As an author, Fox News anchor Bret Baier seeks to bring historical figures like Patrick Henry and Paul Revere to life. This time around in To Rescue the Constitution, he focuses on George Washington, who – according to Baier – is the only one who could have convinced a rag-tag army to fight the British and believe they could win.
“He had this ability to fire them up and he had an ability in imposing this belief, that liberty was worth fighting for,” Baier said. “These guys, some of them didn’t have shoes, they had bloody feet in the middle of Valley Forge in the winter, and yet they overtook the British forces,” Baier said.
But what was it about George Washington, about his character and his personality that was so unique, that was the glue that held everything together?
“They had come up with the Articles of Confederation that loosely knit the Colonies together, but it wasn’t working,” said Baier. “And George Washington was this stoic figure who was well-respected, and in his silence, he found common ground with the different disparate groups to be able to link everybody together for the good of the country,” Baier told us.
As a man of faith, Washington also believed God was on his side.
“Well, you look at the miracle of bringing together all of these people and ratifying this document around a very tense time, that had to be a divine intervention of some kind,” Baier said.
And then, there’s the fact that Washington survived while fighting on the front lines with his men and was never injured. “Yes, that also was divine intervention, you would think. And, you know, it’s a lesson for our times that you don’t have to be the best, you don’t have to be perfect, you just have to hustle and have faith and believe that you can do it,” said Baier.
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And it was that belief that helped Washington and his army defeat the British. But even with a Declaration of Independence, the newly formed United States of America appeared anything but united or independent.
“Looking back at history, that time right after the war was really dangerous. It was really divided; it was really split. And people were wondering whether the U.S., which was not even the United States at that point was going to go back to British rule,” Baier said.
Despite all this, Baier says, George Washington held the country together, and in 1787 came the drafting and signing of the U.S. Constitution.
“It’s a unique document in the world, and there are a lot of people who say it needs to be adjusted and doesn’t work. But if you look really closely, it’s held the test of time, and it has been a living and breathing document that enabled our country to operate in liberty,” Baier said.
So, what can our leaders in Washington and perhaps the rest of us learn from George Washington?
“I think we can learn that dissent is okay,” Baier said. “Don’t be afraid of what feels like a very partisan time of different opinions. Listen first to the other side. Take what they’re saying and listen and try to find some common ground. Washington did that better than anyone, but he also realized that in order for the country to move forward, you have to get something, and you can’t be at each other nonstop.”
“We’re in a very divided time, but we’ve been very divided before. From the beginning of our nation, we almost didn’t form. At the Civil War, we almost fell apart. There was almost a second Civil War in 1876 that Ulysses S. Grant prevented, and we’ve had some really tumultuous times in our country. So, take a deep breath. I think George Washington would say we can find a way,” he said.
Baier believes George Washington was the key. “He was the rescuer. He’s the reason that we have a Constitution. He is the one that essentially got it across the finish line and without George Washington, we wouldn’t have a country,” Baier said.
In writing this series of history books, Baier says he’s really focusing on the younger generation in hopes they will learn of the sacrifice and leadership that birthed and brought this country to be.
“Because I think history has been taken out of schools and a lot of times our kids don’t know where we’ve been as a country. So why not start at the beginning and tell them how we were formed and hopefully that inspires the next George Washington or the next leader to be,” Baier said.
Baier’s book is called, To Rescue the Constitution, George Washington and the Fragile American Experiment.
