“And so, Gdaddy, who is your favorite President?”
My granddaughter, Ella Rae, is learning about the American Presidents. It is wonderful to see her so excited about this endeavor. She taught me that John Quincy Adams once had a pet alligator in the White House. She has read books on many of the Presidents, including U.S. Grant, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. I told her about hearing former President Harry Truman speak when I was a child and I showed her the invitation I received to have breakfast with “The President of the United States,” when I was invited to the National Prayer Breakfast with President Bill Clinton. When she asked me to name my favorite President I didn’t have to ponder very long: my answer is Abraham Lincoln.
Lincoln is at the top of most people’s list and you can justify this with two words, “Emancipation Proclamation.” From the moment Thomas Jefferson proclaimed that, “All men are created equal,” slavery was the Albatross around our nation’s neck. Our 16th President not only ended the curse of slavery, but he preserved the Union and created a “new rebirth of freedom.”
The threat of a national Civil War surfaced as early as the John Adams’ administration, and slavery was always the underlying cause. It was Lincoln’s incredible sense of grace and desire for reconciliation that enabled us to remain a “United States.” Any other leader would have exacerbated the division, but Lincoln called for binding up our nation’s wounds “with malice toward none and charity for all.” His heartfelt belief was that we were not enemies but friends.
Lincoln, like an Old Testament prophet, lifted us up to the “better angels of our nature.” Historian Shelby Foote said that before the war, people would say “the United States are.” But after the war people would say “the United States is.” He said that sums up what the war accomplished. We were no longer a collection of independent states, but a “United States of America”—thanks to our greatest President, Abraham Lincoln.
I told Ella Rae that we should also think about our top five Presidents, after Lincoln of course. Here are my top five after Lincoln, and an Honorable Mention list of five more. They are listed chronologically, not in order of importance.
It would be almost unthinkable to have a list of top Presidents without including George Washington. The hero of the American Revolution found it easier to lead a war than lead a nation, but as our nation’s first President, Washington adapted, learned the art of compromise and established many important precedents as our only President to be elected unanimously, not once, but twice.
President Washington appointed the first cabinet, established the Supreme Court, founded the national bank, instituted the US Navy, and personally supervised the building of the nation’s permanent federal capital city on the banks of the Potomac River—the city that today bears his name. He is the only President to personally lead troops into battle while in office. A 1790 address to a synagogue in Rhode Island established a precedent for protecting religious liberty that persists to this day.
Perhaps the greatest gift our first President gave to us was the way he left office. He voluntarily relinquished his great power by stepping down after his second term. Washington’s “Farewell Address” remains one of the most celebrated speeches in American history. The speech, which is read in its entirety in the United States Senate every year on his birthday, warned against “the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party” and called for a focus on unity, education, and morality.
Thomas Jefferson would be the next name on my list, but it comes with a caveat. The greatest accomplishment of Jefferson’s Presidency was the Louisiana Purchase. With a stroke of a pen he more than doubled the size of our nation “from sea to shining sea.” But the Louisiana Purchase would not have been possible without Jefferson’s nemesis and political rival, John Adams. Adams kept us out of war with France, a war that Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party advocated with ferocity. Our young nation may well have not survived a war with the mighty French. But because Adams kept the peace and preserved the fledgling Republic, Jefferson was able to negotiate the greatest land deal in our nation’s history.
Thomas Jefferson is probably the least deserving name on my list based on his Presidency alone. Even Jefferson did not merit his Presidency worthy enough to put on his tombstone. But I include Jefferson for the entire corpus of his life’s work. He was the wordsmith of the Revolution, an advocate for religious freedom, a proponent of education, the minister to France in the aftermath of the war, and our nation’s first Secretary of State. Indeed, it was Jefferson who hosted the dinner for James Madison and Alexander Hamilton that led to the great compromise establishing the national bank and securing the federal capital in what is today, Washington, DC.
Therefore, Thomas Jefferson is one of my greatest Presidents, riding on the coattails of John Adams, who has earned Honorable Mention status on my list.
The next name on my list will surprise you, Ulysses S. Grant. Not only am I a son of the South, but Grant has consistently been ranked as one of our worst Presidents. However, we are beginning to see Grant in a new light. There is no question that Grant’s Presidency was marked by scandal, but it was simply because this great man was too trusting and a number of unscrupulous men took advantage of him. For years the scandals have overshadowed his enormous accomplishments. Andrew Johnson had left the nation deeply divided, but it was Grant who first started to “bind the nation’s wounds.” He had the heart of Lincoln and extended the olive branch to former Confederate states and soldiers. His greatest accomplishments, that have been buried for so many years, were in civil rights. Grant pushed for the 15th Amendment that granted African-Americans the right to vote. He used federal troops to fight domestic terrorism against Southern blacks, particularly by the Ku Klux Klan. If Grant’s policies had been maintained, there never would have been a Jim Crow south.
Grant did more for Civil Rights than any other American President before Lyndon Johnson. Historian Ron Chernow concludes that, “Grant deserves an honored place in American history, second only to Lincoln, for what he did for the freed slaves.”
Two more feathers in his cap: Grant advocated for the humane treatment of Native Americans and in 1872, Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, making Yellowstone the nation’s first national park.
My next great President is the Rough Rider, Teddy Roosevelt. He is often remembered as the first conservation minded President as he expanded the system of national parks and forests, but even greater accomplishments were in breaking up powerful business monopolies and standing up for the common worker.
Roosevelt was one of the most active and physically robust Presidents in history. He had been elected Governor of New York with the aid of the state’s Republican political machine. But once elected Roosevelt proved to be his own man, unwilling to follow the party line. The party bosses decided to sideline him by offering him the position of Vice President under William McKinley. As Vice President he would not have any real power, only ceremonial duties. But McKinley was assassinated in 1901, and Roosevelt became the nation’s youngest President at the age of 42.
Roosevelt shook up everything in Washington. He stood up to the party bosses and became the “trust buster” as he took on the big business tycoons like J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller.
He also believed that America should enter the world stage as a major power. “Speaking softly and carrying a big stick” he helped Panama secede from Colombia and started construction on the Panama Canal. He led negotiations to end the Russo-Japanese War resulting in the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
The first Roosevelt greatly expanded executive power. T.R. explained that the President was a “steward of the people,” and should take whatever action was necessary for the public good unless forbidden by law or the Constitution.
The last name on my list is the other Roosevelt, FDR. Franklin Delano Roosevelt started his Presidency at one of the darkest times in our nation’s history. But he immediately changed the mood when he proclaimed that “we have nothing to fear, but fear itself.” Our longest serving President led us out of the Great Depression and through the Second World War. His “fireside chats” endeared him to common citizens who looked on him as a father figure.
Roosevelt and Winston Churchill were the right leaders at the right time to save the world from Fascism. They believed in the four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
I could name all of his accomplishments, but I have a very personal reason for naming FDR as one of my greatest Presidents. My maternal grandparents were dirt poor and suffering greatly in the Depression. But when FDR created the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as part of the New Deal, my grandfather found a job to provide for his family. Sadly, my mother lost both of her parents by the time she was 5, but she always spoke highly of FDR because he had given her father a job when he was in a desperate situation. The TVA was a saving grace for her family. FDR gave them hope.
In addition to John Adams, I have four more Presidents in my “Honorable Mention” category. James Madison was the Father or our Constitution and survived the War of 1812, often called, “Mr. Madison’s War.” His wife, the vivacious Dolley from North Carolina, defined the role of First Lady with her social skills, decorating and entertaining at the Executive Mansion, promoting charitable causes, and is best known for heroically saving the Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington, barely escaping the invading British. The elegant White House china purchased by Mrs. Madison is still used to this day.
Woodrow Wilson receives Honorable Mention. His racist views have recently tarnished his image, but here was a man who believed in world peace. He is still considered a hero in Geneva, Switzerland where one of the major hotels continues to bear his name.
I will also give an Honorable Mention to LBJ, Lyndon Baines Johnson. He will forever be branded with Vietnam, but his Civil Rights record elevates him to great heights.
My final Honorable Mention goes to Ronald Reagan. He made us proud to be Americans again. He was instrumental in bringing down the Berlin Wall and he knew how to reach across the aisle to achieve bipartisan legislation.
I have one more President that I want to include. If we had an award for the greatest former President, there would be no doubt it would go to Jimmy Carter. No, he wasn’t the best President, but he may have been the best man to ever occupy the White House. His moral integrity, his sense of righteousness and justice can never be questioned. I think he understood the dynamics in the Middle East better than any other President.
And one final award: the best First Lady. Just as there is no question in my mind that Abraham Lincoln was the best President, Eleanor Roosevelt was the best First Lady. Remarkable on many levels, she truly believed in liberty and justice for all.
John Adams spent the first night in what would later be known as the White House on November 1, 1800. That night he picked up his pen and wrote a note to his wife, Abigail, who would arrive in Washington later that month. He pronounced a benediction on the new house, praying that “none but honest and wise men shall ever rule under this roof.”
For the most part, this has been true. But some Presidents have risen high above the others and in my humble opinion, the ones I have named have been among the very best.
