The Presidents

Photos, Time served in office, Political Party, Vice president, Accomplishments

Jennifer Westwood

George Washington (1789-1797)• Vice President: John Adams• Joined states together and

helped establish federal government

• Kept the United States Neutral in the French Revolution in 1793

• Voluntarily resigned• Not part of a political party,

there were no parties in 1789 and they first emerged during his presidency

John Adams (1797-1801)• Vice President: Thomas Jefferson• First Vice President• Established many of the basic

ideas and principles that made up constitution.

• Handled the naval conflict, Quasi-War

• He also secured peace with the French and protection for American Merchants while also earning credit for the young nations ability to stand up to European power

• Member of the federalist party

Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)• Vice President: Aaron Burr • Member of the Democratic-

Republican Party• Wrote the first draft of the

declaration of Independence• Responsible for Louisiana

Purchase expanding the US dramatically

• Created Embargo Act• Co-founder of the

democratic Republican party

James Madison (1809-1817)• Vice President: George

Clinton (1809-1812), no one (1812-18130, Eldbridge Gerry (1813-1814), No one (1814-1817)

• Member of Democratic- Republican party

• Helped in writing the Federalist papers

• Helped frame the Bill of Rights and enact first revenue legislation

James Monroe (1817-1825)

• Vice President: Daniel D. Tompkins

• Political Party: Democratic- Republican Party

• Contended with First Seminole War

• Missouri Compromise (1820) and Monroe Doctrine (1823)

John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)• Vice President: John C.

Calhoun • Member of the Democratic

Party• Negotiated the Adams- Onis

Treaty • Supported internal

improvements including the extension of the Cumberland Road

• One of his goals was to protect domestic manufacturing

Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)

• Vice President: John C. Calhoun (1829-1832), No one (1832-1833), Martin Van Buren (1833-1837)

• Member of the Democratic Party

• Defined presidency through the nullification crisis and the “Bank War”

Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)• Vice President: Richard M.

Johnson• Member of the Democratic

Party• Advocated lower tariffs and

free trade• Set up a system of bonds

for the national debt • Reversed Andrew Jackson’s

policies and sought peace at home

William Henry Harrison (1841)

• Vice President: John Tyler• Member of the Whig

Political Party. • First president to have

been photographed • First to not have been

appointed any federal judge

• Died a month after taking office of pneumonia

John Tyler (1841-1845)• Vice President: none• Member of the Whig

Political Party• Tyler’s cabinet resigned

after he vetoed banking bills supported by the whigs

• Far East opened to US traders after a treaty with China signed

• Texas annexed followed by war with Mexico

James K. Polk (1845-1849)• Vice President: George M.

Dallas • Member of the Democratic

Party• Responsible for the

reestablishment of the Independent Treasury System

• Also, responsible for the reduction of tariffs

• Acquisition of some or all of the Oregon Country

• Acquisition of California and New Mexico from Mexico

Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)• Vice President: Millard Fillmore• Member of the Whig Political

Party• He opposed slavery and tried

to settle slave states, but he died

• Used federal troops to prevent the slave state of Texas from expanding into New Mexican territory

• Deciding against colonizing Central America

Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)

• Vice President: None• Member of the Whig

Political Party• Signed the Compromise

of 1850• Fugitive slave act• Nicknamed The

American Louise Philippe, Last of the Whigs

Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)• Vice President: William

King (1853), none (1853-1857)

• Member of the Democratic Party

• Signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854

• Purchased the area now comprising Southern Arizona and part of Southern New Mexico

James Buchanan (1857-1861)• Vice President: John C.

Brekenridge• Member of the Democratic

Political Party• Fought for Kansas to be

admitted as a slave state, but lost that battle

• Failed in passing the Lecompten Constitution

• Buchanan sent army to replace Young as Governor with the non-Mormon in Utah Territory

Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)• Vice President: Hannibal Hamlin

(1861-1865), Andrew Johnson (1865)• Member of the Illinois Republican

Party• Commander in chief during Civil War• Foreign policies were successful in

preventing other countries from intervening in the Civil War

• Issued the Emancipation Proclamation

• Signed the Homestead Act, the Morrill Act, the National Banking Act, and a bill that chartered the first transcontinental railroad

Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)• Vice President: none• Involved in the

Democratic; Unionist parties

• Signed the Civil Rights Bill• Created new federal civil

rights• Responsible for the

purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867

Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)• Vice President, Schuyler Colfax, Henry

Wilson, none (75-77)• Member of the Republican Party• Signed bills that promoted Black

Voting Rights• Signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875• Passed the Inflation Bill on April 14,

1874 • Signed the Treaty of Washington for

settling the Alabama claims dispute between Britian and the United States by International Arbitration

• Include the enforcement of Civil Rights for African Americans in the Reconstruction states

Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)• Vice President: William

Wheeler • Member of the

Republican political party• Signed Domestic Act• Signed Bill Requirement

for Black Rights• Passed Bill allowed female

attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court

James A. Garfield (1881)• Vice President: Chester

Arthur• Member of the Republican

Political party• He attempted to

reestablish the Independence of the presidency

• Started the work of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act

Chester Arthur (1881-1885)• Vice President: none• Member of the Republican

Party• Signed the Pendleton Civil

Service Act which provided for a “classified system” which allowed certain government positions to be obtained only through written examinations

• Passed the Tariff Act, lowering tariff prices

• Passed the first federal immigration law

Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)• Vice President: Thomas Hendricks

(1885), none• Member of the Democratic Political

Party• Signed an Act creating the Interstate

Commerce Commission• Passed a Bill in 1886 that would

require the government to coin unlimited amounts of silver, inflating the then-deflating currency.

• Angered railroad investors by ordering an investigation of western lands they held by government grant

Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)• Vice President: Levi P. Morton • Member of the Republican

Political Party• Passed the Sherman Antitrust

Act• Passed the Dependent and

Disability Pensions Act• Passed Sherman Silver

Purchase Act• Removed tariff from imported

raw sugar, and sugar growers in the United States

Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)

• Vice President: Adlai E. Stevenson

• Member of the Democratic Political party

• (same as before)

William McKinley (1897-1901)• Vice President: Garret

Hobart (1897-1899), none(1899-1901), Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)

• Member of the Republican Political Party

• Signed annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the USA

• Gold Standard Act where by the US was officially placed on the gold standard

Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)• Vice President: None (1901-

1905), Charles Fairbanks (1905-1909)

• Member of the Republican Political Party

• First president to leave the country during his term in order to see the building of the Panama Canal

• Won the Nobel Peace Prize- negotiated peace treaty that ended the Russo- Japanese War- 1905

William Howard Taft (1909-1913)• Vice President: James

Sherman (1909-1912), none (1912-1913)

• Member of the Republican Political Party

• Passage of the sixteenth amendment

• Improved the performance of the postal sercive

• Strengthened the Interstate Commerce Commission

Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)• Vice President: Thomas R.

Marshall (1912-1921)• Member of the Democratic

Political Party• Implemented Federal Reserve Act• Limited RR workers to an 8 hour

day• Successfully led US to victory in

WWI• Announced the 14 points as

guiding principle after war and allies adopted the “Treaty of Versasilles”

Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)• Vice President: Calvin

Coolidge • Member of the Republican

Political Party• Signed a series of bills and

amendments passed by congress into law that regulated the farm industry

• Supported anti-lynching movement

Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)• Vice President: None, Charles Dawes

(1925-1929)• Member of the Republican Political

party• Responsible for the rapid economic

growth known as the “Roaring Twenties”

• Signed the Radio Act of 1927, which assigned regulation of Radio to the newly created Federal Radio Commission

• Signed Indian Citizenship Act granting full US citizenship to all American Indians, while permitting them to retain tribal land and cultural rights

Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)• Vice President: Charles Curtis• Member of the Republican

Political Party• Helped push Tariff and Farm

subsidy bills through congress• He expanded Civil Service

Coverage of Federal Positions, canceled Private Oil Leases on Government Lands, and By instructing the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service to pursue Gangsters for Tax Evasion

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)• Vice president: John Nance Garner,

Henry A. Wallace, Harry S. Truman• Member of the Democratic political

party• The Securities and Exchange

Commission was created to regulate Wall Street.

• Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which built dams and power stations, controlled floods, and modernized agriculture and home conditions in the poverty-stricken Tennessee Valley.

• The Social Security Act, established Social Security and promised Economic Security for the Elderly, the Poor and the Sick.

Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)• Vice President: none (1945-1949), Alben

Barkley• Member of the Democratic Political Party • Truman strongly supported the creation

of the UnitedNations

• Truman was a key figure in the establishment of the Jewish state in the Palestine Mandate.

• Throughout his presidency, Truman had to deal with accusations that the federal government was harboring Soviet spies at the highest level.

• Strong supporter of the creation of NATO

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)• Vice President: Richard Nixon • Member of the Republican

Political Party• Successful in having kept America

at peace even while confronted with Cold War crises.

• He ended the Korean War• Balanced the budget three

separate times• Sponsored and signed the

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956• Sponsored and signed the Civil

Rights Bill of 1957

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)• Vice President: Lyndon B. Johnson • Member of the Democratic Political

Party• Became first catholic POTUS• Established the Peace Corps• Responsible for helping divert a

nuclear war with the soviet union and secured removal of missiles from Cuba

• John F. Kennedy issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination in the sale or lease of housing that was financed by federally guaranteed loans or owned by the federal government.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)• Vice President: none, Hubert Humphrey

(1965-1969)• Member of the Democratic Political Party• In conjunction with the civil rights

movement, Johnson overcame southern resistance and convinced Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Johnson signed the Immigration Act of 1965, which substantially changed U.S. immigration policy toward non-Europeans

• Johnson increasingly focused on the American military effort in Vietnam.

• During Johnson's administration, the first human spaceflight to the Moon, Apollo 8, was successfully flown by NASA in December 1968

Richard Nixon (1969-1974) • Vice Presidents: Spiro Agnew, none,

Gerald Ford• Member of the Republican Political

party• President Nixon traveled to China

to try and encourage peace and more contact between the two nations

• Nixon approved the development of NASA's Space Shuttle program

• He established the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1972

• Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973

Gerald Ford (1974-1977)• Vice Presidents: none, Gerald Ford

(1973-1974)• Member of the Republican Political

party• Ford issued Proclamation 4311,

which gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes he may have committed against the United States while President

• Introduced a conditional amnesty program for Vietnam War draft dodgers who had fled to countries such as Canada.

Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)• Vice President: Walter Mondale• Member of the Democratic

Political Party• He encouraged energy

conservation, installed solar panels on the White House, and wore sweaters while turning down the heat.

• Bailed out Chrysler• He led the plan to deregulate the

airline industry. • He canceled military pay raises

during a time of high inflation and government deficits.

Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)• Vice President: George Bush • Member of the Republican Political

Party• His mix of tax cuts, deregulation etc.

helped fuel and economic boom that lasted two decades

• Had a tax reform and passed tax reform act of 1986 that simplified the income- tax code by eliminating many shelters and reducing other deductions

• Known for voicing his values and often recounted the wisdom of the founding fathers. He also championed the cause of the pro-life and family- values movements.

George H.W. Bush (1989-1993)• Vice President: Dan Quayle• Member of the Republican Political

Party• Bush's Administration, along with the

Progressive Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, spearheaded the negotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

• Bush reauthorized the Clean Air Act, requiring cleaner burning Fuels.

• Bush signed a Bill providing additional benefits for Unemployed Workers.

• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Bill Clinton (1993-2001)• Vice President: Al Gore (1993-2001)• Member of the Democratic political

party• Longest economic expansion in

American history• More than 22 million new jobs• Lowest unemployment in 30 years• Raised education standards,

increased school choice, and double education and training investment

• Lowest crime rate in 26 years• Added 100,000 more police to the

streets

George W. Bush (2001-2009)• Vice President: Dick Cheney • Banned partial birth

abortion• reversed Clinton's policy of

not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act

• Signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax cut in world history

Barack Obama (2009-2017)

• Vice President: Joe Biden

• According to obamaachievments.org he had “done a lot for veterans”

• Ended war in Iraq• In office when Osama

Bin Laden was killed