THINGS IN COMMON

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MILLARD FILMORE

HARRY TRUMAN
  Miillard Fillmore was our 13th president and Harry Truman was our 33rd president. Besides the fact that Fillmore is a dead ringer for Alec Baldwin he is considered one of our worst presidents. He was also the first of three "Doughface" presidents before the Civil War. A Doughface was a Northerner who would side with the South more often than they did with the North in a dispute. They were called Doughfaces to imply that they could be moldable or pliable. The aim of a Doughface was to help avoid a Civil War between North and South. Truman on the other hand was one of our greatest presidents in my opinion. Both Truman and Fillmore lacked a college education and besides this they share something unusual in common. Both turned down prestigious public awards that were offered to them.

Millard Fillmore: When Oxford University offered to confer an honorary degree upon Fillmore, he refused, stating “I had not the advantage of a classical education and no man should, in my judgment, accept a degree he cannot read.”

Harry Truman: As Truman approached his 87th birthday in 1971, he put the kibosh on efforts in Congress to award him the Medal of Honor, writing that “I don’t consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise. Obama should have learned from these guys and refused a Nobel Prize that he did absolutely nothing to earn.

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