George Washington: Father of Our Country & Gallup Look At All Presidents

Bill Smith, Editor: Yesterday, Presidents Day - More Debt and No Work was addressed. Today we will recall George Washington on his Birthday, Feb 22nd. Unfortunately, our education system has degraded the teaching of history of our country and allowed it to be co-opted by both lazy educators and by progressives. George Washington is relegated to a few lines in a textbook while a current or recent failing president is elevated to paragraphs.

This year's Gallup poll on the "presidents" reveals some interesting insights.  Gallup callers instructed respondents to answer based on memory the question "Who is the greatest president?" This year's top pick as the nation's greatest president was the late Ronald Reagan. Last year's was Clinton. The year before the pick was  Kennedy.  Reagan was indeed a great president but as detailed in the following article he would not accept this claim and ranked George Washington as the greatest president. The recent celebration of Ronald Reagan's 100th Birthday has brought the name of Reagan again before the newest generations and many of us recalling Reagan do yearn for those days when America was respected in the World and people felt safe.

Even though Clinton disgraced his office though sexual antics in the White House and is one of two impeached presidents, the Democrat respondent favored Bill Clinton while ignoring the present incumbent of the White House  However,, George Washington only made the top ten two slots above Barack Obama who was selected over the three other presidents carved on Mount Rushmore. It appears that we have a dismal ignorant public in regards to history and that it is easier for people to recall living presidents over dead presidents.

Democrats chose Clinton, Kennedy, Obama, Franklin Roosevelt and Lincoln. Republicans selected Reagan, Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy and George W. Bush. Liberals and Conservatives BOTH agree on Lincoln being in the top 5. That Big monument in Washington does have an impact. And the pointed obelisk called the Washington Monument is just not the same. The Democrats picked Clinton over George Washington and Republicans choose George W. Bush over Theodore Roosevelt. Maybe the GOP still can't forgive Roosevelt for running a third time for president as the Bull Moose candidate. The Republicans joined the Democrats in selecting John Kennedy who did face off the Russians, supported the Republican Civil Rights, called for tax reductions, and like Lincoln died for his country. The death of Kennedy marked not only the end of Camelot but end of the Democrat Party of my Grandparents.

While Barack Obama was not in the Democrats top list, he did receive enough votes by independents and the "commie-spin-off parties" to get him ranked ahead of Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, George W. Bush (expected by the blame Bush crowd) and even Thomas Jefferson.  It takes a historically weak minded public to rank Obama above Tomas Jefferson. Thank goodness, Jimmy Carter, a living progressive Democrat was basically ignored - there is hope that some sanity still exists. 

Follows is a tribute and commentary on George Washington by the Bob Morrison, Senior Fellow at the Family Research Council.

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                  George Washington: Father of Our Country
by FRC's resident historian and Senior Fellow Bob Morrison: . . . We are honoring today our first president, the Father of our Country. George Washington has been described as "the gentlest of Christendom's captains." As a military man, he was incredibly brave, facing enemy bullets not once, but many times. But when he put away his sword, he placed a dove of peace--a biblical symbol--atop his beloved Virginia home, Mount Vernon. He was eulogized at his death in 1799 by Gen. Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, the father of Robert E. Lee. The elder Lee called Washington "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Washington was an inspiration to virtually all the presidents who came after him.

Thomas Jefferson, our third President, said of George Washington:

For his was the singular destiny and merit, of leading the armies of his country successfully through an arduous war, for the establishment of its independence; of conducting its councils through the birth of a government, new in its forms and principles, until it had settled down into a quiet and orderly train; and of scrupulously obeying the laws through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the history of the world furnishes no other example. . . . These are my opinions of General Washington, which I would vouch at the judgment seat of God, having been formed on an acquaintance of thirty years. . . .I felt on his death, with my countrymen, that 'verily a great man hath fallen this day in Israel.'

Abraham Lincoln sought to model his own conduct on that of George Washington. Leaving Springfield by train for Washington, D.C. 150 years ago this month, President-elect Lincoln bade farewell to his Illinois neighbors with these touching words:

I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell.

So impressed with Washington's conduct, Lincoln made a point of kissing the Bible at this own inauguration -- just as Washington had done in 1789. Washington's reliance on the Bible was fully shared by Lincoln, who called it "the best gift God has ever given to man...But for it we could not know right from wrong."

Through the centuries, some few Americans have sought to pull themselves up by pulling Washington down. This tendency was most exaggerated in the 1920s, when so-called Progressives thought they could "de-bunk" American history by giving it a Marxist slant. But when a book purporting to show that Washington was a failure was published, President Calvin Coolidge was asked what he thought of it. "Silent Cal" wasted few words on the muckraking book. He looked out the window of the White House toward the Washington Monument and drawled: "He's still there."

Ronald Reagan surely admired George Washington. When Ed Meese, Reagan's loyal lieutenant, was informed several years ago that Americans in an online poll had voted Reagan the greatest of all Americans, Mr. Meese was stunned. "He didn't think so," the former Attorney General said, "Ronald Reagan thought George Washington was the greatest American."

Today, let us thank God for the life of George Washington, the Father of our Country.

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