Presidents Day: Words of Wisdom From Lincoln and Washington

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Today is Presidents Day 2024, the holiday commemorating our two greatest U.S. presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Washington created America, and Lincoln preserved America. Patriots throughout our history have looked to the wisdom of these two great men to inspire them in their trials, and we should do the same.

George truly was the father of his country, a model for all presidents to follow. “I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is the best policy,” he advised.

For Washington, freedom was always a main goal. “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth,” he said. He knew that America’s liberty would depend on two things: God’s help and the dedication of We the People. “The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army,” he told his soldiers.

Abraham Lincoln, like Washington, was brilliant at delivering memorable quotes, from jokes to life advice to political analysis to predictions about the future. “If I had another face, do you think I’d wear this one?” was one of his humorous observations, showing he could laugh at himself as well as at others.

Of course, he had to be very serious throughout much of his presidency. “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. And not to Democrats alone do I make this appeal, but to all who love these great and true principles,” Lincoln pleaded.

Like these great men, let us resolve that we shall — as Lincoln put it — ensure that “government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.”