Assignment in ESP

Submitted By:

Damien Wilston
Gr/Sec: 8 – Mendel
 George Washington
(1st President Of The United States Of America)
In Presidential Office (April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797)
George Washington was an American soldier and statesman who served as the first President of
the United States from 1789 to 1797. During the American Revolutionary War, Washington served
as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army; as one of the Founding Fathers of the United
States, he presided over the convention that drafted the United States Constitution and came to be
known as the “Father of his Country" during his lifetime and to this day. Washington was widely
admired for his strong leadership qualities and was unanimously elected president by the Electoral
College in the first two national elections. He oversaw the creation of a strong, well-financed
national government that maintained neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars, suppressed the
Whiskey Rebellion, and won acceptance among Americans of all types. Washington's incumbency
established many precedents still in use today, such as the cabinet system, the inaugural address,
and the title Mr President. His retirement from office after two terms established a tradition that
lasted until 1940, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. He was born
into the provincial gentry of Colonial Virginia to a family of wealthy planters who owned tobacco
plantations and slaves, which he inherited. In his youth, he became a senior officer in the colonial
militia during the first stages of the French and Indian War. In 1775, the Second Continental
Congress commissioned Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the
American Revolution. In that command, Washington forced the British out of Boston in 1776, but
was defeated and nearly captured later that year when he lost New York City.
After crossing the Delaware River in the middle of winter, he defeated the British in two battles
(Trenton and Princeton), retook New Jersey, and restored momentum to the Patriot cause. His
strategy enabled Continental forces to capture two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and
Yorktown in 1781. Historians laud Washington for the selection and supervision of his generals;
preservation and command of the army; coordination with the Congress, state governors, and their
militia; and attention to supplies, logistics, and training. In battle, however, Washington was
repeatedly outmanoeuvred by British generals with larger armies. After victory had been finalized
in 1783, Washington resigned as commander-in-chief rather than seize power, proving his
opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to American republicanism.[6] Washington
presided over the Constitutional Convention in 1787, which devised a new form of federal
government for the United States. Following his election as president in 1789, he worked to unify
rival factions in the fledgling nation. He supported Alexander Hamilton's programs to satisfy all
debts, federal and state, established a permanent seat of government, implemented an effective
tax system, and created a national bank.[7] In avoiding war with Great Britain, he guaranteed a
decade of peace and profitable trade by securing the Jay Treaty in 1795, despite intense opposition
from the Jeffersonians. He remained non-partisan, never joining the Federalist Party, although he
largely supported its policies. Washington's Farewell Address was an influential primer on civic
virtue, warning against partisanship, sectionalism, and involvement in foreign wars. He retired from
the presidency in 1797, returning to his home and plantation at Mount Vernon.
 George Washington’s Greatest Achievements

Domestic accomplishments of President Washington:

• Was the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War
• Supported Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton's Federalist financial plans, including
a national bank and a tax on whiskey
• Mobilized troops against the Whiskey Rebellion
• Ushered in the Bill of Rights and Residence Act, which authorized the president to select the
seat of permanent federal governance
• Established two-term precedent

Foreign policy accomplishments of President Washington:

• Signed the Jay Treaty to normalize trade relations with Britain

• Bolstered the navy to protect American trade against Barbary pirates
 Abraham Lincoln
(16th president of the united states of America)
In Presidential Office: (March 4, 1861 – April 14, 1865)
Assassinated: April 14, 1865 at Peterson House, Washington D.C United States
Abraham Lincoln was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the
United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States
through its Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political
crisis. In doing so, he preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal
government, and modernized the economy. Born in Hodgenville, Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the
western frontier in Kentucky and Indiana. Largely self-educated, he became a lawyer in Illinois, a
Whig Party leader, and was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives, in which he served for
eight years. Elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1846, Lincoln promoted rapid
modernization of the economy through banks, tariffs, and railroads. Because he had originally
agreed not to run for a second term in Congress, and because his opposition to the Mexican–
American War was unpopular among Illinois voters, Lincoln returned to Springfield and resumed
his successful law practice.
Re-entering politics in 1854, he became a leader in building the new Republican Party, which had a
state-wide majority in Illinois. In 1858, while taking part in a series of highly publicized debates with
his opponent and rival, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln spoke out against the expansion of
slavery, but lost the U.S. Senate race to Douglas.

In 1860, Lincoln secured the Republican Party presidential nomination as a moderate from a swing
state. Though he gained very little support in the slaveholding states of the South, he swept the
North and was elected president in 1860. Lincoln's victory prompted seven southern slave states to
form the Confederate States of America before he moved into the White House - no compromise
or reconciliation was found regarding slavery and secession. Subsequently, on April 12, 1861, a
Confederate attack on Fort Sumter inspired the North to enthusiastically rally behind the Union. As
the leader of the moderate faction of the Republican Party, Lincoln confronted Radical Republicans,
who demanded harsher treatment of the South, War Democrats, who called for more compromise,
anti-war Democrats (called Copperheads), who despised him, and irreconcilable secessionists, who
plotted his assassination. Politically, Lincoln fought back by pitting his opponents against each
other, by carefully planned political patronage, and by appealing to the American people with his
powers of oratory. His Gettysburg Address became an iconic endorsement of the principles of
nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy.
Lincoln initially concentrated on the military and political dimensions of the war. His primary goal
was to reunite the nation. He suspended habeas corpus, leading to the controversial ex parte
Merryman decision, and he averted potential British intervention in the war by defusing the Trent
Affair in late 1861. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, especially the selection of top
generals, including his most successful general, Ulysses S. Grant. He also made major decisions on
Union war strategy, including a naval blockade that shut down the South's normal trade, moves to
take control of Kentucky and Tennessee, and using gunboats to gain control of the southern river
system. Lincoln tried repeatedly to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond; each time a
general failed, Lincoln substituted another, until finally Grant succeeded. As the war progressed, his
complex moves toward ending slavery included the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; Lincoln
used the U.S. Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraged the Border States to outlaw slavery, and
pushed through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which
permanently outlawed slavery.

An exceptionally astute politician deeply involved with power issues in each state, Lincoln reached
out to the War Democrats and managed his own re-election campaign in the 1864 presidential
election. Anticipating the war's conclusion, Lincoln pushed a moderate view of Reconstruction,
seeking to reunite the nation speedily through a policy of generous reconciliation in the face of
lingering and bitter divisiveness. On April 14, 1865, five days after the April 9th surrender of
Confederate commanding general Robert E. Lee, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a
Confederate sympathizer.

Lincoln has been consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the three greatest
U.S. presidents.
 Abraham Lincoln’s Greatest Achievements
1. Abraham Lincoln made the decision to fight to prevent the nation from splitting apart.
2. Abraham Lincoln was an unfaltering commander in chief during the Civil War which preserved
the United States as one nation.
3. Abraham Lincoln's foreign policy was successful in preventing other countries from intervening in
America's Civil War.
4. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation which began the process of freedom for
America's slaves. The document also allowed black soldiers to fight for the Union.
5. Abraham Lincoln was a strong supporter of the Thirteenth Amendment that formally ended
slavery in the United States.
6. Legislation Abraham Lincoln signed into law included the Homestead Act, the Morrill Act, the
National Banking Act, and a bill that chartered the first transcontinental railroad.
7. Abraham Lincoln set an example of strong character, leadership, and honesty which succeeding
presidents tried to emulate. Barack Obama stated during his campaign that he would look to
Lincoln as a model.
8. Abraham Lincoln gave a series of great speeches before and during his presidency including the
House Divided Speech, the Cooper Union Address, the First Inaugural Address, the Gettysburg
Address, and the Second Inaugural Address.
9. Abraham Lincoln wrote a series of famous letters including the letters to Grace Bedell, Horace
Greeley, Fanny McCullough, and Lydia Bixby.
10. Abraham Lincoln's quotes are among the most famous quotes in the world.