{"id":3523,"date":"2009-11-25T16:39:45","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T16:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lexingtoninstitute.org\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2013-11-12T16:40:41","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T16:40:41","slug":"george-washingtons-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lexingtoninstitute.org\/george-washingtons-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"George Washington’s Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"
The reputations of Jefferson, Hamilton and Adams tend to ebb and flow with cultural, economic and political trends, while George Washington is a massive glacier, grinding down the generations and leaving little in his path. Only Lincoln can compete with him, because Lincoln rescued Washington’s life work from the abyss, and made it stronger and more complete.<\/p>\n
Washington rarely showed us his human side. As a young man he aggressively pursued (the married) Sally Fairfax, and he agonized over the sad fate of his slaves. But those were brief moments when the mask came off. More often he comes to us cold and distant, like one of his myriad monuments, presiding like Zeus over the Constitutional Convention or the high-stakes brawl between Jefferson and Hamilton, or praying on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge.<\/p>\n