Since 1774, when the First Continental Congress met, George Washington has been considered a great leader. America’s trust was never turned from him, all throughout his extensive career as a politician. He never turned America down – he won the revolutionary war, accepted to be president, and kicked off the great prosperity that shaped American history. Thomas Jefferson wrote some very revolutionary papers, on the other hand, and followed in Washington’s footsteps. But I think Washington was better than Jefferson because he was more influential.

However, many people base their liking of Thomas Jefferson on how he is considered “the author of America.” They have good reasoning also. He not only wrote but came up with the concepts of the papers as follows: the US Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, among others. He went to great lengths in his writing to develop the system of democracy as we know it today. He also was America’s pioneer in the concept of religious freedom and wrote great pieces of literature to explain it and help make the law include certain religious freedoms for all people. Almost all the rest of his score of bills talk about other types of freedom too: the freedom of free speech, freedom from Great Britain, and freedom of equality among all people.

But there is an apparent problem in this point, especially the last sentence – “freedom of equality among all people.” Thomas Jefferson’s logic in this point is quite spurious when written by him. Why would these words even be true when written by Jefferson if he owned slaves? On his papers about equality, he almost imposes a lie about himself. The truth is, Jefferson not only was a slaver, but he had one of the largest and most brutal plantations in the southern US, let alone Virginia. Virginia was also home to many other plantations, like George Washington’s, Mt. Vernon. You might say, “Wait for a second, how can George Washington be better than Thomas Jefferson when they both owned slaves?” That is a valid remark, but there are several pieces of evidence to prove that wrong. Firstly, Jefferson did have normal behavior for slavers in Virginia. But that behavior was this: keep the slaves at the plantation all their lives, except if you sell them like they are a piece of property to some other person who will follow the same code. If they escape off the site, then send out brutal slave hunters to capture them and bring them viciously back to the plantation (not to mention more than a few whippings for running away). George Washington, on the other hand, did not follow this code. He was considerably nicer than the majority of southern slavers, and instead of sending out people to hunt his escaped slaves down and beat them when they were caught, he wrote letters to them, asking them to please come back. Another doing of Washington for slaves was his giving of freedom to all of his slaves at his death. Not only did Jefferson not do this, but none of the founding fathers did either!  That is one reason why Washington is better than Thomas Jefferson.

Although Thomas Jefferson was a good president I, along with the majority of Americans, agree that George Washington did better things for our country. Let’s start with his activity before his presidency. He was very influential in the revolution. When the already militarily experienced 41-year-old Washington attended the first Continental Congress in Philadelphia, he was quickly voted to be the commander of the newly created Continental army, and he took the job. He then went on to win the Revolutionary War against Britain, the grandest military in the late 18th century, the second stupendous military accomplishment by George Washington after the French and Indian War. During the war, all Jefferson was doing was hanging out at the US embassy in Parris and at Monticello. After the war ended, Washington was convinced to run for president – a new title – instead of king. (He would have stepped down if America had not convinced him to run.) He famously said, “I did not defeat George III to become George I.” George Washington’s campaign resulted in a predicted unanimous vote to him over John Adams, the only unanimous vote in US history. Jefferson’s electoral vote count was 73 to 65 against the same man – John Adams. George Washington was publicly an adored politician, and his voters were not disappointed. In just his first 100 days, he had authorized the Bill of Rights, established national taxation, designed court systems, and created the executive office, more than some presidents did in a whole 4-year term. George Washington also set bunches of precedents that are still followed today, like presidents serving two years. All Jefferson did, was buy Louisiana (which France wanted to get rid of) and pursue the Barbary Pirates. Washington also was elected unanimously for his second term. Then he chose to step down from office.

Therefore, we have concluded that the Louisiana Purchase, the stopping of the Barbary Pirates and some illogical papers by Thomas Jefferson do not surpass the reputation of the great George Washington. The accomplishments both in and out of office by Washington easily overpass the achievements by Jefferson, as most Americans can think. The website Tylt held an open vote to which president was better, and Washington held 67 percent of the votes. America thinks Washington was better than Jefferson, and so do I.