The Third Monday In February

When I wrote my post last night, I did not think that President's Day was one of the federal holidays observed by Wall Street but, lo and behold, today I discovered otherwise.  Hence with the markets being closed, I will use this space today to do a little editorial on this President's Day holiday that is held every year since 1971 on this third Monday in February. 


Originally this holiday was reserved uniquely to celebrate the birthdays of what most people, myself included, consider to be our two greatest presidents - George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  Then in 1971, the Congress passed a new law making it a day to honor all presidents, though each individual state reserves the right to honor the presidents of their own choosing (Massachusetts honors presidents from their state, California does the same) but there are still a number of states who choose to retain the day for the original honorees - Washington and Lincoln. 

I have always held to the adage that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" so I've always disagreed with the 1971 law.  The day should be held to the original intent of uniquely honoring Washington and Lincoln.  Washington was in every sense the father of the nation having not only defeated the greatest army in the history of the world in order to win independence but then going on to rescue the failed Articles of Confederation and personally presiding over the Constitutional Convention that has since given us the longest continuously operating government in world history.  He is the only president to be elected unanimously and was so loved and admired that he could easily have declared himself King of America with nary a protest, and was in fact under considerable pressure to do just that. 

But he resisted.  Every other nation in the world at the time was a constitutional monarchy and he was determined instead to have a constitutional republic with an elected president who would be replaced every 4 or 8 years in order to avoid monarchy and dictatorship and ensure continuity.  It was a radical experiment that the rest of the world was certain would fail but due to his brilliant leadership, he made it work.  It underwent its most arduous challenge in the Civil War which is why Lincoln deserves the honor of the second greatest president for leading us through that conflict and preserving the union. 

For all their efforts and despite the skepticism of all the other world powers during the 18th and 19th centuries, Washington and Lincoln's leadership laid the foundations for something unprecedented in world history - building a global superpower in the space of not much more than a full century.  The U.S. would not be the U.S. without these two great men.  They deserve our gratitude and our tributes on this President's Day.  The other presidents can have their museums and libraries and history will determine their greatness and failures.  But leave this third Monday of February for Washington and Lincoln. 

And if you want a connection between this and finance, Washington when he was not commanding armies and adjudicating courts and legislatures, was actually a very wealthy landowner, businessman, and investor.