Monday, February 21, 2011

Presidents' Day

John Steele Gordon [who I quoted yesterday on Wisconsin's capitol building] shares my disdain for "Presidents Day" replacing celebration of the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln. Gordon:
When King George III learned that Washington had resigned command of the Continental Army rather than use it to make himself king, he supposedly said, “If that is true, then he must be the greatest man in the world.” But aside from diminishing the significance of Washington and Lincoln, Presidents’ Day also, by implication, increases the significance of the likes of James Buchanan, Warren Harding, and Jimmy Carter, who are to Washington and Lincoln as pebbles are to Everest.
The picture is of one of the many Presidents I do not honor, James Buchanan.

RE: Presidents’ Day « Commentary Magazine

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