President Herbert Hoover argued that “what we have need of today in this celebration is to renew in our people the inspiration that comes from George Washington as a founder of human liberty, as the father of a system of government, as the builder of a system of national life.”
The Founding Fathers represented the best minds in political philosophy, but one individual stands out for his leadership, prudence, character, and for holding the Republic together – George Washington “was the indispensable man of the epoch.”
Washington’s leadership was the capstone of the new Republic from his service as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, President of the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, and as the first President of the United States under the newly ratified Constitution. It was Washington who quelled rebellions, such as the Newburgh Conspiracy and Whisky Rebellion, against the new government and facilitated the often fierce political and policy disagreements between the Federalist and Anti-Federalist factions.
Washington was the “cooler head” who dealt with the competing policy ideas of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He rejected calls to establish him as a King; in fact, he willingly resigned his commission as Commander-in-Chief and later established the precedent of the two-term presidency.
It was the character of Washington that was his leading attribute. “Yet in every crisis, and for every role they turned to Washington,” stated Hoover. Hoover noted that Americans leaned upon Washington.
As Hoover stated:
… they made him a general against trained British troops; they demanded that he be a constitutionalist and a national statesman; they insisted he must guide his country through the skillful ambushes of European kings; they summoned him to establish the nonexistent credit of an insolvent infant nation. Why did his brilliant fellow patriots always thus turn to him?
“The answer of history is unmistakable: They brought their problems to Washington because he had more character, a finer character, a purer character, than any other man of his time,” argued Hoover.
Washington in his Farewell Address, which is characterized as one of the most eloquent statements of American political philosophy, directed the young Republic to faithfully maintain the Constitution.
Likewise, Hoover believed in the importance of the preservation of what he referred to as the “American System” or constitutionalism. The Constitution, Hoover described, was the “Ark of the Covenant” of liberty. In his Farewell Address, Washington emphasized the importance of religion, morality and civic education in the preservation of the Union.
Hoover agreed and argued that it was imperative that the nation not forget the founding principles or its history:
We have need to refresh to the remembrance of the American people the great tests and trials of character of the men who rounded our Republic. We have need to remember the fiber of those men who brought to successful conclusion the eight years of revolution…We have need to revive the meaning and the sheer moral courage of the Declaration of Independence, the struggles of the Continental Congress, the forming of the Constitution. We have need at all times to review the early crises of the Republic, the consolidation of the Union, the establishment of national solidarity, the building of an administration of government, and the development of guarantees of freedom. No incident and no part in these great events, which have echoed and reechoed throughout the world for a century and a half, can be separated from the name and the dominant leadership of George Washington.
“The true eulogy of Washington is this mighty Nation. He contributed more to its origins than any other man. The influence of his character and of his accomplishments has contributed to the building of human freedom and ordered liberty…,” declared Hoover.
President Warren G. Harding argued that “it is good to meet and drink at the fountains of wisdom inherited from the Founding Fathers of the republic.” Hoover would agree, and Washington’s Birthday is an opportunity for the nation to renew its commitment to the principles of the Founding.
