What are the factors that show a President to be rated “Great” by historians and political scientists?
In my previous column, I examined the “ratings” process itself. Now, let’s consider some of the substantive evaluations.
Spoiler Alert: I have some major quarrels with the recent 2017 C-Span Presidential Ratings, because they have frozen Jefferson at the seventh spot since their polls began in 2000.
Nearly all of the highest rated Presidents share certain variables.
With one exception, all of the top rated Presidents came into office replacing their opposition Party.
The singular “Great” is Theodore Roosevelt, but his accession to the presidency (after McKinley’s assassination) represented such a departure from his own party that he might be classed with his fellow top replacement “chiefs.”
Indeed, McKinley’s closest advisor commented: “Now, that damned cowboy is in the White House.”
The renowned biographer of Roosevelt and Reagan, Edmund Morris, has argued that Roosevelt would be a Democrat today.
In their book, “The Three Roosevelts,” James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn show that Theodore Roosevelt was considered a “traitor to his class,” and that his embrace of Progressive causes made him the “first modern President.”
Do you hear any Republicans today say they want their party’s President to be like Theordore?
Among all the other “Greats,” Washington literally started the presidency; Jefferson replaced the Federalists; Lincoln, as the first elected Republican, vanquished the flailing and failing Democrats of the 1850s, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt crushed Hoover’s Republicans.
For those listed in what has been categorized as “Near Great,” Eisenhower defeated Democrats in 1952, John Fitzgerald Kennedy ended the eight-year GOP run in 1960 and, notwithstanding the horrors of Watergate legacies, Reagan halted the Democratic revival in 1980.
In this next highest category, the 91 historians place Truman (who is distinctive in many ways, but, like Eisenhower, JFK and Reagan does not receive so high a rating from me).
It has been suggested that top Presidents show “Greatness by contrast.”
How fortuitous to be evaluated in comparison with predecessors who are judged as failures or at least subpar.
But should all those “succeeding” Presidents not be credited with challenging the opposing party, and for winning?
A related gauge for the “Best,” is that they were able to win re-election, and those rated most successful, set the stage to keep their party in power with their own successor.
Some scholars contend that Presidents are likely to gain status if they preside during time(s) of crisis.
How one makes that judgment depends on whether one concludes the President was responsible for the crisis he addressed, or whether he showed exceptional leadership in how he responded to challenges beyond his control.
On the latter point, Washington, Lincoln and FDR all deserved high marks (and it is not surprising that each won two terms and kept his Party in power with his successor).
Dealing with crisis is not so pertinent in assessing TR and Jefferson.
Still, in recent polls, TR has come in ahead of Jefferson, largely, I believe, because of the “modernity” of so many of his actions.
In my view, Jefferson deserves much higher placement than the 2017 C-Span poll accorded him.
He helped to avert crisis by preventing war with England and France during the early 1800s (this gave the new nation a chance to gain numbers and strength as it proceeded, and, thus, be able to avert a calamity in the War of 1812 after he left office).
Especially important in my judgment are some of Jefferson’s major creative initiatives.
He avoided conflict with France when he purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803. He was personally concerned about Executive overreach; he even considered a public referendum.
But his closest advisors reminded him that the 1804 Presidential election was on the horizon, and citizens could register their vote concerning the purchase and other actions.
It is worth noting that Jefferson won re-election almost unanimously.
Too seldom do evaluators credit Jefferson for the initiating the Lewis and Clark expedition, part of his decades-long commitment to advancing the American Dream.
He referred to the Louisiana Purchase as America’s “Empire for Liberty.”
Unlike subjugated colonies elsewhere, in America there would be land and economic opportunities for generations to come, fueling a society of democratic inclusion and greater equality.
It is not a surprise that Lincoln so admired Jefferson. He supported the Homestead Act of 1862, also neglected, which enabled the National government to give 160 acres of land to millions of Americans.
The Morrill Act of the 1860s fostering free higher education for students is also directly derived from Jefferson’s long advocacy.
He never ceased to advise that we needed “higher education” to provide a “natural aristocracy.” And, he always contended that we must “Enlighten the Public At Large” by supporting public, common schools (open to females as well as males).
Much of the controversy that has surrounded Jefferson deals with slavery.
As scholars of the era know, he made repeated efforts to stop the slave trade in Virginia and the nation, going back to the 1770s.
However, how often have you read or heard it mentioned when and how the legal slave trade to the United States was ended?
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution stipulated: “Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall deem proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight.” There was no indication that any action needed to be taken.
However, President Jefferson exerted leadership to insure the slave trade was stopped in 1808 on the first day it could legally be halted.
He saw slavery as a cancer; if it could be confined and prevented from growing there would be a chance to put it into remission.
In terms of the key C-Span criteria, “performance within the context of the times,” I submit that Jefferson showed extraordinary leadership with the key actions cited above, and with many others.
Rescuing Jefferson from being mired in seventh place carries no disrespect for C-Span’s top four: 1. Lincoln; 2. Washington; 3. FDR; and 4. TR.
In many respects, it would be reasonable to bunch those four with Jefferson.
The great French commentator, Alexis de Touqueville, writing during the 1820s, said “Jefferson was the greatest advocate democracy has ever known” — a phrase that continues to speak volumes.
