Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship held its first President’s Day Dinner on Saturday.
The dinner, attended by more than 50 faculty members, students, and guests, was meant to engage intellectual conversation about the ideas and principles studied at Hillsdale, Graduate Student Society President Peter Cross said. The evening focused on George Washington, whose wish to found a school of statesmanship inspired President Larry Arnn to found his own.
Arnn said he learned that Washington wished his largest bequest to go toward starting a school of statesmanship. Washington never created such a school, inspiring Arnn to take up the task, he said.
“This is important,” Arnn said, looking at the students. “You are important, so work hard.”
For the event, the Dow Leadership Center’s Gillespie Room held displays of the founding era. A string quartet played during the dinner, and the attendees joined the performers in a rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
“For me, singing ‘America the Beautiful’ was an inspiring part of the evening,” said John Hancock, a master’s student. “The verses in that hymn are significant and worthy of reflection.”
Matthew Spalding, associate vice president and dean of education programs at the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citzenship, spoke of Washington as a man with a strategy to see a free and self-governed country come into being. Spalding said Washington had Aristotelian prudence — choosing the right means in order to obtain the right ends. He said he was “bold, assertive, and aggressive” but also possessed a profound sense of moderation.
“Statesmanship doesn’t exist in the abstract,” Spalding said. “It is only embodied in actual statesmen.”
It wasn’t only Washington’s principles but his actions that made the nation possible, Spalding said. From his role in the revolution to his role in the Continental Congress and as the first president, Washington helped shape the moral and intellectual formation of America, he said. Every aspect of Washington’s character — his political principles, his virtue, his mastery of men, and his gift of command — all helped our nation come into fruition, Spalding said.
“This is why Washington and Washington alone is the Father of this country,” he said.
