A Proud Day – The Peaceful Transfer of Power
January 20, 2009
By: ChartingTheEconomy.Com
It’s good to have something occur that can make all Americans proud. Today that something will happen. In fact, it is
the 43rd time the event has happened, and it is no less amazing now than it was the first time. The event is the
peaceful transfer of power from one President to another. At no time in the history of the world has so much power
been peacefully transferred as will happen today.
Maybe the most impressive and greatest thing George Washington ever did (and he did many) was to leave the
presidency after his second term. He did not hold power until his dying day, but left office to return to Mount Vernon to
farm. By not seeking a third term, and transferring power to John Adams on March 4, 1797, he showed the world the
true greatness of the American democracy.
Many wars have been fought over far less power than that which the President holds. Many people have suffered at
the hands of oppressive governments that seek to hold far less power at all costs. What we see today is the true
greatness of America in action, the peaceful transfer of more power than any one person in the history of the world has
ever held based on the peoples’ will. Let it remind us that America, with all its faults and failures, is still the greatest
nation the Earth has ever seen.