Presidents

George Washington (1789-1797):

  • moderate/leaned federalist

  • Revolutionary war won

  • Farewell address → no political parties, no permanent alliances

  • Proclamation of Neutrality (1793)

  • Presidential cabinet/Supreme Court set up

  • Whiskey Tax/National Bank (with Hamilton help)

  • Ratification of Bill of Rights (1791)

  • Whiskey Rebellion (1791-1794)

  • Jay’s Treaty (1794)


John Adams (1797-1801):

  • Federalist

  • XYZ Affair

  • Quasi War with France → ended with Convention of 1800

  • Alien and Sedition Acts → Kentucky/Virginia Resolutions nullified


Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809):

  • Anti-Federalist (Democratic-Republican)

  • Kept most of Hamilton’s economic plan w/o Whiskey Excise Tax

  • Louisiana Purchase (justified by elastic clause)

  • Vision of agrarian society

  • Chesapeake-Leopard Affair

  • Embargo Act shuts down foreign trade (disaster)


James Madison (1809-1817):

  • Democratic-Republican

  • Nonintercourse Act of 1809

  • Dealt with British impressment

  • War of 1812 → ended with Treaty of Ghent

  • Hartford Convention (Federalists discuss secession → death of Federalist party)


James Monroe (1817-1825):

  • Democratic-Republican

  • Surge of nationalism/”Era of Good Feelings”

  • Monroe Doctrine (isolationism)

  • Panic of 1819

  • Canada boundary established & Florida Purchase Treaty 

  • Missouri Compromise


John Quincy Adams (1825-1829):

  • Won Election of 1824 due to “corrupt bargain” (made Clay Secretary of State)

  • Did not win reelection


Andrew Jackson (1829-1837):

  • Democrat

  • Appealed to the “common man”

  • Spoils system

  • Tariff of Abominations → Nullification Crisis

  • Force Bill

  • Indian Removal Act → Trail of Tears

  • Bank War → death of national bank → pet banks

  • Financial Panic of 1837

  • Birth of Whig Party (Jackson seen as too powerful) → 2-party system again


James Polk (1845-1849):

  • Democrat

  • Expansionist

  • “54-40 or Fight”

  • Annexation of Texas

  • Provoked Mexican-American War

  • Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo → Mexican Cession & Rio Grande border of TX


Franklin Pierce (1853-1857):

  • Democrat

  • Ostend Manifesto (leaked)

  • Gadsden Purchase added strip of land to Southwest

  • In favor of Fugitive Slave Law

  • Kansas-Nebraska Act → birth of Republican Party


Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865):

  • Republican

  • Focus on border states

  • Civil War (purpose changed from saving the Union to anti-slavery)

  • Emancipation Proclamation (actually freed no slaves)

  • 13th Amendment

  • Suspended some civil liberties during wartime (like habeas corpus)


Andrew Johnson (1865-1869):

  • Democrat

  • Took over reconstruction after Lincoln’s assassination

  • Wade-Davis Bill (required 50% of voters to have loyalty to union

  • Vetoed Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights Act

  • Congress passed 14th Amendment

  • First president to be impeached


Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877):

  • Republican

  • Passed 15th Amendment

  • Civil Rights Act of 1875

  • Amnesty Act


Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881):

  • Republican

  • Election → end of federal military presence in the South


Teddy Roosevelt (1901-1909):

  • Republican

  • Square Deal → distinction between good and bad trusts

  • Busted Northern Securities

  • Strengthened business regulation/sided with laborers

  • Conservationist → created national park system

  • Formed Bull Moose Party

  • Big Stick Policy

  • Expanded Monroe Doctrine with Roosevelt Corollary (Latin America ok)

  • Showed off US naval power with Great White Fleet


Taft (1909-1913):

  • Republican

  • Prosecuted US Steel

  • Passed 16th Amendment (graduated income tax)

  • Republicans felt betrayed by his progressive achievements (party split)


Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921):

  • Democrat

  • Saw all trusts as bad

  • Attacked “triple wall of privilege” (tariffs, banking, trusts)

  • Proposed national banking system overseen by Federal Reserve Board

  • Allowed segregation

  • Elected on platform of peace (promised to stay out of war), but entered WWI

  • Fourteen Points (proposal of League of Nations)

  • Endorsed women’s suffrage with 19th Amendment, but also passed Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act

  • Argued for ratification of Treaty of Versailles (never accomplished)


Warren G. Harding (1921-1923):

  • Republican

  • “Return to normalcy” after WWI


Calvin Coolidge:



Herbert Hoover (1929-1933):

  • Republican

  • Did “too little, too late” after Great Depression

  • Set up RFC, saying the benefits to big institutions would trickle down

  • “Lame duck” president until FDR’s election → 20th Amendment


FDR (1933-1945):

  • Democrat

  • Paralyzed by polio, but hid it from the American public

  • Advised by Brain Trust

  • Had arguably the most successful first 100 days

  • New Deal (created jobs and economic/social reform programs)

  • Repealed Prohibition with the 21st Amendment

  • Fireside chats on radio

  • Used deficit spending/Keynesian Economics to combat Great Depression effects

  • “Relief, recovery, reform”

  • Court packing plan → end of his successful presidency

  • Gave Quarantine Speech to gauge public opinion on entering WW2

  • Four Freedoms speech

  • Lend-Lease Act

  • Part of Big Three with Stalin and Churchill


Harry S. Truman (1945-1953):

  • Democrat

  • Part of Potsdam conference → demanded unconditional Japan surrender and held Nazi war-crime trials

  • Desegregated the military

  • Fair Deal

  • Adopted containment policy against communism

  • Truman Doctrine (asked Congress for $ to aid Greece & Turkey against communism)

  • Marshall Plan → gave financial aid to West European countries

  • Joined NATO

  • National Security Act (modernized defense)

  • Korean War

  • Set up Loyalty Review Board during Second Red Scare


Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961):

  • Republican

  • “I Like Ike” slogan

  • Saw containment as too passive → “new look” foreign policy/brinkmanship

  • Eisenhower Doctrine (pledged aid to Middle Eastern countries threatened by communism)

  • Arms race

  • Domino theory (largely applied to Vietnam)

  • Farewell address warned against “military-industrial complex”


JFK (1961-1963):

  • Democrat

  • Space race (man on the Moon)

  • March on Washington


LBJ (1963-1969):

  • Democrat

  • Civil Rights Act of 1964 (no segregation in public places)

  • 24th Amendment (abolished poll taxes)

  • Voting Rights Act

  • Great Society

  • War on Poverty

  • Gets “blank check” with Tonkin Gulf Resolution

  • Tet Offensive


Richard Nixon (1969-1974):

  • Republican

  • Vietnamization (“peace with honor”)

  • Invasion of Cambodia → Kent State protests

  • War Powers Act (overturns Tonkin Gulf Resolution)

  • Watergate Scandal → increased distrust of government

  • Nixon Doctrine (Asian allies would receive US support, but not with troops)

  • Policy of détente (reduction of Cold War tensions)

  • Elected by silent majority

  • Only president to resign


Jimmy Carter (1977-1981):

  • Democrat

  • Gave “malaise speech” talking about crisis of confidence in America

  • Camp David Accords


Ronald Reagan (1981-1989):

  • Republican

  • Elected by Moral Majority (evangelical Christians part of New Right)

  • Reaganomics (tax cuts means future investments)

  • Cut discretionary programs

  • “Star Wars” initiative

  • Berlin Wall Speech

  • Reagan Doctrine (pledged aid against communism everywhere)



Bill Clinton (1993-2001):

  • Democrat

  • “Don’t ask, don’t tell” military policy


George W. Bush (2001-2009):

  • Republican

  • Aggressive approach in War on Terrorism

  • Patriot Acts

  • Bush Doctrine (justified in using preemptive attacks to stop acquisition/use of weapons of mass destruction)