Happy Birthday George Washington

This weekend, my wife and I found ourselves in a furniture store purchasing a brand new couch.  It wasn’t a compulsive purchase; rather, it was a purchase that took place after browsing countless furniture websites and visiting numerous furniture stores.  Furthermore, we planned to make the purchase this weekend.  Why?  Well, because it is President’s Day Weekend where furniture sells for rock bottom prices, or as we experienced, no sales tax.

Technically, President’s Day isn’t the actual name of the holiday Americans are celebrating today… the federal name for the holiday is Washington’s Birthday.  It was the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, President George Washington, and it was first implemented by Congress in 1880.  For almost 100 years, the date of celebration was on February 22, Washington’s actual birthday; however, in 1971, the federal holiday was changed to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This date places it somewhere between February 15 and 21… never on Washington’s actual birthday.

But there is even controversy about the actual date George Washington was born.  According to the Julian calendar, the calendar in use at the time of his birth, George Washington was born on February 11, 1732; however, the Gregorian calendar, which was adopted by the English colonies twenty years after Washington’s birth, states that he was born on February 22, 1732.

The Julian calendar was the Roman calendar implemented by Julius Caesar after counseling with Roman astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria.  They determined, in 45 BC, the length of time the Sun takes to return to the same position in the cycle of seasons, as seen from Earth, as 365.25 days (the 0.25 was manifested as a leap day added to February every four years).  Approximately 1,600 years later, it was brought to the attention of Pope Gregory XIII that the Julian calendar wasn’t precisely correct because each year was actually eleven minutes shorter than previous thought.  Eleven minutes over 1,600 years added about ten days to the calendar… and since Catholics weren’t celebrating Easter on the right day, the Pope insisted on a change.  This important error was fixed in 1582 using arithmetic to change the calendar from 365.25 days a year to 365.2425… and the Gregorian calendar was adopted by Catholics, but not by many others.  It wasn’t for a couple hundred more years that predominately Protestant countries would start adopting the calendar and do so all the way up until the early 1900s (Russia and Greece).  In 1752, Britain and the colonies adopted the new calendar which took eleven days away from their existing calendar… and eleven days away from George Washington’s birthday, which, apparently, he didn’t mind.In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill Act which moved Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Columbus Day, and Veterans Day from fixed dates to designated Mondays.  It would take effect starting in 1971 and the purpose was to increase the number of three-day weekends for federal employees as well as promoting business.  What it did not do was establish “President’s Day” nor did it combine the observance of Lincoln’s Birthday with Washington’s Birthday.

The controversy regarding the name “President’s Day” has a few potential origins.  One comes from an early proposal debated in committee in Congress in 1968 that would have honored both Washington and Lincoln’s birthday and called the holiday “Presidents’ Day,” but this version failed to pass. Another comes from a spoof in 1971 played on President Nixon who was said to have signed and executive order honoring all Presidents on the third Monday of February, including himself.  A third comes from the fact that the states are not compelled to celebrate only “Washington’s Birthday” (in fact, only 29 states and the District of Columbia do), but other states celebrate multiple Presidents during February.  Ten states celebrate the holiday honoring Lincoln’s birthday as well, Massachusetts celebrates “Presidents’ Day” honoring its four native-born Presidents, and even Alabama includes Thomas Jefferson in its celebration.

Whatever the reason, perhaps it’s a good thing.  A generic “President’s Day” diminishes the accomplishments of one of America’s greatest Presidents, George Washington, while rewarding the mediocrity and subversion of others such as Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

In 2001, the “Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act” (HR420) was introduced to Congress and proposed that “the legal public holiday known as Washington’s Birthday shall be referred to by that name and no other by all entities and officials of the United States Government” and requested “that the President issue a proclamation each year recognizing the anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln and calling upon the people of the United States to observe such anniversary with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”  However, this Act died in subcommittee and never made it to the floor for a vote.

Maybe if they expanded it the “Washington-Lincoln-Reagan Act,” it might make it out of committee and get some votes on the floor.  After all, they were all born within two weeks of each other, so it makes sense.  In the meantime, we celebrate Washington.  We celebrate Washington because he was fair and just and because he could have been an American King, but chose to serve only two terms for a total of eight years as America’s first top executive.  That is why his Farewell Address is so important and why on this day, it is read on the floor of the Senate.

President James Buchanan said, “When the birthday of Washington shall be forgotten, liberty will have perished from the earth.”  Well, unfortunately in 2011, the birthday of Washington seems to be forgotten on those Wisconsin Democrats hiding out at a resort in Illinois.  Perhaps they should read Washington’s Farewell Address today so they can see how they are insulting the Father of our Country, George Washington.  An excerpt from the Washington’s Farewell Address:

All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

So, as liberty perishes in Wisconsin, I’m doing my part to maintain it where I live.  We do our part to celebrate Washington’s Birthday by getting our patriotic selves together and stepping into that furniture store with that big red, white and blue “SALE” banner and we make a purchase on our credit card for a big ticket item that we found and we don’t have to pay the sales tax! Yep, we’re honoring President George Washington and doing our small part to help the economy at the same time.  I think George Washington would be proud.

Tags: 1752, 1880, 1968, 1971, 2001, 2011, 45 BC, alabama, american king, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, buchaan, Columbus Day, Congress, district of columbia, farewell address, february 22, federal holiday, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Washington, gregorian calendar, HR420, Illinois, Jimmy Carter, julian calendar, liberty, lincoln, massachusetts, Memorial Day, patriotic, Pope Gregory XIII, president nixon, president's day, reagan, sale, sales tax, Sosigenes of Alexandria, Thomas Jefferson, Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day, Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act, Washington-Lincoln-Reagan Act, wisconsin, Woodrow Wilson

This entry was posted on February 21, 2011 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Conservative, Democrat, Economy, Republican, Tim Ross, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.