Mount Rushmore
Between 1927 and 1941, 400 workers blasted 450,000 tons of rock
from a mountainside using a lot of dynamite. Gradually, they carved out Mount Rushmore.
It’s located in South Dakota’s Black Hills, and its façade belies a dark history.
About 10,000 years ago, Native American people originally inhabited the Black Hills. Then,
white settlers in North America expanded their territories by using physical violence or
negotiating with Indigenous peoples.
The US government ratified hundreds of treaties with Native American nations.
However, it often broke them or created them using coercion. Later, they managed to agree
on a new treaty. However, just seven years later, the US broke the treaty after an expedition
found gold in the Black Hills. Miners set up camps, the military attacked and ultimately
defeated the Lakota, and the US passed legislation illegally seizing the land.
50 years later, workers began etching into the Lakota’s sacred Six Grandfather’s Mountain.
The project was led by an arrogant sculptor named Gutzon Borglum. A historian originally
proposed that Mount Rushmore include indigenous figures— like Lakota Chief Red
Cloud. But Borglum chose to feature his own heroes. By October of 1941, Borglum had died
from surgical complications, and the project was unfinished. None of the four figures had
torsos, as intended, and rubble was left piled below. To the Lakota, the monument was a
desecration. And the presidents immortalized on the rockface all had brutal anti-Indigenous
legacies.
George Washington 1st
George Washington was the first US President. He is known for fighting in both the French
and the Indian War, and also for leading the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War,
where the U.S. gained its independence from Great Britain. He was the president of the
Constitutional Convention, where the new U.S. Constitution started being written, and he
established the federal court system, separate from individual state courts. He helped usher in
the Bill of Rights, which added to the Constitution's specific guarantees of personal freedoms,
rights, and clear limitations on the government's power. He also signed the Jay Treaty, which
helped normalize trade relations with Great Britain, and the Proclamation of Neutrality,
which kept America neutral during European conflicts. He stepped down after two terms,
creating a tradition followed until Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four-term presidency. His Farewell
Address warned against political parties and foreign entanglements, which later proved to be
true. He was the one to choose the title, Mr. President, emphasizing republican values and
civilian leadership.
Thomas Jefferson 3rd
Thomas Jefferson was the third President and also an architect who designed the layout of the
University of Virginia. He is known for the Louisiana Purchase, which purchased massive
territory from France and doubled the size of the United States. He played a big part in the
1776 Revolution and he was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson
focused on reducing national debt and limiting the size of the federal government by cutting
the military and lowering taxes. However, his tenure wasn't without controversy as he faced
criticism for the Embargo Act of 1807, which severely harmed American merchants by
stopping all trade with Europe during the Napoleonic Wars. More shockingly, despite writing
“all men are created equal”, Jefferson owned over 600 enslaved people throughout his life.
Theodore Roosevelt 26th
Theodore Roosevelt is highly regarded for his energetic personality, his progressive policies,
and his commitment to conservation, establishing numerous national parks, forests, and
monuments to preserve America's natural resources. His domestic policies emphasized the
Square Deal, balancing the interests of business, consumers, and labor. Internationally, he is
known for his Big Stick Diplomacy, which consists of negotiating peacefully but also
maintaining strong military readiness, and the construction of the Panama Canal. As part of
his Square Deal, Roosevelt implemented new food and drug safety regulations to protect
consumers. And during his presidency, the Federal Employers' Liability Act was enacted,
being one of the first laws that offered compensation for workplace injuries. He also declared
that the U.S. was the policeman of the Western Hemisphere, and he won the Nobel Prize for
Peace for his role in mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War. He survived an attempted
assassination and still gave an 84-minute speech with a bullet stuck in his chest.
Abraham Lincoln
I think what Abraham Lincoln's life suggests is that fierce ambition is a good thing.
He had a huge ambition. But it wasn't simply for power or fame, what it was for was to
accomplish something worthy enough in life so that he could make the world a little better
place for his having lived in it. As a child, he had to escape that hard-scrabble farm from
which he was born. No schooling was possible for him, but he read books in every spare
moment he could find. There were so many losses in his early life that he was haunted by
death. His mother died when he was only nine years old; his only sister, Sarah and his first
love also died in early age. He became obsessed with the thought that when we die, our life is
swept away. But only as he grew older did he develop a certain consolation that if you could
accomplish something worthy in your life, you could live on in others' memories. Your honor
and your reputation would outlive your earthly existence. And that worthy ambition carried
him through the one significant depression that he suffered when he was in his early 30s. He
was so depressed that friends worried he was suicidal but he returned to the state legislature
and eventually won a seat in Congress. He then ran twice for the Senate, lost twice. But then
he surprised the nation with an upset victory for the presidency over three far more
experienced, educated, celebrated rivals. And then when he won the general election, he
stunned the nation even more by appointing each of these three rivals into his Cabinet. For
each of the people who doubted him soon came to understand that he possessed an
unparalleled array of emotional strengths and political skill. He repaired injured feelings that
might have escalated into permanent hostility. He shared credit with ease, assumed
responsibility for the failure of his subordinates, constantly acknowledged his errors and
learned from his mistakes. These qualities proved essential as the 16th President led the
nation through the Civil War, America's greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. It
was the issue of slavery and the survival of the Union. Lincoln initially lacked military
experience, and many of the Union's most talented officers had defected to the Confederacy,
so he really struggled to find competent military leadership. His primary goal was always to
preserve the Union, but as the war dragged on and enslaved people increasingly fled to Union
lines, he came under pressure to redefine the war's purpose. In 1863, Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in Confederate states and transforming the war
into a fight for human freedom. At Gettysburg, he redefined American democracy in just 271
words, declaring that this was a nation with "government of the people, by the people, for the
people." He pushed Congress to pass the Thirteenth Amendment, which permanently
abolished slavery throughout the United States. Despite the war's immense pressures, he won
re-election in 1864 and planned reconciliation in his Second Inaugural Address. Just as the
Civil War was about to end, tragically, Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865 at Ford’s
Theatre when he was watching a play with his wife.