In thinking about the dearth of Statesmen, of the character the likes of Washington and others of his time, in today's American political scene it occurs to me that we have now few or none.
Consider this. The Revolutionary period, with a population of about 2 million, produced not less than 17 (off the top of my head) easily identifiable leaders who I would classify as Statemen. With our population now at about 300 million we should have not less than 2,500 Statespersons. Name one (or more), I can't.
"Men always praise ancient times and condemn the present, but not always with good reason, and they are such partisans of the past that they celebrate not only those eras they have come to known through the records that historians have left behind but also those that they, have grown old, remember having seen in their younger days. When their opinion is mistaken, as it is most all the time, I am persuaded that there are several reasons leading them to error. The first reason is, I believe, that we do not know the complete truth about ancient affairs, and that most frequently those matters would bring disgrace on those times are hidden, while other matters that would bestow them with glory are recounted most fully and magnificently. Most historians follow the fortune of the conquerors, and in order to render their victories more glorious not only amplify what they have most skillfully achieved but also magnify the actions of their enemies in such a fashion that anyone born afterward in either of the two provinces, that of the victor or that of the vanquished has reasons to marvel at those men and those times and is compelled to the highest degree to admire and to love them. Besides this, since men hate things either out of fear or out of envy, two very powerful explanations for hatred of things in the past are eliminated, for they cannot harm you nor can they give you cause for envy. But the contrary occurs with those matters which you handle or observe, no part of which is hidden from you, because you know them in great detail, and recognizing in them along with the good, numerous other details which are not so pleasing, you are constrained to judge them as being much inferior to ancient affairs even though, in reality, present affairs may be much more deserving of glory and fame; I am not discussing matters pertaining to the arts, which shine with so much brilliance in themselves that the times can neither take much away from them nor bestow much more glory upon them than they intrinsically deserve, but I am speaking rather of those matters pertaining to the lives and customs of men, for which we do not see such clear evidence."
-Niccolo Machiavelli "Preface to Book II"
Discourses on Livy
