Was George Washington the Best American President?

George Washington Portrait

George Washington was, and still is to many today, the father of the United States.  Through his bargaining with the French, and concern for the independence of his country, George Washington was undoubtedly the true founding father of the United States, since without him, it could have taken decades for the US to be freed from British rule, and it might not even have happened at all.

Has a single other American President reached that height of importance in US history as George Washington?  I am not so sure, there really is a true counter to the claim.

But what we can do is delve in to George Washington’s life to see exactly why he might not have been the best of men, and why it might have been the time and place, rather than his military skill that led him to victory.

The first major character flaw that can be found with George Washington was his use of opiates (Laudanum) as a form of pain relief for his teeth, many of which fell out at an early age.  There is also references to his smoking of marijuana, although some would argue that this was not a character flaw, although fortunately few references to any drunken state.

Now don’t get too defensive of quite possible the world’s greatest president just yet. At the time Laudanum was a common pain reliever , and was well known to help with problems such as pain and dysentery. Following accepted medical advice is not a bad thing for anyone to do.  Marijuana as well was a big cash crop for both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, a crop which Jefferson reportedly sold to France. There are notes between the two early Presidents talking about how to best grow hemp for smoking, yes, the Presidents were in fact down to party.

Okay, so far we haven’t seen anything wrong with George Washington yet, and since he is number one on the American Presidents List, maybe we should go easy on the guy.

The bad news is however that George Washington was no saint.  In his early years he was put in charge of a British scouting party, during that time his soldiers and a band of natives were involved in the slaughter of a small encampment of French soldiers. Now the French have always stated that these guys were explorers, not soldiers, and who can tell us the truth?

The final thing that casts a bad light on George Washington, in some respects at least, is that he was a traitor, turning on the army that trained him and joining forces with the countries which he once fought.

Despite his mildly checkered past George Washington changed his outlook on life as he matured, when he became president he not only laid the foundations for an economically strong country, but he actually stated that America should not be involved in any foreign conflict if it wished to survive.  This hasn’t really been respected in more recent generations of American Presidents, but lets face it, they have got rid of some of the other presidential pleasures too!

All in all I think the things George Washington did for America do make him stand out as the best president they ever had, he did have strong, ethical core values, he brought together a divided number of states, and he listened to the people to create a nation for the people. Not only that but it has become one of the strongest nations in the world!

So, three cheers to George Washington, traitor, pot head, and founder of the American nation!

Popularity: 1%