Happy Presidents Day, New Jersey. ‘We are Not Enemies, but Friends.’
Presidents Day provides a unique opportunity for us to reflect as Americans on those sacred values embodied by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and sadly assess our own disconnect from this country’s greatest leaders, the only explanation for the agonizing 2024 cough-up of Donald Trump.
Washington and Lincoln both possessed tremendous qualities of manly dignity, gravitas, and commitment to justice. Their character enabled them to provide leadership in critical periods of our country’s history, seeing the welfare of the many beyond the temptations of narrow individual appetites, hurts, cave-ins to narcissism, and callow submission to division.
Their preparation as sons of the Enlightenment – their reading, their closeness to nature, their suffering, their contemplation, and the trials that shaped them as men of action – put them on better footing to resist the whining tendencies miring those who try to climb to power in our shockingly depleted times.
Unlike those in our midst now, shaped by shag carpets, golf courses, makeup chairs and fluorescent lighting, these men took in hand the awful lessons of the land. Washington was a surveyor. His generalship of the Continental Army in the American Revolution hinged on his deep understanding of topography, a discipline developed not remotely or theoretically but from riding, working, and fashioning wisdom from wilderness toughness.
Lincoln, too, built himself in the wild, in his case on the Mississippi River, as a boatman, absorbing the country from the vantage point of its major artery, that vital channel uniting north and south, finding in the currents of the river vitality at the heart of America, to complement and reinforce the great man’s learning of the law, Shakespeare, and the Greeks.
The combination of humility and nobility empowered Washington to declare America free of kings – and free of the dumb chains of power for its own sake – and to insist on the peaceful transition from this nation’s first presidential administration to the second, establishing a sacred precedent. A similar lived experience enabled Lincoln to understand the necessity of preserving the union amid paralyzing fracture.
This President’s Day, let us remember that on Feb. 21st, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln addressed the New Jersey Legislature in two separate speeches, wherein he took pains to recognize that the Garden State didn’t vote for him, and leaned on a shared history forged in part by Washington.
“I understand myself to be received here by the representatives of the people of New-Jersey, a majority of whom differ in opinion from those with whom I have acted,” Lincoln said. “This manifestation is therefore to be regarded by me as expressing their devotion to the Union, the Constitution and the liberties of the people.”
He took time to refer to the struggle for liberty at the Battle of Trenton, led by his predecessor, then-General Washington.
“The crossing of the river; the contest with the Hessians; the great hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves on my memory more than any single revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others,” said Lincoln. “I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for; that something even more than National Independence; that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come; I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made.”
The President-elect expressed his hope of being what he described as “a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty… for perpetuating the object of that great struggle.” Days later, on March 4th of that same year, in his first inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln spoke to America at large amid increasingly perilous times. “We are not enemies, but friends,” Lincoln said. “We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
Today, whatever the nightmarish and ghoulish currents roiling, which supplant gravitas with self-pity and largeness of spirit with hunched meanness, let’s remember these men who walked and rode in our midst, Washington and Lincoln, shaped by the country, and know they had the courage not only to protect our ideals, but to extend their hands as our friends.
This is a beautifully written piece; Yet, filled with hypocrisy. Not so long ago, the movement to eliminate these two historical figures was America’s great rally cry.
Multiple statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were toppled including in Portland, Oregon, Madison Wisconsin and Denver. Schools and building and streets bearing their names were removed and renamed has if these men were American villain rather than great leaders that possessed tremendous qualities, manly dignity, gravitas. Any reference to gender was scorned, so really than, the word “manly” dignity needs to be scrubbed from this piece. A time, in our most recent history that if you disagreed you were cancelled.
Today’s conversation would be a lot different if we did not witness such shockingly depleted times. Be careful what you ask for because unfortunately, you may not like what you get.
Mr. Pizarro,
I know you are a thoughtful man who spent much time composing this article. Indeed, we are certainly not enemies, but friends. While I can absolutely see numerous points that you very effectively make here, I simply must take exception to two points you made: “Washington…possessed…commitment to justice.” “The combination of humility and nobility empowered Washington to declare America free of kings – and free of the dumb chains of power for its own sake…” George Washington inherited his first to slaves at age 12 when his father died. At the time of his death, he outright owned over 120 slaves. He worked them from sun-up to sunset 6 days a week. He often separated slave families for his convenience, certainly not their’s. As a slave owner he certainly was a king ( though he declared America to be free of kings) His slaves were certainly not free from the very real chains of power Washington had over them.
Of course, Washington freed one of his slaves upon his death, and also directed in his Will that all remaining slaves be free a year after his death. His widow did free all remaining slaves in 1801.
Clearly, we would not have had a Country without the skills of George Washington who saved our Army more than once to fight another day. It is also true, that had he insisted in true justice for his slaves, indeed for ALL slaves in America at that time, we would have had two countries created, consisting of his slave state Virginia and the other 11 states which legalized or tolerated slavery as the larger nation, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts , the only slave-free state, as the other nation. Sadly, in parts of our country, and in the hearts of too many Americans, there is animosity towards having a change of heart for the better.
Thank you, Mr. Pizarro, for showing us all that we indeed should all be friends, and not enemies.
SEM,
Please obtain a much better command of the facts before you write. The only city I could find that Washington and Lincoln Statues were indeed toppled, occurred in 2020 in Portland, Oregon , on different dates. Washington’s statue in Oregon was toppled in June, 2020, by protesters marking Juneteenth, a celebration that recalls the day a General informed former slaves in Texas that they were indeed free. (Washington was a slave owner since he was 11. He freed one of his slaves upon his death, and also instructed in his will that his remaining slaves were to be freed a year after his death.)
Lincoln’s statue was toppled in October of 2020 by Indiginous Americans protesting the displacement of Dakota Native Americans in 1862, when Lincoln was President, and the execution of 38 Dakotas after the Dakota War of 1862 when hundreds of settlers were killed by the Dakota tribe. As far as schools are concerned, SEM, our students should know the good AND the not-so-good aspects of our historical figures.
Absolutely, our students should know the good and the not-so-good aspects of all our historical figures . Students should also know that history is contextualized.
Many statues were either , toppled , removed and /or vandalized of Lincoln and Washington while the world watched. Lincoln’s statute met its fate in Oregon, Chicago and Boston.
My comment was simply an observation that not so long ago, (2020) not only were we not celebrating these men we were tearing them down. My only point.
Winston Churchill was an aristocrat who – believing in the superiority of the British Empire – sought to preserve the colonial system against the wishes of the native populations Britain had colonized. Yet when no one else would, he stood alone on the world stage to save Western Civilization.
We do not judge our great men against the Sermon on the Mount. We judge them as flawed men who did great things.
This was a great piece, Max. Thank you for writing it.
Mr. Leven, I know it is spilled milk at this time, but I guess if Max would have written a beautiful piece like this one that explored the notion that we do not judge our great men against the Sermon on the Mount- rather we judge them as flawed men who did great things – at the time, the statues of these men were being desecrated, it would have gone a long way and perhaps changed the attitude of many. We are certainly not a perfect nation and an extended hand of friendship needs to go both ways.
Winston Churchill did not enslave people.