President’s Day is an American holiday founded in 1885 that ( since 1971 ) falls each year on the third Monday of February. This simple definition needs to be refined however. Prior to 1971 this holiday was observed on February 22nd as this is the birthday of George Washington, the United States first President and it is officially named thus by the Federal Government : Washington’s Birthday. Additionally, we should know that the memory of this exceptional American now extends to other Presidents on this date. This is reflected by the two ways spellings of it found nowadays : President’s Day as in the day of THE President which refers only to Washington himself and Presidents’ Day which by use of the plural refers to all Presidents. Indiana for instance still celebrates Washington apart at the end of December. The only reasons that I know of that could have justified their choice would be that the good George died on December 14th 1799 and had relinquished his duty of Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army held since June 1775 to Henry Knox ( the one for whom the Fort that holds most of America’s gold reserves was named ) on December 23 1783. Since the position of President is effectively the highest ranking office in the USA ( not the case everywhere as we will see ), Washington’s successor were thus known as Commander-in-chief themselves which is still true today. The third week of December is thus a middle ground between the two events. It is not the only discrepancy relating to Washington’s commemoration however as he was actually born on February the 11th 1731 … but the belated passage to the Gregorian calendar by the anti-Popes British empire changed that by a year and 11 days to Feb. 22 1732 ( to catch back on lost days ). Thus, the choice of the Third Monday of the month always falls between the 2 dates ( 15 to 21? ).
Why or how would this original President‘S day then become the day of all Presidents? To properly explain this we must take our look abroad first. In the United States, the President as we said holds the top most ring of political power even if balanced by Congress. The same is not true of all lands and not even of all those that have Presidents. Let us consider as our opening examples the oldest and closest allies ( in the words of President Obama’s well turned recent formula ) : France and the UK. The former has a President while the latter does not. The UK has a Queen ( or King ) of course but that is followed by the ArchBishop of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, 2 more ArchBishops (York & Wales ) and the Prime Minister. The mention of President is only found in Lord President of the Council. Of course, on an everyday basis, the Prime Minister is second only to the Sovereign. France on the other hand does have a Président but that is a relatively recent matter if we consider the extent of the position’s powers in comparison to the American one. After the Révolution, the government was based on the Convention and no single man held absolute power. This having led to many horrendous affairs of infighting, a Directoire followed. One man was named President but all 5 members played a nearly equal role. This was followed by the two incarnations of the First Empire and those of the Restauration ( return of the Kings ). In 1848 under the Second Republic, a President existed but for all of 8 days? Soon after came Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, nephew of the real Emperor that ruled as Président but only to have himself named emperor again. The first man to hold the title of Président for France was thus Adolphe Thiers but this authoritarian man was ousted in less than 2 years. It is then truly only with Mac-Mahon as first full term President of the Third Republic that a Presidential function relatively similar to the American one began for the French. Even then the real resemblance should be allocated to Général De Gaulle’s founding of the 5th Republic and it is thus only since 1959 that the role is equivalent and in a couple of instances even greater than in the US.
Even today, while the rest of the world counts many Presidents, their functions vary wildly. In Russia, Vladimir Putin has changed status from President to Prime Minister many times and thus evades rules on continuous hold on power by having his lieutenants take over in either office for a given period. In Canada or most Commonwealth Nations, the Prime Minister exists although not always officially but when it does it represents the position of governmental leadership. Italy just got a new PM today that was named by the President but in everyday affairs it will be the PM that is in charge? The same goes for Germany or India where the President is almost limited to ceremonial functions but by contrast in Latin America ( or Afghanistan ), the President actually has powers greater than in America or even France.
Having covered all of this sheds a proper light on the importance of the American presidency and those that held it over the years. The American President’s powers are only limited by the assent of Congress which he must seek through the Senate for appointments and treaties and the House of Representatives for expenditures ( budget ). George Washington is to be credited as the originator of the greatness of the function ( and even the Nation ). As a soldier, he helped create America. As a Founding Father, he helped define America. And as its first President, he invented what later became tradition. His actions saw : the cabinet become part of the presidential office and the respect he inspired framed the choice of nominees to remain his prerogative including that of Supreme Court Justices; the executive privilege followed his strong decisive leadership; the embodiment of Federal authority which led to the taxation by and for the role of the central government; the relegation of the vice-Preisdent to second-fiddle status and through his restraint in exercising power and excluding personal gain or political preference did much to allow for the bi-partisianism that he himself despised, up to the point of being blamed for it? He also started the tradition of limiting presidencies to 2 terms both to evade dictatorship and give new blood a chance. Apart for having had slaves and not freeing them although he knew it to be necessary at some point in the future for America to survive in respect of its ideals, George Washington is the foundation on which the United States rest and it is thus no surprise that he is remembered with this holiday.
What counter-balances the man’s gigantic contribution to his nation is only time coupled to how well he set things up. Having made the President’s office that resplendent, having given bi-partianism latitude and having left slavery to be dealt with later, it was up to a few select men to make use of the first two to solve upcoming problems, especially the latter of the three.
The simplest and best known summary of great American Presidents is found in the Black Hills of South Dakota and shown below :
Click for link.
In the granite face of Mount Rushmore are carved the immortal faces of 4 US Presidents. Washington of course but also in chronological order : Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Jefferson is a given. He can be considered as a pendant and complement to the great George. A lawyer as many Founding Fathers were, he was the voice of the colonies for independence and involved in opposition to British Crown’s hegemony both actively and ideologically. He dismissed primogeniture ( giving all children an equal right to a future and negating kingdom rule ), supported religious freedom and advocating separation of church and state, suggested public education ( also favoring equal chances for all ). These high ideals made him the perfect man to draft the American Constitution. After becoming the young nation’s third President, Jefferson was active on Foreign Affairs as his position allowed ( good with the Barbary wars, bad with the Trade one and then excellent with the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark expedition ). On the internal front however, Thomas Jefferson just as Washington before him tried his best to rise above the parties but still discretely ushered the fall of the Federalists ( autonomy of the Supreme Court and lessened size of government ) and opened the door to the Democrats and Republicans of today ( then allied ).
He is also linked to Washington by having inherited slaves from his well-to-do father and not having freed them. Just as Washington, he saw the necessity of abolition which he had publicly denounced but did not act. The only difference is that Jefferson was secretly the partner of Sally Hemings after the death of his wife Martha … Sally Hemings being one of his slaves and mother of his 6 latest children!
[ By a strange coincidence of history, Thomas Jefferson died 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. ]
What both men left to be done came to rest on the shoulders of the 16th President of the United States : Abraham Lincoln, third occupant of Mount Rushmore. Lincoln was the 1st Republican President and when he was elected in 1860, 7 states left the Union over fear of his anti-slavery stance. Lincoln then went to war to reclaim those and the 4 that later joined, determined to save the Union. During the Civil War, he did 2 exceptional things that relate to his aforementioned predecessors : he assumed immense powers including curtailing freedom of the press and imposing martial law and he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that turned the “democratic” war into one to stop slavery. The link is evident, is it not? Because Washington and Jefferson had not acted on their beliefs that slavery was both unjust and thus a danger to the Republic, Lincoln was left to face and fix the problem. In order to do so though and also because of the elapsed time ( Four scores … ) since the two others held office, Lincoln had to act in exact opposite fashion than the one favored by his elders as far as governing went. Of course he was helped in both choices by this striking difference : that he was born dirt-poor and never owned any slaves? He had learned what he knew himself and not in elite schools. His beliefs and ideals were thus rooted in experience contrarily to his forefathers in the White House. Where he resembles them of course is that he did not profit personally in any way save in the accomplishment of his duty from the powers he claimed and in his ability to propel the Nation towards its future which he demonstrated with the Gettysburg Address. Again in contrast, Jefferson’s private life was difficult and marred by his wife suffering from mental illness and the death of his favorite son and as we know, he did not get to retire in a beautiful estate. Having preserved the Union and its ideals, he overcame the poor side ( slavery ) and strengthened the good side ( Presidential Office ) of the legacy entrusted to him which likely ranks him as the greatest President in history for which all he earned as reward was a bullet to the head to become the first President to be assassinated!
By another coincidence of history, Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12th 1809 or if you prefer, a day after Washington in the old calendar and only 10 ahead of the same date in the new. Thus, on top of the linear historical filiation of his presidency to that of Washington, their respective birthdays are close enough to have possibly warranted the reunion under the Presidents’ Day inclusive version.
Of course, these three are not the sole important presidents in US history. at minima we can mention the fourth one on that mountain : Theodore Roosevelt that worked hard to fight corporate monopolies, favor the citizens well-being and bring forward conservation of nature, became the first US President to win a Nobel Peace Prize and on a personal basis, penned a motto that I used often : “Speak softly and carry a big stick”. It would also be proper to include his namesake : Franklin Delano Roosevelt who with four terms in office is the lone President to have gone over two through elections and led America out of the Great Depression, patiently got it out of isolationism, repealed Prohibition, created the minimum wage and Securities and Exchange Commission and Social Security and so on. His policies were instrumental in bettering the fate of minorities and embraced by most Democratic governments that followed. He was of course the President through World War II from Pearl Harbor to Yalta and D-Day and having suffered lifelong illnesses, died at work a couple weeks before appearing at the founding conference of the United Nations. He is the man that made America a major player in the World and gave it superpower status more than any one else.
But I digress, let’s not loose our focus. What makes the President’s Day important is that lineage. No matter if you prefer Andrew Jackson or James Garfield, Madison or one of the Adams, Grant or Eisenhower from the military, Van Buren since he was the first American born one or Carter the nice guy, they are a succession. The country they led has endured on the same set of political rules and around the job that was theirs and still carries on. For such a young Nation, this is remarkable and it should come as no surprise that the holiday extended to all over the years. And of course, the official denomination as the name of the capital where it was enacted will stil be there to remind us of the originator from which it all sprang.
Happy Washington’s Day to all my american friends.
Tay.
Definitive Lapse of Reason 