by John Shu
Why do we refer to the President of the United States as “Mr. President,” instead of something like “Your Excellency,” or “Your Grace?”
Why does the President say “So help me God” as the last words of his oath of office?
From where did the concept of the President’s “executive privilege” come?
Why has only one U.S. President (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) served more than two terms, even though every president up until Eisenhower could have done so? (The 22nd Amendment was ratified on February 27, 1951?)
Why is our nation’s capital called “Washington, D.C.?”
The answer to the above questions, and more, is our first president, George Washington.
He was a physically large and imposing man, standing approximately 6’3” when the average colonial male in the late 1700’s stood approximately 5’6”. Despite his imposing size, he was humble, God-fearing, and very shy.[1]
Washington was a man of the highest courage, honor, and integrity. He was also a man of few words, a man for whom his actions spoke with strength and courage. For example, his second inaugural address is the shortest of any president, and perhaps any world leader, at only 135 words.
Washington’s personal humility and commitment to his new country’s unique system of government are the reasons why we have never used royal titles such as “Your Majesty” or “my Lord” to address our national leaders, despite many people’s wish to do so at the time. Washington recognized that the United States had just fought a terrible war against the British monarchy and its imperial ways. He therefore judged monarchial titles as unseemly. People referred to Washington as “Mr. President,” and that tradition still holds today. For other federal officials, we have a House of Representatives instead of a House of Commons (i.e. for the “commoners”), and a Senate instead of a House of Lords (i.e. for the nobility). We have executive “departments” instead of “ministries” (e.g. Department of Defense, and not Ministry of Justice), and accordingly we have a “Secretary” who serves the department, instead of a “Minister” who leads the ministry and its bureaucratic flock.
Washington, a man of strong faith, himself added “So help me God” to the end of his inaugural oath of office, a phrase which we still use today. On April 30, 1789, Chancellor Robert Livingston of New York administered the oath of office to Washington, which said, “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” and to which Washington added the now-immortal words, “So help me God.”
Washington’s faith carried him all the way through the end of his second term as President of the United States. Washington firmly believed that the young United States government had to have and exercise strong morals, and that those morals came from strong Christian foundations. Indeed, Washington firmly believed that such Christian principles were the bedrock for strong justice because these principles promoted the protection of life, liberty, reputation, and property.
In his Farewell Address of September 1796, he re-emphasized his strong support of the interrelationship between religion and morality, particularly in promoting private, public, and national political happiness and prosperity. Washington wrote, “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.” As befitting his natural humility, Washington never read the Farewell Address in public; instead he had it published in local gazettes (newspapers).
Washington’s wartime experiences all the way back to the French and Indian wars made him very smart and cognizant of history’s lessons, and that sometimes a nation’s ability to exercise military power could be more important than the actual exercise of it. For example, Washington once wrote to a friend, “You know it is an old and true Maxim that to make a good peace, you ought to be well-prepared to carry on the War.” In this Washington recognized the timelessness of the Roman Empire’s adage, “Si vis pacem, para bellum” (If you want peace, prepare for war), which is in the third book of Publius Favius Vegetius Renatus’s De Re Militari (Concerning Military Matters). As president, Washington did his best to keep the United States neutral during the British and French wars of the 1790’s, mostly because he believed that the United States was not ready to engage in overseas battle, and that regardless of the wars’ outcomes, all would be adverse to American interests.
Washington was a master administrator, which was hugely beneficial during the Revolutionary War and later on as President. During the Revolutionary War Washington showed respect and deference to the Continental Congress and other civil authority, even when doing so arguably hampered his military efforts. He was also careful to work and cooperate with the individual colonial governments and governors, writing thousands of letters and dispatches in an unprecedented effort to keep them informed and win their respect, trust, and support.
Washington, as President of the United States, continued to carefully act well-within the bounds of the new constitution and the new Congress’ laws’.[2] He knew that his presidential acts where the constitution’s text was unclear would set the precedent for future presidents. Thus, he worked hard to repeatedly earn Congress’ support, though the individual senators and representatives held Washington in such high esteem that they were almost always willing to support him. At the same time, he was willing to push back against congressional encroachment upon the president’s constitutional powers, as in 1794 when Washington exercised “executive privilege” for his private deliberations regarding foreign affairs, something which presidents in the modern day still do, and for which today’s courts grant the executive branch very broad discretion.
Washington was, like the other Founding Fathers, distrustful of Big Government. For example, he wrote, “Government is not reason, it is not eloquence – it is a force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
Perhaps the above is why Washington is the only president to win the Electoral College’s unanimous approval, which he accomplished twice.
For all of Washington’s many important positions and accomplishments, perhaps the least well-known is his service as Presiding Officer of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and his role afterwards in ratifying the Constitution.
Washington very reluctantly acceded to repeated requests that he lead the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to draft a new form of government. Washington realized that his attendance might increase the chances of the Convention’s success. He was also painfully aware of the failure of the Articles of Confederation, and thought that if the Convention failed, he might be needed as a human symbol to try and hold together the tenuous union of the new states.
In the end, Washington risked it all – his life, fortune, and reputation – to create a new framework for a new government. He attended as a Virginia delegate, and over his protests the Convention unanimously elected him Presiding Officer on May 25, 1787. In fact, Benjamin Franklin wrote a personal letter to Washington, saying in part that Franklin himself was “persuaded that your Presence will be of the greatest Importance to the Success of the Measure.” Washington presided over and guided what would otherwise have been terribly acrimonious and ultimately unproductive debates. Washington repeatedly demonstrated his wisdom, judiciousness, and practicality throughout the process. By September 1787, Washington and other signatories saw that the document that they had before them was the absolute best on which the Convention delegates could agree, and Washington was certain that failure to ratify that document would cause the United States to fail. The Constitution reflected much of Washington’s beliefs, particularly the need for a sufficiently strong central government to raise and maintain an army and navy, and to be responsible for national financial affairs (the young nation had much Revolutionary War debt to pay off).
Accordingly, the Constitution became the supreme law of the land on March 4, 1789, and on April 30, 1789 George Washington took the presidential oath of office in New York City’s Federal Hall.
Today’s presidential candidates and tomorrow’s presidents would do well to learn from President Washington. They should follow Washington’s admonition that political parties must be restrained in a popularly-elected government, if only because the parties’ interests are not necessarily the nation’s interests. They should be vigilant against usurpation of the constitution, remembering that America fought the Revolutionary War so that Americans did not have to live under its own version of King George III. They should realize that political factions who wish to obstruct the proper and fair execution of the laws, or who wish to subvert the constitution, are really trying to take power away from the people and put it into those of the unjust and power-greedy.
And they should remember that Washington voluntarily declined certain re-election to a third presidential term, instead promptly returning to Mount Vernon with no pension, no office, and no reward except for the eternal thanks of a grateful nation.[3] He also carefully drafted his will such that his slaves would be freed upon his death, setting an example for his fellow plantation owners and fellow southerners.
As Thomas Jefferson wrote of his sometime political rival George Washington, “He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man.”
Mr. John Shu is an attorney in Newport Beach, CA and author of the Law & Public Policy column. He worked for President George H.W. Bush and President George W. Bush, and clerked for Judge Paul Roney, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and Chief Judge, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review.
[1] Contrary to popular myth, Washington never had wooden teeth. By 1787 he had lost almost all of his teeth, and stuffed his resulting sunken cheeks with cotton for formal portraits. Washington used false teeth made from cattle and hippopotamus teeth, and elephant and walrus ivory. Undoubtedly today’s animal rights extremists would be terribly distressed about this.
[2] Something from which our recent and future presidents could learn.
[3] It is truly the strong and moral person who freely walks away from that kind of power and authority.