There have been some presidents who are undeniably better than others… who have remained clear of controversy (for the most part) and who knew how to utilize his time wisely in the White House. This week’s blogs will try to highlight these presidents along with their greatest accomplishment while in office.
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CONTROVERSY OF L.B.J
Lyndon B. Johnson was involved in a scandal that later became known as the Pentagon Papers. The Pentagon Papers were a series of documents leaked to the New York Times by Daniel Ellsberg showing that the government had mislead the public about their involvement in the Vietnam War. This was such a huge thing because it was one of the first major causes of public distrust in the government. Before the Pentagon Papers were leaked, the majority of people had faith in what their leaders could, and would, do. It was also the first time in modern history that this major and widespread of a leak had occurred. Daniel Ellsberg was a former military analyst who at first wanted to keep his name out of it in fear of repercussions. This can be related to the recent op-ed piece published in the New York Times in which an anonymous source speaks out about the president. Though it is not classified information, it still shows that some are afraid of their name being in the spotlight in fear of what might happen to their reputation.
Citation
Pruitt , Sarah. “The Long, Complicated History of Political Leaks.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 8 Mar. 2017, http://www.history.com/news/9-leaks-that-changed-the-world.
CONTROVERSY OF RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
During the end of his term, Rutherford B. Hayes nominated Stanley Mathew to be a Supreme Court Justice in hopes that things would move quickly. However, Senate members strongly disliked the president’s nominee and so they refused to vote on the matter, leaving Hayes’ term to end before the issue was ever brought back up (Stevenson). Once President Garfield was in office he did push for Mathew, and his nomination was accepted by Congress with a vote of 24-23 which was the closest count ever, until maybe now…
This story is somewhat similar to what is going on in the news today. President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee was disliked by democrats even before the allegations came out against him, and now that they have Congress has put off making the final vote in order to hear what the FBI finds out about what really happened. The first vote was split right on partisan lines which was 11-10.
Citation
Stevenson, Freeman. “Top Scandals and Controversies of Each United States President | Deseret News.” DeseretNews.com, Deseret News, 20 May 2013, http://www.deseretnews.com/top/1512/1/George-Washington-Top-scandals-and-controversies-of-each-United-States-president.html.
CONTROVERSY OF JOHN Q. ADAMS
This video does a good job at explaining what the “corrupt bargain” was between John Q. Adam and Henry Clay. It is interesting to see how far campaigning has come because if this were to happen in present day, it might not seem as big of a deal as it did back then.
CONTROVERSY OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
Thomas Jefferson owned something like 600 slaves and lived on a very large plantation in which he called his Monticello plantation. Other presidents owned slaves during these days as well, but Thomas Jefferson was known for having six children with one of his slaves named Sally Hemings. Some say that Jefferson and Hemings had an actual relationship during the years that all of this occurred, and though it is impossible to know for certain the dynamics of their relationship, it is kind of hard to believe seeing how Hemings was only 14 when their “relationship” began and she technically was considered to be his property at the time. Even if it wasn’t rape, I am sure that she felt a certain pressure and obligation to him since he was her master and in charge of her quality of life.
Though slavery is not legal anymore, the practice of sexual misconduct is still around and seen in the news all the time. Unfortunately, it is more often males who see the need to preform these acts. Men are more able to use their masculinity, position of power, and authority in order to coerce women into certain situations which, even though they might not have specifically said “no”, feel uncomfortable with what is going on.
We hear about controversies in the news all the time, and our presidents are not immune to this. The past couple of weeks we have been hearing all about Kavanaugh regarding his sexual assault allegations. This is controversial because people are deciding whether or not they believe he is innocent. Whatever you believe regarding his guilt/innocence, it is undeniable that talking about this kind of subject has come a long way. More and more people are realizing that we need to believe the women and men who have enough courage to speak out against their attacker. This week’s blogs will highlight some of our most controversial presidential moments, not only talking about sexual assault cases.
I have realized that so far in these blog posts, I have been focusing on past presidents’ biographies. This is not what I want to get out of writhing these blogs because there are a million other websites that you can go onto and learn about the biogrophies of our presidents, and so from now on I am going to be choosing a theme each week talk about how past presidents have fit into this theme. I am doing this in hopes of getting more out of writing this blog! Thanks for reading!
Here is a video by FreeSchool that I found on YouTube about the life of Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson married a widow by the name of Martha Skelton in 1772. The two had six children together, but unfortunately only two of their daughter survived to adulthood and Martha died during their last child’s birth (1). However, it is believed that he had more children with one of his slaves.
With the American Revolution beginning, Jefferson was asked to be a delegate for the second continental congress. Although he was not a great public speaker, he was a very talented writer and was chosen to create a draft of the Declaration of Independence. After resigning from the second continental congress, Jefferson served as the governor of Virginia for may years before becoming the U.S minister to France and later the nation’s first Secretary of State (1).
Jefferson first ran for president in 1796 where he lost against John Adams, but did become vice president. The following election, Jefferson ran against Adams again and in the end became victorious (1).
Thomas Jefferson had a little different childhood than George Washington, and a lot more is known about it. Jefferson was born in 1743 on a plantation in western Virginia. His first years of life were filled with roaming the forests and beginning to explore books. When he was nine years old, Jefferson’s formal education began which was boarding school and lasted until he was sixteen (1). After boarding school, he attended the Collage of William and Marry and later attended law school under the direction of George Wythe. Jefferson’s father passed away when he was only fourteen years old, leaving Jefferson looking up to his male professors as father figures (1). Little it known about Jefferson’s mother. Thomas Jefferson was privileged far more than others around his area, and he made the most of it.
