It is fitting that if we are to celebrate the birthday of just one president as a national holiday that it be the Father of our Country, without whose leadership and character there would be no Shining City on a Hill.
And yes, today’s federal holiday is still, and always has been, declared in federal law, as Washington’s Birthday, not any so-called amorphous “President’s Day” requiring celebrations of 43 Presidential oath takers. The following are legal public holidays according to the U.S. Code of Laws, Title 5, Part III (e)(61) Section 6103:
- New Year’s Day, January 1.
- Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January.
- Washington’s Birthday, the third Monday in February.
- Memorial Day, the last Monday in May.
- Independence Day, July 4.
- Labor Day, the first Monday in September.
- Columbus Day, the second Monday in October.
- Veterans Day, November 11.
- Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November.
- Christmas Day, December 25.
This is the law.
So why do most calendars and so many people refer to this day as “Presidents Day”?
In 1968, Congress passed the Monday Holidays Act, which moved the official observance of Washington’s birthday from Feb. 22 to the third Monday in February. Some “reformers” had wanted to change the name of the holiday as well, to Presidents’ Day, in honor of both Lincoln and Washington, but that proposal was rejected by Congress, and the holiday remained officially “Washington’s Birthday”.
Nevertheless, there was a popular misconception that the day had been officially renamed…While the name change has never been authorized by Congress, it has gained a strong hold on the public consciousness, and is generally used on calendars, in advertising, and even by many government agencies. There have been attempts to introduce legislation requiring federal agencies to call the day Washington’s Birthday, but these have never gotten very far. No matter what’s in the law books, the popular usage is now well established…(bold emphasis added)
Reformers? Code word for the liberals that have been trashing American history as a tragedy and the Founding Fathers as mere slave owners for the past 40 years.
Their propaganda in academia and media is the reason for the so-called “strong hold” of the false name of the holiday on the public consciousness. The liberal that wrote the above lets her guard down when she mentions her dismissal of the law. Their contempt for the real America and the Founders extends to the framers of the highest law that is the U.S. Constitution, so why would they have any respect for a “mere” statute? The only “law” they respect are those made up by activist judges that violate their Oath to uphold the Constitution.
General George Washington watched thousands fall on the battlefield so that we could ordain and establish self government based on the Rule of Law as opposed to the tyrannies of the rule of men, whether they be kings, despots or judicial oligarchs. He nearly lost his life many times leading Revolutionary War battles. As our first President he astounded the world by peacefully giving up power to his successor.
Yet, all the “reformers” care to recall is that he was a slave-owner. Yes, he was a slave-owner, but he fathered a nation that put slavery on the path to destruction and which has freed more of humanity from tyranny than any other in all of human history. Ironically, many of the so-called reformers that would have us celebrate James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson or Benjamin Harrison, also conveniently looked the other way when evaluating the greatest en-slavers and murderers of humanity in the Soviet Union and Red China.
The true reformer was the man whose birth we celebrate today. The man who admitted chopping down a cherry tree and went on to chop down the barriers to Liberty so that men could be truly free.
Happy Birthday, President Washington!
[Portions originally published by the author as Legal Editor for The Minority Report in 2009.]
“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson
