Sunday, August 15, 2010
My second top ten president would be Thomas Jefferson (president from March 4, 1801-March 4, 1809). To me, he was an excellent president who gained international respect and prestige for this new nation by winning a war against Tripoli pirates off the coast of Africa, when they attacked our ships and, also, by enlarging the nation through the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expeditions. Certainly, any top ten president should be compared to this man who once said, "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against any form of tyranny over the mind of man" (in a September 23, 1800 letter to Benjamin Rush). Do you agree?
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The third man who earns my listing, and with whom Barack Obama will be compared, is Abraham Lincoln (president from March 4, 1861-April 15, 1865). To me, Lincoln deserves tremendous credit for keeping our nation together in one of its darkest moments, the Civil War, and by successfully coordinating the Confederacy's defeat. Additionally, his genius can be seen in the words of his, November 19, 1863, Gettysburg Address when he declared that, "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and that, "...government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
ReplyDeleteThe fourth man who earns listing would be Theodore Roosevelt (president from September 14, 1901-March 4, 1909). Roosevelt achieved fame by working against monopolies and who became known as a "trustbuster". He was a true friend of labor and working people and offered them a "New Deal". President Roosevelt also achieved fame through instituting his "Roosevelt Corollary", whereby, the United States would act as an international policeman, especially in the Caribbean and Central America. Lastly, he is widely respected for leading in the building of the Panama Canal, for his conservation programs, and for being the first presidential Nobel Prize winner.
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