February 19, 2024

With the shock and awakening of Americans that the freedoms, rights, and opportunities they had taken for granted for generations have been brazenly stripped away in the last few years, primarily by the federal government and its administrative state, President’s Day 2024 takes on particular significance. It is unique among American holidays in that two of America’s greatest presidents — George Washington and Abraham Lincoln — speak to us from their graves.

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Washington was the key founder of the United States, the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army which defeated Great Britain — the greatest military power in world. Later Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention and was unanimously elected as the first President in 1789. Lincoln was elected as the sixteenth President in 1860 and was the wartime commander-in-chief who presided over the start and the end of the Civil War. In so doing he set the stage for national reunification, ending the scourge of slavery, and saving the United States from remaining divided. In short, Lincoln saved the republic that Washington made possible. And two remarkable men they were, whose wisdom and judgment were profound and as relevant today as it was in their times many years ago.

In both Washington and Lincoln, we are confronted with flawed men who made mistakes, but whose remarkable qualities of character were so formidable that they became part of the essence of what we call “American exceptionalism.”  Both presidents readily admitted that it was not their own abilities that made the difference but rather their faith, trust and reliance on God that gave them their strength and opened the way for ultimate success.

What is particularly striking for people today is that both Washington and Lincoln agreed that America’s greatest threat to national survival would not come from military invasion from a foreign power. Rather America’s downfall would come from within. 

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Washington’s final gift to America was his Farewell Address, calling it “a warning from a departing friend.”  It was so profound and in demand that it was reprinted more than the Declaration of Independence. Prophetic in nature,  it warned of three sources of internal peril to liberty in the American Republic. And these are more relevant now than ever before:  

  1. The failure of citizens to be well-informed;
  2. Internal division because of party factions and hyper-partisanship; and
  3. The decline of religious obligation and national morality. 

Lincoln wanted to prompt Americans to think and be vigilant by asking them, “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected?”  He answered that question, stating, “If it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time or die by suicide.” On another occasion, Lincoln said, “The people… are the rightful masters of both congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.”

After his reelection for a second term, shortly before his assassination, Lincoln observed that “…corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

While he could not have foreseen the technological transformations to come in the U.S. economy, Lincoln was remarkably prescient. It is now obvious that the aggregation and concentration of wealth in the information technology and the pharmaceutical industries today are major factors in  undermining our constitutional First Amendment rights. Free speech, which roots our falsehood and helps reveal the truth, is after all the cornerstone of the republic.

Washington and Lincoln were unique and quite distinct in personality, but both were men of deep faith, wisdom, courage, and persistence. Each in separate times with different challenges was willing to sacrifice his life for the greater good. They both shared a vision of America as a nation grounded in the ideas of the Declaration of Independence that would provide its people the freedom and rights to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. And they both believed that if the nation lived up to these ideals, The United States would be a light and beacon of hope for the world.

If Washington and Lincoln could somehow be resurrected and transported into the present, neither would recognize what America has become. Their first reaction would likely be to cheer on the efforts of American citizens to push back against government tyranny and reclaim their rights, enshrined in the Constitution.