Though there was no Labor Day holiday celebrated nationally in the United
States during George Washington’s life, he did express his statement for
the type of worker he preferred. The following comment comes from a March
1784 letter he wrote to Tench Tilghman:
“I would, however, prefer middle aged to young men, and those who have good
countenances, and good characters…to others who have neither.”
Posted by Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
Though his formal education was limited, George Washington was aware of the
value and benefits of schooling at all levels. As the nation begins another school
year, it is appropriate to remind ourselves of GW’s views on this critical issue.
The quote below emanates from GW’s January 1790 First Annual Address as
American president:
“Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which the
measures of government receive their impression so immediately from the sense of the
community as in ours it is proportionably essential.”
Posted by Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
What would George Washington say in response to the controversy over
a proposed mosque to be build in the neighborhood of Ground Zero in New
York City? One logical response came in a July 1790 letter President Washington
wrote to the Convention of the Universalist Church in Philadelphia:
“It gives me the most sensible pleasure to find, that, in our nation, however different
are the sentiments of citizens on religious doctrines, they generally concur in one thing,
for their political professions and practices are almost universally friendly to the order
and happiness of our civil institutions.”
Posted by Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
As we close in on the 2010 midterm election, there are signs of extreme
partisanship and ideological clashes which have come to paralyze Congress
if not the entire Federal government. Such personal and collective rancor
certainly existed in George Washington’s two presidential administrations, even
though political parties were not fully formed yet. But Washington understood
these differences, as he noted in March 9, 1789 correspondence to Benjamin
Harrison:
“Men’s minds are as variant as their faces, and, where motives of their actions are pure,
the operation of the former is no more to be imputed to them as a crime, than the
appearance of the latter; for both, being the work of nature, are equally unavoidable.”
Posted by: Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
In February 1784, George Washington wrote his French friend and Revolutionay
War ally Marquis de Lafayette about enjoying retirement. This period of
tranquility would be short-lived, as the Constitutional Convention took place
just three years later and GW would be inaugurated as the first U.S. president
under the Constitution by the end of the decade.
“Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all; and this my dear friend,
being the order for my march, I will move gently down the stream of life, until I
sleep with my Fathers.”
Posted by: Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
Today it is likely that I will be no longer associated with an organization which
I chaired for 5 1/2 years and for which my service was an important part of
my life. So it was for George Washington, who resigned his military commission
three times and stepped down from the American presidency after two terms.
The quote below comes from GW’s farewell address as chief executive on
September 19, 1796:
“If benefits have resulted to our country from these services, let it always be
remembered to your praise, and as an instructive example in our annals, that,
under circumstances in which the passions agitated in every direction were
liable to mislead, amidst appearances sometimes dubious, viscissitudes of fortune
often discouraging, in situations in which not unfrequently want of success has
countenanced the spirit of criticism, the constancy of your support was the essential
prop of the efforts, and a guarantee of the plans by which they were effected.”
Posted by: Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
Today’s Washington Post began a three-part series on the national security
apparatus of the United States. Though much more rudimentary at its inception,
spying has been around since the American revolution, and George Washington
deserves much credit for helping to create the original “Culpepper” ring of
informants. Below is Washington’s view on the value of this tool of American
policy, as written in a letter to Anthony Wayne on July 10, 1779:
“Single men in the night will be more likely to ascertan facts than the best glasses
in the day.”
Posted by Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
George Washington was no saint. He was human, and human beings have
emotion. One of them is wanting to get even once wronged. Below is
Washington’s view on the value of acting on that emotion, from a letter
sent to the President of the Second Continental Congress in March 1777:
“Retaliation is certainly just and sometimes necessary, even when attended with
the severest penalties. But when the evils which may result from it exceed those
intended to be redressed, prudence and policy require that it should be avoided.”
Posted by Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
What do George Washington and Jimmy Carter have in common? Aside from serving
as American president, evidently little. But both men realized the the lure of the
opposite sex while married. For Carter, it was “lust in his heart.” For GW, it was…well, read
the quote below from a letter sent to Mrs. Richard Stockton on
September 2, 1783, some 25 years into his marriage to Martha:
“When once the woman has tempted us, and we have tasted the forbidden fruit,
there is no such thing as checking our appetites, whatever the consequences may be.”
Posted by Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence against Britain was released.
But American forces were in danger of being routed by the British in New York.
After holding their own for the first fiew months of the conflict, the Americans
were exhausted and shorthanded. From that vantage point, it is difficut to
see how the colonials would triumph over the English empire. That made the
victory in 1781 all the more sweet. Two years later, after the Treaty of
Paris was signed, General George Washington bade farewell to the
Armies of the United States by expressing what the fruits of freedom
meant to him. The words certainly spoke the overwhelming sentiment
of a nation:
“It is universally acknowledged, that the enlarged propects of happiness, opened by
the confirmation of our independence and sovereignty, almost exceed the powers
of description.”
Posted by Dr. Sam Hoff, George Washington Distinguished Professor, DSU