Discovery Channel's Greatest American # 2: Abraham Lincoln

He freed the slaves, and healed the sectional rent sewn into the very fabric of our government, the Constitution. He triumphed in a long and bitter civil war, and was cut down as the last casualty of that war before he could fully heal the nation.

Abraham Lincoln made modern America in much the same way George Washington did early America.

In my ranking, I have Washington first, Lincoln second, Martin Luther King third, as to my mind this trio represents the completion of the American Dream in all its glory. Washington hammered together a nation, Lincoln held it together, and King smoothed over the seams.