I’ve never been much of a history buff, but I do like learning about what accomplishments past presidents have been capable of. After reading about the well-regarded presidents of all time, I made a list of my own. Here is my list of the top 7 best presidents in my opinion.
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President Truman had a long list of accomplishments well before he ever became president. After he was elected president he ended the war in Europe, which helped to stop the loss of any more troops, both our own as well as those of allies. He approved the plan to re-build Europe, as well as help in reconstructing Japan after dropping two atomic bombs on it.
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There are a lot of aspects that went along with President Jefferson’s wealth and personal beliefs, but there were three major accomplishments that took place while he was President of the US. First of all, President Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence. Surprisingly, he had wanted a clause inserted into the Declaration that criticized the monarch for introducing slavery. I find this information odd because he gained most of his wealth from his plantations which were ran primarily by slaves under his care. He also founded the University of Virginia and passed the statute of Religious Freedom in Virginia.
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President Polk was placed into office before the Civil war took place. He was concerned with expanding the US and succeeded in this goal. He was able to purchase New Mexico, Arizona, and California after winning the Mexican-American War. He also threatened Britain with war and they agreed to share their ownership of the Pacific Northwest.
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Everyone referred to President Roosevelt as simply FDR. He came into office at a time when there was a lot going on. During his first 100 days in office he gave the orders to create the New Deal. This was a set of programs that were supposed to create reform, recover, and relief. These programs were put in place because of the Great Depression. FDR was also in office during WWII, a time in which FDR was able to mobilize the US economy during the war. He achieved quite a lot during his 12 years in office.
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This president signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which brought about the construction of more than 41,000 miles of Interstate Highways. The building of roads was said to cost around 25 billion dollars and take more than 20 years to complete. Eisenhower participated in the first Transcontinental Motor Convoy of the Army in 1919, so he knew first hand how bad of shape US roads were in. Thankfully he was able to do something about how bad the roads were once he became president.
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Being unanimously elected as president and wanting to be president are two different things. George Washington accepted the unanimous votes that put him into office and held this position from 1789 to 1797. He started off as the leader of the Continental Army. He led America in a victory over Great Britain during the American Revolution while he led the Continental Army, so everyone knew he was good at leading. I think being a strong military figure first made people feel better about choosing Washington to be the president later on.
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Unfortunately, Lincoln was only able to serve 4 years in office, due to his assassination. However, he accomplished quite a lot during his term and definitely made history. He led the US through the Civil War, preserved the Union, and ended slavery all during his one term. I think that for a man who mostly educated himself, Lincoln came up with excellent speeches and campaign debates.
Feel free to add on any other tidbits you know about these presidents. Like I said, this list consists of the top 7 best presidents in my opinion, so your list of favorites might be very different. Who do you think was the best president of all?
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