HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE WASHINGTON!

Culture Spot: Washington’s Birthday (Presidents’ Day)

Today, the third Monday of February is a federal holiday in the United States. Traditionally known as Washington’s Birthday, there was a movement in the 1980s to change the name to Presidents’ Day. The holiday was established in 1880 and celebrated on the actual date of the first president’s day of birth: 22 February. In 1971, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, signed into law in 1968, went into effect moving several federal holidays to Mondays in order to create 3-day weekends for federal employees. A movement in the 1980s began to push a name change to Presidents’ Day in order to honor another great American president who was also born in February, Abraham Lincoln. Several of the States already recognized President Lincoln’s birthday, such his home state of Illinois. Other States such as Massachusetts had already changed the name of Washington’s Birthday to Presidents’ Day in order to honor all US presidents from that state: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Calvin Coolidge and John F. Kennedy. In Virginia, this day is legally recognized as “George Washington Day.”

Even though the official name of this holiday is still “Washington’s Birthday,” it has commonly been called by many Americans as Presidents’ Day. Many schools around the country use the days preceding this holiday to educate students about all US presidents with emphasize on Washington and Lincoln.

To learn more about this US federal holiday, read the Wikipedia article Washington’s Birthday.

See also, Presidents’ Day or Washington’s Birthday?

Celebrate! Holidays in the USA (from the US embassy site in Sweden): George Washington’s Birthday

George Washington’s Birthday from the National Archives

Biography of George Washington at the White House website

George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens

Below is a video from the recent television miniseries, ‘John Adams,’ with an accurate representation of George Washington taking the oath of office as the first US President!

Also check out the History Channel’s video ‘Searching for George Washington’.

To His Excellency General Washington by Phyllis Wheatley

Celestial choir! enthron'd in realms of light,
Columbia's scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom's cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
See mother earth her offspring's fate bemoan,
And nations gaze at scenes before unknown!
See the bright beams of heaven's revolving light
Involved in sorrows and veil of night!
The goddess comes, she moves divinely fair,
Olive and laurel bind her golden hair:
Wherever shines this native of the skies,
Unnumber'd charms and recent graces rise.
Muse! bow propitious while my pen relates
How pour her armies through a thousand gates,
As when Eolus heaven's fair face deforms,
Enwrapp'd in tempest and a night of storms;
Astonish'd ocean feels the wild uproar,
The refluent surges beat the sounding shore;
Or thick as leaves in Autumn's golden reign,
Such, and so many, moves the warrior's train.
In bright array they seek the work of war,
Where high unfurl'd the ensign waves in air.
Shall I to Washington their praise recite?
Enough thou know'st them in the fields of fight.
Thee, first in peace and honours,—we demand
The grace and glory of thy martial band.
Fam'd for thy valour, for thy virtues more,
Hear every tongue thy guardian aid implore!
One century scarce perform'd its destined round,
When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom's heaven-defended race!
Fix'd are the eyes of the nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails.
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia's state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.
Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,40
Thy ev'ry action let the goddess guide.
A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,
With gold unfading, WASHINGTON! be thine.

This poem was written by a young slave girl from Boston, Phyllis Wheatley. You can learn more about her on Wednesday when there will be a post dedicated to the great African-American poet.

Phillis Wheatley’s poem “To His Excellency General Washington” is as unique as the poet herself. The poem was sent to George Washington, the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of North America, in October of 1775, well before American Independence was declared in 1776. Washington, as busy as he was with organizing the colonies to take on the British, sent a letter back to Wheatley thanking her for the poem and inviting her to visit him if she ever came to Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two did meet in March of 1776, seven years before the war was finished and true independence was declared. Washington was roundly lauded in poems and prose after the successful conclusion of the Revolutionary War in 1783, but Wheatley’s poem was written when the war’s outcome was very uncertain, the British being the obvious favorites to win. It can be said that Wheatley was the groundbreaker in beginning the Washington legend as the “father of our country,” yet she stands as a groundbreaker in even more important ways. In 1773, two years before this poem was written, Phillis Wheatley, a twenty-year-old slave, published her collection of poems entitled Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first book of poetry published by an African American, and only the second book by a woman in what would become the United States. Considering that Ms. Wheatley was bought at a slave auction in 1761, not able to read or write and incapable of speaking English, her book of poems is truly astounding. She was revered in many countries. Benjamin Franklin offered his services to her, as did many other high-ranking men in America. In April of 1776, the author and political philosopher Thomas Paine published Wheatley’s poem to Washington in The Pennsylvania Magazine. The central theme of this poem is “freedom’s cause,” the colonies’ struggle for freedom from England, which General Washington was assigned to lead. Like many other residents of Boston, Wheatley’s feelings for the British regime turned from obedient admiration to mild admonition, and finally, to support of the revolution. The poem anticipates the future for the new republic, and praises the efforts of its military leader and first president.

To learn more about his poem, go to the Study Guide.

Culture Spot 10: On this day...October 17

On this day in 1777 the second of two battles known as the Battles of Saratoga ended with the surrender of British General John Burgoyne and his 9,000-man army to the American commander-in-chief, General George Washington. These two battles were a decisive victory and a turning point for the Americans during the War of Independence. As a result, the northern American states would be protected from any further British invasion that might come from Canada which would have cut off the New England states. Another positive outcome of this victory was the French after having seen the success of the battle signed a treaty of alliance with the United States and openly entered the war against the British.

To learn more, visit The Saratoga National Historic Park homepage & The Battle of Saratoga

VOCABULARY

the surrender - la capitulation, la reddition

a turning point - un tournant

an outcome - un résultat

Culture Spot 03: On this day....September 19

On this day in 1796, President George Washington's Farewell Address was published in newspapers throughout the new nation. Washington was coming to the end of his second term as president and wanted to retire to his home at Mount Vernon. Many in the government wanted President Washington to run for a third term, which he would have won handily if he did, but Washington felt that a working republic required a change in leadership. In fact, President Washington originally wanted to retire after his first term as president but ran for reelection under pressure in order to help preserve the new fledgling government which risked falling apart. He had prepared a draft with the help of James Madison at the end of his first term which of course was never printed. By the time Washington decided that there was no convincing him to run for a third term, he had Alexander Hamilton revise the draft. Though not really an address but more of an open-letter to the American people, Washington chose to touch on two major themes. One: he called for national unity in time where party factionalism was growing which he believed could tear the country apart. Secondly: Washington warned the United States from getting involved in permanent foreign alliances which he also believed dangerous to the new nation.

Washington's Farewell Address quickly became one of America's most important political documents. Even today in the US Senate, the reading of the speech has become an annual event.

Vocabulary

a term - un mandat

to run for - se présenter, être candidate

handily - commodément

fledgling - débutant, naissant, jeune

a draft - un brouillon

factionalism - le sectarisme

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On this day in 1911, British novelist and poet Sir William Golding was born. He is a Nobel Prize for Literature laureate which he won in 1983, but he is probably best known for his novel The Lord of the Flies, of which there are two film adaptations. Other well known works include his trilogy To the Ends of the Earth and the novel, The Double Tongue which was printed posthumously. To learn more about Sir William Golding, click here and here.