Top five U.S. presidents and their major accomplishments

¶ … top 5 presidents of the U.S.: 1789-1864

This is my list prioritized according to ranking order:

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Abraham Lincoln

Theodore Roosevelt

John Adams

I rated them thus according to their particular activity that I considered important.

George Washington

As the dominant politician and military leader and warrior who fought for the new United States despite surmounting odds and little support and as presider over the writing of the Constitution that drafted the new nation, I believe that Washington has founding place as premier president of those years.

He was unanimously elected to be president and managed to hold together his nation in beginning of the first few tottering years keeping them from being involved in the wars raging throughout Europe.

Washington's enduring actions included helping o establish a strong, well-financed national government as well as winning acclaim for America from international nations and suppressing rebellion. He also established the ethos of much or our government, as it is known today, such as the implementation of a cabinet system and the delivering of an inaugural address.

Rating Washington as 1 is a criteria that is shared by most Americans, since he is known as the "Father of this Country" Much of his image has been converted from original military leader into a moral symbol of the new republic, particularly since Washington, time and again, refused to exploit his military reputation for political power (Schwartz, 1983)

2. Thomas Jefferson

Education makes the country. Jefferson instituted that free elementary schools were to be provided to all citizens and that a university education, funded by public taxes, would be provided for a select few who would, consequently go on to use their education in order to contribute to the state. The university would not only accommodate a select group of poor students but would also accommodate those who could afford to pay.

Jefferson was the positive epitome of the new democratic government in that he endeavored to level differences between rich and poor. Jefferson, creator of the America's constitution that famously promised freedom and equality to all, attempted to destroy anything that stood in the way of that freedom. Opponent of the slaves trade, he also formed the national bank and purchased the vast Louisiana territory from France. It seems to me that his greatest action is standardization and leveling of the American education system, where he enabled the poor to receive the same educational opportunities that the wealthy enjoyed.

3. Abraham Lincoln

Revered as a rag to riches story (although I am skeptical about that), I see Lincoln's importance as lying in the fact that he fought for and introduced the Civil War that attempted to repeal racial differences and injustice that was existent in the country and left to abolishing of the slave trade. Lincoln successfully led his country through military, moral and constitutional crisis; with the country split in two -- one faction battling the other -- he successfully accomplished union at war's end. Finally, he promoted economic and financial modernization and sustained the reputation of the States even whilst it was in the greatest danger -- since the founding of the nation - of faltering.

Lincoln's Gettysberg Address served as enduring symbol of the American nation in its dedication to the principles of equal rights, democracy, and liberty.

Lincoln was a man who was able to win a war and liberate a race. This is no paltry achievement. He has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents (Neely, 1993). My rating is no different.

4. Theodore Roosevelt

A lion of a president and a bulldog of a man, I see him as courageous, moral, upright, and staunch. Roosevelt is famed for his many achievements, but the oen that I consider most important is his fight against the economic corruption and greedy businessmen of his country. Few presidents dared to oppose powerful capitalists who, in many ways held the country in the palms of their hands. Roosevelt was not afraid to oppose them. His endeavors in this area included busting hugely competitive businesses that were engaging in corruption to further their ends and earnest regulation of businesses.

Roosevelt is also well-known for his leadership of the Progressive Movement and for his founding the conservation movement as well as for imbuing Americans with a love for sports and exercise in the American nation.

Roosevelt was a man of many talents: naturalist, hunter, explorer, author, and soldier he was famed for his political diplomacy and decisive actions.

The first American to win the Nobel Prize, Roosevelt coined the term 'Square Deal" which described his domestic agenda of ensuring that each citizen would be treated equal under his policies. Roosevelt's other actions included completion of the Panama Canal, negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War, and actively demonstrating American power. America expanded and flourished under his regime. As Roosevelt said in his speech to France, 1910:

It is not the critic who counts & #8230;The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again… and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. (Roosevelt, 1910)

Roosevelt did not fail

6. John Adams

I rate him as one of the five most important figures due to the fact that he was a leading Founding Father of the United States. Adams was also a great lawyer, diplomat, statesman, and political theorist.

I see his accomplishments lying in the fact that he encouraged the United States to come into existence by encouraging her to fight for her independence and by later assisting Jefferson in drafting the Constitution.