About
- George Washington, the first President of the United States of America, served from April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797.
As a young student, I always excelled in my social studies courses from elementary school through college. Geography, history, and government classes, teachers, and books never failed to keep me interested. I suppose that’s why they became my greatest intellectual disappointment as much as a joy. The deeper I dug into history, and the more I learned first-hand by participating in politics, the carefully crafted facade of “history” began to crumble.
As Americans, it easier for us to point out the fallacies in the national histories of other countries. Germans may wish to gloss over the horrible violence of World War II. Japanese may want to soften the brutality of their invasion of China. Every country wants and needs heroes to love, villains to despise. But when we apply that same logic to America and question our national policies on Native Americans, military actions, or our failure to abide by our own Constitution, critics are ready to scream such shrill personal insults and raise claims of treason.
With all these thoughts in mind, I’ve decided to create a website to explore the history of the American Presidency. Unfortunately, our historians have often heaped praise on those men who were the most forceful at imposing their will upon others. Even before the formation of the United States, men like Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar received the lion share of attention. But what about the men and women who felt all these same passions, but were able to channel their energies into peaceful cooperation to build a healthy and prosperous society through persuasion and example? These people are often forgotten, or even worse, denigrated as “do nothing” leaders. American historians have often lamented that obscure Presidents had the misfortune of living in boring or tranquil times.
I have launched The Presidency.us to uncover the hidden history of our American Presidents, and to evaluate them on a better set of criteria. I will be ranking the Presidents on four critical qualifications:
- Did they keep their own oath to protect and defend the Constitution?
- Did they protect and expand our economic freedoms and liberties?
- Did they protect and expand our personal and social freedoms and liberties?
- Did they refrain from using force to achieve political goals and try to expand peaceful cooperation and growth?
We have praised men and women throughout history for the wrong reasons. Will you help me change a culture that praises aggression and violence into a culture that demands respect for peace, prosperity, and healthy growth?
You can become a part of this process! You can write your own articles about our US Presidents and send them to me for publication on our website. We especially encourage young college students to participate, but everyone is welcome. Your work will be reviewed and edited by our volunteer staff.
You can also help by sharing what you read here with your friends through social media like Facebook, StumbleUpon, and Twitter. We’ve inlcuded social media buttons to help you do that on each page.
Thank you for visiting The Presidency.us! We hope you’ll visit us often as we continuously improve and expand our services.
For Liberty,
Robert Butler
Founder and Editor of The Presidency.us
