AP United States History

American Presidents
CRITICAL PERIOD: 1788-1815
01. George Washington [1789-1797]
No Official Party Affiliation – sympathetic to Federalist Party policies
Vice President – John Adams – Federalist
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Adoption of the Bill of Rights 1791 (first ten amendments)
 Judiciary Act of 1789 establishes federal courts and attorney general
 Establishment of the Bank of the United States
 Hamiltonian Fiscal Policies
 Assumption of State Debts from Revolution
 Establishment “full faith and credit” of the United States by
paying off domestic and foreign loans for Revolution
 Centralized bank for unified currency, loans, and savings
 Whiskey Rebellion (Pennsylvania farmers against 1791 federal tax on
whiskey; first test of Federal enforcement power) 1794
 Farewell Address 1796 warns America to avoid “permanent alliances”
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Tariff of 1789 (revenue and protectionism)
 Proclamation of Neutrality 1793 to keep America out of European wars
 Jay Treaty with England (resolution of Treaty of Paris) 1794-95
 Pinckney Treaty with Spain (free navigation of Mississippi) 1795
 French Revolution
 Storming of the Bastille 1789
 Storming of the Tuileries 1792
 Execution of Louis XVI 1793
 Reign of Terror 1793 and Fall of Robespierre 1794
 Failed insurrection of the sans-culottes 1795
 The Directory 1795-1799
 Genêt Affair 1793 saw French ambassador attempt to gain public support
for the French Revolution; remains in America for fear of execution there
02. John Adams [1797-1801] – first President to live in the White House
Federalist
Vice President – Thomas Jefferson – Democratic Republican
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions 1798: “compact” idea of Federalism
 Alien and Sedition Acts 1798
 Alien Friends Act (deportation of citizens of friendly nations)
 Sedition Act (no resistance to Federal Laws or criticism of the
national government)
 Naturalization Act 1798 establishes 14 year residency requirement
 Federal offices moved to new capitol, Washington, D.C.
 John Marshall appointed Chief Justice of Supreme Court
 Judiciary Act of 1801 and the “Midnight Judges” scandal
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 French Revolution
 Coup d’etat of Napoleon Bonaparte 1799
 Napoleonic Empire established
 X Y Z Affair 1797 saw French bribery of American officials over treaty
with France leads to naval conflict but not war with France
03. Thomas Jefferson [1801-1809]
Democratic Republican / Jeffersonian Republican
Vice Presidents – Aaron Burr; George Clinton
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Naturalization Act of 1802 (return to 5 years residency requirement)
 Marbury v. Madison 1803 refutes Judiciary Act of 1798
 Lewis & Clark Expedition 1804-1805
 Ratification of the 12th Amendment (resolves election 1800 fiasco)
 Impeachment proceedings against Associate Justice Samuel Chase 1804
 Conspiracies of Aaron Burr
 Secession attempt on New England states
 Duel with Hamilton after Hamilton foils the plot; Hamilton is
killed and Burr runs off to Louisiana Territory
 Secession attempt with Louisiana Territory
 Invasion of Mexico to extend “New Confederacy”
 Burr betrayed by co-conspirator General James Wilkinson,
Burr acquitted of treason charges, flees to Europe
 Invasion of United States by France
 Embargo Act of 1807 hurts domestic industry and trade by cutting off
intercourse with Britain and France and other nations
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 U.S. Marines sent to Tripoli to suppress the challenge to American
merchant marine freedoms of the Barbary Pirates (1801-1805)
 Spain refutes “right of deposit” from Pinckney Treaty 1802
 Louisiana Purchase is 828,000 acres at 3 cents per acre to create an
“Empire of Liberty” [April 30, 1803]
 British Orders in Council restrict American shipping 1806
 Embargo Act of 1807 is intended to punish Britain and France for
posturing and threatening American merchant marine interests
 Non-Intercourse Act of 1809 reopens international trade except with
Britain and France – leads to War of 1812 with Britain

04. James Madison [1809-1817] – first War-Time President

Jeffersonian Republican
Vice Presidents – George Clinton; Elbridge Gerry
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Macon Act 1810 replaced Non-Intercourse Act during Napoleonic Wars
 Hartford Convention 1814 of Federalists against Jeffersonians over the
conduct of the war; secession contemplated by rejected for New England;
seen as traitorous, ends the Federalist Party politically
 “War Hawks” – Southern and Western leaders who wanted war with
Great Britain by invading and conquering Canada (1810-1812)
 Battle of Tippecanoe – Governor William Henry Harrison (future
president of the United States) of Indiana Territory assaults the forces of
Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa (The Prophet) [November 7, 1811]
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 War of 1812 (a.k.a. “Second War for Independence”) [June 18, 1812]
 U.S.S. Constitution defeats H.M.S. Guerrière
 White House and other federal buildings burned by British
 “Star Spangled Banner” – Francis Scott Key
 Treaty of Ghent – mediated by Tsar Alexander I [December 24, 1814]
 Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson unaware of peace, crushes
invading British forces [January 8, 1815]
 Protective Tariff of 1816
ERA OF GOOD FEELINGS / ERA OF THE COMMON MAN: 1815-1840
05. James Monroe [1817-1825]
National Republican
Vice President – Daniel D. Tompkins – rumored to have embezzled money from New York
state, Congress established his innocence in 1824
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Major Supreme Court Cases under Chief Justice John Marshall:
 McCullough v. Maryland 1819
 Dartmouth College v. Woodward 1819
 Gibbons v. Ogden 1824
 Missouri Compromise admits Missouri as a slave state with Maine as a
free state; slavery prohibited north of 360 30’ [March 3, 1820]
 American System – the plan from Speaker of the House Henry Clay to
unite the sections of the country economically:
 Self-sufficiency
 National Bank
 High Tariff to protect industry
 Internal Improvements (roads and canals)
 Favorite Sons Election of 1824 (Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams,
William Crawford, and Henry Clay): none of the candidates received the
necessary majority, though Jackson got the most popular and electoral
votes; Clay gave his support to Adams, giving Adams the Presidency.
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Adams-Onís Treaty 1819 (ratified 1821; cession of Florida to the United
States for $5 million plus other territorial and boundary claims)
 Monroe Doctrine – Europe end further colonization in the Americas and
America will not interfere with existing colonies [December 2, 1823]
 Sectional Tariff 1824

06. John Quincy Adams [1825-1829] – first son of a former President to become President
National Republican
Vice President – John C. Calhoun
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 “Corrupt Bargain” argued by Jacksonians that Adams bought Henry
Clay’s electoral votes by making him Secretary of State
 Attempted expansion of the American System blocked by Jacksonians
 Highways and canals
 Weather stations
 Public buildings
 National University
 New York’s Erie Canal (a.k.a. “Clinton’s Ditch”) which connects the Great
Lakes to the Hudson River; cuts shipping costs and increases calls for
Federal efforts at internal improvements 1825
 Election of 1828 introduces the electorate to “bare-knuckle politics”
 Jackson accused of being the son of a prostitute
 Adams accused of being a pimp for the Tsar of Russia
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Attempt to purchase “Texas” from Mexico; Mexicans not interested
 Tariff of Abominations 1828 is heavily criticized by southerners who
begin talking about secession from the union in response
 Cherokee Nation conflict in Georgia
07. Andrew Jackson [1829-1837] – Old Hickory
Democratic Republican – Jacksonian Democrat
Vice Presidents – John C. Calhoun (resigned for Senate seat 1832); Martin Van Buren
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Eaton Affair forces Jackson to reorganize his cabinet over the premarital
affair scandal surrounding his Secretary of War John Eaton with soon-to-
be-widowed Peggy O’Neale: other cabinet wives scorn her for affair and
Martin Van Buren (Secretary of State) resigns along with others to allow
Jackson to reorganize things and get past the scandal
 Second Bank of the United States
 Formation of the Whig Party
 White House opened to the general public
 Vice President John C. Calhoun resigns over States’ Rights issues
stemming from the Tariff of Abominations and retakes his old Senate
seat for South Carolina
 Calhoun’s South Carolina Exposition and Protest
 Spoils System – “Throw their rascals out and put our rascals in”
 South Carolina declares null and void the Tariff of 1828 and its
subsequent revision (1832)
 President Jackson sends reinforcement troops and supplies to South
Carolina to force South Carolina to abide by Federal Law
 Henry Clay’s Compromise Tariff of 1833 – gradual reduction of
tariffs until 1842
 Compromise allows the President of the United States to use
army and navy forces to collect Federal tariff duties if needed
 Specie Circular (all public land purchases to be in gold and silver) 1836
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Indian Removal Act of 1830 forcibly relocates approximately 100,000
Native Americans from Georgia to the future Oklahoma
 Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles
 a.k.a. “Trail of Tears”
 Second attempt to purchase “Texas” for $500,000 in bribe money to be
“judiciously applied”; Mexican authorities are outraged by the scheming
being explored
 Texas Revolution 1835-1836
 Defeat at the Alamo [March 6, 1835]
 Victory at San Jacinto [April 21, 1836]
 Bureau of Indian Affairs established 1836

08. Martin Van Buren [1837-1841]

Jacksonian Democrat
Vice President – Richard M. Johnson
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Panic of 1837 leads to economic depression with no Bank of the United
States there to protect the banking systems of the states
 Excessive land speculation in the western territories
 Unsound financial policies of state governments
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Canadian loyalists attack American steamer ship Caroline, set it afire and
sink it near Niagara Falls [December 29, 1837]; leads to border disputes
and vigilante groups exacting revenge
 Presidential Proclamation of January 5, 1838 calling upon revengeful
Americans to return to American territory
ANTEBELLUM PERIOD: 1840-1860
09. William Henry Harrison [1841] – died of pneumonia one month after his inauguration
Whig
Vice President – John Tyler
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 First President to die in office – shortest serving President to date
 Gave the longest inaugural address up to that point in a pouring rain,
then died a month later
 Known as the “Log Cabin and Hard Cider” Candidate
 Lost to Martin Van Buren in the Election of 1836
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Fought and defeated Tecumseh’s Native American forces at the Battle of
Tippecanoe [November 7, 1811]
 Defeated British and Indian forces at the Battle of the Thames in 1813
during the War of 1812

10. John Tyler [1841-1845]

Democrat
Vice President – None appointed to the vacancy
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 First Vice President to succeed to the Presidency because of the death of
the President
 Opposed majority of Whig Party policies
 Used the Presidential Veto against the Whig Party’s domestic policy
initiatives (basically they supported the American System)
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 between the United States and
Canada
 Settlement of the boundary between Maine and New
Brunswick by fixing the border
 Ends the threat of war between both countries
 Texas annexed in 1845

11. James K. Polk [1845-1849] – Young Hickory – second War-Time President

Democrat
Vice President – George M. Dallas
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Expansionism and Manifest Destiny
 Wilmot Proviso of 1846 would have forbid slavery in newly acquired
territories but was defeated by southern senators
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Mexican War 1846-1848
 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo brings an end to the Mexican War
[February 2, 1848]
 America assumed outstanding claims of American citizens
 End to all Mexican claims for Texas
 Mexican Cession of 1848 gives America the Rio Grande as a southern
border with Mexico and the following territories:
 California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, parts of New
Mexico (500,000 square miles for $15 million)
 Oregon Territory settled with Great Britain in 1846
 New Granada Pact and Polk Corollary to Monroe Doctrine 1848
12. Zachary Taylor [1849-1850] – Old Rough and Ready – died of cholera
Whig
Vice President – Millard Fillmore
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 “Hero” of the Black Hawk War 1832
 “Hero” of the Seminole Wars 1835-1842
 “Hero” of the Mexican War 1846-1848
 Held office for 16 months before dying of cholera
 Slave-owner who did not oppose allowing California and New Mexico
into the Union as free states
 California Gold Rush 1849
 California Republic drafts a constitution and applies directly for
statehood, bypassing territorial status; angers southerners because
California has declared slavery illegal there
 Edgar Allan Poe dies 1849
 Nathaniel Hawthorne publishes The Scarlet Letter in 1850
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 British seizure of San Juan, Nicaragua in 1848 leads to the seizure of
Tigre Island and the Gulf of Fonseca in 1849
 British sought to keep control over the territory that might one
day become a canal connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific
 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty ratified [April 19, 1850]
 America threatened Great Britain with voluntary annexation of
most of Central America to the United States of America
 Neither England nor America will occupy or colonize or
exercise dominion over any part of Central America
 Critics argued that it conflicted with the Monroe Doctrine by
allowing Great Britain to keep its pre-existing Central
American colonies (Belize and Mosquito Coast)

13. Millard Fillmore [1850-1853]

Whig
Vice President – None appointed to the vacancy
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Compromise of 1850 delayed the Civil War for about 10 years
 Proposed by Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Stephen A.
Douglas; opposed by John C. Calhoun
 Slave-trading illegal in District of Columbia
 California admitted as a free state
 Remained of Mexican Cession to be organized as Utah and
New Mexico territories
 Slavery in these territories to be determined by Popular
Sovereignty
 Fugitive Slave Law makes it easier to recapture runaway slaves
 Publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s melodramatic novel Uncle Tom’s
Cabin in 1852
 Portrayed slaves as human beings, a novel idea at the time
 300,000 best-seller in the United States; 7 million world-wide
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Herbert Spencer uses the term “evolution” to explain nature in his work
“The Development Hypothesis”
 Cuba declares independence from Spain 1851
 Napoleon III declared Emperor of new French Empire
 Ratification of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty
14. Franklin Pierce [1853-1857]
Democrat
Vice President – William R. King
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Southern Senator Preston Brooks “canes” Northern Senator Charles
Sumner as a defense of southern slavery
 New England Emigrant Aid Company sends armed abolitionists into
Kansas Territory to turn it to free-state status despite the Douglas
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Secretary of State Marcy negotiates the annexation of the Kingdom of
Hawaii in 1854, then Commercial Reciprocity Treaty in 1855:
 Senate rejects the annexation because it calls for immediate
statehood rather than a period of territorial status first
 Senate rejects the commerce pact over concerns from sugar-
producers in Louisiana
 Canadian Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 grants America much better fishing
privileges than it had under the original Convention of 1818
 British fishing allowed 1000 miles south along America’s
eastern seaboard
 Other products such as farm goods should be admitted by
Canada and the United States without any duties
 Crimean War 1854-1856
 British outraged by prevalent anti-British sentiment in the
United States and sympathy for Tsarist Russia
 British ambassador John Crampton dismissed [May 28, 1856]
for surreptitiously enlisting American volunteers to fight
against Tsarist Russia
 Recognition of the William Walker government in Nicaragua

15. James Buchanan [1857-1861] – the Bachelor President

Democrat
Vice President – John C. Breckenridge
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Dred Scott v. Sandford 1857 and decision by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney
 Panic of 1857
 Inflation of currency due to inpouring of California gold
 Overproduction of grain due to Crimean War demands
 Over speculation in land and railroads
 More than 5,000 business failed in the year
 Unemployment and hunger meetings dominated the news
 North was hardest hit; South weathered it well since cotton
prices were up worldwide
 Lincoln-Douglas Debates 1858
 Minnesota becomes a state 1858
 Oregon becomes a state 1859
 John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry 1859 signals looming Civil War
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Panic of 1857 ripples throughout Europe’s financial centers
 Garibaldi forms the Italian National Association for the unification of the
country 1857; claims Victor Emmanuel II King of Italy 1860
 German National Association formed for the unification of Germany
under the leadership of Prussia 1859
 Ground broken on construction of Suez Canal 1859-1869
CIVIL WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION: 1861-1877
16. Abraham Lincoln [1861-1865] – third War-Time President
– assassinated April 14, 1865 (died 4/15/1865)
Republican
Vice Presidents – Hannibal Hamlin; Andrew Johnson
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Secession Crisis 1860-1861
 Civil War 1861-1865 which saw 23 Northern states with 22 million people
against 11 Southern states with 9 million (3.5 million of which are slaves)
 Lincoln calls for 75,000 militia to suppress initial rebellion
 Upper South states and Border States become a problem
 Northern Strategy was to blockade all southern ports to cut off
southern trade, take control of the Mississippi River and New
Orleans to surround the Southern Confederacy, and to capture
the Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia
 Southern Strategy was to defend Southern Sovereignty against
Northern invasion, bring Great Britain into the war on the
Southern side, and to stalemate Northern intentions to force
an international recognition of Southern independence
 Battle of Antietam saw 23,000 killed in one day and convinced
many that the war would be very long [September 17, 1862]
 Battle of Gettysburg saw 23,000 Union soldiers and 28,000
Confederate soldiers killed, wounded, and missing – the battle
that decided the North’s ultimate victory [July 1-3, 1863]
 Sherman’s March to the Sea (May-September 1864)
 Siege of Petersburg (August 1864 to April 1865) leads to
surrender of Southern forces at Appomattox Court House in
Virginia [April 9, 1865]
 Morrill Tariff passed to increase rates to help domestic businesses during
poor conditions of the Civil War [March 2, 1861]
 Morrill Act (a.k.a. Land-Grant Act of 1862) to grant millions of acres of
Federal land to states for sale to raise revenue to establish agricultural
and mechanical arts colleges (i.e., University of California and Michigan
State University) [July 2, 1862]
 Homestead Act allotted 160 acres of western land to any adult citizen
head of family who had not fought against the Union during the Civil
War on the promise to live and cultivate for five years – intended to
populate the West – the Homestead Act expired in 1976 with the
exception of Alaska where it ended in 1986 [May 20, 1862]
 Emancipation Proclamation 1863
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Trent Affair 1861 saw tensions rise between the Union and Great Britain
over the seizure by American navy of two Confederates onboard the
British ship
 Alabama Affair 1862 saw tensions tighten between the Union and Great
Britain by the British construction of Confederate commerce-raider ships
that threatened Union international shipping
 Battle of the Rams 1863 saw near-war threatened between the Union and
Great Britain over two iron-clad warships being built for the navy of the
Confederacy; Union promises an invasion of Canada, so London relents
and buys ships for the Royal Navy instead
 French occupation of Mexico by Napoleon III in 1863 and installation of
puppet dictator-emperor Maximillian in 1864
17. Andrew Johnson [1865-1869] – first president to undergo impeachment process
Republican
Vice President – None appointed to vacancy
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Amnesty Plan of 1865 to bring the South back into the Union
 Military Reconstruction Plan of 1867 was the replacement of Johnson’s
more lenient plan: divided the un-readmitted Southern states into five
military districts using Federal troops to enforce laws and oversee re-
admission to the Union requiring the following:
 States must hold a convention
 States must write new constitutions
 States must allow black men to vote
 States must elect a governor and state legislature
 States must ratify the 14th Amendment
 Radical Republicans rejected Johnson’s reconstruction plans, favoring
more punishment and putting forth the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments
along with the Freedmen’s Bureau and wrote a civil rights act
 Tenure of Office Act passed over Presidential veto to make it illegal for
the President to dismiss officials approved by the Senate [March 2, 1867]
 13th Amendment was abolition of slavery 1865
 14th Amendment was Federal and State citizenship 1868
 Impeachment Trial 1868 over his firing of Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton: House of Representatives impeaches; Senate fails to impeach
 KKK formed in the Southern states
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Alaska purchased from Russia for $7,200,000
 Emperor Maximillian of Mexico executed after Emperor Napoleon III of
France withdraws support
 Suez Canal opened by Empress Eugénie of France
18. Ulysses S. Grant [1869-1877) – “General Corruption”
Republican
Vice President – Schuyler Colfax; Henry Wilson
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 100th Anniversary of the United States of America
 15th Amendment was right of citizens to vote 1870
 Establishment of the first Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory
Point, Utah with California Governor Leland Stanford driving in the
“golden stake” [May 10, 1869]
 Tweed Ring 1870-1875 was a corruption scandal in New York City finally
broken up by New York State Prosecutor Samuel Tilden (who would lose
the Presidential Election of 1876 by one vote to Rutherford B. Hayes)
 Whiskey Ring 1873-1877 uncovered by Treasury Secretary Benjamin
Bristow involving tax evasion and fraud by whiskey distillers, tax
collectors, and high Federal officials
 Crédit Mobilier 1873 scandal reaches Vice President Colfax and other
federal officers: bribery from railroad contractor to Congressmen for
favorable legislation in land grants in the West
 Panic of 1873 crashes the national economy – set in motion by too many
loans for too much industrial expansion, farming, mining, and railroads
 Belknap Scandal 1876 involving allegations that Secretary of War
William W. Belknap had accepted bribes from the Indian Affairs Bureau
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Red River Rebellion in Canada 1869-1870 – Manitoba becomes province
 Rebellion in Cuba
GILDED AGE: AMERICAN IMPERIALISM 1877-1900
19. Rutherford B. Hayes [1877-1881]
Republican
Vice President – William A. Wheeler
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Won election by 1 electoral vote after Congress appoints a special
electoral commission to look into the election debacle
 Bland-Allison Act of 1878 allows for free coinage of silver
 Reconstruction ends in the Southern states with the Compromise of 1877
 First public telephones set up in the United States
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Balkan revolutions in Europe 1877-1879 against the Ottoman Turk
Empire and supported by Russia
 Rumania
 Bulgaria
 Greece
 Electric street lighting introduced in London, England 1878
 Frozen meat shipped from Argentina to Europe for the first time 1877
20. James A. Garfield [1881 March 4 – September 19] – assassinated July 2, 1881
Republican (died 9/19/1881)
Vice President – Chester A. Arthur
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Attempted to reunite the Stalwart and Half-Breed factions of the
Republican Party
 Half-Breeds (a.k.a. Mugwumps) favored civil service reform,
were anti-corruptionists, and wanted a lenient and forgiving
Reconstruction policy for the Southern states
 Stalwarts (a.k.a. Conservatives) favored high tariffs and a
strong Reconstruction policy toward the Southern states; also
wanted a third term for President Grant and objected to reform
ideas of the Half-Breeds
 Shot by the deranged political office seeker Charles Julius Guiteau who
claimed to be a Stalwart and wanted Chester A. Arthur to be the
President; Garfield lingered for 11 weeks and finally died
 Guiteau’s lawyers offered an early instance of the “insanity defense”– he
was convicted of murder and hanged
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Freedom of the Press established in France
 Flogging abolished in the British Army and Navy
21. Chester A. Arthur [1881-1885]
Republican
Vice President – none appointed to vacancy
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 establishes a civil service commission
and a testing system is set up for office seekers
 White House renovated for pleasure of hosting foreign dignitaries
 First skyscraper built in Chicago (10 stories tall) 1883
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 restricts Chinese immigrants for 10 years
 “You can go to the white man’s heaven, but not his country”
 German Chancellor Bismarck sets up Triple Alliance (Italy, Austria, and
Germany) 1882
22. Grover Cleveland [1885-1889] – Bachelor President – “Grover the Good”
Democrat – “Though the people support the government, the government should not support
the people.”
Vice President – Thomas A. Hendricks
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Mudslinging was a major aspect of the election of 1884: Cleveland was
guilty of having a child out of wedlock in an affair with a widow – he
admitted to it rather than lie about it
 Knights of Labor 1886 peaked in membership (700,000 in 1885), but
then because of the Haymarket Riot and competition from the American
Federation of Labor, it declined sharply this year
 Wabash v. Illinois 1886 – states cannot regulate interstate commerce
 Haymarket Riot 1886 saw seven policemen killed by a bomb, four
demonstrators killed by the police during the McCormick Harvester
Machine Company Strike; eight anarchists were arrested
 Interstate Commerce Act 1887 established a five-member Interstate
Commerce Commission to enforce the new requirement that all railroad
charges should be fair and reasonable [February 4, 1887]
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 German Colonial Empire established from 1883-1885
 Russian troops clash with Afghani troops in Afghanistan 1885, leading to
a near war between Russia and Great Britain
 Balkan War between Bulgaria and Serbia over territory 1885-1886
 Treaty of Peace and Amity 1886-1887 established in Central America
 First Mediterranean Agreement between Great Britain and Italy along
with Austria (orchestrated by German Chancellor Bismarck to keep the
status quo in the Mediterranean) [February 12, 1887]
 Renewal of the Triple Alliance between Germany, Italy, and Austria
secured by German Chancellor Bismarck
 Succession and Death of Emperor Frederick III of Germany 1888
 Succession of Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany 1888

23. Benjamin Harrison [1889-1893]

Republican
Vice President – Levi P. Morton
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Won the election of 1888 by a hair (approximately 7,000 votes)
 Billion-Dollar Congress: under Speaker of the House Thomas B. Reed,
the Democratic slight majority was compelled into legislation by Reed’s
actions to get Republican issues up for debate and votes
 Sherman Anti-Trust Act 1890 was legislation designed to break up
business monopolies, especially over control of interstate trade; the law
was also used to break up unions – later supplemented by the Clayton
Anti-Trust Act of 1914
 Sherman Silver Purchase Act 1890 allowed an increase in the amount of
silver coinage as well as the issuing of paper currency backed by silver;
largely passed to pacify silver miners, farmers, and debtors – it failed to
increase the money supply and was repealed after the panic of 1893 since
it had allowed the gold supply to dwindle to dangerously low levels
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 boosts Federal Treasury surpluses to their
highest peacetime levels up to that time
 Dismissal of German Chancellor Bismarck by Emperor Wilhelm II over
policies with Russia, Austria, and Great Britain
24. Grover Cleveland [1893-1897] – “Grover the Bad”
Democrat
Vice President – Adlai E. Stevenson
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Populist Party Platform of 1892 led by farmers who were suffering under
the Gold Standard because of their debts and favored the increase of
silver coinage as a way to revalue and ease debts – this would destroy
Harrison’s shot at re-election and secure Cleveland’s return to the White
House
 Pullman Strike of the American Railway Union and the Pullman Palace
Car Company over wage cuts and high rents in the company’s town for
employees (Pullman, Illinois) was led by Eugene V. Debs into a national
phenomenon; President Cleveland was forced to bring in federal troops
to Chicago to break the strike [May 11 – July 20, 1894]
 Supreme Court upholds the power of the Executive Branch to use an
injunction to prohibit the interference of interstate trade 1895
 American Federation of Labor
 Growing Federal Deficit instead of a Surplus this time around
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Hawaiian Incident of 1893 saw the deposition of Queen Liliuokalani in a
bloodless revolution led by Americans, securing the Republic of Hawaii
under the presidency of pineapple grower Sanford Dole
 Wilson-Gorman Tariff 1894
 Venezuelan Boundary Affair 1895
 Cuban Nationalists (los insurrectos) start an insurrection to gain
independence 1895

25. William McKinley [1897-1901] – fourth War-Time President

– assassinated September 6, 1901 (dies 9/14/1901)
Republican – “Stand-pattism” Conservatism
Vice Presidents – Garrett Hobart; Theodore Roosevelt
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan with the aid of the Cleveland
millionaire Mark Hanna
 Wilson-Gorman Tariff is not generating enough revenue; big business
favors a new tariff to protect their interests and cut down on the federal
deficit – Dingley Tariff Bill is pushed through Congress (1897)
 End of the Depression of 1893: farm prices rise, industry kicks back into
gear and so does American prosperity
 “Remember the Maine, To Hell with Spain!” 1898
 Anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot McKinley at the Pan-American Exhibition
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 U.S.S. Maine blows up in Havana Harbor with the deaths of 260 sailors;
William Randolph Hearst’s newspaper consortium pumps up American
outrage, manufacturing a de facto sense of “war” over the incident
 Spanish-American War is sparked over Cuban Independence; this war is
America’s “Coming Out Party” into world power and as an imperialist
nation (aggressively taking in new territory) [April 25, 1898 – August 12,
1898] – Guam, Philippines, Puerto Rico, and American Somoa become
territories of the United States
 Annexation of Republic of Hawaii under pressure from sugar cane
growers; becomes a territory in 1900
 Boxer Rebellion in China 1900 suppressed by American and other
international troops to maintain Open Door Policy 1899
PROGRESSIVE AGE: WORLD WAR I 1900-1920
26. Theodore Roosevelt [1901-1909] – The “Bully-Bully” Presidency
Republican – “Walk Softly But Carry A Big Stick” Conservative
Vice President – Charles W. Fairbanks
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 General Federation of Women’s Clubs 1904
 Conservation Movement and National Parks
 Square Deal for America: control of corporations, consumer protection,
and conservation of natural resources (the three C’s)
 Coal Strike of 1902 saw a victory for labor when the President threatened
to seize the mines from the owners and operate them with Federal
troops; coal workers won from the owners a 10% pay raise and a 9 hour
workday – this was the first time Federal authority was exercised against
the interests of owners in a strike
 Trust-Busting – breaking up of monopoly companies to increase
competition and lower prices to improve the economy and the working
conditions for labor
 Northern Securities Company 1902
 In fact, Roosevelt did n0t “bust” many trusts, he actually
favored consolidation to improve business and the economy;
however, he did want to show the Federal Government was
superior to American Business
 Elkins Act of 1903 ended to giving of rebates by railroads to shippers to
monopolize services and squelch competition
 Hepburn Act of 1906 ended the bribery of “free passes” and extended to
reach and power of the Interstate Commerce Commission
 Pure Food and Drug Act 1906 was intended to prevent the changing or
misrepresentation of foods and drugs by manufacturers and suppliers to
consumers
 Meat Inspection Act 1906 required Federal inspection of meat crossing
state lines
 Muckrakers 1906 – with cheap publishing came scores of magazines
exposing the vices of society, especially criminal corruption and
monopolistic control by big companies; these magazines “raked the mud”
of controversy to sensationalize the negative to increase their sales
 Panic of 1907 revealed the need for a more flexible system to get more
currency into the market in a recession; Congress passes the Aldrich-
Vreeland Act in 1908 to authorize emergency currency in a pinch
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine states that the United States
will intervene in Latin America militarily to protect American interests
 Hague Conferences 1899 and 1907
 Venezuelan Debt Controversy 1902
 Dominican Republic Crisis 1902-1905
 Panamanian Revolt to sever Panama from Columbia in order to build the
canal; Columbia refused American offers of payment for the right to build
the canal in Panama [November 3, 1903]
 Panama Canal begun 1903 (completed 1914)
 Gentlemen’s Agreement with Japan: secret agreement to shut down the
immigration of Japanese workers to America to cope with rising
American fears of too many Asian immigrants 1904
 Portsmouth Treaty 1905
27. William H. Taft [1909-1913] – “Good Old Will”
Republican – hand-picked successor to Theodore Roosevelt
Vice President – James S. Sherman
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Ballinger-Pinchot Quarrel of 1910 over the development of Federal lands
in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska by corporate interests at the expense
of Roosevelt’s conservation allies
 “New Nationalism” speech by Roosevelt in 1910 splits the Republican
Party during Congressional Elections of 1910
 Trust-Buster: Taft will bring 90 anti-trust suits in his single term
compared to the forty suits brought by Roosevelt in two terms
 Supreme Court upholds the “busting” of Standard Oil Company, but adds
new proviso of “rule of reason” that allows some monopolies but not
others on the basis of “reasonability” – leads to U.S. Steel Corporation
“bust” by Taft against the wishes of Roosevelt 1911
 Ratification of the 16th Amendment allowing Congress to levy a Federal
Income Tax 1913
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Dollar Diplomacy – the use of American trade and commerce to increase
diplomatic power, especially over the Caribbean and Asia
 Attempted leveraged-buy-out of the Manchurian railroads by
American bankers to circumvent the control wielded by Russia
and Japan as proposed by Secretary of State Knox fails 1909
 American investors urged to “save” debt-ridden states of
Honduras and Haiti
 Paine-Aldrich Tariff of 1909 reverses Taft’s campaign promise to reduce
tariffs by increasing them to protect Republican Party interests
 2,500 Marines landed in Nicaragua to protect American business
interests (will remain there for the next thirteen years) 1912

28. Woodrow Wilson [1913-1921] – fifth War-Time President – The Professor comes to Power
Democrat –Wilsonian Progressivism (modern economics, trust-taming, labor benefits)
Vice President – Thomas R. Marshall
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Wins election due to the splitting of the Republican Party by Roosevelt’s
“Bull Moose” Progressive Party against Taft’s Old-Guard Republicans
 Ratification of the 17th, 18th, and 19th Amendments (1913, 1919, 1920)
 Federal Reserve Act of 1913 creates an economic network of Federal
depositories for the national economy’s monetary protection
 Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914 makes boycotts and strikes legal and
redefines unions as “not monopolies”; prohibits price discrimination
 Prohibition Movement making alcohol illegal in the United States
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Underwood Tariff of 1913 is the first reductive tariff since the Civil War;
included an income tax to make up the loss in Federal revenues
 American troops retained in Nicaragua; also sent to Dominican Republic,
Haiti, Virgin Islands, and Mexico (Zimmerman Telegram) 1912-1941
 Lusitania sunk on May 7. 1915 killing 128 American citizens
 Panama Canal opened to business 1914
 Purchase of the Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917
 American troops sent to Europe to end The Great War (World War I)
 Fourteen Points for Peace 1918 to protect democracy in the world
 Treaty of Versailles 1919 to formally end the war against Germany
 League of Nations defined by Wilson, but rejected by U.S. Senate 1919
ROARING TWENTIES: THE CALM BEFORE THE CRASH 1920-1929
29. Warren G. Harding [1921-1923] – died of a stroke August 2, 1923
Republican – Dark Horse Candidate – “Back to Normalcy” – “America First”
Vice President – Calvin Coolidge
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Teapot Dome Scandal sees rampant corruption attached to the White
House
 Corruption by cabinet appointees Albert Fall and Harry Daugherty
 Immigration Quotas
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Washington Naval Conference (1921-1922) eliminates standing navies in
favor of merchant marines
 Fordney-McCumber Tariff (1922) raises duties to help pay war costs;
farm produce duties increased and general rates designed to equalize the
costs of foreign and domestic production

30. Calvin Coolidge [1923-1929]

Republican – “The Business of America is Business”
Vice President – Charles G. Dawes
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 McNary-Haugen Bill (1924-1928) – required Federal government to buy
surplus agricultural production to keep prices high and sell it overseas
 Increased mechanization of farms – leads to greater farm debt
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Yanqui Imperialism
 American troops withdrawn from Dominican Republic (1924)
 American troops retained in Haiti (1914-1934)
 American troops removed / returned to Nicaragua (1926-1933)
 Allied War Debts / Debt Knot
 Dawes Plan – American loans to Germany to finance its debts to Britain
and France who had to finance their debts to America (1924)

31. Herbert Hoover [1929-1933]

Republican
Vice President – Charles Curtis
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Bull Market of soaring stocks – “The Long Boom”
 Agricultural Marketing Act (1929)
 Federal Farm Board
 Grain Stabilization Corporation and Cotton Stabilization Corporation
 “Black Tuesday” [October 29, 1929]
 “Hoovervilles”
 National Origins Immigration Act (1929)
 Reconstruction Finance Corporation
 Norris-La Guardia Anti-Injunction Act (1932)
 Bonus Army (1932)
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Hawley-Smoot Tariff 1930
 Worldwide Depression
 Invasion of Manchuria by Japan (1931)
 Japanese terror bombing of Shanghai (1932)
 “Good Neighbor Policy” toward Latin America
THE NEW DEAL / ERA OF REFORM: WORLD WAR II 1929-1945
32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1933-1945] – sixth War-Time President
– died of cerebral hemorrhage April 12, 1945
New Deal Democrat
Vice Presidents – John Nance Garner; Henry A. Wallace; Harry S. Truman
MAJOR DOMECTIC AFFAIRS:
 The Great Depression
 Agricultural Adjustment Act
 Tennessee Valley Authority
 Civilian Conservation Corps
 Securities and Exchange Commission
 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
 Federal Communications Commission
 Federal Emergency Relief Act
 Fair Labor Standards Act
 America First Committee
 Court Packing Scheme (tried to fill the Supreme Court with reform-
minded judges to allow him to pass more reform legislation)
 Social Security Administration
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 The Four Freedoms (speech & expression; worship; want [economic
security]; fear [warfare and conflict]
 Atlantic Charter
 Neutrality Acts
 Lend-Lease Act
 Japanese-American Internment (100,000 people relocated to
concentration camps)
 Pearl Harbor Attack (December 7, 1941 Japanese military attacks
multiple American and British targets all across the Pacific, including the
American Naval Base of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii)
 Manhattan Project (development of an atomic weapon before the
Germans or Italians can create one)
 Yalta Conference (America, England, Russia determine what the future of
the world will look like)
 Holocaust (Jews and other “undesirables” in Europe being systematically
exterminated by the Nazi SS terror machine through slave camps and
killing centers)
 United Nations Charter (replaces the League of Nations developed by
Woodrow Wilson as an international congress to avoid future world
wars)
THE COLD WAR: CONTAINMENT AND DOMINOES 1945-1968
33. Harry S. Truman [1945-1953] – seventh War-Time President
New Deal Democrat – “The Buck Stops Here”
Vice President – Alben W. Barkley – first Vice President to sit on the National Security
Council (NSC)
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 “Fair Deal” for America – largely blocked by Congress
 Civil Rights
 Fair Housing
 National Health Care
 Federal Aid to Farmers
 Federal Aid for Education
 Social Security expanded
 Senator Joseph R. McCarthy charges Communist infiltration of
Department of State (totally unsubstantiated, ruined many lives)
 Fired General Douglas MacArthur over Korean War fiasco
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day May 1, 1945)
 V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day August 15, 1945)
 Destruction of Hiroshima by atomic bomb (August 6, 1945)
 Destruction of Nagasaki by atomic bomb (August 9, 1945)
 Marshall Plan – rebuilding of Europe (1947)
 Berlin Airlift – air force supplying of West Berlin to keep it democratic in
the face of a Soviet encirclement (1948-1949)
 Red China – communists under Mao Tse Tung drive Nationalist
government forces of Chiang Kai Shek out to Taiwan, making mainland
China communist (1949)
 Promotion of NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1949)
 Truman Doctrine (containment of communism)
 Korean War – 38th Parallel becomes border [June 25, 1950 – July 27,
1953]

34. Dwight D. Eisenhower [1953-1961] – eighth War-Time President

Republican – “I Like Ike”
Vice President – Richard M. Nixon
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Ratification of the 22nd Amendment (anti-third term amendment) 1951
 Senator Joseph R. McCarthy televises Army-McCarthy hearings and is
finally censured by the Senate [December 2, 1954]
 Beginning of the Civil Rights Movement
 Bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama
 Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. rises to prominence
 Civil Rights Commission 1957
 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Kansas 1954
 Alaska and Hawaii become states 1959
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Armistice ends the Korean War [July 27, 1953]
 Suez Crisis of 1956
 Eisenhower Doctrine 1957 was proposed by Secretary of State John
Foster Dulles to supply money and military aid to Middle Eastern nations
who resisted communist expansion
 U2 Spy Plane Incident: pilot Gary Powers paraded before international
news cameras and convicted of spying against Russia [May 1, 1960]
35. John F. Kennedy [1961-1963] – assassinated November 22, 1963
Democrat – “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your
country”
Vice President – Lyndon Baines Johnson
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 “Camelot” and the new, young “court” of Kennedy democrats and the
“New Generation of Americans”
 Alliance for Progress
 Baker v. Carr 1962
 “New Frontier” policy calls for Federal Aid for Education, Medical Care
for the Aged, and Civil Rights Legislation
 Civil Rights Movement goes into full swing
 Assassinated in Dallas, Texas on campaign trip to rally the South
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Establishment of the Peace Corps
 Commitment of military advisors to South Vietnam
 Bay of Pigs Invasion fails 1961
 Kennedy refuses Air Force support for C.I.A. trained guerrilla
fighters liberation of Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba
 Cuban Missile Crisis 1962
 Forces Russia to remove nuclear missiles from Cuba, narrowly
avoids World War III (nuclear war with Russia)
 Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty of 1963
 Ngo Dinh Diem assassinated in a military coup d’etat [November 1, 1963]

36. Lyndon Baines Johnson [1963-1969] – ninth War-Time President

New Deal Democrat – “The Great Society”
Vice President – Hubert H. Humphrey
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Income Tax Cut
 Westbury v. Sanders 1964
 Civil Rights Act 1964, 1965, and 1968
 Anti-Poverty Act 1964
 Voting Rights Act 1965 eliminates literacy tests and poll taxes
 Immigration Act of 1965 eliminates quotas and favors family relations
 Malcolm X assassinated in New York 1965
 Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) domestic peace corps 1966
 Head Start and Job Corps 1966
 Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated in Memphis by James Earl Ray
because of his Civil Rights activities [April 4, 1968]
 Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in California after winning the California
Presidential Primary [June 6, 1968]
 Counterculture Movement and Hippies
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Cuban Policy is no regime change for Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba
 Vietnam War escalation
 Tonkin Gulf Resolution 1964 authorizes the president to use
military force without a Congressional declaration of war
 Combat troops sent to Vietnam
 Operation Rolling Thunder 1965-1968
 Search and Destroy Operations 1965-1972
 Tet Offensive 1968
 Six-Day War between Israel and Arab coalition forces: Jerusalem taken
by Israel; Russia moves in to support Arab nations 1967
THE COLD WAR: DÉTENTE / RAPPROACHMENT 1968-1989
37. Richard M. Nixon [1969-1974] – tenth War-Time President
Republican – first President to resign under threat of impeachment for criminal acts
Vice Presidents – Spiro T. Agnew (resigned under criminal investigation October 1973);
Gerald R. Ford (appointed by Nixon and approved by Senate 1974)
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 First Manned Moon Landing [July 20, 1969]
 Woodstock Music Festival [August 15-17, 1969]
 Establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency (1970)
 Ratification of 26th Amendment – voting age 18 years old (1971)
 Warren E. Burger appointed Chief Justice of Supreme Court – Nixon will
appoint four of the nine justices by 1971
 Energy Crisis (1972)
 Native American seizure of Alcatraz Island (1970) and Wounded Knee
village (1973)
 Watergate Scandal (1973-1974)
 Kent State Incident – National Guardsmen open fire on unarmed white
student protestors (headline news) [May 4, 1970]
 Jackson State University Incident – National Guardsmen open fire on
unarmed black student protestors (not in news) [May 14, 1970]
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Escalation of the Vietnam War
 Bombing of Cambodia
 War Powers Act [November 7, 1973]
 Vietnamization (1974-1975)
 Détente – relaxation of tension between America and Communist China
and Russia
 First President to visit Communist China (1972)
 First President to visit Communist Russia (1972)
 ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty
 SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) (1972)
 “Shuttle Diplomacy” of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (1973-1975)
 Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) engineers the overthrow of the Allende
government in Chile (1973)

38. Gerald Ford [1974-1977] – eleventh War-Time President

Republican – first non-elected President of the United States
Vice President – Nelson Rockefeller
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Full Presidential Pardon of President Richard M. Nixon
 Milliken v. Bradley (1974) exempts suburban school districts from
having to take on inner-city student transfers – leads to “white flight” to
the suburbs and growth of “ghettos” in cities
 Divorce Rate in America has tripled from 1960 – 1976
 Catholic Church and the Religious Right begin political opposition to
legalized abortion
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 OPEC Crisis (Oil Producing
 Helsinki Accords (July 1975)
 Evacuation of Saigon and Vietnamese Embassy with the communist
conquest of South Vietnam [April 29, 1975]
39. James Earl Carter, Jr. [1977-1981]
Democrat – Dark Horse Candidate
Vice President – Walter F. Mondale
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 200th Anniversary of the United States of America
 Three Mile Island incident (1979)
 Stagflation of the national economy
 Energy Crisis – results in a National Energy Policy
 United States v. Wheeler (1978) finds that Indian tribes retain “unique
and limited” sovereignty that is subject to Congress rather than
individual states
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Promotion of Human Rights around the world
 Panama Canal Treaty (1977)
 Diplomatic relations established with Communist China, non-recognition
of exiled government of Taiwan
 Camp David Accords: Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty (1979)
 Iran Hostage Crisis (1979); military rescue effort fails (1980)
 Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan (1979)
 U.S. boycott of Moscow Olympic Games as a protest of Afghan invasion
(1980)

40. Ronald Reagan [1981-1989] “It’s Always Morning in America” Presidency

Republican – “Government is the Problem” Conservatism
Vice President – George H. W. Bush
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to the Supreme Court (1st Woman
Justice)
 William H. Rehnquist appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
 Major Tax Cuts
 Reaganomics / Supply Side Economics
 Rise of the Religious Right (televangelists and the “Moral Majority”
 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster [January 28, 1986]
 Iran-Contra Hearings / Lt. Colonel Oliver North (1986-1987)
 Deficit – Reagan contributes $2 trillion to national deficit (more than all
previous presidents combined)
 “Black Monday” (stock market drop of 508 points in one day – largest
single-day drop in history) [October 19, 1987]
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Reagan Doctrine (U.S. support for anticommunist governments)
 Afghanistan (1981-1988)
 Honduras and Jamaica (1981)
 Nicaragua (1981-1990) and El Salvador (1981-1992)
 Guatemala (1982) and Grenada (1983)
 American Hostages in Iran released (1981)
 U.S. support of Britain in Falkland Islands invasion (1982)
 1500 Marines deployed to Beirut, Lebanon; terrorist bombing of Marine
barracks leading to withdrawal of Marines [October 23, 1983]
 U.S. support for ouster of Ferdinand Marcos by Corazon Aquino in the
Philippines (1986)
 Air Force strike against Libya following a terrorist attack at a discotheque
in West Berlin (1986)
 Evil Empire Speech (Soviet Union) – “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this
wall!”
NEW WORLD ORDER: THE END OF HISTORY / GLOBALIZATION 1989-2001
41. George H. W. Bush [1989-1993] – twelfth War-Time President – “New World Order”
Republican – Compassionate Conservatism
Vice President – Dan Quayle
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Savings and Loan Scandal
 Military Base closures with collapse of Soviet Union and the End of the
Cold War and Economic Recession (1990-91)
 Los Angeles Race Riots (1992)
 Clarence Thomas appointed to the Supreme Court – Anita Hill scandal
 “No New Taxes” (Bush forced to raise taxes after promising not to)
 “It’s the Economy, Stupid” (Bush criticized in 1992 Election for not being
concerned about the plight of average Americans)
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Invasion of Panama to overthrow Manuel Noriega (American puppet-
dictator set up originally to protect against Communist threats to
democracy in Panama) 1989
 Operation Desert Shield (U.S. and Allied Air Forces used to protect the
Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein’s military)
 Operation Desert Storm (U.S. and Allied forces invade Kuwait to liberate
it from the Iraqi military who invaded it in 1990; object was to push
Saddam Hussein’s military back into Iraq and contain it)
 Fall of the Berlin Wall (in November 1989 Communism dies in East
Germany as the people of East and West Germany unite to tear down the
actual physical wall erected between them in 1961)
 Tiananmen Square Uprising – “Goddess of Democracy” statue (1989)
 Failed Soviet Military Coup against Gorbachev (August 1991)

42. William Jefferson Clinton [1993-2001] The “New Camelot” Presidency

Democrat – Conservative Liberalism
Vice President – Al Gore
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Oklahoma City Bombing (Murray Federal Building destroyed by
domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh)
 DOT.COM economic boom (rise of the World Wide Web and Internet)
 Reagan and Bush deficits paid off
 Record low unemployment in United States for non-wartime
 Inflation under control with growing economy
 Federal Surplus from Tax Revenues leads to more funding of social
programs, especially education
 Whitewater Scandal (Clinton involved in Arkansas real estate deal)
 Monica Lewinsky scandal (Clinton denies sexual relations with her)
 House of Representatives impeach the president; Senate does not
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 World Trade Center bombing (terrorists attempt to knock down the
buildings by blowing up the basement of one of them)
 USS Cole attacked by terrorists while in port in Yemen
 NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement ratified to make trade
easier between Canada, Mexico, and the United States)
 CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) and SAFTA (South
American Free Trade Agreement) proposed.
 Ethnic Cleansing in Bosnia (American troops and air force sent in to
protect Muslim populations from genocide)
BRAVE NEW WORLD: THE WAR ON TERROR 2001 - Present
43. George W. Bush [2001-2009] -- thirteenth War-Time President – “Neo-” Presidency
Republican – Neo-Conservative Movement
Vice President – Richard Cheney
MAJOR DOMESTIC AFFAIRS:
 Supreme Court decides 2000 election result for Bush after Gore wins
popular election but loses electoral college voting
 Election Fraud Protests over Bush victory
 Return of Federal Surplus via Tax Returns
 Tax Cuts
 No Child Left Behind Legislation
 Growth of “Faith-Based Initiatives” for social programs
 Limits to Federal Funding on Stem Cell Research
 Department of Homeland Security established
 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita debacles 2005
 Southern California Wildfires 2007
MAJOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
 Rejection of Kyoto Global Warming Treaty
 Russia seeks greater ties to NATO and America
 September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
 Patriot Act Legislation unifies executive and investigatory powers of the
CIA and FBI along with local law enforcement
 Operation Enduring Freedom (toppling of Taliban in Afghanistan)
 Operation Iraqi Freedom (toppling of Saddam Hussein in Iraq)
 London and Madrid Terrorists Bombings