William McKinley 25th US President 1897-1901

William McKinley 1843- 1901

25th US President 1897-1901

First Lady Ida Sexton

Vice President (s) Garret A. Hobart (1897-1899) Theodore Roosevelt (1901)

McKinley declared war on Spain after the US battleship Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor. In four moths the U.S. won the war and gained control of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. Cuba became independent. McKinley was assassinated shortly after he won a second term.






William McKinley quotes:

Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people.
William McKinley

Expositions are the timekeepers of progress.
William McKinley

I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform.
William McKinley

I have never been in doubt since I was old enough to think intelligently that I would someday be made president.
William McKinley

In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest.
William McKinley

Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.
William McKinley

Our differences are policies; our agreements, principles.
William McKinley

That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime - to set an example - and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history.
William McKinley

The free man cannot be long an ignorant man.
William McKinley

The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.
William McKinley

Benjamin Harrison 23rd US President 1889-1893

Benjamin Harrison 1833- 1901

Republican

First Lady Caroline Lavinia Scott Mary Scott Lord Dimmick

Vice President Levi P. Morton

Harrison passed four very important bills:

The Dependent Pension Act - This provided benefits to disabled veterans.
The McKinley Tariff Act- This act raised tariffs, prices and living costs.
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act - This allowed more silver to be minted into money.
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act - Regulated monopolies and helped small business owners.

These bills would help shape the future prosperity Americans were about to enjoy.

Benjamin Harrison Quotes:

I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.
Benjamin Harrison

No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor.
Benjamin Harrison

The bud of victory is always in the truth.
Benjamin Harrison

There never has been a time in our history when work was so abundant or when wages were as high, whether measured by the currency in which they are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life.
Benjamin Harrison

This Government has found occasion to express, in a friendly spirit, but with much earnestness, to the Government of the Czar, its serious concern because of the harsh measures now being enforced against the Hebrews in Russia.
Benjamin Harrison

Grover Cleveland 22nd and 24th US President

Grover Cleveland 1839-1908

22nd and 24th US President 1885-1889- 1893- 1897

First Lady Frances Folsom

Vice President (s) Thomas Hendricks 1885-89 Adlai E. Stevenson 1893-97

Grover Cleveland was regarded as an incredibly hard working US President. Dealing with the uncooperative Senate and Congress resulted in him not being reelected in 1889. His work ethic allowed him to regain the Presidency in 1893.

Grover Cleveland quotes:

A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves.
Grover Cleveland

A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil.
Grover Cleveland

After an existence of nearly 20 years of almost innocuous desuetude, these laws are brought forth.
Grover Cleveland

Communism is a hateful thing, and a menace to peace and organized government.
Grover Cleveland

He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor.
Grover Cleveland

Honor lies in honest toil.
Grover Cleveland

I have considered the pension list of the republic a roll of honor.
Grover Cleveland

I have tried so hard to do right.
Grover Cleveland

Chester A. Arthur 21st US President 1881-1885

Chester A. Arthur 1829- 1886

Republican

First Lady Ellen Lewis Herndon

Vice President- none

Chester A. Arthur became President following Garfield's assassination. The parties were split and the Congress was involved in a horrible deadlock. Arthur did get the Pendleton Civil Serc=vice act which required people to take tests for government jobs rather then have them handed out as government favors.

Chester A. Arthur quotes:

I may be president of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damned business.
Chester A. Arthur

Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damn business.
Chester A. Arthur

Men may die, but the fabrics of free institutions remains unshaken.
Chester A. Arthur

The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.
Chester A. Arthur

James A. Garfield 20th US President 1881

James A. Garfield 1831- 1881

20th US President 1881

First Lady Lucretia Rudolph

Vice President Chester A. Arthur

At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield failed to win the Presidential nomination for his friend John Sherman. Finally, on the 36th ballot, Garfield himself became the "dark horse" nominee.


James A. Garfield won the Republican's support while the party was divided between various groups. The Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds bitterly split the party and Garfield won with the support of the half-breeds.
By a margin of only 10,000 popular votes, Garfield defeated the Democratic nominee, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock.
Garfield returned the favor by installing Half-Breeds to important government jobs. In 1881 Garfield was shot by a Stalwart and died from the resulting blood poisoning.

James A. Garfield quotes:


All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.
James A. Garfield

Few men in our history have ever obtained the Presidency by planning to obtain it.
James A. Garfield

He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation.
James A. Garfield

I am a poor hater.
James A. Garfield

I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.
James A. Garfield

I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.
James A. Garfield

I love to deal with doctrines and events. The contests of men about men I greatly dislike.
James A. Garfield

Rutherford B. Hayes 19th President 1877-1881

Rutherford B. Hayes 1822-1893

19th US President 1877-1881

Republican

First Lady Lucy Ware

Vice President William A. Wheeler

Hayes was instrumental to restoring the southern States becoming part of the Union again. Rutherford B. Hayes started civil service reform to end corruption and bribery in Government jobs.


Rutherford B. Hayes quotes:

I am a radical in thought (and principle) and a conservative in method (and conduct).
Rutherford B. Hayes

I am less disposed to think of a West Point education as requisite for this business than I was at first. Good sense and energy are the qualities required.
Rutherford B. Hayes

I am not liked as a President by the politicians in office, in the press, or in Congress. But I am content to abide the judgment the sober second thought of the people.
Rutherford B. Hayes

In avoiding the appearance of evil, I am not sure but I have sometimes unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyments.
Rutherford B. Hayes

It is the desire of the good people of the whole country that sectionalism as a factor in our politics should disappear...'
Rutherford B. Hayes

Law without education is a dead letter. With education the needed law follows without effort and, of course, with power to execute itself; indeed, it seems to execute itself.
Rutherford B. Hayes

Ulysses S. Grant 18th US President 1869-1877

Ulysses S. Grant 1822-1885

18th US President 1869-1877

Republican

First Lady Julia Boggs Dent

Vice Presidents Schuyler Colfax 1869-1873, Henry Wilson 1873-1875

U. S. Grant was a Civil War hero who supported the rights of the freed slaves and opposed the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. His greatest achievement during his administration was a settling of a dispute with Great Britain over an Alabama land claims.

U.S. Grant quotes:

Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace.
Ulysses S. Grant


Everyone has his superstitions. One of mine has always been when I started to go anywhere, accomplished.
Ulysses S. Grant

Hold fast to the Bible. To the influence of this Book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization and to this we must look as our guide in the future.
Ulysses S. Grant

I appreciate the fact, and am proud of it, that the attentions I am receiving are intended more for our country than for me personally.
Ulysses S. Grant

I have made it a rule of my life to trust a man long after other people gave him up, but I don't see how I can ever trust any human being again.
Ulysses S. Grant

I have never advocated war except as a means of peace.
Ulysses S. Grant

Andrew Johnson 17th US President 1865- 1869

Andrew Johnson 1808- 1875

17th US President 1865-1869

Republican

First Lady Eliza McCardle

Vice President none

Andrew Johnson became president when Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. Johnson disagreed with the North and Congress so much that he was impeached. He was from North Carolina and sympathetic towards the south and wanted to reconstruct the Union without the harsh penalties that congress wanted.

Andrew Johnson quotes:
If I am shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet.

Andrew Johnson

If the rabble were lopped off at one end and the aristocrats at the other, all would be well with the country.
Andrew Johnson

It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
Andrew Johnson

Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many and varied interests.
Andrew Johnson

Abraham Lincoln 16th US President 1861-1865

Abraham Lincoln 1809- 1865

16th US President 1861-1865

Republican

First Lady Mary Todd

Vice President Hannibal Hamlin 1861-1865 Andrew Johnson 1865

Lincoln's election resulted in the secession of southern states. The Civil War and restoring peace and pulling the Union together became Lincoln's goal. He has been considered by many as one of the best US Presidents in history. His assassination in 1865 brought the newly restored country together and began the beginning of the idea of the US becoming a Federalist nation.



Abraham Lincoln quotes:

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.
Abraham Lincoln

A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Abraham Lincoln

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.
Abraham Lincoln

All I am, or can be, I owe to my angel mother.
Abraham Lincoln

All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.
Abraham Lincoln

All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.
Abraham Lincoln

Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure.
Abraham Lincoln

The $1 President Coins 2010

The 2010 $1 coins will honor former Presidents Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln. Will be released by the US Mint during 2010.

James Buchanan 15th Us President 1857- 1861

James Buchanan 1791 - 1868

15th Us President

Democrat

First Lady - Only president never to be married.

Vice President John C. Breckinridge

James Buchanan's Administration was marred but the split of the Union. South Carolina seceded from the Union and six more states followed and Buchanan did what he could to keep the country from falling apart under such stress.

James Buchanan quotes:

I like the noise of democracy.
James Buchanan

If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.
James Buchanan

The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men.
James Buchanan

The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
James Buchanan

To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.
James Buchanan

What is right and what is practicable are two different things.
James Buchanan

Franklin Pierce 14th US President 1853-1857

Franklin Pierce 1804- 1869

14th US President

Democrat

First Lady Jane Means Appleton

Vice President William R. King

Franklin Pierce acquired parts of present day Arizona and New Mexico from Mexico. He endorsed the Kansas Nebraska Act which set off a violent slavery debate which led to his failure to be renominated.






Franklin Pierce quotes:

A Republic without parties is a complete anomaly. The histories of all popular governments show absurd is the idea of their attempting to exist without parties.
Franklin Pierce

Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.
Franklin Pierce

The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded.
Franklin Pierce

With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined.
Franklin Pierce

Millard Fillmore 13th President 1850 -1853

Millard Filmore 1800- 1874

13th US President

Whig

Vice President - none.

First Lady(s) Abigail Powers Caroline Carmichael McIntosh

Millard Fillmore took office when Zachary Taylor died suddenly. The Compromise of 1850 was his great achievement. Admitting California as a free state while the territories won from Mexico had no slave restrictions. The slave trade was abolished in Washington DC. under the compromise.

Millard Fillmore quotes:

It is not strange... to mistake change for progress.
Millard Fillmore

May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.
Millard Fillmore

Zachary Taylor 12th US President 1849-1850

Zachary Taylor 1784- 1850

12th US President

Whig

First Lady Margaret Taylor

Vice President Millard Fillmore

Zachary Taylor's administration was during the height of the nation's crisis over slavery. Taylor opposed many compromises to the Southern States threats of secession. His chief accomplishment is considered the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty which stated that neither the US nor Great Britain would have exclusive rights over any future canal through Central America.


Zachary Taylor quotes:

I have always done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me.
Zachary Taylor

It would be judicious to act with magnanimity towards a prostrate foe.
Zachary Taylor

James K. Polk 11th US President 1845-1849

James K. Polk 1795- 1849

Democrat

11th President of the US

First Lady Sarah Polk

Vice President George Dallas

They Might Be Giant wrote a song about him....

In 1844, the Democrats were split
The three nominees for the presidential candidate
Were Martin Van Buren, a former president and an abolitionist
James Buchanan, a moderate
Louis Cass, a general and expansionist
From Nashville came a dark horse riding up
He was James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump

Austere, severe, he held few people dear
His oratory filled his foes with fear
The factions soon agreed
He's just the man we need
To bring about victory
Fulfill our manifest destiny
And annex the land the Mexicans command
And when the votes were cast the winner was
Mister James K. Polk, Napoleon of the Stump

In four short years he met his every goal
He seized the whole southwest from Mexico
Made sure the tarriffs fell
And made the English sell the Oregon territory
He built an independent treasury
Having done all this he sought no second term
But precious few have mourned the passing of
Mister James K. Polk, our eleventh president
Young Hickory, Napoleon of the Stump

John Tyler 10th US President 1841-1845

John Tyler 1790 - 1862

Whig

10th US President

First Lady Letitia Tyler

Tyler took over as president when William Henry Harrison died in office. He opposed his party and was thrown out of the Whig party. He agreed not to seek reelection if James K. Polk and the Democrats would annex Texas. They agreed and Tyler annexed Texas before leaving office.

William Henry Harrison 9th US President 1841

William Henry Harrison 1773- 1841

Whig

9th US President

First Lady Anna Harrison

Vice President - John Tyler

His inaugural speech lasted an hour and forty five minutes in the cold. He got pneumonia and died.

Martin Van Buren 8th US President 1837-1841

Martin Van Buren (1782 - 1862)

8th US President

First Lady Hannah Van Buren

Vice President Richard M. Johnson

Van Buren was president during an economic depression. The US border was plagued by disputes with Canada and Mexico. He refused to start a war with Mexico by admitting Texas into the Union. He was considered a very kind and rational public figure.

Andrew Jackson 7th US President 1829-1837

Andrew Jackson (1767 - 1845)

Democrat

First Lady Rachel Jackson

Vice Presidents John C. Calhoun (1829-32) Martin Van Buren (1832-37)

Andrew Jackson paid off the national debt and improved federal funds for key infrastructure. Jackson grew up in rural US and knew the "common man". Jackson was the original "Washington Outsider" president.

John Quincy Adams 6th Us President 1825-1829

John Quincy Adams (1767 - 1848)

6th US President

First Lady Louisa Adams

Vice President John C. Calhoun

John Quincy Adams favored a large Federal government and viewed the presidency as an office to overshadow state's rights. He was not re elected due to the overwhelming state's rights issues of the day, most notably slavery.

James Monroe 5th US President 1817- 1825

James Monroe 1758 - 1831

Democratic- Republican

First Lady Elizabeth Monroe

Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins

Monroe established the US-Canadian border. Monroe's presidency was most remembered for the "Monroe Doctrine" in which he declared the US government separate and different from Europe. He presided over the Missouri Compromise where Maine was admitted as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.

James Madison 4th Us President 1809-1817

James Madison 1751-1839

First Lady Dolley Madison

4th US president 1809-1817

Vice Presidents George Clinton (1809 -1812) Elbridge Gerry (1813-1814)

Madison Administration was problematic due to the tensions between France and Britain. The War of 1812 followed and Madison barely escaped when the British forces captured Washington DC. He was able to obtain peace through the Treay of Ghent in 1814.

His likeness was used on the US $5000 bill. A picture of the US $5000 dollar bill is here.

Thomas Jefferson 1801- 1809

Thomas Jefferson 1743- 1826
First Lady Martha Jefferson
3rd US President

Democratic-Republican Party

Vice President Aaron Burr (1801-1805), George Clinton (1805-1809)

Jefferson was the first US President to be inaugurated in Washington DC. He reduced taxes and believed in many freedoms. The Louisiana Purchase was considered Jefferson's greatest achievement of his presidency.

Jefferson is featured on the $2 bill.

John Adams 1797 - 1801

John Adams 1735- 1826
First Lady Abigail Adams
2nd Us President 1797-1801

Federalist party

Vice President Thomas Jefferson

Adams was the first President to live in The White House. His Presidency was marred by the Alien and Sedition Acts to stop foreign and domestic assaults on the new Us Government.


John Adams Quotes:

Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
John Adams

All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
John Adams

Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion... in private self-defense.
John Adams

As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children.
John Adams

George Washington 1789-1797

George Washington 1732 -1799
First Lady Martha Washington
First President

Federalist Party

Vice President - John Adams



Washington created a national bank, made peace with the Native Americans and proved the new US government was a capable body.