Who is the greatest president the United States has ever had? Well to answer that question, you have to ask yourself who is the father of our nation. That man is George Washington. With the 2016 election finally coming to an end, let us look back and remember our countries founding father and why he is the greatest president that our country has ever had.
To start off, George Washington was a military genius and a born leader. During the 1770’s, Great Britain was the most powerful country in the world and Washington was able to defeat them. However, George Washington lost more battles than he won battles during the American Revolution. What helped Washington defeat Great Britain was his strategy. His strategy was to always have a large army and to fight a defensive war so that Great Britain would end up bankrupt from the war, causing them to give up. After the American Revolution, George Washington was asked to become king. He selflessly refused the offer of being king because Washington did not want to become a tyrant. After serving two terms in office, Washington would step down and give up his power so that he would not become a tyrant. When King George III of Great Britain found out that George Washington was giving up his power, he said "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."
George Washington is also the only president in American history that did not belong to any political party. He viewed political parties to be dangerous because of each party’s lust remain in power. Washington knew that political parties would ruin the country and cause the government to focus more on power than the people. He even warned the country not to side with political parties during his farewell address. In George Washington’s farewell address, he says “the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.” Even though he did not belong to a political party, he would use members from the two political parties at the time, which were the Federalists and Antifederalists, to give him advice on what to do or what was needed during his presidency. This was to keep a balance in his office and so he could be able to get both Federalists and Antifederalists to compromise.
George Washington set numerous things up for future presidents that would come after him. For example, the presidential cabinet was first set up by George Washington. Another thing George Washington did was he originally set up the rule of two terms for a president in office. That was until Franklin D. Roosevelt, when he was elected for his third term as president in the election of 1940, and because of that, the 22nd Amendment was added to the Constitution. George Washington established the tradition of a presidential inaugural address and a farewell address. George Washington was the first president to set up the presidential oath of office. He did this as a statement to show his loyalty to the Constitution. Every president now has to take an oath of office because of Washington so that they can guarantee that they will be loyal to the Constitution.
In the end, George Washington was a true, born leader who did not side with any political party and set the precedents for future presidents. Let us not forget that he is the only president in American history to ever unanimously win an election. George Washington will always be the greatest president that our country has ever had. After all, George Washington wasn’t just a President or a leader, he will always be the father of our country.
To read George Washington’s full farewell address, here is the link:
