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• us history notes:
• 17th edition (current)
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U.S. President Summaries

1. George Washington (1789-1797)
   • 1^st President
   • Supported the 1^st Bank of the United States
   • Served 2 Terms


2. John Adams (1797-1801)
   • Federalist
   • Sedition Acts
   • Alien Laws
   • XYZ Affair
   • Served 1 Term

3. Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)
   • Democratic-Republican (Jeffersonian)
   • Embargo Act -- Non-Intercourse Act
   • Wanted Small Military
   • John Marshall
   • Louisiana Purchase
   • James Monroe, Robert Livingston
   • Meriwether Lewis, William Clark
   • Served 2 Terms

4. James Madison (1809-1817)
   • Democratic-Republican
   • Macon's Bill No. 2
   • War of 1812 -- Treaty of Ghent (1814)
   • Tariff of 1816
   • Rejected Nationally-Funded Roads
   • Served 2 Terms

5. James Monroe (1817-1825)
   • Democratic-Republican
   • "Era of Good Feelings"
   • Panic of 1819
   • Missouri Compromise
   • Monroe Doctrine
   • Served 2 Terms

6. John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)
   • Democrat *
   • Strong Nationalist
   • Opposed Slavery
   • Supported the building of nationally-funded roads and canals
   • Served 1 Term

7. Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
   • Democrat
   • "Bank War"
   • "Panic of 1837"
   • Trail of Tears
   • Common Man
   • Spoils System
   • Served 2 Terms

8. Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)
   • Democratic
   • Divorce Bill
   • Independent Treasury Bill
   • His delayed actions to end the Panic of 1837 caused the economic downturn to continue for many years.
   • Served 1 Term

9. William Henry Harrison (1841)
   • Whig
   • Died in Office on April 4, 1841
   • Served 1 Term**

10. John Tyler (1841-1845)
    • Whig
    • Democrat at Heart
    • Vetoes Bank of United States
    • Lowered Tariff
    • Served 1 Term

11. James K. Polk (1845-1849)
    • Democrat
    • Oregon Country w/Britain
    • Mexican-American War
    • Served 1 Term

12. Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
    • Whig
    • Underground Railroad
    • Gold Rush
    • Congressional Debate of 1850
    • Died in Office on July 9, 1850
    • Served 1 Term**

13. Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
    • Whig
    • Compromise of 1850
    • Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850
    • "2^nd Era of Good Feelings"
    • Served 1 Term

14. Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
    • Democrat
    • Cuba/Nicaragua
    • Transcontinental Railroad
    • Kansas-Nebraska Act
    • Lecompton Constitution with Kansas
    • Served 1 Term

15. James Buchanan (1857-1861)
    • Democrat
    • Dred Scott Case
    • Panic of 1857
    • John Brown
    • Served 1 Term

16. Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
    • Republican
    • Civil War
    • Emancipation Proclamation
    • Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theater
    • Served 2 Terms**

17. Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
    • Democrat
    • Reconstruction
    • Clashes with Congress
    • Impeached -- 1 Vote Shy of Being Removed from Office
    • Served 1 Term

18. Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877)
    • Republican
    • Political Corruption
    • Credit Mobilier Scandal
    • Panic of 1873
    • Served 2 Terms

19. Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
    • Republican
    • Hayes-Tilden Standoff
    • Electoral Count Act (Compromise of 1877)
    • Civil Rights Act of 1875
    • Jim Crow Laws
    • Served 1 Term

20. James A. Garfield (1881)
    • Republican
    • Assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau on September 19, 1881
    • Served 1 Term**

21. Chester A. Arthur (1881-1884)
    • Republican
    • Pendleton Act of 1883
    • Attempted to stop political corruption
    • Civil Service Commission
    • Served 1 Term

22. Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)
    • Democrat
    • Proposed a lower tariff to Congress to bring lower prices to consumers-cost he and his party the next election
    • Served 1 Term

23. Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
    • Republican
    • Billion-Dollar Congress
    • McKinley Tariff Act of 1890
    • Discredited Republican Party
    • McKinley Tariff Act of 1890 -- brought more economic troubles to farmers
    • Sherman Silver Act Purchase of 1890 -- precursor to the Panic of 1893
    • Depreciated the value of silver due to the drastic rise of silver in circulation.
    • Served 1 Term

24. Grover Cleveland (1893-1897)
    • Democrat
    • Panic of 1893
    • Sherman Silver Act Purchase of 1890
    • Anti-imperialist
    • Served 1 Term

25. William McKinley (1897-1901)
    • Republican
    • Gold Standard Act of 1900
    • Imperialist
    • Annexation of Hawaii
    • Assassinated by a deranged anarchist on September 14, 1901
    • Served 1 Term**

26. Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
    • Republican
    • Panama Canal
    • Roosevelt Corollary
    • Progressivism
    • Panic of 1907
    • Served 2 Terms

27. William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
    • Republican
    • Trust Breaker
    • Progressivism
    • Served 1 Term

28. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
    • Democrat
    • Federal Reserve Act
    • World War I
    • Fourteen Points Address
    • League of Nations
    • Treaty of Versailles
    • 18^th Amendment -- Prohibition
    • 19^th Amendment -- Women Suffrage
    • "Red Scare"
    • Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti
    • Served 2 Terms

29. Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
    • Republican
    • "Roaring Twenties"
    • Automobile Industry
    • Aviation Industry
    • Flappers
    • Corruption
    • Teapot Dome Scandal
    • Soft President
    • Five Power Treaty/Four Power Treaty
    • Died in Office on August 2, 1923
    • Served 1 Term**

30. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
    • Republican
    • Capper-Volstead Act
    • Dawes Plan of 1924
    • Served 1 Term

31. Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
    • Republican
    • McNary-Haugen Bill
    • Hawley-Smoot Tariff
    • The Great Depression
    • "Black Tuesday"(October 29, 1929)
    • Served 1 Term

32. Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
    • Democrat
    • New Deal
    • Relief, Recovery, Reform
    • Did Not Work
    • World War II
    Yalta Conference
    • Died in Office on April 12, 1945
    • Served 4 Terms***

33. Harry S Truman (1945-1953)
    • Democrat
    • End of World War II
    • Division of Germany
    • United Nations
    • Postwar Economy
    • Servicemen's Readjustment Act (GI Bill)
    • Served 2 Terms

34. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
    • Republican
    • Armistice signed -- "ending" the Korean War
    • McCarthyism
    • "Operation Wetback"
    • Rounded up a million illegal Mexican immigrants
    • Strategic Air Command (SAC)
    • Space Race
    • Sputnik I and Sputnik II
    • National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
    • Served 2 terms

35. John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
    • Democrat
    • Catholic
    • New Frontier
    • Peace Corps
    • Strategy of Flexible Response
    • Bay of Pigs
    • Cuban Missile Crisis
    • Arms Race
    • Tax Cuts
    • Assassinated on November 22, 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald
    • Served 1 term**

36. Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)
    • Democrat
    • Civil Rights
    • Civil Rights Act of 1964
    • Voting Rights Act of 1965
    • Affirmative Action
    • Gulf of Tonkin
    • Vietnam War
    • War on Poverty
    • "Great Society"
    • Medicare
    • Medicaid
    • Counterculture
    • Served 2 terms

37. Richard Nixon (1969-1974)
    • Republican
    • Vietnamization
    • Détente Policy with China and the Soviet Union
    • End of Vietnam War
    • Last Americans were evacuated from Vietnam on April 29, 1975
    • Dr. Henry A. Kissinger
    • Resigned from office in 1974 following the Watergate Scandal
    • Served 2 terms**

38. Gerald Ford (1974-1977)
    • Republican
    • Helsinki Accords
    • Served 1 term**

39. Jimmy Carter (1977-1981)
    • Democrat
    • Rising Inflation
    • Oil Crisis
    • Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan
    • Iranian Hostage Crisis
    • Served 1 term

40. Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
    • Republican
    • Neo-conservatism
    • Reduced the size of the government
    • Cut taxes
    • Shrunk the federal budget
    • Supply-side Economics
    • Increase in Military Spending
    • Large increase in national debt
    • Increasingly Friendly Relations with the Soviet Union
    • Served 2 terms

41. George Bush (1989-1993)
    • Republican
    • Persian Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm)
    • Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait
    • Americans with Disabilities Act
    • Served 1 term

42. Bill Clinton (1993-2001)
    • Democrat
    • Favored minorities and women
    • North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
    • Impeached on charges of perjury
    • 2^nd president to be impeached
    • Not removed from office
    • Served 2 terms

43. George W. Bush (2001-2009)
    • Republican
    • World Trade Center Attacks (September 11, 2001)
    • Started War in Afghanistan
    • Started War in Iraq
    • Capture of Saddam Hussein
    • Served 2 terms

44. Barack Obama (2009-2017)
    • Democrat
    • First African American to be President
    • Affordable Health Care Act
    • Served 2 terms

45. Donald Trump (2017-present)
    • Republican
    • Impeached two times
    • Abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Biden family
    • Incitement of insurrection related to his attempt to overthrow the 2020 election
    • Acquitted both times by Republican Senate majority
    • Served 1 term

46. Joe Biden (2021-present)
    • Democrat

* From 1826 and on, Democratic-Republicans were just called Democrats, and from 1854 and on, Whigs were called Republicans.

** Started to serve 1 or 2 term(s).

*** Only president to serve more than 2 terms.