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20 Things You Didn't Know About U.S. Presidents
The 3rd Monday of February is a national holiday across America, a day set aside not only to celebrate the February birthdays of Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln...but also to honor all past presidents of the United States. In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed a federal law that proclaimed the third Monday in February a national holiday called Presidents Day. The law ended the longstanding American custom of celebrating two national holidays in February to honor the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln on the 12th and George Washington on the 22nd. Some critics of the combined holiday believe Presidents Day -- in honoring all past U.S. presidents, detracts from the unique contributions made to the nation by Washington and Lincoln. Seth Fein, an American History professor at Yale University, says most Americans consider the two men to have been the nation's greatest presidents. "George Washington, obviously, is the general who headed the Continental Army and the first president of the United States and in many ways, the personification of the United States in the beginning of its political history as an independent state," he says. Lincoln is so deeply revered "for being president during the Civil War [1861-1865]...putting the country back together." Without George Washington, there may not have been a United States of America. "He was a figure that was so respected that he helped launch a nation when people from different parts of the country remained still very suspicious of each other," says University of Virginia American History Professor Michael Holt. "In fact, there was concern about warfare breaking out among differing states. But everybody agreed that he was the one person that all could agree on as the first president...so he was, I think, indispensable." Professor Holt praises Washington as a forceful leader who established important precedents in the relationship between the President and Congress -- for example, when his administration was negotiating a treaty with several American Indian tribes. "The wording of the Constitution gives the president authority to conduct foreign policy with 'advice and consent' of the Senate," he says. "Washington comes to the Senate to seek their advice about the terms of the treaty. The Senators get all flustered and say they have to debate this to arrive at a consensus to give you advice. Washington just turned around and walked out. And, from then on, foreign policy has been conducted with the 'consent' in terms of ratification of treaties...but no direct advice [from the Senate] going into making them." Like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln is perceived as a leader who guided the nation through a critical and dangerous transition. Without Lincoln, the nation might not have survived its Civil War. "Some people say he was an intuitive military strategist," says Michael Holt. "He had an ability to explain the meaning of the war to the northern public in memorable terms." That is something he did so eloquently in a brief and famous address honoring the soldiers killed in a battle at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in 1863. "There's that wonderful prose," Professor Holt points out, "about what we say here will little be remembered but what they did here will always be remembered...and that the purpose of the war was that the government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the face of the earth." Abraham Lincoln is also remembered for his Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 , which freed the slaves in the rebellious southern states. Mr. Lincoln's commitment to end slavery was also a theme of his second inaugural address in 1865, as historian Holt recalls. "If we must shed a drop of blood for every drop of blood squeezed from the slaves over 200 years, we'll do it in order to prevail in this contest...It's really that message where he makes it clear that ending slavery is as important a commitment as unifying the nation." Americans have also come to know the personal sides of Presidents Lincoln and Washington, and they know that neither man was perfect. George Washington, for instance, was a slave owner. But historian Seth Fein believes that, when Americans reflect on their past presidents, they usually look beyond their flaws. "The fact that many people can identify with George Washington, Presidents Day, the United States despite knowing those things," he says, "might speak to the need for political symbols, for national identity, and for heroes." On Presidents Day, Americans honor those heroes who've held the nation's highest office over the past two centuries.
Not only were these men leaders of the United States, they were multitalented, unique, and sometimes even downright quirky. We've heard a lot about their contribution to United States History. But would you have guessed the following?
1. John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States and the son of the president John Adams and Abigail Smith Adams. Adams was considered brilliant but aloof, and the latter trait proved crippling to his presidency when he refused to take part in political deal-making. He served only one term.
In warm weather, 6th president of the United States John Quincy Adams customarily went skinny-dipping in the Potomac River before dawn.
2. William Henry Harrison was the ninth president of the United States. A professional soldier, Harrison won fame for his victories in the Northwest Territory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and at Tippecanoe in 1811. Harrisons family played a role in U.S. politics for several generations: His father, Benjamin Harrison, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his grandson, also named Benjamin Harrison, was the nations 23rd president.
Harrison was inaugurated on a bitterly cold day and gave the longest inauguration speech ever. The new president promptly caught a cold that soon developed into pneumonia. Harrison died exactly one month into his presidential term, the shortest in U.S. history.
3. In 1841 John Tyler became the 10th president of the United States. Tyler, the vice president under President William Henry Harrison, succeeded Harrison to the office of chief executive when Harrison died after only one month in office. As a lawyer, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, governor of Virginia, and president, Tyler consistently supported states rights and southern interests.
John Tyler, 10th U.S. president, fathered 15 children (more than any other president)--8 by his first wife, and 7 by his second wife. Tyler was past his seventieth birthday when his 15th child was born.
4. During the presidency of James Knox Polk , the territory of the United States was greatly expanded. Intent on acquiring what was then the Mexican province of California, Polk led the United States into war with Mexico in 1846. The American forces won a complete victory, and Mexico was forced to cede an area of land now comprising most of the western states.
Sedated only by brandy, 11th president of the United States James Polk survived gall bladder surgery at the age of 17.
5. James Buchanan , a lifelong bachelor, was the 15th president of the United States. Serving only one term, Buchanan tried in vain to unite a nation divided by slavery and an economic depression.
15th U.S. president James Buchanan is the only unmarried man ever to be elected president. Buchanan was engaged to be married once; however, his fiance died suddenly after breaking off the engagement, and he remained a bachelor all his life.
6. Soon after Abraham Lincoln's election as president of the United States, seven Southern states seceded from the Union because they feared that Lincoln would abolish slavery. Four more states had followed by the time Lincoln delivered his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861. This recording of his 1861 inaugural address is recited by an actor.
Often depicted wearing a tall black stovepipe hat, 16th president of the United States Abraham Lincoln carried letters, bills, and notes in his hat.
7. Andrew Johnson was the 16th vice-president of the United States under Abraham Lincoln. Upon Lincolns assassination in April 1865, Johnson became the 17th U.S. president.
17th U.S. president Andrew Johnson never attended school. His future wife, Eliza McCardle, taught him to write at the age of 17. (Bonus fact about Andrew Johnson: He only wore suits that he custom-tailored himself.)
8. Ulysses S. Grant , the Union Armys greatest general, led his troops to victory in the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln selected Grant to lead the Union forces on March 9, 1864, following a string of unsuccessful commanders. In this excerpt recited by an actor, Grant describes his straightforward and relentless approach to warfare.
Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States, died of throat cancer. During his life, Grant had smoked about 20 cigars per day.
9. James Abram Garfield was the 20th president of the United States. Garfield, a Republican, served only four months in office before he was shot and mortally wounded, in 1881, by a disgruntled federal job-seeker. He was succeeded by Vice President Chester A. Arthur.
Both ambidextrous and multilingual, 20th president of the United States James Garfield could write Greek with one hand while writing Latin with the other.
10. Grover Cleveland served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. He was the only president to be reelected after suffering an electoral defeat between terms. Prior to his election to the presidency, Cleveland had served as the mayor of Buffalo, New York, and as the New York state governor.
Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th president of the United States, underwent a secret operation aboard a yacht to remove his cancerous upper jaw in 1893.
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The U. S. Constitution
