Letter to a president

Dear President George Washington,

I know it is long since you have gone to your rest after such a stalwart defense of your country, but, Mr. President, this nation stands in more need of your help than ever.

We are engaged in a perilous war that is unlikely to succeed, and that at the high cost of American lives. Were this a just war, as you and your compatriots fought, we would be equably justified. Alas, it it was with deceit that this war was started, and continued error that it is prolonged.

This, therefore, is the reason I write. We need your strength, your courage and fortitude, but most of all we need your diligent observance of all that is just and good.

I read the words that you wrote these many years ago, about freedom, about patriotism, about bravery. It in not only your words that strikes me, however, but your manner of living as you believed to be true.

You were not perfect; no man who has walked this land can lay claim to that. Yet you showed such valor and leadership to your people—our predecessors and ancestors—that they willingly followed.

This, in effect, is what we need now. We need a leader. We need strength in your White House. We need a man of uncommon strength, bravery, virtue, and patriotism. You were one of the first to bear the name patriot in this our American cause. You are not the last, either, but these many patriots now have need of your guidance and especially your experience in leading this nation through troubled times.

You were victorious in your impossible quest for independence. I pray we are as victorious in our efforts to preserve freedom.

I know it impossible to ask you to return to the presidency. You declined it a third time long ago, and for good reason. I would ask you, though, to send some part of your wisdom and judgment to the men who now lead the country. They need your goodness and experience now perhaps more than ever before in our long and glorious—though at times troubled—history.

Be with us now as we seek to right the wrongs of our past and move with righteous fervor toward the future.

Indebtedly yours,

Cordia Amant