Since today is Presidents' Day in the United States, let's consider a classic question that can spark no small amount of debate. George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are commonly regarded as the two greatest presidents.
Which one would you say was the greatest?
4 comments:
The edge goes to Washington since he demonstrated the process of transitioning power peacefully after a vote.
Washington, because he successfully set the precedent for the president to willingly give up power, when most of human history would have predicted otherwise. Lincoln, if he had lived, most likely would have done a better job of knitting the country back together than his successor did (how is that for projection?). Since his job was only half completed (through no fault of his own), I'm going with Washington. S
This is a really difficult question. There are good arguments for Washington, as Kurt and Steve have noted. Both were true statesmen at a time when our nation needed statesmen. I'm going to give Lincoln my vote, however. Washington had a tough challenge to untie the fledgling nation, but he was voted into office essentially unanimously, so at least started his term in office with a united nation, and while he successfully confronted a serious rebellion (foreshadowing the government's urban / rural divide), was essentially a peace time president. Lincoln successfully reunited a nation at civil war and confronted the issue of slavery, and correctly confronted it as a human rights issue, which the founding fathers deferred in order to form the nation.
I need an editor: I meant unite, not untie!
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