A Message of Modesty & Restraint

Fire of Liberty

As we celebrate George Washington's birthday today or what has been morphed into the generic President's Day (Remember I'm an originalist and favor the original focus of the day which is the first George W's birthday. If push comes to shove, I can make an exception to throwing Lincoln into the mix) I figured it would be nice to direct you to TCS Daily's columnist Lee Harris most recent column "The Father Without a Son" which points out that President Washington was aware that he would set some considerably historic precedents that would forever effect the state of this nation. One area that he made sure he set as a precedent was his term in office. While he could have gone on and become President for life, Washington understood that if the nation was going to survive as a republic then he had to point out by example that the executive branch was a post that had to be given up after a certain amount of time. So without further ado, I present you with my most favorite part of Harris's column, which is Washington's lasting act that would preserve our union (I might be stretching it a little but I think every little thing counts). Here it is:

Because Washington had no son, this danger did not arise. Yet Washington recognized the danger of a popular President, such as himself, getting re-elected over and over for the remainder of his life. Here again the Constitution provided no solution, so Washington had to devise a solution of his own. He would not die in office; instead, he would be elected for two terms, and then he would not run again. Furthermore, by his renunciation of power, Washington would set a precedent and an example that would check the ambitions of all Presidents for nearly a hundred and fifty years, thereby providing a kind of unwritten amendment to the Constitution.

Take the case of the popular Theodore Roosevelt. He had inherited the office of the President after the assassination of McKinley, and served out the remaining three years of McKinley's term. But when he was finally elected in his own right, he immediately issued a statement that he would honor the spirit of George Washington's example by not running again when his term of office was up, arguing that no President should hold office for more than the eight years that Washington had served. Here again, there was nothing in the Constitution to prevent Teddy Roosevelt from doing so; it was only Washington's example that inspired him to make his declaration—though, subsequently, Teddy Roosevelt came to regret his rash statement, and in 1912, he would form his own political party, the Bull Moose Party, and take another shot at the Presidency.

When his cousin Franklin Roosevelt ran successfully for his third term, he knew he was violating the unwritten law established by Washington's example. The result was an inevitable reaction that culminated in the passage of a Constitutional Amendment limiting all future Presidents to no more than two elected terms. As Washington clearly saw, the American people needed to be protected not only from their enemies, but from their popular heroes as well—indeed, perhaps especially from them.

Today we now call it President's Day, and no longer celebrate Washington's Birthday. This is a pity. For without the greatness, wisdom, and humanity of our first President, the office of the Presidency would almost certainly have become something radically different from what any of us are familiar with—indeed, it might well have become something that none of us would feel much like celebrating. It was not the written document called the Constitution that protected us from tyranny; it was the shining example of a single man.

I hope all Presidents strive to be like Washington. Enjoy the holiday.