Monday is Presidents Day.
For most people, it’s a day when government offices and banks are closed, the mail doesn’t come, and for some kids, school is out.
Presidents Day is the third Monday in February, but it always seems to sneak up on us, that is unless you are selling something like cars, mattresses, or furniture. And, it’s an opportunity for a “blowout sale.”
The truth is that to most Americans this Monday has little significance beyond being just another three-day holiday. In fact, it is so nondescript that many commonly refer to it as Presidents Day weekend rather than Presidents Day. And, perhaps that was the intent of Presidents Day legislation.
In 1968, after much wrangling, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which officially took effect in 1971 following an executive order from President Richard Nixon. It was part of a plan to shift a number of holidays to specific Mondays with the express intent of creating three-day holidays. The bill was strongly supported by both organized labor and retailers.
The act shifted Washington’s Birthday from the fixed date of Feb. 22 — Washington’s actual birthday — to the third Monday of February. The nation had unofficially observed Feb. 22 as a holiday from 1800 — the year after Washington’s death — until 1879, when President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill that cleared the way for it to be an official national holiday.
Sponsors of the 1968 bill floated the idea of calling the new holiday Presidents Day because Abraham Lincoln’s Feb. 12 birthday was celebrated as a holiday in many states. But Virginia senators — Washington’s home state — objected loudly. The holiday name technically remained as Washington’s Birthday.
But by the mid-2000s many states chose to call the holiday Presidents Day. And it is no longer about just one man, or, for that matter, even two men. It now is popularly considered a holiday to celebrate all of the nation’s chief executives.
The irony is there that there were only four presidents born in the month of February — Washington, Lincoln, William Henry Harrison and Ronald Reagan — but none of them is born on a day that can ever be the third Monday of February.
George Washington is the first president and often called the “Father of Our Country.” We have heard the famous story of a young George Washington who cut down a cherry tree with his hatchet and could not lie about it.
Washington’s most important contribution to the new nation may have come from the example he set. He was, in the words of historian David Hackett Fischer, a model of “integrity, self-discipline, courage, absolute honesty, resolve, and decision, but also forbearance, decency, and respect for others.” This did not necessarily make him a popular figure with everyone. Rather, it made him an honored, respected and trusted one — the only president to win every electoral vote in both his elections and the one who set an important precedent by stepping down (with genuine relief) after two terms.
Abraham Lincoln is credited with being the man who freed the slaves with his famous Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, which declared slaves free in those states that had seceded from the union. He played an important leadership role in the passage of the 13th Amendment, which officially ended slavery in the United States. The scourge of slavery, which had perplexed this nation since the first slaves arrived in 1619, was finally over. Unfortunately, the African-American struggle for equality was far from over.
Not as well known, but also of great importance was his signing of the Morrill Act which established more than 100 land grant colleges including the University of Tennessee. Likewise, his signature started the Homestead Acts which resulted in the settlement of 160 million acres of land by 1.6 million homesteaders.
Both the Morrill Act and Homestead Acts were of great importance to poor people. These government actions provided people chances for prosperity that could only be found in America.
Lincoln shared with Washington the virtues of honesty, integrity and respect for his fellow citizens, qualities that are sadly lacking in our nation’s capital today.
Today, most Americans probably will not be thinking about the men who took up residence in the White House. Instead, they might concern themselves more on shopping, recreation or relaxation.
Presidents Day deserves a nod for reminding us to be grateful we live in a country that has effectively transferred power from one chief executive to the next for more than two centuries, which really is something worth celebrating.