Is America Exceptional?--Part 2 George Washington

The series of posts I have in mind for "Is America Exceptional?" continues to change as I meditate on the extremely broad subject. Indeed, the breadth of America's exceptionality defies concision and methodology. In my deliberations on the subject matter that should follow the first post in the series, I found myself thinking more and more about a man whose name is ubiquitous in our society, but who ironically is relatively unknown and underappreciated for the many gifts he bequeathed to his citizens and his country. Today George Washington turned 278 years old, and so I am compelled to cast my puny laurels to the man whose name is synonymous with greatness.

Contemporary scholarship on American History has tended to focus on the subject matter involving World War II and the Civil War. Those Americans who still care about their history and begin a cursory study of the Civil War, always tend to marvel at the extraordinary man who was Abraham Lincoln, and indeed I whole-heartedly agree that Lincoln was a great man who transcended his own time. Lincoln did things that defined many of the great aspects of this nation, and this nation would be unrecognizable without his efforts. Many historians--both amateur and professional alike--think so highly of Lincoln's contributions as to rate him the greatest of all Presidents. I believe this to be a grave error. While Lincoln did many great and virtuous things, the Lincoln we knew could never have existed without Washington.