Tomorrow is called “President’s Day” but it is still called George Washington Day by the government as established in 1885 to occur on the third Monday of February. He was our first President who served from 1789 to 1797.
Two famous quotes are:
“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master.”
My favorite quotes are in his letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island written on August 21, 1790:
“…….The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship……
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support…..
May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants — while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.
May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy…..”