George Washington: The Father of our Country

He was called the father of our country for a good reason, and he was. He established the principle of civilian supremacy over the military.

Washington set many precedents for our country, two -term limit for the president, limited power for the federal government.

He was a very good man, probably a better man than he was a general, but he was one of those people who grew as a commander.

He crossed the frozen river at Christmas, defeated the Hessens, who were professional soldiers and mercenaries.

Washington was, in the end, a very great man. You can't just add water and Washington appears.

He developed over many years. He was a Christian. He was definitely a member of the planter aristocracy.

I think right after the Revolution, he could have been king. One thing one finds that runs through the behavior of various different Virginians is when they are elevated to high political office, they make speeches in which they say,

I realize I'm not qualified for this job. I hope you'll help me as I air in it. This is what

George Washington said in his first inaugural address. This is what Edmund Pendleton said when he was accepting the position of president of the

Virginia Ratification Convention. People had the idea that taking a high office was a burden.

And of course, Washington didn't even accept a salary as commander in chief, right? This was such a Virginian thing to do.

Yes, I'll serve and I'll pay for it myself. He was commander in chief for nearly eight years and never took a nickel.

And why would you do that? Well, because you thought God had made you this wealthy person.

People wanted you to serve. Who else would do it? There was the opposite of our contemporary system.

We've come to have a system in which if you think you should be president, you have to tell people why you're the greatest.

In contemporary politics, you're not going to get people like Jefferson and Madison and Washington and these guys to be president.

You're going to end up with Joe Biden, right, who's been seeking this office. In fact, I remember when he ran for president in 1987, one of the nuns who had taught him in grade school said he told her when he was eight years old, he was going to be president.

So he had this idea his whole life. This is such an un -Virginian thing to do. So Washington was a logical choice, but he never said, you know,

I'm a logical choice. Meanwhile, John Hancock is showing up to congressional meetings wearing a military uniform.