Category US Presidents

In 1876, the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for the president. He won through the Compromise of 1877, an agreement that officially ended the ‘Reconstruction’ by leaving the South to govern itself.

Hayes was accused of fraud during the election of 1876 against his opponent Samuel Tilden. At first it looked like Hayes had lost. He had fewer electoral votes than Tilden. However, several electoral votes were in dispute. Congress had to decide who these votes would go to. They picked Hayes. The Democrats from the southern states were not happy with this. They said Hayes and the Republicans had cheated. In order to work out a compromise, Hayes and the Republicans agreed that federal troops would be removed from the South. In return, the South agreed to accept Hayes as president. This signalled the end of the Reconstruction.

Hayes wanted to restore the trust of citizens in the government that was lost during the term of President Grant. During his tenure, Hayes implemented modest civil-service reforms. It was Hayes who vetoed the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 which sought to put silver money into circulation. Hayes insisted that the maintenance of the gold standard was essential to economic recovery. He also advocated equal education of African-American children.

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James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States was also shot dead, just like Abraham Lincoln. Garfield was elected as the president in 1881. He was an impactful leader and a worthy successor to Abraham Lincoln. But he did not rule America for more than 200 days.

James Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831. His father died when he was two. He was raised by his single mother and had a tough childhood. He drove canal boats to earn money for education.

James Garfield joined politics after graduating from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1856. Later, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield repeatedly won re-election for 18 years, and became the leading Republican in the House before becoming the president.

During his tenure, Garfield wanted to make the U.S. economy stronger. He wanted to put an end to the spoils system. According to the spoils system, the members of the winning political party could get government jobs even if they weren’t qualified. Garfield was against this practice.

It was Charles J. Guiteau, an embittered attorney who shot the president on July 2, 1881, in a Washington railroad station. Garfield’s condition was fatal and after suffering much pain, he died from an infection and internal haemorrhage on 19 September, 1881, just six months after taking office.

Chester A. Arthur emigrated from Northern Ireland to the U.S. with his father. During his youth, Arthur taught in a school to pay for college. During the Civil War he was in charge of supplies and food for Union soldiers from New York. After the war, he worked as a lawyer and helped many African Americans get fair treatment which made him popular.

Chester A. Arthur became the president of the country all of a sudden, after President Garfield was brutally assassinated. He took the presidential oath on 19 September 1881 and was sworn in as the 21st President of America. At first many people believed that he was unworthy of the office due to his lack of experience in shaping public policy. But he proved them wrong. Want to know what happened during his tenure?

The Arthur Administration enacted the first general Federal immigration law. Arthur approved a measure, in 1882 excluding paupers, criminals, and lunatics from entering the country. He also surprised people by doing something that no one expected. He worked to do away with the spoils system. Before becoming the president, he had supported the spoils system that we talked about in the previous pages. It was also during his final year as president that the United States acquired a naval station at Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands. Pearl Harbour, as we all know holds a significant place in world history.

Arthur surely won a place in the hearts of his people. Mark Twain wrote of him, ‘It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur’s administration.’ In the Republican convention of 1884, his name was proposed again for the presidential nomination despite the fact that he was suffering from a fatal ailment of the kidneys.

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Abraham Lincoln needs no introduction; he is perhaps the most famous American president. He became the 16th president of the United States in 1861. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared the slaves within the Confederacy free forever.

America was torn apart when Lincoln took office. But he made sure that the country was reunited by the end of his term. He was elected as the president in 1860. Seven states had left the U.S. and had formed the Confederate States of America by the time he took office in 1861. Four more states- Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee- joined the Confederacy soon after. Lincoln said he would fight to save the Union and he did live up to his word.

The rift began when rebels fired on Port Sumter, a U.S. military base. The civil war lasted for almost four years. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. After a long and tragic civil war, Robert E. Lee the Confederate general, surrendered to U. S. General Ulysses S. Grant in 1865.

Lincoln played an influential role in building the Republican Party into a strong national organization. He also successfully brought in many Democrats to the cause of the Union.

Abraham Lincoln was born into a poor Kentucky family. His childhood was tough; he did not receive any formal education. But he taught himself to read and write. His hard work did not go in vain. As a young man, Lincoln became a successful lawyer and was elected to the Illinois state legislature and then to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lincoln was shot on 14th April, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, a staunch advocate of slavery. He died the following day.

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James Buchanan’s term as the president was marked by conflict between the Northern states and the Southern states.

Northerners wanted to stop slavery from spreading to new parts of the country, while some others known as abolitionists wanted to end slavery forever. Southerners were of the opinion that the new states and territories should be able to choose whether to allow slavery or not.

Buchanan’s term began when a historic case was filed by Dred Scott. Scott was an enslaved African-American man who sought freedom for himself, his wife, and two daughters. However, the court ruled that enslaved people were property and not citizens. The court said that slaves remained slaves anywhere.

Buchanan’s endorsement of the court’s decision created uproar amongst the Northerners. He also joined with Southern leaders in attempting to admit Kansas to the Union as a slave state. He thereby angered not only the Republicans but also many Northern Democrats. This became a very serious issue and the problem continued till the end of his tenure. Buchanan was succeeded by Abraham Lincoln.

Buchanan never married and remains the only bachelor president of the United States.

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In 1852, the members of the Democratic Party could not come to a common consensus regarding the presidential candidate and in the end, they chose Pierce. Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States.

His tenure was marked with personal tragedies unmatched by any other American president.

Pierce was born in New Hampshire in 1804. He entered politics after completing his law degree. At the age of 24, he was elected to the New Hampshire legislature. He went on to become the Speaker in two years.

Pierce was relatively young when he was elected as the president. But this did not assure him much cheer. A few weeks before his inauguration, eleven-year old Bennie, his only surviving child, died in a railroad accident. His wife Jane Pierce never fully recovered from the shock of this tragic episode. She had never approved his candidacy either. Pierce began his term as a sad and tired man.

Pierce signed into law the Kansas-Nebraska Act; the Act said that settlers in Kansas and Nebraska could choose whether or not to allow slavery. This Act undid the antislavery part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Democratic Party didn’t support his re-election at the end of his tenure.

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