Monday – Presidents’ Day
A few weeks ago, someone—not a Donald Trump fan—penned a Washington Post column thanking the president for sparking “one of the greatest surges of American citizen action in half a century.”
“For decades,” wrote Eric Liu, founder of Citizen University and executive director of the Aspen Institute Citizenship & American Identity Program,
civic educators and activists have wondered what it would take to get a greater number of Americans more involved in self-government. All it took, it turns out, was a bombastic, authoritarian, nativist president whose erratic behavior and executive overreach made him a vivid threat to democratic norms and the Constitution.
With that in mind, I share a poem that the great senator Daniel Webster wrote in 1801 when he was a Dartmouth student. Although I provide historical context at its conclusion, feel free to apply it to our present situation. We still long for someone, assuming the mantle of our first president, will hush our “mad alarms” and lull “monster faction”:
Washington
Ah! Washington, thou once didst guide the helm
And point each danger to our infant realm;
Didst show the gulf where factious tempests sweep,
And the big thunders frolic o'er the deep;
Through the red wave didst lead our bark, nor stood,
Like ancient Moses, the other side the flood.
But thou art gone,—yes, gone, and we deplore
The man, the Washington, we knew before.
But, when thy spirit mounted to the sky,
And scarce beneath thee left a tearless eye,
Tell what Elisha then thy mantle caught,
Warmed with thy virtue, with thy wisdom fraught.
Say, was it Adams? was it he who bare
His country's toils, nor knew a separate care,
Whose bosom heaved indignant as he saw
Columbia groan beneath oppression's law,
Who stood and spurned corruption at his feet,
Firm as "the rock on which the storm shall beat?"
Or was it he whose votaries now disclaim
Thy godlike deeds and sully all thy fame?
Spirit of Washington, oh! grant reply,
And let thy country know thee from the sky.
Break through the clouds, and be thine accents heard,
Accents that oft 'mid war's rude onset cheered.
Thy voice shall hush again our mad alarms,
Lull monster faction with thy potent charms.
And grant to whosoe'er ascends thy seat,
Worth half like thine, and virtues half as great.
I’m fairly sure that Webster is speaking in support of John Adams, who had just lost to Thomas Jefferson in the 1800 election. Although Jefferson had once been among Washington’s “votaries,” Webster now sees him disclaiming Washington’s “godlike deeds,” and sullying his fame. Thus, the poem is both an encomium on Washington and a warning that our “infant realm” is experiencing “factious tempests” and “big thunders.”
What we want is a leader who has at least half the worth of Washington and “virtues half as great.” Adams seemed to be the hope before he lost the election, and Webster’s description of him is something our own presidential candidates should aspire to. The “rock on which the storm shall beat” comes from “Hail, Columbia,” the anthem written for Washington’s first inauguration:
Say, was it Adams? was it he who bare
His country's toils, nor knew a separate care,
Whose bosom heaved indignant as he saw
Columbia groan beneath oppression's law,
Who stood and spurned corruption at his feet,
Firm as "the rock on which the storm shall beat?"
Oppression and corruption are things we can relate to. How refreshing to imagine a leader whose greatest concern is for his country’s toils. More than ever, we need Washington’s spirit to break through the clouds.
