#4 Ronald Reagan

Some of Reagan’s top accomplishments include:

• Reagan played a key role in trying to end the Cold War. When he came into office the strategy shifted from “peace through strength” to a more firm strategy. Ten months after Reagan’s term ended, the Berlin Wall opened and in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed (Dykewicz).
• Reagan improved the economy in a number of ways, but maybe most noticeably was in the unemployment and inflation rates. During Reagans term, 16 million new jobs were created (Dykewicz)
• The Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike, going against the rule that government employees were not allowed to do this. Reagan took a strong stance on the issue, not backing down even when the vast majority of the workers did not show back up to work after Reagan sent out a warning that if they weren’t back to work in 48 hours they would be fired (Anirudh).

  

 

Citations

Anirudh. “10 MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF RONALD REAGAN.” Learnodo Newtonic, 11 Feb. 2017, learnodo-newtonic.com/ronald-reagan-accomplishments.

Dykewicz, Paul. “Top 10 Reagan Achievements.” Human Events, 6 Feb. 2011, humanevents.com/2011/02/06/top-10-reagan-achievements/.

#3 Theodore Roosevelt 

Theodore Roosevelt served as the 26th president of the United States, and though there have been two Roosevelt’s in office, there are very different. Teddy has a long list of milestones under his belt and here are just a few of them…

• Teddy took conservation seriously and put aside more land in order to create national parks, national forests, and nature preserves than all of the presidents who came before him combined, most of which are still around today (Anirudh).
• Roosevelt passed the Meat Inspection Act of 1906 and Pure Food and Drug Act. These acts helped to produce better quality food, required ingredients to be labeled on drug packaging, and tried to ensure sanitary conditions in which food was being processed (Anirudh).
• Roosevelt created the Square Deal, which incorporated the three C’s- consumer protection, control of corporations, and conservation of national resources (Moore).
• Though Teddy did not start the Panama Canal (which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans), he did take over the project when France gave up on it in 1904. Since its completion over 14,000 ships a year pass through (Moore).

  

 

Citation 

Anirudh. “10 MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT.” Learnodo Newtonic, 17 Oct. 2015, learnodo-newtonic.com/theodore-roosevelt-accomplishments.

Moore , Josh. “15 Amazing Accomplishments of Theodore Roosevelt!” Guy Counseling, 20 Apr. 2017, guycounseling.com/theodore-roosevelt-accomplishments/.

#2 (it was a tie) Harry Truman 

Harry Truman was tied for second in the poll. Though some had problems with certain things that happened under his presidency, he did have major accomplishments as well. This biography of Truman is able to highlight some of those accomplishments.

 

Video taken from here

#2 George Washington 

On top of simply having been our first president, George Washington did some pretty great things during his lifetime that makes him worthy being in this polls top 5. Just to name a few of these accomplishments…

• The U.S was recognized as a free and independent country in 1783 after having signed The Treaty of Paris. Afterwards, instead of seizing power, George Washington chose to resign his position as commander-in-chief to go back to farming on his land (Anirduh). I think that everyone can learn something from this kind of humility.
• Washington has been the only president that the electoral college has unanimously elected (Anirduh). If that doesn’t speak volumes then I don’t know what does. He also was the one who established that a president should not run for more than 2 terms (even though he was offered a third term) which later became the 22 Amendment to the Constitution.
• Washington’s famous Farewell Address remains one of the most influential speeches in American history and is used as a reference all the time. In his address, Washington stressed the importance of staying unified as nation and warning that there will come time when enemies, foreign and domestic, will try to make you lose your faith in the nation (Frazier). It is interesting to read this now just as the midterms are about to come up because a good case can be made that a lot of people have indeed lost faith in this great nation.

 

Citation

Anirduh. “Anirudh.” Learnodo Newtonic, 12 Sept. 2018, learnodo-newtonic.com/george-washington-accomplishments.

Frazier , Joshua. “George Washington’s Farewell Address Translated Into Modern English.” George Washington’s Farewell Address – Modern Version, nibleycitycouncil.com/farewell_address_today.html.

#1 Abraham Lincoln

Abe Lincoln ranked number 1 on the poll that I put out earlier this week, and often times it seems like he’s the go-to man when talking about great presidents. But what made him so great? Here is just a few things that he did to improve the country.

• To start off, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which started the procedure for ending slavery in the United States. Though it didn’t immediately end slavery, it was a really big step (Anirudh).
• Lincoln saw the importance for a national currency. In 1863 he signed the National Banking Act into law in hopes that it would create a dynamic economy and in his words, “…create a reliable and permanent influence in support of the national credit and protect the people against losses in the use of paper money (Lincoln).”
• Lincoln signed the first Homestead Acts that allowed poor people to obtain land. The goal was to encourage people to move west who would get 160 acres of land in return as long as they lived on the land for five years and showed that they were somehow improving the land. By 1900, 80 million acres of land had been given away (Primary).
• Abraham Lincoln began land-grant colleges which was formed under the Morrill Act in 1862. This act gave states 30,000 acres of  land as long as it was being used to build a public university, or the money made off the land was going to establish a college, and as long as the college would teach agriculture and the mechanical arts (Colleges). Sound familiar? Texas A&M is a land-grant university.

 

Citations

“Lincoln and the Founding of the National Banking System.” OCC, 29 Dec. 2010, http://www.occ.gov/about/what-we-do/history/lincoln-founding-national-banking-system.html.

Anirudh. “10 MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.” Learnodo Newtonic, 8 June 2014, learnodo-newtonic.com/abraham-lincoln-accomplishments.

“Primary Documents in American History.” Primary Documents in American History , The Library of Congress, 28 Mar. 2018, http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/homestead.html.

“Colleges of Agriculture at the Land Grant Universities.” National Academies Press, http://www.nap.edu/read/4980/chapter/2.

POLL OF THE BEST PRESIDENT EVER

This week I put out a poll for people to comment who they thought the best president to date has been. I will take the top 5 ranked and in separate posts detail what people thought made their presidency so great. The results are as follows:

• Abraham Lincoln: 18
• George Washington: 9
• Harry Truman: 9
• Theodore Roosevelt: 6
• Ronald Reagan: 3
• Donald Trump: 1
• Obama: 1
• Dwight Eisenhower: 1
• Franklin D. Roosevelt: 1
• Thomas Jefferson: 1