Two Founding Fathers’ faces appear on Mount Rushmore: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The other two faces are Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, respectfully.

George Washington, as father of the country, was a natural choice when it came time to choose the faces to appear on the monument. In his life, George Washington served as Commander-in-Chief of the American Continental Army from June 15, 1773 until the Revolution’s end on December 23, 1783. He later went on to become the first President of the United States, and the only president in history to be unanimously elected, receiving all 132 electoral votes at the time.

But that’s not all. At the time, it was unheard of for a monarch to step down from office voluntarily, and many people, including those in the Continental Congress, doubted whether he would relinquish power once the war was over. Shortly after the war, several of his officers rose up together during the Newburgh Conspiracy, and refused to disband. Washington had already dismissed several prior suggestions that he make the United States a monarchy with himself as king. Some historians believe he could have used the Newburgh Conspiracy to make himself a monarch if he had wanted to. But instead, he successfully persuaded his fellow offers to abandon the rebellion, and the Continental Army was shortly disbanded.

Washington further solidified American Democracy when he voluntarily stepped down after his second term as president, setting an example of the peaceful transition of power for countless future generations. Having done so much to shape the spirit of America and the ideals of a Democratic Republic, how could the designers of Mount Rushmore not have included him on it?

Thomas Jefferson is was the primary drafter of the Declaration of Independence. Although the document was influenced by various other members of the Continental Congress, it contains Jefferson’s writing, and it was under his oversight that we finally obtained the document which declared independence unwaveringly from Great Britain. When Jefferson later felt the country was going in too much of a monarchist direction, he ran for president and became the third President of the United States in order to restore what he viewed as the country’s founding principals of independence.

Jefferson is widely mentioned as the Founding Father who wasn’t perfect, for the fact that he owned slaves, despite his writing that “All men are created equal.” That conflict in America and negligence to the country’s founding principals wouldn’t be resolved until the time of Abraham Lincoln.

Although not a Founding Father in the sense of having shaped the birth of America as a free and independent nation, Abraham Lincoln saw the country through what was perhaps its most difficult period, the Civil War, a time when North fought South. Many people at the time viewed the future of the Nation with uncertainty, and Lincoln was tasked with the difficult role of trying to keep the country together. I was under his Emancipation Proclamation that slavery was ended in the 10 states which were in active rebellion, and the 13th Amendment, passed under him, finally ended slavery in the United States of America. Although not yet alive during the birth of America, Abraham Lincoln helped guide the country through its most difficult period of internal conflict thus far, helped us to finally see our way through the dark shadow which slavery had cast over the land, and to resolve the inherent conflict which it had posed with our founding principals since the time of the country’s inception.

Theodore Roosevelt was included on the monument for his role in steering the Nation during the Industrial Revolution, and helping to shape Modern America. The first American ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, he was instrumental in helping to transform America into a major world power. Under his presidency, over 230 million acres of public land became protected for conservation, and the first 18 national monuments, 5 national parks, and 150 national forests were established. His presidency was characterized by pushing back on industrialist exploitation of workers during the early 20th Century, and promoting rules of fairness for the common man. His inclusion on Mount Rushmore represents America’s transformation into a major superpower in the modern period.

Although the term “Founding Fathers” is traditionally used to refer to those select individuals who fought for independence during the country’s founding, all of the past presidents on Mount Rushmore helped to shape the Nation in some pivotal way. It’s no wonder they were each selected by sculptor Gutzon Borgium, the lead sculptor from the time work first began on 1927, until his death in 1941.