As you celebrate the national holiday, currently called Presidents’ Day, it is important that we remember the sacrifices made by and importance of our first President George Washington. He is deserving of our thanks. If President Washington becomes a victim of cancel culture, our Republic is lost.

Two years ago on his 287th birthday, Victory Girls’ Deanna wrote a post that included Washington’s Farewell Address. In the Farewell Address, Washington warned of factions and revenge. Nancy Pelosi and her House Managers would have done well to read the post before Impeachments 1.0 and 2.0. Although I doubt they have the intellectual capacity or self-awareness to take the lesson.

The biggest dings against George Washington today are that he was a white man, part of the patriarchy and he owned slaves. Clearly, he must be cancelled, right? Wrong-o, my children. The historical ignorance of the people who say these things is stunning. I, personally, actually had a friend express surprise that I love The Constitution. She noted that neither she, as a black woman, nor I, as a white woman, were afforded the rights of white men in the document. Well, shucks. That was pretty much the standard for the entire world at that time. Our Founding Fathers left The Constitution open for amendments. The first 13 of these form The Bill of Rights.

George Washington did own slaves. The word slave comes from the word Slav, as in the Slavic people. These people were sold by Spanish Muslims into slavery in the ninth century. There were, of course, slaves long before the word “slave”. Twenty to thirty percents of the people of the Ancient Roman Empire were slaves. And, today it is estimated that 1 in 200 people are slaves held in forced labor.

If schools taught any history or current events, the general population might know this important information. The schools teach that America was born in the original sin of slavery, white privilege, and victimology. As far as I could research the only country not born in the original sin of slavery is Sri Lanka. So, our ignorant masses run around renaming schools and pulling down statues of George Washington.

The Founding Fathers mostly wished for the abolition of slavery and understood that it violated the very principles on which they were proposing to base our Nation. Their goal was to get agreement to found a nation. No easy thing. Compromises were made. The Left is fond of the phrase “the greater good”. That is how the Founding Fathers saw The Constitution.

General George Washington took a bunch of state militias, comprised of citizen-soldiers, and beat the best equipped and trained military in the world at that time. George Washington could have been called “His Mightiness” or “His Highness”. He chose to be Mr. President. All he wanted to do after our war for Independence was to go back to his farm at Mount Vernon. Instead, he was unanimously elected President twice and served eight years.

What did George Washington think of slavery. According to historians, he didn’t like the trafficking of human beings, didn’t think that the system worked on an economic basis, and refused to separate families:

Here are some quotes by George Washington on the subject of slavery:

“I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery.”

“Not only do I pray for it, on the score of human dignity, but I can clearly forsee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union, by consolidating it in a common bond of principle.”

“I wish from my soul that the legislature of this State could see the policy of a gradual Abolition of Slavery.”

“Upon the decease [of] my wife, it is my Will and desire th[at] all the Slaves which I hold in [my] own right, shall receive their free[dom] . . . . The Negroes thus bound, are (by their Masters or Mistresses) to be taught to read and write; and to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the Laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of Orphan and other poor Children. And I do hereby expressly forbid the Sale, or transportation out of the said Commonwealth, of any Slave I may die possessed of, under any pretence whatsoever.”

There are many critics out there who would ask why George Washington did not free his slaves during his own life. Manumission was a tricky deal back then and the rules were not always clear.

George Washington acted in accordance with his conscience, the norms of his time and what was practicable. He was not a man of his time. He was an enlightened man far ahead of his time.

Today, we celebrate his day. His actual birthday is February 22nd. He is such a great man you can say thanks and celebrate him twice in one week. He earned it. Teach your children the truth and don’t let this great man be cancelled by the ignoratti.

Featured Image: Wikimedia Commons/cropped/Public Domain