Herbert Hoover was a successful engineer and businessman. He held a number of appointed positions, including serving as Secretary of Commerce for Presidents Harding and Coolidge, but had never held elected office before winning the 1928 election in a landslide. Eight months after he took office, the stock market crashed and the Great Depression hit the United States. Hoover's reaction to the economic crisis is almost universally considered to be inadequate. He did embark on some public works projects (Hoover Dam), but nothing of the scale necessary to address the severity of the crisis. Not only was his economic policy inadequate, Hoover embarked on an episode of racial deportation that is rarely taught to our children: the so-called Mexican Repatriation forcefully deported between 500,000 and 2,000,000 Mexican-Americans, up to 60 percent of whom may have been native born American citizens. Hoover's policy on this matter meets the modern definition of ethnic cleansing, and is largely thought to have made the Depression worse. He lost the 1932 election in a landslide--the swing from his winning landslide in 1928 to his defeat in 1932 is the largest percentage swing in U.S. history.
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Warren Harding was an unexpected winner of the Republican nomination for the election of 1920. Once nominated, however, he easily won with a campaign calling for a "return to normalcy." He had a strong cabinet and some notable successes: The Washington Naval Treaty was an arms limitation treaty that met the anti-war spirit of the post Great War era, and that treaty held for ten years. Harding's popularity and achievements were all tarnished by scandals that emerged after his death. He died suddenly of a heart attack while on a speaking tour in the western United States in 1923. He was the 6th President in 130 years to die in office. Woodrow Wilson served as Governor of New Jersey and President of Princeton Universitybefore being elected President of the United States. He was President during the United States' participation in WWI, and he was one of the key architects of the Treaty of Versailles and the establishment of the League of Nations. After suffering a stroke late in his second term, he was unable to muster sufficient support in the Senate for for the Treaty of Versailles. The United States did not ratify the treaty and remained outside the League of Nations. For a fellow with so much to say about liberty and resistance, Wilson was slow to act upon the protests of American women, though he did eventually support the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in August of 1920. In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the 5th Vice President to assume the presidency upon the death of the elected president. In this case, the assassination of William McKinley, the third U.S. President to be assassinated, led to Roosevelt becoming president. At 42 years old, Theodore Roosevelt remains, as of 2018, the youngest person to serve as President of the United States. William McKinley was the last President to have fought in the Civil War, and the only one to have fought as a private. He led the US during its last period of significant expansion, acquiring a number of territories (including Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Phillipines) by defeating Spain in the Spanish-American War. During his first term, the United States also annexed the Kingdom of Hawaii. The economy boomed under McKinley, and he was elected to a second term. McKinley became the 3d US President to be assassinated in September, 1801. He was shot by an American anarchist. His Vice-President, Theodore Roosevelt, became President.
Stephen Grover Cleveland is the only president to serve 2 non-consecutive terms. Even though he won the popular vote in the elections of 1884, 1888, and 1892, he lost the electoral college vote in 1888. It you have ever wondered why our current president is the 45th President, but there are only 44 men who have served as President, here is your answer: Cleveland occupies 2 discontinuous spots, as both the 22d and the 24th President of the United States. |
AuthorAuthor of Thy King Dumb Come and Accountability Citizenship, Stephen P. Tryon is a businessman and technologist with extensive experience in e-commerce, a retired Soldier, and former Senate Fellow. Archives
January 2024
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