Yes, they had “clay feet” and were human. But they belong to all of us. As Americans we are all “the President’s Men” in the sense that they have left us a legacy that must be passed on to each succeeding generation. All who love freedom are inspired and encouraged by them to fight for liberty and justice for all.

George Washington modeled a life of courage and perseverance. In the French and Indian Was, Washington had two horses shot out from underneath him and four bullets that tore through his clothes. It was his indomitable character rather than his sword that helped him with the American Revolution.

“Parson” Weems was the man responsible for the hatchet and cherry tree story. An itinerant bookseller and preacher, the Parson published the first biography of Washington in 1800. In later editions stories that were supposedly told to him by Washington’s relatives and neighbors who had known him during his childhood. An aged lady who was a distant relative of Washington’s told the story to him 20 years before, he said. This is the Parson wrote it: “’I can’t tell a lie, Pa, you know I can’t tell a lie. I did it with my hatchet.’ ‘Run to my arms, you dearest boy,’ cried his father in transport, ‘run to my arms. Glad am I, George, that you killed my tree. For you have paid me a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son is worth more than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver and their fruits of purest gold.’”

Whether fact or fiction the story reminds us of the character respected in Washington and Lincoln. “Honest Abe” had his human weaknesses like us all. But his character, humor, persistence, and sense of destiny have inspired millions.

In the preface of Carl Sandburg’s “Lincoln” it is written, “On the 100th birthday anniversary of Lincoln, Brazilian Ambassador Joaquin Nabuco said: ‘with the increased velocity of modern changes, we do not know what the world will be a hundred years hence. For sure, the ideals of the generation of the year 2000 will not be the same of the generation of the year 1900. Nations will be governed by currents of political thought which we can no more anticipate than the seventeenth century could anticipate the political currents of the eighteenth, which still in part sway us. But whether the spirit of authority, or that of freedom, increases, Lincoln’s legend will ever appear more luminous in the amalgamation of centuries, because he supremely incarnated both those spirits.’”

Both Washington and Lincoln greatly shaped the history of America. We owe a debt to all “The President’s Men” who have fought and continue to fight to ensure our freedom. But let us not forget that mankind is history, but Jesus Christ is forever. There is hope and life eternal beyond the grave. Jesus said “ . . . I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me shall live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die . . . Do you believe this?” (John 11:25, 26)

Abraham Lincoln testified that Jesus Christ was his Savior. We can be more than history, when by faith we receive Christ as Savior and Lord we have an eternal future (John 3:16).

One of my favorite paintings is that of George Washington alone in the woods, kneeling on bended knee in prayer.

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear them from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2Chronicles 7:14).