In honor of President’s Day, we decided to see what some of Oxford’s most certified historians (that’s right: Ole Miss history professors) had to say about the presidents of the United States. But first, here’s a little background info about the federal holiday:
President’s Day can be traced back to an Act of Congress in 1879. Originally, the 1879 Act of Congress only included federal offices in Washington. However, in 1885 at the second session of the 48th Congress, legislatures extended the day off of work to all federal offices.
This was the first federal holiday to honor President George Washington. His farewell address is still read by the Senate every year on Feb. 22.
President’s Day was celebrated on Feb. 22 until the 1971 Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved President’s Day to the third Monday in February.
The notion of President’s Day was conceived in 1951 by a man from Compton named Harold Stonebridge Fischer. He and the “National President’s Day Committee,” which Fischer was national executive director of for 20 years, thought President’s Day should be celebrated on March 4, the original Inauguration Day. However, this was shut down by Congress.
Fischer and the committee created the idea that President’s Day is not meant to honor any particular president, but the office of the presidency. By the 1980s, the term President’s Day was coined by advertisers and February’s third Monday would, therefore, be known as President’s Day.
Now, everyone has a favorite president. So, here’s what some Ole Miss history professors had to say about their favorites:
“Lincoln, the poet president, read a passage from Shakespeare each eve before retiring. Can’t beat that!” – Dr. Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez
“I’d say it’s Abraham Lincoln. He’s such a tragic, complex figure.” – Dr. Theresa Levitt
“Andrew Jackson, because he is the only president ‘possibly’ from my home state of South Carolina.” – Dr. Noell Wilson
“Franklin Roosevelt. He initiated programs to help Americans recover from the Depression. His administration initiated a tax program that taxed the richest Americans at a rate of 92 percent, but which gave a 10 percent credit if they used their money to build businesses or industries. When the rich complained about the high tax rate, he responded, ‘I don’t think 92 percent is unreasonable when our young soldiers are dying for our country.’ All four of his sons served in the navy. Not one of his sons could attend their father’s funeral because they stayed on duty.” – Dr. Elizabeth Payne
“Lincoln and Washington seem the most important to me. Establishing our institutions and universal access to those institutions. Adams for recognizing the results of an election he lost. More amusingly, Garfield for devising his own solution to the Pythagorean theorem and apparently being ambidextrous, which I admire.” – Dr. Marc Lerner
By Wes Cooper, an intern for HottyToddy.com and a student of the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. He can be reached at jwcooper@go.olemiss.edu.
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