GEORGE WASHINGTON...
"We cannot, Sir, do without you"
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For the last seven years I have been telling stories to the five hundred students in the Charter School where I work as the librarian. The satisfaction I have felt has turned into a passion for showing these children how truly amazing this world is.
I marveled at the story of the Great Serum run of 1925 and I was blown away as I tried to piece together accurate facts for our great historical events.
My first year I had a wonderful library aide that quickly became a "friend" She was Native American and when Thanksgiving rolled around she looked at me and said...
"If you're going to tell that old Thanksgiving story, you'd better get your facts straight" I was shocked... weren't my facts straight? They were not and what I learned, as I studied and read, opened up a whole new world for me. So when I approached President's Day it was with excitement, knowing that I was about to see things in a new way. The history of Abraham Lincoln was so LARGE. He was truly a "giant" of a man. I had to dig a little deeper before I would appreciate and understand more about George Washington. I kept asking myself... "Why is he so beloved" This is what I found...
Only months after Yorktown, people began to talk about the need for a strong leader to put things in order. Nowhere was the talk more common than among the men in Washington's Army. Colonel Lewis Nicola feared that democracy would not work and proposed that Washington become King.
"Banish these thoughts from your mind" was Washington's reply. He reluctantly accepted the presidency when Jefferson told him...
"We cannot, Sir, do without you"
Compared to other political leaders of his time such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, Washington was far from outstanding. He had little formal education. He knew no foreign languages and had never even traveled to Europe. Personally aloof, even cold, he was not a great thinker, writer or speaker. Still he places near or at the top of the list of great American presidents.
Unlike other founding fathers, Washington was a true "non-partisan" He hated it when people divided into hostile groups and he avoided taking sides during political disputes.
During the heated debates at the Constitutional Convention he used his considerable prestige to calm people down and get them back to their main objective... creating a new form of government.
He was the perfect choice for unifying all of the diverse personalities and holding our fledgling government together.
"First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate and sincere, uniform, dignified and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting. Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues... such was the man for whom our nation mourns." Henry Lee was a cavalry officer in the American Revolution and the father of Robert E. Lee
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
During his resignaton speech in 1783 Washington said...
"I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last solemn act of my Official life, by commending the interests of our dearest Country to the protection of Almighty God."
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