The Real Story: George Washington was the man!
Posted on February 18, 2008
America desperately searches for leadership. Yet great leaders have become hard to find as our nation suffers through bitter partisanship that seeks to divide rather than unite. This Presidents Day, for true leadership and inspiration, America should look to its greatest leader: George Washington.
Washington was a man of immense integrity and unwavering character with a quiet confidence in his own judgment and a rock-solid foundation of moral conviction. He believed that, above all else, faithful service to God, country and his fellow citizens were paramount to personal gain. He had a vision for America as a nation where independent, responsible, hardworking citizens could prosper in a society of economic and political freedom and he risked his life to make it a reality.
Throughout his remarkable life, Washington proved himself as a leader again and again. During the revolution, he faced short-term enlistments, desertions, inadequate equipment for his soldiers, unruly congressional and state legislators and wavering support among the general public. Yet his men so trusted and believed in him, they found the strength to keep fighting. Without Washington’s steady leadership the Continental Army would have collapsed on its own, without any aid from the British.
After America won its independence, Washington did perhaps the most amazing thing of his entire life: He disbanded his army and went home to Mount Vernon. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but he could have seized power and declared himself ruler right then as most revolutionary leaders have done before and after him. After all, his soldiers remained loyal to him and the people adored him. According to the precedents of history, he was supposed to take power but, instead, he refused it. When the news of Washington’s decision reached London, King George III told an aide, “if he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
When the Articles of Confederation failed, Washington’s leadership was instrumental in the creation of the Constitution. His presence at the Constitutional Convention gave the document a credibility and legitimacy it would have otherwise lacked. One delegate at the Convention would later remark that the vast powers given to the presidency in the Constitution would not have been as great “had not many of the members cast their eyes toward General Washington as president.”
Washington would go on to become our first president in 1789, the only one to ever be unanimously elected. He accepted the position with the knowledge that his decisions as head of state would determine the actions of those who would follow him. With an eye toward the future, he wrote James Madison that “our situation will serve to establish a precedent…it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents be fixed on true principles.”
As a general and a statesman, Washington’s leadership not only commanded the respect of ordinary citizens, but also the great men who worked with him. Nearing the end of his life, Thomas Jefferson would reflect that Washington “was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calmest unconcern…his integrity was most pure…his justice was the most inflexible that I have ever known…he was, in every sense of the words, a wise, good and great man.”
This November, the American people will choose a new president, along with a third of the Senate and the entire House of Representatives. My friends, for too long this country has been run by selfish career politicians who shift with the winds of opinion polls and serve special interest groups rather than the people who voted for them.
It’s time for us to find real leaders who stand on principle to carry us into the future. But in order to find the leadership we seek, we should look to the example of the man who remains “first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Tony Spadaccia is a freshman political science and business management major.
