Mount Rushmore in South Dakota depicts presidents such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Courtesy | Wikimedia Commons

George Washington was not a fan of glorifying his presidency, according to Assistant Professor of Politics Daniel O’Toole.

“Washington didn’t want the president to be a kind of omnipresent force in American political life,” O’Toole said. “There’s something perverse about the fact that, in America, we hang on to every word the president speaks.”

Washington’s humility is one of the reasons why, on the third Monday of every month, Americans celebrate Washington and Lincoln’s lives on Presidents’ Day.

Yet here at Hillsdale, this opportunity to celebrate American presidents on Monday Feb. 17 slipped through the cracks. Even here, on a campus that takes pride in the American founders, few people took the time to celebrate Presidents’ Day.

“It’s kind of become a non-event in American life,” said O’Toole.

In 1885, Congress originally designated Feb. 22 as Presidents’ Day to honor George Washington’s birthday, according to the National Archives. This marked the first American holiday in commemoration of an individual’s birthday.

Washington governed the country through its early days, which is why he is consistently considered the country’s best president, according to Associate Professor of Politics Khalil Habib.

“George Washington understood the character of the nation and its principles,” Habib said. “He recognized that the commander-in-chief must be both a leader and a citizen and that he must govern by example.”

The Uniform Monday Holiday Law of 1971, geared towards giving workers more long weekends, changed the date to the third Monday in February. Since then, Presidents’ Day has grown from simply recognizing George Washington’s birthday to honoring many American presidents with a particular emphasis on Washington and Abraham Lincoln, who was also born in February.

“Both Washington and Lincoln had a very clear conception of what government is, what morality – what political morality – is, what the government should be doing and what it shouldn’t be doing,” O’Toole said.

A 2023 New York Times opinion piece entitled “George Washington Would Hate Presidents’ Day” raises objections to the celebration of Presidents Day citing Washington’s own view of the office.

Historian Alexis Coe believes Presidents’ Day has become indicative of a party system that is out of touch with its constituents. Coe says in her article that, with a shift to focusing on the president as a public servant rather than a deity, the holiday would take on more meaning.

“Presidents’ Day has the potential to issue a yearly reminder about this if it undergoes a substantial shift in focus. It cannot be about one president – who will be just fine no matter what. Washington can’t be canceled,” writes Coe. “If you erase Washington, you erase America. But a national figurehead? We will never agree on one, and without agreement, there is no meaning.”

While Presidents’ Day is a significant holiday in our nation’s history, many Hillsdale professors say that the misunderstanding about the holiday’s meaning has muddled its importance.

“We have all these vaguely patriotic holidays. People don’t even know what they mean,” O’Toole said. “It would be better not just to have a vague patriotism, but to celebrate that older way of life and its heroes. In other words, put some real flesh on the bones, something really concrete to celebrate.”

For O’Toole, Presidents’ Day should celebrate America’s founding and the storied history of its government. O’Toole said he believes that the emphasis on modern-day heroes like Martin Luther King and President Franklin Roosevelt often displaces the importance of America’s founders.

“Partly to talk about Presidents’ Day is to celebrate the older Republic. To celebrate its heroes, its conception and its way of life as opposed to the leaders of the modern way of life,” said O’Toole. “There’s a reason why the Kings and the Roosevelts have displaced Washington and Lincoln in our political pantheon. That’s about foisting a new rival regime on us.”

Professor of History Bradley Birzer emphasized Washington’s disdain for glorifying the president. Rather than Presidents’ Day, Birzer said Americans should focus on remembering Washington. For Birzer, remembering Washington means remembering his life and work, something Hillsdale students do already as part of their studies.

“I just think we need to put Presidents’ Day in proper perspective,” Birzer said.

Rather than letting the day pass by, Habib said students should reflect on the legacy of the American founders and the government they built from the ground up.

“I think it is more important to study the Founding and examples of great statesmanship and partake in local government rather than take a day off in honor of Presidents’ Day,” Habib said.

It’s also a time to reflect on where the country is headed. According to O’Toole, looking at the past pillars of the American government is a good place to start.

“Washington and Lincoln – they’re the model. That’s what we need to be looking to, and it’s worth celebrating them as heroes,” O’Toole said.  “And so if you want to recover that truer, freer, superior way of life, you should recover your heroes too.”