Posted on 06/30/2009 7:32:01 AM PDT by Publius772000
While sitting in the Advanced Placement institute a week ago, the instructor posed a question to the history educators in the room.
“Not counting presidents or their wives,” he began, “who would you consider the five greatest, most influential Americans in history?” My mind began to cycle through the most important figures to grace the stage.
My first choice was John Marshall. As the first significant Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he established the principle of judicial review, greatly expanding the power of the Court and making the Constitution, according to Jefferson, “a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”
Next, I chose Benjamin Franklin. The exclusion of presidents ruled out many of the Founding Fathers I would have chosen, but Franklin fit the bill. Many historians credit Franklin as the architect of the American ideal–a merge of the Puritan work ethic and moral compass with the tolerance and reason of Enlightenment philosophy. He served as ambassador to France, securing French support for the Revolution effort, and Postmaster General. Not to mention, he was an accomplished inventor, and many of his creations are still used today in one form or another.
(Excerpt) Read more at theconstitutionalalamo.com ...
I would swap George Washington with Thomas Edison. Edison is overrated.
"Judicial Review" (invalidating) of acts of Congress is fine when Congress does something that goes outside the bounds established for it by the Constitution. It is not so good when it goes to invalidating nearly all of the Bill of Rights which is something Marshall did when he ruled that the Bill of Rights prohibitions outside of the first amendment prohibitions which were specifically limited to the Federal Government, were also limited to the Federal Government.
ML/NJ
George Washington was the greatest American, indeed one of the greatest men in the history of the world. He has no peer in this nation’s history. None. Without this one man, the break from Britain would have been delayed years, perhaps decades.
Read article THEN post.
Henry Ford
James Stewart.
Alexander Hamilton - He was the architect of our economic system and I believe he developed the concept of the corporation. He layed the basis for the American system of free enterprise and capitalism.
The link is not to the article. The link is to a blog. Within the blog is the article, true, but there is a direct link that should have been supplied. That link is:
http://theconstitutionalalamo.com/2009/06/29/the-five-greatest-americans-you-might-be-surprised/
Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
DeWitt Clinton
Nikola Tesla
Jonas Salk
Thank God for the election of 1800 and Thomas Jefferson. If John Adams or a even Aaron Burr were elected who knows what might have happened.
I would take Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty" over some sort of "natural aristocracy" and suffocating central government Marshall promoted any day. All Marshall accomplished was to create some sort of oligarchy that was virtually impossible to check by the other two branches (Constitutional Amendment, far cry from Jefferson's ease of check and balances).
The initial intent of the survey was to evaluate the Americans who have had the greatest impact on the country. I agree, Marshall was not necessarily a positive influence, but no one can doubt his overall importance to the system as it stands.
They didn’t allow presidents or presidents’ wives. If they had, my first choice would also have been Washington, who still stands as one of the most underrated presidents. He can never be rated high enough.
I would also swap some of the names on the list for some of the industrialists that we have had in America. For example Henry Ford, for all his personal short comings, pioneered and refined mass production. This is the preeminent force in our modern lifestyle behind AC current.
I think the list is too fixated on government add social actors. It makes me a little disappointed in historians.
much better list
It's like starting the excercise by first excluding dentists named "Mel" from contention.
John Brown more important than ML King, as is Rosa Parks.
Who invented the cotton gin? That had more of an impact on America than Edison, and Edison was equaled by men like Tesla, Westinghouse and Siemens. Moreover the man who funded Edison was far more important than Edison — and that would be JP Morgan.
Samuel Colt, Eli Whitney, Jack St. Clair Kilby, the Wright Brothers, John Roebling, Robert Oppenheimer, Clarence Birdseye — many American inventors equaled in impact on America Edison’s work.
Still, the Wright Brothers stand above the rest, so I say.
In the end lists like this are silly and myopic. Faddish.
But the list from the high schoolers shows clearly an abysmal US History education.
A useful post.
The American Soldier
Ronald Reagan
John Wayne
Henry Ford
The guys that invented the transistor
Why do you think Jefferson, promoter of individual/State rights, quit Washington's Cabinet and had severe ideological differences with Hamilton?
Jefferson began cutting the taxes the former Secretary of Treasury proposed and the debt began to shrink ( Reduced the debt by 1/3). That on top of the Louisiana Purchase.
The Federalist party, started by Hamilton, was pretty much a non-factor after 1800 because their policies and superior attitude “stunk up the place”.
Did you know Hamilton promoted Fed. censorship of the press? Yes, your hero went well out of his way to suppress the Democratic-Republic/Jeffersonian ideology by using his own editors to serve as postmaster in the Federal government. Republicanism was indeed censored back in the day by Hamilton and the Federalist.
Excluding presidents and their wives was a selection criteria.
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