Two American Heroes Facing Off on the Washington Mall

I've been in Washington DC for the last couple of days, visiting a retired federal bureaucrat and childhood friend of Lady Marjorie, and visiting the Mellon art gallery.

Yes, after FDR's attack dogs had finished prosecuting former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon for tax evasion, FDR called Mellon into the White House and proposed that Mellon donate his art collection to the nation. The National Gallery of Art is the result.

But the big takeaway for me is the two national heroes facing off on the Mall.

At one end of the Mall is the Washington Monument. George Washington is the astonishing man that walked away from political power not once, but twice.

First, the victorious general of the revolutionary army walked away from power at the end of the war. He could have been president or monarch for life. But he went home to his estate at Mount Vernon.

Second, after being elected president twice he went home to Mount Vernon and left the presidency vacant. His vice president John Adams won election in his own right. And then Thomas Jefferson, Adams' rival, won the presidency in 1800.

Do you realize how stunning that is? Of course Cincinnatus, the Roman, went home. Once. Anybody else? Bueller? Anyone?

Now, at the other end of the Mall, right in front of the Capitol and facing Washington, is the Grant Memorial. 

First, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was the Union's commanding general in the Civil War. After the war, as commanding general he feuded with President Andrew Johnson, and this feuding eventually led to Grant's resignation as Secretary of the Army and Johnson's impeachment and acquittal in the Senate.

Second, Grant ran and served as president for two terms, and then went home. Then, of course Grant was broke and dying of throat cancer from those see-gars. So he wrote his memoirs to provide his wife with an income, and died six days after completing the book.

Do you realize how absolutely incredible this is, that our greatest national heroes should refrain from exploiting their national hero status and did not make themselves president-for-life?

And that these two national heroes are facing each other from one end of the National Mall to the other?

Hey. Don't forget Ike. He was the commanding general of the victorious US forces in Europe. Ran for president, served two terms, and then went home.

I'd say it's one of the reasons why the United States is the greatest country in the world and the American people are the greatest people in the world.

But then, I'm biased.