As a writer who writes both historical adventures and current event thrillers, I pay a lot of attention to politics and how present political currents contrast with those in the past. With that in mind, I thought I would devote this column to the Five Presidents who I believe were most important in American politics.
George Washington: The man who could be king, instead retired at the end of the Revolutionary War. Later as President of the Constitutional Convention he helped hammer out the compromises that led to adoption of The Constitution of the United States. As President of the country, he worked diligently not to interfere with policy making which was reserved to Congress. He left the Presidency frustrated by the divisions created by Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton and warned of the future divisions of powerful political parties.
Abraham Lincoln: As a young attorney, Lincoln was outspoken about the evils of slavery. As the Republican candidate for President, he so scared the Southern political base that his name didn’t even appear on several Southern States ballots. As President he tried to walk a more middle ground, but the outbreak of the Civil War forced his focus on preserving the Union and the federal role in ending slavery. His legacy includes The United States and the end of
Slavery, and a strong Republican Party focused on liberty not popularity.
Teddy Roosevelt: Perhaps our most vigorous president, he charted a new direction for the country by making the government arbiter of economic disagreement, primarily between labor and the all-powerful business trusts which he broke up under the Sherman act. He was our first conservationist, protecting America’s land treasures. He pressed the country into a leadership role in international affairs, under the motto, “speak softly but carry a big stick.” He saw his role as “steward of the people.” He was America’s first populist Republican President.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Our only four term president, FDR’s first term began as the Great Depression threw 13 million men out of work and collapsed almost every bank in the country. He used the power of the federal government to create new banking controls, massive public relief programs, Social Security, and income-based taxes. He professed a neutral foreign policy, but with the rise of authoritarian governments in Europe and Japan, he began quietly arming other democracies and building America’s military. He left a legacy of government intrusion into the lives of its citizens, (which got him re-elected three times), and the USA as a world power.
Woodrow Wilson: Among his achievements was the prohibition of child labor, federal support for an 8-hour workday, and government limits on unfair business practices. But Wilson did far more damage than good. The son of a Ku Klux Klan leader and rabid racist he dismantled almost all of the reconstruction legislation that had been created to bring former slaves into the general economy of the country. His internationalist foreign policy included supporting the Communist Revolution in Russia, only to be betrayed by the Bolsheviks who took Russia out of World War I just as the United States took up the majority of fighting on the Eastern Front. Feeling betrayed he unleashed his Attorney General and the legal system on perceived enemies and radicals, creating a legacy of judicial persecution.