FP - George Washington (Lesson)

George Washington

Mr. President.

Simple. When referring to the president of the United States as “Mr. President” you actually are hearing revolutionary discourse. That title, in actuality, was intended to lack a “title.” Not “Your Majesty” or “His Excellence”, but simply “Mr. President”-- the same as a common man. Simplicity was what George Washington had intended—this was one of the many precedents he set while serving as the first president of the United States of America.

A “precedent” is an action from which all similar actions will be related to or based upon in the future. It could be argued that as first president of the United States, everything George Washington did was a precedent for future acts of all presidents to follow. However, there are a few precedents that stand out. Many of these practices focused on the lack of power of the office of the president in order avoid the image of or comparison to the monarchy in Great Britain to the office of the presidency.

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Who's Who in the Cabinet?

 

PORTRAIT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON BY GILBERT STUART, PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS