Washington’s Greatness

A Meditation on Self-Restraint

Why do we revere George Washington? Every year we celebrate his birthday but the stories we tell about him — he had wooden teeth, he could not tell a lie, he threw a dollar across the Potomac — do not articulate what, exactly, makes him great. Why does Washington deserve to stand with Lincoln, or even before Lincoln, in our esteem? I am reminded of the ancient Romans who so loved ritual that they sometimes — while continuing to observe it faithfully — forgot what a religious holiday meant. Incanting and parading, they kept on for years, long after the significance of the holiday had been forgotten.

Do we celebrate Washington simply because he was first? — Because he stands symbolically at one end of a row of busts? Washington was not a great soldier. We mark his victories at Trenton and Yorktown, but the list of his defeats is longer. His strong perseverance held the Continental Army together, but he was no military genius. He was not a builder nor a dreamer. He had no grand design that historians point to as the shaping plan of the nation. He undertook no great public works. Nor was he an outstanding orator. Franklin was more charming — perhaps even wiser, Jefferson a more visionary writer, Madison a deeper student of constitutional systems, Adams more active in public service. So what did Washington have that made him so important?