Presidential Profiles 2018

of Our Nation Presidents

February, 19, 2018 is Presidents Day. The holiday dates back to 1885 and was established in recognition of George Washington’s birthday, on February 22. In 1971 the holiday was moved to the third Monday of February as part of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, in order to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. In honor of Presidents Day and in an effort to inform the public the Duluth News Tribune is proud to present our readers with this special section.

The section features a biographical profile of each person who has served as President of the United States. Biographical information from MrNussbaum.com - a learning site for kids, parents, and teachers. Supplemental information

whitehouse.gov.

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, although he grew up near Fredericksburg. In his childhood and adolescence, he studied math and surveying. When he was 16, he went to live with his brother Lawrence in Mount Vernon. George inherited his brother’s land including Mt. Vernon when he died in 1752.

Washington’s military career began in 1753, when he was sent into Ohio country during the French and Indian War to protect British interests in the area. In 1754, he battled the French and was forced to surrender Fort Necessity (near present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). He continued as an officer in Ohio country, and served under the British general Edward Braddock when their army was ambushed by the French in 1755. Once again, Washington tasted defeat after

their surrender of Fort Duquesne to French forces. Luckily for the future United States, the French agreed to release him rather than keep him as a prisoner. He helped take Fort Duquesne back in 1758.

Washington was married to Martha Custis in 1759. He managed the family and estate until he took command of Virginia troops just before the American Revolution. He was made commander of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775.

Washington, however, would struggle with a rag-tag army of volunteers and militia men. His armies were constantly low on supplies and food, and often times marched to battle without shoes. They were routed in a series of battles in and around New York City in 1776 and forced to retreat into Pennsylvania where he planned a strategic ambush. On Christmas night 1776, Washington and his men

crossed the Delaware River and captured a band of 800-900 Hessian soldiers. Hessians were fearsome German mercenaries hired by the British as soldiers. The event came to be known as “Washington’s Crossing” and was successful in raising the morale of the entire army. The dramatic ambush would be called The Battle of Trenton. Washington proved himself an excellent leader, and won

several other decisive battles during the Revolution. In 1781, he helped to formulate the plan that eventually resulted in the defeat of the British army at Yorktown, Virginia and the British surrender. As an advocate of a federal government, Washington became chairman of the Constitutional Convention and helped in getting the Constitution ratified. In 1789, he was inaugurated as America’s

first president after refusing to be coronated as king.

Washington was re-elected for a second term in 1792, but refused a third term. On December 14, 1799, seventeen days before the new century, Washington died of acute laryngitis or epiglottitis. Today, George Washington is probably the most honored individual in American history. Numerous cities, towns,

highways, monuments, and parks bear his name. The capital of the United States is named after him. He was honored on the first American postage stamp, as well as on the quarter and one dollar bill. He even has a state named after him –Washington, although he never set foot there.

George Washington

2nd

John Adams was born in 1735 to Henry and Susanna Boylston Adams. Adams graduated from Harvard University in 1755 and became an attorney in 1758. From an early age, Adams developed intense feelings for political causes. He wrote powerful speeches against the Stamp Act of 1765 but also defended British soldiers charged with murder after the Boston Massacre. In 1764, he married Abigail Smith. Together they would have five children, including future president John Quincy Adams. Their marriage would provide a source of comfort for John during his years away from her negotiating in Europe.

In 1771, Adams was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, and later, to the Continental Congress in 1774. Adams carried

great influence among the members of Congress and strongly favored separation from England. Adams also assisted in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the Massachusetts Constitution. He quickly became a vocal leader in the quest for independence and gained a reputation for being incorruptible, stubborn, and fiery. After spending several years negotiating business treaties with European powers at the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Adams was elected as the second president of the United States (he lost to George Washington previously and served two terms as his vice president). His presidency, however, was marred by the passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, controversy within his Federalist Party regarding foreign policy, and a general feeling that Federalists relied more

on the ideas of Alexander Hamilton than his. Adams was defeated by Thomas Jefferson in 1800 in his bid for a second term in the presidency.

After completing his term as president, Adams became depressed and moved back to his home, called Peacefield, near Quincy, Massachu-

setts. He completely dropped out of politics. In 1812, however, he began corresponding with Thomas Jefferson, and the two former presidents sent letters to each other for fourteen years about politics, government, and philosophy. In 1825, his son, John Quincy Adams, was elected as America’s sixth president. On July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Decla-

ration of Independence, John Adams died at his home. Ironically, his friend and fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson died the same day, only hours before him.

Today, John Adams is remembered as one of the Founding Fathers. For much of history, however, he was overshadowed by the likes

of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin (whom Adams detested). Recently, however, Adams has been brought back into significance with the famous David McCullough novel called John Adams, which was turned into a popular seven-part film.

John Adams

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia. When he was 14, he inherited his father’s estate and slaves. Soon after, Jefferson attended the College of William and Mary where he studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy. In 1767, Jefferson was admitted to the Virginia Bar and practiced law. Jefferson remained influential at the College of William and Mary throughout his life and helped institute the nation’s first student honor code.

In 1769, when he was just 26, Jefferson was elected to the Virginia House of Representatives. In 1772, Jefferson began building his home, Monticello. That same year, he married Martha Wayles Skelton. The couple would eventually have six children.

As a member of the Second

Continental Congress, Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with help from Benjamin Franklin and others. In 1779, he was elected as governor of Virginia. Although he resigned in 1781, during his term as governor, Jefferson wrote the famous statute on religious freedom. Jefferson’s writings also formed the basis of the Ordinances of 1784, 1785, and 1787. From 1785–1789, Jefferson served as minister to France. In 1789, George Washington appointed him secretary of state.

Due to political differences concerning the role of the government with other cabinet members, Jefferson resigned as secretary of state in 1793. After serving in Washington’s cabinet, Jefferson and James Madison founded the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson

soon ran for president but was defeated in 1796 by John Adams. Nevertheless, he was appointed vice president. Although Jefferson and Aaron Burr received equal electoral votes for presidency, Jefferson was elected president by the House of Representatives in 1800. During Jefferson’s term, both the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition occurred.

Jefferson served two presidential terms. He later established the University of Virginia. He died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Coincidentally, John Adams died the same day.

Thomas Jefferson is remembered as one of the most brilliant men to ever inhabit the White House, whose

views on individual freedom, religion, and education still influence today. In fact, the establishment of the University of Virginia reflected Jefferson’s views about the role of religion in education— it was the first university in America to be centered around a library rather than a church. Jefferson believed in the strict separation of church and state (national

affairs, including education, should not be influenced by a dominant religion). Jefferson was also an accomplished surveyor, author, architect, and agriculturalist.

Today, buildings, cities, counties, corporations, and monuments bear Jefferson’s name. He is honored on the United States two-dollar bill and nickel.

Thomas Jefferson

4th

James Madison was born on March 16, 1751, in King George County, Virginia. He graduated from Princeton University at the age of 20 in 1771. He served in the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1776. In 1780, Madison served as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress. Madison served as the chief recorder at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He is generally regarded as the “Father of the Constitution.” Later in 1787, Madison teamed with Alexander Hamilton (and to a small extent, John Jay) to write the Federalist Papers, a series of persuasive essays designed to convince the states to ratify the

Constitution. Written under the pen name “Publius,” the Federalist Papers is considered one of the most important documents in American history.

In 1789, Madison was elected to the House of Representatives, where he helped draft the Bill of Rights and fought against passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts. Madison married Dolley Payne Todd in 1794. He helped found the Democratic Party and was chosen as Thomas Jefferson’s secretary of state in 1801.

Madison was elected as America’s fourth president in 1808. George Clinton

was appointed vice president but died in office in 1812. Madison’s first term was plagued by tensions with Great Britain, and his foreign policy was widely criticized. Despite the problems that characterized his first term, Madison was re-elected in 1812 for

a second term. Elbridge Gerry was appointed vice president, but he too died in office in 1814. During Madison’s second term, he guided the nation through The War of 1812 with Great Britain, which many called the second American Revolution. Unfortunately,

the peace treaty signed between the two countries ultimately settled few of the issues between the countries.

In 1817, after his second term, James Madison retired to his estate at Montpelier, Virginia. In 1829

he served as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention before his death on June 28, 1836. He was the last surviving signer of the Constitution. Madison was honored on the United States $5,000 bill before it was taken out of circulation.

James Madison

5th

James Monroe was born on April 28, 1758 in Westmoreland County, Virginia . He attended the College of William and Mary before joining the Continental Army, where he was wounded at the Battle of Trenton in 1776. It is Monroe who is depicted holding the flag in the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware . The image is also depicted on the back of the New Jersey state quarter. After the war, he practiced law in Fredericksburg and married Elizabeth Kortright in 1786. To learn more about Elizabeth Monroe, click here Monroe’s political career moved quickly in the new nation. He participated in the Continental Congress from 1783 to 1786 and was elected as a Virginia Senator in 1790. From 1794-1796, he served as Minister to France during the French Revolution.

From 1799-1802, he served as Virginia ’s Governor and he served as Minister of the Court of St. James (Ambassador to England) from 1803 to 1807 in Thomas Jefferson’s administration. During the Madison administration, Monroe served at various times as Secretary of State and Secretary of War.

In 1816, James Monroe was elected America ’s fifth president. His presidency lasted two terms from 1817–1825 and was referred to as The Era of Good Feeling because of the relative lack of political bitterness between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republican Party. The “good feeling,” however, was short-lived as a painful economic depression swept through the country as a result of the Panic of 1819. That same year, Congress became locked in a bitter debate over

the admission of Missouri as a slave state that finally ended with the Missouri Compromise in 1820. As part of the compromise, Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

Monroe is probably best known for the Monroe Doctrine, a document largely written by John Quincy

Adams. The document outlined America’s foreign policy stance and proclaimed neutrality in European affairs. It also condemned European colonization and declared that such colonization in North and South America was a direct threat to the United States.

After his second term in

office ended in 1825, Monroe lived at Monroe Hill on the campus of the University of Virginia. The current campus served as Monroe’s farm from 1788 to 1817, when he sold it to the university. Racked by debt, he lived a humble existence before moving to New York City after the death of his wife in 1830. He died on July 4, 1831, of tuberculosis

and heart failure, becoming the third president to die on July 4. He was originally buried in New York City but now lies in Richmond, Virginia. In 1824, the capital city of the African nation of Liberia was renamed Monrovia in his honor. It is the only foreign capital named after a US president.

James Monroe

John Quincy Adams was born on July 11, 1767, to Abigail and John Adams in Braintree, Massachusetts. John Quincy was largely raised by his mother because his father was heavily involved in the American Revolution. Early on in the Revolutionary War, John Quincy Adams feared his family would be kidnapped or killed because his father signed the Declaration of Independence. John Quincy witnessed the war firsthand as his hometown was so close to the center of Revolutionary action. Soldiers often marched right through his yard. From the ages of ten to seventeen, John Quincy accompanied his father on a special convoy to Europe, where he spent seven years traveling to Prussia, the Netherlands, England, and even Paris, where he went to school with the grandsons of Benjamin Franklin. John Quincy returned to the United States in 1785 and enrolled in Harvard as an advanced student, graduating in just two years with a law degree.

After graduation, John Quincy opened his own law firm in Massachusetts but quickly eschewed law for a career in politics. After John Quincy’s father was elected president in 1796, he sent John Quincy to be the minister to Prussia. When Adams lost his bid for reelection to Thomas Jefferson in 1800, Jefferson recalled John Quincy, bringing him back to the United States. After he came back to the States. In 1802 John Quincy was elected to the Massachusetts State Senate and then the US Senate.

When James Monroe became president in 1817, he appointed John Ambassador to the Russian Court. His stint as ambassador to Russia was temporary as he was called to Belgium to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent, which was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812. John Quincy was then named Secretary of State in the Monroe cabinet and was the architect behind the Monroe Doctrine, which aimed to prevent European colonization in Latin America

by affirming that the United States would provide protection over the entire Western Hemisphere. The Monroe Doctrine was America’s first articulation of foreign policy. Together with James Monroe and other American politicians of the time, Adams helped to usher in a period of American history known as the Era of Good Feeling.

In 1824, John Quincy Adams won one of the most controversial presidential

elections in American history, becoming the nation’s sixth president. In the election, neither Adams nor Andrew Jackson received the majority of electoral votes, leaving it to Congress to determine the victor. In what came to be known as the “corrupt bargain,” it is believed that John Quincy offered Senator Henry Clay the Secretary of State position if he convinced Congress to elect him president instead of his opponent,

Andrew Jackson. The corrupt bargain angered many Jackson supporters and even caused Jackson to resign from the Senate.

John Quincy’s term as president was marred by controversy created by his political enemies (Jackson supporters), who aimed to block any new legislation he supported. During his presidency, industrialization intensified in the Northern United States, highlighted by construction of the Erie Canal.

Adams was also successful in paying off much of the national debt.

In 1828, John Quincy ran for reelection against Andrew Jackson but was defeated, becoming only the second president to fail in a reelection bid (the first was his father). After the loss to Jackson, John Quincy returned home to Massachusetts, where he served in the House fighting for the abolition of slavery. John Quincy Adams died in 1848.

John Quincy Adams

Andrew Jackson was born in South Carolina on March 15, 1767. He was the third son of Andrew and Elizabeth Jackson, immigrants from Northern Ireland. Jackson’s father died days before he was born. As a youngster, Jackson experienced no formal education but spent several years reading and studying law. At the age of 20 he was admitted to the bar. In 1788, he was appointed public prosecutor of the western district of North Carolina. He would soon settle in Nashville, Tennessee, and become a successful lawyer.

In Tennessee, Jackson met Rachel Donelson Robards who would eventually become his wife. Jackson and Rachel believed that Captain Robards had received a legal divorce by the Virginia legislature, but the marriage was not officially dissolved until 1793. This stunned the righteous Jackson and the couple was properly remarried in 1794. Jackson’s enemies would claim that he stole another man’s wife and lived with her for three years. These claims did not sit well with Jackson and often invoked his famous temper. Jackson killed

Charles Dickinson, a fellow lawyer, in a pistol duel for insulting Rachel. As Jackson continued to prosper in Tennessee, he built his famous mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville.

On March 4, 1823, Andrew Jackson was elected senator of Tennessee. The next year, he ran for the Presidency of the United States. His opponent in the election was John Quincy Adams. Neither Jackson nor Adams won the majority vote, and the election was to be determined in the House of Representatives. Henry Clay, who lost the presidential election, was still the speaker of the House of Representatives. Clay was a friend and advocate of Adams and lobbied hard for his election. Adams eventually won and appointed Clay to be his secretary of state. Jackson and his supporters cried foul. They believed that corruption, thievery, and crooked politics had cost him the election. These events would drive Jackson’s campaign in 1828.

In 1828, Jackson won the election by a landslide and became the nation’s seventh president. He was seen as the people’s pres-

ident. He received 178 electoral votes to Adams’s 83. Jackson wasted no time in putting his mark on the presidency. Jackson claimed that the old corrupt politicians had to go. He removed almost the entire old regime and replaced them with people he chose. In 1828, however, Rachel died and Jackson became depressed.

In 1832, Andrew Jackson took measures to take away the federal charter of the Second Bank

of the United States. Jackson believed the bank was unconstitutional, too powerful, exposed the nation’s finances to foreign interests, favored northeastern states, and was corrupt. Eventually, Jackson succeeded in this endeavor, and the bank’s charter was revoked. Hundreds of state and local banks took over the national bank’s lending functions.

Andrew Jackson is perhaps best known for his Indian removal programs. In 1830, Jackson

signed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized Congress to purchase Indian lands in the east in exchange for unsettled land in the west. Jackson’s actions were particularly popular in the south, as gold had been discovered on Cherokee lands in Georgia. Jackson pressured Cherokee leaders to sign a removal treaty (known as the Treaty of New Echota) that was surely rejected by most Cherokee people. The treaty, which was enforced by Martin Van Buren, resulted in the

removal of the Cherokee Indians from their native lands via the Trail of Tears. The Cherokee were forced to walk hundreds of miles from Georgia to present-day Oklahoma. Thousands died along the way. In all, more than 45,000 Indians were “removed” during Jackson’s administration.

Andrew Jackson retired to his mansion in Tennessee after his second term. He died on June 8, 1845, at the Hermitage

Andrew Jackson

Martin Van Buren was born on December 5, 1782, in Kinderhook, New York. Van Buren’s parents were Dutch farmers and taught him the Dutch language before he learned English. He attended school at a village schoolhouse until the age of 14. At the age of 16, however, Van Buren began studying law at the office of prominent Kinderhook attorneys. By 1803, Van Buren was admitted to the New York State Bar at the age of 21.

In 1807, Van Buren married Hannah Hoes, his first cousin once removed. Hoes was raised in a Dutch home and spoke English with a strong accent. The Van Buren’s would eventually have five sons, four of which survived into adulthood. In 1819, Hannah died of tuberculosis. Martin would never re-marry. To learn more about Hannah Hoes Van Buren, click here.

Van Buren’s family had been involved in politics from the time he was a child, and Martin became involved

shortly after becoming an attorney. In 1815, he was elected Attorney General (top legal official) for the State of New York while serving in the state’s senate, where he fought for increased soldier pay and expansion of New York’s militia. He soon gained political influence and was nicknamed “the Little Magician” for his skill in ensuring his political supporters were awarded government jobs and incentives for remaining loyal. This practice was known as “the spoils system,” and became an accepted aspect of politics. Van Buren’s political cronies would eventually organize themselves into the Democratic Party.

Van Buren served as senator of New York from 1821 to 1829. In 1829, he was elected as governor of New York. Van Buren’s term as governor was the shortest in the history of the state, largely because newly elected president Andrew Jackson appointed him as Secretary of State on March 5, 1829. In 1831, he strategically resigned

as Secretary of State in the wake of the Petticoat Affair, in which members of Andrew Jackson’s cabinet and wives refused to associate with Secretary of War John Eaton and his wife because of disapproval over the circumstances of their marriage. Jackson, however, was fond of Van Buren, and appointed him as his vice-presidential running mate in the Election of 1832. When Jackson was elected president, Van Buren

became his vice-president. As vice-president, Van Buren was one of Jackson’s most trusted advisors and stood by Jackson in contentious issues such as the Nullification Crisis of 1828, in which South Carolina attempted to void a federal tariff that it claimed hurt its economy and favored the North.

In 1837, with Jackson’s support, Van Buren was elected as America’s eighth

president.

During his presidency, Van Buren was tasked with dealing with the Panic of 1837, a financial crisis that resulted in five years of economic depression. Like his predecessor, Andrew Jackson, Van Buren supported measures to remove Native Americans from their lands to reservations in Oklahoma. Throughout his presidency and after, Van Buren opposed the abolishment of slavery,

even though he believed the practice to be immoral. Van Buren would be blamed for the country’s precarious economic position and was defeated by William Henry Harrison in the presidential election of 1840.

Although Van Buren sought to return to the White House, political missteps cost him any real chance of election.

Van Buren died on July24, 1862, at the age of 79.

Martin Van Buren

William Henry Harrison was born into an influential political family on February 9, 1773, in Charles City County, Virginia. Harrison’s father was a wealthy Virginia planter who signed the Declaration of Independence and later became governor of Virginia.

Harrison attended Hampden-Sydney College and studied classics and history. He next moved to Richmond to study medicine. In 1791, after the death of his father, Harrison stopped studying medicine and joined the US Army. He was sent to the Northwest Territory (present-day Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois), where he served as an aide to “Mad Anthony” Wayne. Under Wayne, Harrison learned how to command an army of frontier soldiers.

In 1798, Harrison resigned from the US Army and became Secretary of the Northwest Territory. In 1799, Harrison was elected as a delegate representing the Northwest Territory in Congress. After helping to gain passage of the Harrison Land Act, which made it easier for settlers to buy land in the Northwest Territory, Harrison resigned as a delegate from Congress and became governor of the Northwest Territory. As governor, Harrison secured a vast expanse of land at the expense of the Indians who inhabited it. Indian resistance, under the leadership of Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa, would soon become violent. In 1811, Harrison and 1,000 soldiers marched to Prophetstown, Indiana (an Indian village), for the purposes of removing the Indians. An epic

battle ensued known as the Battle of Tippecanoe, in which Harrison and his men massacred the Indians. Later, in the War of 1812, Harrison commanded an army that routed the British at the Battle of Thames (in present-day Ontario). Harrison instantly became a war hero.

After serving in both the Ohio Senate and House of Representatives, Harrison was elected to the US Senate. He served in the Senate until he was appointed Minister to Colombia in 1828. In 1836, Harrison ran for president of the United States but was defeated by Martin Van Buren. In 1840, Harrison again ran for president and was elected

in a landslide victory. Harrison’s vice president was John Tyler. Their catchy campaign slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler too” is one of the most famous in American history.

Harrison took office on March 4, 1841. That day, Harrison delivered the longest inaugural speech in American history—in the

bitter cold. Harrison quickly developed a cold, which turned into pneumonia. Despite intensive medical treatment, Harrison died just one month later. He was the first president to die in office. To this day, his presidency was the shortest in American history—32 days.

William Henry Harrison

John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790 in Charles City County, Virginia. Tyler was one of eight children and was born into a wealthy family. His father was a tobacco planter and judge at the U.S. Circuit Court at Richmond, Virginia. By the time John was twelve he was enrolled at the College of William Mary and graduated at 17.

After college, John studied law with his father, who had been elected as Governor of Virginia (1808-1811). John was admitted to the Virginia state bar in 1809 and began practicing law in Charles City County . His political career began in 1811 when he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates (Virginia General Assembly today). From 18161821 he served in the Virginia House of Representatives before returning to the House of Delegates. In 1825, he was elected Governor of Virginia and served for two years. From 1827 to 1836, John served as Senator. In 1840, Tyler switched political allegiance to the Whig party after it promised to make him the vice-presidential running mate of presidential candidate

William Henry Harrison in the upcoming election. “Tipeecanoe and Tyler too,” was their famous slogan and Tyler was inaugurated as vice-president in 1841. Just a month after inauguration, William Henry Harrison died of pneumonia and Tyler ascended to the presidency. He would become the first president to ascend to the presidency because of the death of the president. Tyler ’s rise to the presidency was controversial and many detractors referred to him as “His Accidency,” because he “accidentally” became president. Nevertheless, Tyler insisted on taking on the full duties of the president.

Tyler, however, had plans to put his personal stamp on the presidency (much to the dismay of the Whigs). Although it was thought Tyler would strictly adhere to Whig policies and ideals, he repeatedly vetoed legislation introduced by Whig party members, including two banking acts proposed by the influential Henry Clay. As a result, the president was expelled from the Whig Party and became “the man without

a party.” Furthermore, the entire cabinet appointed by Harrison resigned within a year of Tyler ’s ascent.

Tyler struggled in his presidency to be taken seriously and had a contentious relationship with Congress. Nevertheless, his presidency produced several positive outcomes. His Secretary of State, Daniel Webster, negotiated the Waterton-Ashburton Treaty that fixed the border between

Maine and British Canada and ended hostile relations between the two nations over the disputed borders. In addition, The “Log-Cabin” bill enabled a settler to claim 160 acres of land before it was offered publicly for sale, and later pay $1.25 an acre for it. In 1845, the Republic of Texas was annexed and granted statehood, making it the nation’s largest state. On his last day in office, Florida was admitted as a state.

After his presidency, Tyler retired to his plantation in Charles City County. He renamed his land “ Sherwood Forest ,” as a final jab at the Whig Party that had expelled him. During the Civil War, he sided with the Confederacy and even became a member of the Provisional Confederate Congress. Tyler died in 1862. Because of his support for the Confederacy he was the only President whose death was not mourned in Washington . Furthermore, he is

considered the only president to have died outside of the United States (his death occurred when Virginia had seceded from the Union.). During his life he married two women, Letitia Christian, who died in the White House in 1842, and Julia Gardiner, whom he married after the death of his first wife. Tyler would have fifteen children in all, eight with his first wife and seven with his second. He is buried in Richmond, Virginia.

John Tyler

James K. Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in 1795. He graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina in 1818. As a young man he became a successful lawyer, entered politics and joined the Tennessee Legislature. Polk’s political career progressed quickly. He served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1835-1839. He served as governor of Tennessee afterwards. He would earn the nickname “Little Hickory,” for his close association to Andrew Jackson, who was called “Old Hickory.”

In 1844, Polk was elected president of the United States – the first

and only Speaker of the House to ever ascend to the presidency. He was an advocate of Manifest Destiny (western expansion) and supported the annexation of Texas, as well as acquisition of California and Oregon. Later that year, Polk negotiated a treaty with Great Britain which resulted in his country’s acquisition of the Oregon Territory. Although Texas became the 31st state in 1845, the attempted acquisition of California resulted in the Mexican-American War. Polk initially offered to buy California and the New Mexico territory from Mexico for $20,000,000, plus forgiveness of other

debts. The Mexican government refused, which prompted Polk to send general (and the next president) Zachary Taylor and his troops to the region. The Mexicans saw this as a sign of aggression and attacked Taylor’s troops.

Congress declared war

and promptly defeated Mexican forces and occupied Mexico City. At the end of the war, Mexico agreed to give up California and the New Mexico territory for $15,000,000. The new lands increased the land mass of the American nation significantly.

Polk’s presidency is regarded as very successful and he is considered by historians to have been the most successful single-term, non-assassinated president. During his presidency, the first postage stamps were issued, the Smithsonian museums were dedicated, and

the United States Naval Academy was opened.

In failing health, Polk left the White House in 1849 (he never tried to win re-election). Only 103 days after his last as president, he died of Cholera in Nashville, Tennessee.

James K. Polk

Zachary Taylor, the 12th President of the United States, was born on November 24, 1784. Taylor was born in Barboursville, Virginia to a wealthy family of planters.

In 1808, Zachary Taylor joined the army as a first lieutenant of the Seventh Infantry Regiment. By 1809, he was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. Soon after his commission as an officer, he was made a captain in 1810. One year later in 1811, Taylor was sent to Fort Knox where he took command and received honors for his successful restoration of order among the men serving at Fort Knox. Taylor

continued to prove himself a solid leader for the United States eventually rising to the rank of Major General. His victories during the Second Seminole War resulted in his nickname “Old Rough and Ready.”

During his short presidency, Taylor was instrumental in admitting California as an official state of the Union. Taylor also helped to settle state border disputes between Texas and New Mexico that would bring the western territories of the United States together.

In July of 1850, Zachary Taylor was diagnosed with cholera

morgues. Cholera was a common digestive illness of the time. A fifty foot tall monument was placed near his grave in Louisville, Kentucky by the Commonwealth of Kentucky to memorialize his life and presidency.

Millard Fillmore was born on January 7, 1800, in Cayuga County, New York. He had eight brothers and sisters. As a teenager, Fillmore served as an apprentice to a cloth maker but received little formal education apart from briefly attending New Hope Academy in New Hope, New York. In 1819, he began to clerk for Judge Walter Wood in Montville, New York, whom he studied law under. In 1823, he

was admitted to the New York bar and started practicing in East Aurora, New York (near Buffalo). In 1826, he married Abigail Powers. The couple would have two children.

Fillmore’s law career moved quickly. In 1836, he formed the practice Fillmore, Hall & Haven, which would become one of western New York’s most successful firms. In 1846, Fillmore founded the University of Buffalo, which today is the largest university in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. From 1832 to 1843, Fillmore served in the New York State Assembly as a Whig. From 1848 to 1849, he served as New York State Comptroller.

In 1849, Fillmore was selected as Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor’s running mate.

In 1850, President Zachary Taylor died unexpectedly, and Fillmore was sworn in as the 13th president. He would be the last Whig president and the first president to have been born after the death of George Washington.

Fillmore’s presidency was dominated by dissention in the Whig Party and by the growing division over the question of the extension of slavery into new states. In what came to be known as the Compromise of 1850, California was admitted to the Union as a free state,

the New Mexico Territory was established, and the Fugitive Slave Law was enforced in the Northern states, enraging some Northern members of the Whig Party.

As the dissention over the slavery issue caused the disintegration of the Whig Party, Fillmore joined the Know-Nothing Party, an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant party that believed America was being overrun by immigration. Like the Whigs, the Know-Nothing Party soon disintegrated and Fillmore’s political career ended. In 1862, he founded the Buffalo Historical Society and became its first president. Fillmore died on March 8, 1874, of a stroke.

Zachary Taylor Millard Fillmore

Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, was born on November 23, 1804, in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. Pierce was more than just a career politician he was both a successful lawyer and brigadier general in the United States Army, during the Mexican American war.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Pierce entered politics at an early age. By the age of 24, Franklin Pierce was elected to the New Hampshire legislature. When he was only 26 years old, he was appointed Speaker of

the New Hampshire legislature. Next, his political career led him to Washington, DC, as an elected representative and eventually a Senator for the state of New Hampshire.

In 1853, Franklin Pierce became the 14th President of the United States. Tragedy stuck the Pierce family just two months prior to Franklin taking the office of president. The couple’s eleven-year-old son, Benny, was killed when the family’s train derailed. Despite the horrendous tragedy, Pierce endured and

took the office while still grieving for his child. During his presidency, Franklin Pierce embraced westward expansion and supported popular sovereignty in Kansas, which allowed the citizens of Kansas to decide whether or not to allow slavery there.

Pierce’s stance angered many abolitionists, who referred to him as a “doughface,” a northern politician who sympathized with the South. During his presidency, Pierce also approved the Gadsden Purchase, which added parts of modern-day Arizona

and New Mexico to the United States. Pierce’s presidency, however, is remembered for its inability to stem the rising tide of secession, and its failure to solve sectional conflict. Some historians rank his presidency as among the worst of all presidents.

His support in the North was further compromised as he became a vocal critic of Abraham Lincoln. President Pierce struggled his entire life with alcoholism and died at age 64, from cirrhosis of the liver.

Franklin Pierce

James Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791, near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.

He was the second of ten children. In 1809, he graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, even though he was previously expelled from the school for bad behavior. After graduating, he studied law and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1812. In the War of 1812 against Great Britain, Buchanan fought in the defense of Baltimore.

Buchanan’s political career began in 1814 in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He next served in Congress as a representative for Pennsylvania from 1821–1831. From 1832 to 1834, he served as the United States Ambassador to Russia. In 1834, he was elected to fill a vacancy in the US Senate and was reelected in 1837 and 1843 before resigning in 1845. He next served as Secretary of State under President James

K. Polk and negotiated a treaty that designated the northern boundary of the western United States at the 49th parallel. This was known as the Oregon Treaty. After the Polk administration, Buchanan continued his work in foreign relations and served as ambassador to Great Britain.

In 1856, Buchanan was nominated for president by the Democratic Party. Buchanan defeated the Republican candidate John C. Fremont and was elected the nation’s 15th president. Immediately, his presidency got off to a controversial start as Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, which asserted the Constitution did not authorize the right to prohibit slavery in the new territories. Buchanan, who was sympathetic to the Southern cause, was decried by abolitionists after he lobbied for the cause

of slaveholders. Abraham Lincoln even suggested the outcome may have been a conspiracy of slaveholders to gain control of the federal government. During the Bleeding Kansas controversy, Buchanan supported the LeCompton Constitution, which would have admitted Kansas to the Union as a slave state. Even though the LeCompton Constitution was rejected by Kansas voters,

Buchanan managed to pass the bill through the House of Representatives (although it was rejected by the Senate). Buchanan’s pro-slavery position infuriated Northerners and weakened the power of the Democratic Party by alienating some of its members. By 1860, the Democratic Party had split into a Northern and Southern contingency, each nominating its own candidate for the

Don’t be like President Buchanan (the only bachelor President) Buy her the ring!

presidential election of 1860. With the party divided, the Republican Party candidate Abraham Lincoln was assured of the presidency. At the end of Buchanan’s presidency, the issue of slavery had grown so divisive that seven states seceded from the Union. Buchanan refused to take a stand on the issue of secession, claiming that states did not have the right to secede but that the federal

government could not stop them if they did.

James Buchanan died on June 1, 1868, at the age of 77 at his home, known as Wheatland. Historians generally consider him a weak president who failed to deal with the secession of the Southern states. He was the only president to have never married.

James Buchanan

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky, to Thomas and Nancy Lincoln in their one room log cabin on their farm known as Sinking Spring (near modern-day Hodgenville, Kentucky). Although Thomas lacked formal education, he was an excellent farmer and carpenter, and oftentimes served as a member of the jury.

In 1830, Abe’s father moved the family to Illinois following fears of another milk sickness outbreak. After enduring several plagues and one of the worst winters on record, Abe decided to leave his father’s homestead and set off on his own at the age of 22.

In August of 1832, Abe become a candidate for one of four representatives of Sangamon County in the Illinois Legislature, despite being a resident in the county for

only nine months. There were thirteen candidates, and he finished eighth on the ballot. In 1834, Abe would campaign again for representative in the Illinois state legislature. Abe traveled from village to village giving speeches, attending shooting matches, horse races and other community events. Again, there were thirteen candidates, but this time Abe won. Abe became an influential force of the Whig party in the Illinois legislature and was reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. During this time, the issue of slavery became more and more contentious in Illinois and many other states. In 1837, Lincoln first spoke publicly to the legislature concerning his views on slavery when it passed a set of resolutions against abolitionist groups.

In 1836, Lincoln endeavored to study law. By the end of

1836, he was admitted to the Illinois state bar and obtained his license to practice. The next year, he moved to Springfield. Abe soon became a respected lawyer, known for his honesty, wit, oratory and hard work.

In December of 1839, Abe met Mary Todd, a “handsome” woman from a wealthy, slave owning family from Lexington, Kentucky.

The Lincoln Funeral Car

By 1840 Abe and Mary Todd became engaged. Unfortunately, their mutual affections failed to last and by 1841, the engagement was broken, plunging Abe into a deep depression that rendered him unable to attend to his business or his job. In 1842 Abe and Mary had re-established relations and were married on November 4th of that year.

Following his marriage, Abe’s interest in politics continued to influence the course he would take in life. Despite entering a law partnership with Judge Stephen Logan, Abe made several unsuccessful attempts to gain the Whig nomination for congressman in the 30th District of Illinois. In 1846, however, Abe was finally nominated and elected in August of that year. Abe

served one two-year term in Washington and was the only Whig representative in the Democrat-dominated Illinois delegation.

After this stint as congressman, Lincoln returned to Springfield with a new vigor to practice law. He “rode the circuit” twice every year for ten weeks, practicing law in county seats throughout the state of Illinois. Many of

Abraham Lincoln

his cases involved disputes regarding the operations of barges, drawbridges, and railroads. He would argue cases in front of the Illinois Supreme Court some 175 times, and even argued a case in front of the United States Supreme Court. Of the 51 cases in which he was the only lawyer for a particular client, 31 of the cases were decided in his favor.

Late that year, Abe decided to run for the Illinois Senate seat as a Whig. The Whigs, at the time, were crumbling from the inside out. Differing opinions within the party concerning the Kansas-Nebraska Act threatened to tear the party in two, or, to obliterate it all together. Consequently, Lincoln lost the nomination, but became instrumental in the formation of a new party – the Republican Party. The Republican Party quickly gained influence and became a national political powerhouse by the time Lincoln would be elected president.

By 1860, the United States was in the midst of serious political turmoil. The issue of slavery threatened to rip the nation apart. The Democratic Party had been split into two factions, the Northern Democrats and the Southern Democrats. The Northern Democrats nominated

Stephen A. Douglas from Illinois for president, and the Southern Democrats nominated John C. Breckinridge from Kentucky. Douglas would become the first presidential candidate to “campaign,” by embarking on a national speaking tour. The newly formed anti-slavery Republican Party nominated Abraham Lincoln, a Representative from Illinois, legendary for his oratory. Lincoln won the nomination over three more well-known candidates, William Seward, Salmon P. Chase and Edward Bates, all of whom would become members of his cabinet. The Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell from Tennessee.

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was officially elected as president, despite the fact that he wasn’t even listed on the ballot in nine southern states. Because the bulk of the voting population lived in the Northern states, those states had higher electoral values. John C. Breckinridge won every southern state except Virginia and Tennessee. The results of the election brought the country to Civil War. South Carolina, whose voters believed that a Republican president would restrict slavery in the new territories, and then attempt to prohibit it completely, supported secession. They

believed slavery was an American “institution,” and that their agricultural economy would collapse without it.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina issued a Declaration of Secession from the United States. Ten other states would follow its lead within a few months. The new President had a mighty task of preserving a fractured Union. War was the only way.

As war approached, President Lincoln sent provisions to American forts that were now in Confederate territory, including Fort Sumter, near Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Secessionists in South Carolina considered this an act of war and began bombarding the fort on April 12, 1861. Union forces at Fort Sumter surrendered and thus, the American Civil War began. On April 15, Abe requested the mobilization of 75,000 troops from the states for the purposes of “preserving the Union.” In the following days, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Virginia seceded from the Union, refusing to mobilize against their southern neighbors. The secession of Virginia, one of the most populous states in the country, was a major prize for the Confederacy. To reward it, the Confederate capital was moved from Montgomery, Alabama to

Richmond, Virginia.

From the time the war had started, Lincoln had wrestled with himself and members of his cabinet concerning the proper timing of emancipating slaves in the South. With the momentum of the war swinging back to the Union, and on the heels of the major victory at Antietam, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862 to be effective on January 1, 1863. The decree freed all slaves in “enemy territory.” The proclamation, however, failed to address slavery in the border states. Lincoln believed forcing the border states of Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri to free their slaves would push them to join

the Confederacy. Slavery was ultimately abolished in the United States with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December of 1865.

On April 9, 1865, the Confederate States of America surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia. The Civil War was over and the Union would be preserved. At this point, President Lincoln had to consider the complicated task of reconstructing the Union and how to re-integrate the Confederate states back into the United States.

Lincoln believed in a policy of forgiveness and took a moderate approach to reconstruction, hoping

to reconstruct the Union as quickly as possible rather than indefinitely punish the rebel states. Unfortunately, the President did not have much of a chance to preside over Reconstruction. Just five days after the end of the war, Southern sympathizer and actor John Wilkes Booth assassinated the President while he was watching a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Lincoln’s bodyguard had apparently fallen asleep, allowing Booth access to the Presidential box. Lincoln died at 7:22 the next morning at the Peterson House across the street from the theater. Upon his death, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton uttered the timeless words “Now, he belongs to the ages.”

Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States. He was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808. He was born into poverty and ran away to Tennessee at an early age. After starting his own tailor shop, he married Eliza McCardle. He soon entered politics and became known as an adept speaker. He frequently spoke against the Southern aristocracy and was an advocate for the common man and poor farmer.

Johnson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1835, and later, to the Senate in 1841. In 1853, Johnson became governor of Tennessee. He then served as a Democrat in the United

States Senate until 1862. During secession and the Civil War, Johnson was the only senator from a seceded state that continued to participate in Congress. President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee after the state fell into Union hands, and he became Lincoln’s vice president in 1864. After President Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, Johnson was sworn in as America’s 17th president.

During his term in office, Johnson presided over Reconstruction, the period after the Civil War in which the Southern states were reintegrated into the Union. Johnson and Congress argued over the specifics of Recon-

struction. Johnson favored a quick restoration of rights and privileges, whereas Congress favored a more gradual

approach. Tensions grew when Johnson replaced Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Republicans claimed Johnson violated

the newly passed Tenure of Office Act. The House of Representatives passed a resolution to impeach Johnson. Although he was

acquitted (19 votes to 18), he was the first president to be impeached.

Andrew Johnson

Ulysses Simpson Grant was born April 26, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. Against his father’s wishes, Grant entered the US Military Academy and finished in the middle of the class. Like most military school graduates at the time, Grant was sent to Mexico and served under General Zachary Taylor during the Mexican War. In other endeavors before the Civil War, Grant was unsuccessful.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant was working at this father’s leather shop in Illinois. He was appointed by the Illinois governor as the commander of a local militia but soon rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Civil War. Grant’s aggressive and bold tactics were a major reason why the Union Army was

able to defeat the Confederates. His campaigns in the Mississippi River Valley were legendary and crucial to Union victory. In 1862, Grant led his forces to victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee. At Fort Donelson, Grant earned the nickname “Unconditional Surrender Grant.” Though less successful at Shiloh, Grant’s leadership opened the way for Union occupation of the Mississippi River. Grant went on to take the key port city of Vicksburg and then broke Confederate ranks at Chattanooga.

In 1864, President Lincoln named him general in chief of the Union army. Grant’s “Overland Campaign” at such battles as Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg took a heavy toll on Lee’s Army of

Northern Virginia, despite the heavy casualties inflicted upon his forces. Lee’s weakened forces held the Confederate strongholds of Petersburg and Richmond for ten months before being overwhelmed by Grant’s forces. On April 9, 1865, Ulysses S. Grant received

Lee’s surrender and the Civil War was over.

In 1869, Grant was elected president of the United States. Unlike his military campaigns, his presidency was less than successful and plagued by corruption. Although he presided over Reconstruction in

the South, Grant was seen associating with prospectors who tried to corner the market in gold. When he realized their plan, he authorized the Treasury to sell enough gold to ruin the plan, but the damage had already been done to business. After the presidency, Grant

joined a financial firm that ultimately went bankrupt. In 1885, he died of throat cancer shortly after writing his personal memoirs. His works ultimately made $450,000 for his family. Grant is currently honored on the fifty-dollar bill of the United States.

Ulysses Simpson Grant

19th

Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio, in 1822. Rutherford’s father, a Scottish storekeeper, died several months before his birth, and his paternal uncle served as his father figure. Rutherford attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, and graduated in 1842 at the top of his class. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1845. Rutherford married Lucy Ware Webb in 1856. Together, they had eight children, two of which died before they were three.

Rutherford’s military career began in 1858 when he accepted an appointment as solicitor for the city of Cincinnati. During the US Civil War, Rutherford served as a major in the 23rd Ohio infantry, which fought for Union forces. He would eventually be promoted to major general and would be the only future US president to be wounded in the war.

Rutherford’s political career

began in 1864 when he was nominated to Congress by the governor of Ohio and served from 1868 to 1872. He would serve as governor of Ohio from 1868 to 1872. In 1876, Hayes was nominated for president of the United States, though he was not expected to win. Nevertheless, he proved victorious by one electoral vote, though the Democratic Party alleged the vote was fraudulent and would refer to Hayes as “Rutherfraud B. Hayes.” The election was so close that a special committee known as the Electoral Commission was set up to decide the winner.

On March 4, 1877, Hayes became the 19th president and first to take the presidential oath in the White House.

During his presidency, workers from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company went on strike (refused to work). The strike spread and railroad workers throughout the country refused to

MISSION

work. The labor disputes exploded into riots in several cities, and Rutherford made the controversial decision to send federal troops to control the riots. These

troops would eventually fire into some of the crowds of rioters, killing seventy people. Although peace was restored, many were unhappy with Rutherford’s re -

The mission of Nemo Paws is to help animals in need. From rescue e orts to our southern friends to helping our local community feed forgotten and homeless pets.

Nemo Paws is seeking help for 2018. To learn more about volunteering and donations, find us on Facebook.

sponse to the matter. During his presidency, Hayes also signed bills that allowed for the development of lands in the desert southwest and other lands in the west.

Rutherford did not run for a second term as president and died of a heart attack on January 17, 1893.

Rutherford B. Hayes

James A. Garfield was born on November 19, 1831, in Orange Township, Ohio. Garfield was raised by his mother as his father died when he was 17 months old. In 1851, he enrolled in Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, before transferring to Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. At Williams, James became a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. In 1856, Garfield returned to Hiram College as a professor of classical languages. Just one year later, in 1857, he was made president of the college.

On November 11, 1858, he married Lucretia Rudolph. Together, they would have seven children. James soon discovered that he was more suited to politics and the study of law than academia. In 1859, he was elected as state senator of Ohio and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1860.

During the Civil War, Gar-

field served under several generals and saw action at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee and Siege at Corinth (Mississippi). He served as the chief of staff under General William Rosecrans’s Army of the Cumberland. He would eventually be promoted to major general but left the Army to serve in the House of Representatives. James would be reelected as an Ohio representative every two years for 18 years.

In 1880, Garfield’s political career was damaged by controversies surrounding the publication of the Morey letter. The Morey letter was allegedly a letter written by James Garfield indicating that he favored an increase in Chinese immigration. At the time, increased Chinese immigration was very unpopular among politicians, and Garfield failed to confirm or deny the allegations because he could not remember if he wrote it. Nevertheless,

at the Republican National Convention in 1880, Garfield gained support of his party and was nominated for president. He would defeat the Democratic candidate, Winfield Scott Hancock, to become the nation’s twentieth president.

Unfortunately, Garfield had

little time to accomplish anything as president. On July 2, 1881, just under four months into his presidency, he was shot in Washington, DC, by Charles J. Guiteau, an attorney who was angry because he was denied a federal job. Guiteau would later be convicted and executed for assassination.

Featuredinthe BestoftheBest!

Although Garfield was not killed immediately, he slowly deteriorated over a period of several months. He died on September 19, 1881, of complications from his wounds. Some historians believe he would have survived if his medical team would have been more capable. Many believe the infections that

ultimately caused his death were inadvertently introduced to his body by his own doctors. He was only 49 years old.

James A. Garfield

Today, James A. Garfield is buried in Cleveland, Ohio. He is one of only three presidents to have died before his mother.

Chester A. Arthur was born February 5, 1829, in Fairfield, Vermont, but was raised largely in Schenectady, New York, and other New York villages. He was the fifth of nine children. His father was a converted Baptist minister and staunch abolitionist. In 1845, Arthur enrolled at Union College where he was president of the debate society and doubled as a schoolteacher. In 1853, Arthur moved to New York City where he studied law. He was admitted to the New York State Bar the next year and joined a law firm that was renamed Culver, Parker, and Arthur. Arthur’s law firm would win several high-profile cases involving rights of slaves.

In 1859, Arthur married Ellen Herndon. Together the couple would have three children, two of which survived past childhood.

After serving as Quartermaster General for the New York State militia during the Civil War, he returned to a new law practice he established in 1863. Soon, Arthur’s clientele included men associated with New York’s Republican political machine,

and Arthur’s political prospects began to blossom. As a result, Arthur began to spend more time in Republican politics than in practicing law. Arthur quickly became a trusted figure in the influential (and corrupt) Republican circles of New York.

In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed Arthur as Collector of the Customs House of the Port of New York, a powerful and lucrative position. In the election of 1880, Republican nominee James A. Garfield chose Arthur as his vice presidential running mate to secure support among New York’s powerful Republican political machine. Garfield and Arthur narrowly won the popular vote by little more than 7,000 votes in an election that recorded the highest qualified voter turnout in history (78.4%). In July of 1881, President James A. Garfield was assassinated, and Chester A. Arthur ascended to the presidency, becoming America’s 21st president.

Nicknamed the “Gentleman

Chester A. Arthur

Boss,” Arthur’s presidency is generally considered successful. He called for civil service reforms and responsible monetary policy. His policies were somewhat surprising given his past connection to corruption and the New York political machine. The crown jewel of the Arthur administration, however, was the 1883 Pendleton Civil Service Reform

Act. The landmark act, which was passed in response to a scandal in which politically appointed postal workers schemed to steal millions of dollars from the US Government, ensured that government positions would be filled based on a person’s merit rather than politics. In addition, Arthur vetoed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese

people from immigrating to America for twenty years. At the time, many people in America blamed Chinese immigrants for the floundering economy and decrease in overall wages. Although Congress could not veto the bill, a modified bill was ultimately passed that banned Chinese immigration for ten years.

Arthur’s political stances eroded his support in the Republican Party, which refused to nominate him for a second term. Arthur was also struggling with kidney disease and was likely too sick to perform duties for another term.

Chester A. Arthur died eighteen months after he left office on November 18, 1886.

22nd 24th &

Grover Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837, in Caldwell, New Jersey. His family moved to New York when he was young, but he could not attend college because of his father’s death. Nevertheless, he studied hard, and in 1859 he was admitted to the New York Bar Association.

Grover’s political career quickly blossomed in Buffalo, New York. In 1863, he became assistant district attorney; in 1871, he became sheriff; in 1881, he became mayor; and in 1882, he became governor of New York. In 1884, he defeated Republican James Blaine in the presidential race. In 1885, he entered office. During his first term as president, Grover enlarged the civil

service and vetoed pension raids on the Treasury. In addition, the Statue of Liberty was dedicated and the American Federation of Labor was formed. Despite his popularity, Grover Cleveland was defeated by Benjamin Harrison is his bid for reelection in 1889.

In 1892, Grover Cleveland defeated Benjamin Harrison in the popular election and became the first and only president to serve two non-consecutive terms as president (his two terms were separated by Benjamin Harrison’s presidency). Unfortunately for Cleveland, he entered his second term in a difficult position. The country was experiencing a money crisis brought about by a lowered gold

reserve and questionable spending. Cleveland was unsuccessful in his attempt to thwart an impending depression and refused to interfere in business matters or rising unemployment.

Grover Cleveland

In 1894, an unemployed worker named Jacob Coxey mobilized an army of jobless workers who walked from the Midwest to Washington DC demanding unemployment relief and legislation.

Cleveland rejected Coxie’s demands, and Coxie was arrested for trespassing. In 1896, the Democratic Party chose to nominate William Jennings Bryan as their presidential candidate rather than Grover

Cleveland. Grover Cleveland died on June 24, 1908. He was honored on the United States $1,000 bill before it was taken out of circulation.

Don’t be like President Buchanan (the only bachelor President) Buy her the ring!

23rd

Benjamin Harrison was born August 20, 1833, in North Bend, Ohio. He was one of eight children. His grandfather was ninth president and war hero William Henry Harrison and his great grandfather was Benjamin Harrison V, a Virginia governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Despite his prestigious family lineage, Benjamin’s family was not wealthy and he attended school in a single-room schoolhouse.

In 1852, Harrison graduated from Miami University (Ohio) and studied law afterwards.

In 1853, Harrison married Caroline Lavinia Scott. The couple would have two children, Russell and Mamie, both of which would live to adulthood. The following year, the couple moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where Benjamin practiced law and became interested in politics.

As Harrison’s law practice became more successful, his political prospects improved

among the Republican Party. During the Civil War, despite no military experience, Harrison commanded Union brigades in several battles in Georgia toward the end of the war. In 1865, President Lincoln nominated Harrison to the grade of brevet brigadier general.

After the war, Harrison had become a wealthy and respected lawyer. After an unsuccessful bid to become governor of Indiana, he was elected as the state’s Senator in 1880, a position which he held until 1887, before being defeated in a bid for re-election. Harrison, was nominated by the Republican Party as President in the election of 1888 against Grover Cleveland. In a tightly contested battle, Harrison lost the popular vote, but won the presidency in the electoral college. Political opponents would assert that Republicans bought the votes of electors to get Harrison elected.

During Harrison’s presidency, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, which prohibited companies from engaging in monopolistic (anti-competitive) behaviours. In this way, customers could have choices between service providers, giving companies incentives to improve services and price competitively. Congress

Benjamin Harrison

also passed the McKinley Tariff, which was designed to protect domestic industries from foreign companies by raising duties (taxes) on imports. During his presidency, Harrison repeatedly championed for civil rights for African Americans and introduced legislation that would have provided federal funding to school regardless of the races

such schools served. None of his measures, however, made it through Congress successfully. Despite the positive steps forward made during his term, the nation’s overall economic conditions worsened and support for Harrison dwindled in the Republican Party. Harrison would be defeated in his quest for re-election by Grover Cleveland. Grover

the world.VOTE!

Cleveland would become the first and only president to serve two non-consecutive terms as president.

Following his presidency, Harrison continued his legal work and served on the board of trustees at Purdue University. He died on March 13, 1901, of complications from influenza.

25th

William McKinley was born on January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio. He was the seventh of nine children. He attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, for one term before enlisting in the Union Army during the Civil War. After the war, McKinley was admitted to the New York Bar after graduating from Albany Law School.

In 1871, he married Ida Saxton. McKinley became active in the Republican Party and campaigned for Rutherford B. Hayes’ gubernatorial run in Ohio. He also gained a reputation as an excellent and compassionate lawyer after he refused payment from a group of 33 miners he successfully defended (except for one) for rioting against their employer. McKinley was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1877 and served until 1882. He was elected a second time in 1885 and served until 1891. In 1891, he was elected governor of Ohio, where he passed legislation advocating worker

safety and worker Unions. McKinley further cemented his reputation as an advocate of the working man in 1895 when he paid for provisions of food for a group of impoverished miners and organized a charity drive benefiting 10,000 people living in poverty in Ohio. In 1896, McKinley received the Republican nomination for President of the United States. McKinley campaigned on a platform that emphasized industry, banking, and opportunity for all and defeated his Democratic opponent William Jennings Bryan, becoming the nation’s 25th President.

As President, McKinley was true to his word. Business and agriculture thrived during his presidency. Nevertheless, his presidency was dominated by foreign relations, especially with Spain. The United States had interests in several Spanish colonies including Cuba and the Philippines. These colonies were thought to be in virtual rebellion thanks to sensationalized

stories in the newspapers and publications of William Randolph Hearst. Such stories stirred the emotions of its readers and prompted many to urge McKinley to declare war on Spain. In 1898, the warship U.S.S. Maine was mysteriously sunk in Havana Harbor (Cuba), killing 260 men. Congress soon declared war and U.S. forces easily defeated the Spanish in Cuba and the Philippines in what came to be known as the Spanish American War. In the

William McKinley

treaty that followed, the United States gained ownership of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico and temporary control over Cuba. Soon after, the United States annexed the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The acquisition of the Philippines would lead to the Philippine–American War. In 1900, McKinley was re-elected as President, defeating William Jennings Bryan for a second time. That year, he signed the Gold Standard Act which made

gold the only standard for redeeming paper money.

On September 5, 1901 as he was attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, he was shot by anarchist Leon Frank Czolgosz. Despite the fact that doctors thought McKinley would initially survive, his wounds became gangrenous and he died on September 14th. Theodore Roosevelt would be sworn in as the nation’s 26th president.

His killer would be executed by electric chair. Today, there are numerous monuments to McKinley throughout the country. Schools, counties, streets, and statues are dedicated to him in many different states. He is interred at the McKinley Memorial Mausoleum in Canton, Ohio, near the McKinley Presidential Library and Museum.

Theodore Roosevelt was born on October 27th, 1858 in New York City. In 1880, he graduated from Harvard University and enrolled in Columbia University’s school of law.

His political career began in 1882 in the New York State Assembly. In 1886, after spending three years at his North Dakota ranch, he returned to New York City and ran unsuccessfully for mayor. Nevertheless, his political career continued to blossom. In 1889, he was appointed to the U.S. Civil Service Commission by President Benjamin Harrison for which he served six years. In 1895, he became president of the New York City Board of Police Commissioners. Two years later, in 1897, he was appointed assistant secretary of the Navy by President William McKinley.

In 1898, in the wake of the U.S. war with Spain, Teddy Roosevelt resigned from the Navy and organized the first regiment U.S. volunteer cavalry, known as “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders”. The “Rough Riders”

were 2,000 specially selected men of different occupations and backgrounds trained by Roosevelt in San Antonio, Texas for special combat against the Spanish in Cuba. On June 20th, 1898, the “Rough Riders” left for Cuba. They landed at Daiquiri, Cuba and fought their way toward the Spanish garrison at Santiago. As they approached Santiago, the “Rough Riders” were attacked at San Juan Hill. Despite vigorous resistance from the Spanish, and mounting casualties, the “Rough Riders” charged up San Juan Hill, drove back the Spanish, and forced them to surrender, effectively ending the war. Teddy Roosevelt was a national hero!

In 1899, after the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt was elected governor of New York. Soon after, in 1900, he was nominated as vice presidential candidate on the Republican ticket. In 1901, he was inaugurated as William McKinley’s vice president. Roosevelt, however, would occupy the office of vice president for only a short time. Merely six

months after becoming vice president, President William McKinley was assassinated in Buffalo, NY. On September 14, 1901, Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as America’s 26th president. At the time he took office, he was the youngest president in the history of the United States.

Theodore Roosevelt served two eventful terms as president. In his first term, he supported a rebellion in Pana-

Theodore Roosevelt

ma that cleared the way for that country’s independence from Colombia, as well as for the U.S. acquisition of land in Panama that would later be used for construction of the Panama Canal. He fought vigorously against corporate corruption, and pushed for the dissolution of the Northern Securities Company for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act (forming a monopoly). In 1905, President Roosevelt helped mediate a peace treaty between Russia

and Japan for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1906, Roosevelt signed the Hepburn Act, which awarded greater powers to the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Federal Food and Drug Act. Furthermore, Roosevelt started the U.S. Forest Service and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act under which he proclaimed 18 national monuments, 5 national parks, 51 wildlife refuges and 150 national forests. In 1908, the Bureau of Investigation

was created to conduct investigations for the Justice Department.

After his second term as president, Teddy spent the rest of his life exploring and hunting. He died June 4th, 1918. Theodore Roosevelt National Park, in the Badlands of North Dakota, was dedicated after his death. Roosevelt was one of four presidents rendered on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

Teddy Roosevelt was the the first President to remodel the White House.

us

you remodel your White House.

William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio . He had four brothers and sisters. His father, Alphonso Taft, served as Secretary of War under Ulysses S. Grant. William attended Yale University where he became a member of the Skull and Bones secret society, co-founded by his father in 1832. Taft graduated at the top of his class and attended Cincinnati Law School. In 1886, he married his high school sweetheart Helen Herron. The next year, he was appointed judge of the Ohio Superior Court.

His political career began in 1890 after he was appointed Solicitor General by President Benjamin Harrison. From 1901 to 1903, he reluctantly served on a committee established by President William McKinley to establish a civilian government in the newly acquired Philippines. Taft was soon named Governor-General and became very popular among American and Filipinos. In

1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him as Secretary of War. In this position, Taft helped supervise the building of the Panama Canal, served as Secretary of State, and even took on presidential duties when Roosevelt was abroad. With support from Theodore Roosevelt, Taft ran for President in 1909. Taft easily won the election becoming the country’s 27th president, defeating William Jennings Bryan, who had been defeated twice by President McKinley, before losing again.

Taft’s presidency was highlighted by his strengthening of the Interstate Commerce Commission, expansion of the Civil Service, and his establishment of a postal savings bank and parcel post system. He also supported the passage of the 16th Amendment (federal income tax on corporations) and the 17th amendment (direct election of Senators by the people).

Nevertheless, his presidency is best-known for his blunders

in dealing with the nation’s business community. Lacking the charisma and charm of his mentor, Theodore Roosevelt, he quickly lost the support of the business community by launching anti-trust law suits against 80 different companies, including U.S. Steel (one of the nation’s largest corporations) and made numerous enemies in high places. Furthermore, his support of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act of 1909, which failed to lower the tariff to a level acceptable to most reformers, further alienated liberal Republicans. In 1913, Taft was defeat-

William Howard Taft

ed in his bid for a second term by Virginian Woodrow Wilson. In the election, Taft won only eight electoral votes, marking the worst defeat for a president seeking a second term in office in American history.

After his term in office, Taft was appointed as a professor at the Yale University School of Law and then, as president of the American Bar Association. In 1921, President Warren G. Harding nominated him as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. After confirmation in the Senate, Taft became the only

President to have ever served as Chief Justice. He served as Chief Justice for nine years and considered the appointment his greatest life accomplishment; allegedly remarking, “I don’t ever remember being president.” Only five weeks after retiring as Chief Justice, Taft died. He was the first President to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Today, Taft is a central figure in two enduring legends: 1.) According to legend, the seventh-inning stretch in baseball was born when Taft got up to

stretch in between the top and bottom of the seventh inning during a Chicago Cubs game. The crowd, out of respect to the President, stood up to stretch with him and the practice has endured ever since. 2.) William Howard Taft was the heaviest President. One night, he became stuck in the White House bathtub. According to legend, it took six aides and a gallon of butter to dislodge him. As a result, a new bathtub was built which remains the largest bathtub in America.

Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856, in Staunton, Virginia, but lived in Georgia and South Carolina in his childhood as well. He was the third of four children. Wilson was well education and graduated from Princeton University in 1879 where he excelled at debate. Following his graduation, Wilson attempted to study law, but found his studies laborious. Instead, Wilson was accepted to a Ph. D program in political science from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He graduated three years later. A year earlier, Wilson married Ellen Axson. In 1914, Wilson’s wife died of kidney disease. Wilson would marry Edith Bolling the following year.

Following his Ph. D, Wilson served as a professor at Cornell University, Bryn Mawr College Wesleyan University and eventually Princeton. During this time Ellen gave birth to two daughters, Margaret and Jessie. Wilson soon became an accomplished political science and history author. His texts on the function of government and

19th century history were used in many American universities. By 1902, Wilson had been elevated to president of Princeton University, a position which he held for eight years.

In 1910, Wilson took the political world by storm when he was elected as governor of New Jersey and then won the Democratic nomination for president in 1912. Wilson, who advertised himself as a “progressive,” easily won the election over Republicans William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. Wilson would become the nation’s first southern-born president since Zachary Taylor in 1848.

As president, Wilson’s progressive politics led to the passage of numerous acts designed to check big businesses.

Wilson’s second term was dominated by World War I. Upon the outbreak of the war, Wilson maintained a policy of neutrality, even after German U-boats sunk several ships that carried American passengers, including the British liner RMS

Woodrow Wilson

Lusitania. When Germany refused to curtail their submarine warfare, and attempted to broker a partnership with Mexico, Wilson declared war on Germany citing, “the world must be made safe for democracy.” Over 2.8 million men and boys were drafted for military service. Wilson successfully guided the nation through the war.

In 1918, Wilson issued his famous “Fourteen Points,” a

statement and speech outlining his vision of a free world, successful foreign policy, democracy, trade equality, free navigation, and solutions to territorial disputes in Europe. His speech ended with the promotion of the League of Nations, an organization of nations formed to promote world peace, disarmament, and diplomacy. In 1919, Wilson was issued the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in promoting the

League of Nations.

In 1918, Wilson promoted the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. In October of 1919 Wilson suffered a serious stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. Following his second term in office, Wilson and his wife moved to a townhouse in Washington, D.C. On February 3, 1924, Woodrow Wilson died from another stroke. His wife

would live in the townhouse another 37 years before dying at the age of 89. On the day of her death, the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, connecting Maryland and Virginia, was dedicated. In 1934, the $100,000 bill, the largest U.S. Currency note ever printed, honored Woodrow Wilson.

29th

Warren G. Harding was born on November 2, 1865, in Blooming Grove, Ohio. Harding was the first of eight children born to George (a schoolteacher) and Phoebe (a midwife). At the age of fourteen, Harding enrolled at Ohio Central University where he excelled in his studies. Following his graduation, he moved with his family to Marion, Ohio, where he and a friend purchased a struggling newspaper known as the Marion Star, which became the most successful newspaper in town. As editor of the paper, Harding learned much about the publishing industry and also became involved in local politics.

On July 8, 1891, Harding married Florence Kling, who was five years his elder. Harding affectionately called her “the dutchess.” The pair would have no children of their own, but Florence had a son from a previous relationship. Florence would become deeply involved in the Marion Star and

was officially designated its business manager.

In 1899, Harding was elected as state senator. He quickly became a popular and well-known politician and was eventually elected as lieutenant governor of Ohio, but was defeated in his bid to become the state’s governor. In 1914 Harding easily defeated Timothy Hogan and became a United States senator. Harding became a powerful voice in the Republican Party where he supported Prohibition and America’s involvement in World War I. As senator, Harding never introduced his own legislation and was careful not to take any political positions that could possibly alienate future political allies.

On December 17, 1919, Harding announced his intentions to run for president. Harding’s prospects for the office improved upon the sudden death of front-runner Theodore Roosevelt. Harding was nominated at the Republican National

Convention in 1920 as a compromise candidate. Historians liken the nomination of Harding to a “smoke-filled room,” where various powerful members of the Republican Party decided who could win the election. On November 2, 1920, Harding was elected the 29th president by a wide margin. He quickly appointed high-profile politicians to his cabinet and named Andrew Mellon secretary of the treasury, Herbert Hoover secretary of commerce, and Charles Evans Hughes as secretary of state. He also surrounded him-

self with political allies from his home state known as “the Ohio Gang,” some of which would ultimately bring great discredit to his legacy.

Harding’s presidency is often considered one of the most corrupt in history, although much of the corruption was uncovered after Harding died in office. The most infamous scandal to occur during his presidency was the Teapot Dome Scandal. The Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall was bribed by a major oil com-

pany to lease federal petroleum reserves in Wyoming and California at low prices rather than to the highest bidder. Fall would become the first cabinet member of a United States president to be sent to prison. Another member of Harding’s cabinet, Attorney General Harry Daugherty, was implicated in several corruption schemes, as were various others who were considered part of Harding’s inner circle. After his death, it was discovered that Harding had engaged in at least one long-term extramarital affair,

one of which conclusively resulted in the birth of a child. Harding, however, can be credited with guiding the nation out of its wartime emergency, increasing federal spending, and with the creation of the Bureau of the Budget. He also championed civil rights.

Harding’s presidency was cut short upon his sudden death on August 2, 1923, of a cerebral hemorrhage. He would become the sixth president to die in office.

Warren G. Harding

John Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. Calvin’s father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., was a general store owner and his mother, Victoria Josephine Coolidge, died when Calvin was young. Coolidge helped run the family store, but his dream was not to run the store, but rather, to be involved in politics. His father held many local and national offices, including senator, and he carried this intrigue into college.

Calvin Coolidge was accepted into the prestigious Amherst College, and there became a member of the Republican Club. In this club he became a prominent figure and was respected by his peers. Coolidge graduated in 1895, then began studying law and passed the bar exam in 1897. He opened his own practice and started participating in local Republican

politics.

Coolidge experienced great success in the Republican Party rather early in his political career, starting with his election to the city council in 1900. He then won several local elections. His major victory came when he was elected governor. As governor, Coolidge was able to put down a large strike, which cast him into the national spotlight and earned him a spot in the 1920 presidential election.

At the Republican National Convention, he was not elected president but instead was picked to be Warren G. Harding’s running mate. The Harding-Coolidge ticket won the election of 1920, but Harding’s presidency was plagued with scandal, like the infamous Teapot Dome Scandal. On August 2, 1923, Warren G. Harding died be -

cause of a heart attack, and Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his father, the only president to ever be sworn in by his own father.

As president, Coolidge was credited with restoring integrity to the White House and was given the nickname

John Calvin Coolidge

“Silent Cal” due to his dry sense of humor and his stoic demeanor. During his presidency he saw great economic prosperity during what later became known as “the Roaring Twenties.”

Coolidge believed in small government and tax cuts.

He was also instrumental in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which ensured women would be allowed to vote in all public elections. In 1924, the Republican Party decided to not choose Coolidge to run for reelection because he appeared worn out and exhausted after the

death of his son. After he left office, Coolidge actually took some responsibility for the stock market crash and openly admitted he “avoided the big problems” and said he could have prevented the Great Depression had he been more hands-on.

Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874, in a small town called West Branch, Iowa. By the time Herbert Hoover was just nine years old, he experienced a great deal of loss when his mother and father both died of unexpected illnesses. In elementary and high school, Hoover struggled to pass but had his sights set on being accepted to Stanford University. After barely passing the entrance exams, Hoover was accepted and majored in geology. Hoover spent his summers working as a geology assistant, but upon his graduation he eventually opened his own silver mine where he accumulated a great deal of wealth, making him a giant in this field.

While focusing on his mining business, Hoover also focused on helping people around the world

and is often credited with being a great humanitarian. Before his political career, Hoover was asked by the US government to help get 120,000 US citizens out of Europe. Due to his various humanitarian efforts, he is often referred to as the “great humanitarian.”

Hoover first showed interest in running for president in 1920 but was blocked due to his support of the League of Nations, and Warren Harding was elected to office. Under the Harding presidency, Hoover was picked to be the secretary of commerce, a position which he held under the Coolidge administration as well. Hoover eventually clinched the White House in the 1928 election by a record margin.

Hoover will forever be tied to the Great Depression due to the Black Tuesday Stock

Market Crash and unwillingness to use his political power to intervene and help the American people. Due to his conservative beliefs, Hoover believed the government should play a limited role in relief efforts and relied heavily on the idea of

“rugged individualism,” or the belief that the people would get themselves out of the Great Depression. Many of Hoover’s plans did not work, and this led to the creation of terms like “Hoovervilles,” or shantytowns.

Hoover was unsuccessful in his run for reelection and is remembered as being one of the most unpopular presidents in history. Herbert Hoover also has been criticized for speaking out against Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.

Roosevelt and other presidents that followed Hoover lobbied for people to change their attitudes toward Hoover because the Great Depression started before and ended after his presidency.

Herbert Clark Hoover

Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, NY in 1882. Born the fifth cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin was destined for politics. He attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. In 1905, Franklin married Eleanor Roosevelt. He was elected to the New York Senate five years later. President Woodrow Wilson elected him Assistant Secretary of the Navy in 1913.

In 1921, however, tragedy struck. Roosevelt contracted Polio, a once common disease that rendered him unable to walk. Roosevelt did not let his condition destroy his political career. In 1928, he was elected governor of New York. Four years later, in 1932, he was elected as America’s 32nd president.

1932 was a turbulent time in American history. The country was mired in the misery

of its worst depression in history. Millions of people were unemployed and few banks remained in business. Roosevelt immediately implemented a sweeping plan known as the “New Deal” to bring recovery to agriculture and business, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing businesses, farms, or homes. He also developed the Tennessee Valley Authority – which provided electricity and flood relief to poor southern farmers. Roosevelt also initiated Social Security reforms, raised taxes on the wealthy, implemented new controls over banks and public utilities, and started an enormous work relief program for the unemployed.

Roosevelt had pledged the United States to the “good neighbor” policy, transforming the Monroe Doctrine from a unilateral American manifesto into arrangements

Franklin D. Roosevelt

for mutual action against aggressors. He also sought through neutrality legislation to keep the United States out of the war in Europe, yet at the same time to strengthen nations threatened or attacked. When France fell and England came under siege in

1940, he began to send Great Britain all possible aid short of actual military involvement.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt directed organization of

the Nation’s manpower and resources for global war.

Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which, he hoped,

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

In 1930, there were over six million farms in America. Of those six million farms, only 650,000 of them were electrified with a central station or “high line” electric service. Over 5 million farmers were completely without electricity. The reason: It was too expensive for electric companies to run electricity from populated cities into rural America.

All of this would change on March 4, 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was Inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States of America. President Roosevelt pledged to bring the luxury of electricity to rural America, and do so at an affordable price. On May 11, 1935, President Roosevelt signed an executive order creating the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). The REA offered the administra-

international difficulties could be settled.

As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt’s health deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, while at Warm Springs, Georgia, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

tive assistance necessary to help rural farmers start their own electric companies (rural electric cooperatives), so they could finally have central station power at their farms and homes.

The families of rural Lake County took advantage of the REA’s offer, and on May 11, 1936, Cooperative Light & Power received a letter from the REA informing them that a $60,000 allocation had been made to begin the construction of 56 miles of line in Waldo, Knife River, and Knife River Valley.

Thank you, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for your commitment to making life in rural America better. From everyone at Co-op Light and Power, we salute you!

33rd

Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri, though hew grew up in nearby Independence . His parents gave him the middle initial S. to honor Harry’s two grandfathers, though it stands for nothing in particular. As a child, Harry enjoyed playing the piano and reading. He worked on the Santa Fe Railroad following graduation from high school. Although he never earned a college degree, he became a successful Missouri farmer and served as a Captain in World War I. In 1919, he married Bess Wallace, seven years after she rejected his first request. The couple would have a single child named Mary Margaret. In 1919, Harry and a wartime friend opened a haberdashery in Kansas City. The business went bankrupt during the recession of 1921.

Truman’s political career began in 1922 when he was elected as judge of the County Court of the eastern district of Jackson County, Missouri. During this time, Truman was instrumental

in the development of Kansas City, Missouri and helped initiate programs that built roads, buildings, and monuments in the city. In 1934, he was elected Senator from Missouri. During his second term as Senator, Truman established the “Truman Committee” which exposed military spending fraud during World War II. Truman’s committee is thought to have saved the United States Military over 15 billion dollars and launched his political career into the national limelight.

In 1944, Truman was selected as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice-presidential running-mate during the election of 1944, though Truman reluctantly accepted. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945 after suffering a stroke and Truman was sworn in as President.

Truman’s presidency began in the latter stages of World War II. After being briefed on the top secret Manhattan Project (the testing of Nuclear Weapons), Truman authorized the use of

nuclear weapons against Japan, after Japan refused to surrender in the Potsdam Declaration. American military forces dropped two nuclear bombs on August 6, 1945 over the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima , marking the first and only time nuclear weapons had ever been used in warfare. Tens of thousands of Japanese were killed instantly and Japan surrendered eight days later.

In 1948, after the Democratic

Harry S. Truman

Party seemed ready to split, and after Truman signed a controversial order integrating the U.S. Armed Forces, he was re-elected president in an improbable victory, prompted at least in part, by his incredible campaign effort which covered nearly 22,000 miles in traveling.

In 1949, Truman was instrumental in the establishment of NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) which established alliances with Canada and much of western and northern Europe

in opposition to the growing Communist threat of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Truman’s popularity began to wane as the Soviet Nuclear program rapidly developed amidst allegations that Truman’s administration was harboring Soviet spies (the resulting paranoia concerning Communists in the U.S. Government and Russian spies would be forever referred to as McCarthyism). In 1950, Communist North Korea invaded South Korea prompting the

Korean War. Truman’s handling of the war was heavily criticized, particularly his decision to fire the popular World War II hero Douglas MacArthur from his command in Japan and Korea. Although the two-year war cost over 30,000 American lives, Truman succeeded in preventing the war from becoming a major international struggle between surrounding Communist nations such as China and the Soviet Union. Truman declined to run for re-election in 1952.

President Harry Truman led the US at the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and set the stage for post-WWII American foreign policy. Containing Soviet influence and geopolitical expansion became the known as the Truman Doctrine and led to the formation of NATO and US intervention in the Korean War.

Wednesday, March 21 – 7:00

Wednesday,

Wednesday,

The Alworth Institute Spring 2018 International Lecture Series provides a look at US Foreign policy as it has evolved from the Truman era into the 21st century:

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a commander during World War II and the 34th President of the United States. He was born in Denison, Texas, in 1890, the third of seven sons. The family moved to Abilene, Kansas, when Dwight was two years old. In 1911, Eisenhower enrolled in the United States Military Academy. He graduated in 1915.

In 1917, Eisenhower was promoted to captain. Three years later he was promoted to major. Although Eisenhower’s military career stagnated for the next two decades, he served as chief military aide to Douglas MacArthur from 1933 to 1935. Eisenhower’s great organizational and leadership skills were finally recognized during World War II when he was given command of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations and North African Theater of Operations. In these positions,

he oversaw allied invasions of Italy and Sicily. In 1943, he was appointed Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. Here, Eisenhower was in charge of the invasion of Normandy Beach, France, the liberation of Western Europe, and the invasion of Germany. On December 20, 1944, Eisenhower was named General of the Army. Following the war, Eisenhower won numerous military and international awards.

President Truman in 1951 publicly asked Eisenhower to run as a Democrat. After voicing his disagreements with the Democratic Party Eisenhower declared himself and his family to be Republicans. In the general election, against the advice of his advisers, Eisenhower insisted on campaigning in the South, refusing to surrender the region to the Democratic Party. The campaign strategy,

dubbed “K1C2”, was to focus on attacking the Truman and Roosevelt administrations on three issues: Korea, Communism and corruption. He defeated Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson II in a landslide, with an electoral margin of 442 to 89, marking

the first Republican return to the White House in 20 years.

As president, he negotiated a peace treaty ending the Korean War. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent Army troops to enforce federal court orders

that integrated schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. He opposed Joseph McCarthy by openly invoking executive privilege. His largest program was the Interstate Highway System. He promoted the establishment of strong science education via the

National Defense Education Act. In his farewell address to the nation, Eisenhower expressed his concerns about the dangers of massive military spending, particularly deficit spending and government contracts to private military manufacturers.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. He was one of nine children. His siblings were Joe, Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia, Robert, Jean, and Teddy. His mother was Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and his father was Joseph Patrick Kennedy. The Kennedys were a wealthy, well-connected family, and John attended Choate, a prestigious private boarding school for adolescent boys in Connecticut. He was very popular and had many friends. He played tennis, basketball, football, and golf and also enjoyed reading. In 1936, John enrolled at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

John entered the Navy after graduating from Harvard in 1940. On August 2, 1943, John’s PT 109 patrol boat was hit by a Japanese destroyer, killing two of his men. John managed to save himself and several others in the wreckage. He was awarded the Navy & Marine Corps Medal for leadership and courage.

Kennedy’s political career began soon after World War II. In 1946, he was elected to the Massachusetts 11th congressional district. The popular Kennedy served three terms in the House of Representatives and was elected to the US Senate in 1952. Soon after his election, he married twenty-four-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier, a writer for the Washington Times-Herald. They had two children, Caroline and John-John. In 1960, Kennedy decided to run for president and became the Democratic Party candidate. He chose Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson as a running mate to gain support in the southern states. In September and October of 1960, Kennedy and Republican nominee Richard M. Nixon engaged in the first-ever televised presidential candidate debates.

On November 8, 1960, Kennedy defeated Nixon for the presidency by an estimated two-tenths of one percent of the vote in one of the closest races in American history. In 1961, at 43 years of age, John F. Kennedy was sworn

in as the 35th president of the United States. In his inaugural address, he stressed the importance of citizenship and uttered the famous quote “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

His presidency got off to a rough start in 1961 with the infamous failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. In an attempt to overthrow the Communist regime of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, US military forces suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Russian-trained

Cuban military. In 1962, Kennedy faced what came to be known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Russia was attempting to position nuclear warheads in Cuba only 90 miles off the coast of Florida. President Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of all ships bound for Cuba. It was a tense time as the world teetered on the verge of nuclear war. Fortunately, Russia withdrew the missiles and agreed to sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

President Kennedy created Project Apollo, which paved the way for American space

exploration. He also guided the nation through the difficult period of desegregation. In the early 1960s, President Kennedy challenged students to serve their country in the pursuit of peace by assisting developing countries. As a result, the Peace Corps was created.

On November 22, 1963, in Dallas, TX, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade. It was one of the most shocking news events in the history of the United States. Millions of people mourned. Only

two days later, on November 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald dead.

John F. Kennedy will forever live on in the hearts of Americans. Since his death, he has been honored by numerous cities and organizations. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, and the Kennedy Space Center were named for him. He has also appeared on numerous postage stamps as well as the US half-dollar.

If we can’t feed it you don’t need it!

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Lyndon Baines Johnson was born in 1908 in Stonewall, Texas. He grew up relatively poor and worked his way through Southwest Texas State Teacher’s College. After spending time teaching students of Mexican descent, he became interested in politics and successfully campaigned for the House of Representatives with the help of his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, in 1937. Johnson served six terms in the House of Representatives and spent time as a lieutenant commander during World War II. In 1948, he was elected to the Senate and soon became the youngest minority leader in Senate history. He then became the youngest majority leader.

Johnson’s success in the Senate rendered him a potential Democratic presidential candidate. He had been the “favorite son” candidate

of the Texas delegation at the Party’s national convention in 1956 and appeared to be a strong contender in 1960. Johnson made a late entry into the campaign in July 1960 which, coupled with a reluctance to leave Washington, allowed the rival Kennedy campaign to secure a substantial early advantage among Democratic state party officials. According to Kennedy’s Special Counsel Myer Feldman and to Kennedy himself, it is impossible to reconstruct the precise manner in which Johnson’s vice-presidential nomination ultimately took place. Robert F. Kennedy reportedly hated Johnson for his personal attacks on the Kennedy family, and later maintained that his brother offered the position to Johnson merely as a courtesy, expecting him to decline. Most likely the offer was made to secure the Southern Democrats, most of

Lyndon Baines Johnson

whom backed Johnson.

On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated, and Johnson was sworn in as America’s 36th president. Johnson successfully advocated a tax cut for the public and a new Civil

Rights Bill. He also spoke to the populace of a “Great Society” in which the meaning of life and the “marvels” of man’s labor were one and the same. In 1964, Johnson was re-elected by the widest margin in American history.

Johnson’s next term included improvements to the education system and social security, measures to reverse widespread poverty, disease, and crime, as well as measures to facilitate foreign relations and conservation.

Johnson’s second term,

however, was plagued by the escalating situation in Vietnam, which soon became the Vietnam War. Despite his popularity, Johnson decided not to run for a third term as president so he could devote all of his time to establishing peace.

37th

Richard Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, in California.

Nixon grew up relatively poor, yet his parents ensured he and his brothers, who died young, never knew how poor they actually were. In school Nixon did very well and was accepted to Harvard, but his parents could not afford the tuition, so he enrolled in a smaller local college. Nixon was then accepted into Duke University Law School on a scholarship and upon graduation he returned to his small hometown to join a local law firm.

Nixon briefly served in the military and when he returned home he was encouraged to run for Congress, where he was voted to a seat in the House of Representatives. Nixon quickly gained popularity and was sent to Europe to monitor the Marshall Plan, a multi-billion dollar loan from America to European nations who were struggling to rebuild economically after World War II. His efforts in Europe earned him high-praise by government officials for how he handled foreign affairs. Nixon made his mark on

the House Un-American Activities Committee where he investigated the Alger Hiss espionage case.

Nixon’s big break came when Dwight Eisenhower chose him to be his vice president.

Nixon showed his strong political acumen with the passing of key legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Social Security Act when Eisenhower was sick and out of office. Nixon worked to expand the role of the vice president and was the one of the first vice presidents to take on a major role in foreign affairs.

In 1960, Nixon ran for President against John F. Kennedy. Although Nixon was lauded for the substance of his arguments in the presidential debates, he ultimately failed to overcome the movie-star qualities of his opponent and was defeated. When Lyndon B. Johnson decided against running for reelection in 1968, Nixon was again ready for a run at the White House. This time, Nixon won the presidential election.

Real News

Richard Nixon

Nixon’s most pressing concern when he entered office was the controversial Vietnam War. Nixon took measures to reduce American casualties by forcing the South Vietnamese to do more of the fighting, a process known as “Vietnamization.” In January of 1973, a cease-fire agreement was signed, officially ending the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. At the end of the war, Nixon also signed legislation ending the military draft. Nixon also forced the last of the Southern public schools to desegregate, established Diplomatic relations with China, and created the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA).

Ultimately Nixon will forever be tied to the infamous Watergate Scandal at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C., site of the Democratic National Convention. It was here that two of Nixon’s aids infiltrated the hotel in secret, hoping to find top-secret documents as well as wire-tap phones for the purposes of acquiring important information to ensure Nixon’s victory in the upcoming election. The spies were caught in the hotel, sparking an FBI ivestigation that Nixon tried to block by using the

CIA. His unsuccessful attempt to block the FBI investigation meant possible criminal charges of obstruction of justice and abuse of Presidential powers. Nixon vehemently denied any involvement with the entire Watergate Scandal. Several of Nixon’s aids were asked to testify against the President and it was ultimately revealed that Nixon had secretly taped every conversation he had in the Oval Office. Nixon denied a Congressional request to relinquish the tapes, citing his executive privilege. Eventually, the Supreme Court forced Nixon to deliver the tapes. Meanwhile

the House of Representatives voted to impeach him. Facing certain impeachment by the Senate as well, Nixon resigned, making Vice President Gerald R. Ford President. After being sworn in, Ford pardoned Nixon of any wrongdoing, but this entire Watergate Scandal caused the American people to mistrust the government.

Following his presidency, Nixon wrote books and traveled to Europe. He died of a stroke on April 18, 1994, at the age of 81.

Gerald Ford, originally Leslie Lynch King, Jr., was born on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. Ford’s parents separated about two weeks after his birth and his mother took him to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she soon married a man named Gerald Ford. Leslie’s mother decided to change his name from Leslie Lynch King, Jr., to Gerald Ford, Jr., after her new husband. As a child, Gerald was very athletic and became a star football player in high school, eventually landing a spot on the University of Michigan varsity football team. While at Michigan, Ford not only won a national championship in football, but he majored in economics as well as political science, graduating in 1935. After he graduated from Michigan, Ford turned down NFL contracts from the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers to attend Yale Law School where he coached football and boxing to help pay for tuition. Ford received his LL.B. degree from Yale in 1941 and returned home to Grand Rapids to open his own firm with Philip A. Buchen, who

would later serve as his White House Counsel. Ford also served in the military, joining the Naval Reserves after the United States entered World War II. While in the military, Ford saw significant action in the South Pacific and nearly tumbled overboard on one occasion while on the ship he was stationed on. Ford was honorably discharged in 1946, earning several war medals, including the World War II Victory Medal.

Ford made his political debut in 1948, quietly running for Congress and pulling off an upset over the five-term incumbent, Barney Jonkman. Ford was able to serve twelve successive terms while participating in important committees such as the Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations Committee determines how the United States government spends money. While in Congress, Ford became extremely popular among his fellow Republicans, including Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, but was also commended for his ability to reach across

party lines and work with Democrats. The Republican Party suffered major losses in 1962 and 1964, which provided young, fresh Republicans, like Ford, the opportunity to shine. Ford was named Chairman of the Republican Conference in 1963, and in 1965, he was named the House Minority Leader, making him the highest-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. During the Lyndon Johnson presidency, Ford spoke out frequently against Johnson’s Great Society programs and how Johnson was handling the Vietnam War. After Johnson

Gerald Ford

decided against running for the presidency in 1968, Ford became a major supporter of Richard Nixon and his successful bid for the White House. This support helped these two men become extremely close. Nixon also won the 1972 election but was quickly engulfed in the Watergate scandal that would lead to a major FBI investigation. In a plea bargain, Nixon’s then vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned from office in 1973 to avoid prosecution for accepting bribes as vice president and governor of Maryland. Nixon subsequently chose Gerald

Ford to serve as his new vice president. Ford served as vice president for eight months before the pressure of the Watergate scandal forced Richard Nixon to resign from the presidency in 1974. Gerald R. Ford would become America’s 38th president.

Shortly after assuming the role of president, Ford pardoned Nixon for any crimes he may have committed, which meant he would never have to face criminal charges for the Watergate scandal. This move was a very controversial one as many

Americans wanted to see Nixon brought to justice for his crimes. During his presidency, Ford faced high unemployment and high inflation, which made him extremely unpopular amongst Republicans and Democrats alike. Ford was seen as a large, clumsy man due to his stature, but he is credited with being the man who restored some confidence in the White House after the Watergate scandal. In 1976, Ford decided to run for reelection. Although Ford was able to secure the Republican nomination, he was eventually defeated by Jimmy Carter.

James Earl Carter Jr., better known as Jimmy, was born on October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia. His father, James Earl Carter Sr., was a peanut farmer who owned his own small plot of land as well as a small store. His mother, Bessie Lillian Gordy, was a registered nurse who in the 1920s worked with African American nurses, a task that was unheard of during this time. Jimmy was always extremely well-mannered and never disobeyed his parents. In between his studies, Jimmy worked at his father’s store since he was ten years old. In school, Jimmy attended an all-white high school, but his two best friends were African Americans, and he accredits his parents with teaching him that all people, regardless of race, are created equal. While in school, Jimmy worked extremely hard and was the first person in his family to graduate from high school.

Upon graduating from high school, Carter attended a small technical school and then he

joined the ROTC program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Carter then applied at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland and he began his studies at the academy in 1943. Once Jimmy left the Naval Academy, he was assigned to work on submarines.

In 1962, after he finished his duty with the Navy, Carter believed he had a chance to be a “new southerner,” meaning he would be against segregation and avoid joining any groups that were pro-segregation. In 1963 Carter won a seat in the Georgia State Senate. Carter decided to run governor for of Georgia but lost in his first attempt in 1966. Carter ran again in 1970 and was able to rebound from his initial loss to become Governor of Georgia. After the Watergate Scandal Carter saw his chance to restore the reputation of the office of the presidency and entered the race.

Jimmy Carter was one of ten candidates for the Democratic

presidential nomination in 1976, and at first he was probably the least well known. However, in a time of deep frustration with establishment politicians, Carter’s anonymity proved an advantage. Carter portrayed himself as the “common man,” and he vowed to never tell a lie all while saying he would work to balance the national budget. Carter was able to capture the Democratic nomination and faced off against Gerald Ford, the incumbent. Although he held an early lead, Ford made a comeback and made this a rather competitive election. Carter

KICK the CRUD

nevertheless won the election and became the 39th President of the United States.

Symbolizing his commitment to a new kind of leadership, after his inaugural address, Carter got out of his limousine to walk to the White House amongst his supporters. Carter’s main domestic priority involved energy policy. With oil prices rising, and in the aftermath of the 1973 oil embargo, Carter believed it was absolutely necessary to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil. Carter received major criticism throughout his

term for rising gas prices due to his war on foreign oil dependency. Carter’s foreign policy centered around a promise to make human rights a central concern in the United States’ relations with other countries. But Carter’s most notable foreign policy achievement was his successful mediation of the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, leading to a historic peace treaty in which Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula and the two sides officially recognized each other’s governments.

Carter’s approval rating began to decline in his final year as president coinciding with the Iranian Hostage Crisis. In November 1979, radical Iranian students seized the United States Embassy in Tehran, taking 66 Americans hostage. Carter’s failure to negotiate the hostages’ release, followed by a badly botched rescue mission may have cost him a second term. The hostages were held for 444 days before finally being released on the day Carter left office.

Jimmy Carter

40th

Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in a small town called Tampico in Illinois. Reagan grew up in a modest apartment. After graduating from high school, Reagan went to Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois, where he majored in economics. While in college, Reagan was an average student and spent much of his time playing sports and participating in the college drama club. Once he graduated from college, Reagan began working as a sportscaster for a local radio station where he was highly successful due to his catchy lines. This success landed him a spot on a larger radio station calling games for the Chicago Cubs and Big Ten football games. Reagan enjoyed being on the radio, but loved acting more. Reagan soon met with a Hollywood acting agent who set up a screen test for Warner Brothers, which was looking for a young, attractive, male actor to play in a few upcoming movies.

Warner Brothers eventually cast Reagan in 52 movies, including The Killers, Knute Rockne, and Kings Row. Reagan was also involved in Army training films because he was a member of the U.S. Army Cavalry Reserve and his responsibilities included starring in and narrating the training videos.

Reagan took his first political step in 1964 when he gave a speech in support of Republican presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater. Two years later, Reagan decided to try his hand in politics and ran for Governor of California. Reagan dominated the election, defeating the Democratic incumbent by more than one million votes. Reagan tried twice to gain the Republican nomination for President before finally scoring the nomination in 1980. In the 1980 election, Reagan defeated the incumbent, Jimmy Carter. At the age of 69, Reagan was the oldest elected President in

United States history.

In 1981, Reagan delivered one of the most passionate inaugural addresses in history as he told the American he would provide a beacon of hope for those who lacked hope. In March of the same year, Reagan survived an assassination attempt while exiting the Washington Hilton Hotel. The bullet entered the President’s lung, narrowly missing his heart. He would be back in his desk in the Oval Office within

a few weeks.

In his first year Reagan’s administration passed sweeping tax-cuts, based on supply-side economics; the idea that tax cuts would result in higher wages, increased consumer spending, and increased investment in the stock market. The plan was popularized in the media as “Reaganomics.” Conversely, Congress passed and Reagan signed into law tax increases of some nature in every year from 1981 to

1987 to continue funding government programs.

For much of his presidency, Reagan dealt with the end of the Cold War. Reagan championed a plan to create the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars.” A plan in which the United States would build satellites and potentially a space station that would protect it from nuclear weapons fired by rogue nations. He also introduced the Reagan Doctrine, which declared

the United States would aid countries in Africa and Latin America that were fighting against Communism. Reagan is given credit for ending the Cold War as he was able to forge a diplomatic relationship with the Soviet Union and convince their leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to allow the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in Germany, a symbol of Communism in Europe.

Reagan died at the age of 93 on June 5, 2004.

Ronald Reagan

George H.W. Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924. His father was a Wall Street banker and the founder of a highly successful oil company. George attended the prestigious Andover Academy as a teenager. Although George was accepted to Yale University, he deferred his admission and served as the youngest aviator in American history (to that date) during World War II. He attended Yale after the war and graduated in two and a half years. Bush was an excellent baseball player at Yale and played in two College World Series. In 1945, he married Barbara Pierce. For the next nineteen years, he prospered in the Texas oil industry and became a millionaire.

Bush entered politics in 1964. In 1966, he became a representative in Congress from Texas. In 1970, after

being defeated in a bid for the Senate, President Richard Nixon appointed him as ambassador to the United Nations. In 1980, he was appointed by President Gerald R. Ford as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a position in which he served for about a year. Today, the CIA headquarters are named for him. Bush ran for president in 1980 on the Republican ticket but did not win; instead, he was chosen as a running mate for Ronald Reagan. He served two terms as vice president to Ronald Reagan. Bush served as president during this time for eight hours while Reagan had cancer surgery. He worked mainly on deregulation and the war on drugs.

In 1988, he was elected the 41st president. His presidency came at a time of major political upheaval abroad as the Soviet Union and Berlin

Wall fell. In January of 1991, he authorized the Persian Gulf War after Iraq invaded its neighbor to the south, Kuwait. Urged by the King of Saudi Arabia, who feared Iraq might invade his country, US military forces quickly dispatched of Iraqi forces in Kuwait after a combined land and air attack. Despite a lack of international support for the military measures, the attack made him very popular in the United States, though many believed the

attacks should have resulted in an overthrow of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his government. In 1991, Bush met with Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, and signed an arms reduction treaty which reduced each country’s supply of nuclear arms by 35 percent and the Soviet Union’s land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles by 50 percent. This treaty was viewed as a breakthrough in relations between the United

States and the Soviet Union.

Bush also spearheaded the effort for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which eliminated trade tariffs between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, enabling increased trade between the three nations. Many criticized this treaty because of the potential loss of US jobs as companies could now hire cheaper labor from other countries (specifically Mexico). The leg-

islation was finally approved in 1993 during the Clinton administration.

In 1993, he was defeated in his bid for reelection by Bill Clinton. Problems with the economy and increased taxes led to a steep decline in his approval rating, which ultimately contributed to this defeat. Bush is the father of the 43rd president, George W. Bush.

George H.W. Bush

William Jefferson Clinton, better known as Bill, was born on August 19, 1946, in a small town called Hope, Arkansas. Bill’s father, William Jefferson Blythe, died a few months before he was born. Bill was raised by his grandparents, while his mother finished nursing school in New Orleans. His grandparents were very strict, and Bill often credits them for instilling in him the importance of education. After earning her nursing degree, Bill’s mother returned and remarried a car salesman whose last name was Clinton, so she changed the family name to Clinton.

In school, Bill excelled academically. After graduation from high school in 1964 he enrolled in Georgetown University where he majored in international affairs. At Georgetown, Clinton became active in school politics and worked as a clerk for Senator Fulbright, who was one of Congress’s most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War. After graduation, Bill won the Rhodes Scholarship, which allowed him to study at

Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Upon completion of the Rhodes Scholarship, Clinton enrolled in Yale Law School where he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham.

After he graduated from Yale, Bill Clinton entered the Arkansas political scene. Clinton was elected state attorney general in 1976, and then in 1978, at the age of 32, he easily defeated Republican Lynn Lowe to become one of the youngest governors in American history. As the young governor of Arkansas, Clinton struggled to get his initiatives accomplished due to his inexperience and mishandling of political situations. His subsequent failure to be reelected was devastating, but Clinton admitted his mistakes and was able to regain the governorship of Arkansas in the next election—a position he held for four consecutive terms.

In the presidential election of 1992, Clinton defeated Republican George H.W. Bush, denying him a second term in office while becoming

America’s 42nd President. In his first term, Clinton struggled to make his mark as Congress was controlled by Republicans. He was able to get the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act passed that increased the number of policemen and implemented harsher punishments for criminal offenses, as well as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which created a trade alliance between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. He was

William Jefferson Clinton

unable to get his health care reform act passed that would have provided universal health coverage. Nevertheless, his charismatic personality helped to get him re-elected to a second term in 1996. During this second term, Clinton presided over a strong economy. He took measures to lower the unemployment rate, keep inflation low, and to help citizens reach the highest homeownership rates in American history. Clinton is credited with helping

the nation reach unprecedented economic prosperity in part due to the “dot-com” boom and the internet’s ability to boost sales and connect people all across the globe.

Clinton’s reputation also suffered from scandal in his personal life. His second term in the White House was dominated by details of infidelity while president, prompting a congressional investigation and near 24-hour news coverage.

In 1998, the Republican-dominated House of Representatives impeached Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice for his actions. The Senate, however, acquitted him of all charges in 1999.

Today, Clinton delivers speeches throughout the world and is involved in many humanitarian causes through the Clinton Foundation.

43rd

George W. Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut. His parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, accumulated a great deal of wealth when they moved to Midland, Texas, and began working in the oil industry.

George H.W. Bush spent much of his life in business and politics, serving as Vice President and President of the United States. In school, the younger George played multiple sports and was known for being a good all-around athlete.

Two weeks before graduation at Yale, George enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard, earning his fighter pilot certification during the height of the Vietnam War.

In 1989 Bush led a group of investors who bought the Texas Rangers baseball team. George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas in 1994. As governor, Bush earned a high approval rating, largely because he was able to appeal to both Republicans and Democrats. As his political prospects improved,

Bush decided to make a run for the White House in 1999.

The 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore would be one of the most highly contested elections in American history. As Election Day unfolded, there was no clear winner. Florida’s twenty-five electoral votes were needed to determine a winner, as several counties in the state reported problems with balloting. After more than a month of recounts and legal proceedings, the US Supreme Court decided the election result, giving George Bush the victory. Though Gore lost the election in the electoral college (271 to 266), he received a higher number of popular votes, which only added to the controversy.

On September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four US airplanes that struck the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon outside of Washington, DC, and a field in western Pennsylvania, which may

have been headed to the White House or US Capitol Building. Bush promised the American people that he would respond appropriately and his first post-9/11 action was creating the Patriot Act, which allowed the US government to monitor the activity of any suspected terrorists. Bush also created the Department of Homeland Security that was meant to gather intelligence about terrorists and any possible terrorist attacks. In September 2002, the Bush administration announced that the United

States would use military force if necessary to prevent threats to its national security by terrorists or “rogue states,” especially those that possessed weapons of mass destruction. Based on what would prove to be questionable intelligence reports, the Bush administration successfully obtained a UN Security Council resolution to return weapons inspectors to Iraq. Soon, Bush announced Iraq’s noncompliance with the sanctioned inspections, and on March 20, 2003, the United States launched a successful

invasion of Iraq, quickly defeating the Iraqi military. Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, fell on April 9, 2003, and Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003. Combat Troops would not be completely withdrawn from Iraq until December 2011.

Bush was able to win reelection in 2004, defeating Democrat John Kerry. Bush saw great pushback by conservatives when he tried to implement social security reform. In August of 2004, the city of New

Anyone can selldirt, but it takes an experienced Real Estate Agent to find you the ‘Diamond in the rough!’ We know what it takes to build on solidground.

Anyone can selldirt, but it takes an experienced Real Estate Agent to find you the ‘Diamond in the rough!’ We it takes on round.

Orleans was largely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The images of thousands of people on rooftops awaiting rescue, and the government’s perceived inadequate response, contributed to Bush’s declining approval rating. In addition, Bush increased military spending and implemented tax cuts that drained the budget surplus left by Bill Clinton. By 2008, the United States was faced with high unemployment and a credit crisis.

We took our Clients from this,

We took our Clients from this,

Beth fG Ankarlo Steven lander

George W. Bush

44th

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961. His mother was Stanley Ann Dunham, called Ann. She met Barack Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., while she was taking a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii. Barack Sr. was of Luo ancestry. He had grown up herding goats in Kenya, but he earned a scholarship to the University of Hawaii. They married in 1961. Interracial marriage was illegal in most states in 1961.

Ann dropped out of college to care for Barack Jr. His father was accepted to a PhD program at Harvard University. Barack’s parents divorced in 1964, and Ann returned to the university. As a single parent, she finished her degree in anthropology. She spent the next 20 years completing her PhD.

Barack moved to Indonesia when he was six. He moved back to Hawaii to live with his grandparents at the age of 10. For grades 5-12, he went to Punahou School and graduated

with honors in 1979. Obama wrote about growing up in Hawaii: “The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear.”

With the help of scholarships and student loans, he went to Occidental College in Los Angeles from 1979–1981, and then Columbia University in New York. He majored in political science, specializing in international relations.

In 1988 Barack was accepted to Harvard Law School. He was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. When he finished law school, he went back to Chicago where he was an attorney for victims of housing and employment discrimination. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School and married Michelle Robinson. They had met while he had a summer internship at a law firm. She

was an attorney there who was asked to be his adviser. They were married in 1992 and had two daughters: Malia and Sasha.

In 1996, he was elected to the Illinois State Senate. His district included both the area around the University of Chicago and some of the poorest areas on the South Side of Chicago. He helped pass ethics reform, cut taxes for working families, expanded health care services,

Barack Obama

and increased funding for early childhood education programs for the poor.

In the 2004, he became known nationally when he gave a speech in support of John Kerry at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In 2004, Barack Obama became the third African-American elected to the US Senate since Reconstruction. He created a website to track federal spending, helped pass lobbying reform, provided

funding to lock up and destroy weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union, and pushed for alternative energy development and for improved benefits for veterans.

In 2008, he defeated Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic candidate for president and defeated the Republican candidate, John McCain, to become the 44th President of the United States. He was the first African-American president.

Barkers Island Inn Bridal Fair

Sunday March 11, 2018 | 11am-3pm Barkers Island Inn Great Lakes Ballroom

For more information contact Shannon Olson or Jessica Pierce at 715-392-7152

Featuring over 15 local Vendors to help make your Wedding Day Dreams come True Bridal Fashion Show by Always and Forever Bridal & Trends Salon and Spa Fabulous Prize Drawings

On November 6, 2012, Barack Obama was elected to a second term as president after defeating the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney.

Barack published his autobiography, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, in 1995. It has been printed in 10 languages. An audiobook version, which he narrated, received a Grammy Award for best spoken-word album.

Donald Trump was born in the New York City borough of Queens on June 14, 1946. At age 13, he enrolled in the New York Military Academy, a private boarding school. He attended Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he earned a degree in economics.

A third generation businessman, he followed in the footsteps of his grandmother Elizabeth and father Fred in running the family’s real estate company, which he renamed The Trump Organization. He managed the business from 1971 until his 2017 inauguration as president. Trump expanded the company to include golf courses, resorts, hotels and casinos. Trump has never filed for personal bankruptcy, but his hotel and casino businesses have been declared bankrupt

six times between 1991 and 2009 in order to re-negotiate debt with banks and owners of stock and bonds.

In 1977, Trump married his first wife, Ivana. They had three children: Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric. The couple divorced in 1992, following Trump’s affair with actress Marla Maples. In October 1993, Maples gave birth to Trump’s second daughter, Tiffany. Maples and Trump were married two months later in December 1993. They divorced in 1999. In 2005, Trump married his third wife, Melania. In 2006, Melania became a United States citizen and gave birth to a their son, Barron. Melania became First Lady of the United States after Trump’s inauguration as president in January 2017.

Trump has published several

books. His first in 1987 was “Trump: The Art of the Deal”, co-written by Tony Schwartz. The book reached #1 on the New York Times Best Sellers for several weeks. Trump has marketed his name on a large number of building projects some that are owned by The Trump Organization and

others that are owned and operated by other people and companies. He has also licensed his name for various commercial products and services, including the NBC television series Celebrity Apprentice.

In his first year in office

Trump has reversed many of the previous administration’s policies. He appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, ordered a controversial travel ban on citizens from several Muslim-majority countries and signed tax reform legislation. Trump has changed course on foreign

policy by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He’s pressured North Korea over the acceleration of their nuclear missile program and recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Donald Trump

VERY INTERESTING FACT...

WHOWASTHE FIRST PRESIDENT OFTHE UNITED STATES?

I'msurethatGeorgeWashington wasyourbestguess.Afterall,no oneelsecomestomind. Butthinkbacktoyourhistory books--TheUnitedStatesdeclareditsindependencein1776, yetWashingtondidnottake officeuntilApril30,1789. Sowhowasrunningthecountryduringtheseinitialyearsof thisyoungcountry?

ItwasthefirsteightU.S.Presidents.Infact,thefirstPresidentof theUnitedStateswasone JohnHanson. Icanhearyounow--John who?

JohnHanson,thefirstPresidentoftheUnitedStates. Don'tgocheckingtheencyclopediaforthisguy's

name--heisoneofthosegreat menwhoarelosttohistory.If you'reextremelylucky,youmay actuallyfindabriefmentionof hisname.(It'sintheEncyclopediaBritannica.) Thenewcountrywasactually formedonMarch1,1781with theadoptionofTheArticlesof Confederation. ThisdocumentwasactuallyproposedonJune11,1776,butnot agreeduponbyCongressuntil November15,1777. Marylandrefusedtosignthis documentuntilVirginiaandNew Yorkcededtheirwesternlands (Marylandwasafraidthatthese stateswouldgaintoomuchpower inthenewgovernmentfromsuch largeamountsofland). Oncethesigningtookplacein 1781,aPresidentwasneededto runthecountry.JohnHansonwaschosenunanimously byCongress

(whichincludedGeorgeWashington).Infact,alltheotherpotentialcandidatesrefusedtorun againsthim,ashewasamajor playerintherevolutionandan extremelyinfluentialmemberof Congress.

AsthefirstPresident,Hansonhad quitetheshoestofill.Noonehad everbeenPresidentandtherole waspoorlydefined.Hisactionsin officewouldsetprecedentforall futurePresidents.

troopsdownandhold thecountrytogether. Ifhehadfailed,the governmentwould havefallenalmost immediatelyand everyonewould havebeenbowingtoKingWashington.

HetookofficejustastheRevolutionaryWarended.Almostimmediately,thetroopsdemanded tobepaid.Aswouldbeexpected afteranylongwar,therewere nofundstomeetthesalaries.As aresult,thesoldiersthreatened tooverthrowthenewgovernmentandputWashingtononthe throneasamonarch. AllthemembersofCongressran fortheirlives,leavingHanson astheonlyguyleftrunning thegovernment.Hesomehowmanagedtocalm the