Although the midwinter holiday we celebrate on Monday, Feb. 17, is known as Presidents Day, the third Monday in February was originally designated Washington’s Birthday, in honor of our first U.S. president. While the federal government still officially recognizes the holiday as Washington’s Birthday, many states celebrate it as a day to honor all U.S. presidents, but especially Washington and Lincoln.
Washington had much to say in his 1796 farewell speech to the new nation he had fought to create. He spoke of the need for the executive branch of government to operate within the limits of the Constitution, respecting the separation of powers. “[T]he habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres,” he said.
He cautioned that executive power should be carefully monitored to prevent the rise of tyranny or monarchical tendencies, saying, “The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories … is essential to liberty.” And he warned against the idolization of leaders and the temptation to grant them excessive power, saying, “The concentration of power is a dangerous path.”
Alexander Hamilton, who advocated for an energetic and powerful executive, was confident that the Constitution’s system of checks and balances would prevent the rise of a tyrant or a return to monarchy. “The President of the United States is not a king,” he wrote. “The constitution has not made him one. He has not an hereditary claim to the throne. The constitution has provided checks on his authority, and the people have a direct means to check him through their representatives.”
It is we the people, Hamilton was saying, who are the ultimate check on presidential power, exercised through our vote and our representatives in Congress. It is we who “ordained and established” the U.S. Constitution, as its preamble says. And our presidents are beholden to that compact, swearing in their oath of office, having been duly elected by us, “to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Hamilton thought Washington embodied perfectly the founders’ expectations of a president. We would do well to remember and honor his legacy today.
