APUSH Presidents

George Washington

1st U.S. President (1789-1797) who commanded the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and presided over the Constitutional Convention.

John Adams

2nd U.S. President (1797-1801), Founding Father, and first vice president who navigated the Quasi-War with France and passed the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Thomas Jefferson

3rd U.S. President (1801-1809), principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and orchestrator of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

James Madison

4th U.S. President (1809-1817), known as the Father of the Constitution, who led the nation through the War of 1812.

James Monroe

5th U.S. President (1817-1825) whose presidency during the Era of Good Feelings saw the Missouri Compromise and the landmark Monroe Doctrine.

John Quincy Adams

6th U.S. President (1825-1829), son of the second president, who advocated for national infrastructure development and educational initiatives.

Andrew Jackson

7th U.S. President (1829-1837), founder of the Democratic Party, known for expanding voting rights to most white men and signing the Indian Removal Act.

Martin Van Buren

8th U.S. President (1837-1841) and first president born as an American citizen, whose term was dominated by the Panic of 1837.

William Henry Harrison

9th U.S. President (1841) who served the shortest tenure in U.S. history after dying of illness just 31 days into his term.

John Tyler

10th U.S. President (1841-1845), the first vice president to succeed to the presidency upon the death of an incumbent, who oversaw the annexation of Texas.

James K. Polk

11th U.S. President (1845-1849) who oversaw major territorial expansion through the Oregon Treaty and victory in the Mexican-American War.

Zachary Taylor

12th U.S. President (1849-1850), a national military hero from the Mexican-American War who died unexpectedly 16 months into his presidency.

Millard Fillmore

13th U.S. President (1850-1853) who succeeded to office following Zachary Taylor's death and signed the Compromise of 1850.

Franklin Pierce

14th U.S. President (1853-1857) whose signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 escalated regional tensions over slavery.

James Buchanan

15th U.S. President (1857-1861) whose inability to resolve severe sectional division over slavery directly preceded Southern secession.

Abraham Lincoln

16th U.S. President (1861-1865) who preserved the Union during the American Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Andrew Johnson

17th U.S. President (1865-1869) who assumed office after Lincoln's assassination and became the first U.S. president to be impeached.

Ulysses S. Grant

18th U.S. President (1869-1877) and former Commanding General of the Union Army who enforced Reconstruction laws and protected civil rights.

Rutherford B. Hayes

19th U.S. President (1877-1881) who assumed office after the disputed Election of 1876, marking the formal end of the Reconstruction Era.

James A. Garfield

20th U.S. President (1881) whose presidency was cut short when he was assassinated six months after taking office.