A history of the American presidency, on Presidents’ Day, George Washington’s birthday

16 February 2009

When I was a child in the US we read about George Washington, the man who chopped down a cherry tree and became president, and Abraham Lincoln, the man who read by candlelight and became president. The first one ended up on dollar bills and the second on shiny pennies. Other than that, US presidents were like a necklace of boring men with old-fashioned names, like so many indistinguishable beads. Van Buren for some reason always stuck in my head. Some did interesting things, such as free the slaves or fight in the Spanish-American war or dive into a cold stream after fighting a fire and thereby developing penumonia. I might have a detail or two wrong on the last one.

By the time I’d grown up with this vision of a glob of often ineffectual leaders, my country had declared a new national holiday, Presidents’ Day, the third Monday of February, and please note the plural possessive. This just goes to show, it is never too late to learn. This is not Presidents’ day, for there is no such thing. Today is officially a national holiday in the US, George Washington’s birthday. Like George, I would never tell a lie. Although strangely enough, the US Embassy in Germany doesn’t seem to agree with the US Embassy in Uruguay about this holiday. Best place to ask: US Office of Personnel Management, which says don’t expect anyone to answer the phones today.

Whatever it is called, the idea is to remember past presidents and give them their due. I often wonder how much better children in school today are, than I was, at knowing something worthwhile about our former presidents.

At any rate, as an adult, I’ve decided to refresh my memory about some of them by visiting the White House’s pages on page presidents.

Biographies of a few presidents

George Washington No mention of that cherry tree, a tale now in historical disgrace. He did have four bullets o through his coat and two horses shot out from under him during the French and Indian war, surely character-building incidents. His approach to politics: “He realized early that the best strategy was to harass the British.”

Abraham Lincoln No mention of the candlelight, but he was clearly a man driven to seek greater knowledge and understanding, and he was a carver of magnificent phrases, one of which is the timelessly rich reminder to behave “with malice toward none; with charity for all.”

Franklin Pierce The name was a blank to me but then reading his biography, it came back – the purchase of southern Arizona and southern California for $10 million, the battle over railroad expansion in the southwest, the stuff of oldtime cowboy and Indian movies. What must it have felt like to be nominated by your party after “they balloted 48 times and eliminated all the well-known candidates before nominating Pierce, a true ‘dark horse.’” And how is this for an epitaph: “By the end of his administration, Pierce could claim “a peaceful condition of things in Kansas.” Dorothy and Toto, two famous Kansans, would have loved him.

William Howard Taft Either very  honest or very humble or both: a great “legalist” (a lawyer who can write) who accomplished much, was given little credit for it and to his great relief later became “Chief Justice of the United States, a position he held until just before his death in 1930. To Taft, the appointment was his greatest honor; he wrote: ‘I don’t remember that I ever was President.’”

Dwight D Eisenhower My father, like almost every world war two soldier, loved him. He was a congenial presence during my childhood, nothing more, but he seemed to represent to my white, middle-class Iowa mind of the time ideals of peace, financial security, and backyard barbecues. Now I learn why there’s such nostalgia around his catchy “I like Ike” election slogan. “In domestic policy the President pursued a middle course, continuing most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, emphasizing a balanced budget.” Ike! Yikes! Where are you when we need you!

Richard M Nixon Fans of Nixon, beware, I’m not one of you. And yet, and yet, I find myself saying, the loathsome draft ended under him? A man landed on the moon under him (figuratively speaking)? He started a “broad environmental program?” Of course I remember all of these things, but I’ve neatly managed to avoid giving him any credit. I still think he did the nation’s moral fiber serious damage, but mea culpa, mea culpa, like most presidents he also did some good and useful things.

Barack Obama This is the one day of the year we are not celebrating him, since this is a day for past presidents. But you can read the short biographical entry and wonder what the other paragraphs will see a few short years (not saying how many) from now.

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