George Washington and the “Gift of Silence”

By |2024-02-22T05:51:49-06:00February 21st, 2024|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, George Washington, Leadership, Stephen M. Klugewicz, Timeless Essays|

George Washington, the great actor, was playing his part in a great drama, not just for Americans of his day, but for you and me. Washington, the Stoic, used his “gift of silence” shrewdly, and surely it is his actions more than his words that echo down to us today. In December 2009, a letter [...]

Should We Celebrate Presidents’ Day, or Washington’s Birthday?

By |2024-02-18T16:09:00-06:00February 18th, 2024|Categories: American Republic, Constitution, George Washington, Gleaves Whitney, Presidency, Timeless Essays|

People ask why a few of us presidential junkies would like to see Presidents’ Day changed back to Washington’s Birthday. The technical explanation has to do with a misguided law called HR 15951 that was passed in 1968 to make federal holidays less complicated. The real answer is simply this: George Washington is our greatest [...]

George Washington & the Patience of Power

By |2023-12-13T19:27:51-06:00December 13th, 2023|Categories: American Founding, Christianity, George Washington, History, Timeless Essays, Virtue, War|

In his courage and perseverance throughout the Revolution, George Washington revealed his reliance on patience—and feelingly used the word when referring to his men at Valley Forge. In contemporary American society, the relationship between patience and power is often wary and distant: If people have power, then they won’t have to wait. Recently, however, these two [...]

Luther Martin of Maryland & the Constitutional Convention

By |2023-02-19T21:31:02-06:00February 19th, 2023|Categories: Alexander Hamilton, American Founding, American Republic, Constitution, Featured, George Mason, George Washington, History, John Marshall, Timeless Essays|

Luther Martin understood human nature with a genius of sheer power, foresight, and brilliance. He believed that there can be no union without subsidiarity because without it, governments run with the cyclical and typical tyrannies of humankind. Forgotten Founder, Drunken Prophet, The Life of Luther Martin, by Bill Kauffman (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2008) “Happiness is [...]

George Washington: American Aurelius

By |2022-12-13T14:31:05-06:00December 13th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Bradley J. Birzer, George Washington, Government, History, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays, Western Civilization|

In his own day, George Washington served as a pillar of Atlantis, recognized not only for his willingness to sacrifice his life for the great Republic, but also as the founder of the first serious Republic a weary world had witnessed in centuries. He deserves the title “the American Marcus Aurelius.” In his own day [...]

Our First Ex-President

By |2022-09-14T18:05:20-05:00September 14th, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, George Washington, Stephen M. Klugewicz, Timeless Essays|

George Washington knew that he was setting a precedent by voluntarily relinquishing power after serving two terms as president, and he understood that his actions after leaving office would have a great effect on the future of the American people. The United States of America faced a new political situation in 1797, upon the completion [...]

Divine Providence: The Witness of Two American Heroes

By |2024-02-22T06:17:26-06:00July 3rd, 2022|Categories: American Republic, American Revolution, Catholicism, Communism, George Washington, History|

In very different historical circumstances, two strong-willed, athletic men with intelligence and leadership ability survived multiple dangers, but neither attributed his survival to his abilities or to sheer willpower. Instead, both men consistently and publicly credited Divine Providence. Their stories are well-known, but worth reviewing, since they serve as witnesses to us in our own [...]

George Washington: Indispensable Man

By |2024-02-22T06:20:09-06:00February 21st, 2022|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Forrest McDonald, George Washington, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

George Washington was respected, admired, even revered by his countrymen, and he was the most trusted man of the age. What is more, and different, he was the most trustworthy man. The question of why this is so must be examined if we are to understand Washington’s true legacy. The men who established the American [...]

An Italian Fresco in the U.S. Capitol: Brumidi’s “The Apotheosis of Washington”

By |2023-08-16T18:17:16-05:00August 20th, 2021|Categories: Architecture, Art, Beauty, George Washington, History|

Constantino Brumidi’s fresco is less a deification of George Washington than it is a creative recording of his achievements and his legacy for our nation’s politicians. That the U.S. possesses its own rich history in art and boasts a series of internationally acclaimed painters is no surprise. Indeed, a walk through the Art Institute of [...]

George Washington: Indispensable Man

By |2021-04-29T16:00:18-05:00April 29th, 2021|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, Character, George Washington, Timeless Essays|

George Washington was acutely aware that he had become a legend in his time, a true myth, and he recognized that the presidency made possible the institutionalization of the role he had been playing. That is to say, he endowed the presidency with the capacity—and the awesome responsibility—to serve as the symbol of the nation, [...]

George Washington Resigns His Military Commission

By |2020-12-28T11:27:17-06:00December 22nd, 2020|Categories: American Founding, George Washington, History|

John Trumbull, who would memorialize this great event in a painting which—commissioned in 1817 by Congress—now hangs in the United States Capitol Rotunda, called Washington’s resignation “one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world.” In an example of unrivaled statesmanship, General George Washington resigned his military commission at the State House in [...]

“Mount Rushmore”

By |2021-04-22T17:34:29-05:00July 6th, 2020|Categories: Abraham Lincoln, American Republic, Audio/Video, George Washington, History, Music, Thomas Jefferson|

Drawing from American musical sources and texts, Michael Dougherty's composition for chorus and orchestra echoes the resonance and dissonance of Mount Rushmore as a complex icon of American history. Like Mount Rushmore, the libretto is carved out of the words of each President. Mount Rushmore (2010) for chorus and orchestra is inspired by the monumental [...]

The Battle of Jumonville Glen: The French & Indian War Begins

By |2020-07-24T17:15:26-05:00May 27th, 2020|Categories: George Washington, History, War|

While the Battle of Jumonville Glen may not be considered the start of the war from the British perspective, it resulted in an expanded colonial conflict engulfing the world in violence, which then began the rift between Britain and their colonists that set the stage for the American Revolution. In a wooded clearing overlooking an [...]

George Washington and the Patience of Power

By |2020-03-01T02:47:33-06:00February 21st, 2020|Categories: American Founding, American Republic, George Washington, History, Timeless Essays, Virtue, War|

What enabled George Washington to be so different from other victorious commanders? He had little innate patience but held immense power. How—and where—did he learn patience? Today’s offering in our Timeless Essay series affords our readers the opportunity to join David Hein, as he considers the virtues that endowed George Washington with perseverance and strength [...]

Go to Top