I happened upon a paragraph from George Washington today that strikes me as interesting: in it I see Washington as patriot, as unifier, and even as pundit. But mostly I see Washington as a believer in the ability of government to do good. He stands in contrast to those who would claim the Founding Fathers as proto-republicans or reaganauts; and he describes a harmony within the federal government that feels very distant indeed.
It's paragraph 9 of Washington's Farewell Address:
The unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth; as this is the point in your political fortress against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively (though often covertly and insidiously) directed, it is of infinite moment, that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national Union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the Palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion, that it can in any event be abandoned; and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
It's hard to digest much of this kind of prose; these three meaty sentences are rather filling, no?
Times have changed since the first president, and the "unity of Government" he spoke of is no more -- as he knew might happen. I think Washington would be disappointed to learn that the struggle that he said was "easy to forsee" has gone so badly: that no less than an elected president would infamously state that "Government is the problem," and that influential people would aspire to drown in a bathtub that which Washington described as "dear." Washington would not be a tea-partier today: I daresay he would discountenance them with frowns, frowns most indignant.
As a progressive, I appreciate this reminder that our progressive values might well carry on the legacy of the founders far better than those in the conservative movement. If any group has the right to wear tricorne hats, I'd like to think it's we. This is not a call to action, just a reminder that history is (arguably) on our side.
I also feel obliged to remind myself not to descend into hagiography. It's easy for me to get starry-eyed when thinking reading the words of this nearly deified leader, so I should remind myself that Washington had feet of clay: he owned slaves, and presided over a nation that practiced slavery. The "you" he addressed were exclusively white landowning men. I do not long for a return to those days (nor those hats).
(Let me also acknowledge and thank Randall Munroe of xkcd for his translation of Washington's Farewell Address into vernacular, which led me to look up the original.)