Who was the worst president of the 20th century?

Thomas Ricks says it was JFK, largely for foreign policy reasons -- the debacle in Vietnam being the primary although not exclusive cause of JFK's poor standing in Rick's opinion. I think that JFK suffered from the curse of being president during interesting times, and while he made made mistakes and misjudgments in foreign policy, he was far from our nation's worst 20th century president.

My vote for worst president of the 20th century, for reasons involving both domestic and foreign policy, goes to Woodrow Wilson. Virtually all of the excesses of American policy in the 20th century built on demons that Wilson unleashed.

Apples and the Pacific Northwest

"Today, Washington state leads the United States in apple production. New York City might be the 'big apple,' but the apple is more a symbol of the far Northwest than of anywhere else. The apple has become as much a symbol of Pacific Northwest regional culture as the salmon and the seemingly endless evergreen forests."  So writes James Stripes over at Patriots and Peoples in an informative post on folk history and the importance of fruit agriculture in the great state of Washington.  Well worth a read.

On the prudential limitations of the law

Now human law is framed for a number of human beings, the majority of whom are not perfect. Wherefore human laws do not forbid all vices, from which the virtuous abstain, but only the more grievous vices, for which it is possible for the majority to abstain; and chiefly those that are to the hurt of others, without the prohibition of which human society could not be maintained: thus human law prohibits murder, theft, and such like.

- St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Summa Theologicae, II, 1, Art. 2, Qu. 96.

The Tao of good government

The Western Confucian posts an intriguing ancient Taoist text with much wisdom:

The government that seems the most unwise, 

     Oft goodness to the people best supplies;

That which is meddling, touching everything,

     Will work but ill, and disappointment bring. 

Well worth pondering!

Washington's 1775 instructions regarding respect and toleration for religion

In 1775, the Continental Army invaded Canada in an effort to guarantee that colony's cooperation in American efforts to sustain relief from the British government short of overt independence.  George Washington was the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and he issued formal instructions to one of his field commanders, Colonel Benedict Arnold, regarding the proper deportment of the Continental troops on the subject of religion.  This was an issue in the Canadian campaign due to the strong anti-Catholic opinions that were then common among the vast majority of the American colonial population.  The Canadians, at that time overwhelming French in language and culture, and Catholic in religion, therefore were possible targets of colonial bigotry in the field.

In his Instructions to Arnold, dated September 14, 1775, Washington was clear and direct in ordering the American troops to follow two basic approaches in regard to religion.  First, in order to prevent resentment towards the Continentals, American soldiers were to be prevented, under punitive discipline if necessary, from attacking the Catholic religion then established in Canada.  Without mentioning Catholicism by name, Washington prohibited any action that would result in the "ridiculing" of any Catholic clergy or "Ceremonies."   There was to be no overt acts of mockery or contempt shown to Catholicism by the Continentals.  The American army would be respectful, even towards religious views and ministers to which the vast majority of American colonials at the time vehemently objected.

Second, in addition to demonstrating respect, the Continentals were to "protect and support the free Exercise of the Religion of the Country and the undisturbed Enjoyment of the rights of Conscience in religious matters."  Washington's orders left no ambiguity -- the American intervention in Canada was to have no deleterious consequences for the Catholics there.  Yet, at the same time, Washington couched his language to apply not simply to the Catholic population there, but to all people who sought to enjoy their "rights of Conscience in religious matters."  As the army would not mock or attack Catholics for their faith, so too it would not enforce Catholicism or attack religious believers who were not Catholic.

While Washington issued his orders to Arnold as an act of military strategy -- to avoid alienating the Catholic population of a fellow colony with which the Continentals desperately wanted to be allied -- his orders show a commitment to deeper religious liberty than what military expedience required.  Respect for a despised religion, not simply tolerance.  Liberty not only for the majority religion but for all.  While the American intervention in Canada proved to be a failure in winning Canadian support for the American cause, Washington's orders regarding the army's conduct in regard to religion set a pattern of prudential and principled judgment.   In this regard, as in so many others, Washington proved himself to be the Father of Our Country.