I think hands down, our best president. No question.
I think a couple may fight hard for second place, but for me, best president is George Washington, no one comes close. Not after all he did, and could have done for himself, but did not do.
You are so right. Below is a post of mine on Facebook addressing Washington’s presidency. I cite the late Forrest McDonald’s comments in his The American History: An Intellectual History. Quite simply, no George Washington, no United States!
Rereading his ‘The American Presidency: An Intellectual History’ I realize what a debt of gratitude I owe the man. Like McDonald, I’ve always maintained Washington was our greatest president. It sounds like a cliche but he believed, as I do, that Washington was a man of almost unparalleled virtue.
From a C-Span transcript:
BRIAN LAMB, HOST: Forrest McDonald, author of “The American Presidency,” almost at the end of your book you write the following: “The caliber of people who have served as Chief Executive has declined erratically but persistently from the day George Washington left office. The Presidency has been responsible for less harm and more good in the nation and in the world than perhaps any other secular institution in history.” The Presidency has gone down, down, down since George Washington?
FORREST McDONALD, AUTHOR, “THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY”: No, it’s erratic. I mean, it went abruptly down with John Adams. It went back up again with Jefferson, but Jefferson was no Washington. Washington was such a great man; that’s not an act to follow. We can perhaps talk about that some more, but it began to decline throughout the 19th century. From Jackson to Teddy Roosevelt, who have you got? You’ve got Lincoln and a bunch of other people that — Mort Sahl once said in 1960, “Vote no. Keep the White House vacant another eight years.” Well, they voted for 75 years to keep the White House vacant. There have been some ups and downs in the 20th century, some good ones and some bad ones, but it’s been by and large a downhill trek, I think.
LAMB: If you could pick one of all 41 men, which one would you pick?
McDONALD: Oh, Washington.
LAMB: Why?
McDONALD: Washington was the indispensable man. He was the Revolution; it was just by sheer force of character that he held the Continental Army together and that he hung out for seven, eight years, brought the victory. He astonished the world by laying down his arms. Successful generals in revolutions had never done that, and the world was aware of that, from Caesar all the way up to Cromwell. He announced his retirement; he would never reenter public life, but the country was going to hell on a raft because the Articles of Confederation were inadequate, and they had to create an executive branch and had to create the Constitution.
He came back and he served, and he was acutely conscious of the duality of the office. One is symbolic, and the other is chief administrator, head of state, head of government. And he was wonderful at both roles. He was the symbolic embodiment of the nation as President, which Presidents have to be. I mean, even the bad ones; we look to them as the symbol of what we are, what we aspire to be and so on. But the reason that he was so much better than the rest of them is that he could play both roles very, very effectively.
For anyone interested in our history the man is a must read.
“I think hands down, our best president.”
gets my vote
Agree with your assessment 100%. The personal sacrifices he made for us and the launch of the United States of America are way above and beyond. What a life of accomplishment!