For your President’s section of the
notebook
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#16 – Abraham Lincoln (Republican)
Nickname – “Honest Abe”, “Rail-splitter”
Wife – Mary Todd (“crazy” Southerner)
Tallest – 6’3”
Great sense of humor (“you can fool some of the
people all of the time, and all of the people some
of the time, but . . .”
• Grandfather was scalped by Indians
• Too tall, too skinny, too ugly – a “hick”
President Andrew Johnson
(R)
#17
 Jacksonian Democrat.
 No Vice President
 Anti-Aristocrat.
 White Supremacist
 Never went to school.
 Agreed with Lincoln
that states had never
legally left the Union.
Andrew Johnson #17 (R)
• Rags to Riches Story (last to be born in a
log cabin – very poor)
• Got drunk at Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural
• First president to be impeached
• Was apprenticed to become a tailor
• Reconstruction Plan (Proclamation of
Amnesty—May 1865) similar to Lincoln’s
#18 President Ulysses S. Grant (R)
• Famous Civil War General
• Hated the sight of blood (made him sick)
• Smoked about 20 cigars a day (would die
of throat cancer)
• His presidency was filled with corruption –
he appointed friends and old military
buddies to high positions
• Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of
War took kickbacks from profits slated to
help the Indians – “The Indian Ring”
#19 Rutherford B. Hayes (R)
• Nickname – “His Fraudulency”
• Wife hated Alcohol and wouldn’t serve it –
called her “Lemonade Lucy”
• The family spent every night singing
gospel hymns
• Made a deal to end Reconstruction –
pulled out the troops
• Was very honest
#20 James A Garfield (R)
• Nickname – “The Teacher”
• Wife – Lucretia – 4 sons/1 daughter
• Bribed for $329 – Credit Mobilier under
Grant
• Shot by Charles Guiteau – 2 times at a
railroad station
• Took 80 days to die
• Alexander Graham Bell “helped” with a
metal detector
#21 – Chester A. Arthur (R)
• Nickname – “Elegant Arthur”
• Was a “Stalwart” – (conservative) BUT followed
Garfield’s reform policy
• Was a widower – “heartbroken” when his wife
died
• Rumored to own 80 pairs of pants
• Only president that had his own valet
• Had “Bright’s” disease – lack of energy
• Died 8 months after leaving the White House
#22 – Grover Cleveland (and #24) (D)
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Nickname – “Uncle Jumbo”
Big guy – weighed 250 lbs
Only president to serve two non-consecutive terms
Had been a sheriff and mayor of Buffalo then
Governor of NY
Very honest – didn’t like the press
Only president to have hanged anyone
Only president married in the White House (married
his ward when she reached 21)
Had an illegitimate child that he supported
#23 – Benjamin Harrison (R)
• Grandson of William Henry Harrison
(president for 1 month)
• Lost the popular vote, but won the electoral
• Nicknamed “White House Iceberg”
• Last president to have a beard
• His administration wasted billions of dollars –
angered voters
• Lost his wife and he didn’t campaign for reelection
• Signed Sherman Anti-Trust Act
#25 – William McKinley (R)
• Wife Ida suffered from epilepsy – he’d cover her
head with his handkerchief
• Built the first White House press room
• “Front Porch” campaign against Williams
Jennings Bryant
• Campaign manager – Mark Hannah – “The
Wizard”
• First to have his inaugural on film
• Last president to have served in the Civil War
#26 – Theodore Roosevelt (R)
• Teddy’s dad founded the Museum of Natural
History (Night at the Museum)
• Loved nature – created 5 national parks
• Is on Mount Rushmore
• Had asthma – worked at bodybuilding, boxed,
was a cowboy and a hunter
• Wife and mother died on the same day.
• Had six kids (snakes in the bathtub – a pony on
the lawn)
• Formed the “Bull Moose” Party - Progressives
#27 William Taft (R)
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Progressive – the real trust buster
Nickname – “Big Lub”
Only president to serve on the Supreme Court
1900 was governor of the Philippines
300+ pounds – the heaviest president
Wife, Nellie, planted 3,000 Japanese cherry
trees (a gift from Japan) – she died of a stroke
the 1st year as first lady
• Said the White House was “the loneliest place in
the world”.
#28 Woodrow Wilson (D)
• Was a southerner (VA)
• A History professor – great speaker
• WWI – At first was an isolationist – then
said “The world must be made safe for
democracy.”
• Came up with 14 points at the end of the
war – League of Nations
• 2nd President to win the Nobel Peace Prize
• Had a stroke at the end of his term
• Racist – supported segregation
#29 Warren G. Harding (R)
• Newspaper editor
• Hard drinking, gambling, womanizer
• Considered very handsome – women
voted for him
• Teapot Dome scandal – Sec of Interior
took a bribe – went to jail
• Part of the “Ohio Gang” – to DC –
gambling buddies
• Segregationist – Isolationist - Nativist
#30 – Calvin Coolidge (R)
• Nickname was “Silent Cal” – shy,
unsmiling, blunt
• Cut taxes, let big business “run wild”
• Probably most responsible for the
Great Depression
• Secretary of Treasury, Andrew Mellon –
let stock market “run wild”
• A Calvinist – did not drink, smoke,
gamble or dance
#31 – Herbert Hoover (R)
• Was left an orphan at 9
• Was a mining engineer (his wife Lou
was too!)
• Traveled all over the world – was a
millionaire by 40
• Relief for starving people of Europe
after WWI
• Was blamed for the Great Depression
#32 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D)
• Born rich (TR’s 5th cousin) – only child, older
dad, domineering mother – spoiled
• Personal magnetism – Governor of NY
• Polio at 39 – sailing, stagnant water
• “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”
Inaugural address
• Empathy because of his physical problems
• Only president to be elected 4 times
• Cheated on Eleanor
• Cute little dog named Fala
Harry S. Truman #33 (D)
• “S” is his full middle name!
• He was notorious for his explosive temper
and “salty” language
• Was religious, walked 2 miles a day, liked
to play poker, played piano
• Wife – Bess (she hated Washington DC),
daughter Margaret
• Philosophy –
– If you can’t take the heat, get out of the
kitchen
– The buck stops here
Dwight D. Eisenhower # 34 (R)
• Had 5 brothers – nickname “Ike”
• Wife – Mamie – one son (Married Nixon’s
daughter in the White House)
• Very good golfer! Professional soldier
• Sent troops to Little Rock to desegregate
Central High School
• Started the nuclear missle buildup –
strategy of massive retaliation
• Sent aid to South Vietnam
#35 – John F. Kennedy (D)
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Youngest elected president – 43
1st Catholic to be elected
1st televised debate – he “rocked”
Famous quote – “Ask not what your
country can do for you, ask what you
can do for your country”
• Married Jackie – fashionable, young –
went to Broadway, gave great parties
• Was a Navy war hero – PT109
#36 – Lyndon B. Johnson (D)
• Poor kid from Johnson City, Texas – worked
his way through college as a janitor – Social
Studies teacher
• Supported Civil Rights
• Vietnam was his downfall
• 6’3” – tough, crass – youngest Senate
Majority Leader ever
• War on Poverty
• Wife – “Lady Bird” – daughters Lynda Bird
and Luci Baines – dog Little Beagle Johnson
#37 – Richard M. Nixon (R)
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Poor kid from California – a Quaker
Eisenhower’s Vice President
“Secret Plan” to end the war in Vietnam
1st President to visit China
1st President to resign from office
Wife – Pat – wore a Republican cloth
coat – “I am not a crook”
• Had a dog named Checkers
#38 – Gerald Ford (R)
• Only man in American history
to be president without being
voted for
• Birth name – Leslie Lynch
King, Jr.
• Football scholarship U of
Michigan – MVP
• Eagle Scout – Navy in WWII
• Good looking – cover of Look
& Cosmo
• Wife established the Betty
Ford Clinic
#39 – James (Jimmy) Carter (D)
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Peanut farmer – Plains, Georgia
Born again Christian
Builds home with Habitat for Humanity
International negotiator (Somalia, Haiti)
– Nobel Peace Price 2002
• Says he’s seen a UFO
• Brother Billy was an embarrassment
• “Lusted in his heart” – Playboy
interview
#40 – Ronald Reagan (R)
• Oldest elected president (69)
• Movie star – 53 films – TV – president of
the Screen Actors Guild
• Nicknames – “Dutch”, “The Great
Communicator”
• Shot by John Hinckley
• “Mr. Gorbachev, “tear down this wall”
• Wife, Nancy, did his astrological charts
#41 – George H.W. Bush (R)
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Youngest navy pilot in WWII – hero
CIA director – Texas oilman
Vomited on the Japanese prime minister
“Read my lips, no new taxes” – got him
beat by Clinton
• Kidnapped Manuel Noriega (Panama) to
stand trial for drug charges
• Wife, Barbara, very rich and very
popular
#42 – William J. Clinton (D)
• Talented saxophone player
• Father died before he was born – step-father
was abusive
• Youngest governor – Arkansas
• Beat Bush with 43.5% of the vote
• “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy
• Nicknames – “Comeback Kid”, “Slick Willie”,
“Bubba”
• Second president to be impeached
• “Travelgate”, “Watergate”, “Sleep overs”
#43 – George W. Bush (R)
• Raised in Texas – partied through Yale –
MBA Harvard
• Managing partner of the Texas Rangers
• Governor of Texas 2 times
• DWI in his youth – gave up alcohol
• Choked on a pretzel while watching a
football game
• First African-American Secretary of
State – Colin Powell (then Condaleesa
Rice)
#44 – Barrack Obama (D)
• You tell me . . .