This coming Tuesday, February 22, marks the 279th Birthday of George Washington--the undisputed first man of our republic. In light of current events and what seems to be an inescapable future of crippling debt--already over $14 trillion with no end in sight--I will be posting a special essay on Washington's life and achievements in politics (as opposed, to say, his handling of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War) and what, if anything, his example offers to us, his legatees in republicanism.

On a side note, the day is also the 164th anniversary of Zachary Taylor's astounding victory over the Mexican army of the dictator Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista. There is no doubt that Taylor's victory over an army more than three times the size of his own force (less that 5,000 men) propelled the very unpolitical "Old Rough and Ready" into the White House less than two years later. As one of our more stalwart and meritorious Chief Executives, I will make the special plea that on Presidents Day you not forget some of the lesser known, but upright and laudable, figures who've held the Executive Chair and performed their duties ably and without malice or malevolence of purpose. Surely, Zachary Taylor, who died midway into his term in the summer of 1850 in the midst of an unscrupulous barage of Southern threats of war and secession (Taylor was himself born in Virginia, raised and matured in Kentucky, and officially living in Louisiana when not assigned away with the Army), was such a figure and worthy of our continued respect and gratitude.