Compare And Contrast George Washington And Thomas Jefferson

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are two of the most important presidents that has affected our nations independence and the foundation of the United States. They have turned this nation into a free and sovereign country. Washington and Jefferson were both raised in the Southern state of Virginia. However, Washington and Jefferson have innumerable differences in many aspects. They both came from different social status; Jefferson’s family was more well-known and prosper than Washington’s. This gave Jefferson a greater opportunity to succeed due to his higher education. We will analyze the issues both Washington and Jefferson faced while they were presidents and how their character have helped them made the decisions while they were in office. George Washington is a name that stands out in the United States history more than any other. He was not as …show more content…
He was an anti-federalist and in order to reduce the influence of the central government, Jefferson decreased the amount of government employees, lowered Army enlistments, and cut the national debt. During his presidency, Jefferson was faced with foreign affairs every day. It often pushed him towards Federalists policies that negates his personal political philosophy. Jefferson’s is very well spoken and that is one of the reasons he was able to purchase the Louisiana Purchase for $15 million. Jefferson’s ideal agrarian democracy ignores the fact that slaves are the ones to work on the richest farmlands in the Unites States. Slavery obviously dissents the true democratic values and this shows that Jefferson’s actions contradicts his words in the Declaration of Independence, which states “that all men are created equal” (Heffner, 10). Despite his powerful statement in the Declaration of Independence, he still owned slaves and unlike Washington, he never released