Washington put his finger on one of the greatest problems facing us as we attempt to make wise political decisions in these difficult times. We tend, all too often, to rely on our feelings to guide us in making choices despite the mounting body of evidence that our feelings can be untrustworthy. With the benefit of hindsight, we can often see just how harmful those feeling-based choices can be.
A classic example from 20th century American history is the treatment of Japanese-Americans after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Naturally we were deeply concerned about our future - half our naval fleet lay at the bottom of the ocean and our army was woefully ill-equipped and under-manned.
Our feelings - influenced in large part by a long history of anti-Japanese prejudice - told many of us that these people should be locked up, even though many had been born here and were United States citizens. And even though there was absolutely no evidence of collaboration with the government of Japan.
In hindsight, it's clear that we made a very serious error in this case. We can all see that now. And perhaps that realization helped temper somewhat the outbursts of negative behavior towards Arab-Americans after September 11 - outbursts that were, once again, based on our feelings.
Does this mean that we should always ignore our feelings? Absolutely not. We have all had experienced intuitive insights that led us to make good decisions. It would be extremely unwise to repress or ignore that source of internal wisdom.
But at the same time, we would be wise to recognize the fact that our feelings are not always accurate - that we need to examine them a bit before acting on them, asking ourselves if they are based on prejudices or habitual ways of thinking. If we had done that after the Pearl Harbor attack, I'm sure we would never have made the tragic mistake we did.
Of course this kind of calm self-reflection is not always easy in a time of crisis. But if we're willing to make space for it, the long-term benefits for ourselves and for our country will be considerable. As George Washington said, towards the end of his second term as President: "I am sure the Mass of Citizens in these United States mean well, and I firmly believe they will always act well, whenever they can obtain a right understanding of matters."
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