Wednesday, February 23, 2005
I see my list is generating discussion. Excellent. Let's have some more. I will spend the next few days explaining my reasons for choosing some of my more enigmatical placements and see where that leads us. Initially, you must understand, as per Mark's email, I was not using any specific criterion, I did what Sarah says in her comment I did, listed them how I liked them, which is what Mark told me to do and I will post his email in entirety if that becomes necessary. But being called an asshole always confirms me in what I do and so now I offer an explanation for some of the "oddities" as Sarah calls them.
First of all, why James Monroe? In 1823, the fledgling United States had to face the mighty empires of Europe. Worried about American expansionism, France, Prussia, Russia and Austria were planning to interfere in the Western Hemisphere, to keep the US within its limits. This is when James Monroe issued what became known as "the Monroe Doctrine" and basically told Europe to keep its hands off. He also did what Jefferson should have done and taking a stand apart from rhetoric allied the US with Great Britain. He was re-elected in 1820 with only one elector voting against him, and this simply because the man thought Washington deserved the honor of being re-elected unanimously to himself. Monroe got a free hand for the US in the New World and kept us out of war in the meantime by saying we would fight if necessary. Pretty good, considering no president before or after was able to do so much.
Why not Jefferson in the higher rankings? Jefferson's achievements are dubious. The Declaration of Independence may be wonderful and yeah, he stumbled onto the Louisiana Purchase by accident but the rest of his presidency was a whole rash of mistakes and bad judgments. Had he not been so all-fire pro-French he would have moved us closer to Britain, avoiding war in 1812, or had he followed John Adams' trend, we would have been prepared. Instead he drew closer to France in all things, ignored all that the French were doing to our shipping, put an embargo on Great Britain which virtually destroyed the American economy, cut back on our defenses so we were woefully unprepared when his rhetoric led like night to day into war with Britain in 1812 and also gave us a commentary on the Constitution that is about as faulty as they come, inasmuch as he had nothing to do with the Constitution. I give Adams a high-ranking spot despite his lack of success in being elected because if he had been re-elected, I believe war with Britain would either have been avoided or have been speedily won. In all, he was a much better President than Jefferson; he simply had the misfortune to speak the truth nobody wanted to hear.
I think that answers my curious listeners from the top 5. More tomorrow.... Feel free to talk amongst yourselves and to me about what I've said here.
First of all, why James Monroe? In 1823, the fledgling United States had to face the mighty empires of Europe. Worried about American expansionism, France, Prussia, Russia and Austria were planning to interfere in the Western Hemisphere, to keep the US within its limits. This is when James Monroe issued what became known as "the Monroe Doctrine" and basically told Europe to keep its hands off. He also did what Jefferson should have done and taking a stand apart from rhetoric allied the US with Great Britain. He was re-elected in 1820 with only one elector voting against him, and this simply because the man thought Washington deserved the honor of being re-elected unanimously to himself. Monroe got a free hand for the US in the New World and kept us out of war in the meantime by saying we would fight if necessary. Pretty good, considering no president before or after was able to do so much.
Why not Jefferson in the higher rankings? Jefferson's achievements are dubious. The Declaration of Independence may be wonderful and yeah, he stumbled onto the Louisiana Purchase by accident but the rest of his presidency was a whole rash of mistakes and bad judgments. Had he not been so all-fire pro-French he would have moved us closer to Britain, avoiding war in 1812, or had he followed John Adams' trend, we would have been prepared. Instead he drew closer to France in all things, ignored all that the French were doing to our shipping, put an embargo on Great Britain which virtually destroyed the American economy, cut back on our defenses so we were woefully unprepared when his rhetoric led like night to day into war with Britain in 1812 and also gave us a commentary on the Constitution that is about as faulty as they come, inasmuch as he had nothing to do with the Constitution. I give Adams a high-ranking spot despite his lack of success in being elected because if he had been re-elected, I believe war with Britain would either have been avoided or have been speedily won. In all, he was a much better President than Jefferson; he simply had the misfortune to speak the truth nobody wanted to hear.
I think that answers my curious listeners from the top 5. More tomorrow.... Feel free to talk amongst yourselves and to me about what I've said here.
// posted by The Pendragon @ 8:14 AM 
