Jimcat
Culture Vulture
Who qualifies as the "greatest" President depends on how you define the term. I chose to interpret it as who did the most good for the nation, and my vote goes to Lincoln on that basis.
Lincoln was a true American leader -- he never stopped thinking of the United States as "one nation, indivisible", and dedicated his life to making sure it stayed that way. His war plan was to provoke a quick surrender, not a series of bloody massacres. Unfortunately it took him a few years and much political maneuvering before he could find some generals who could accomplish this. Lincoln's plan for the Reconstruction was much less harsh than that of Johnson and the hard-liners who succeeded him. Lincoln wanted to re-admit the Southern states to the Union as soon as possible and make sure that everyone, north and south, accepted that the war was over and the country was one again. Had Lincoln not been assassinated, I think that the Southern states would have gotten much better treatment after the war, and we might not have all this nonsense today with people born a century after the war feeling that they've been wronged by the "Yankees".
All credit where it is due to Washington, who had to set the precedent as leader of a new nation based on untested principles, and acted quite admirably in doing so. But I think that Lincoln had the greater challenge. The nation could have chosen to let its rebellious states go, saving much bloodshed and getting rid of some people who many in the north would have been quite happy to do without. But that would have destroyed the precedent of the UNITED States of America, and weakened the legitimacy of the government. Lincoln saw that a united nation was worth the blood that had to be spilled, and he led the rest of the people to accept his vision and see it through to victory. And all of this against determined opposition. Washington's battles had all been fought by the time he became President -- he was elected without opposition, and very few people questioned his worthiness or his decisions. Lincoln faced not only the Confederacy, but many people in the Union states who opposed him on grounds ranging from opposition to the draft, to lack of sympathy for the slaves, to accusations of tyranny (Lincoln, like other war presidents, assumed virtually dictatorial power during the war), to opposition to his reconstruction policy.
f I had more time and energy, and if I were still in high school, I could make a term paper out of this. Suffice it to say that, of our many great Presidents, I think that Lincoln stands out as the greatest.
(Ironically, while Lincoln accomplished everything I so admire, my own ancestors weren't even Americans. But if he hadn't done what he did, who knows whether this country would even have been worth coming to?)
Lincoln was a true American leader -- he never stopped thinking of the United States as "one nation, indivisible", and dedicated his life to making sure it stayed that way. His war plan was to provoke a quick surrender, not a series of bloody massacres. Unfortunately it took him a few years and much political maneuvering before he could find some generals who could accomplish this. Lincoln's plan for the Reconstruction was much less harsh than that of Johnson and the hard-liners who succeeded him. Lincoln wanted to re-admit the Southern states to the Union as soon as possible and make sure that everyone, north and south, accepted that the war was over and the country was one again. Had Lincoln not been assassinated, I think that the Southern states would have gotten much better treatment after the war, and we might not have all this nonsense today with people born a century after the war feeling that they've been wronged by the "Yankees".
All credit where it is due to Washington, who had to set the precedent as leader of a new nation based on untested principles, and acted quite admirably in doing so. But I think that Lincoln had the greater challenge. The nation could have chosen to let its rebellious states go, saving much bloodshed and getting rid of some people who many in the north would have been quite happy to do without. But that would have destroyed the precedent of the UNITED States of America, and weakened the legitimacy of the government. Lincoln saw that a united nation was worth the blood that had to be spilled, and he led the rest of the people to accept his vision and see it through to victory. And all of this against determined opposition. Washington's battles had all been fought by the time he became President -- he was elected without opposition, and very few people questioned his worthiness or his decisions. Lincoln faced not only the Confederacy, but many people in the Union states who opposed him on grounds ranging from opposition to the draft, to lack of sympathy for the slaves, to accusations of tyranny (Lincoln, like other war presidents, assumed virtually dictatorial power during the war), to opposition to his reconstruction policy.
f I had more time and energy, and if I were still in high school, I could make a term paper out of this. Suffice it to say that, of our many great Presidents, I think that Lincoln stands out as the greatest.
(Ironically, while Lincoln accomplished everything I so admire, my own ancestors weren't even Americans. But if he hadn't done what he did, who knows whether this country would even have been worth coming to?)
