Almost everyone who met or knew George Washington and wrote about it remarked on his character: his bravery, his modesty, his honesty, his wisdom, his prudence. As the great Boston lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster once said:

America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.

To my American readers: I am not going to tell you who to vote for or to tell you how I voted when I voted early last week. And I am not going to suggest to you that you should ask yourself, “Who is most like George Washington?” How many national figures today can be compared with Washington without making us wince? But I do think it would be good to ask yourself, “Which of these two candidates is least unlike George Washington?” I think if you approach our choice with that in mind, you can’t go wrong.

Photo credit: Daderot (Public Domain)