APUSH Paper 1

Submitted By chrisgalena
Words: 2200
Pages: 9

Chris Galena
October 8, 2014
Ap US History
Mr. Cranston
Paper Assignment #1: Topic #1
Some presidents have not achieved the par level of needs demanded by the presidency, like Mckinley and Harding. However, there have been many successful and over achieving presidencies since the beginning of our country. Some have made more of an impact than others. George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln have been the some of the most significant presidencies in history. Their desire for freedom, personality of a common man and their military experience allowed them to show their strong power.
These attributes enabled these presidents to become successful, significant leaders of the
United States of America.
The United States is built off the idea of freedom and equality. A good president needs to support these characteristics throughout his policies and beliefs. George Washington was a perfect example of this. Almost nobody wanted equality and freedom for this country more than he did. Washington wanted the power of the country to be with the people and not with a strong centralized government. He saw what happened in Britain and other countries where leaders became overbearing and controlling . This is why the Articles of Confederation and the later replacement for the articles, The Constitution of Independence, were created(“George Washington”). Washington was a big supporter of these documents. This goal of freedom for the people of the colonies and later known as the United States was the reason for his significant part in the Revolutionary War. He took the job as the General of the army to help fight the British who were taking away their freedom. You can see Washington’s

strong desire for freedom throughout the war because he continually put up with harsh conditions like challenging weather and the poor condition of his army, but he never gave up even though it looked like a battle that they could never win (“George Washington”). This is a huge indicator that he would be a great future leader for our country because of his dedication to support the ideals of our country, even through the worst conditions. Jackson would also be put through harsh conditions with harassment against his family, but that just gave him more drive to defeat the corruption.
Andrew Jackson also wanted to protect the ideals of freedom throughout our country.
Except instead of this problem coming from another country, like Washington, it was came from directly within our capital. When Jackson became president he witnessed a lot of corruption throughout the United States government. So right after he stepped in the doors of the White House he fired many federal workers because they were incompetent and corrupt.
The Jackson filled the positions with friends and political supporters (“Andrew Jackson”). It showed the country that Jackson was willing to make drastic changes in the country to help protect the rights and freedoms of the people. His governmental policies were controversial and many people did not agree with them. They would harass his family by making rumors of his wife, saying she cheated on her past husband (“Andrew Jackson”). But, his goal was to have equality and freedom for all the people in the country and he would continually pursue this goal until it was accomplished. Abraham Lincoln would experience the same kind of hatred from some people, but that never stopped him from accomplishing his goal.
Abraham Lincoln may be the biggest supporter of freedom of all the presidents.
Abraham Lincoln thought everybody should be equal and was extremely against slavery. He hated it and he thought that it should be abolished everywhere. This hatred caused a major division in the United States and right as Lincoln walked into office he was at war between the

North and South (“Abraham Lincoln”). Lincoln would eventually help generals in the north fight the bloodiest battle in the history of