BEDROCK

It has been a full year since a slim majority of voters were able to elect a criminal to lead our nation. 

Now, is having a criminal in charge of, well, anything, a good idea? History says no, it isn't. And events since January 20th of last year would seem to support that claim, even more so in recent weeks when the criminal's masked goon squad has begun killing American citizens on American streets.

The criminal has also used his position since being elected to expand his wealth in what most political scholars and journalists feel is a clear conflict of interest. Here's a link to an article that spells it out: Forbes. The NY Times has also an excellent article detailing the criminal's profitable schemes. Of course Wikipedia covers every aspect of his scheming too, and in much greater detail, and that's one reason why the criminal would like to see that entity removed from the net. 

Another aspect of this criminal's rise to power is how it has divided our nation irrevocably. Like most Americans, I have friends and relatives that voted for him even after he was convicted of 34 felonies, and sexual assault, and instigated a violent insurrection against our democracy. Imagine that. I always felt they were reasonably intelligent people too, but now their actions prove otherwise. I don't believe any of them are students of history either, at least I've never known them to read a single history book outside of their initial K-12 experience, and that may explain a lot. Remember King Charles I, Napoleon, Antonescu, Musolini, Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, and Milosevic? No? I thought as much. Only by knowing the past can we adequately prepare for the future. So staying fully educated and informed is the most important thing we can do for ourselves--and our country. And that's why I like the five U.S. presidents that I've featured in the painted images below. They were fully aware of of the past and their eventual place in history when they served, and that's why they made very good and sometimes great decisions in regards to our nation's future. Decisions which, for the most part, have benefited each and every American over the last 237 years.  

But yes, these five presidents were also flawed human beings. That goes without saying. And yet not a single one them was ever convicted of a crime. Imagine that, not a felon in the bunch. According to presidential scholars these men are also ranked as the five best U.S. Presidents of all time. I like to call them our nation's "Bedrock." But heck, you don't have to be a scholar to know where the criminal was ranked after his first term in office. Yup, he's the worst of the worst.

  

GEORGE WASHINGTON (1732-1799). 1st POTUS (Term: 1789-1797).

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Above top:  An unfinished portrait in oil of President George Washington by artist Gilbert Stuart, painted in 1796. This portrait was based on an earlier version that Stuart made the previous year, which apparently did not survive. Stuart was supposed to give this second painting to Martha Washington, but instead he decided to keep it for himself, purposely not finishing it for that very reason. The portrait is now known as the "Athenaeum" because the Boston Athenaeum library was the first institution to obtain it after Stuart's death (I've seen this portrait in person, and it is remarkable even in its unfinished state).

Above middle-upper:  A crop from Stuart's "Athenaeum."

Above middle-lower: The Lansdowne (1796), one of eight more Washington portraits that Stuart eventually would produce, all based in part on his original "Athenaeum."

Above lower:  American artist Jean Leon Gerome Ferris's interpretation of Stuart painting Washington's portrait in 1796. Martha is seated on Stuart's right. Ferris's painting was produced circa 1912-1915, and was part of a series of 78 scenes from American history, entitled The Pageant of a Nation. They are the largest series of American historical paintings ever produced by a single artist.

THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826). 3rd POTUS (Term: 1801-1809).

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Above top:  American artist Rembrandt Peale produced this 23x19 inch oil painting of Thomas Jefferson in the year 1800, just prior to Jefferson being elected president.  

Above middle:  Artist Newell Convers Wyeth's 23x30 inch 1944 oil painting depicting the "Committee of Five" as they were drafting the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in June of 1776. From left to right: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Bejamin Franklin, Robert R. Livingston and Thomas Jefferson.

Above lower:  American artist George Catlin's recreation of British-American artist Thomas Sully's 1821 portrait of Jefferson. The retired former President was 78 years old at the time Sully painted him. Catlin's oil painting was completed in the early 19th century.  

ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865). 16th POTUS (Term: 1861-1865).

Above top:  Self-trained American artist George Peter Alexander Healy produced this 30x25 oil portrait of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, one year before Lincoln was elected president. 

Above middle-top:  Healy produced this 73x56 inch oil painting of Lincoln in 1869 (Note: all images of this portrait online are dark-- I suspect that if it were viewed in person it would be much lighter in overall tone).

Above middle-lower:  American artist George Henry Story painted this 30x25 inch oil portrait of Lincoln in 1916.

Above lower:  Another of artist Jean Leon Gerome Ferris's painted scenes from his The Pageant of a Nation, circa 1913. It depicts Lincoln at Gettysburg.

 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT JR. (1858-1919). 26th POTUS (Term: 1901-1909).

Above top:  American artist John Singer Sargent painted this official 58x40 inch oil portrait of Theodore Roosevelt in 1903. Roosevelt considered it to be a complete success, favoring it for the rest of his life.

Above lower:  American artist and magazine illustrator John Philip Falter produced this undated 15x10 inch mixed media painting probably for a popular magazine article during the 1940s or 1950s.  

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (1882-1945). 32nd POTUS (Term: 1933-1945)

Above top:  British artist Frank O. Salisbury produced this 50x40 inch oil painting of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. FDR said that he was extremely pleased with it. In 1947 Salisbury produced an exact replica of his original portrait, and then donated it to the White House where it hangs today.  

Above middle-top:  Russian-American artist Elizabeth Shoumatoff was working on this watercolor portrait of FDR in 1945 when the President suddenly collapsed in front of her, dying three hours later from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. The portrait stayed unfinished. 

Above middle-lower:  A completed painting of FDR by Shoumatoff, date and medium unknown.

Above lower:  British-American artist Douglas Chandor produced this 43x35 inch oil painting of FDR in 1945. At the lower left is his depiction of the "Big Three" at Yalta: Winston Churchill, FDR, and Stalin.

[© January, 2026, Jeffersen]