The 250th Birthday of the United States is July 4th, 2026. What are you celebrating?

My wife’s wisdom should guide you.

As I wrote in my acknowledgements for the General Counsel Series (The Promised Land, at 14):

A comment by my wife Suzanne after seeing the show at the American Pavilion in Epcot Center in Walt Disney World gave me the essential vision of Visions of America; she felt that we should be proud about something besides all of the wars we’ve won.

And so, for the celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States, do not celebrate with gold statues or triumphal arches dedicated to the Power of Money, the Power of Religion, or the Power of the United States.

Celebrate by remembering the countless ways that the United States struggles (despite going astray (Isaiah 53:6)) to establish the ideal America first discovered by the hearts of Abraham, Moses and Jesus:

—blessing ALL people (Abraham; Genesis 12:2-3);

—challenging ALL pharaohs to set ALL people free (Moses; Exodus 8:1); and

—healing ALL hurting people (Jesus; Luke 10:25-37).

Honor those who blessed people, challenged pharaohs to set people free, and healed hurting people.

Here is an example of such blessing, challenging and healing taken from Visions of America, at pages 39-42:

George Washington Sends the Army Home

It is an unfortunate truth that most violent revolutions end in tyranny, leading to even more violence.

For example, after Cromwell won the English Civil War and set about to establish the power of Parliament and the rights of Englishmen, he executed the king, ruled without Parliament, and led a brutal military campaign against Ireland.

In a similar fashion, the French Revolution for “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” led to the execution of the king, the terror of the guillotine, and the imperialistic wars of the self-styled “Emperor Napoleon.”

Fortunately for America, George Washington was neither a Cromwell nor a Napoleon.

Instead, Washington was guided by the example of Cincinnatus, a legendary Roman warrior from the heroic, virtuous days of the Republic Republic—centuries before the tyranny and immorality of the Roman Emperors that led to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. After saving his nation, Cincinnatus did not make himself into a king, but returned to his farm.

Guided by similar personal integrity, after saving America from British tyranny, Washington did not declare himself a king, but returned to his Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon.

Still, danger to American democracy was the greatest in 1783.

The peace treaty with Britain had been negotiated and hostilities had ceased. Now the Army was free to pursue its complaints against Congress about lack of pay and supplies. Rather than disband, why shouldn’t the Army march on Congress and demand “justice” at the point of the bayonet?

Only the wisdom and virtue of one man, George Washington, stopped such folly. Because “he never gave in, never gave in, never, never, never, never, except to convictions of honor and good sense”—such as his own personal conviction that he should not become a king or a dictator.

At a mass meeting of his officers on March fifteenth, 1783, Washington desperately sought to instill such honor and good sense in the army.

Perhaps the date itself, March 15th, reinforced Washington’s resolve to support the Congress rather than to support a popular movement among his men and make himself into a king. Why was this date significant?

The Romans had, for centuries, referred to the fifteenth day of the third month of the year as “the Ides of March”. And on one infamous Ides of March in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar failed to heed the traditional warning, “Beware the Ides of March.” On that day, he was assassinated on the steps of the Roman Senate—specifically because some Roman Senators feared that his popularity and power were such that he would make himself into a king.

Fortunately, unlike Julius Caesar, George Washington did not want to become king. Instead of exploiting the army’s anger in order to increase his own personal power, he urged patience.

“[D]espite the slowness inherent in deliberative bodies,” Washington expressed his faith that Congress would act justly in the end.

He told the officers, therefore, that they should not “open the floodgates of civil discord, and deluge our rising empire in blood.” Instead, said Washington, they should honorably set a glorious example so that all humanity would see “America produce the last stage of perfection to which human nature is capable of attaining.”

Such appeals to honor and good sense were not persuasive. The officers remained disgruntled even after George Washington finished his prepared remarks.

Hoping that a reassuring letter from a congressman would sway them, Washington pulled the letter from his pocket, but then became confused. The officers leaned forward afraid that Washington—their beloved leader—might be ill.

Actually, the problem was that Washington’s eyesight had become so bad that he couldn’t read without glasses. He hated to acknowledge such a sign of weakness and old age, but at last, Washington sheepishly extracted his glasses from his pocket.

With some embarrassment, he said,”Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.”

They wept.

This simple, sincere statement by Washington touched their hearts, reminding them of their love for him and of the immense sacrifices they all had made for the cause of liberty. The crisis was over.

Washington stayed with the army until the British evacuated New York City in late November, 1783.

He said goodbye to his officers at Fraunces Tavern. Overcome with emotion at this parting from his comrades, Washington was unable to eat. His hand shook and his lip trembled. Tears streamed down the faces of his officers as Washington embraced each man separately.

Tears also flowed when Washington went to Congress to retire from military life. Rather than becoming a king, he wanted to go home.

George Washington arrived at Mount Vernon on Christmas Eve, 1783. As candles flickered in every window, Martha greeted him at the doorway.

And so, as Thomas Jefferson later paid tribute, “The moderation and virtue of a single individual probably prevented this Revolution being closed, as most others have been, by the subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish.”

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

Do you prefer democracy to monarchy and dictatorship? Why?

Do you prefer civilian control to military control? Why?

Why are deliberative bodies—such as Congress—inherently slow?

READ MORE

For related ideas, please read my blogs “Many Advisers”; “Use the Ways of the First Amendment, Not the Ways of the Second Amendment”; and “Alcatraz: Escaping by Using ‘Countervailing Powers’ Wisely”.