Tag: Presidents

Twenty-fifth through thirty

February 13, 2026

Let’s continue with the twenty-fifth President of the United States. William McKinley served from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. The first to serve in the twentieth century, he was known for imperialism and protectionism. He was reelected in 1900.

He was shot on September sixth, 1901, died on the fourteenth, and his assassin was convicted and executed on October twenty-ninth. Talk about swift justice. Why, with all our more civilized laws, does it take over ten years to accomplish the same thing?

I think many of you have heard of his vice president who became President number 26. Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in and served until 1909. The hero of the Spanish-American War defeated his Democratic opponent and declared he would only run for an additional term in 1904. His choice to succeed him as the Republican candidate was William Howard Taft.

I know you’ve never heard of him. As our twenty-seventh President he served from 1909 to 1913. He is best known for being the only person to serve as President and a Supreme Court Judge. By the time the 1912 election began, Teddy Roosevelt had changed his mind about Taft and opposed him for the Republican nomination.

The organization of Roosevelt’s Progressive Party to oppose Taft caused the election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson in the 1912 election. Taft narrowly defeated the Republican Charles Evans Hughes in 1916. The First World War began in 1917 while he was serving his second term. He advocated the establishment of the League of Nations but opposed the ratification of the treaty to allow the U.S. to join.

The 1920 election saw Wilson running for a third term and losing to Republican Warren G. Harding. He was popular at the time, but after his death, some scandals caused him to fall from favor. The twenty-ninth President died of a heart attack in 1923, and his vice president succeeded him.

Calvin Coolidge was well known in the 1960s. Floyd Lawson, the barber on the Andy Griffith show, was known for attributing many quotes to him. I am not sure if they ever told us anything notable that he said. Silent Cal led our country through the roaring twenties. Fortunately, he was the first V.P. to be invited to attend cabinet meetings.

When the 1924 nomination was made, he took it on the first ballot. As the thirtieth man to hold the office, there are many stories about why he was not more outspoken. One that seems to have been verified as true was that he said, “I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President, and I think I will go along with them.”

Too bad that many of those who followed him did not feel the same way. Now we seem to have to try to forget what the politicians say as quickly as they open their mouths. Next, we will learn about the Great Depression and who blamed whom for it.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

The Sixteenth President

February 9, 2026

Let’s see the hands of all of you who do not know this man’s name. I thought so, only three raised your hands. The rest of you knew it was Abraham Lincoln. This was the year of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate. Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861 and was blamed for causing the War Between the States, commonly referred to as the Civil War.

I imagine not as many of you know the name of the seventeenth President. Andrew Johnson was a War Democrat who ran with Lincoln in 1864 for the National Union Party and was the Vice President when he was assassinated. The Republican led Congress impeached him, but the Senate acquitted him by one vote. He was not chosen to run for a second term and left office in 1869.

Ulysses S. Grant had been the Union General attributed to the defeat of the Confederate States. The Republicans nominated him, and he led the Union back to the vigor that had been lost for years. He was credited with unifying the southern and northern states until the twentieth century, when Southern Democrats defamed him. He served as our eighteenth President until 1877.

Rutherford B. Hayes, another Republican, was elected in 1876. There was a problem before he was declared the winner of the election. It was called the Compromise of 1877 when a Congressional Commission awarded twenty contested Electoral votes to Hayes. He stood by his promise not to run for a second term.

The twentieth President is James A. Garfield, who took office in 1881. He was shot in July and died in September, and was succeeded by his Vice President, Chester A. Arthur. Garfield was known for his anti-corruption and pro-civil rights stance. He is often ignored by those who rank our Presidents.

President Arthur continued the reform of the civil service that was begun by his predecessor. A widower, whose wife died shortly before he became Vice President, his sister, Mary, served as White House hostess. He failed to gain the 1884 Republican nomination. Biographers refer to him as one of the most distrusted Presidents when his administration began, but widely respected when he stepped down.

The first Democrat to be elected President after the Civil War was Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th on the list. His first term was from 1885 to 1889, and his second was from 1893 to 1897. He was considered a classic liberal and owed his first win to a defection of some Republicans.

In 1888, the popular vote went to Cleveland even though Benjamin Harrison received more electoral votes. Six western states were added from 1889 to 1893, and the US Navy was refurbished. His tariffs increased the Federal budget but cost him the election in Cleveland.

He was not the only President to lose his second bid for the position due to the economic state of the country during his second attempt. Most economic experts believe that it takes a minimum of twelve years for Presidential policies to affect our economy to a significant extent. Next time, we start with the twenty-fifth man to hold the office.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger

More Presidents

February 8, 2026

We begin here with William Henry Harrison, number nine, who was elected in 1840 and inaugurated on March 4, 1841. His slogan was Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. He was the hero of the battle there in 1811, and John Tyler ran as his Vice President. His inauguration address was almost two hours long. He died one month after he took office.

His death was originally attributed to pneumonia contracted on inauguration day and later found to be septic shock. John Tyler became the tenth President after much discussion about the succession process. Harrison was the first chief executive to die while holding the office.

John Tyler was a member of the Whig party, like his predecessor and running mate. He finished the term for which they were elected and was well known as a states’ rights supporter. He was opposed by some of his own party for seizing the Presidency that the Constitution said he was entitled to. These squabbles resulted in this being his only term.

In 1845, James K. Polk became the eleventh President. I’m guessing that most of you have never heard of him. He served only one term, which ended in 1849. He was a Democrat and gained the office because he was supported by former President Jackson. The Whigs were divided, so were the Democrats, and the Republicans hadn’t had a viable candidate since they split from the Democrats.

The 1948 Election year was focused on the Mexican American war and all the divisions due to economic difficulties and the westward expansion after Mexico, Spain, and Great Britain made agreements during the Polk years to allow for this. A hero of that war, Zachary Taylor, was the 12th President from 1849 to 1850.

His Vice President, Millard Fillmore, finished the term. Taylor died of some sort of stomach ailment, possibly cancer, on July 9, 1850. Filmore openly declared slavery evil and helped form the Compromise of 1850, which gave a cooling period for the North and South over that issue. Filmore was from upstate New York and was needed on the Whig ticket to make Zachary Taylor more palatable for the Presidency. Filmore was the last Whig to be President.

Franklin Pierce became the fourteenth President on March 4, 1853. His wife was not there due to the earlier death of their last son. He was a Democrat and was viewed as a compromise between the North and the South. He supported the Fugitive Slave Act and was not his party’s candidate in 1856.

That was when James Buchanan was nominated as the Democrat candidate and defeated former President Filmore that ran on the American Party ticket, and John C. Fremont, the Republican Candidate. He served as the fifteenth President and spent the next four years trying to keep the union together.

In my next column, I will begin with our sixteenth President. If you do not know his name, sit tight, and I will reveal the two famous candidates for the position in 1860. I do not think many of you will be surprised at the winner.

©Copyright 2026 by Charles Kensinger