Today is the official observance of the birthday of George Washington, the first President of the United States.
The holiday became commonly known as “Presidents Day” as a result of advertising campaigns that began using the term in the 1980s, but officially, the holiday’s designation remains Washington’s Birthday.
An act of Congress in 1885 designated Feb. 22 to honor Washington. Its observance was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which took effect in 1971.
Some proponents of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act wanted to rename Washington’s Birthday as “Presidents Day,” to celebrate the birth of both Washington and Lincoln, but the bill passed by the 90th Congress in 1968 kept the name Washington’s Birthday for the holiday we celebrate today, the third Monday in February.
The birthday of Abraham Lincoln (Feb. 12) was never made a federal holiday, though it is observed by some states, including New York.
Holiday closings and schedule changes
Federal, state and local government offices are closed today. Schools are closed. Courts are closed. The Riverhead library is closed.
The N.Y. Stock Exchange and banks are closed today.
The post office is closed and there are no mail deliveries. UPS and Federal Express are delivering and their offices are open.
Riverhead municipal trash collection follows its regular schedule today.
The LIRR is operating on a weekend schedule today, with off-peak fares in effect all day.
Suffolk County buses are operating today but some are following modified schedules. The S92 bus will operate on a regular weekday schedule today, as are the 10C, S20, S23, S25, S31, S33, S35, S41, S56, S60, S62, S66, S68, S69 and S76. The S1 is operating on a modified schedule, every half-hour. All other buses are operating on a regular Saturday schedule.
If you’re traveling to NYC, subways and buses are operating on a Saturday schedule. There are a number of work-related service changes this weekend. See the MTA website for details. Alternate side of the street parking is suspended today, but metered parking remains in effect.
Washington’s life
Washington was born in Colonial Virginia on Feb. 22, 1732 (Feb. 11, 1731 under the old style calendar in use until 1750 in England and its colonies.) He was the son of a wealthy tobacco plantation owner. He became a surveyor and soldier and rose to the rank of a senior officer in the colonial army during the French and Indian War. In 1775, Washington was appointed by the Second Continental Congress to lead the Continental Army as commander-in-chief in the American Revolution, from 1775 to 1783. After the American victory, Washington presided over the writing of the Constitution in 1787 and became the first president by unanimous choice of the Electoral College in 1789.
Washington is known as the “father of our country” because of his central role in its birth, in establishing its structure of governance and in shaping the office of the chief executive.
Washington defined the office of the presidency and oversaw the establishment of a strong national government. Many of the customs he put into place as president — using a cabinet system, delivering an inaugural address — are followed to this day. His refusal to run for a third term of office was a custom followed by all his successors until Franklin Roosevelt ran and was elected to a third term in 1940. The two-term tradition later became law with the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
As his second term drew to a close, Washington on Sept. 19, 1796 published a letter to the American people, which became known as his farewell address. In it, he offered “some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all-important to the permanency of your felicity as a people.” He offered these thoughts, he wrote, as “disinterested warnings of a parting friend.”
Washington urged his countrymen to remain united, and not allow regional or partisan factionalism, or the influence of foreign nations, to divide the citizens of the fledgling nation.
“The unity of Government, which constitutes you one people, is also now dear to you. It is justly so; for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquillity at home, your peace abroad; of your safety; of your prosperity; of that very Liberty, which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee, that, from different causes and from different quarters, much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth,” he wrote.
Washington went on to warn Americans to guard against the power of political parties. “They are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government,” Washington wrote.
Read Washington’s farewell address.
Washington’s retirement was a brief three years. He died on Dec. 14, 1799 of a throat infection at age 67.
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