21. Chester A. Arthur

No president personally benefitted more from the patronage system than Chester Arthur when he was the Collector for the New York Customs House.  So it is all the more surprising that he was the president credited with getting rid of the patronage process.  Arthur was appointed as the Collector for the New York Customs House in 1871 as a reward for helping Ulysses Grant win the state of New York.  In that position Arthur was responsible for collecting the customs duties on all goods that came in through the Port of New York.  The Collector’s job was very lucrative because it included a percentage of the fines he collected from people trying to avoid the tariffs.  At that time the salary of the collector was $6,500.  Including the fines, Arthur made more than $50,000 per year!  This was the same as the presidents salary.   In addition, he oversaw an operation that employed more than 1,000 people.  Everyone believed that this was way too many people for the work that needed done.  The result was not a lot of work for most people.  Employees were expected to give a portion of their salaries to the Republican Party and to spend their free time on Republican causes.

Arthur was a member of Roscoe Conkling’s “Stalwart” wing of the Republican Party.  Conkling had a firm grasp on New York politics and controlled most of what went on in that important state.  Many people in politically appointed positions owed Conkling for their job.  Both Grant and Arthur offered to appoint Conkling to the Supreme Court, but both times he declined.

The patronage system was just one of the scandals that overshadowed the Grant administration.  When Rutherford Hayes was running for president in 1876 he pledged to reform the civil service system.  Once elected he started by taking on Conkling’s political machine at the Customs House; Hayes had an investigation look into the Customs House and it concluded that 20% of the people could be let go.  Arthur gave in and created a committee to determine where the cuts should occur.  Hayes then issued an Executive Order banning “assessments” (or mandatory contributions to a political party) and forbade people from doing party work on the job.  Eventually it was discovered that most employees were taking bribes (mostly to rush items through customs), including one person that had pocketed $40,000!  Hayes asked Arthur to resign, which he refused.  Eventually, after battling with Conkling, Hayes fired Arthur during a congressional recess in July 1878 and appointed someone else.  When the Senate returned they narrowly approved the new appointment.

Returning to New York, Arthur worked with Roscoe Conkling to help elect Stalwarts across the state.  They were largely successful (including the Governor’s seat) and increased the power of the Stalwart faction.  Hayes had promised to only serve one term, and it probably didn’t make a difference, because by 1880 his popularity was pretty low.  After 35 ballots the Republican Party was deadlocked between supporters of Grant for an unprecedented third term and supporters of James G. Blaine, a Senator from Maine.  On the 36th ballot Blaine threw his support behind James Garfield who won the nomination.  To appease the Stalwarts Garfield asked Arthur to be his running mate.  Against the advice of Conkling, who didn’t think Garfield could win, Arthur accepted.  They barely won the election by 7,000 votes, but carried the large Eastern states and won easily in the Electoral College.

With Garfield’s assassination 6 months later, Arthur became president.  He was first sworn in by a New York Supreme Court justice at his home in New York at 2:15 AM on Sept 20th (the day after receiving word that Garfield had died).  He took the oath again on his return to DC because there are some questions regarding the authority of a state judge to administer the oath to a U.S. President.

Many expected Arthur to be an ardent Stalwart and that the civil service reforms that had initiated under Garfield would be slowed or even stopped.  Arthur proved to be his own man and ended up being an able administrator.  During his time in office he completed civil service reform by signing the Pendleton Act which still remains in effect today.  Although in the biography I read the author gives as much credit to the Republicans in Congress who had just lost their majority to the Democrats in the 1882 election, it was during the lame duck session of congress that most of the civil service reforms were passed.  By passing the popular legislation they could deny the Democrats the ability to use patronage.

Another problem that Arthur had to deal with was the budget surplus.  Yes, budget surplus.  There were differing opinions on how to reduce the surplus.  The Republicans wanted to attack the surplus by spending more money.  Specifically they passed the Rivers and Harbors Bill that would spend $19 million for internal improvements.  Arthur vetoed the bill because he didn’t like the size of the bill or the fact that it only had local impact and not national.  Congress was able to override his veto.  The passing of the bill was unpopular around the country and the Republicans pointed to it when they lost the midterm election in 1882.  The Democrats, on the other hand, wanted to lower tariffs to reduce income.  However, Republicans felt that high tariffs meant higher wages.  This seems kind of odd today when the parties seem to have flipped on their fiscal policies.

Arthur oversaw a resurgence in the US Navy, which had been allowed to dwindle since the Civil War.  The navy had gone from 700 ships down to a mere 52.  Within a decade the American Navy easily defeated the Spanish in the Spanish-American War.

The legacy of President Arthur revolved around the resurgence of the US Navy and the reformation of US civil service.  For the first time jobs were based on merit and not political connections.  Having taken a relatively independent path during his presidency, Arthur did not enjoy the support of either major faction of the Republican Party for a full term.  The Stalwarts were in serious decline after Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau, claimed to be a Stalwart after shooting Garfield.  This led to conspiracy theories that the Stalwarts were involved.  The other major faction, the Half-Breeds, were firmly behind their candidate, James Blaine.  The Half-Breeds got their label because they were moderate Republicans and some called them half-Republicans.

Never really enjoying good health after he left office, he lived another 2 years after leaving office.  On November 16^th, after having returned from vacation (holiday), he fell quite ill.  He ordered all of his official papers and letters burned.  Arthur suffered a cerebral hemorrhage the next morning and died at 57 years old.

Fun Facts:

• He suffered from Bright’s Disease which affected his kidneys.
• There are unproven rumors that Chester Arthur was actually born in Canada, which would have rendered him ineligible to be president.
• In a civil rights case in 1854, Arthur was the lead attorney representing Elizabeth Jennings Graham after she was denied a seat on a streetcar because she was black. He won the case, and the verdict led to the desegregation of the New York City streetcar lines.
• Arthur’s wife died in 1880 after 21 years of marriage, after his election as Vice-President.  He never remarried.
• Arthur was Garfield’s second choice for vice-president.  Levi Morton turned Garfield down due to the advice of Conkling; Morton would go on to serve as Benjamin Harrison’s vice-president.
• He was the second president to take the oath of office in New York City; however he retook the oath when he was back in Washington DC.
• Arthur dedicated the recently completed Washington Monument on February 27th, 1885, one of his last acts as president.
• He oversaw a major renovation of the White House.  The Army Corps of Engineers thought it would be easier to tear it down and build a new one.
• He hired renowned decorator Lewis Comfort Tiffany to redecorate.  He had 24 wagon loads of furniture and decorations hauled off.
• He had the first elevator installed in the White House
• In 1882 he signed the Edmunds Act making polygamy a federal crime and barring anyone that practiced it from serving in public office.  This was aimed at the Mormon Church in the Utah Territory.

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Ellen Lewis Herndon (1837-1880, m. 1859)
• Children: William Lewis Herndon (1860-1863), Chester Alan Jr. (1864-1937), Ellen Herndon (1871-1915) 
• Party affiliation: Republican Party 
• Presidency: 1881-1885
• Born: October 5th, 1829 (Fairfield, Vermont) 
• Died: November 18th, 1886 (New York, New York)

20. James A. Garfield

No other president with the possible exception of Lincoln or A. Johnson started with less than Garfield and still achieved the White House.  Garfield was the last of five children born to Abram and Eliza Garfield in a log cabin near Cleveland, Ohio.  His father died before James was two years old.  Eliza went to work to support the family and the kids divided their time between working and going to school.  When James was 16, he set out on his own.  In Cleveland he found work on canal boats and piloted a tug boat.  After contracting what is believed to be malaria he returned home.  Once he was healthy, his mother convinced him that going to college would be a good idea.  He started his education at a nearby college (Western Reserve Eclectic Institute) but soon moved out east.  While in college he became well known as a great public speaker and debater. Completing degrees in Latin and Literature (with honors) from Williams College in Massachusetts he went to become a teacher at Hiram College (formerly Western Reserve Eclectic Institute).   Garfield became a very popular teacher and was, at the age of 26, elected to be the college’s president.

This popularity extended outside the college and Garfield was elected to the Ohio Senate from his district in 1859.  He went on to study law and was certified as a lawyer in 1861.  Certain that war was coming he shifted his attention to study military tactics and organization.  When war did break out he was appointed a Colonel in the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry.  Many of the men under his command were former students.  He served with distinction and rose to the rank of Major General.  It was during the Battle of Chickamauga that he was cited for bravery.  His exploits were reported favorably back in Ohio and he was elected to his first of nine terms in the U.S House of Representatives.  Even though he felt that he was needed in the Army to continue the war Lincoln convinced him that he was needed in Congress.

During his seventeen years in the House, he chaired the Military Affairs Committee (where he established the Reserve Officer Training Corps, ROTC on college campuses).  While in the military Garfield developed a dislike for the officers that were trained at West Point and wanted an alternative.  He also chaired the Banking and Currency Committee where he advocated for a return to “hard currency” or currency based on the gold standard.    When the Democrats gained the majority in Congress in 1874 Garfield became the Minority Leader.  Garfield was selected to serve on the committee that was formed to decide the 1876 election of Hayes

While in the House he was one of the congressman that was involved in the Credit Mobilier scandal that erupted during the Grant administration.  Basically the allegations were that he had purchased stock in the company and received dividends.  The company turned out to be something of a front for defrauding investors and the government.

In the election of 1880 Garfield won the nomination of the Republican Party and went on to defeat Winfield Scott Hancock by less than 10,000 votes (out of the nearly 9 million cast).  The electoral vote picture was much different and he won easily 214-155.

During his brief presidency Garfield faced two unpleasant issues. The first was a scandal called the Star Route case.  Western postal officials had figured out a way to scheme with stage coach operators to defraud the government.  Garfield ordered an investigation that resulted in a reform of the postal agency.  The second involved the nomination of James Blaine instead of the man that the Stalwart faction wanted.  One of the leaders of the faction, Roscoe Conkling (senator from New York) resigned in protest confident that he would win a special election, prove that he was right and that the New York legislature was behind him.  However he lost the special election.

On July 2, 1881, Garfield was at the train station to begin a tour of New England when he was shot twice in the back by Charles Guitau, an ardent Stalwart and a disgruntled job seeker.  When he shot Garfield, he supposedly shouted "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! I did it and I want to be arrested! Arthur is president now!"  According to Guitau he had planned to shoot Garfield at the same train station on June 18th, but Garfield’s wife was clearly ill and so he changed his mind.  This briefly led to speculation that the Stalwarts, including Chester Arthur, were involved in the assassination.

Garfield pushed for reform of the patronage system that was currently in place.  He died before he could get it passed, but his successor Chester Arthur succeeded in getting it passed.  Part of his legacy was the reemergence of the strong president.  Since Andrew Jackson, Lincoln is the only other president that was considered a strong president.  Many of the presidents that followed Garfield would continue this model of a strong chief executive.

A is for Abram and other interesting facts:

• Garfield was the first of 8 left-handed presidents; Garfield, Hoover, Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama.  It should be noted that four of the last five presidents have been left-handed.  Both Garfield and Reagan are considered ambidextrous. The percentage of the general U.S. population is about 10%.  The percentage of presidents is over 18%.  This seems statistically significant.
• According to sources Garfield could right in Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand at the same time!
• Garfield won the 1880 Republican nomination on the 36th ballot even though he did not get one vote on the 1st ballot and only got one vote on the 33rd ballot.  Talk about a Dark Horse!
• He is the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to win the presidency (sorry Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul).
• Garfield spoke fluent German
• He was the first president whose mother attended his inauguration.
• For a brief period of time he was a member of the House, a Senator-elect and President-elect.  The Ohio legislature had voted him in as a Senator in the 1880 election as well.
• He was the last president born in a log cabin
• He had the second shortest presidency serving only 199 days before he died (or just over 6 months).
• He was the second president to be assassinated
• Charles Guiteau (the man who shot Garfield) would later claim that he hadn’t killed Garfield that it was the poor medical care that killed him 80 days later.  The doctors (including Alexander Graham Bell) attempted to remove the bullet with their dirty fingers and medical instruments causing Garfield to contract blood poisoning.  If you have time read the article about Guiteau, he was a loon!
• Guiteau selected the 5-barrel, .44 caliber pistol called a British Bulldog because he thought it would look good in a museum.  Nobody currently knows where the gun is located.
• Garfield was the first president to talk on a phone.
• Garfield the cartoon cat was named after Jim Davis’ grandfather James A. Garfield Davis.
• His Secretary of War, Robert Todd Lincoln, was with him when he was shot.
• Lawnfield, Garfield’s home in Ohio includes among other things, a windmill and what is considered to be the first Presidential library built 4 years after his death.

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Lucretia Rudolph (1832-1918, m. 1858)
• Children: Eliza Arabella (1860-1863), Harry Augutus (1863-1942), James Rudolph (1865-1950), Mary (Mollie) (1867-1947), Irvin McDowell (1870-1951), Abram (1872-1958), Edward Abram (1974-1876) 
• Party affiliation: Republican Party 
• Presidency: 1881-1881
• Born: November 19th, 1831 (Orange, Ohio) 
• Died: September 19th, 1881 (Elberon, New Jersey)

19. Rutherford B. Hayes

The Hayes presidency occurred at a critical time in American history.  This was during the reconstruction period following the civil war.  It was during his administration that military occupation ended and self rule were returned to the former rebellious states.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893) was born and raised in Ohio.  His father died before Rutherford was born, so his uncle Sardis helped raise him and became a father figure.  After attending law school at Harvard, Hayes returned to Ohio to practice law.  He started practicing law in a town called Lower Sandusky (now Fremont).  Business was slow at the beginning, but he was able to represent his uncle Sardis on some real estate litigation.  In 1850 he decided to move to Cincinnati and opened a law practice with John Herron.  Due to the fact that Cincinnati was just across the river from Kentucky, many of his legal cases involved runaway slaves.  Hayes defended several such cases due to his strong abolitionist views (probably strengthened by his recent courting of Lucy Webb, who was firmly against slavery and drinking).  His work defending fugitive slaves also brought him to the attention of the newly formed Republican Party.  The city solicitor of Cincinnati was Hayes’ first elected office in 1859.

With the start of the Civil War, Hayes put his law practice on hold and joined the 23rd  Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a major.  Notable within his unit was a young private, William McKinley, who would also become president; Stanley Matthews, who went on to become a U.S. Senator and Supreme Court Justice; and future Congressman Joseph Kennedy.

Hayes was wounded five times during the Civil War leading his troops into battle.  He served with distinction and became a legend back in Ohio as stories of his heroism found trickled back home.  By the end of the war Hayes had been promoted to brigadier general.  In 1864 while still in the field, he was nominated and won a seat in the United States Congress without once campaigning. 

During his first term as a U.S. Congressman, Hayes identified with the more moderate wing of the Republican party, but was willing to vote with the radicals.  He agreed with the Republican view that the southern states should be restored to the Union, but not without laws protecting the recently freed slaves.  During his second term, he was the chairman of a committee on the Library of Congress.  He secured funding from the congress to expand the library’s science collection.

Hayes returned to Ohio after two terms in the House of Representatives to run for, and win, election to the governor’s seat.  During his first term he was fairly restricted on what he could accomplish because the legislature was controlled by the Democrats and the Governor of Ohio had no veto power.  In spite of these restrictions he was able to establish a reform school for girls and a school for deaf-mutes.  Education was becoming a cornerstone of Hayes beliefs and something he would pursue long after his presidency.  During his second term the Republicans took control of the legislature.  This control allowed Ohio to pass the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guaranteed the right to vote to all Americans regardless of race or color.

In 1872 Hayes left the governor’s seat and retired to private life.  In this time his uncle Sardis Birchard died, leaving him Hayes his home, Spiegel Mansion, and his substantial wealth.  His retirement didn’t last too long and he was elected to a third term as Governor of Ohio in 1875.

The presidential election of 1876, the year of the centennial of the Declaration of Independence, is one of the most well-known elections in American Presidential history.  It is famous because it was tainted with allegations of fraud, voter intimidation and a stolen election (no this is not 2000).  Hayes was running against Samuel Tilden from New York.  Three days after the election Tilden was leading Hayes by an electoral vote of 184-165.  There were still 20 outstanding electoral votes in dispute in Oregon, South Carolina, Louisiana and, yes, Florida.  Ultimately a congressional commission comprised of fifteen members (7 Republicans, 7 Democrats and 1 Independent) representing the House (5), Senate (5) and the Supreme Court (5) were charged with deciding the disputed votes.  Obviously it was decided in favor of Hayes, but only after a compromise that promised Hayes would withdraw federal troops from the southern states, accept the election of Democratic governments in the south, the appointment of a southern Democrat to Hayes’ cabinet and funding for the Texas and Pacific railroad.

There were several major issues that Hayes had to deal with during his single term.  Two of them were the removal of military rule in the remaining southern states and that his resolve to deal with the issue of patronage.  In dealing with patronage, he was striking at the heart of power for many people.  Since the time of Jackson, politicians and political bosses got to select people for certain roles.  In one particular case Hayes effectively fired the Collector of the Port of New York through an Executive Order.  The Collector of the Port of New York, as it would happen, was future president Chester A. Arthur.  This was a very lucrative position because he earned a percentage of the goods that passed through the port.  I’ll cover the patronage issue further in my entry on Arthur.

During his first year in office the largest labor dispute to date occurred in the form of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.  At issue were wages for the workers.  In order to make up for financial losses that the owners incurred during the Panic of 1873 they started cutting the employees’ salaries.  Workers started striking in West Virginia and spread throughout the East and Midwest.  Hayes sent in the military on multiple occasions at the request of governors to quell the outbreaks.  In each case, the rioting ended before the troops were engaged.  No rioters were killed by the military, but it was the first time that federal troops were sent in to break up a strike against a private company.

Hayes was dedicated to the principal of equal rights for all, regardless of color or race, and felt that the best way to bring up the disenfranchised through was through education.

After his presidency, Hayes remained active in the issues that he felt were important.  He continuously worked to improve veterans’ organizations and served on boards associated with education.

Hayes Trivia

• As a young man, Hayes fought lyssophobia, or the fear of going insane
• First Lady Lucy Hayes got the nickname Lemonade Lucy for banning alcohol from the White House.
• Hayes is one of only two presidents (T. Roosevelt) whose son won the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Major Webb Hayes won the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Spanish American War.
• Hayes is one of four presidents that did not win the popular vote: J. Q. Adams, Hayes, B. Harrison, G. W. Bush.
• During his second term as Governor of Ohio, Hayes oversaw the establishment of a state Agricultural and Mechanical College.  This later became Ohio State University.  I won’t hold this against him.
• Because March 4, 1877 fell on a Sunday, Hayes took the oath of office privately on Saturday, March 3, in the Red Room of the White House. He took the oath publicly on the following Monday.
• Hayes was the first president to talk on a telephone in a call to Alexander Graham Bell.  His response to the experience was “That’s an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?”  It’s a good thing he didn’t live to see Twitter!
• After his disputed election Hayes started receiving death threats.  He was encouraged to go to Washington DC in secret.  Hayes refused and rode into town in an open carriage.  He did allow six special government agents to accompany him.  It was the first time that the “secret service” protected the president.
• In spite of the compromise many Democrats referred to Hayes as Rutherfraud.

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Lucy Ware Webb (1831-1889, m. 1852)
• Children: Sardis Birchard Austin (1853-1926), James Webb Cook (1856-1935), Rutherford Platt (1858-1927), Joseph Thompson (1861-1863), George Crook (1864-1866), Frances (Franny) (1867-1950), Scott Russell (1871-1923), Manning Force (1873-1874) 
• Party affiliation: Republican Party 
• Presidency: 1876-1880
• Born: Oct 4th, 1822 (Delaware, Ohio) 
• Died: Jan 16th, 1893 (Fremont, Ohio)

18. Ulysses S. Grant

Just days before his death in 1885 Grant completed writing what many consider one of the finest political autobiographies.  His autobiography, skips through much of his really early life, but does discuss the circumstances around the fact that Grant’s father was able to obtain an appointment to West Point for him.  Grant’s father had to work a deal with a man that he had a falling out with years before, but the man was the influential Congressman Thomas Hamer. While Grant wasn’t sold on the idea of a military career he didn’t have many other options, as he detested the idea of working in his father’s leather shop.  At West Point, Grant graduated 21st in a class of 39.  He did, however, display his skills in horsemanship and mathematics.  Grant fought during the Mexican War and was twice brevetted for bravery.  In 1854 he resigned from the Army.  He worked a farm in St. Louis unsuccessfully and had a few other also unsuccessful businesses.  Ironically, he ended up being hired as an assistant at his father’s tannery in Galena, Illinois in 1860.

When Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers in April, 1861, Grant worked to raise a company of men.  The early days of the war saw him stationed in Illinois.  His first major victory was at Fort Donelson where he had to rally his troops after an initial defeat, but eventually forced the Confederate defenders to surrender.  Within a year (April 1862) Grant was commanding a force of nearly 50,000 men.  At the battle of Shiloh, the Confederate forces were determined to control the western region.  The Union forces were alerted to the impending attack, but did not create adequate fortifications.  In the initial assault, Grant’s forces were pushed back, but once again he was able to rally the forces and counterattack.  The Union victory at Shiloh was a costly one for both sides, with death tolls numbering over 23,000 between them.  It was the highest casualty number in any battle in the Civil War up to that time.  He continued to win battles with victories at Luka and Corinth in Mississippi.

The battle that really brought him to the attention of Abraham Lincoln took place at Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Grant had attempted direct assaults on the city but was constantly repelled by the defenders.  Rather than retreat he decided to go around and lay siege to Vicksburg from the other side.  The siege lasted for 7 weeks, ending with the Confederates’ surrender.  The victory at Vicksburg gave the Union army control of the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy.

In March 1864 Lincoln put Grant in charge of the entire Union Army.  With the recent promotion, he decided to go after Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia.  What followed was a series of bloody battles and Grant was criticized for the loss of life.  The battles included (in no particular order), The Wilderness, Cold Harbor, The Bloody Angle, Five Forks and Petersburg.  Grant knew that he had more resources than Lee; he just had to keep hitting him hard without time to regroup or refresh his supplies.  Eventually the tactic worked and Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865, essentially ending the Civil War.  Grant was put in charge of the military occupation of the southern states after the war and promoted to the newly created rank of General of the Army.

Grant won an electoral vote landslide in the 1868 presidential election.  It was the first time that he had won an election, and, at the age of 46, was the youngest man elected to the presidency at that time.

Grant’s two terms (the first full two-term president since Andrew Jackson) were marred by several scandals and two major financial crises.  There has been quite a bit of criticism of Grant’s choices for cabinet on top of that.  He seemed to be selecting people for his friendship with them rather than for their qualifications.

During the Civil War, the government had printed “green backs” for use as currency.  This paper money was not backed by anything other than the government’s word.  Over time, these needed to be replaced by the gold backed currency.  One problem was the volatility of the value of the green backs.  One day it would be almost equivalent to a dollar, and at other times it could be worth half of one.  While this was going on, two Wall Street speculators decided to try to corner the gold market.  This pushed up the value of gold and, along with it, the gold backed currency.  Their attempt caused a financial crisis called Black Friday on Sept 24, 1869, and the stock market was forced to close.  Generally Grant gets bad marks from historians by not moving faster to resolve the “green back” issue.

Black Friday was definitely a home grown crisis.  The Panic of 1873 was a worldwide problem that started in Vienna.  In the United States, there was a precursor to the “Tech Bubble” of the 1990’s going on.  In this case it was the railroad companies.  After the Civil War there was a massive investment in building railroads across the country.  The ensuing depression would last for 5 years.  Without a central banking system to use as a tool against these recessions, the American economy would continue to have this cycle of boom and bust with the federal government appearing ineffective.

The first scandal to barrage the Grant administration involved the Credit Mobilier of America Corporation.  In short, a group of shareholders of Union Pacific Railroad, including Senator Ames of Massachusetts, bought the Pennsylvania Fiscal Company and changed the name to the Credit Mobilier of America Corporation.  Credit Mobilier turned around and bought the last shares of Union Pacific Railroad and effectively combined the companies.  Union Pacific Railroad had received loans, subsidies and land grants from the government to build a railroad from the Midwest to the Pacific Ocean.  Union Pacific would turn around and award the actual construction to Credit Mobilier.  Essentially, Union Pacific started awarding large government contracts to itself.  The construction costs that were reported and paid were often twice as much as the actual costs.  When the scandal started to surface, Senator Ames attempted to delay the investigation by handing out shares of Credit Mobilier to several congressmen and senators.  While Grant is not directly implicated in this scandal, one of his personal secretaries was involved.

There were 11 scandals that directly implicated the Grant administration during his 2 terms.  Grant was not personally implicated in any of them, but he is criticized for either not paying closer attention to them, or not handling them more quickly.  The biggest scandal was The Whiskey Ring.  Politicians, most of them Republicans, were able to siphon off millions of dollars in tax revenue for personal gain.  When the scandal finally broke, it seemed that corruption within the federal government was becoming the norm.

Grant had been elected to two terms by large margins and was very popular up until the string of scandals hit the country.  He left office at the end of his second term with the lowest approval rating of his presidency.

Following the end of his presidency, he embarked on a world tour and was well received by kings and queens in many countries.  They returned to New York City at the end of an expensive two years.  Grant got bilked out of most of his remaining investments by Ferdinand Ward.  At this point he was forced into bankruptcy and had to sell off some of his Civil War mementos.  He started to write what would become a bestselling autobiography at the same time.  The proceeds from the book would allow his family to live comfortably.

Grant trivia:

• He smoked at least 20 cigars a day.  After an important Civil War victory his supporters sent him over 10,000 cigars!  He died unsurprisingly from throat cancer.
• Thomas Hamer mistakenly put Grant’s name down as Ulysses S. Grant. Grant actual birth name was Hiram Ulysses Grant, although he often went by Ulysses. Hamer assumed that Grant’s middle name was his mother’s maiden name of Simpson. Ulysses didn’t mind and started going by U.S. Grant and was often called Sam by his peers.
• He is one of 6 presidents that the name we know them by is not exactly their birth name; Cleveland, Wilson, Coolidge, Ford, Clinton.  Three used their middle name, two were adopted and one was an error (Grant’s).
• The house where Grant died is now on the grounds of a prison.
• It was Mark Twain that convinced Grant to write his memoirs.  Twain then went on to promote the book and helped grow it into a best seller.
• Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?  Well, technically nobody since it is above ground (you don’t get buried in a tomb).  However, Grant and his wife Julia are in the tomb.  The tomb, located in New York City’s Riverside Park, is the largest mausoleum in the United States.
• Yellowstone, the country’s first national park, was established during Grant’s presidency.
• Grant was the first of an Ohio dynasty of presidents (unless you count W. H. Harrison who lived briefly in Ohio).  Seven of the next eleven presidents would come from his home state; Grant, Hayes, Garfield, B. Harrison, McKinley, Taft, Harding. There is, of course, a dispute about where W. H. Harrison’s official state. He was born in Virginia, and is thus claimed by them.
• Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1863.  The rank was previously only held by George Washington (although Winfield Scott was given a Brevet promotion to Lieutenant General)
• Grant tried for, and lost, a bid for an unprecedented 3rd term.  He lost the Republican nomination to James Garfield in 1880.

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Julia Dent
• Children: Fredrick (1850-1912), Ulysses (1852-1929), Nellie (1855-1922), Jesse (1858-1934)
• Party affiliation: Republican Party 
• Presidency: 1868-1876
• Born: April 27th, 1822 (Point Pleasant, Ohio) 
• Died: July 23, 1885 (Wilton, New York)

17. Andrew Johnson

It is easy in hindsight to assign many of the difficulties faced by Andrew Johnson to the fact that he was elevated to the presidency after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln has become a giant among United States presidents and Johnson has had to live in the shadow of this titan for 147 years; but at the time of his presidency, Lincoln was only marginally popular.  It is difficult to say what his approval rating was, as most of the modern approval rating agencies didn’t start until the 1930s.  If you look at the election of 1864 Lincoln only won 55% of the popular vote (he won 40% in 1860).  You also have to remember that the Southern states didn’t vote in the election of 1864, and I doubt that he had much support in the region.

Johnson was born in 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina into a poverty-stricken family.  The family’s situation was made even worse when his father died when Andrew was only three years old.  When he was ten his mother apprenticed him to a tailor where he learned the trade.  In his late teens, Johnson moved to Greenville, Tennessee where, as luck would have it, the best tailor had just left town.  Opening up his own tailor shop had far reaching ramifications.  Shortly after arriving in Greenville he married a younger Eliza McCardle (I am finding conflicting reports on the ages of the newlyweds; she was either sixteen or seventeen and he was either eighteen or nineteen).  Since he had almost no formal education his new wife set about to teach him reading, writing and math.  After the couple joined a debating society, his tailor shop became a center of activity when the neighbors would come in to to discuss the important issues of the day.  At the age of twenty he was elected as an alderman and then elected mayor of Greenville in 1833 at the age of twenty-four.

Next up was a term in the Tennessee Legislature in 1835.  He was defeated for reelection in 1837, but reclaimed the seat four years later.  Continuing his move up the political ladder, Johnson won a term in the Tennessee Senate in 1843.  With only a single two year term he then made the move to Washington, D.C. by winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee’s first district.  For the next ten years he advocated the rights of workers and farmers, and opposed tariffs because he felt the higher prices they created were unfairly felt by the poor.  After 10 years in Washington DC Johnson headed back to Tennessee to serve two terms as the Governor.  During his two terms he was a vocal supporter of education, supporting equal pay for male and female teachers alike and setting standards for the teaching profession.  He established the state’s first public library and agricultural fair. (It’s rumored that he really loved the deep-fried Snickers.)

When the state legislature elected him to be a US Senator in 1856, Johnson said, “I have reached the pinnacle of my career.”  As early as 1856 his name was being mentioned as a potential presidential candidate.  Johnson never took a firm stance on the question of slavery, but he felt that it was a state’s right issue.  However, he was a Unionist and did not believe that secession was legal.  When the Southern states seceded and their representatives and senators walked out, Johnson was the only senator that remained.  Once the Union Army was able to clear the Confederate army from a state, a military government was established.  Andrew Johnson was appointed as the military governor of Tennessee in 1862.  In this position he required that everyone swear allegiance to the Constitution, going so far as to replace the mayor of Nashville and entire city council when they refused.  He shut down anti-Union newspapers, arrested clergyman whose sermons were anti-Union, seized the railroads, and imposed new taxes.

At the Republican Convention in 1864, they renamed it the National Union Convention and opened it to anyone interested in preserving the Union.  This allowed the Republicans and War Democrats to unite behind a Lincoln-Johnson ticket.  During the inaugural activities, Johnson was suffering from typhoid fever and sipped some brandy to offset the pain and help him stay alert.  Unfortunately, when it came time for him to be inaugurated and give his speech, he gave a rambling speech mumbling many of his words giving many in attendance the impression that he was drunk (which he may very well have been).  This led to rumors that he was a heavy drinker, which would haunt him the rest of his life.

Johnson became president after the first assassination of an American President, a highly explosive time.  Both Lincoln and Johnson had been pushing a conciliatory approach to bringing the South back into the Union, but the mood in the north had not been good toward the South before the assassination.  After the assassination there were very outspoken calls for harsh punishment of the Confederates.  An additional factor that led to his impeachment was the difference in opinion between the two sides in what it would take to bring the rebel states back into the Union.  Johnson did not believe that the states had left the Union since secession was unconstitutional.  The Radical Republicans, on the other hand, believed that the states would have to go through the same process as any new state to gain admittance into the Union.  The major difference here is that in Johnson’s opinion the treatment of the Southern states fell to the executive branch exclusively whereas the Radical Republicans believed that the Senate had to approve any measures.

Congress adjourned between April and December 1865.  While they were out Johnson moved quickly to implement his Reconstruction program.  He offered full membership to all seceded states if they met a couple of conditions:

• 10% of their citizens would need to swear an oath to uphold the constitution
• State conventions needed to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery

Only after meeting these criteria would the states be allowed to hold elections for national senators and representatives.  He recognized the new government in Virginia by May 9th.  Amnesty was offered to all Confederate veterans who would swear allegiance to the Union.  The remaining states moved quickly to meet the criteria to be recognized, but began introducing “black codes”, laws that were designed to put limits on the civil rights of the freed slaves.  The returning Radical Republicans seized on these “black codes”.  They created a Joint Committee on Reconstruction and made the leader of the Radical Republicans, Thaddeus Stevens, the chairman.  The moderates in the Republican party passed a compromise Civil Rights Law that Johnson vetoed.  The Republicans overrode his veto marking the first time that a Congress overrode a presidential veto on such an important issue.

They moved to propose a Fourteenth Amendment that included a provision to refuse a seat to anyone that had served in the Confederate Congress.  It would also created new civil rights laws that could be protected by federal courts.

In the mid-term election of 1866, Johnson traveled the country giving speeches and trying to rally the old War Democrat/Moderate Republican alliance to no avail.  The Republicans won the election in a landslide and took over the task of Reconstruction.  The irony is that had Johnson sought to work with the moderate Republican senators and representatives, much of the animosity could have been avoided.  The first attempt to impeach Johnson failed to pass the House in December 1867.

In March 1867, Congress had passed the Tenure of Office Act that simply stated that the president could not remove an office holder, including a cabinet member, without the approval of Congress.  Johnson had vetoed the act claiming that it was unconstitutional.  Congress overrode the veto and the law went into effect.  The president would be permitted to suspend a person when Congress was not in session, but then when Congress returned they would have to agree with the removal.  In August 1867, Johnson decided to push the issue and suspended Edward Stanton, the Secretary of War and a Radical Republican sympathizer.  When Congress reconvened in January 1868 they refused to approve the removal.  Johnson ignored them and moved to replace Stanton.  The first impeachment of an American President was underway. 

The House of Representatives drew up eleven articles of impeachment and the trial moved to the Senate.  Comparing this process to the normal legal process shows that being impeached is similar to being indicted.  A trial in the Senate would determine whether or not the president should be removed from office.  The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court acted as the judge in the trial with the full Senate acting as the jury to vote on guilt or innocence.  Johnson survived being removed from office by one vote, but only because his removal required a two-thirds vote.  In later Supreme Court rulings they agreed with Johnson that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional.  Obviously Johnson for the rest of his term could only veto legislation (he ended up with twenty-nine vetoes, the most of any president up to then).

After leaving office he returned to Tennessee and remained politically active, eventually regaining the respect that he had earned before becoming president.  He was elected to serve in the US Senate in 1874. When he walked on to the Senate floor to take his seat he received a standing ovation.  He only served a few months before he died from a stroke in July.

Johnson left a legacy of fighting for the Homestead Act which provided land to settlers for a small fee, showed a sense of devotion to the country by refusing to resign when Tennessee seceded and the purchase of the territory of Alaska (for the equivalent of $113 million in current terms).  His ranking among presidents is consistently near the bottom.  Historians point to his inability to work with the moderate members of Congress to avoid the showdowns with the Radical Republicans as evidence of his ineffective leadership.  The Radical Republicans gained power and went on to define the Reconstruction period.  The next few presidents would have to deal with those policies.

A few interesting facts:

• Andrew Johnson was the only president that was a tailor (unless you count Zachary ‘Taylor’).  He would wear only the suits that he had made himself.
• He was the first president to be impeached, surviving by only one vote in the Senate.
• Johnson was buried just outside Greeneville, Tennessee, with his body wrapped in an American flag and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes.
• He is the only former president to serve in the Senate after leaving office.
• One of Johnson's last significant acts was granting unconditional amnesty to all Confederates on Christmas Day, December 25, 1868, after the election of Ulysses S. Grant to succeed him, but before Grant took office in March 1869.
• He was successful in getting Tennessee exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation (the only southern state exempted).  He successfully argued that the gesture would stave off open rebellion against his military government.
• The Lincoln-Johnson administration was only the second time that the president and vice-president were from different parties (Adams-Jefferson in 1796).
• Johnson is one of only four presidents (W.H. Harrison, Taylor and Carter) that did not appoint a Supreme Court Justice.  This was due to Congress reducing the size of the Supreme Court from 10 to 7 justices in 1867.
• Andrew and Eliza had 4 children in 7 years from 1828 to 1834.  They then had another son 27 years later!

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Eliza McCardle
• Children: Martha (1828-1901), Charles (1830-1963), Mary (1832-1883), Robert (1834-1869), Andrew Jr. (1852-1879)
• Party affiliation: Democratic Party 
• Presidency: 1864-1868
• Born: December 29th, 1808 (Raleigh, North Carolina) 
• Died: July 31, 1875 (Carter’s Station, Tennessee)

16. Abraham Lincoln

 

Ten score and two years ago one father brought forth on this continent a new son, conceived in Kentucky and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  I am confident that everyone reading this blog knows where the speech that I have paraphrased was given.  Certainly in recent years Lincoln is considered one of our greatest presidents.

Lincoln was born in 1809 in Kentucky to one of the richest men in the county.  Unfortunately, by the time Abe was seven, his father, Thomas, lost everything due to a faulty title.  His father moved the family across the Ohio river in 1816 to southwestern Indiana.  Tragedy struck again when Abe was nine-years-old;  his mother, Nancy, died of milk sickness (as well as her aunt and uncle who had followed them).  His older sister, Sarah, helped take care of him until his father remarried a year later to a widow named Sarah Johnston.  Abe became very close to his step-mother.  It was Sarah that taught Abraham to read and write.  Lincoln only had about one year of formal education in his entire life.

In 1830 there were reports of outbreaks of milk sickness along the Ohio river, and his father moved the family to Illinois.  It wasn’t long after this move that a twenty-two-year-old Abe moved out of the house and started his new life.  His next couple of years would see him transporting goods from New Salem, Illinois down the Mississippi River by flatboat to New Orleans, owning a small general store and running for the Illinois Legislature. He lost that election at the age of twenty-three.  Before the election occurred Lincoln was elected to captain in the Illinois militia to serve in the Black Hawk War.  The war saw two future presidents : Lincoln and Taylor.  On a side note (I need at least one digression) Zachary Taylor accepted Chief Black Hawk’s surrender and, with Jefferson Davis (future president of the Confederacy) and Robert Anderson (future commander of Fort Sumter), escorted the fallen chief to military barracks.

Winning election to the Illinois Legislature in 1834, Lincoln went on to serve four terms.  In that time, he supported expansion over voting rights to non-land-owning males, as well as women.  He was in favor of a strong federal government and supported business friendly laws.  During this time he was admitted to the bar (1836) and continued to study and practice law.  After he left office he focused on his law practice and started traveling on the circuit.  He literally traveled a circuit around fifteen Illinois counties for six months of the year defending cases in front of the judge that he was traveling with.  This had the added bonus of starting to create his political base.  In those days there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment so many people would go to court to hear the cases being argued.  The court houses began to fill up with spectators as Lincoln gained reputation as a dynamic speaker.

In 1846 Lincoln won election to the US House of Representatives where he served only one term.  Believing that the Mexican War was illegal, Lincoln demanded that President Polk show where exactly American troops were attacked and to prove that it was on American soil.  It was largely his opposition to the war that cost him re-election.

Back in Illinois, he resumed his law practice and became a well-known attorney, arguing cases in front of the Illinois Supreme Court exactly 175 times and the Chicago Federal Court.  In 1854 Lincoln ran unsuccessfully for an US Senate seat.  At the 1856 election of the young Republican party convention Lincoln came in second for the vice-presidential nomination.  This was followed by getting the Republican nomination for a US Senate seat, running against Stephen Douglas.  It was after receiving the nomination that Lincoln gave a speech with the famous phrase "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." This campaign also featured one of the most famous series of debates, certainly in American history.

The Lincoln-Douglas debates consisted of a series of seven debates throughout the state.  As many as 15,000 showed up to listen to them.  The format was that the first speaker would get sixty minutes, the other would follow with ninety minutes and then the original speaker would finish with thirty minutes.  As the incumbent senator Douglass spoke first in four of the seven debates.  In those days, US Senators were not directly elected by the people; they were elected by the state legislatures.  This was important to the outcome, because Lincoln helped the Republicans get more popular votes, but the Democrats retained control of the legislature.  With the passage of the 17th amendment to the US Constitution in 1913, this is no longer the case.

After his loss, Lincoln was invited to speak in New York City at the Cooper Union.  What has become known as the Cooper Union Speech was what vaulted Lincoln to the top of the list of potential presidential candidates in the 1860 election.  I’ve attached a link to a YouTube video showing Sam Waterston reenacting the famous speech.  It really is an interesting speech if you have an extra hour and a half minutes to take a look.  Though he was still in the early stages of making a name for himself, his team worked the delegates hard to get them to agree to use Lincoln as their second choice if their preferred candidate couldn’t win.  His two main rivals for the Republican nomination were William Seward and Salmon Chase.  Those two factions wouldn’t budge and the nomination went to Lincoln as the second choice.

In a bit of an irony, the Democrats nominated his old debate buddy Stephen Douglas.  However, Douglas had lost some support in the South in part due to his statements on whether or not territories could outlaw slavery.  The southern Democrats suffered a schism on this matter and nominated John Breckinridge instead.  By splitting the party they almost insured the election of Lincoln.  Even with this advantage, Lincoln won with only forty percent of the popular vote!  I should note that in that particular election, there was over an eighty percent voter turnout.

To keep this blog post at a reasonable length I will skip the stuff you already know: the southern states seceded, Lincoln didn’t believe that was legal, he sent an army into the south to put down what he felt was an insurrection and we fought a civil war for four years.  Despite the top-notch people around him, Lincoln insisted on making the decisions himself.  He let his cabinet argue an issue for awhile and then he would decide.  There are many facets of Lincoln’s presidency one could focus on; the Emancipation Proclamation, the Homestead Act, the war itself and his relationship with the Union generals, etc.

There is a great book called Team of Rivals written by Doris Kearns Goodwin that talks about Lincoln and his cabinet.  Spielberg is making this book into a movie starring Daniel Day Lewis.  Lincoln was very careful in his selection to pick not only the leaders of his party for his cabinet, but also to balance it geographically.  His selections also kept equilibrium between the moderate and extremes of the Republican party.  Most notable in his cabinet were William Seward (Secretary of State, who stayed on with Johnson and negotiated the purchase of Alaska) and Salmon Chase (Secretary of the Treasury; Chase bank is named after him).

I believe that Lincoln understood that the question of slavery had to be dealt with once and for all.  When the southern states seceded, he believed that if they could be defeated, slavery could be abolished.

Lincoln was shot and killed on April 14th (died April 15th) in Ford’s Theater in Washington DC watching a play called “My American Cousin”, just 3 days after declaring the war’s end.  All three times that I have been to DC, the theater has been closed for renovation!  For many reasons, it is unfortunate that Lincoln was killed.  He believed that the southern states needed to be dealt with fairly.  Fair terms were proposed by Lincoln for the rebel soldiers.  In contrast, many of the radical Republicans wanted to punish the southern states and would get their chance after battling the much weaker Andrew Johnson.  To take a quote from Lincoln’s second Inaugural Address:

“Fondly do we hope—fervently do we pray—that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, "the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether". With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

Lincoln is considered one of our greatest presidents because he held firm to his convictions and was decisive in a time of turmoil.  No aspect of the war escaped his attention.  At the same time, for maybe the first time, a president took the step of saying that because it was a time of war it gave the president sole authority over a lot of national issues.  This example was repeated by Wilson and F.D.R. during the world wars.

I highly recommend at least two things: read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book and visit the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, Illinois.  Both are well worth the time and effort.  I tried to focus on some of the lesser known facts of Lincoln, but it is difficult to tackle the complexity and multi-faceted aspects of Lincoln in a short blog posting.  Once I’ve completed the other presidents I may come back with another posting focused on his years in the White House.

Trivia

• Lincoln is the only president who was a licensed bartender.  He was the co-owner of a saloon in Springfield called Berry and Lincoln.
• He was the first president to be photographed at his inauguration.  In the photo John Wilkes Booth is standing nearby.
• Abraham’s son Robert Todd Lincoln was present for the assassination of three presidents; his father, James Garfield and William McKinley.  After McKinley was shot Robert vowed to never be seen in public with a sitting president.
• Lincoln was the first president to have a beard
• He is the only president to have received a patent (#6469)
• His son Willie was the first child to die in the White House
• The words “That these dead shall not have died in vain” were taken from a biography of George Washington.  It is the book that Lincoln borrowed and was destroyed by water.  It cost him some labor on the farmers land that he borrowed the book from.
• He was the first president born outside the original 13 states.
• Of his four sons only Robert lived to adulthood.
• In 1876 a group of men attempted to steal Lincolns body and hold it for ransom to get a counterfeiter out of jail.
• Lincoln was one of seven presidents to be born in a log cabin (the others were Jackson, Taylor, Fillmore, Buchanan, Grant, and Garfield, ironically W. H. Harrison is associated with being born in a log cabin due to his Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign, he was neither born nor ever lived in a log cabin).

15. James Buchanan

Consistently ranked near the bottom of presidential polls, (40th in the latest USPC poll) Buchanan entered the White House as one of the most experienced with over 40 years of public service.  As a young man Buchanan practiced law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and by the age of thirty, he estimated his wealth at $300,000 (that’s at least $6,000,000 in 2011 dollars using CPI).  His first elected office was in the Pennsylvania State Legislature in 1814 (at the age of 23).  Once reelected in 1815, he set his sights on, and won, a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1820. 

It was around this time that personal tragedy struck.  At the time, he was engaged to the daughter of Pennsylvania’s first millionaire.  Anne Coleman’s family did not approve of the union and she, giving in to the family wishes, broke off the engagement.  There were also rumors at the time that Buchanan was only marrying her for the political connections and, of course, money.  During the courtship Buchanan was busy with his law practice, and would be away from her for weeks at a time.  Whatever the cause of the break-up, Anne died soon after.  There some speculation that she died from suicide.  He never considered marriage to another woman (he kept the letters from Anne for the rest of his life and had them burned upon his death).

Originally elected as a Federalist, Buchanan became a Jacksonian Democrat and was appointed by Jackson to be Minister to Russia.  In 1834, Buchanan was elected to fill a vacant seat in the United States Senate, where he served until 1845 (this involved winning 3 elections, a partial in 1834, a full term in 1836 and 1840).  After the death of Supreme Court Justice Henry Baldwin in 1844 President Polk nominated Buchanan to fill the vacant seat.  Buchanan declined, due to the need to complete his work on the Oregon Treaty negotiations (he was chairman of the Senate committee on Foreign Relations).  He did resign his Senate seat in 1845 to become Secretary of State for James K. Polk.  As Secretary of State he assisted in the completion of the treaty with Great Britain that located the northern border of the United States at the 49th parallel. 

With the election of Zachary Taylor in 1848, Buchanan retired from public life, purchasing a large estate near Lancaster.  Even though Buchanan had never married, he had a large extended family from his ten brothers and sisters (all but one of his siblings had died by 1840).  He had twenty-two nieces and nephews, in addition to many of their children; his home was never quiet.

Franklin Pierce appointed Buchanan to be the Minister to Great Britain.  It was during this period that Buchanan was involved in the Ostend Manifesto which I covered in the write up of Franklin Pierce. On a side note, when Buchanan was Minister to Great Britain his secretary was a man named Daniel Sickles. Sickles was quite the character. He murdered the son of Francis Scott Key for having an affair with his wife, was a regular attendee at the séances with Mary Todd Lincoln and lost his leg at the Battle of Gettysburg. If you’re interested there is a great book about him called American Scoundrel.

Pierce had become increasingly unpopular by this time, thus the Democratic nomination went to Buchanan in the election of 1856.  Because Buchanan had been in England during all of the debates on the Kansas-Nebraska act, he had not had to publically state a position on slavery.  This kept him as a viable option for people on both sides of the issue.  Buchanan defeated John C. Fremont and Millard Fillmore in the election.  Fremont was the first presidential candidate from the new Republican party and former President Fillmore was—this is a bit confusing—running as both a Whig and a Know-Nothing candidate.  (I’m not sure who the marketing genius was that came up with the Know-Nothing party, but it certainly doesn’t seem like a selling tag line.)

The issue of slavery had dominated national politics for decades at this point.  Buchanan was a Northerner, but believed that slavery should be allowed to exist in the South.  In the days between his election and inauguration the Supreme Court was about to release their decision on the Dred Scott case.  Buchanan had been in discussions with one of the justices where he stated that the court should take a broad view on the topic.  He was told that most of the justices wanted to take a broad view, but that some of the Northern justices were opposed to such a thing.  He convinced the justice from Pennsylvania to support the broad view and it passed.  The decision was announced by Chief Justice Taney just two days after the inauguration.  The Dred Scott case had far reaching effects.  It stated that slaves were not and could never be United States citizens, that the federal government had no constitutional authority to prohibit slavery in the new territories (or states), and that slaves were property and could not be taken away from their owners without due process.  The Supreme Court has never overturned the Dred Scott decision; instead Congress and the states passed the 14th amendment.

The slavery question continued to get emotions raging on both sides of the question.  In 1859, John Brown seized the arsenal at Harpers Ferry.  Buchanan sent in the army to put down the action.  The officer in charge of the troops was Colonel Robert E. Lee.

Buchanan did not run for reelection in the 1860 election, the one that made Abraham Lincoln the next president.  Starting in December 1860, seven states seceded from the  Union.  In spite of this, Buchanan did not make any effort to fortify the federal forts and arsenals in the south, claiming that it would just incite them to violence.  By the time he left office all federal property was in the hands of the Confederacy, with the exception of Fort Sumter.  He had made an agreement with the Governor of South Carolina that the garrison at Fort Sumter would not be reinforced.  However he failed to mention this to Major Anderson, the commander at Charleston, who decided to move his troops to Fort Sumter as it could be more easily defended than Fort Moultrie.

It is easy to imagine what a stronger president would have done in the same situation.  Would Andrew Jackson have let the Southern states secede so easily?  While Buchanan believed that what the Southern states did by seceding was illegal, but didn’t believe that the federal government could do anything about it outside the courts.  He did not believe that the federal government had the constitutional right to send federal troops into a state without permission from that state.

Could he have averted the Civil War?  Possibly.  It certainly would have made a difference had he acted aggressively to reinforce the federal forts and armories, but would that have just started the war earlier?

More facts to amaze and inspire your friends:

• He is the only president elected from Pennsylvania
• He has been the last US Secretary of State to become president (so far)
• In 1852, Buchanan was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; he served in this capacity until 1866.
• The only bachelor president
• The presidential election of 1856 was the last time the Whig party fielded a candidate (Millard Fillmore)
• Buchanan is the last of only two Democratic presidents to win election following the term of another Democratic president (Van Buren was the other).  This does not account for Democrats that became president after a death.
• When he was a Senator, and during his Presidency, Buchanan quietly, but consistently, bought slaves in DC to then set them free in Pennsylvania.

Vital Stats:

• Wife: None
• Children: None 
• Party affiliation: Democratic Party 
• Presidency: 1857-1861
• Born: April 23rd, 1791 (Cove Gap, Pennsylvania)
• Died: June 1st, 1868 (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)

14. Franklin Pierce

My wife and daughters have a family connection to President Pierce through one of his brothers. This also makes them distant relatives of Barbara (Pierce) Bush and George W. Bush. So I guess that means I need to try and put a positive spin on his presidency; might be tough.

in 1804, Pierce was born in a log cabin in New Hampshire to a veteran of the American Revolution. Pierce studied law and passed the bar in 1827. He entered politics right away and was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1828. He served in the State House from 1828 – 1833, the last 2 years as Speaker of the House (his father was Governor of New Hampshire during this time). In 1832 he was elected to the first of two terms in the US House of Representatives. He was only 27 and, at the time, the youngest serving congressman. After his two terms, he was elected by the General Court of New Hampshire to a term as a United States Senator (at 32, he was again the youngest in his time). On a side note, the General Court of New Hampshire is the bicameral state legislature of New Hampshire and has 400 members of the lower house and 24 in the upper house. With 424 members, it is the largest state legislature in the country and the 4th largest English-speaking legislature in the world!

During the Mexican War, Pierce volunteered for service and became a brigadier general. He was wounded while serving with General Winfield Scott during the Battle of Contreras. There are differing views on his wound, but during the battle his horse apparently fell on him, injuring his leg. He returned the next day and fought during the Battle of Churubusco; however, the pain in his leg was so bad that he fainted and had to be carried off the field of battle. This would give fodder to his political opponents in later years. After the war he returned to his law practice in New Hampshire.

When the presidential campaign of 1852 got started, Pierce wasn’t even a blip on the radar. The major Democratic contenders were Stephen Douglas, James Buchanan, Lewis Cass and William Marcy. None of the 4 candidates could even get a majority of the vote, not even close to the prerequisite two-thirds of the vote. After 35 votes, Pierce’s name was tossed in as a compromise candidate. Pierce had shown himself to be a consistent supporter of the Democratic ideals; his service in the Mexican War would allow the party to portray him as a war hero. He had never fully explained his views on slavery, so all of the various factions viewed him as a reasonable compromise to their personal preferences. On the 49th vote, Pierce was nominated as the Democratic candidate for president.

Pierce’s opponent in the 1852 election was his old commander during the Mexican War General Winfield Scott. The platform that Scott ran on was not much different than Pierce’s platform. In addition, Pierce did not have any strongly held political views and Scott was on record as anti-slavery. The contest turned into a personality contest between the two candidates with Pierce emerging victorious. He took 27 of the 31 states.

The joy of winning the election was soon turned into sorrow with the death of their last son (the other two had died young). Pierce and his wife were riding on a train from Boston when it derailed. They emerged unharmed, but their son Benjamin (“Bennie”) was killed right in front of Pierce. I’ve read differing accounts on the extent of the injuries to Bennie, but all are gruesome. Pierce’s wife, Jane, was never really the same. She had been against Pierce going back into politics and being highly religous saw this as divine punishment.

Pierce took office during a relatively peaceful and prosperous time in American history. The issue of slavery had cooled down with the passage of the Compromise of 1850. It was not to last.

The first major policy initiative of the administration had become known as the Ostend Manifesto. The Ostend Manifesto basically stated that the United States was willing to buy Cuba from Spain (not the first or last time we attempted to acquire Cuba). The controversial section of the document was that it suggested that if Spain refused to sell Cuba, that the US would be justified in taking it by force. It was especially unpopular in the North, as it was viewed as a chance to further expand slavery.

A success of the administration was the Gadsden Purchase (although like all land acquisitions raised the issue of the expansion of slavery). Several business leaders had pushed to create a southern transcontinental railroad. The southern portion of the land, recently acquired from Mexico, was viewed as being too mountainous. If the US could acquire just a tad bit more land from Mexico, the adjoining territory would be much more suitable for a railroad. Pierce sent James Gadsden (with urging from his Secretary of State Jefferson Davis) to Mexico to purchase the additional lands. A deal was struck in which the US purchased the southern portions of current New Mexico and Arizona.

A final major piece of legislation passed during the Pierce administration was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Davis had a provision attached to the bill that nullified the Missouri Compromise. One aspect of the act was that it allowed the residents of the states to decide the question of slavery. The effect in Kansas was that pro-slavery settlers crossed the border from Missouri to vote in the elections. The impact was the election of a pro-slavery government. It was felt in Kansas that the new government was illegitimate and a “shadow government” was set up based on the Topeka Constitution; Pierce supported, and would continue to support, the pro-slavery legislature. The turmoil over the whole affair led to violent demonstrations, riots and murders in what has become known as Bleeding Kansas.

Based in large part on the outcry over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Pierce fell out of favor with his party and was not re-nominated in 1856. Over the next few presidential elections there was usually a push to get Pierce to run again, but he did not. His reputation was further damaged when copies of his correspondence with Jefferson Davis were discovered after the Battle of Vicksburg. He had maintained a friendship with his former Secretary of State during the Civil War.

Pierce died in 1869 at the age of 64 from the deteriorating effects of alcoholism. His wife Jane had already passed away six years prior.

Something that's been a small tickle in the back of my brain is the Civil War. Reading these biographies on the presidents, it seems that several of them leading up to the Civil War were pro south (or at least not anti south). Taylor was a slave holder and both Pierce and Buchanen were southern sympathizers. So, I'm not sure why the south felt that the federal government was against them, to the point of seccession. The majority of the policies of the federal government were, if not pro south, certainly did not have the intention of ending slavery. There were those that felt slavery should not be extended into the new territories, but that hardly seems like motive for a civil war.

Trivia:

• 
  
  At 48, Pierce was the youngest president inaugurated, a distinction he would pass to Grant, who was inaugurated in 1869 at 46.



• 
  
  Pierce chose to "affirm" his oath of office rather than swear it, becoming the first president to do so; he placed his hand on a law book rather than on a Bible whilst doing so. He was also the first president to recite his inaugural address from memory.



• 
  
  Pierce’s initial cabinet remained intact for his entire 4-year term; as of now, it is still the only cabinet to have done so.



• 
  
  The town of Pierceton, Indiana is named for Franklin Pierce



• 
  
  The site of his birth is now under Franklin Pierce Lake (the only president that you need scuba gear to visit the birth place)



• 
  
  First president born in the 19th century



• 
  
  There is a big controversy over whether it was Franklin Pierce or Benjamin Harrison that had the first Christmas tree in the White House



• 
  
  Pierce is one of the few presidents that do not have any descendents related to them directly



• 
  
  Pierce was referred to as a “doughface” or Northerner with Southern sympathies. The term doughface is a disparaging term for a politician who is seen to be pliable or moldable.

13. Millard Fillmore

OK, I have to admit, even after reading a book on Fillmore I don’t know what to say.  To be honest, I couldn’t find a book on Fillmore, the only book I found was a combination of the Taylor and Fillmore presidencies.  I do know a guy at work that brings in donuts every year on January 7th to commemorate Fillmore’s birthday; does that count?  Seriously, he brings in donuts for Fillmore’s birthday.  Apparently it’s a tradition that dates back to when he was in college and they threw a birthday party for Fillmore every year.  Those crazy college kids will throw a party for anything (for us it was Dyngus Day).

Fillmore was born in Cayuga County, New York.  He studied the law and ultimately passed the bar in 1823.  He moved his young family to Buffalo in 1826.  He then served 3 terms in the New York Assembly (1829 – 1831) before being elected as a Whig to a seat in the 23rd Congress (1832).  He decided against running for re-election in 1834, but returned to Congress for 3 more terms (1836 – 1842).  In 1848 he was selected as Taylor’s running mate as vice president.  He was selected over the wishes of one of the Whig party’s bosses (Thurlow Weed).  Weed had wanted William Seward to be the vice presidential candidate.  Seward went on to serve as Secretary of State under Lincoln and arranged the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867.  Seward was also attacked on the night that Lincoln was assassinated, but survived being stabbed several times in the face and neck.  This battle with Seward would have repercussions.  Even though Fillmore was essential the number two person in the Whig party, Weed and Seward were able to strip much of his power from him to get political appointments.

Fillmore became only the second vice president to rise to the presidency following the death of the president.  When Taylor died, there was a bitter debate related to the expansion of slavery into lands recently acquired from Mexico and England.  Taylor had taken a strong stance against the spread of slavery into any of the new territories.  This was unpopular in the south.  Henry Clay put together a compromise bill that was not passed by Congress before Taylor died.  Fillmore supported what became known as the Compromise of 1850 and signed it into law.  The Compromise of 1850 was a collection of 5 bills:

1. California was admitted as a free state
2. Texas was compensated for the loss of territory to New Mexico
3. New Mexico became a territory
4. The slave trade was abolished in DC (slavery was still legal, just not the buying and selling of slaves)
5. The Fugitive Slave Act

As in most compromises, no one was completed satisfied.  The South had hoped that California would be split with slavery being allowed in southern California (based on the Missouri Compromise line).  The South still held out hope that voters in the New Mexico and Utah territories would vote to allow slavery.  The most controversial of the 5 items was the Fugitive Slave Act which stated that all fugitive slaves had to be returned to their owners.  It even allowed the slave owners to use federal troops to return their slaves.

While nobody like the Compromise of 1850, it is generally credited with delaying the Civil War by 10 years.

Fillmore lost the nomination of his party to General Winfield Scott in 1852.   In retirement, he opposed Lincoln throughout the Civil War and refused to join the new Republican Party as many of the former Whigs did.  He did run for president again in 1856 as part of the American Party (more commonly referred to as the Know-Nothing Party), but came in 3rd place.  His running mate in that election was the nephew of Andrew Jackson, Andrew Jackson Donelson.  He only carried one state, but got over 20% of the popular vote.  He died in 1874 after having a stroke.

There was a bit of controversy in 2010 when the Millard Fillmore presidential dollar coin was unveiled in Buffalo rather than his home town of Moravia, New York.

Trivia:

• Fillmore is one of 9 presidents that did not attend college: Washington, Jackson, Van Buren, Taylor, Lincoln, A. Johnson, Cleveland and Truman.
• He was the president who was born last in the 18th century (Jan 7th, 1800) although Buchanan was the last president born in the 18th century (1791).
• The last Whig president
• In 1846, he founded the private University of Buffalo, which today is the public State University of New York at Buffalo(SUNY Buffalo), the largest school in the New York state university system.
• He also founded the Buffalo Historical Society in 1862
• He started the White House library
• In 1850 he appointed Brigham Young as the first Governor of the Utah Territory
• Ordered the mission of Commodore Perry to Japan to open that country to western trade
• His first wife Abigail died on March 30th, 1853, just weeks after Fillmore left office
• He remarried in 1860 to Caroline McIntosh, a wealthy widow

12. Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor had a long and distinguished military career, followed by a rather short and unremarkable presidency. 

He joined the Army in 1808 as a First Lieutenant and served in the War of 1812.  During the defense of Fort Harrison against an attack by Tecumseh, Taylor and his 50 men held off 400 natives.  As a result of his actions he was given a brevet major rank (he had been promoted to captain in 1810).  He was the first person in the Army to be given a brevet rank (the brevet rank is temporary rank that often comes with more responsibility, but no more pay).  Once the war was over he was reduced back to a captain; this did not sit well with him and he left the Army.  It wasn’t long before he was back in.  Over the course of 40 years Taylor served in the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War (1832-37), fought the Seminole Indians (1837), and finally served in the war with Mexico.  During the Black Hawk War, he personally accepted the surrender of Chief Black Hawk.  He served with great distinction during wars with the Seminole Indians in Florida.  Eventually he was given command of all the troops in Florida.  By this time he had been promoted to brigadier general.  It was in Florida that he got his famous nickname “Old Rough and Ready”.

It was during the war with Mexico that Taylor gained national fame.  In 1845, President Polk sent Taylor down to the disputed border area between Texas and Mexico.  When Taylor’s men were attacked by Mexican forces Polk told Congress that a state of war existed.  On May 8, 1846, Taylor defeated a Mexican army 3 times the size of his force at Palo Alto.  Taylor’s use of artillery gave him the advantage over the Mexican forces.  Victory brought another promotion, this time to major general.

In September, he again defeated a much larger Mexican force at Monterrey in northern Mexico.  This battle involved fighting in the city literally in hand-to-hand combat in an urban setting.  The Mexican defenders surrendered after Taylor agreed to an 8 week armistice.  He faced criticism for allowing the Mexican army to leave with their weapons and did not get agreement that they would not fight again.  Polk, by this time, started to get uncomfortable with the success and praise that Taylor was receiving.  Even though Polk had pledged not to run for president again he was getting concerned that Taylor might be recruited to run for president from a rival party.  Polk was critical of Taylor after Monterrey, and might have removed him if Taylor wasn’t so popular.  Instead what Polk did was order Winfield Scott to take Mexico City and gave him many of Taylor’s best troops.

The Mexican general, Santa Anna, intercepted a letter that stated that Taylor was left with only about 5,000 men.  Santa Anna determined that he was going to attack Taylor with 15,000 – 20,000 Mexican troops.  This battle took place at the Battle of Buena Vista.  It lasted two days and ended as a huge victory for Taylor.  During the battle, Santa Anna had Taylor’s forces pinned down and sent a message to Taylor requesting his surrender.  The response that was sent back was “Tell him to go to hell!”.  After the battle, as Polk had feared, members of the Whig party began to encourage Taylor to run for president.

Taylor defeated Lewis Cass (Democrat) and Martin Van Buren (Free Soil) in the 1848 election.  With little experience in politics and believing himself to be independent, Taylor did not buy into the entire Whig platform.  He was opposed to the ideas of a national bank, increasing tariffs and spending federal money on internal improvements.  Even though he was a slave holder, he believed that the future states should have the right to decide in their own constitutions if they would allow slavery.  This did not endear him to southern politicians, some of whom began to discuss secession.  He reportedly told 3 southern congressmen speaking of secession, “If it becomes necessary, in executing the laws, I will take command of the army myself, and, if you are then taken in rebellion against the Union, I will hang you with less reluctance than I hanged deserters and spies in Mexico.”

The Compromise of 1850 was being hotly debated when Taylor died.  He did not come out strongly in favor or against the compromise.  I’ll cover this when I write up Millard Fillmore since that is when it passed, but in general, it consisted of 5 majors items: California statehood, Texan claims to New Mexico lands, the Fugitive Slave Law, slave trading in DC, and two new territories (Utah and New Mexico).

His only international accomplishment had to do with a proposed canal across Honduras.  The Clayton-Bulwer treaty was important because it stated that neither the US nor the UK could claim control over any canals built in Central America.

On July 4, 1850, after watching a dedication ceremony for the Washington Monument, Taylor returned to the White House where he reportedly ate a bowl of cherries and drank a glass of milk.  He died on July 9, just 16 months into his term of office.  His cause of death was listed as gastroenteritis.  There has been speculation that he was poisoned with arsenic.  He was even exhumed in 1991 so tests could be run; the results proving that the levels of arsenic in his body were several hundred times lower than a fatal dosage.

 

Fun Facts!

• Zachary Taylor’s son-in-law was Jefferson Davis (his daughter Sarah died from Malaria 3 months after marrying him)
• His only son, Robert, served as a lieutenant general in the Confederate army
• Due to religious reasons, Taylor refused to be inaugurated on March 4th (a Sunday) as stated in the Constitution at the time;  Because the Polk administration had officially ended, and no president or vice president was sworn in, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate (David Atchison)was technically president for a day
• Taylor is the only president that died in office despite being elected in a year ending in a zero, although he did die in a year ending in “0” (1850)
• He is one of only 4 presidents that did not get to nominate a judge for the Supreme Court (William Henry Harrison, Andrew Johnson, Jimmy Carter)
• Taylor was the last southerner elected president until Lyndon Johnson
• Taylor has the 3rd shortest presidency after Harrison and Garfield
• Taylor never voted in an election as he never registered to vote
• He is the last president to own slaves while in office
• During the war with Mexico a controversy arose due to Taylor have two officers working for him of equal rank, but one held a brevet rank.  This led to an issue over which officer had seniority and eventually forced the army to review the brevet rank.

11. James K. Polk

OK, where to start with James Polk…  So far in my reading about each of the presidents none has surprised me with what they accomplished  more than James Polk.  He went into the presidency with very clear objectives and a pledge to only serve one term.  He accomplished all of his goals within the 4 years and died 3 months after leaving office.  For those of you who read my blog on Jefferson you’ll recall that I stated that only one other president added more land to the United States than Thomas Jefferson; that was James Polk.  Through a war and the threat of war he rounded out the remaining territories of the lower 48 states.  He is considered the strongest president between Jackson and Lincoln and is consistently rated in top quartile of US Presidents.  Polk has been called the “least known consequential president”.

Polk was the first of the “dark horse” presidents (others included Pierce, Lincoln, Hayes, Garfield and Harding).  The “dark horse” candidates were generally compromise candidates when two factions of a party have strong candidates and are unwilling to support the other.  The party conventions generally required more than a simple majority to win the nomination.  So while John Quincy Adams received a majority of the votes on the first ballot he was unable to garner the 2/3rds votes required.  On the 9th ballot Polk won the nomination of the Democratic party.

During the campaign against Henry Clay (the incumbent, Tyler, had lost the support of his party and was not re-nominated in 1844) in the regular election, Polk came out strongly for the annexation of Texas and went so far as to suggest that the US might be willing to go to war with England over the Oregon Territory.  The issue of the Oregon Territory led to the rallying cry of “54-40 or fight”.  This referred to the 54 degrees 40 minutes latitude that marks Alaska’s southern border.  Polk ended up settling for the 49th parallel.  On a side note, there is a great book called “How the States got Their Shapes” that explains all of the borders of the states and how they were decided (check out Delaware’s northern border that is a semicircle!).  Where was I…..

During the election, New York became the critical battleground state which Polk won thanks to the 19th century version of Ross Perot.  James Birney, from New York, was able to siphon off enough votes from Clay to allow Polk to take New York.  Of course I don’t think he had the ears or the charts of Perot!  During Polk’s inaugural address he outlined 4 goals for his presidency.

1. Reestablishing an independent treasury system
2. Lowering tariffs
3. Settling the Oregon issue with Great Britain
4. Acquiring California and New Mexico from Mexico

The first two objectives were met without too much trouble.  The Independent Treasury had been established in 1840 after Jackson vetoed the 2nd Bank of the United States.  It was established to store the nations funds and regulate currency.  The system was closed down by the Whigs in 1841.  The Polk administration with the support of the new Democratic majority in Congress reestablished the system in 1846 and it survived until 1913 when it was replaced by the current Federal Reserve system.  Also with the support of the Democrats in Congress, Polk was successful in lowering most tariffs.  Two down, two to go.

Polk believed in the eventual creation of a United States that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.  The phrase “Manifest Destiny” has been used to describe the policy of expansion west ward.  Both the 3rd and 4th goals were thorny at best.

The Oregon territory had been jointly administered by the US and Great Britain.  However, Americans were moving west in droves and staking claims in the territory under the assumption that it would eventually become part of the United States.  Polk put pressure on Great Britain to settle the issue at the 49th parallel.  When Great Britain refused to negotiate due to the rich lands around the Columbia River, Polk switched tactics and returned to the rallying cry of “54-40 or Fight” giving the impression that we was willing to go to war over the issue.  Eventually Great Britain agreed to set the boundary at the 49th parallel.

Now to the issue of Texas.  Texas became a hot topic for a couple of reasons; slavery and territorial disputes both with Mexico and with New Mexico.  So, Mexico fights a war for independence from Spain in the 1820’s.  Due to the low population levels of the Mexican state of Texas the government loosened the immigration laws to encourage settlers.  It didn’t take long before the Americans that were moving west (remember Manifest Destiny) vastly outnumbered the native Mexican population.  In 1835 Texas fought a war for independence against Mexico.  It was during this war that the battle at the Alamo was fought.  I’m not going to spend a lot of time here talking about that war, but it is important to have some background for what’s to come.  Texas gained it’s independence from Mexico (with at least the threat of American intervention from Andrew Jackson).

Now there are two separate but related issues going on in 1846.  Polk was very interested in buying California and New Mexico from Mexico.  At the same time, the US had annexed Texas in the closing days of the Tyler administration.  Polk sent an emissary out to negotiate the purchase of the new land from Mexico.  When the Mexican government, surprised that Polk was not offering some form of compensation for the loss of Texas, expelled the emissary Polk was more than a bit ticked off.  There had been a long standing dispute between Texas and Mexico over the southern border.  Polk decided to send some troops (under Zachary Taylor) down to test the border and to pressure Mexico to accept the offer for California and New Mexico.  What started out as a border dispute turned into the Mexican-American War.  It didn’t take long and instead of buying California and New Mexico we took it.  It has long been considered a black mark on the Polk administration because even at that time the US was a much stronger country than Mexico.  In the end Mexico lost almost 50% of its land area, while the US grew by 33% and added the area of the future states of California, Nevada, Utah and parts of New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

There was also a dispute between Texas and New Mexico about the border between those states which was ultimately settled in favor of New Mexico.  In part because Texas was viewed as already being big enough.

While the concept of Manifest Destiny was very popular it also fueled the issue of slavery.  While Polk did not believe that slavery could survive in the newly acquire territories he felt that it should be up the population of those areas to decide.  He did suggest extending the line set up in the Missouri Compromise of 1820 to the Pacific.  The issue of slavery continued to create problems and ultimately led to the Civil War 12 years after he left office.  You certainly can’t fault Polk for the Civil War; every time new states were added the issue of slavery popped up.

Polk lived up to his promise and did not run again in 1848.  In fact, as I mentioned he died 3 months after leaving office of cholera that it’s believed he contracted in New Orleans.  Polk is generally given high marks for having set the objectives of administration and achieving them. 

Now for the trivia to impress your friends!

• Polk is the only US President to have served as the Speaker of the House of Representatives
• At the time he was the youngest elected president at the age of 49
• He had the shortest retirement of any US President, 103 days
• He was the youngest president to die in retirement at the age of 53
• He is the first president to have surviving pictures of him when he was president
• Polk was the last of what are considered the Jacksonian presidents
• Polk oversaw the opening of the Naval Academy, the Smithsonian Institution, the ground breaking of the Washington Monument and the first issuance of US Postage stamps
• He sported what was probably the most famous mullet until Billy Ray Cyrus came along
• Graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Served as a US Congressmen from Tennessee from 1825 – 1839. He was 29 when he was elected to his first term
• Served one term as the Governor of Tennessee (1839 – 1841).  In the early years, many states Governors served 2 years terms.
• So, he was the 11th Governor of Tennessee and the 11th President of the United States, coincidence (yeah probably).
• He and his wife are buried on the grounds of the Tennessee State Capital in Nashville

Vital Stats:

• Wife: Sarah Childress 
• Children: None (ironic that Sarah Childress was Childless!) 
• Party affiliation: Democratic Party 
• Presidency: 1844-1848
• Born: November 2nd, 1795 (Pineville, North Carolina)
• Died: June 15th, 1845 (Nashville, Tennessee)