Christmas Eve:
The artist John Trumbull painted a nativity scene. It was the birth of a republic.
It depicts the peaceful transfer of power.
I wrote about this painting a year ago on Christmas Eve. The painting depicts Washington returning to civilian authority his letters of commission. An empty throne is behind him. He congratulates Congress for its leadership and bids "an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted."
He reaffirmed that he worked for them. The legitimate power was theirs.
Americans got complacent in the two centuries since this event. We took the peaceful transfer of power for granted.
We got a warning back in November, 2000 when the "Brooks Brothers Riot" intimidated vote-counters in Florida into stoping their work. George W. Bush's campaign and Republican Party staffers organized a protest. A crowd dressed in casual business attire entered the vote-counting area in Miami-Dade county and began shouting that the counters were stealing the election.
Authorities stopped counting the stacks of questionable, not-machine-countable ballots, primarily ones in which the perforated punch card holes were incompletely detached. Candidate Bush was ahead at that moment. The U.S Supreme Court ruled that counting could stop. That meant Bush won Florida and therefore the presidency. Al Gore conceded.
The tactic worked. Vote counters are clerks. They expect order. They aren't psychologically or physically prepared for intimidation. Trump tried the same tactic in the 2020 election. It was no secret. He and his campaign announced the plan. Get an early lead in the vote count. Then stop the count when one is ahead. Say you won. Get an angry stirred-up crowd together. Get them to accuse vote counters of stealing the election. Officeholders will cave under the threat.
Many did cave, but enough did not. Credit Mike Pence. Credit the Secretaries of Defense and generals who signaled that the military would not assist a coup d' état. Credit career lawyers at the Justice Department. Credit Brad Raffensperger and Brian Kemp in Georgia and Doug Ducey in Arizona. Credit the two Republicans on the Wayne County Board of Elections who certified the election results in the face of pressure not to.
Heather Cox Richardson reminded me of this event in her post yesterday. I had forgotten my own post about it. This great event in American history took place on December 22, 1783, not Christmas Eve. Richardson quoted Trumbull telling President Madison:
I have thought that one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world, was that presented by the conduct of the commander-in-chief, in resigning his power and commission as he did, when the army, perhaps, would have been unanimously with him. . . .
George Washington gave us a gift. Our job, as Americans, is to be worthy of it.
My gift to readers is to recommend Heather Cox Richardson's blog become a part of your daily routine. She is a professor of history at Boston College. She writes a superb history and politics blog, published on Substack: Letters from an American
HCR is an amazing source... Highly recommended!
HCR is a daily read for me.