INSCRIPTION AT MOUNT VERNON

I’ve never been down to Washington’s home in Mount Vernon but it’s on my list of places to visit when I decide to take a long weekend road trip in the near future. It was his home from the time of the end of the war, all the way to his death in 1799. I like to think that George is looking down on us with the with all the answers in his head, nudging us in the right direction as to not destroy what he spent his life building— the greatest damn country on earth.

Washington, the brave, the wise, the good,

Supreme in war, in council, and in peace,

Valiant without ambition, discreet without fear,

Confident without presumption.

In disaster, calm; in success, moderate; in all, himself.

The hero, the patriot, the Christian,

The father of nations, the friend of all mankind,

Who, when he had won all, renounced all,

And sought in the bosom of his family and of nature, retirement,

And in the hope of religion, immortality.