Richard Nixon (1913–1994) During his presidency, Nixon brought an end to the whom he had two children.
d to the whom he had two children. When his acting career
The career of Richard Nixon (shown on left in picture)
was full of dizzying highs and humbling lows. He rose
to power at an unusually young age, elected as a
congressman at 33 and as the Vice President at 39.
However, when he lost the presidential election to
John F. Kennedy in 1960 and the race for governor of
California in 1962, it seemed that his political career
was over. After that California loss, he told reporters,
“You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”
Yet he rose again only six years later, ending what he
called his “wilderness years” with a successful run for
President. He began his first term during the height of
the Vietnam War in 1969. He ended his second term
prematurely in 1974 when he resigned to avoid
impeachment.
Nixon’s ability to resurrect his career and the
combativeness for which he was known can be traced
to his childhood in California. He was born on his
parents’ ranch, and his boyhood was scarred by
financial problems and the deaths of two brothers.
However, Nixon’s intelligence provided a way out of
hardship. He excelled in college and won a scholarship
to law school.
Nixon became a divisive figure in American politics in
the 1950s. During the height of the Cold War with the
Soviet Union, he was among a group of politicians
trying to find and identify communists in government
and American society. Many people considered his
efforts shameful and un-American, while supporters
applauded what they saw as his patriotism.
Nixon’s career was simultaneous with the growing
influence of television. In 1952, when he was accused
of taking illegal gifts, his “Checkers Speech” in defense
of his actions was the most-watched television event
to that time. When he ran for President in 1960, his
debates with Kennedy were the first-ever televised,
and were considered an important factor in
Kennedy’s narrow victory.
Vietnam War. He oversaw important environmental
regulations, including the Endangered Species Act. He
also made diplomatic progress with China and Russia.
Nixon’s visit to China was the first high-level contact
between the two nations in more than 20 years. His
visit to the Soviet Union led to reduced tensions and a
major arms-control treaty. However, Nixon’s
achievements always will be shadowed by his near
impeachment and the fact that he has been the only
President to resign.
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004)
Ronald Reagan was the fortieth U.S. President. When
he took office in 1981, he hoped to restore “the great,
confident roar of American progress and growth and
optimism.” When he left office after two terms, many
believed that he had fulfilled that promise.
Reagan was born in the town of Tampico, Illinois. His
father was an unsuccessful shoe salesman. The family
moved several times during Reagan’s childhood,
ending up in Dixon, Illinois, where he attended high
school. Reagan went on to Eureka College, where he
played football and joined the drama society. A
popular student, he was elected class president in his
senior year. To help pay his way, he worked as a
dishwasher.
After college, Reagan became a radio sportscaster. In
1937, he took a screen test and was soon acting in
movies. One of his most famous roles was as the real-
life football hero George “the Gipper” Gipp, in Knute
Rockne, All American. For the rest of his life Reagan
was also known as “the Gipper.” In 1940, Reagan
married actress Jane Wyman; they had two children.
The marriage ended in divorce.
During World War II, Reagan was assigned to make
training films for the army. After the war, he served as
president of the Screen Actors Guild. He fought
against communism in the film industry, and his
political views began to move from liberal to
conservative. In 1952, he married Nancy Davis, with
declined, Reagan became a television host. People
liked him for his appealing, folksy style.
In 1966, Reagan was elected governor of California by
almost one million votes. In 1980, Americans voted
him into office as their President by a landslide. Upon
taking office, he urged the country to “begin an era of
national renewal.”
As President, Reagan supported supply-side
economics, which included measures such as tax cuts
to stimulate the economy. He also pushed for large
increases in the defense budget, an overhaul of the
income tax code, and a reduction of social welfare
programs. He was known as the Great Communicator
and often went on television to urge people to
approve his legislative agenda. In international affairs,
Reagan opposed communism and negotiated an arms
control agreement with the Soviet Union. His policies
contributed to the erosion of Soviet power and he,
along with Margaret Thatcher of Britain and Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev, played a key role in
bringing an end to the Cold War. His motto was
“peace through strength.”
When his second term was up, Reagan retired to his
home in Los Angeles. In 1994, he announced he had
Alzheimer’s disease. Reagan died in 2004.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945)
In 1933, the United States was deep in the Great
Depression. However, an optimistic new President
had been elected. At his inauguration, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt declared, “[T]he only thing we
have to fear is fear itself.” With these words, he
immediately began to improve the mood of a nation.
Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York, in 1882.
He attended Harvard University and Columbia School
of Law. In 1905, he married Eleanor Roosevelt, a
distant cousin, and they had six children. Roosevelt
became a lawyer, but he quickly realized that a career
in law was not for him. Like his cousin, President
Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt was drawn to
politics.
Roosevelt’s political career began with his election to
the New York Senate in 1910. He quickly rose to
prominence. President Woodrow Wilson appointed
him assistant secretary of the navy. By 1920,
Roosevelt was the Democratic nominee for vice
president.
However, in 1921, Roosevelt’s life changed forever
when he was struck with polio. This disease left him
unable to walk. He fought to regain use of his legs,
but never fully recovered. Despite this setback,
Roosevelt was elected governor of New York in 1928.
In 1932, he was elected U.S. President. He would be
elected President a total of four times—the only
person to serve more than two terms.
When Roosevelt took office, the country was in the
midst of the Great Depression. He brought hope for
the future with promises of swift action. His New Deal
programs aimed to put Americans back to work. He
also oversaw programs that provided safety nets for
jobless people or those who were too old to work,
such as Social Security. Not everyone agreed that
government should interfere in the economy—even if
it meant helping its citizens. However, from that time
on, the government has had a major role in the
economy.
Then, in 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii. This drew the United States into World War II.
Roosevelt rallied the country and was a positive and
forceful leader. Factories shifted toward supporting
the war effort, the unemployment rate began to fall,
and the country was finally pulled out of the Great
Depression. Roosevelt’s genius at appointing the right
people to various war-time commands and positions
contributed greatly to the Allied success.
The hard work of his first three terms had worn
Roosevelt down, and as a result, his health
deteriorated quickly in his fourth term. In 1945,
shortly before the Allied victory in Europe, Roosevelt
died in Warm Springs, Georgia.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)
One of the most colorful and popular presidents,
Theodore Roosevelt was born to a wealthy New York
City family. Growing up, he was fond of books and
sports. He went to college at Harvard University and
studied in Germany.
In 1882, Roosevelt was elected to the New York State
Assembly. However, in 1884, after the deaths of his
wife and mother, Roosevelt took a break from politics
and went to explore the West. By 1886, however, he
had returned to New York and to politics.
Roosevelt went on to hold several important
government positions. He was commissioner of the
New York City Police Department and assistant
secretary of the U.S. Navy. He was a lieutenant
colonel during the Spanish-American War and
became famous as the leader of his volunteer cavalry
unit known as the Rough Riders.
In 1898, Roosevelt became governor of New York.
Shortly thereafter, in 1900, the Republican nominee
for President, William McKinley, chose him as his vice-
presidential running mate. When McKinley was
assassinated soon after the election, Roosevelt
became President at age 42—the youngest person
ever to hold that office. In 1904, he was elected to a
full term.
Roosevelt promised to follow the Constitution. Still,
he found ways to expand executive power. He
believed it was his duty to use the presidency—what
he called “the bully pulpit”—to make reforms. For
example, he became a “trust buster,” fighting against
huge monopolies of the time such as Standard Oil.
With Congress, he worked to help consumers, too.
During his administration, new federal standards for
food and drug safety were established.
One of Roosevelt’s most significant contributions was
to conservation. He established 150 national forests,
5 national parks, many national monuments, and
wildlife and game preserves. He also appointed the
first head of the U.S. Forestry Service.
Roosevelt’s approach to international affairs was
“speak softly and carry a big stick.” He believed in
using force, if necessary. However, he negotiated
peace between Russia and Japan, for which he
received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906. Most of the
Panama Canal was built during his administration.
In 1909, after his presidency ended, Roosevelt went
to Africa on safari. He ran for President again in 1912,
but lost. In 1913 and 1914, he led an expedition to
South America and wrote a book about the
experience. However, an injury during the trip, along
with the malaria he had had since his time in Cuba,
led to a decline in his health. He suffered another
blow in 1918 when his son Quentin was killed in
World War I. Roosevelt died about six months later.
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
Woodrow Wilson was the first U.S. President since
Andrew Jackson to have a foreign-born parent.
Wilson’s mother Janet Woodrow was born in England,
the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. Her husband
Joseph Wilson was also a Presbyterian minister, and
the church played a large role in their son’s
upbringing. As a child, the boy was called “Tommy,”
his full name being Thomas Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson’s father had been a chaplain in the
Confederate Army during the Civil War. After the war,
his church in Virginia was turned into a hospital for
veterans. Being in this environment as a boy had a
deep impact on Wilson. He saw firsthand the horrors
that war had inflicted.
It is likely that Wilson had dyslexia as a child, and he
did not learn to read until he was ten years old.
However, he developed a keen interest in literature,
history, and politics, and he became the only
President to hold a Ph.D.
Wilson’s first term as President, from 1913 to 1917,
was known for several important pieces of legislation.
They included a federal income tax and a ban on child
labor. During this time, World War I had begun in
Europe. Whether the United States should enter the
war on behalf of Britain and France was a major topic
of debate. Along with his legislative accomplishments,
Wilson won his second term based on the slogan “he
kept us out of war.”
However, shortly after starting his second term,
Wilson decided America could remain neutral no
longer. On April 2, 1917, he asked Congress to declare
war on Germany. Wilson appointed General John J.
Pershing to lead a massive buildup of U.S. forces. In
January 1918, Wilson went before Congress to specify
his Fourteen Points, America’s goals in the war it was
entering. The last of them called for a “general
association of nations” to protect the independence
and territories of “great and small states alike.”
The addition of two million American troops turned
the tide of the war, and Germany surrendered in
November 1918. After the war, Wilson spent seven
months in Paris negotiating the Treaty of Versailles.
The negotiations were acrimonious, and Wilson did
not get everything he wanted. However, his beloved
idea from the last of his Fourteen Points became the
League of Nations, the forerunner of today’s United
Nations.
George Washington (1732–1799)
“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of
his countrymen.” These words describe American
hero George Washington. Washington was born to a
wealthy landowning family in Virginia in 1732. His
father died when he was 11. Five years later,
Washington began working as a surveyor. In 1752, he
took charge of the family estate, Mount Vernon. It
remained his home for the rest of his life.
During the French and Indian War, Washington was
an officer in the Virginia colonial militia. He took part
in several battles and had some close calls. By 1755,
he was commander of all Virginia’s troops.
After the war, Washington returned to Mount Vernon
and married widow Martha Custis. He worked hard,
farming her property and Mount Vernon. Over time,
he became unhappy with British rule. As an American,
he had not been treated the same way as British
officers in the French and Indian War. He disliked
paying high taxes on goods imported from Britain and
British limits on settlement in the West. As early as
1768, he wrote that he was ready to take up arms for
his country—and he did not mean Britain.
He soon got his chance. In 1775, the Continental
Congress elected him commander-in-chief of the
Continental Army. Washington handled this tough job
with grace. His troops were poorly paid and often did
not have enough food or clothing. Washington had to
beg the Continental Congress for more money and
food for the troops. Although the army suffered some
defeats, Washington’s strategy and surprise attacks
proved effective, and the Americans were victorious.
In 1787, Washington was chosen as a Virginia
delegate to the Constitutional Convention. The
convention unanimously elected him to be its
president. After the document was completed, he
worked quietly but skillfully to convince Americans to
accept the new Constitution.
When the first U.S. presidential election was held in
1789, Washington was unanimously elected.
Washington knew that others would follow the
precedents he set, so he was thoughtful about his
policies and behavior. He did not want the
government to split into parties. He insisted that the
United States remain neutral in the war between
Britain and France. He wanted the office to be highly
respected, but he took care not behave in any way
like a monarch.
After two terms, Washington retired to Mount
Vernon. He died there in 1799. In his will, he made
provisions to eventually free the enslaved African
Americans he had held. Americans remembered their
founding hero in their new capital city, 32 counties,
and a state—all named Washington in his honor.
John Adams (1735–1826)
Few Americans contributed more to our nation’s birth
than John Adams. As patriot, leader, and thinker, the
first Vice President, and the second President, Adams
played a major role in launching the new United
States.
Adams’s father wanted his son to be a minister.
However, after graduating from Harvard College in
1755, Adams became a lawyer. In 1761, he started
working with James Otis, a Boston lawyer who led the
legal fight against British search warrants called writs
of assistance. Through Otis and Sons of Liberty leader
Samuel Adams, who was John’s cousin, he joined the
patriot cause. However, Adams’s defense of British
soldiers charged in the Boston Massacre in 1770
showed that he was fair and believed in the rule of
law.
In 1774, Adams represented Massachusetts at the
First Continental Congress. When the Second
Continental Congress formed the Continental Army in
1775, Adams suggested that George Washington lead
it. The next year, Congress chose Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and others to draft the
Declaration of Independence.
In 1778, Congress sent Adams to France to help
Franklin gain aid for the American cause. In 1783,
Adams, Franklin, and John Jay negotiated the Treaty
of Paris. That agreement ended the Revolution and
established American independence.
Adams stayed in Europe until 1788, getting loans and
making trade agreements for the new nation. He
returned to the United States, hoping for a role in the
new government. With Washington the popular
choice for President, Adams settled for the vice
presidency.
In 1796, Adams won the presidential election.
Jefferson, Adams’s opponent, was elected Vice
President. The two soon split over domestic and
foreign policy issues. For a time, their friendship was
broken. Then in 1800, Jefferson defeated Adams in his
bid for a second term.
Now age 65, Adams was a very old man by the
standards of the time. He did not think he would have
a long retirement back home in Massachusetts.
However, he lived 25 more years—long enough to
renew his friendship with Jefferson. He also lived to
see his son, John Quincy Adams, become President.
Friends again, Adams and Jefferson famously both
died on July 4, 1826—the 50th anniversary of the
signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
When people speak of the founders of the United
States, no one is more deserving of the term than
Thomas Jefferson. His list of accomplishments is
almost hard to believe. Among them, he was the
primary writer of the Declaration of Independence,
the third President, a secretary of state, and the
founder of the University of Virginia.
Amazingly, Jefferson was considered a poor public
speaker. However, the brilliance of his writing was
undeniable. His words in the Declaration not only
inspired the American colonists to unite in rebellion
against Britain, they have been touchstones for
people yearning for freedom worldwide for more
than two centuries.
Jefferson’s father was a successful planter, and his
mother came from one of Virginia’s wealthiest
families. When Jefferson was a child, his father
recognized the boy’s abilities and went to great
lengths to encourage his son’s education. Even as he
was dying in 1757, Jefferson’s father left orders that
young Thomas continue his schooling.
With his wife Mary, Jefferson had six children. Sadly,
however, only two survived to adulthood, and when
Mary herself passed away, Jefferson never married
again.
In 1800, when Jefferson was elected as the third U.S.
President, it was a historic example of democracy in
action. This was the first peaceful turnover of power
from one political party to another since the nation’s
birth. Many had feared that it wasn’t possible.
During his first term, Jefferson had a major impact on
the boundaries of the United States. He spearheaded
the Louisiana Purchase, which the United States
bought from France. The territory added 827,000
square miles west of the Mississippi River to the
young nation.
Even after his second term as President, Jefferson’s
contribution to the nation’s growth continued. He
sold a large collection of his books to the government
to start the Library of Congress, and in 1819, founded
the University of Virginia.
Despite having written in the Declaration of
Independence that “all men are created equal,” like
many wealthy southern men of his time, Jefferson
held hundreds of enslaved people at his home,
Monticello. Although his legacy is mixed, it is safe to
say that few people in American history have
influenced the nation and the world as much as
Thomas Jefferson did.
James Madison (1751–1836)
The fourth President of the United States, James
Madison is sometimes called the Father of the
Constitution. Madison was born and grew up in
Virginia, the oldest son of a prosperous landowner.
Madison went to college in New Jersey, at what
became Princeton University, and finished his studies
in two years.
After college, Madison became involved in politics. In
1776, he joined the Virginia Convention. He and
Thomas Jefferson worked to ensure that the state’s
constitution included freedom of religion. In 1780,
Madison joined the Continental Congress. There, he
worked hard to convince others that the new country
would need a strong central government.
When he took part in the Constitutional Convention in
1787, delegates used his Virginia Plan as a starting
point for the Constitution. It called for an executive, a
legislative, and a judicial branch that would provide a
balanced government. To persuade Americans to
ratify the new Constitution, Madison, John Jay, and
Alexander Hamilton wrote The Federalist Papers. In
his essays, Madison argued that there should be
checks and balances in the government so that no
one person or group would have too much power.
In 1789, Virginia voters elected Madison to the House
of Representatives. There, he introduced the Bill of
Rights—the first ten amendments to the Constitution.
These protect individual rights, such as freedom of
religion and freedom of speech. During his years in
Congress, Madison broke with President George
Washington and Alexander Hamilton. He thought that
Hamilton’s economic ideas favored northern
merchants. Madison and Thomas Jefferson started
the Democratic-Republican Party, while Hamilton and
Vice President John Adams started the Federalist
Party.
In 1794, Madison married Dolley Payne Todd, a lively
and popular woman, who sometimes served as a
hostess for Jefferson at the White House. Later, she
became a beloved First Lady.
When Jefferson was elected President in 1801,
Madison became his secretary of state. In 1808,
Madison was elected President. At that time, Great
Britain was interfering with U.S. ships at sea and
backing American Indians’ attacks on settlers in the
Northwest Territory. At Madison’s urging, Congress
voted to begin what would become known as the War
of 1812. In 1814, when the British attacked
Washington, D.C., Madison and his wife had to flee
the city.
James and Dolley Madison moved back to Virginia
after his presidency, where he ran his plantation.
Madison also served as head of the University of
Virginia in 1826. He died at home in 1836.
Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804)
Alexander Hamilton was a man of intelligence and
vision. These qualities made him one of the most
influential of America’s founders. However, he also
had a temper and sometimes behaved rashly. These
qualities brought him trouble and made him enemies.
Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis in the British
West Indies in 1757. His mother died when he was
still a boy. In 1773, he came to New York to make his
fortune.
Hamilton was ambitious and befriended powerful
people. As the American Revolution began, those
friends helped him get a commission as captain in the
colonial army. At the Battle of Trenton, his brave
actions stopped a British attack. George Washington
was impressed. He asked young Hamilton to be his
aide, and they formed a close friendship. Hamilton
became one of Washington’s most trusted advisors.
James Madison, and John Jay wrote The
FederalistPapers, a series of essays defending the
Constitution and explaining to Americans how the
new government would work. Hamilton’s arguments
about the importance of a strong central, or federal,
government were logical and persuasive. They led,
eventually, to the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
When Washington became President, he made
Hamilton his secretary of the treasury. Hamilton’s
beliefs were not popular with everyone. He and the
secretary of state, Thomas Jefferson, disagreed about
the nation’s dealings with foreign countries. Hamilton
argued for close ties with England, while Jefferson
wanted friendship with France.
Hamilton officially left government service in 1795.
However, he continued to influence and advise
government leaders. This led to ill feelings between
him and John Adams once Adams became the second
President. Hamilton made other enemies, too, among
them politician Aaron Burr. The two men had long
been political rivals.
In 1804, the long-standing feud with Burr came to a
head. Burr challenged Hamilton to a pistol duel.
Hamilton was against dueling, but felt he had to fight
Burr as a matter of honor. They faced each other on
the morning of July 11 in Weehawken, New Jersey.
Burr’s aim was good, and Hamilton was fatally shot.
He died the next day.

After winning independence, the new nation

struggled under the Articles of Confederation, which
had created a weak central government. Hamilton
believed in a strong central government. He believed
that the Articles of Confederation were holding the
country back. He became a driving force behind the
Constitutional Convention.

After the Constitution was written, many people

opposed it. During the national debate over ratifying
it, Hamilton worked very hard to get it accepted. He,