neither slavery or involuntary servitude...shall ever exist in the United States....." comes from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, enacted before the Constitution was written. The author of the 13th Amendment was Jacob Howard, a US Senator from Michigan.) It was finally ratified by the requisite number of states in December 1865. Slavery was abolished. Of course, neither the Emancipation nor the 13th Amendment would have mattered much had the South won the Civil War. And it came far closer to winning it than, I think, most people realize. But it was Lincoln who won it. I've studied the period pretty closely over the years and have found nobody, at least not to my understanding, else who could have done what Lincoln did, that is, win! Lincoln possessed a unique combination of admirable character traits: courage, honesty, humility, intelligence, knowledge, patience, and more. He understood human nature and politics, recognizing that people would not hear messages for which they weren't ready to hear. (Who had the greatest message in the history of the world? "Love thy neighbor as thyself." It was Jesus. And what did they do to him for trying to spread it? They killed him.) Lincoln was thoughtful, rarely acting impetuously or rashly. Recognizing, too, that others might have better ideas than his, listening was important to him. And he wasn't above changing his mind and using those better ideas. I've noted these two anecdotes before, but they are worth repeating on this day. They are not only revealing, but still excite me afer reading and relating them hundreds of times. Frederick Douglass was the leading black abolitionist. He and Lincoln, after a tenuous beginning, developed a friendship. After Lincoln delivered his Second Inaugural Address, he returned to the White House to accept well-wishers. The receiving line was quite long. Douglass was in the crowd at the Capitol Building listening to the Address. He was so moved he decided he had to tell Lincoln what he thought of it. So he went to the White House and stood in the lengthy line. But when he finally arrived inside, he was unceremoniously ushered out, despite his claims of friendship with the President. After all, he was a black man. But Douglass was determined, eventually forcing his way into the reception room. His brusque entrance attracted more than a little notice, including that of Lincoln. Before Douglass could be ushered out, Lincoln saw him and cried out, "Here comes my friend Douglass." Just imagine that, in 1865 a white President of the US calling a black man "my friend!" But there's more. Calling Douglass to him, he said, loud enough for others to hear, "I saw you in the crowd today, listening to my address. How did you like it?" Whoa! Again consider this, in 1865, a white President asking a black man for his opinion! Douglass was embarrassed by the attention and the looks from the impatient crowd and begged off, "Mr. Lincoln, I must not detain you with my poor opinion....." Lincoln replied, "No, no. There is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you think of it." "Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort!" (Note the Biblical reference again.) The President smiled. "I'm glad you liked it. I value your opinion." Again, imagine that exchange..... W. E. B. DuBois, some decades later, was one of the founders of the NAACP. In a 1922 essay, he responded to critics who thought he had criticized or disparaged "Father Abraham." As Lincoln had told Douglass 57 years before, DuBois might have said, "No, no." Among other things he wrote this. "Abraham Lincoln was perhaps the greatest figure of the nineteenth century. Certainly of the five masters, Napoleon, Bismarck, Victoria, Browning and Lincoln, Lincoln is to me the most human and lovable. And I love him not because he was perfect but because he was not and yet triumphed. The world is full of illegitimate children. The world is full of folk whose taste was educated in the gutter. The world is full of people born hating and despising their fellows. To these I love to say: See this man. He was one of you and yet he became Abraham Lincoln." Read that again, especially, "...and yet he became Abraham Lincoln." I still get chills every time I read it. Happy Birthday, Abraham. (He didn't like being called "Abe.")