Besides their association with the American presidency, can you name what it is that unites George Washington, Harry Truman, and H. Ross Perot? We've got two clues. First, look to the third largest city in Ohio. Second, consider this: Washington has been labeled our country's first rendition of it, Truman wondered if he might grow into America's 20th-century version of it, and some commentators saw presidential candidate Perot as the most recent incarnation of it.
Give up? George Washington is known as "the American Cincinnatus," the young Harry Truman wrote to his girlfriend Bess, "Who knows, maybe I'll be like Cincinnatus," and historian Robert Dallek referred to what he called Ross Perot's long history of self-serving actions in dismissing the idea that the Texan might be our modern-day Cincinnatus.

The original Cincinnatus was a Roman farmer who left his fields to become Dictator of his besieged republic 2,400 years ago. According to legend, Cincinnatus devoted one day to saving his country and served for a total of 16 days before returning to his plow.

To invoke the name Cincinnatus is to summon a model of simplicity, ability, and virtue, the citizen-soldier who serves without monetary reward. By the way, although Cincinnati was named for Cincinnatus, it was done so indirectly. In 1790, city fathers picked that name to recognize the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization founded by American revolutionary war officers and whose first president was General Washington.