Presidential Quotes for President's Day: American Patriotism and Faith

Once upon a time in the United States, there were separate national holidays for President Washington's and President Lincoln's birthdays. Schools, banks and business were closed. But now we have the non-descript "President's Day" (Monday, February 16). Ask some people in the street what President's Day is for. They can't even name the two presidents who initially had their own holiday.

Of course, there are folks who would like to have a John Kennedy Day, or a Clinton Day, or yes, maybe even a Bush Day - and some are lobbying for Obama Day. Where would it end? So whatever the whole history behind the change, "President's Day" covers it all.

Unfortunately, this ambiguity has caused a lost sense of honor for presidents whose accomplishments, lives and deaths stand out in history. It's reflected in the disrespect with which we treat and speak about our more recent leaders.

Amid this diminishing importance, history books are being changed. In some places, I've heard parents say that kids are learning more about Madonna and the history of Hollywood than about U.S. History. Since 9/11/01, we've certainly started teaching them that they mustn't feel America as a country and America as its people are any better than anywhere else.

As a result, we are becoming a nation of disengaged civic illiterates who have no idea what patriotism is about, or what it took to build the America that accepts downtrodden people from everywhere else in the world to an extent which no other country does.

Although many Presidential quotes may be enshrined in Congress, I fear they aren't being shared with our generations. Becoming lost from our history books are two things: (1) The national pride of the men who risked their reputations, livelihoods, and sometimes lost their lives because they offered themselves up to public service. And (2) - The faith of the men who wanted to build a great country with a strong moral character and at least the acknowledgment of God and Divine Providence. And no, our founding fathers didn't come here for freedom FROM religion, but freedom OF religion. Here are just a few of the strongest words I have found on American patriotism and faith within quotes from our Presidents.

Patriotic Quotes:

George Washington (President 1789-1797): "Citizens by birth or choice, of a common country, that country has a right to concentrate your affections. The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations." 1

Franklin Pierce (President 1853-1857): "No citizen of our country should permit himself to forget that he is a part of its Government and entitled to be heard in the determination of its policy and measures, and that therefore the highest considerations of personal honor and patriotism require him to maintain by whatever power or influence he may possess the integrity of the laws of the Republic." 2

John F. Kennedy (President 1961-1963, assassinated in office): "I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it -- and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." 3

Faith-Based Quotes with concerns for America:

George Washington: "I am sure that never was a people, who had more reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifest during our revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who is alone able to protect them." 4

John Adams (President 1797-1801): "When a government becomes totally corrupted, the system of God Almighty in the government of the world and all the rules of good government upon earth will be reversed, and virtue, integrity and ability will become the objects of malice, hatred and revenge of the men in power, and folly, vice and villainy will be cherished and supported." 5

It is well known that Thomas Jefferson (President 1801-1809) did not feel the American people should be led into Christianity as an only religion. Although he never did set up a "separation of church and state" within any legal document (it meant something different in his letters), Jefferson felt the trappings of religion were often misused because they had nothing to do with the intentions of the heart. However, he did say this:

"Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus." 6

Abraham Lincoln (President 1860-1865, assassinated in office): "That I am not a member of any church is true; but I have never denied the power of the Scriptures; and I have never spoken with intentional disrespect of religion in general or of any denomination of Christians in particular...I do not think I could, myself, be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at religion." 7

Sources:

1. George Washington's Farewell Address, Facsimile found at: http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/farewell/original.html. Original printed by David C. Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), on 19 September 1796. Final draft now owned by New York Public Library.

2. Franklin Pierce, Address to Congress, 1/24/1856: The World Almanac of Presidential Quotations, Elizabeth Frost-Knappman, Editor. Pharos Books, N.Y., N.Y. c. 1988, 1993, p. 33.

3. John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961: http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/John_F_Kennedy/5.htm. Also confirmed in America's God and Country, William J. Federer, St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc., 2000, p. 346, and Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States from Washington to Nixon, Washington, DC: U.S. government Printing Office, 91^st Congress, pp. 267-270.

4. George Washington, March 11, 1792, in a letter to John Armstrong: America's God and Country, William J. Federer, St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc., 2000, p. 655. Original: The Writings of George Washington, Jared Sparks, ed., Boston, MA; American Stationer's Company, 1837.

5. John Adams' Diary - 1770-1771. Found in: The World Almanac of Presidential Quotations, Elizabeth Frost-Knappman, Editor. N.Y.: Pharos Books, c. 1988, 1993, p. 46.

6. Thomas Jefferson's Collected Writings. Found in The Harper Religious and Inspirational Quotation Companion, Margaret Pepper, Editor. Andre Deutsch Ltd., Great Britain 1989, and N.Y.: Harper & Row Publishers, 1989. p. 82.

7. Abraham Lincoln, Statement to the Illinois Gazette, August 15, 1846. America's God and Country, William J. Federer, St. Louis, MO: Amerisearch, Inc., 2000, p. 375, and Abraham Lincoln, NY: Knopf, 1953, pp.108-109.