(music)
Can you imagine Julius Caesar
willingly turning back power?
One of the lessons that we get from Roman history
is these very strong military leaders
who translate that military power into governing.
World history prior to the American Revolution
always ended with the successful, victorious general
taking power.
I suppose we all have heard,
either in high school or somewhere
that the founders had an absolute horror of executive power
having dealt with this tyrant, George III
during the revolutionary period.
But it is a curious thing that they then handed
to their new executive very great powers.
Powers in some ways equal to or exceeding the powers
of a King in the British system.
So at the founding,
one of the visions of the executive power
was that it needed to be vigorous.
That it needed to be sufficiently strong,
invested with enough the power
they would be able to counterbalance the other two
branches of the Federal government.
- The founders were trying to achieve a balanced government,
a constitutional government,
but one that had a strong Executive.
- They had solace in the fact
that as they were getting this new government
up on its feet, up and running,
that George Washington would be the one
exerting that influence.
Washington became president on April 30th, 1789.
- After he becomes president,
he writes a letter to a British historian,
which to say he writes it to history, if you will.
"Few understand the role I had to play"
and he uses this wonderful phrase,
"I walk on untrodden ground".
He's aware this is something that's never been done before,
it's new.
There were no precedents upon which to judge.
So basically everything he did, he was doing from scratch.
Every office that he was creating
was being created from scratch.
Every statute that Congress was passing
was being created from scratch.
Washington is very mindful of everything he does,
but especially the precedents
that will be set by his every action.
Including, you know, what he wears,
how he acts, who he meets with,
how he does virtually everything.
As we get into Washington's second term,
this question naturally comes to the fore.
We've never done this before, the assumption is
essentially that Washington's gonna stick around,
he's not going anywhere.
Indeed, Thomas Jefferson in one of his letters
assumes that Washington's gonna stay for life,
because that's the natural thing to do.
And that's historically what it always happened.
- History is littered with examples of military men
one thinks after Washington,
of Napoleon Bonaparte, for example,
who seize power and are reluctant to give it up.
- There was an enormous concern
voiced by the myriad anti-federalists authors at the time,
that whoever was given this executive power
was gonna be effectively a Monarch.
- In history, the idea of getting power
and then giving up power is not only non-existent
but it's absurd, why would anybody do that?
The whole point of getting power is not to give it up.
Cincinnatus was a patrician,
one of those fathers of Rome, Republican Rome.
He had held the consulship.
- And then he retired to his farm,
his little four acres of land, and his plow until 458 BC.
- Rome had been besieged by an invading tribe, the Aequi.
- And so the senators go to Cincinnatus
and they appeal to him to come back and lead them.
- They gave him complete autocratic power.
Total autocratic power.
Anything he needed in order to win this war,
'cause it was an existential threat to the republic.
- Cincinnatus, this retired general and public servant.
The very next morning assumed command of the army
and was given the six month dictatorship.
And in a brief 15 days, a mere 15 days,
vanquish the enemy, returned Rome to a peaceful footing
and then returned the dictatorship.
He could have legally stayed on for six months
and enjoyed all the perquisites of virtually absolute power.
But he didn't do that.
- Cincinnatus was a thunderbolt
of shock and awe at the time.
- This story, this really becomes a legend
of a mythical hero of Rome.
Which of course is a great example
of a kind of Roman virtue,
the virtue of the Roman,
the citizen of Rome who serves the Republic,
who does what is necessary for Republic
but then does not become a dictator
in the sense that we understand the term,
which is keeping power, holding power
and maintaining power forever.
He uses it but he gives it back.
- Washington was called by many people
the Cincinnatus the West.
And the parallels are actually quite striking.
There were some attempts to co-opt Washington
into either seizing power from the Congress
by military force or leading such a venture.
There were evidently some movements
to try to make him a King following the revolution.
Washington was adamant and in fact furious
that anyone would try to foist such a plan on him
or on the colonies, and then the new nation.
And he said in the strongest terms
that this was an anathema
to everything that the revolution was about.
- At the end of the war
Washington is going to go to the Congress,
which at the time is meeting in Annapolis
and he's going to resign his commission.
It's actually an important ceremony.
He literally goes there and gives them his sword.
His first great resignation.
- And so when the King of England King George
was told about Washington's plans to resign his commission
and return to his farm in Mount Vernon,
King George said, "If he does that,
"he will truly be the greatest man on earth."
- The only model that they had, and that was known
because they were students of classical history.
They knew it from their Cicero
and from other stories of the ancient Romans.
The only model they had
was this model of this Cincinnatus figure,
who seems so mythical and impossible
that you couldn't even believe it.
Someone who would come from the farm,
take power, save the republic, give it up.
And so Washington takes on this sense of the legend,
he's the Cincinnatus feat,
he's the American Cincinnatus
that understands the role of power,
the importance of power,
especially in foreign affairs and military affairs.
But Washington also understands that a republic
requires the giving up of power.
- Washington, I think he never really intended
to serve as long as he did.
He wanted desperately to get back to Mount Vernon
and like Cincinnatus to retire to his plow.
Instead of going to Congress
and deciding to resign or to decline a third term in person,
he goes straight to the American people.
When he writes this address, it leads with,
"To the people of the United States, my fellow citizens."
- It was a marvelous moment in the history,
not only of the United States,
but free government around the world.
A peaceful transition of power
in a regime of representation,
where the people elect their representatives.
It was an unusual thing,
and perhaps it's still an unusual thing today.
- One of the things that I think you see
in both of these people
is a true understanding of civic virtue,
a true understanding that in fact,
none of any of this, the conflict, is about them personally.
It is instead about the people,
the protection of their liberties,
the protection of their rights,
the protection of their sovereignty.
- And I think that one of the great lessons
we can learn from Washington,
is what it takes in a leader,
what kinds of virtues does it take in a leader?
What kinds of public virtues need to be present
in a society to sustain a free government?
It's a fragile thing, Democracy,
a republican form of government, it's a fragile thing.
- The comparison between Washington and Cincinnatus
is appropriate.
Understood in the right context, which has say that,
I think the comparison is not to say
that Washington is this somehow
this kind of mythical classical figure
that's wearing a robe
you'll put up on Mount Rushmore for us to admire.
But the true Washington,
this figure, this dynamic figure who leads the revolution
and then leads by becoming the first president
and then leads by stepping down
and shifting his own authority to the constitution itself.
That's the true story,
that's the actual Washington.
And that not only is an amazing thing
by any historical standards,
but is probably the most significant
and powerful example of Republican citizenship
that this country has ever produced.
"Your fame, thus spread to distant lands,
"May envy's fiercest blast endure,
"Like Egypt's pyramids it stands,
"Built on a basis more secure;
"Times latest age shall own in you
"The Patriot and the statesman too.
"Now hurrying from the busy scene
"Where thy Potowmack's waters flow,
"Mayt thou enjoy thy rural reign,
"And every earthly blessing know;
"Thus He whom Rome's proud legion sway'd,
"Beturn'd, and sought his sylvan shade."