Assuming you have looked over the list of presidents and their ranking (see the first document posted) and have found one that looks interesting and read up on him a little, what do you do next? Well, remember that the purpose of this assignment is to create an argument using historical evidence. Your job is to DEFEND his ranking (Yes, George Washington deserves to be number 2) or ARGUE against his ranking (no way is that scumbag Andrew Jackson number 15) I do not care if you agree or disagree with your selected president’s ranking. What I care about is that you take a stand and argue your position based on the historical evidence you find during your research. You need to find several reasons to support your opinion. The more reasons you have, the easier it will be to write the paper and the smarter I will think you are.
Keep in mind this paper is about your president’s performance WHILE IN OFFICE. Do not write about what he did before or after his term in office. I don’t care that George Washington was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental army during the Revolution. I do care that while he was president he issued the Neutrality Proclamation in 1793 that kept us out of war with France and England.
Begin your research looking for things like:
What was going on in America while he was in office? (war, peace, expansion, etc.).
Was the economy in good shape because of him or did he do anything to improve a bad one?
Did he get us in a war or keep us out, win a war or lose? Did he acquire land for the U.S.? Write important treaties? How did he treat the native Americans?
What laws did Congress pass while he was in office? Since the president must sign or veto a law, let’s give him credit or blame for those laws.
Did he get reelected or was he a one-term guy? Was America better off after his tenure than before?
Did he bring the people together or tear them apart? (yes this happened back the old days too, sometimes)
Did his accomplishments outweigh his misdeeds? Were there scandals? Dirty politics? The possibilities are endless. It is up to you to find out enough about your president to support the stand you take.
Some advice, or maybe this is a challenge. It is much easier to write about a president who is ranked very high or very low. It is more difficult to write about someone in the middle because you will have good and bad things to choose from. In the case of famous presidents, there is a ton of material. On more obscure presidents there is a lot less (who the heck is Millard Fillmore?) Over half the papers I see are about Washington, Lincoln and Jackson. I seldom learn anything from those papers. When I get papers about the lesser-known guys, I usually learn something. But it’s up to you, suit yourself.
Sample Solution