US Presidents Flashcards
1
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George Washington
Independent
1789-1797
- -American War of Independence (1775-1783)
- -“Mr. President”
- -2-term precedent
2
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2
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John Adams
Federalist
1797-1801
- -improved relations with France
- -XYZ affair (French diplomatic bribe snafu)
3
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3
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Thomas Jefferson
Democratic-Republican
1801-1809
- -Louisiana Purchase, 1803
- -Louis and Clark expedition, 1804-1806
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4
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James Madison
Democratic-Republican
1809-1817
- -War of 1812 (vs. Great Britain)
- -began the ‘Era of Good Feelings’
5
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5
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James Monroe
Democratic-Republican
1817-1825
- -Monroe Doctrine, 1823: foreign policy that opposed European colonialism in the Americas
- -Missouri compromise: Missouri admitted to Union as a slave state; Maine admitted as a free state; slavery prohibited in Louisiana purchase north of the 36th parallel
6
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6
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John Quincy Adams
Democratic-Republican
1825-1829
- -infrastructure improvement (roads, canals)
- -Tariff of 1828 raised on imported manufactures (to protect Northern industry, but damaged South)
7
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Andrew Jackson
Democratic
1829-1837
- -formed Democratic Party to defeat JQA, establishing 2-party system
- -Texas Revolution, 1835-1836 (vs. Mexico)
- -Battle of the Alamo, 1836 (13-day siege v. Mexico, loss)
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Martin Van Buren
Democratic
1837-1841
- -first US citizen-born president, first not of British/Irish ancestry (Dutch)
- -first born-poor, self-made man to become president
- -melting-pot sensibility
- -Amistad ship revolt, 1839: Spanish slave vessel overtaken by captives off Cuba, landed in New York; charged as property with piracy and murder; JQA and abolitionists for the defense; returned to Spain without trial
9
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William Henry Harrison
Whig
1841
died in office (typhoid?)
–campaign tactic of presenting as a down-home neighbor (despite wealth and power)
10
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10
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John Tyler
Whig
1841-1845
- -set precedent as rising to active president from vice-presidency
- -Treaty of Wanghia, 1844: US gained the right to trade in Chinese ports
11
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James K. Polk
Democratic
1845-1849
- -opened American institutions: the Smithsonian, USNA
- -issuing of first postage stamps
- -California gold rush
12
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12
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Zachary Taylor
Whig
1849-1850
died in office (cherries?)
- -helped set the stage for abolition
- -California applied for statehood directly (without first being a territory); its constitution did not allow slavery and pro-anti debate was bypassed
- -Galphin scandal, 1850: Secretary of War George Crawford received huge settlement for lobbying for the Gauphin family to receive compensation for their estate which had been claimed by the US colonial government; led to outrage and Crawford’s resignation, but no legal action
13
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13
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Millard Fillmore
Whig
1850-1853
- -foreign policy: expansion of US trade in Far East
- -approved Compromise of 1850: 5 laws that addressed slavery and territorial expansion to diffuse brewing tension rising from territories acquired in the Mexican-American War
- California entered the Union as a free state
- fugitive slave act was strengthened (runaways in the North must be seized and returned to Southern owners)
- 2 new territories (Utah and New Mexico) allowing popular sovereignty over the question of slavery
- Compensated emancipation of slave trade in Washington, DC
- federal assumption of Texas’ debt from its days as an independent Republic (in exchange for a loss of territory)
14
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14
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Franklin Pierce
Democratic
1853-1857
- -first president to hire a full-time bodyguard
- -Gasden Purchase, 1854: territory for Arizona and New Mexico acquired from Mexico
15
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15
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James Buchanan
Democratic
1857-1861
- -unwilling to consider abolition
- -Harper’s Ferry Raid, 1859: abolitionist John Brown tries to start a slave rebellion; is hanged for treason
- -formation of Confederate States of America, 1861 (SC, MI, FL, AL, GA, LA, TX secede)
16
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Abraham Lincoln
Republican/National Union
1861-1865
assassinated
- -Civil War beginnings
- Fort Sumter, SC - Apr 1861 (seige, CSA)
- VA, NC, TN, AR join CSA
- Union blockade - -major Civil War battles, 1861-1862
- 1st Bull Run/Manassas (CSA): Stonewall Jackson
- Monitor/Merrimac ironclads (indecisive): Merrimac had been salvaged by CSA and rechristined as Virginia
- Shiloh (USA): western theater; Grant, army of the TN- Anteitam/Sharpsburg (USA, indecisive); AP Hill, Jackson; cautious McClellan; bloodiest day in US history (22k casualties); gives Lincoln grounds for preliminary proclimation - Fredricksburg (CSA, decisive): Lee routs Ambrose
–Emancimation Proclimation, Jan 1 1863: slaves freed in captured CSA territory (seizing enemy resources; tying war to the issue of slavery)
–Reconstruction 10% plan: based on forgiveness and aiming to end the war quickly; would pardon all Southerners but high military and gov’t officials; would protect private property (except slaves)
- -major Civil War battles, 1863-1864
- 2nd Bull Run/Manassas (CSA)
- Chancellorsville (CSA): Lee’s superior tactics; loss of Jackson
- Gettysburg (USA, turning of the tide): Meade v. Lee; failed Pickett’s charge; 50k casualties over 3 days
- Vicksburg seige (USA): six weeks; Grant’s tactical superiority recognized
- Atlanta (USA): Sherman v. Hood, city captured and evacuated, then march and burn to Savannah
–pocket veto of Wade-Davis 50% reconstruction bill (Radical Republicans)
–Appomattox, Apr 9 1965: Robert E. Lee surrenders
–assassination by John Wilkes Booth, Apr 16 1965
17
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17
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Andrew Johnson
Democratic/National Union
1865-1869
- -Reconstruction
- supported states’ rights and laissez-faire attitude towards economic and social affairs
- opposed Freedmen’s Bureau
- did not believe in equal rights for former slaves
- returned confiscated property to white southerners
- issued pardons to CSA military and government officials
- Congress passes Tenure of Office Act in upset response to Johnson’s Reconstruction - -purchase of Alaska from Russia, 1867: Seward’s folly?
- -impeached, 1868: violation of the Tenure of Office Act (removing Senate-confirmed cabinet members without senatorial approval); acquitted by just one vote
18
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18
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Ulysses S. Grant
Republican
1873-1881
- -champion for rights of freed slaves: suffrage, prosecution of KKK leaders
- -panic of 1873, 1873-1877: financial crisis (Jay Cooke and Co railroad investment failure), economic depression, civil unrest, nationwide strikes
19
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Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican
1877-1881
- -hotly contested election: Hayes lost the popular vote
- -ends Reconstruction: compromise that put him in office removed federal troops from the South; restores white supremacy
- -Civil Service Reforms: to end the ‘Spoils System’ of awarding federal jobs to political supporters by awarding based on merit instead
20
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20
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James A. Garfield
Republican
1881
assassinated
- -returned New York customshouse leadership to federal (not state senators’) control
- -assassination: shot in July by an embittered attorney; lay in the White House for weeks; bullet could not be found; died after 2 months from infection and internal hemorrhage
- -system designed to cool the air as he recuperated was the first air conditioner
21
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21
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Chester A. Arthur
Republican
1881-1885
- -born in Vermont
- -vetoed (overrode) Chinese exclusion act, 1882: 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigrants (due to nativism and high American unemployment)
- -Pendleton Civil Service Act, 1883: for a bipartisan, merit-based civil service
- -champion of civil rights for African-Americans and Native Americans
22
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Grover Clevland
Democratic
1885-1889
- -marriage at the White House, 1886
- -pursued policy barring special favors to any economic group
- -Interstate Commerce Act, 1887: attempted to federally regulate railroads; also recouped western federal land from railroad companies
- -failed reelection: won popular vote but lost the electoral college
23
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23
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Benjamin Harrison
Republican
1889-1893
- -Billion Dollar Congress, 1889-1891: first time US spending budget exceeds $1 bil
- -Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890: first federal law regulating competition among enterprises and outlawing monopolistic practices and cartels
24
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24
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Grover Cleveland
Democratic
1893-1897
- -economic depression: addressed via the Treasury; maintained gold reserve
- -Panic of 1893, 1893-1897: collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky financing; economic depression, civil unrest, labor disputes, political upheaval
- -Pullman strike, 1894: sent federal troops against railroad strikers to enforce an injunction in Chicago
25
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25
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William McKinley
Republican
1897-1901
assassinated
- -Spanish-American War, 1898: to liberate Cuba; USA destroys Spanish fleet in 100-day war
- -victory leads to territorial expansion: annexation of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and Hawaii
- -assassination, 1901: shot by an anarchist at Buffalo Pan-American Exposition; died 8 days later
26
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26
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Theodore Roosevelt
Republican
1901-1909
- -age 42, youngest president ever; remembered for charisma
- -believed that government should arbitrate between conflicting economic forces (capital v. labor)
- -Square Deal domestic policy, 1902: anthracite coal strike mediation (higher wages, shorter workday, union recognition)
- protect the consumer
- control large corporations
- conservation of natural resources - -Panama Canal, 1903-1914: big stick diplomacy
- -Elkins Act, 1903 and Hepburn Act, 1906: trust buster, forcing dissolution of Northwest railroad combination
- -Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905: ended the Russo-Japanese War; mediation role leads to Nobel Peace Prize for TR
- -Monroe Doctrine corollary: justifies US “international police power”; no foreign bases in the Caribbean; USA has sole right of intervention in Latin America
- -conservation: added 230 million acres of public lands
27
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27
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William H. Taft
Republican
1909-1913
- -Dollar Diplomacy: foreign policy that furthers American aims in Latin America and East Asia through economic power; guarantees loans made to foreign countries
- -continued high tariff rates
- -initiated 80 antitrust suits
- -was also chief justice of the Supreme Court, after his presidency
28
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28
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Woodrow Wilson
Democratic
1913-1921
- -Underwood Act: lower tariff and graduated Federal income tax
- -Federal Reserve Act: more elastic money supply
- -Federal Trade Commission, 1914: established by antitrust legislation
- -workers’ rights legislation, 1916: child labor prohibited, railroad workers limited to 8-hr day
- -WWI
- early neutrality
- RMS Lusitania, May 7 1915: German U-boat sinks British ocean liner
- Apr 2 1917: declaration of war on Germany
- Fourteen Points, 1918: American war aims, including establishing a general association of nations for mutual guarantees of political and territorial independence for all states
- Armistice, Nov 1918: Versailles Treaty, including the Covenant of the League of Nations - -Volstead Act (vetoed, overrode): beginning of Prohibition of manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages
29
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29
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Warren G. Harding
Republican
1921-1923
died in office
- -first president elected after women’s suffrage; won by a landslide
- -postwar policy: lower taxes, federal budget system established, high protective tariff, tight immigration limitations
- -Emergency Quota Act, 1921: immigration limited to 3% per year of number of current US residents from their country of origin (1910 census)
- -Teapot Dome Scandal, 1922-1923: secret leasing of exclusive drilling rights to federal oil reserves at Elk Hills, CA and Teapot Dome, WY by the secretary of the interior A.B. Fall (accepted a bribe while in office)
- -death, 1923: heart attack
30
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30
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Calvin Coolidge
Republican
1923-1929
- -only president born on July 4 (1872)
- -‘active inactivity’: simplifying government, reducing its interference in business
- -Indian Citizenship Act, 1924: full citizenship to all Native Americans
- -anti-KKK efforts
- -Air Commerce Act, 1926: establishes federal control over civil aviation (eg. air routes)
31
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31
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Herbert C. Hoover
Republican
1929-1933
- -Stock Market Crash, 1929
- -Great Depression response: keeps balanced budget, expands public works projects, increased tariffs, cuts taxes (except higher taxes on top income brackets)
- -Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 1931-1957: to aid business, help farmers, banking reform, loans to states for unemployment relief
- -believed caring for the poor must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility
32
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32
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Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic
1933-1945
died in office
- -only president elected to more than 2 terms
- -First 100 days, 1933: recovery program for business, agriculture, unemployed, foreclosure risks; reform
- -Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933: established to handle flooding, electricity generation, reforestation
- -New Deal, 1933-1935: nation taken off of the gold standard; budget deficits allowed; concessions to labor (unpopular with business and banking)
- -Second New Deal, 1935-1936: Social Security, higher taxes on the wealthy, controls on banks and public utilities, Works Progress Administration (work relief program) established
- -Judicial Procedures Reform Bill, 1937 (failed): court-packing attempt; but results in government legally able to regulate the economy
- -Good Neighbor foreign policy: unilateralism shifts to mutual action against aggressors
- -WWII
- early neutrality: supports threatened nations; sends GBR all possible non-military aid
- Pearl Harbor, Dec 7 1941: Japanese attack
- US declare war on Japan, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Rumania - -death, Apr 12 1945: cerebral hemorrhage
33
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33
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Harry S. Truman
Democratic
1945-1953
- -end of WWII
- UN charter signed, June 1945
- Atomic bombs, Aug 6-9 1945: Hiroshima and Nagasaki (cities devoted to war work)
- Marshall Plan, 1948: economic aid to stimulate postwar recovery in western Europe - -beginning of Cold War
- Truman Doctrine, 1947: Political, military, and economic aid pledged to countries struggling against Soviet geopolitical expansion (Cold War begins)
- Truman Doctrine, 1948: aid for Turkey and Greece (threatened by USSR pressure and guerrillas)
- Berlin airlift, 1949: resupply of West Berlin during Russian resupply siege
- NATO established, 1949: North Atlantic Treaty Organization for defense against Communism
–Fair Deal, 1949: 21-point program to expand social security, full-employment program, permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, public housing and slum clearance
- -Korean War begins, 1950
- response to North Korean Communist government attacking South Korea
- war kept limited (to avoid major conflict with China and Russia)
34
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34
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican
1953-1961
- -Korean War ends, 1953: Korean Armistice Agreement establishes an armed peace with a DMZ at 38° N
- -Russian relations shift, 1953: death of Stalin; peace treaty neutralizes Austria
- -Atoms for Peace program, 1953: loan of US uranium to “have not” nations for peaceful purposes
- -Geneva Summit, 1955: USA, FRA, GBR, USSR to ease tensions about hydrogen bomb facilities
- -interstate highway system established, 1956
- -end of segregation, 1957: school desegregation with Little Rock Nine supported by federal troops; complete military desegregation
- -NASA established, 1958
35
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35
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John F. Kennedy
Democratic
1961-1963
assassinated
- -first Catholic president, first president to win a Pulitzer Prize, participated in first televised presidential debates (good looks, charisma)
- -Foreign aid establishments, 1961: Alliance for Progress (Latin America) and Peace Corps
- -Vietnam, 1961: Kennedy sends advisors for South Vietnamese (eventually 16,000 personnel)
- -Bay of Pigs, 1961: armed and trained Cuban exiles invade Cuba to overthrow Castro; attempt fails
- -Berlin wall built, 1961: US garrison reinforced, USSR relaxes pressure in central Europe
- -Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962: USSR installs nuclear missiles in Cuba, discovered by US air reconnaissance; US block offensive weapon import to Cuba; Russians remove missiles; nuclear blackmail deemed futile
- -Test Ban Treaty, 1963: USA, GBR, USSR sign to prohibit nuclear weapon testing in atmosphere, space, or underwater
- -Civil Rights Movement champion
- -assassination, 1963: shot by LEE Harvey Oswald, in Dallas TX
36
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36
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Lyndon B. Johnson
Democratic
1963-1969
- -Civil Rights Act, 1964: outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; applies to voter registration, schools, employment, public accommodations, restaurants, restrooms, etc.
- -Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, 1964: authorizes Johnson’s military action in southeast Asia (start of the US troop involvement in Vietnam)
- -wins re-election with widest popular margin in US history
- -Voting Rights Act, 1965: prohibits racial discrimination in voting; amid rising unrest and rioting in black neighborhoods
- -Great Society program, 1965: education, Medicare, urban renewal, conservation, fight against poverty, crime prevention
- -Thurgood Marshall, 1967: nominated as first black Supreme Court justice
- -Moon orbit, 1968
- -Vietnam War ending
- bombing of North Viet Nam limited, 1968
- declines re-election, 1968: to focus on Vietnam peace process
37
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37
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Richard M. Nixon
Republican
1969-1974
resigned from office
- -Moon landing, 1969
- -Vietnam War
- Vietnamization, 1969-1973: removal of US troops but but giving financial support to the ARVN (South Vietnamese army)
- end of the draft, 1973
- Case-Church Amendment, 1973: end of US military involvement in Vietnam - -World stability, 1972-1974: improves relations with China, USSR; treaty with Brezhnev to limit strategic nuclear weapons; Kissinger negotiates disengagement agreements between Israel and its opponents Egypt and Syria
- -Environmental Protection Agency established
- -re-election landslide, 1972
- -Watergate scandal, 1973: break-in at the DNC offices during re-election campaign; Nixon denies personal involvement, but tape recordings indicate that he had tried to divert investigation into the affair
- -Spiro Agnew resigns, 1973: due to tax evasion charge in Maryland; House Minority Leader Gerald Ford nominated and confirmed as replacement VP
- -Nixon resigns, 1974: facing certain impeachment
38
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38
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Gerald R. Ford
Republican
1974-1977
- -only president never voted into office
- -grants Nixon a full pardon, 1974
- -nominates Nelson Rockefeller for VP and gradually selects his own cabinet
- -Whip Inflation Now (WIN), 1974: domestic policy to curb inflation; then shifts to stimulating the economy; vetoes many non-military appropriations bills
- -Fall of Saigon to NVA, 1975: Cambodia and South Viet Nam collapse
- -Middle East tensions: provides aid to both Israel and Egypt to prevent war
39
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39
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James Earl “Jimmy” Carter
Democratic
1977-1981
- -economic policy: combats inflation and unemployment; decreases budget deficit
- -established a national energy policy; decontrols domestic petroleum prices to stimulate production
- -deregulation of trucking and airline industries
- -expanded national park system (especially Alaska)
- -created the Department of Education
- -Camp David agreement of 1978: brought amity between Egypt and Israel
- -SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with USSR; Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
- -establishes full diplomatic relations with PRChina
- -US embassy staff hostages in Iran
- -post-office: wins Nobel Peace Prize, founds Habitat for Humanity
40
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40
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Ronald Reagan
Republican
1981-1989
- -assassination attempt, 1981: recovers from gunshot
- -domestic policy: stimulate growth, curb inflation, increase employment, strengthen national defense, cutting taxes and government expenditures; leads to a large deficit
- -Income tax code overhaul, 1986: eliminates many deductions; exemptions for low-income people
- -Cold War: escalating tensions with Communist nations, fears of nuclear war
- -“peace through strength”
- -USSR relations: Mikhail Gorbachev; negotiations to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear missiles; Glasnost (improved transparency); fall of the Berlin wall
- -war against terrorism: US bombers sent to ?Libya after attack on US soldiers in a West Berlin nightclub
- -Iran-Iraq war: orders naval escorts in the Persian Gulf to maintain free flow of oil
- -Reagan Doctrine: supports anti-Communist insurgencies in Central America, Asia, Africa
41
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41
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George H. W. Bush
Republican
1989-1993
- -end of the Cold War and dissolution of the Soviet Union
- -Panama: US troops sent to overthrow corrupt regime of General Manuel Noriega, who was threatening security of the Canal and Americans living there; Noriega exfiltrated to US for trial as a drug trafficker
- -first Gulf War: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait, threatens to move into Saudi Arabia; Bush rallies UN and US to send troops in Desert Storm land battle
- -Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990
- -Immigration Act of 1990: abolishes quota system based on national origin; new policy based on family reunification and attracting skilled labor
42
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42
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William J. Clinton
Democratic
1993-2001
- -Whitewater controversy: investigation into real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton in Whitewhater Development Corporation
- -Monica Lewinsky scandal: personal indiscretions with a White House intern; impeached by House of Representatives; tried in the Senate and found not guilty
- -peacekeeping forces to Bosnia
- -bombing of Iraq: response to Saddam Hussein stopping UN inspections for nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons
- -proponent for expanded NATO, more open international trade, worldwide campaign against drug trafficking
43
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43
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George W. Bush
Republican
2001-2009
- -election controversy: Florida votes go to the Supreme Court
- -9/11 attacks
- -formation of the Department of Homeland Security
- -forces deployed to Afghanistan to combat the Taliban, a movement under Osama bin Laden that trained, financed, and exported terrorist teams
- -reform of intelligence gathering and analysis services and military forces
- -tax cuts
- -invasion of Iraq: based on the belief that Saddam Hussein posed a grave threat; Hussein captured, but killing of US servicemen and friendlies by insurgents was troublesome
44
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44
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Barack H. Obama
Democratic
2009-2017
- -first African-American president
- -economic crisis
- -fight against terrorism
- -death of Osama bin Laden
45
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45
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Donald J. Trump
Republican
2017-present
- -reformed tax code
- -immigration and border dispute
