Presidents & Amendments

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George Washington

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1st President, Federalist, 1789-1797 (2 terms)

The first president of the United States, and the commanding general of the victorious American army in the Revolutionary War. He was born in 1732 in Virginia. He served as an army officer in the French and Indian War, as a member of the Virginia legislature, and as a delegate to the Continental Congress. In the summer of 1775, a few weeks after the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he took command of the American army. Washington is particularly remembered for keeping up morale during the hardships of winter encampment at Valley Forge.

Washington presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and in 1789 he was unanimously elected the first president under the new Constitution. As president, he pursued a careful foreign policy, endorsed the financial program of Alexander Hamilton, and put down the Whisky Rebellion. Refusing to seek a third term as president, he retired from the office in 1797, issuing a Farewell Address that advised against party politics at home and against permanent alliances abroad.

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John Adams

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2nd president, Federalist, 1797-1801 (1 term)

John Adams was more remarkable as a political philosopher than as a politician. Adams was born in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1735. A Harvard-educated lawyer, he early became identified with the patriot cause; a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses, he led in the movement for independence.

During the Revolutionary War he served in France and Holland in diplomatic roles, and helped negotiate the treaty of peace. He served as Vice President under George Washington.

When Adams became President, the war between the French and British was causing great difficulties for the United States on the high seas and intense partisanship among contending factions within the Nation. Long negotiations ended the quasi war.

In the campaign of 1800, Adams polled only a few less electoral votes than Jefferson, who became President. Adams retired to his farm in Quincy.

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Thomas Jefferson

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3rd president, Republican, 1801-1809 (2 terms)

Thomas Jefferson was born in 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia, inheriting from his father, a planter and surveyor, some 5,000 acres of land, and from his mother, a Randolph, high social standing. He studied at the College of William and Mary, then read law. Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785.

Jefferson gradually assumed leadership of the Republicans, who sympathized with the revolutionary cause in France. He opposed a strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states.

In 1800 Republican electors cast a tie vote between Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House of Representatives settled the tie. As President, Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803. During Jefferson's second term, he was increasingly preoccupied with keeping the Nation from involvement in the Napoleonic wars. Jefferson retired to Monticello. He died on July 4, 1826.

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James Madison

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4th president, Republican, 1809-1817 (2 terms)

Born in 1751, Madison was brought up in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). A student of history and government, well-read in law, he participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution in 1776, served in the Continental Congress, and was a leader in the Virginia Assembly. Madison made a major contribution to the ratification of the Constitution by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the Federalist essays. In Congress, he helped frame the Bill of Rights. Out of his leadership in opposition to Hamilton's financial proposals, which he felt would unduly bestow wealth and power upon northern financiers, came the development of the Republican, or Jeffersonian, Party. As President Jefferson's Secretary of State, Madison protested to warring France and Britain that their seizure of American ships was contrary to international law.

Madison was elected President in 1808. Britain and France were at war. On June 1, 1812, he asked Congress to declare war against Britain. A few notable naval and military victories convinced Americans that the War of 1812 had been gloriously successful, resulting in an upsurge of nationalism.

Whatever his deficiencies in charm, Madison's buxom wife Dolley compensated for them with her warmth and gaiety.

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James Monroe

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5th president, Republican, 1817-1825 (2 terms)

Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758, Monroe attended the College of William and Mary, fought with distinction in the Continental Army, and practiced law.

He was elected President in 1816 and easily won re-election in 1820. Early in his administration was an "Era of Good Feelings." Monroe followed nationalist policies, which led to ugly sectional cracks. In foreign affairs Monroe proclaimed the Monroe Doctrine. Monroe died in 1831.

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John Quincy Adams

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6th president, Republican, 1825-1829 (1 term)

Adams was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1767. After graduating from Harvard College, he became a lawyer. He served as a diplomat in Europe, and in 1802 he was elected to the United States Senate.

Serving under President Monroe, Adams was one of America's great Secretaries of State, formulating with the President the Monroe Doctrine.

In the election of 1824, each section of the lone Republican party put up its own candidate for the Presidency. Adams, the candidate of the North, fell behind Gen. Andrew Jackson in both popular and electoral votes, but received more than William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. The election was decided by the House of Representatives. With Clay's support, Adams won. In the campaign of 1828, his Jacksonian opponents charged him with corruption and public plunder.

After his defeat he served as a powerful leader in the House of Representatives. Above all, he fought against circumscription of civil liberties.

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Andrew Jackson

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7th president, Democrat, 1829-1837 (2 terms)

More nearly than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man.

Born in a backwoods settlement in the Carolinas in 1767, he read law. Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, the Hermitage, near Nashville. A major general in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero.

Jackson won the presidency in 1828. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed that offices should rotate among deserving applicants. Hostile cartoonists portrayed him as King Andrew I. Behind their accusations lay the fact that Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command. His views were popular and he won the 1832 election.

"Old Hickory" retired to the Hermitage, where he died in June 1845.

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Martin Van Buren

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8th president, Democrat, 1837-1841 (1 term)

Van Buren was born in 1782, the son of a tavernkeeper and farmer, in Kinderhook, New York. In 1821 he was elected to the United States Senate, and he served as Vice President in Jackson's second administration.

He won the Presidency in 1836. Less than three months later the panic of 1837 punctured the prosperity. Van Buren's remedy--continuing Jackson's deflationary policies--only deepened and prolonged the depression.

Defeated by the Whigs in 1840 for reelection, he was an unsuccessful candidate for President on the Free Soil ticket in 1848. He died in 1862.

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William Henry Harrison

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9th president, Whig, 1841 (less than 1 term)

Harrison was a scion of the Virginia planter aristocracy. He was born at Berkeley in 1773. In 1791, Harrison headed to the Northwest, where he spent much of his life. In 1801 he became Governor of the Indiana Territory. He was famous for the Battle of Tippecanoe against chief Tecumseh. In the War of 1812 Harrison defeated the combined British and Indian forces.

Harrison won the presidency in 1840. On April 4, 1841, he died of pneumonia--the first President to die in office.

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John Tyler

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10th president, Whig, 1841-1845 (1 term)

Born in Virginia in 1790, Tyler attended the College of William and Mary and studied law. He served in Congress and as Governor of Virginia. Tyler joined the states' rights Southerners in Congress. The Whigs nominated Tyler for Vice President in 1840, hoping for support from southern states'-righters. When President Harrison died and Tyler became President, he took action against Whig doctrine, and the Whigs expelled Tyler from their party. But despite their differences, President Tyler and the Whig Congress enacted much positive legislation.

He died in 1862, a member of the Confederate House of Representatives.

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James K. Polk

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11th president, Democrat, 1845-1849 (1 term)

James K. Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in 1795. As a young lawyer he entered politics. He was nominated for the presidency as the candidate committed to the Nation's "Manifest Destiny" of expansion.

In his stand on Oregon, the President seemed to be risking war with Great Britain. He offered to settle by extending the Canadian boundary, along the 49th parallel. He also instigated the Mexican War, in which Mexico ceded New Mexico and California in return for some compensation.

Polk died in June 1849.

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Zachary Taylor

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12th president, Whig, 1849-1850 (less than 1 term)

Born in Virginia in 1784, Taylor was taken as an infant to Kentucky and raised on a plantation. He was a career officer in the Army. In the Mexican War he won major victories.

Taylor was elected to the presidency in 1848. He soon fell ill and died in office.

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Millard Fillmore

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13th president, Whig, 1850-1853 (1 term)

Born in the Finger Lakes country of New York in 1800, Fillmore as a youth endured the privations of frontier life. He became a lawyer and then was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1848, he was elected Vice President. When he became President after Taylor’s death, Taylor's Cabinet resigned and President Fillmore became aligned with the moderate Whigs who favored the Compromise of 1850. Some of the more militant northern Whigs would not forgive Fillmore for signing the Fugitive Slave Act and helped deprive him of the Presidential nomination in 1852. He died in 1874.

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Franklin Pierce

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14th president, Democrat, 1853-1857 (1 term)

Born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in 1804, Pierce attended Bowdoin College. After graduation he studied law, then eventually entered Congress.

He served in the Mexican War and won the presidency in 1852. Tensions between North and South were renewed by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and "bleeding Kansas". Democrats refused to renominate Pierce as too controversial. Pierce returned to New Hampshire, where he died in 1869.

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James Buchanan

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15th president, Democrat, 1857-1861 [1 term]

James Buchanan was the only President who never married. He was born into a well-to-do Pennsylvania family in 1791. He was elected to the House of Representatives and the Senate. He became Polk's Secretary of State and Pierce's Minister to Great Britain. As President of a rapidly dividing Nation, Buchanan failed to understand that the North would not accept constitutional arguments which favored the South. The Federal Government reached a stalemate. President Buchanan denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them.

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Abraham Lincoln

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16th president, Republican 1861-1865 (more than 1 term)

The son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Lincoln had to struggle for a living and for learning. In 1858 Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas for Senator. He lost the election, but in debating with Douglas he gained a national reputation.

Lincoln thought secession illegal, and was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the Union. On January 1, 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy. Lincoln won re-election in 1864, as Union military triumphs heralded an end to the war. In his planning for peace, the President was flexible and generous, encouraging Southerners to lay down their arms and join speedily in reunion. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who thought he was helping the South.

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Andrew Johnson

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17th president, Democrat, 1865-1869 (less than 1 term)

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808, Johnson grew up in poverty. He served in the House of Representatives and the Senate. During the secession crisis, Johnson remained in the Senate even when Tennessee seceded. In 1864 the Republicans nominated Johnson, a Southerner and a Democrat, for Vice President.

After Lincoln's death, President Johnson pardoned all who would take an oath of allegiance. Radical Republicans in Congress moved vigorously to change Johnson's program. They refused to seat any Senator or Representative from the old Confederacy and passed measures dealing with the former slaves. Johnson vetoed the legislation. The Radicals mustered enough votes in Congress to pass legislation over his veto--the first time that Congress had overridden a President on an important bill. They passed laws placing restrictions upon the President. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote. In 1875, Tennessee returned Johnson to the Senate. He died a few months later.

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Ulysses S. Grant

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18th President, Republican, 1869-1877 (2 terms)

Born in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was appointed to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864.

As the symbol of Union victory, Grant the Republicans’ logical candidate for President in 1868. Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant’s Presidency was associated with graft. Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South, bolstering it at times with military force.

After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial firm, which went bankrupt. He died in 1885.

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Rutherford B. Hayes

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19th President, Republican, 1877-1881 (1 term)

Born in Ohio in 1822, Rutherford B. Hayes was educated at Kenyon College and Harvard Law School. Elected by a heavy majority, Hayes entered Congress in December 1865. Safe liberalism, party loyalty, and a good war record made Hayes an acceptable Republican Presidential candidate in 1876. He lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden of New York, but an Electoral Commission appointed by Congress decided in favor of Hayes. He brought to the Executive Mansion dignity, honesty, and moderate reform. He withdrew troops from the South, thus ending Reconstruction. Hayes had announced in advance that he would serve only one term, and retired to his home in Fremont, Ohio. He died in 1893.

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James A. Garfield

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20th President, Republican, 1881 (less than 1 term)

James A. Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1831. He was graduated from Williams College. He served in the army, and then became the leading Republican in the House. At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield became the "dark horse" nominee. On July 2, 1881, in a Washington railroad station, an embittered attorney who had sought a consular post shot the President. Mortally wounded, on September 19, 1881, he died.

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Chester Arthur

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21st President, Republican, 1881-1885 (less than 1 term)

The son of a Baptist preacher who had emigrated from northern Ireland, Arthur was born in Fairfield, Vermont, in 1829. He practiced law in New York City. Honorable in his personal life and his public career, as President Arthur was eager to prove himself above machine politics and passed legislation to end the spoils system. He was not renominated, and died in 1886.

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Grover Cleveland

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22nd and 24th President, Democrat, 1885-1889, 1893-1897 (2 non-consecutive terms)

One of nine children of a Presbyterian minister, Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1837. He emerged into a political prominence that carried him to the White House. Cleveland won the Presidency with the combined support of Democrats and reform Republicans. Cleveland vigorously pursued a policy barring special favors to any economic group. Elected again in 1892, Cleveland faced an acute depression. His policies during the depression were generally unpopular and his party deserted him in 1896. After leaving the White House, Cleveland lived in retirement in Princeton, New Jersey. He died in 1908.

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Benjamin Harrison

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23rd President, 1889-1893 (1 term)

Born in 1833 on a farm by the Ohio River, Harrison read law. After the Civil War, Harrison became a pillar of Indianapolis. In the Presidential election, Harrison lost the popular vote but carried the Electoral College. Harrison was proud of the vigorous foreign policy which he helped shape. Substantial appropriation bills were signed by Harrison for internal improvements, as well as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. He was defeated by Cleveland in 1892. After he left office, Harrison returned to Indianapolis and died in 1901.

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William McKinley

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25th President, Republican, 1897-1901 (less than 2 terms)

Born in Niles, Ohio, in 1843, McKinley studied law and served in Congress. When McKinley became President, he called Congress into special session to enact the highest tariff in history. Foreign policy dominated McKinley's Administration with the Spanish-American War. His second term came to a tragic end in September 1901, when a deranged anarchist shot him twice. He died eight days later.

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Theodore Roosevelt

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26th President, Republican, 1901-1909 (2 terms)

Roosevelt was born in New York City in 1858 into a wealthy family. During the Spanish-American War, Roosevelt was lieutenant colonel of the Rough Rider Regiment. He was one of the most conspicuous heroes of the war. He served as Governor of New York.

With the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the youngest President in the Nation's history. Roosevelt emerged spectacularly as a "trust buster" by forcing the dissolution of a great railroad combination in the Northwest. Roosevelt ensured the construction of the Panama Canal. His corollary to the Monroe Doctrine prevented the establishment of foreign bases in the Caribbean and arrogated the sole right of intervention in Latin America to the United States. He won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. Some of Theodore Roosevelt's most effective achievements were in conservation. Leaving the Presidency in 1909, he ran for President on a Progressive ticket in 1912. He died in 1919.

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William Howard Taft

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27th President, Republican, 1909-1913 (1 term)

Born in 1857, the son of a distinguished judge, William Howard Taft graduated from Yale, and returned to Cincinnati to study and practice law. He rose in politics through Republican judiciary appointments. President Roosevelt made him Secretary of War, and decided that Taft should be his successor. As President, Taft was caught in the intense battles between Progressives and conservatives, and got scant credit for the achievements of his administration. In 1912, when the Republicans renominated Taft, Roosevelt split the party as leader of the Progressives, thus guaranteeing the election of Woodrow Wilson.

Taft subsequently became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a position he held until just before his death in 1930.

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Woodrow Wilson

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28th President, Democrat, 1913-1921 (2 terms)

Wilson was born in Virginia in 1856, the son of a Presbyterian minister. After graduation from Princeton, Wilson entered upon an academic career. His growing national reputation led some conservative Democrats to consider him Presidential timber. In the three-way election of 1912 he received only 42 percent of the popular vote but an overwhelming electoral vote.

Wilson maneuvered through Congress three major pieces of legislation. The first was a lower tariff, attached to a graduated Federal income tax. In 1914 antitrust legislation established a Federal Trade Commission to prohibit unfair business practices. In 1916, social legislation prohibited child labor and limited railroad workers to an eight-hour day. Wilson narrowly won re-election that year and then concluded that America could not remain neutral in the World War. In 1917 he proclaimed American entrance into World War I a crusade to make the world "safe for democracy." Wilson went before Congress in January 1918, to enunciate American war aims--the Fourteen Points. After the Germans signed the Armistice in November 1918, Wilson presented to the Senate the Versailles Treaty, containing the Covenant of the League of Nations. But the Versailles Treaty failed in the Senate.

Wilson lived until 1924.

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Warren G. Harding

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29th President, Republican, 1921-1923 (less than 1 term)

Harding, born near Marion, Ohio, in 1865, became the publisher of a newspaper and was involved in Ohio politics. He won the Presidential election of 1920 by an unprecedented landslide of 60 percent of the popular vote.

Harding interpreted his election as a mandate to stay out of the League of Nations. Republicans in Congress easily got the President to support eliminating wartime controls, slashing taxes, restoring the high protective tariff, and imposing tight limitations upon immigration. He did not live to find out how the public would react to the scandals of his administration, dying in August of 1923 of a heart attack.

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Calvin Coolidge

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30th President, Republican, 1923-1929 (1 term)

Born in Plymouth, Vermont, on July 4, 1872, Coolidge was the son of a village storekeeper. He was graduated from Amherst College with honors, and entered law and politics.

Becoming President after Harding’s death, Coolidge refused to use Federal economic power to check the growing boom or to ameliorate the depressed condition of agriculture and certain industries. He rapidly became popular and took few actions. He chose not to stand for reelection. He died in January 1933.

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Herbert Hoover

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31st President, Republican, 1929-1933 (1 term)

Son of a Quaker blacksmith, Herbert Clark Hoover was born in an Iowa village in 1874, he grew up in Oregon. Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928. He brought to the Presidency an unparalleled reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and humanitarian. However, within months of his election the stock market crashed, and the Nation spiraled downward into depression. Hoover proposed some action, but he became the scapegoat for the depression and was badly defeated in 1932. He died in New York City on October 20, 1964.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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32nd President, Democrat, 1933-1945 (less than 4 terms)

Born in 1882 at Hyde Park, New York, Franklin D. Roosevelt attended Harvard University and Columbia Law School. Roosevelt entered public service through politics. In the summer of 1921, when he was 39, he was stricken with polio.

Roosevelt was elected President in November 1932. Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression, he helped the American people regain faith in themselves. In his first "hundred days," he proposed, and Congress enacted, a sweeping program to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed, and reform. In 1935 Roosevelt passed Social Security, heavier taxes on the wealthy, new controls over banks and public utilities, and an enormous work relief program for the unemployed. In 1936 he was re-elected by a top-heavy margin. Feeling he was armed with a popular mandate, he sought legislation to enlarge the Supreme Court, which had been invalidating key New Deal measures. Roosevelt lost the Supreme Court battle.

Roosevelt worked to keep the United States out of the war in Europe while strengthening nations threatened or attacked. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation's manpower and resources for global war. Feeling that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United States and Russia, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations.

As the war drew to a close, Roosevelt's health deteriorated, and on April 12, 1945, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

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Harry S Truman

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33rd President, Democrat, 1945-1953 (2 terms)

Harry S Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri, in 1884. He prospered as a Missouri farmer. Active in the Democratic Party, Truman became a Senator. Truman became Vice President in Roosevelt’s fourth term. He had received no briefing on the development of the atomic bomb or the unfolding difficulties with Soviet Russia when he became President on April 12, 1945.

As President, Truman made some of the most crucial decisions in history. Truman ordered atomic bombs dropped on cities devoted to war work in Japan. He presented to Congress the Fair Deal. In 1947 he asked Congress to aid Greece and Turkey, enunciating the Truman Doctrine. He also presided over the Marshall Plan, the Berlin airlift (1948), the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949), and the Korean War.

Deciding not to run again, he retired to Independence. He died December 26, 1972.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower

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34th President, Republican, 1953-1961 (2 terms)

Born in Texas in 1890, Dwight D. Eisenhower pursued an Army career. On D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France. After the war, assumed supreme command over the new NATO forces. "I like Ike" was the irresistible slogan in 1952; Eisenhower won a sweeping victory.

As President, Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and worked incessantly during his two terms to ease the tensions of the Cold War. In domestic policy the President pursued a middle course, continuing most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, emphasizing a balanced budget.

He died on March 28, 1969.

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John F. Kennedy

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35th President, Democrat, 1961-1963 (less than 1 term)

Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1917. Graduating from Harvard in 1940, he entered the Navy and then politics. Winning by a narrow margin in the popular vote against Richard Nixon in 1960, Kennedy became the first Roman Catholic President.

His Inaugural Address offered the memorable injunction: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country." He took vigorous action in the cause of equal rights, and negotiated the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963. More controversially, Kennedy presided over the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and continued U.S. involvement in Vietnam. On November 22, 1963, he was assassinated as his motorcade wound through Dallas, Texas.

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Lyndon B. Johnson

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36th President, Democrat, 1963-1969 (more than 1 term)

Lyndon B. Johnson was born on August 27, 1908, in central Texas. He served in the House and Senate, ultimately as Majority Leader. He served as John F. Kennedy's Vice President and, when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson was sworn in as President. The defining program of his Presidency was the Great Society program: aid to education, Medicare, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, removal of obstacles to the right to vote. Under Johnson, the country made spectacular explorations of space. In contrast to these successes, fighting continued in Viet Nam and controversy over the war was acute. He withdrew as a candidate for re-election.

He died suddenly of a heart attack at his Texas ranch on January 22, 1973.

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Richard Nixon

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37th President, Republican, 1969-1974 (more than 1 term)

Born in California in 1913, Nixon practiced law. After the war he served in Congress and then as Eisenhower’s Vice President. He ran for President in 1960 and then won in 1968.

During his Presidency, Nixon succeeded in ending American fighting in Viet Nam and improving relations with the U.S.S.R. and China. His domestic program included the end of the draft, new anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program. In his 1972 bid for office, Nixon defeated Democratic candidate George McGovern by one of the widest margins on record. But the Watergate scandal brought fresh divisions to the country and ultimately led to his resignation.

In his last years, Nixon gained praise as an elder statesman before his death on April 22, 1994.

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Gerald R. Ford

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38th President, Republican, 1974-1977 (less than 1 term)

Gerald R. Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1913. He served in Congress and was nominated by President as Vice President after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. He became President after Nixon’s resignation in 1973.

As President Ford acted to curb the trend toward Government intervention and spending as a means of solving the problems of American society and the economy. He tried to calm earlier controversies by granting former President Nixon a full pardon. During his first 14 months as President he vetoed 39 measures from the heavily Democratic Congress. By providing aid to both Israel and Egypt, the Ford Administration helped persuade the two countries to accept an interim truce agreement. President Ford won the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1976, but lost the election to Jimmy Carter.

Ford died in California in 2006.

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Jimmy Carter

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39th President, Democrat, 1977-1981 (1 term)

James Earl Carter, Jr. was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. He entered politics and became Governor of Georgia. In 1976 he won the Presidential election against Gerald Ford.

Carter worked to combat the continuing economic woes of unemployment and inflation, which was at near record highs. In foreign affairs, he championed human rights. However, the seizure of hostages at the U.S. embassy in Iran dominated the news during the year of the administration, and he lost the 1980 election to Ronald Reagan. Since leaving office Carter has been committed to humanitarian issues around the world.

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Ronald Reagan

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40th President, Republican, 1981-1989 (2 terms)

On February 6, 1911, Ronald Wilson Reagan in Tampico, Illinois. In the 1930s and 1940s he appeared in 53 Hollywood films. In 1966 he was elected Governor of California, and in 1980 he won a sweeping victory over President Jimmy Carter.

As President, Reagan obtained legislation to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. His Reagan Revolution aimed to reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government. In foreign policy, his Reagan Doctrine led to support to anti-Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, and Africa. He sought to improve relations with the Soviet Union, meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Reagan died in California in 2004.

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George H. W. Bush

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41st President, Republican, 1989-1993 (1 term)

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, on June 12, 1924. After college Bush entered the oil industry in Texas, and then was elected to Congress. He was appointed to a series of high-level positions, including Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He served as Vice President under Reagan, and won the presidential election in 1988.

Bush faced a dramatically changing world as the Cold War ended. He sent American troops into Panama to overthrow General Manuel Noriega, and formed a global coalition to fight the Gulf War. However, a faltering economy and rising urban violence led to his defeat in the 1992 election.

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Bill Clinton

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42nd President, Democrat, 1993-2001 (2 terms)

William Jefferson Clinton was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. Clinton received a law degree and entered politics. He won the Presidential election in 1992.

After the failure in his second year of a huge program of health care reform, Clinton sought legislation to upgrade education, to restrict handgun sales, and to strengthen environmental rules. In 1998, as a result of issues surrounding personal indiscretions with a White House intern, Clinton was impeached; he was found not guilty. In foreign policy, he presided over conflict resolution in the Balkans and a bombing campaign of Iraq when Saddam Hussein stopped United Nations weapons inspections. He was a global proponent for an expanded NATO.

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George W. Bush

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43rd President, Republican, 2001-2009 (2 terms)

George W. Bush was born July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut. Following an MBA, Bush began a career in the energy business, and then entered Texas politics. In 2000 he won the presidential election against Al Gore after a controversial decision by the Supreme Court.

As President, his first initiative was the No Child Left Behind Act. Other domestic policies were a tax cut and a Medicare prescription drug benefit. His global HIV/AIDS initiative is considered one of his most successful foreign policy programs. However, his Presidency was dominated by the invasion of Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He also led a reform of the intelligence community and establishment of the Department of Homeland Security.

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First Amendment

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Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of RELIGION, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of SPEECH, or of the PRESS; or the right of the people peaceably to ASSEMBLE, and to PETITION THE GOVERNMENT for a redress of grievances. [Bill of Rights]

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Second Amendment

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A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to KEEP AND BEAR ARMS, shall not be infringed. [Bill of Rights]

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Third Amendment

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NO SOLDIER SHALL, in time of peace BE QUARTERED in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. [Bill of Rights]

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Fourth Amendment

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The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, AGAINST UNREASONABLE SEARCHES AND SEIZURES, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. [Bill of Rights]

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Fifth Amendment

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No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a PRESENTMENT OR INDICTMENT OF A GRAND JURY, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject FOR THE SAME OFFENSE TO BE TWICE PUT IN JEOPARDY; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case TO BE A WITNESS AGAINST HIMSELF, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without DUE PROCESS OF LAW; nor shall PRIVATE PROPERTY be TAKEN FOR PUBLIC USE, without just compensation. [Bill of Rights]

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Sixth Amendment

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In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the RIGHT TO A SPEEDY AND PUBLIC TRIAL, BY AN IMPARTIAL JURY of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be INFORMED OF THE NATURE AND CAUSE OF THE ACCUSATION; to be CONFRONTED WITH THE WITNESSES against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL for his defence. [Bill of Rights]

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Seventh Amendment

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In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of TRIAL BY JURY shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. [Bill of Rights]

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Eighth Amendment

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Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS inflicted. [Bill of Rights]

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Ninth Amendment

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THE ENUMERATION in the Constitution, OF CERTAIN RIGHTS, SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED TO DENY OR DISPARAGE OTHERS retained by the people. [Bill of Rights]

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Tenth Amendment

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The POWERS NOT DELEGATED to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, ARE RESERVED TO THE STATES respectively, or to the people. [Bill of Rights]

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11th Amendment

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The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. [CANNOT SUE STATES] [1795]

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12th Amendment

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The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall NAME IN THEIR BALLOTS THE PERSON VOTED FOR AS PRESIDENT, AND IN DISTINCT BALLOTS THE PERSON VOTED FOR AS VICE-PRESIDENT, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;

The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;

The person having the greatest Number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.

The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. [1804]

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13th Amendment

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1. NEITHER SLAVERY nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, SHALL EXIST WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [1865]

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14th Amendment

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1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. [1868] [CIVIL RIGHTS]

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15th Amendment

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1. THE RIGHT of citizens of the United States TO VOTE SHALL NOT BE DENIED or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [1870]

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16th Amendment

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The Congress shall have POWER TO LAY AND COLLECT TAXES ON INCOMES, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. [1913]

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17th Amendment

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The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two SENATORS FROM EACH STATE, ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE THEREOF, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution. [1913]

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18th Amendment

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1. After one year from the ratification of this article THE MANUFACTURE, SALE, OR TRANSPORTATION OF INTOXICATING LIQUORS within, THE IMPORTATION thereof into, OR THE EXPORTATION thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes IS HEREBY PROHIBITED.

2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. [1933]

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19th Amendment

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THE RIGHT OF CITIZENS of the United States TO VOTE SHALL NOT BE DENIED or abridged by the United States or by any State ON ACCOUNT OF SEX.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [1920]

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20th Amendment

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1. THE TERMS OF THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT SHALL END AT NOON ON THE 20TH DAY OF JANUARY, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.

6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission. [1933]

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21st Amendment

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1. THE EIGHTEENTH ARTICLE OF AMENDMENT to the Constitution of the United States IS HEREBY REPEALED.

2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

3. The article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. [1933]

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22nd Amendment

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1. NO PERSON SHALL BE ELECTED TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT MORE THAN TWICE, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President, when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress. [1951]

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23rd Amendment

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1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA GETS ELECTORS] [1961]

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24th Amendment

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1. THE RIGHT of citizens of the United States TO VOTE in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, SHALL NOT BE DENIED or abridged by the United States or any State BY REASON OF FAILURE TO PAY ANY POLL TAX or other tax.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [1964]

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25th Amendment

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1. IN CASE OF THE REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENT from office or of his death or resignation, THE VICE PRESIDENT SHALL BECOME PRESIDENT.

2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.

3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.

4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office. [1967]

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26th Amendment

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1. THE RIGHT OF CITIZENS of the United States, who are EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE or older, TO VOTE shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. [1971]

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27th Amendment

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NO LAW, VARYING THE COMPENSATION for the services of the Senators and Representatives, SHALL TAKE EFFECT, UNTIL AN ELECTION OF REPRESENTATIVES SHALL HAVE INTERVENED. [1992]