President's Day 2020
This is Presidents’ Day weekend. Originally, it commemorated the birthday of George Washington. Washington's Birthday was first celebrated as a holiday in the District of Columbia in 1880. Five years later, It was made a federal holiday. The holiday was originally held on the anniversary of George Washington's birth, February 22. In 1971, this holiday was moved to the third Monday in February. As the years have progressed, Abraham Lincoln, the nation’s 16th POTUS, has been added to the commemoration. And by extension, it has become a remembrance of all 45 of our Chief Executives . . . for better or for worse.
For many, President’s (or “Presidents’”) Day has become little more than a day off from school, bank closures, no mail delivery, and tons of Presidents’ Day Sales. Commerce has largely overtaken celebration or commemoration. I for one find the sales irrelevant; shopping is far, far down on my list of things to do in honor and memory of our leaders. Taken as a group, the 45 men who have served are a fascinating mélange, ranging from breathtakingly brilliant and accomplished to dull-as-dishwater dimwits. In the main, Americans have elected mostly memorable men to fill the top spot. Indeed, each one - whether famous, infamous or somewhere in between, is known to history by at least one nickname:
George Washington: “The Father of His Country”
John Adams: “His Rotundity” and “Old Sink and Swim”
Thomas Jefferson: “The Sage of Monticello"“
James Madison: “Little Jemmy” and “Father of the Constitution”
James Monroe: “The Last Cocked Hat”
John Quincy Adams “Old Man Eloquent”
Andrew Jackson: “Old Hickory,” “King Andrew,” and “Jackass”
Martin Van Buren: “Matty Van,” “Old Kinderhook” and “The Little Magician”
William Henry Harrison: “Tippecanoe” and “Old Mum”
John Tyler: “His Accidency”
James K. Polk: “Young Hickory”
Zachary Taylor: “Old Rough and Ready”
Millard Fillmore: “The American Louis Philippe”
Franklin Pierce: “Handsome Frank”
James Buchanan: “Old Buck,” and “Ten-Cent Jimmy”
Abraham Lincoln: “Honest Abe,” The Great Emancipator,” and “The Rail Splitter”
Andrew Johnson: “The Tennessee Tailor”
Ulysses S. Grant: “Unconditional Surrender Grant”
Rutherford B. Hayes: “His Fraudulency”
James B. Garfield: “Boatman Jim,” and “Preacher President”
Chester A. Arthur: “Chet,” and “The Dude President”
Grover Cleveland: “His Obstinacy,” and “Uncle Jumbo”
Benjamin Harrison: “The Human Iceberg”
Grover Cleveland: “His Obstinacy,” and “Uncle Jumbo”
William McKinley: “The Napoleon of Protection”
Theodore Roosevelt: “TR,” “The Trust Buster,” and “The Hero of San Juan Hill”
Wm. Howard Taft: “Big Chief,” and “Big Lub”
Woodrow Wilson: “The Schoolmaster”
Warren G. Harding: “Wobbly Warren”
Calvin Coolidge: “Cool Cal,” and “Silent Cal”
Herbert Hoover: “The Great Engineer,” and “The Great Humanitarian”
Franklin D. Roosevelt: “FDR,” “Sphinx”
Harry S. Truman: “Give ‘em Hell Harry”
Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Ike”
John F. Kennedy: “JFK,” “Jack”
Lyndon B. Johnson: “LBJ,” “Landslide Lyndon”
Richard M. Nixon: “Tricky Dick”
Gerald R. Ford: “Mr. Nice Guy”
Jimmy Carter: “Jimmy,” and “The Peanut Farmer”
Ronald Reagan: :The Gipper,” “Dutch,” and “The Teflon President”
George H.W. Bush: “Papa Bush” “Bush ‘41”
Bill Clinton: “Slick Willie,” “Bubba,” and “The Comeback Kid”
George W. Bush: “Dubya” “Bush ‘43”
Barack Obama: “No Drama Obama”
Donald Trump: “The Donald,” and “Snowflake-in-Chief”
Then too, on this Presidents’ Day weekend, in addition to boning up on their nicknames, it is important to remember some of their more memorable words and expressions. They range from the truly literate and memorable to the self-serving and incomprehensible. I have chosen quotes from a handful of our Chief Executives . . .
GEORGE WASHINGTON:
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
“In politics as in philosophy, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.”
“99% of failures come from people who make excuses.”
“I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.”
“Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession.”
“I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.”
THOMAS JEFFERSON:
“Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.”
“I cannot live without books.”
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.”
“Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity.”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN:
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”
“I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”
“He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.”
“I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
“What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.”
THEODORE ROOSEVELT:
“The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”
“No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.”
“When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on.”
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
“No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT:
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”
“Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
“The school is the last expenditure upon which America should be willing to economize.”
“Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”
HARRY S. TRUMAN”
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
“The buck stops here.”
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
“My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. To tell the truth, there's hardly a difference.”
“Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it.”
DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER:
“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.”
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”
“Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.”
JOHN F. KENNEDY:
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."
“The supreme reality of our time is the vulnerability of this planet.”
BARACK OBAMA:
“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”
“There's not a liberal America and a conservative America - there's the United States of America.”
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”
“Americans still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.”
“You can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.”
“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don't wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”
DONALD J. TRUMP:
“I feel a lot of people listen to what I have to say.”
“A lot of people don't like to win. They actually don't know how to win, and they don't like to win because down deep inside they don't want to win.”
“The point is that you can't be too greedy.”
“I know words. I have the best words.”
Come November, we the people will either be looking ahead to the inauguration of the 46th POTUS or the 2nd inauguration of the 45th. Whatever the case that man (or woman) will be joining the most select club in the history of the United States. May that person bring to that office the leadership skills of a Washington or Eisenhower, the manifold interests of a Jefferson or a Theodore Roosevelt, the humility of a Lincoln or a Carter, the faithful idealism of a Wilson and the class of an FDR, JFK or Barack Obama.
And tomorrow, perhaps instead of shopping, spend a bit of time contemplating about where the country is going, and who can best lead us through some particularly stormy seas.
Copyright©2020 Kurt F. Stone