Whose President?
Their pictures hung on the plastered classroom walls where I learned the 3Rs. One sported a white wig, strange to my 1950s cultural eye, suggesting he must be quite old and wise, even if he was much the junior of our two most recent presidents. The other featured a bearded face, framing an expression both pensive and sad. Were they looking at me when I caught them out of the corner of my eye as I stood at my desk pledging allegiance every morning. And if so, what did they make of the children, like me, living in the wake of the ship of state they helped launch and defend?
Presidents’ Day, that compromise holiday established in 1971, not only joined former celebrations of our two most noteworthy leaders, but gave America another long weekend to help ease the malaise of February’s persistent winter. What an unexpectedly brilliant concept to come out of a normally contentious Congress. And it extends our umbrella of recognition well beyond those two executives who held sway over our founding, and our near dissolution. Whether we know much about Washington and Lincoln, whether we still hold them in respectful awe, or whether we have trained our critical eyes upon their every flaw—they yet hold a special place of reverence and admiration in our history and national identity. And they are not alone.
Forty-five different men have occupied the seat of power overseeing our bi-cameral republic, and while this roster is exclusively male in gender, a number of them presided in tandem with spouses whose influence over the country was anything but background. The course of our history was also shaped by powers behind the throne with names like Eleonor, Abigail, Jacqueline, Dolley, Michelle, Hillary, Betty, Martha, Rosalyn, Laura, Edith, Nancy, Bess, Mary, Edith, and Lady Bird, to name some who rank highest in significance in recent polls.
George Washington set a presidential precedent when he stepped away from office after eight years at the helm, and this tradition was followed by 13 of his successors before term limits became the law of the land. Franklin Roosevelt was the exception, his four consecutive elections never to be repeated. A few more were aligned to enjoy more than four years in office, but illness, assassination and resignation cut short those aspirations.
What qualified any of these people to serve as president? Politics tends to beget politicians. Thirty-three presidents got their feet wet in the Senate, House or both, and 14 of them straddled the executive and legislative divide as vice presidents prior to their elevation. Sixteen chief executives parlayed their experience running state governments prior to their White House residencies. Some were among our most successful in historical judgment, while others have fallen short of lasting appreciation.
Presidents typically had other day jobs before seeking elected office. Twenty-six of them were lawyers by profession, perhaps a fitting credential for one entrusted with administering our most sacred legal contract, the U. S. Constitution. Thirty-one of them had served their county in active or reserve military service, George Bush (the elder) being the last to do so in wartime. The presidency has also drawn farmers, ranchers, educators, journalists, engineers, business successes and failures, and even an entertainer to the Oval Office. Most were married, two tying the knot while in office, and a large number of them lived out their presidencies with children in tow at the mansion. And nine of our presidents shouldered the grief of burying spouses or children while trying to fulfill their duties to their country.
I’m sure each of us has a short list of presidents who stand tall in our memory and judgment. Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Jackson, Roosevelt—either or both—continue to be given high marks in historical reckoning. And in more recent memory we no doubt have both our favorites and those we’d rather forget. If you’re like me the names of many register nary an impression. Once well-known leaders like Van Buren, Tyler, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Hayes, and Arthur seem little more than place holders in a lengthy ledger of political heroes and villains. And who among presidents of more recent vintage, like Taft, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover, Ford and Carter, continue to hold much of our attention or regard?
Whether we remember any of these national figureheads fondly or with admiration, or disparagingly recall what they did, or didn’t do while on presidential watch, they are all, nonetheless, “ours.” No matter what our slogans, banners and T-shirts may otherwise proclaim, none of these presidents were ever “mine” to fully know, possess, or manipulate. That may be a hard pill to swallow in this era in which we so readily get caught up idolizing celebrities and going overboard with fan-atical devotion to favorite teams and superstar heroes. It is easy to root for “my team,” “my party,” and “my” president in the flush of victory. And it is just as easy to jettison such ownership when “they” lose, “they” fail us, or “they” are discredited. But presidents are entirely different, resembling neither mascot nor mirror. For the place they assume in the much larger fabric of our national tapestry must be cut from different cloth than that from which tribal banners and team pennants are sown.
For in this Republic, unique in the world in age, durability and global impact, every democratically chosen president ceases to belong to me, a home state or chosen party the very moment allegiance is sworn during inaugural confirmation. At that point each and every president ceases to belong to any one of us. For the oath taken realigns their service from provincial constituents and parochial interests to the common good of the nation that now defines their possibilities and restrains their self-serving impulses. It is to this new constituency that our presidents owe their complete devotion, their tireless sacrifice, and their undying commitment. From then on they become “ours”, for better or for worse, in a sacred covenant in which all me and my preferences must be transformed by us and ours realities so that a government of, by and for the people may, in fact, long endure.
I won’t pretend that I don’t like some of these people more than others, that I don’t find some of their political views more in harmony with my own. Yet I have learned to appreciate how daunting it must be trying to ensure that the America of our day to day experience somehow mirrors and replicates the ideals of liberty and justice, of inclusion and community, that each of us expects and holds dear. Some of our leaders have done this better than others, but all are worthy of our remembrance, and our respect, in having given what they had to give during the times they were entrusted to serve. Perhaps that is why I so enjoy reading some of the fine historical biographies now available that bring Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Washington, Madison, Marshall and so many others to life. These books have opened my eyes to both the challenges they faced in their times, and the lessons they can teach us about living in our times. And they have allowed me to rub my fingers over the cracks and blemishes of the clay feet of ancestors who were as flawed as they were noble, as mistaken as they were prescient. Should we expect anything more or less of human beings, who like ourselves, must be understood in the context of the era in which they lived out their lives? Misrepresenting those who preceded us, or ignoring them outright, says more about our historical short-sightedness and naivete than it does about their regrettable, but understandable foibles and flaws.
As a benediction to this Presidents’ Day essay I’ve included a small sampling of the good words left by some of “our” past presidents. May their voices, like the portraits that once hung in school classrooms, keep watch over us to whom their dreams and labors have been entrusted.
“It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only effect himself, his country and his immediate posterity: but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.” - George Washington
“Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of one man, family, or class of men.” - John Adams
“A government that is big enough to give you everything that you want, is big enough to take away everything that you have.” - Thomas Jefferson
“As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending.” -Andrew Jackson
“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” - Abraham Lincoln
“To educate a person in the mind but not in morals is to educate a menace to society.” - Theodore Roosevelt
“The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well informed enough to maintain its sovereign control over the government.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt
“To be true to one’s own freedom is, in essence, to honor and respect the freedom of all others.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again.” - Ronald Reagan
