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How George Washington and Abraham Lincoln Influenced America

How George Washington and Abraham Lincoln Influenced America

Fartun Issaq
Salt Lake Community College
 George Washington is the father of this country. He was the first president of the United

States between 1789 and 1797. He was born on February 22, 1732. His hometown was

Westmoreland county, Virginia. He died on December 14, 1799.

He wasnt just the first president of United States. George Washington was a general and

commander in chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution War. Washington did not

have an easy task when he was promoted to Commander in chief of the colonial army. He had a

disorganized army because they were all farmers. He has managed to hold his soldier through

rough and successful times. One of the successful missions was the crossing of the Delaware

River on Christmas. They had another successful victory at Yorktown, Virginia on October 17,

1781. George Washington and the Continental army crossed the Delaware River and into New

Jersey on cold and icy. The reason why the crossing of Delaware River in history today is

important is because there were soldiers from German soldiers called Hessians were hired by

British. After their surprise attack, Washington and the colonial army took the Hessians as

prisoners and took back New Jersey.

The battle of Yorktown was the last and greatest battle of the American Revolutionary

War. Around 8,000 British troops have surrendered in Yorktown. Although British start thinking

that they were going to lose the battle. this opens the possible opportunity of Treaty Of Paris. The

French and Indian war lasted seven years between years of 1756 and 1763.

In 1754 Robert Dinwiddie, Virginia Lieutenant governor sent George Washington on the

mission to confront the French forces. Washington mission was to deliver a message from the

governor demanding that the French leave the region and halt their harassment of English

traders. Washington then left Williamsburg, Virginia in October 1753 and politely made his way
to Captain Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre at Fort Leboeuf. Legardeur de Saint-Pierre wrote a

reply saying that French King has claimed the Ohio valley. Washington and his group safely have

returned to Virginia in the winter of 1753.

In 1783, a peace treaty was signed between Great Britain and the U.S, Washington was

finally done with his duty and gave up his command of the army and he returned to Mount

Vernon continuing with his life, in 1787 he was asked to attend the Constitutional Convention in

Philadelphia to a committee to draft the new constitution. He impressed the delegates with his

leadership and the delegates were convinced that he was qualified to become the nations first

president. At a time, there were approximately 4 million people and there were 11 states and

united states was a small nation. At first, Washington resists, because he wanted to go back to his

quiet life but eventually gave in. The first presidential election was January 1789 and George

Washington won handily and John Adams, who received the second-largest number of votes has

become the nations first Vice President. At that time Washington was 57-years-old and was

inaugurated on April 30, 1789, in New York City.

During his presidency, he was mindful of his actions and would likely determine how

future presidents were expected to govern. Washington worked very to set an example of

fairness and a model and integrity. In foreign matter, he supported cordial relation with other

countries but also favored a position of neutrality in foreign conflicts. He has nominated the first

chief justice of the United States. He nominated the first chief justice of the United States, John

Jay. he set up his own presidential cabinet. The Secretary of State was Thomas Jefferson and

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. Both men strongly disagreed strongly on the role

of the federal government. Hamilton liked the idea of a strong central government while

Jefferson favored stronger states right Washington believed it was important to have a divergent
view of the health of the new government but he was distressed at that he saw was an emerging

discrimination.

After serving two terms as president and declined serving another term, Washington has

finally retired. In his farewell address, he urged the nation to maintain in highest standards and

domestically to keep involvement with keep involvement with foreign powers to a minimum.

And the address is still read on each February on his birthday in the United States senate to

commemorate his speech. Washington later returned to Mount Vernon and devoted his attentions

to making the plantation as productive as it always been. In December of 1799, he caught cold

working on his plantation and cold developed an infection through his throat and Washington

died on December 14, 1799, and was buried at Mount Vernon which now was designated a

national historic landmark. Washington left of the most enduring legacies of American history he

was known as The Father of his Country. He has made many marks in todays American

History. His face appears in dollars bills and quarters and hundreds of school and as well as the

nations capital city and named after him.

Abraham Lincoln was born in a log cabin in Hardin county, Kentucky. He was born on

February 12, 1809. He was reared in a poor family on the western frontier. Lincoln was a self-

educated lawyer in Illinois, a Whig Party leader and state legislator during the 1830s and a one-

term member of the congress during the 1840s. He was an avid reader and often sought to

access to any new books in the village.

In 1846, Lincoln was elected to the U.S House of Representatives, where he served one

two-year term. At the time when he was part of the Whig party, he showed his loyalty by

participating in almost all votes and making the speech that echoed the party line. Lincoln,
involved himself to collaborate with congressman Joshua Giddings an abolitionist to wrote a bill

to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.

In 1857, the Supreme Court issued its controversial decision to Scott v. Stanford

declaring all African American were not the citizen and had no inherent rights. Although,

Abraham Lincoln felt were not equal to whites but he believed the America's founders intended

that all men were created with inalienable rights. Lincoln decide to run for senate against Senator

Stephen Douglas for his seat. While he was running for senate, Lincoln criticized Douglas, The

Supreme Court and President Buchanan for promoting slavery and Declared. In 1858 Senate

Campaign has featured seven debates held in different cities across Illinois. The two candidate

did not disappoint the public, they were giving stirring debates on issues ranging from states

right to western expansion but central issue focused on slavery. Newspaper intensely covered the

debates and often times with partisan commentary. At the end of the election, Stephen Douglas

was elected.

In 1860 political operatives in Illinois organized a campaign to support Abraham Lincoln

for his presidency. After winning the election, Lincoln selected a strong cabinet composed of

many of political rivals. Lincoln's Cabinet became one of his strongest assets in his first term in

office. Before his inauguration, seven Southern states have seceded from the Union and by April

of 1861. In the morning of April 12, 1861. Guns stationed to protect the harbor blazed toward the

fort signaling the start of Americas deadly war.

Abraham Lincoln responded to the crisis, he distributed $2 million from the Treasury for

war material without a taking from congress; 75,000 volunteers into military service without

declaring a war. The Union Armys. on September 22, 1862, Lincoln felt Confident enough to

reshape the cause of the war from saving the union to abolish slavery. He issued the
Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which has stated that all individuals who were

held as slaves in rebellious states shall free the slaves. This action was more symbolic than

effective because the North did not control any Southern states, which meant the proclamation

did not apply to the Border States. When the war was gradually ending, General Robert E. Lee,

commander of the Army of virgins surrendered his force to Union General Ulysses S. Grant and

the war for all intent was over.

After the war ended reconstruction start to happen. He was confronted by a radical group

of Republicans in the Senate and House that wanted a complete loyalty and remorse from former

confederates. Before a political battle had the chance to start, Lincoln was assassinated on April

14, 1865, be an actor who was well-known and Confederate Sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at

Fords Theater in Washington, D.C and died the next morning he then was buried in Springfield,

Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was and still viewed as the man who freed the slaves and a man of

immense morals. When he wrote the Gettysburg address speech that relates the union back to the

foundations of the nation and the principles on which nation was founded even before the

signing of a Declaration of Independence. Lincoln made his famous speech at Gettysburg and

dedicate a national cemetery for soldiers and Gettysburg changed history. The Gettysburg was, of

course, a dedication for the soldiers who have fallen and buried in one with an actual grave

marker. This was a significant way that Gettysburg Address has changed history.

When the war broke out, it made no sense to lose the nation and yet protect the

Constitution.. Lincoln followed a strategy of action. He justified his powers as an emergency

authority that has granted him by the people. He had been elected, he told his critics to decide

when an emergency existed and to take all measures required to deal with it. In doing so, Lincoln

maintained that the President was one of three "coordinate" departments of government,
Lincoln's actions pointed to the notion that the President alone is sworn to preserve, protect, and

defend it. In times of war, this power makes the President literally responsible for the well-being

and survival of the nation.

the most lasting accomplishments attributed to Lincoln are the maintenance of the

Union, all accomplished by the ways in which he handled the crisis that most certainly would

have ended differently. His great achievement, history has told, was his ability to energize and

mobilize the nation by appealing to its best ideals while acting "with revenge towards none" in

the pursuit of a more perfect, more just, and more enduring Union. Historians say that Lincoln

was a President in American history ever faced a greater crisis and no President ever

accomplished as much.

Lincoln was influenced by the farewell words of George Washington. He said the

immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you

should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it. Washington reminds him

patriotism to our country would promote happiness. He understood the likelihood this would

bring disagreement. Lincoln understood what George Washington meant and he wanted to ensure

the continuation of the United States. Lincoln knew that The United States heading the wrong

direction. The difference between the states, proslavery constituents and northern abolitionists.

In Order to create the presidency, it is the significant unity among historians that

Washington's job in office set the nation on a path that has endured now for over 200 years,

longer than any other republic in history. He established the criterion that would last for many

years and did more, of the presidential office than anyone could have expected or predicted. As

one historian said, he "invented tradition as he went along." His actions, more than those of any

other Founding Father, became a part of the "unwritten Constitution.

 They even say that "Washington's reliance on department heads for advice, similar to his

war council during the Revolution, set a precedent for including the cabinet as part of the

President's office. Moreover, because Congress did not challenge his appointments or his

removal of appointees, principally out of respect for him, the tradition was planted to allow the

President to choose his or her own cabinet. By his actions and words, Washington also set the

standard for two presidential terms, a practice that lasted until 1940. When John Jay resigned as

chief justice of the Supreme Court, Washington selected his successor from outside the bench,

disregarding seniority and thus allowing future Presidents to draw from a diverse pool of talent

beyond the Court's aging incumbents.

though he sponsored and supported legislative proposals submitted to Congress for

enactment, he avoided trying to dictate or unduly influence the judicial and legislative branches

of the government. In not vetoing bills with which he disagreed unless there were constitutional

questions, he set a precedent of executive restraint that would be followed by the next five

Presidents. Moreover, by keeping Vice President Adams at arm's lengthnot even inviting him

to attend cabinet meetingsWashington set the tradition by which the vice president's role is

largely ceremonial.

Also historians say that, Washington hated separation and political parties, he tolerated

dissent, vicious attacks on his reputation and name, and an isolating press his all in the interest

of freedom. There is little reason to suggest that Washington, unlike so many of his successors,

ever sought to use his office for personal empowerment or gain.

Historians state perhaps most importantly, Washington's presidential restraint, solemnity,

judiciousness, and nonpartisan stance created an image of presidential greatness, or dignity, that

dominates the office even today. He was the man who could have been a king but refused and
saved a republic.

Overall, these two president have influenced America, because they both took the role of

president in action, both made sacrifices when it was need. what they did had a purpose which

involved process-thinking. these types of leader manage to find a way to solve problem no matter

how far they are from the solution or weighing out the risk.and then weigh out the possibilities.

Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were there for the people. people were impressed

with their performance as a leader that why today in america people celebrate these two

presidents.

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