Article 3 (Jan 2020): Presidents Day: One time everyone agreed

Strange to think, but there was one time in the United States of America that everyone pretty much agreed on who should be president.
              
That was the first and second terms of George Washington -- war hero, patriot -- and the first president of the newly minted United States, elected in 1788 and 1792.
              
Not that there wasn't a lot of controversy during those two terms.  Indeed, Washington didn't want to run again, given the controversies of his first term and his poor health.
              
But, he agreed at the urging of leaders throughout the country.  It was the only time in presidential history that a candidate for president didn't campaign or even make a formal announcement.  Still he won unanimously in the Electoral College.
              
The same consensus certainly did not characterize the term of another great president traditionally honored on Presidents Day.
              
Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860 set off a series of events that ended in civil war and the end of slavery.
              
Not even his own Republican Party could agree in the primaries who should stand for president. Lincoln was selected on the third ballot.
              
That election was to be the beginning of a relentlessly divisive period in which, ultimately, 620,000 soldiers died.
              
Presidents Day actually honors all presidents, although Lincoln and Washington are most often cited.