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Writer's Block: A few good men
Nov. 18th, 2011 02:02 pm[Error: unknown template qotd]
There are no safe answers, as they all have mixed records. I'm going to go with Abraham Lincoln, with honorable mentions for Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt.
Lincoln's record as president is certainly mixed. He suspended certain civil liberties during the American civil war, and there were instances of corruption in his administration. But he ended slavery, an extraordinary achievement considering how much of the nation's economy had been structured around it.
Jefferson, aside from authoring the Declaration of Independence and establishing the country's first diplomatic relations with France, was a strong advocate for religious freedom, and presided over the first transfer of power in the nation's history, a particularly delicate test in any democracy.
There are no safe answers, as they all have mixed records. I'm going to go with Abraham Lincoln, with honorable mentions for Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt.
Lincoln's record as president is certainly mixed. He suspended certain civil liberties during the American civil war, and there were instances of corruption in his administration. But he ended slavery, an extraordinary achievement considering how much of the nation's economy had been structured around it.
Jefferson, aside from authoring the Declaration of Independence and establishing the country's first diplomatic relations with France, was a strong advocate for religious freedom, and presided over the first transfer of power in the nation's history, a particularly delicate test in any democracy.
