Who was the better president: George Washington or Abraham Lincoln? | The Tylt

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Lincoln is frequently rated the greatest of all American presidents.

Because he faced an open revolt of the slaveholding states against the Union, Lincoln had arguably the single most difficult presidency of any Commander-in-Chief. He saw the country through the bloodiest war in U.S. history. He was a brilliant orator, and forever remembered as the signer of the Emancipation Proclamation, which ended the scourge of slavery in America.

But without George Washington, Lincoln may not have even had a nation to govern. Washington wasn't just the first President of the United States, he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Army against the British Empire and the man who established the American republic. But many historians say his most valiant act was stepping down from power and refusing to be made king.

Think about other great military commanders and revolutionary leaders before and after Washington: Caesar, Cromwell, Napoleon, Lenin. They all seized the power they had won and held it until death or military defeat.

Many argued Washington could've been crowned king had he wanted to be—after all, there wasn't much of a blueprint outside of monarchies for how to run a country. But he was uninterested in autocracy, and famously said "I didn't fight George III to become George I." King George, in fact, asked the American painter Benjamin West what Washington would do after winning independence:

West replied, “They say he will return to his farm.”
“If he does that,” the incredulous monarch said, “he will be the greatest man in the world.”

But Washington owned hundreds of slaves. He freed them upon his death, but for many, his participation in America's greatest original sin is the main reason why Lincoln was the greater man.