Gallery of American Presidents 1 страница

Nickname: "Father of His Country" George Washington was the first President of the United States of America. He served as President from April 30, 1789, until March 4, 1797 (two terms). His Vice-President was John Adams (1735-1826), who was later voted the second President of the USA.   On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. "As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish a Precedent," he wrote James Madison, "it is devoutly wished on my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true principles." He became a prime mover in the steps leading to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. When the new Constitution was ratified, the Electoral College unanimously elected Washington President.   He did not infringe upon the policy making powers that he felt the Constitution gave Congress. But the determination of foreign policy became preponderantly a Presidential concern. When the French Revolution led to a major war between France and England, Washington, he insisted upon a neutral course until the United States could grow stronger.   In his Farewell Address, he urged his countrymen to forswear excessive party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances. Points of Interest:

• Believing that shaking hands was beneath a president, Washington bowed to his visitors.
• Washington had one remaining tooth at the time of his inauguration. During his lifetime he wore dentures made of human (some his own), cow, or hippopotamus teeth, ivory, or lead, but he never wore wooden teeth.
• Many places are named after Washington including the nation's capital, the state, 31 counties and 17 communities.
• The six white horses in Washington's stables had their teeth brushed every morning on Washington's orders.

 

Nickname: "Atlas of Independence" John Adams was the second President of the United States of America. His Vice-President was Thomas Jefferson. Adams belonged to the Federalist Party. Learned and thoughtful, John Adams was more remarkable as a political philosopher than as a politician. "People and nations are forged in the fires of adversity," he said, doubtless thinking of his own as well as the American experience. Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution. As a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he played a leading role in persuading Congress to adopt the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. As a representative of Congress in Europe, he was a major negotiator of the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and chiefly responsible for obtaining important loans from Amsterdam. Points of interest:

• The Adams' were the first residents of the White House. They moved in in November 1800 while the paint was still wet. Mrs. Adams would hang her laundry in the East Room to dry.
• Adams was one of three presidents not to attend the inauguration of his successor. Not only was Adams disappointed in losing to Jefferson, he was also grieving the death of his son Charles.
• Adams was the great-great-grandson of John and Priscilla Alden, Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

 

Nicknames: "Man of the People"; "Sage of Monticello" Thomas Jefferson was a Founding father of the US, the author of the draft of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States of America. This great man was a long-term legislator, lawyer, diplomat, architect, inventor, scientist, agriculturist, writer, and revolutionary thinker. In the thick of party conflict in 1800, Thomas Jefferson wrote in a private letter, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." Thomas Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806).   When Jefferson assumed the Presidency, the crisis in France had passed. He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet reduced the national debt by a third. He also sent a naval squadron to fight the Barbary pirates, who were harassing American commerce in the Mediterranean. Further, although the Constitution made no provision for the acquisition of new land, Jefferson suppressed his qualms over constitutionality when he had the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803. Points of interest:

• Jefferson was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
• Jefferson is credited with several inventions, including the swivel chair, a pedometer, a machine to make fiber from hemp, a letter-copying machine, and the lazy Susan.
• Jefferson wrote his own epitaph without mentioning that he served as president of the United States.

 

The fourth President of the United States, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Madisonmade a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. He was referred to as the "Father of the Constitution".   The first President to have served in the United States Congress, he was a leader in the 1st United States Congress, drafted many basic laws and was responsible for the first ten amendments to the Constitution. In Congress, he helped frame the Bill of Rights and enact the first revenue legislation. Points of interest: · Madison was the first president to wear long trousers. All previous presidents wore knee breeches. · Madison was the first president who had prior service as a congressman.

• Zachary Taylor and Madison were second cousins.

 

Nicknames: "The Last Cocked Hat"; "Era-of-Good-Feeling President"   His ambition and energy, together with the backing of President Madison, made him the Republican choice for the Presidency in 1816. With little Federalist opposition, he easily won re-election in 1820.   Monroe made unusually strong Cabinet choices, naming a Southerner, John C. Calhoun, as Secretary of War, and a northerner, John Quincy Adams, as Secretary of State. Only Henry Clay's refusal kept Monroe from adding an outstanding Westerner.   The fifth President of the United States. His administration was marked by the acquisition of Florida (1819); the Missouri Compromise (1820), in which Missouri was declared a slave state; the admission of Maine in 1820 as a free state; and the profession of the Monroe Doctrine (1823), declaring U.S. opposition to European interference in the Americas, as well as breaking all ties with France remaining from the War of 1812.   Points of interest:

• Monroe was the first president to ride on a steamboat.
• He was the first president to have been a U.S. senator.
• Monroe's inauguration in 1817 was the first to be held outdoors.
• The bride in the first White House wedding was Monroe's daughter.
• The U.S. Marine Band played at Monroe's 1821 inauguration and at every inauguration since.

   

Nickname: "Old Man Eloquent"   The first President who was the son of a President, John Quincy Adams in many respects paralleled the career as well as the temperament and viewpoints of his illustrious father. Adams proclaimed in his first Annual Message a spectacular national program. He proposed that the Federal Government bring the sections together with a network of highways and canals, and that it develop and conserve the public domain, using funds from the sale of public lands. In 1828, he broke ground for the 185-mile C & 0 Canal.   Adams also urged the United States to take a lead in the development of the arts and sciences through the establishment of a national university, the financing of scientific expeditions, and the erection of an observatory. His critics declared such measures transcended constitutional limitations.   In 1836 southern Congressmen passed a "gag rule" providing that the House automatically table petitions against slavery. Adams tirelessly fought the rule for eight years until finally he obtained its repeal. Points of Interest: · President Adams regularly swam nude in the Potomac River. Anne Royall, the first American professional journalist, knew of Adams' 5 A.M. swims. After being refused interviews with the president time after time, she went to the river, gathered his clothes and sat on them until she had her interview. Before this, no female had interviewed a president. · He was the first president married abroad. · Adams was the first president to be photographed.    

Nickname: "Old Hickory" More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man.   He was military governor of Florida (1821), commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans (1815), and eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy.   Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command. In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College. He also tried to democratize Federal officeholding.   As national politics polarized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party--the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, opposing him. Points of Interest: - Jackson was involved in many duels. A duel on May 30, 1806 against Charles Dickinson was over some unflattering remarks made about Jackson's wife. In this duel Jackson was wounded. After he was hit, he took aim and fired at Dickinson. Jackson's gun misfired. As Dickinson was forced to stand his ground, Jackson took aim once again and killed Dickinson. The bullet that wounded Jackson was lodged near his heart and could not be safely removed. He carried that bullet in his chest for the rest of his days.   - Jackson was the first president to ride on a railroad train.

Nicknames: "The Little Magician"; "The Red Fox of Kinderhook   He was a key organizer of the Democratic Party, a dominant figure in the Second Party System, and the first president who was not of British (i.e. English, Welsh, Scottish, or Irish) descent—his ancestry was Dutch.   Van Buren devoted his Inaugural Address to a discourse upon the American experiment as an example to the rest of the world. The country was prosperous, but less than three months later the Panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity. As a president, his administration was largely characterized by the economic hardship of his time. Van Buren devoted himself to maintaining the solvency of the national Government. He opposed not only the creation of a new Bank of the United States but also the placing of Government funds in state banks. He fought for the establishment of an independent treasury system to handle Government transactions. As for Federal aid to internal improvements, he cut off expenditures so completely that the Government even sold the tools it had used on public works. Van Buren was voted out of office after four years, with a close popular vote but a rout in the electoral vote. Points of Interest:

• Van Buren was the first president born in the United States. All previous presidents were born before the United States became country, although all were born in places that would later be a part of the United States.
• His autobiography does not mention his wife once.
• Van Buren took $100,000, the sum of his salary as president over four years, in a lump sum at the end of his term.

The term "O.K." was popularized because of Van Buren. Van Buren was from Kinderhook, New York, sometimes referred to as Old Kinderhook in speeches and print. O.K. Clubs soon formed to support Van Buren's campaign. "O.K." later came to mean all right.

Nicknames: "Old Tippecanoe"; "Old Tip" "Give him a barrel of hard cider and settle a pension of two thousand a year on him, and my word for it," a Democratic newspaper foolishly gibed, "he will sit... by the side of a 'sea coal' fire, and study moral philosophy. " The Whigs, seizing on this political misstep, in 1840 presented their candidate William Henry Harrisonas a simple frontier Indian fighter, living in a log cabin and drinking cider, in sharp contrast to an aristocratic champagne-sipping Van Buren. William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States, an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. The oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence, Harrison died on his thirty-second day in office — the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis, but that crisis ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment. Points of Interest:

• Harrison was the only president who studied to become a doctor.
• Harrison's father was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
• Harrison and his vice president Tyler are the only president and vice president born in the same county.
• Harrison was clerk of Hamilton County (Ohio) court immediately before becoming president.
• His widow received a $25,000 pension after her husband's death.

 

Nicknames: "Accidental President"; "His Accidency"   (Dubbed "His Accidency" by his detractors, John Tyler was the first Vice President to be elevated to the office of President by the death of his predecessor).   First, the Whigs nominated Tyler for Vice President in 1840, hoping for support from southern states'-righters who could not stomach Jacksonian Democracy. The slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" implied flag-waving nationalism plus a dash of southern sectionalism. Suddenly President Harrison was dead, and "Tyler too" was in the White House. Whigs, optimistic that Tyler would accept their program, soon were disillusioned.   Tyler vetoed Clay's bill to establish a National Bank with branches in several states. A similar bank bill was passed by Congress. But again, on states' rights grounds, Tyler vetoed it. In retaliation, the Whigs expelled Tyler from their party.   Despite their differences, President Tyler and the Whig Congress enacted much positive legislation. 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 1842 Tyler did sign a tariff bill protecting northern manufacturers. The Webster-Ashburton treaty ended a Canadian boundary dispute; in 1845 Texas was annexed. The administration of this states'-righter strengthened the Presidency. But it also increased sectional cleavage that led toward civil war. By the end of his term, Tyler had replaced the original Whig Cabinet with southern conservatives. Whigs became more representative of northern business and farming interests.   Points of Interest:

• Tyler was the first president whose wife died while he was in office.
• Tyler was the only president to hold office in the Confederacy.
• Tyler was one of five Presidents who were never inaugurated.
• Five years after leaving office, Tyler was so poor he was unable to pay a bill for $1.25 until he had sold his corn crop.
• The tradition of playing "Hail to the Chief" whenever a president appears at state functions was started by Tyler's second wife, Julia.

 

Nickname: "Young Hickory" The 1844 campaign centered upon the annexation of Texas and the re-occupation of Oregon. The issue of annexing Texas raised not only the question of war with Mexico, but also the issue of whether Texas would be a free state or slave state. The Oregon Territory was claimed by both the United States and Great Britain. Polk's campaign slogan of "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!" refers to the latitude coordinates of the disputed territory. Polk endorsed both the annexation of Texas and American control of the entire Oregon Territory. Polk also promised if elected not to seek a second term. Polk's administration lived up to its campaign promises. In 1846 Polk reached an agreement with Great Britain over the disputed Oregon Territories. In 1845 Polk sent federal emissaries to offer compensation for the disputed area of Texas as well as the territories of New Mexico and California. When the Mexican government rejected the offer, Polk sent troops under General Zachary Taylor into the Texas Territory. Congress approved Polk's decision, and the Mexican War began. After a year and a half of fighting, and another 6 months of civil unrest and negotiation, the combatants signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican War. Polk remained true to his campaign promise and did not seek a second term as president, retiring from office in 1849. During Polk's presidency, the United States attained the desire of Manifest Destiny. The nation now controlled the land between the two oceans. It was also under Polk's presidency that the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland was established. Points of Interest:

• A week before he died, Polk was baptized a Methodist.
• Gaslights were installed in the White House while Polk was a resident.
• Polk survived a gallstone operation at age 17 without anethesia or antiseptics. Those medical practices were not used at the time.
• The first annual White House Thanksgiving dinner was hosted by Sarah Polk.
• Sarah Polk was a devout Presbyterian. She banned dancing, card-playing and alcoholic beverages in the White House.

 

Nickname: "Old Rough and Ready" 12th president of the United States. Elected on the ticket of the Whig Party as a hero of the Mexican-American War (1846–48), he died only 16 months after taking office. At the time he became President, Zachary Taylor was the most popular man in America, a hero of the Mexican-American War. However, at a time when Americans were confronting the explosive issue of slavery, he was probably not the right man for the job. Taylor was a wealthy slave owner who held properties in the plantation states of Louisiana, Kentucky, and Mississippi. During his brief time in office his presidency foundered over the question of whether the national government should permit the spread of slavery to the present-day states of California, New Mexico, and Utah, then newly won from Mexico. His sudden death put Vice President Millard Fillmore into the White House, and Fillmore promptly threw his support behind the Compromise of 1850, canceling out much of the impact of Taylor's presidency. Points of Interest:

• Taylor refused all postage due correspondences. Because of this, he didn't receive notification of his nomination for president until several days later.
• As a soldier always moving from location to location, Taylor never established an official place of residence and never registered to vote, He didn't even vote in his own election. It wasn't until he was 62 that he cast his first ballot.
• November 7, 1848 was the first time a presidential election was held on the same day in every state.
• Visitors to the White House would take souvenier horse hairs from Whitey, Taylor's old Army horse that he kept on the White House lawn.

Did You Know? • He was the second president to die--from illness-- in office and the second president to die in the White House. • His nickname was "Old Rough and Ready," due to his slovenly dress. • He was the first president not previously elected to any other public office. • After his participation in the Mexican-American War, he was considered a military hero.  

Nickname: "The American Louis Philippe" Born into desperate poverty at the dawn of the nineteenth century, Millard Fillmoreclimbed to the highest office in the land -- and inherited a nation breaking into fragments over the question of slavery. Despite his best efforts, the lines of the future battles of the Civil War were drawn, and Fillmore found himself rejected by his own dying party and denied renomination. As President, Fillmore strongly supported the Compromise. Allying himself with the Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas and appointing the pro-compromise Whig Daniel Webster as his secretary of state, Fillmore engineered its passage. By forcing these issues, Fillmore believed he had helped to safeguard the Union, but it soon became clear that the compromise, rather than satisfying anyone, gave everyone something to hate. Under the strains of the failed agreement, the Whig Party began to come apart at the seams. On the international stage, Fillmore dispatched Commodore Perry to "open" Japan to Western trade and worked to keep the Hawaiian Islands out of European hands. He refused to back an invasion of Cuba by a group of Southern adventurers who wanted to expand the South into a slave-based Caribbean empire. This "filibustering" expedition failed, and Fillmore took the blame from Southerners. At the same time, he offended Northerners by enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law in their region. Weary and dispirited, he tried to decline to run again but was prevailed upon to allow his name to be put forward -- only to lose the nomination to General Winfield Scott. Shortly thereafter, his beloved Abigail died, followed by his twenty-two-year-old daughter Mary. Points of Interest:

• Fillmore was one of five presidents who were never inaugurated.
• After Fillmore's term, he became the chancellor of the University of Buffalo.
• Fillmore was the first president to have a stepmother.
• The White House's first library, bathtub and kitchen stove were installed by the Fillmores.
• Fillmore refused an honorary degree from Oxford University because he felt he had "neither literary nor scientific attainment."

 

Nickname: "Young Hickory of the Granite Hills" Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, came to office during a period of growing tension between the North and South. A politician of limited ability, Pierce was behind one of the most crucial pieces of legislation in American history. Although he did not author the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he did encourage its passage by Congress. And that piece of legislation set the nation on its path to civil war. In his Inaugural he proclaimed an era of peace and prosperity at home, and vigor in relations with other nations. The United States might have to acquire additional possessions for the sake of its own security, he pointed out, and would not be deterred by "any timid forebodings of evil."   Pierce had only to make gestures toward expansion to excite the wrath of northerners, who accused him of acting as a cat's-paw of Southerners eager to extend slavery into other areas. Therefore he aroused apprehension when he pressured Great Britain to relinquish its special interests along part of the Central American coast, and even more when he tried to persuade Spain to sell Cuba.   By the end of his administration, Pierce could claim "a peaceful condition of things in Kansas." But, to his disappointment, the Democrats refused to renominate him, turning to the less controversial Buchanan. Points of Interest:

• Pierce was arrested while in office for running over an old woman with his horse, but his case was dropped due to insufficient evidence in 1853.
• Pierce was wounded during the Mexican War.
• One of the Democratic party's slogans during Pierce's campaign for president was: "We Polked you in 1844; we shall Pierce you in 1852."
• Benjamin, Pierce's third and only surviving child, died in a railroad accident two months before his father's inauguration.
• Because of religious considerations Pierce affirmed rather than swore the Presidential oath of office.
• Pierce gave his 3,319-word inaugural address from memory, without the aid of notes.
• Pierce was the only elected President who sought but did not win his party's nomination for a second term.
• During his second year at Bowdoin College in Maine, Pierce had the lowest grades out of anyone in his class. He changed his study habits, and graduated third in his class. Among his class mates were Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
• Franklin Pierce was the first President to have a Christmas tree in the White House.
• He installed the first central-heating system and the first bathroom with hot and cold water in the White House.
• Pierce was an avid fisherman.
• Pierce died of cirrhosis of the liver as a result of years of heavy drinking.

 

Nickname: "Old Buck" Presiding over a rapidly dividing Nation, Buchanangrasped inadequately the political realities of the time. Relying on constitutional doctrines to close the widening rift over slavery, he failed to understand that the North would not accept constitutional arguments which favored the South. Nor could he realize how sectionalism had realigned political parties: the Democrats split; the Whigs were destroyed, giving rise to the Republicans. During his administration, the Union broke apart, and when he left office, civil war threatened. Eager to retain the support of Southern Democrats and believing early statehood for Kansas would defuse the explosive territorial problem, Buchanan endorsed a proslavery constitution for Kansas. His fellow Democrat, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, challenged this endorsement and instead demanded a legitimate popular vote in Kansas. These Kansas troubles, especially the break with Douglas, divided the Democratic Party and weakened Buchanan. In 1860, the rift between James Buchanan and Stephen Douglas doomed the political aspirations of both. Under the strain of internal pressure and sectional tension, the Democratic Party finally snapped in two, allowing an unknown railroad lawyer from an upstart party -- the Republican Abraham Lincoln -- to win the White House. The election of a Northerner clearly opposed to the extension of slavery outside existing Southern states frightened the South. Six weeks after Lincoln's election, South Carolina left the Union, and within another six weeks, six other states followed. Maintaining that he lacked power, the lame-duck Buchanan took no action to stop secession, which only emboldened the new Confederacy and gave seceding states time to set up a government. Buchanan seemed eager to get out of the White House before the real disaster ensued. He vanished from public life and retreated to his home, seeing only close friends until his death in 1868.  

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