Happy Birthday, General Washington!

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his essay, Civilization:

The true test of civilization is, not the census or the size of the cities, nor the crops –– no, but the kind of man the country turns out.

The ultimate example of that kind of man is honored this week.

I'm not one to celebrate all the presidents (there are so many to pointedly not celebrate), so I avoid the whole "President's Day" thing. I don't shop the sales, I don't break from my work schedule, or any of that. I do still reserve this day each year to celebrate the man who set the tone for the presidency, the nation, and, perhaps, the globe:

Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, – conscience.
Rule from the copybook of George Washington when a schoolboy.

Which rule he reiterated, to a strong degree, as an adult:

If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use to us ; the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent may we be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
Address to the officers of the Army, March 15, 1783

Even though, in my view, he never received sufficient respect from his supposed friend, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington laid a framework even Jefferson's ambitions could not completely undo at the time:

Let me now... warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party.
Farewell address, Sept. 17, 1796

There are days I believe Jefferson -- in the long run -- won the war, as well as the battle, and now in government too much time is spent in a partisan clash of egos, instead of on concerns of conscience and the good of the nation.

Still, we will, as Emerson suggested, "hitch our wagon to a star," and strive to meet the original standard.

And George Washington set a very high standard indeed.

My personal favorite postcard of him is this:

I don't imagine those who know me will take long to wonder why.

Being of a rural/farming region, I learned to appreciate some of the less-well-known facts about the man. For example, Washington invested considerable time in improving the lot of American farmers, and improving their spirits besides.

Farmer, inventor, architect, surveyor, soldier, statesman, scholar, all-around good guy, that -- and more -- was George Washington. As Daniel Webster once put it,

America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.

Happy 275th, General Washington! May your star always shine upon us and within us.