Presidents’ Day Wisdom from Washington and Lincoln

Today is Presidents’ Day 2024, the federal holiday on which we celebrate the man who founded our great country—George Washington—and the man who saved our country from internal destruction—Abraham Lincoln.

Washington risked everything, including his life, to lead his fellow Patriots to victory during the American Revolution. He voluntarily resigned from two powerful positions—military Commander-in-Chief and President—to return to private life. Lincoln, meanwhile, came to office as the first Republican president after multiple slavery-loving Democrat states had already seceded. He brought America through devastating Civil War and abolished slavery. Neither man was perfect, both made mistakes—but they were undeniably moral, intellectual, and political giants. They were history-makers.

Much of the U.S. used to celebrate Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays separately (on Feb. 12 and 22 respectively), but now we have only one holiday for both: Presidents’ Day. Patriots throughout our history have looked to the wisdom of these two great men to inspire them in their trials, and we should do the same.

(Below is taken from my piece for PJ Media.)

Washington truly was the Father of his Country, a model for all presidents to follow. “I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy,” he advised.

For Washington, freedom was always a main goal. “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth,” he said. He knew that America’s liberty would depend on two things: God’s help and the dedication of We the People. “The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army,” he told his soldiers. “Let us therefore rely on the goodness of the cause and the aid of the Supreme Being, in whose hands victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble actions.”

The first President’s Farewell Address is filled with excellent advice for Americans throughout the ages. “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion, and morality are indispensable supports,” Washington said. He warned us against debt, dangerous political divisions, and foreign entanglements. He urged us to be patriotic and to preserve the Constitution. “The name of American, which belongs to you in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of patriotism more than any appellation derived from local discriminations,” Washington declared.

Abraham Lincoln, like Washington, was brilliant at delivering memorable quotes, from jokes to life advice to political analysis to predictions about the future. “If I had another face, do you think I'd wear this one?” was one of his humorous observations, showing he could laugh at himself as well as at others. 

Of course, he had to be very serious throughout much of his presidency, as Democrat states devoted to slavery began seceding before Lincoln even took office. Lincoln, known as “Honest Abe,” always dealt with realities. “I planted myself upon the truth, and the truth only, so, as far I knew it, or could be brought to know it,” he stated. He failed and learned, like every other man, but always with the truth as his goal.

“Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. And not to Democrats alone do I make this appeal, but to all who love these great and true principles,” Lincoln pleaded. This, of course, does not negate his efforts to abolish slavery; former slave Frederick Douglass held that slavery could have been abolished without altering a word of the Constitution. Indeed, as Lincoln himself said of our other founding document, “I believe the declaration that ‘all men are created equal’ is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest.”

Lincoln delivered one of his most famous quotes in 1838, long before he became president. It is a warning we should all take to heart today, as being very relevant to our situation.

At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

We see now very clearly that the Democrats never really surrendered after the Civil War — they simply shifted the battlefield to politics and have been undermining the U.S. ever since. Lincoln was assassinated after advocating a policy that many Democrats did not support at the time — full civil rights for black Americans. 

Washington put everything on the line in the Revolution, knowing death could well be his reward. Like these great men, let us resolve that we shall — as Lincoln put it — ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”