Remembering George Washington and a great essay for Presidents’ Day
When launching American Habits, David Boaz (1953-2024) was among the first people I reached out to discuss the publication. He was generous with his input and ideas, though I mention it mainly because I first took notice of Boaz through a short 2006 essay he wrote, “The Man Who Would Not Be King.”
I’d read Washington biographies before and am especially partial to Douglas Southall Freeman and Thomas Flexner. Yet Boaz, in his short article, captured Washington’s character and importance to America as well as anyone. Boaz’s work inspired some of my own thoughts on why Washington should always be considered our greatest American president. I’m far from a “snowflake” but it really bothers me when historians or political experts try to rank another president ahead of Washington.
Presidents’ Day, or Washington’s birthday to be more precise, falls after the weekend and I can’t let it go without highlighting Boaz’s simple but beautiful distillation of Washington’s restraint, humility, and greatness.
I return to the essay every few years to stay grounded; it holds up because it’s timeless. It’s also brief, so it’s worth reading in its entirety. Still, this excerpt from Boaz is a great introduction:
In an era of brilliant men, Washington was not the deepest thinker. He never wrote a book or even a long essay, unlike George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams. But Washington made the ideas of the American founding real. He incarnated liberal and republican ideas in his own person, and he gave them effect through the Revolution, the Constitution, his successful presidency, and his departure from office.
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat