The Cost

When we’re young we really don’t think much about life altering decisions. In fact, most of the time we are consumed with our careers, promotions, future mates, family and so forth. Mainly, it’s all about ourselves.

But decisions do come and they come in all sizes. Who you marry, what job you take and where you live are all big decisions. But sometimes it’s the decisions we didn’t see coming that affect our lives the most. And sometimes we didn’t even know it was coming when it happened.

Take George Mifflin for example. Most people have never heard of the man these days. But at one time he was present on the lips of most Americans. Politics always incite heated debates and opinions from all of us. The most polarizing is the presidency and who will be the next leader of the free world. George Mifflin was in line to be that man.

That’s right. In fact George Mifflin was already the Vice-President of the United States. His political history could not have been better. He came from a respected Philadelphia family, graduated from Princeton, mayor of Philadelphia, US District Attorney, US Senator and now in 1848 he was Vice President. President James K. Polk had announced he would not seek a second term. Absolutely nothing was in his path to keep him from winning the Democratic presidential nomination.

What happened next determined the future for George. There was split vote over a tax bill that was prominent in the nation’s attention: 27 for and 27 against. As presiding officer of the Senate, George would be the deciding vote.

Here was his dilemma. If he voted in accordance with the current administration’s policy, he would lose the support of the states he needed to win the presidential nomination. George Mifflin’s defining moment. Whether to do what he knew was right in his own heart and risk losing the political position of a lifetime or succumb to popular opinion and do what was the most beneficial for George Mifflin. What would you do? Sure we all like to think we’d make the right decision and take the high road. But when it’s you, that decision isn’t always easily reached. But George did know what he was doing and he voted the way he felt was right anyway, regardless what it might cost him. Well, you guessed it. One day he was the favorite son and the next he was bottom of the barrel. His own state, Pennsylvania, turned against him. The response in his hometown was so violent the state Sergeant at Arms had to be dispatched to rescue George’s family.

At the Democratic convention in 1848, he received three votes. Did you get that? THREE votes! I don’t know but I bet George thought often about his decision on that vote.

George Mifflin is long forgotten by most but his name is not. Surprised? George had become vice-president the same year the great state of Texas had joined the Union. The following year a handful of Texans got together and decided to name a village after George. It was so small that by the time George had died people were just beginning to call it a town.

And that town grew. And now when you travel by air across the country chances are you pass through that little village named after George. That’s George Mifflin Dallas.

Defining moments come in all forms and they don’t always end they way we think they ought to. But, they come anyway. Until you’ve faced a defining moment like George did you never can quite appreciate the quote: “To thine ownself be true”.

Good job, George. Thanks for the example you left us.