Sept. 19 is not a holiday, and it’s not a date mentioned in most history books, but on this day 228 years ago, George Washington made the single most important act of judgment ever made by an American president. He quit. In becoming the first leader in two millennia to give up power once in one’s grasp, Washington’s message was clear: no one had the right to the presidency — it belonged to the people. It’s a decision that could be easily overlooked, but taken in context with the place and time, it represented a defining moment in America history, with as deep significance today as on the contemporaries of his time. His two-term precedent would not be broken until Franklin Roosevelt secured a third term in 1940, and so ingrained in the American fabric was his act that it was written into the Constitution as the Twenty-Second Amendment in 1951. It also paved the way for the peaceful transfer of power that has defined American government for more than two centuries. A seemingly certain standard that was tested on Jan. 6, 2021, when a violent mob sought to disrupt a Joint Session of Congress assembled at the U.S. Capitol to certify the 2020 presidential election results. Accordingly, the significance of Washington’s precedent is as strikingly applicable to 2024 as 1796. And our times are not as far removed from the 1790s as one would imagine. In addition to the deepening division between political parties, France, a leading foreign power at the time, attempted to interfere in a U.S. presidential election and there were new forms of partisan press and, with them, cries of “fake news.” Washington’s Farewell Address, which was first printed in a Philadelphia newspaper on this day in 1796, and included his decision to not seek a third term, got right to the heart of these challenges by including warnings against the kind of division which “agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms…kindles the animosity of one party against another…foments occasionally riot and insurrection…and opens the door to foreign influence and corruption.” Certainly, the nation’s first president was writing in the context of his own times, but his words speak to our current politics, as if he was framing these arguments in 2024. Consider President Biden’s decision to not seek a second term. Like Washington, it represents the most important judgment of his long career in public service. But time will only tell the true impact of that decision. However, given Washington’s elevated archetype, it’s likely it will lean favorably for Biden, although the 2024 presidential election will undoubtedly help shape history’s first draft. So will Biden’s attempt to follow Washington by issuing a Farewell Address early next year; a legacy enriched by fellow Oval Office occupants like Dwight Eisenhower, who used his Farewell Address to coin the phrase “military industrial complex,” Ronald Reagan who explained what the “Shining City on a Hill” meant to him, and Barack Obama who channeled Washington’s theme of national unity: “That we should reject ‘the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties that make us one.’ ” Washington’s example is also important to all who hold leadership positions, or aspire to, or are about to begin their leadership journey in any industry or sector. While his decision to relinquish presidential power affirmed judgment as his distinguishing leadership quality, it’s also essential to add that Washington’s judgment was far from perfect. Take just his military record: he lost more battles than he won. Rather, it was his ability to make the right call when it mattered most that represents his true greatness. He was the person you wanted with the ball in their hands at the end of a game. Someone with an acute sense of the moment and stakes, as Thomas Jefferson noted of him: “Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every consideration, was maturely weighed.” Leaders of any stripe would be wise to heed Washington’s standard. And when we go to the polls in a few weeks to elect a new president, let us heed a presidential decision shared 228 years ago today that ensured it. It might also be worth a moment to consider which candidate resembles Washington and would gracefully step aside if called. Haldeman is a presidential historian and author of the upcoming book “Meeting the Moment: Inspiring Presidential Leadership That Transformed America” being published by SUNY Press on Nov. 1.