George Washington's War Powers
A Review of Logan Beirne's Blood of Tyrants: George Washington & the Forging of the Presidency
In February 1825, a group of well-wishers descended upon John Adams' household to congratulate the elder statesman on his son's election to the presidency. The proud father is said to have wept, remarking, "No man who ever held the office of President would congratulate a friend on obtaining it."
The American presidency is a harrowing test of character, judgment, and skill. Our Constitution endows the chief magistracy with nearly pharaonic powers. As Commander in Chief, the president leads the armed forces of the United States. As the nation's chief executive, he enforces and executes the laws. And as custodian of the foreign relations powers of the United States, he embodies the full sovereignty of the nation on the world stage.
But as Logan Beirne's groundbreaking Blood of Tyrants - just released in paperback - shows, the office of the presidency was not conjured from abstract principles. It was forged with a specific candidate in mind: General George Washington.
The Temple of Liberty
A Review of George Kateb's Lincoln's Political Thought
For the historian, then, the trivial can be significant, and serve as context that might lead to the truth. In Lincoln's case, the truth is that the 16th president understood himself as, and was in fact, the Constitution's savior - and not its destroyer, as George Kateb would have it in his new book Lincoln's Political Thought.
Kateb falls into his error in part because his book sorely lacks an examination of historical context. In some ways this is defensible - Kateb is a political philosopher, and he didn't intend the book to be a full dress biography. But Lincoln was a man of action, not a pure philosopher. To understand his political philosophy requires examining his political actions, something which Kateb does inadequately.
This is too bad, because the book's argument is in many ways interesting. Kateb believes Lincoln followed a "political religion of human equality." This religion caused him to fight the expansion of the southern slave power in the antebellum years, refuse to accept secession in 1860 and 1861, and ultimately emancipate the slaves in 1863 and 1865. The sacred texts of Lincoln's religion were the nation's founding documents: the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Kateb believes Lincoln venerated the former over the latter, because the Declaration announced the principle that all men are created equal. The Constitution was merely the legal means of making this principle reality.
A reminder for readers: The actual name of the holiday is Washington's Birthday. Honor the memory of our first and greatest president by learning more about his famous Farewell Address, published in 1796.
Saturday marked the actual birthday of our first president, George Washington. While he was certainly not a perfect man he was definitely "the indispensable man" of the Founding and he may very well have been the perfect president. He "was the directing spirit without which there would have been no independence, no Union, no Constitution, and no Republic," as Calvin Coolidge said of Washington in 1927.
George Washington set the tone for what the American presidency should be. That's why he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
All future Presidents should take their inspiration from Washington's leadership in foreign policy, in upholding the rule of law, and - especially now - in understanding the vital importance of religion and religious liberty. Washington knew that religion and morality are essential to creating the conditions for decent politics. "Where," he asked, "is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?"
To match his deep devotion to his own religious faith, Washington had a firm understanding of religious liberty. He knew and appreciated that freedom allows religion, in the form of morality and through the teachings of religion, to exercise an unprecedented influence over private and public opinion. Religious liberty shapes mores, cultivates virtues, and provides an independent source of moral reasoning and authority.
In his letter to the Newport Hebrew congregation - at the time the largest community of Jewish families in America - Washington grounded America's religious and civil liberties in natural rights, and not mere toleration.
Likewise, Washington also confronted the limits of religious liberty. In one letter, he praised the Quakers for being good citizens but criticized their pacifism: "Your principles and conduct are well known to me; and it is doing the people called Quakers no more than justice to say, that (except their declining to share with others the burden of the common defense) there is no denomination among us, who are more exemplary and useful citizens."
Yet Washington ended his letter assuring them of his "wish and desire that the laws may always be as extensively accommodated" to their practice. Such an accommodation upholds the rule of law and religious liberty, because it allows men and women of religious faith to follow the law and their faith.
In his letter to the Quakers, Washington explained that government is instituted to "protect the persons and consciences of men from oppression." Further, it was the duty of rulers "not only to abstain from [oppression] themselves, but, according to their stations, to prevent it in others."
Sadly, Washington's advice has too often been ignored and religious freedom is increasingly under attack from the Left. But in honor of his legacy we must never stop defending the Constitution and our religious freedom. We owe it to the Father of our country and all those who have sacrificed to secure those freedoms.
Brian Kilmeade of Fox News sits with Glenn Reynolds to talk about espionage in the American Revolution. Kilmeade tells Glenn about his new book, George Washington's Secret Six, and how Washington's spy network outfoxed and out-spied the British. You won't want to miss this edition of InstaVision.
