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who is the most noble American in US history?

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pres2032 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:21 PM
Original message
Poll question: who is the most noble American in US history?
Edited on Sun Jan-23-05 08:21 PM by pres2032
like the other one, these 9 are just to get the discussion started.
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Kelvin Mace Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:23 PM
Response to Original message
1. William Lloyd Garrison
Early abolitionist and champion of women's suffrage.

One of my few heroes.



The taste of Republican butt does not improve with age.

"The NeoCons can't be bargained with. They can't be reasoned with. They do not feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And they absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:23 PM
Response to Original message
2. Nathan Hale? “I only regret,” he said, “that I have but one life to lose
Edited on Sun Jan-23-05 08:29 PM by BrklynLiberal
for my country."
I had the right person, but the wrong quote. Sorry, cabin fever. Been snow bound all day.

Edited to correct the quote from Patrick Henry's to Nathan Hale's
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pres2032 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:24 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. That was Patrick Henry who said that
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BrklynLiberal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:25 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. ooooooooooooops, Sorry
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Quixote1818 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:25 PM
Response to Reply #2
6. Patrick Henry is the one who said that. Patrick Henry was a nut
who thought the US was founded as a Christian Nation.
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Moloch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 09:00 PM
Response to Reply #6
16. Isn't the Patrick Henry Society
one of those fundie nut-bag organizations that exists only in Virginia?
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Quixote1818 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 12:51 AM
Response to Reply #16
20. Probably. Here is a site that tells a little bit about him.
http://www.humanistsofutah.org/1998/genapr98.html
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tritsofme Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:26 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. Hale said "I regret I have but one life to give for my country"
Same concept though :)
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Exultant Democracy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:44 PM
Response to Reply #7
12. just a myth
he never really said that. It is just propaganda from the revolutionary war.
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njdemocrat106 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 02:18 AM
Response to Reply #12
22. Actually I thought he said he had one ASS to risk for his country,
and that the history textbook publishers changed ass to life so it would be more appropriate for consumption by children.
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saltpoint Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:24 PM
Response to Original message
4. Harriet Tubman. After listening to Dubya's drivel about --
-- "freedom" and "liberty" this week, here is a vote for Harriet Tubman, who was a real architect of freedom for others, and its best ambassador to the real, human dimension.

Also, if anybody's interested, look into a composition by Walter Robinson called "Harriet Tubman," recorded by Kate Taylor.

Wonderful song.
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kick-ass-bob Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 08:50 AM
Response to Reply #4
29. I second this vote.
My brother is researching her - and the more I find out (there's not a whole lot out there) the better she sounds!
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PittPoliSci Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:26 PM
Response to Original message
8. Alexander Hamilton
the first American success story, gunned down in his prime. Born orphaned in the Caribbean, rose to secretary of the Treasury.
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SOteric Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:29 PM
Response to Original message
9. The Unknown Soldier
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Solon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:33 PM
Response to Original message
10. Dammit, don't make me choose!(other)
Fredrick Douglass, MLK Jr., Susan B. Anthony, and many others all equally deserve that title. I chose other, and that is all there is to it!
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GreenArrow Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:40 PM
Response to Original message
11. Sitting Bull. Chief Joseph. Crazy Horse.
Off the list, I'd go with Harriet Tubman, hands down.
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sundog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:46 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. right on! Chief Seattle too!
:thumbsup:
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DrWeird Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:53 PM
Response to Original message
14. Samuel Clemens.
I would have said MLK, but he's too good to be a fair choice. It's like asking who was the best person in modern Indian history and saying Gandhi.

With the exception of Abraham Lincoln, I'm not terribly happy with the way people resort to naming former presidents. Jefferson and Washington were both a couple of hypocrites. And I don't think they would have approved of the cult of personality that's attributed to their office in any regards.

Anyway, Sam Clemens would be the guy I'd pick if I were stuck in an elevator with.
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Moloch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 09:01 PM
Response to Reply #14
17. I don't know as much as I should about early American history...
I am inclined to admire James Madison because he basically authored the bill of rights.

Was he a slave owner?
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DrWeird Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 09:04 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. Yup.
He was.
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vpigrad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 08:57 PM
Response to Original message
15. Jimmy Carter
It's certainly not the thugs George Washington or Thomas Jefferson. They owned slaves. No one should ever call a person nobile that would do such a horrible thing. Can you remove them from the poll?
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catbert836 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Jan-23-05 09:04 PM
Response to Original message
19. Tecumseh
Only that great man deserves the title.
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lildreamer316 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 02:15 AM
Response to Original message
21. Ben Franklin; Thomas Paine anyone? n/t
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ChairOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 02:21 AM
Response to Original message
23. I would LOVE to see freepers' answers to this question! lol /eom
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Liberty Belle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 02:29 AM
Response to Original message
24. Washington turned down a chance to be monarch
of the new nation. Can you think of a politician since who willingly relinquished power for the good of democracy?

He also warned of the dangers of too much power in the hands of political parties and the importance of maintaining good relations with our allies overseas--and never engaging in interventionist military operations.

Too bad George W. didn't heed George Washington's wise words.
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Allenberg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 04:24 AM
Response to Original message
25. FDR
Eugene Debs, and MLK are up there for me.
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UdoKier Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 04:33 AM
Response to Original message
26. Cesar Chavez, Eugene Debs, Eleanor Roosevelt...
So many...
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TyeDye75 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 05:52 AM
Response to Reply #26
27. FDR
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nuxvomica Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jan-24-05 08:47 AM
Response to Original message
28. Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC
A World War I hero who saw what war was all about and spoke out against it. I don't think he's at the level of MLK but I thought he should be offered for consideration because he benefited greatly from the military-industrial complex and then turned against it as a matter of conscience. In the mid-1930s, he foiled a plan by financiers and corporate executives to overthrow FDR and set up a corporate fascist government with him as their puppet dictator. The fools had obviously not read his speeches. Here's the beginning of one from 1933:

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

More at http://www.fas.org/man/smedley.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
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