Benjamin Franklin: Scientist, statesman, inventor
Abraham Lincoln: President, emancipator, writer
Theodore Roosevelt: President, conservationist, statesman
Of course, still one vote each. For those who are late to the party, you can vote even if you haven’t participated in the thread before. The new deadline is noon EST on Mon. March 29.
My vote: TR again, although I love all three of these guys for very different reasons. He’s just a tiny notch below their level of significance in American history, IMHO.
Oh man. Do I go for the Founder, the Preserver or the Visionary? Tough call…
<grits teeth>
I’ll vote off Ben Franklin, dear as he is, because I think Teddy deserves more of a fighting chance. Roosevelt doesn’t have the same American mythology to help his cause here as the other two do.
I can’t vote against the man who gave us bifocals, volunteer fire departments, and the lending library. Franklin stands alone among our finalists as the only true Renaissance man - statesman, inventor, philosopher, scientist, philanthropist, and writer.
PS: Has anyone voted for Lincoln for the duration of this entire contest?
Well, there may be a reason for that TR has certainly had his detractors.
VERY tough call at this point. Lincoln–literally–never ceases to amaze me. The more I read about him, the more layers there are to how remarkable a man he was. Franklin, on the other hand, has become increasinly human to me. It it clear that we cannot measure him against 21st-century standards, and this helps and hurts him. Bluntly, it was much easier to be a polymath 250 years ago. He was a great achiever in many fields, but the sum of the modern experiment has been to reduce each of those fields to such a degree of specialization that only one who devotes a lifetime thereto can contribute substantially. Today, Franklin’s abilities in physics would be “interesting” for a statesman, not remarkable.
TR suffers from this effect as well, but not to the same degree. Convervationism has its specialists, too, but great achievement in the field is still more a function of energy and resources as opposed to specialization. In many ways, history has enhanced his standing, not diminished it.
All three men are alike in ways that I wish were typically American. None of the three led a live ruled by dogma. As Roosevelt said: "I believe that this Republic will endure for many centuries. If so, there will doubtless be among its Presidents Protestants and Catholics, and very probably at some time, Jews. … In my Cabinet at the present moment there sit side by side Catholic and Protestant, Christian and Jew, each man chosen because in my belief he is peculiarly fit to exercise on behalf of all our people the duties of the office. … In no case does a man’s religious belief in any way influence his discharge of his duties, save as it makes him more eager to act justly and uprightly in his relations to all men.”
So I’m voting for Ben this round. Very tough call.
Lincoln, he did one great thing and wrote some great speeches. The power of the North was overwhelming and many men would have done what Lincoln did. I feel he is top 3. Indeed the 3 left are my top 3 from the beginning. Ben is a Giant and is probably the main figure in the founding of this country. Roosevelt was so much more than Lincoln, maybe not as a great a President but a greater man.
Although he has my vote this round, TR was almost as much a Renaissance man as Franklin: author, boxer, cowboy, naturalist, police chief, conservationist, big-game hunter, explorer, philanthropist, diplomat (won the Nobel Peace Prize), civil service chief, asst. SecNav, VP, and President. No slouch he.
Another thing worth pointing out - Franklin was the fifteenth child of a tradesman; Lincoln was the son of a small farmer; Roosevelt had to overcome the disadvantages of a privileged upbringing.
Could someone actually enumerate why Lincoln is greater than TR or Ben?
As to the privileged upbringing, that was at the time a disadvantage in politics; seriously it was, especially in NY. It sure beat being dirt poor, but it was no advantage. He traded on hard work and honesty like Abe.
I call BS here. Hard work and honesty will carry you a ways, but not as far as hard work, honesty, and a couple million dollars.
This is my problem with Roosevelt, really - he had it easy, relatively speaking. He grew up as the scion of wealth; didn’t win the Presidency on his own merits until he had the advantage of incumbency; inherited a party which had dominated the presidency for fifty years (and then nearly destroyed it); and faced no major foreign-policy or economic challenges as President. It is to his credit that he was as creative as he was, but nothing he faced remotely compares to what Lincoln overcame in his life.
Lincoln, he did one great thing and wrote some great speeches.
[quote]
ONE great thing? Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant Act, authorizing the creation of what are now the major universities of the American west. Abraham Lincoln signed legislation giving federal support to the transcontinental railroad. Abraham Lincoln, as executive, authorized the USDA. Abraham Lincoln was instrumental in founding the Republican Party. Abraham Lincoln established Thanksgiving as a national holiday. Abraham Lincoln recognized Haiti’s independence over sixty years after the fact. Abraham Lincoln was the only US President to hold a patent. Let’s face it: the guy was a mensch, though the western nature of most of his non-Civil War-related accomplishments has led to their being overshadowed in American historiography.
Many men wouldn’t have, either, since many didn’t. Federal policy until Lincoln was to acquiesce to the south while leaving the question of that peculiar institution unsettled. Lincoln didn’t do that. With the exception of the vastly underrated Zachary Taylor, Lincoln was the only president since Jackson to show real courage in sectional matters, and his record on that score is much better than Jackson’s. He was a president of singular accomplishment.
Just a minor clarification: Not that it makes a big difference but Theodore’s inheritance was never in the millions. He got less than $100k I believe in money and yearly earnings around the $10k range. He supplemented this with salary, book writing and investments. He was still very well off by the standards of the day and if we put it into today’s dollars saying millions is correct I believe.
Tough call, but although I’m glad some non-presidents have gotten their due (or even more than said due, in some cases), I like the idea of two Chief Executives facing off in the final round. So I’m going to cast my vote for
Wow, torn as usual. It’s hard to argue against any of these guys.
Franklin and TR are on the list partly for the sheer variety of their endeavors. Ben was probably more naturally gifted than Teddy, who had to work harder at it; fortunately, hard work was something he excelled at.
After some last-minute cramming, I’m going to vote against Teddy Roosevelt. Originally, I was inclined the other way, due to my (possibly mistaken) impression that Franklin somewhat rested on his laurels and made quips during the drafting of the Declaration.
But I didn’t realize how active he became in abolitionist causes and advocacy in his later years. This marks him as one of the only Founders to really take up the task of fixing the great, glaring unresolved problem of American freedom. Of the men who wrote
few really worked to fix the slavery issue (Hamilton was also vocally antislavery but has already been eliminated).
It’s worth noting that Franklin also led militia to disarm and quell a mob that had been killing Indians (Native Americans) and spoke out against the hatred.
This in my mind makes Franklin perhaps the most complete of the Founders.
TR has certainly had his detractors.