Posted under History & Interventionism
“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life.”
Eulogy to George Washington by “Light Horse” Harry Lee, father of Robert E. Lee.
George Washington allowed us to question him on modern-day issues:
Mr. President, should the US borrow money from China to give to Israel?
“The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.” Farewell Address
Should the United States pursue an interventionist, aggressive foreign policy?
“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible.” Farewell Address
Do you think the Pentagon should be continued, expanded, or dismantled?
“Hence, likewise, they will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.” Farewell Address
Finally, sir, do you believe the Union is a permanent government, or do its members have the right to withdraw if they see fit?
“It is well worth a fair and full experiment.” Farewell Address
Weaver on 22 Feb 2011 at 6:08 pm #
US Congressmen should be required to read this annually.
Braindead Interventionist on 22 Feb 2011 at 10:46 pm #
If George Washington really said those things then he is an un-American, Commie, anti-Semite! How could George Washington not understand that it is the patriotic duty of America to base its foreign policy entirely on what is best for Israel.
Nate on 23 Feb 2011 at 12:26 am #
George Washington was a racist and he owned slaves. He was a good man during his time, but we shouldn’t follow his every single word, especially in regard to foreign policy. In today’s post 9/11 world there is a constant terrorist threat and following what Washington said verbatim would result in the certain destruction of America.
Ernest on 23 Feb 2011 at 1:29 am #
“”George Washington was a racist and he owned slaves”"
So what?
Happy Birthday Mr Washington! May we honor your sacrifices with protecting and passing on to our own posterity the country you helped to create. May we also reconnect with the common sense, common culture and common purpose that you and our other founders exhibited so that we may indeed persevere.
Weaver on 23 Feb 2011 at 3:13 am #
Washington also freed his slaves upon his death, on condition that his wife had also passed away as well. He trained them to be ready for freedom.
Nate on 23 Feb 2011 at 3:32 am #
He freed his slaves after his death? After his death? Is that something to be celebrated? Are you freaking kidding me?
That is kind of like running over a pedestrian with your car and then slamming on the brakes a mile down the road, eh?
It is kind of like raping another man’s wife and then telling them after the fact, “Hey, at least I wore a condom” and then expecting them to be just fine with it, is it not?
Where is the honor in freeing your slaves after you are dead?
Catholic Trotskyist on 23 Feb 2011 at 6:17 am #
I agree with Nate for the most part; on the racism of George Washington and almost all of the other Founding Fathers; they should not be held up as examples of us and we shouldn’t care what they said or thought when interpreting the Constitution. I admit that if I were around at the time of the American Revolution, I probably would have been a loyalist or neutralist. George Washington had soldiers hanged and his guerilla war resulted in thousands of necessary deaths. Britain actually abolished slavery before the US, and had truly democratic institutions around the same time as the US; so we may have been just fine as a member nation of the British empire.
Having said that, I disagree with Nate about foreign policy; that’s the only thing we should listen to Washington about. His farewell address did predict a lot of the danger we would be in with our interventionism; it has often done more harm than good, and has resulted in millions of deaths at the hands of our soldiers and the governments we support; along with the death of hundreds of thousands of soldiers themselves.
Nate on 23 Feb 2011 at 6:29 am #
Hahahahahahaha WTF?
Jim on 23 Feb 2011 at 10:13 am #
For your consideration I would like to quote R.J. Rushdoony On Slavery
“But were the Negroes abused? It is possible to find instances certainly. It is possible to find instances of parents who were cruel to their children. It is possible to find instances of Pastors – a great many of them I’m afraid – who have been faithless to their responsibilities. I dare say that if you looked hard enough you could find instances of officials of the Federal Government who have been derelict in their federal duties. Shall we judge all things in terms of certain exceptional cases? The reality of slavery in the South was that it was not an economic asset and the slave owner was penalized by the fact that he owned slaves. For example, Alexander Hamilton Stephens, VP of the Confederacy, had a number of slaves. And of these slave he had a fair number who were pensioners. (Elderly folk who he had to take care of.) This meant that some of the other slaves were taking care of these older slaves as well as the little ones. So, out of his slaves he had two – one man, his valet, and one woman, his cook – who gave him any labor and their labor was limited since they had a single man to care for and Stephens demonstrated conclusively that he had to work hard to support the slaves. And if anyone wanted to take over their care from him and give them the same humane care he was ready to turn over the same responsibility to them.
The fact that is not mentioned in history books … is that every state in the South was anti-slavery except South Carolina. Only one man out of eighteen in the South was a slave-owner. Virginia came within one vote in its legislature of abolishing slavery. They were ready to abolish it if they knew the answer to the question, “What shall we do with the negro after slavery is abolished.(?)” And if the Federal Government had been ready to step in and resettle them in Africa – to underwrite the cost – as it was the voluntary societies throughout the North and South colonized the free slaves (Liberia – BLM) at the expense of private persons.
The treatment of the slaves, on the whole, was good and indulgent. They were valued private property. Most of the slaves were unwilling to see slavery end. They followed their masters around and expected continued care…. Moreover, the slaves were not enslaved by Americans. The Negroes who were brought to the united States were slaves in Africa. They were owned by their tribe or by other tribes – by their chief or people of another area or areas. They moved from one slavery to another – from a very ugly form of slavery to their fellow Africans, usually, to a very indulgent one with the white man.’
Slaves were the money of Africa. Instead of having gold and silver as the medium of exchange, Africa had men, women, and children, so that all their buying and selling in Africa was done with human beings as the money. This was the major medium of exchange. Every thing else was secondary so that the Negroes did not suffer as a result of coming to the united States. He became the most privileged Negro in the world. He is today the most privileged Negro in the world. And we need have no guilt feelings in respect to him.
But we are told, “They suffered so – the slave ships were frightful and the heartbreaking agony of the journey, and the brutal treatment (the number who died) on the slave ships – this is a frightful incident in history” Well, indeed, you can find instances of slave ships which gave very very poor treatment to the slaves as they carried them across. Instances where a sizable shipment died en-route and were dumped overboard. This is true. But this is not the rule. The slaves were valuable property. They were therefore important as merchandise. They had to be kept alive. They were brought to the united States to be sold and when they arrived here they were cared for to make sure their appearance was the best possible appearance in order to make their sale easier. So that we cannot take the unusual cases and overlook the reality that because they were valuable cargo they were well treated.
As a matter of fact if we compare their treatment to that of the immigrant – notably the Irish – the road of the Negroes is not to bad by comparison. Certainly, it doesn’t compare to a modern luxury cruise to Europe. But the trip the immigrants made to this country was a very ugly one. And shortly before the war a Canadian legislative commission investigating the treatment of Irish on shipboards said that their situation was equally as bad as that as the slaves. But no real study has been made of the major migration which was to the united States and which was the worst. These people were landed here with no one to care for them. They had paid all their funds to make the journey and once they were on shipboard there was no concern whether they lived or died. No concern for their feeding or their care. So, they arrived here – half starved and with no place to go and with no funds – and their condition was beyond description. Nor do we have scholars taking time to deal with their condition in the ships as they came over. In his book, “The Great Hunger,” Cecil Woodham-Smith writes on the famine of the 1840’s, which killed a million Irish peasants and which sent hundreds of thousands to America, in passing he touches on the fact, indeed in every port in Ireland it is extensively reported, but no scholars went into this – that many of the rotten ships were loaded with Irish immigrants but the ships never cleared the harbor. They were so overloaded and so rotten. They sank. Sometimes within the sites of their relatives as they were standing on the docks bidding them “goodbye” as they set sail for the new world.
Moreover, we are told that berths on one ship numbered only 36 of which 4 were taken by the crew. The remaining 32 were shared between 276 passengers who otherwise slept on the floor. No sanitary convenience of any kind was provided and the state of the vessel was horrible and disgusting beyond the power of language to describe. The passage from Killalel, largely due to the incompetence of the Captain, took 8 weeks. The passengers starved and were tortured by thirst and 42 people died during the voyage….
Now, this was routine. Are we getting books telling us that we should do something to provide 10 billion dollars a year for the descendants of these Irish who were so terribly treated? Not at all. The Irish came over here often in far worse conditions than the slaves, but they had a desire to be free men and today they are among the elite of the united States…. They have certainly prospered in the united States and they are certainly a credit to this country. But the Negro after a hundred years is a slave still and is demanding a Martial plan to aid him.”
R. J. Rushdoony
A Return To Slavery – Lecture (1966)
Ernest on 23 Feb 2011 at 12:32 pm #
“”I agree with Nate for the most part; on the racism of George Washington and almost all of the other Founding Fathers; they should not be held up as examples of us and we shouldn’t care what they said or thought when interpreting the Constitution.”"
Really? Those who helped to form and write the Constitution we shouldn’t care what they said or thought? Why not just get rid of it altogether? Make as much sense as your statement. Maybe we should follow MLK? Join the NAACP and allow the nice black people to show us the way?
‘Racism’ the boogieman of a generation. The boogieman that controls and manipulates. The boogieman that blinds all the egalitarians into submission. I think you should join Eric Holder in an “Honest Discussion on Race”!
HarrisonBergeron2 on 23 Feb 2011 at 1:38 pm #
Nate said, “In today’s post 9/11 world there is a constant terrorist threat and following what Washington said verbatim would result in the certain destruction of America.”
Actually, it’s horrendously expensive wars that are leading to our certain destruction. Factoring in the cost of caring for those severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, those wars will cost us $3 trillion more dollars WE DO NOT HAVE.
Nate Clone on 23 Feb 2011 at 4:53 pm #
George Washington is 720 degrees from a REAL conservative!!! Even with his background as a surveyor & mapmaker, he wouldn’t be able to comprehend what it means to be 180/540 degrees from being a REAL conservative (like me.) You see 180/540 degrees is pointed in the same direction as a REAL conservative. 0 degrees is also pointed in the same direction as a REAL conservative (uhh…. I think.)
He wouldn’t buy into THE WAR ON TERROR! (Registered Trademark).