My Science School

It is interesting how Harding came to power. As senator, he was a responsible man and hardly had any enemies. This was because he never voiced his opinions regarding any issue. In 1920, when the Republican Party could not decide on the candidate for president, Senator Harding was selected as a surprising compromise. He won the elections as well. However, Warren G. Harding’s tenure did not end with a clean chit.

Harding’s cabinet hosted an array of outstanding leaders and tough politicians. He was a poor judge of character; to his disappointment, his officers did not repay him with integrity as he expected. What he got in return was scandal after scandal. A lot of his officers were involved in taking bribes. Matters came to a head when the Teapot Dome Scandal broke.

One of Harding’s advisors took a bribe in return for allowing an oil company to drill on in Teapot Dome, Wyoming. This land had been set aside for the U.S. Navy. This event became known as the Teapot Dome Scandal. The scam almost ended his political career.

He was advised to stay away from Washington for a while. While returning, he suffered a severe abdominal pain and died soon either of a heart attack or a stroke. His wife Flossie destroyed many of Harding’s personal papers and his letters after his death, hoping to avoid even more gossip and scandal.

Though there were many scandals during his tenure, Harding embraced technology and was sensitive to the plights of minorities and women. He also hosted the Washington Naval Disarmament Conference in 1921. This conference succeeded in getting the world’s major powers to agree to stop the race in production of large naval vessels.

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Woodrow Wilson was nominated for president at the 1912 Democratic Convention. His presidential campaign was known as the New Freedom, and revolved around banking reforms, business reforms and tariff reductions. Though he received only 42 per cent of the popular vote, he received an overwhelming electoral vote that assured his victory.

Woodrow Wilson was first noted by the Democrats due to his growing national reputation. He first ran for the governor of New Jersey. Before beginning a career in politics, he worked as a professor and practiced law.

Wilson did a good job with the Congress; he helped bring about shorter work days, and made it possible for farmers to get loans. He was against child labour and kept children from working in dangerous jobs. However, his hope to keep America out of the First World War did not bear fruit.

The war got worse. After a policy of neutrality at the outbreak of World War I, Wilson led America into war. Wilson stated American war aims known as the Fourteen Points. It was a plan to end secret agreements between nations; it would also establish a general association of nations that would make way for mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to all states alike.

Wilson fought for the creation of the League of Nations. It was an organization of countries that would find peaceful solutions to conflicts. The League later led to the formation of the United Nations.

Wilson suffered a severe stroke in October 1919 and was incapacitated for the remainder of his presidency.

Wilson retired from public office in 1921 and died in 1924. Scholars have generally ranked Wilson as one of the most effective U.S. presidents.

William Howard Taft succeeded to the office of president from Theodore Roosevelt. A few years after his tenure, he became the tenth Chief Justice of the United States, making him the only former president to become Chief Justice. Taft is the only person to have served in both of these offices. Taft was a president who disliked politics. In fact, he once said, “Politics, when I am in it, makes me sick.” He was never good at pleasing his voters with words.

Taft’s presidency is linked to Roosevelt; Theodore Roosevelt and Taft were good friends and they admired each other’s talent. During Roosevelt’s tenure, he made Taft his Secretary of War. And when Roosevelt decided not to run again in 1908, he asked his supporters to choose Taft. It was his wife who convinced Taft to accept the nomination.

Taft disappointed Roosevelt’s expectations. His policies differed from that of his political guru. Things took a turn when he fired Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot was the head of the Bureau of Forestry and an ardent conservationist who was a friend of Roosevelt. With this incident, the Republicans withdrew their support. When Roosevelt came back from a safari in Africa, they urged him to publicly oppose his political successor. Though Roosevelt was initially against this idea, what followed was a merciless conflict between two friends at the end of which, the Republicans lost to the Democrats.

Taft taught law after retiring from office. Years later, he was named chief justice of the Supreme Court by President Harding. It was a dream-come-true moment for him. Taft held this position until just before his death in 1930. To Taft, this appointment was his greatest honour. He once wrote, ‘I don’t remember that I ever was president.’

When Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the president in 1901, he was just 43, thus becoming the youngest president of the country till then.

Before joining politics, he was a war hero. His performance on the battlefield paved the way for his political career. He certainly brought new excitement and power to the office. He led the Congress and the American public towards progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy, Roosevelt expanded the powers of the presidency and the federal government in support of the public interest. His policies were successful in dealing with the conflicts between big business and labour forces. He used his power as the president to force businesses to follow rules of fairness in dealing with workers.

Roosevelt played a seminal role in shaping America as a superpower in world politics, particularly in Europe and Asia. It was Roosevelt who secured the route and began construction of the Panama Canal. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

President Roosevelt also cared about the environment. During his tenure, large areas were added to the national forests in the West. He also reserved lands for public use, and fostered great irrigation projects.

Roosevelt was popular amongst his people and won the office for a second time too. Though he enjoyed being the president, he felt that too many terms would eventually give way to dictatorship. Therefore, he did not run for president the third time.

In 1912, the political circumstances forced him to run for president once again, representing the newly-formed Progressive Party. A fanatic shot him while campaigning in Milwaukee. But he recovered soon. He did not win the election, however.

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“...every one admires Captain McKinley as one of the bravest and finest young officers in the Army.” This was written by Rutherford Hayes, 19th American president about a smart William McKinley who went on to become the 25th president of the country.

William McKinley was the last president to have served in the American Civil War. He was also the only one to have started the war as an enlisted soldier. He became a brevet major by the time the war ended. He became the Republican Party’s expert on various issues. In 1896, he ran as the Republican Party’s candidate for president and won.

McKinley’s Administration strived to develop and improve foreign policy. It did not care much about the prosperity of the country. It was a time when America was affected by the stalemate between Spanish forces and revolutionaries in Cuba. There was pressure on McKinley to call for a war. Though McKinley tried for a neutral intervention in April 1898, he later had to declare war after the Spanish blew up the U.S. battleship Maine in the harbour of Havana, Cuba.

What followed was a war that lasted 100 days. The United States destroyed the Spanish fleet, seized Manila in the Philippines, and occupied Puerto Rico. The war established the U.S. as a world power. McKinley was elected again in 1900. However, his second term ended tragically in September 1901; he was shot by Leon Czolgosz, a deranged anarchist.

He died eight days later and was succeeded by his vice president, Theodore Roosevelt.

Benjamin Harrison’s knowledge about politics dated back to a very young age. He was born into a political family. His great grandfather was a signatory of the Declaration of Independence. His grandfather was William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the U.S. His father was a U.S. congressman. No wonder, Benjamin followed the path of his ancestors.

During the Civil War, Harrison served as an officer in the Union army. After the war, he resumed the career of a lawyer. He established himself as a prominent politician in Indiana. Though he lost the governorship of Indiana in 1876, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1881. Failures precede success and this held true for Harrison. He lost one presidential election to Cleveland, but was victorious in 1888.

As president, Harrison worked to pass the Sherman Antitrust Act. This law was passed to protect people from high prices charged by big companies who did not have competition. He also organized the first Pan American Congress in Washington in 1889 and established an information centre which later came to be known as the Pan American Union. By the end of his tenure, he had submitted a plan to annex Hawaii. This however, did not bear fruit immediately.

Though he was nominated again in 1892, Harrison was defeated by Cleveland. He spent his retirement years in Indianapolis and died of pneumonia in 1901.

Harrison was a much sought-after public speaker; a series of his lectures delivered at Stanford University was published in 1901 as Views of an Ex-President.

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Grover Cleveland, the 22nd president, was also the 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is also the only president to serve two terms that were separated by another president’s term. He was also the first Democrat elected after the Civil War.

Cleveland was against the idea of high taxes. He felt there shouldn’t be high taxes, or tariffs on goods brought in from other countries. Though he tried to reform the tariff laws, he failed at it. He also ordered an investigation into the lands held by the railroads and forced them to return 8,10,00,000 acres, something that made them very angry. In addition to this, Cleveland signed the Interstate Commerce Act, the first law attempting Federal regulation of the railroads.

Though Cleveland lost the 1888 election to Benjamin Harrison, he was back as president in 1892. The economy was in bad shape when he was sworn in for the second time. It got much worse during his tenure. The public perceived Cleveland as one of the most unpopular U.S. presidents, mainly because of these economic problems.

Let us now talk about Cleveland’s early years. He was born in New Jersey in 1837. After studies, Cleveland went on to become a lawyer. He was noted for his single-minded concentration upon whatever task he was given.

Later Cleveland became the mayor of Buffalo, New York, and then governor of the state.

In 1876, the Republicans nominated Rutherford B. Hayes for the president. He won through the Compromise of 1877, an agreement that officially ended the ‘Reconstruction’ by leaving the South to govern itself.

Hayes was accused of fraud during the election of 1876 against his opponent Samuel Tilden. At first it looked like Hayes had lost. He had fewer electoral votes than Tilden. However, several electoral votes were in dispute. Congress had to decide who these votes would go to. They picked Hayes. The Democrats from the southern states were not happy with this. They said Hayes and the Republicans had cheated. In order to work out a compromise, Hayes and the Republicans agreed that federal troops would be removed from the South. In return, the South agreed to accept Hayes as president. This signalled the end of the Reconstruction.

Hayes wanted to restore the trust of citizens in the government that was lost during the term of President Grant. During his tenure, Hayes implemented modest civil-service reforms. It was Hayes who vetoed the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 which sought to put silver money into circulation. Hayes insisted that the maintenance of the gold standard was essential to economic recovery. He also advocated equal education of African-American children.

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James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States was also shot dead, just like Abraham Lincoln. Garfield was elected as the president in 1881. He was an impactful leader and a worthy successor to Abraham Lincoln. But he did not rule America for more than 200 days.

James Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831. His father died when he was two. He was raised by his single mother and had a tough childhood. He drove canal boats to earn money for education.

James Garfield joined politics after graduating from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1856. Later, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield repeatedly won re-election for 18 years, and became the leading Republican in the House before becoming the president.

During his tenure, Garfield wanted to make the U.S. economy stronger. He wanted to put an end to the spoils system. According to the spoils system, the members of the winning political party could get government jobs even if they weren’t qualified. Garfield was against this practice.

It was Charles J. Guiteau, an embittered attorney who shot the president on July 2, 1881, in a Washington railroad station. Garfield’s condition was fatal and after suffering much pain, he died from an infection and internal haemorrhage on 19 September, 1881, just six months after taking office.

Chester A. Arthur emigrated from Northern Ireland to the U.S. with his father. During his youth, Arthur taught in a school to pay for college. During the Civil War he was in charge of supplies and food for Union soldiers from New York. After the war, he worked as a lawyer and helped many African Americans get fair treatment which made him popular.

Chester A. Arthur became the president of the country all of a sudden, after President Garfield was brutally assassinated. He took the presidential oath on 19 September 1881 and was sworn in as the 21st President of America. At first many people believed that he was unworthy of the office due to his lack of experience in shaping public policy. But he proved them wrong. Want to know what happened during his tenure?

The Arthur Administration enacted the first general Federal immigration law. Arthur approved a measure, in 1882 excluding paupers, criminals, and lunatics from entering the country. He also surprised people by doing something that no one expected. He worked to do away with the spoils system. Before becoming the president, he had supported the spoils system that we talked about in the previous pages. It was also during his final year as president that the United States acquired a naval station at Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands. Pearl Harbour, as we all know holds a significant place in world history.

Arthur surely won a place in the hearts of his people. Mark Twain wrote of him, ‘It would be hard indeed to better President Arthur’s administration.’ In the Republican convention of 1884, his name was proposed again for the presidential nomination despite the fact that he was suffering from a fatal ailment of the kidneys.

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Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th president of America, was associated with the military right from his childhood. Early on, he went to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He fought in the Mexican War. He also played a major role as an officer in the Army during the Civil War. It was General Grant who accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in 1865.

Grant was an excellent military man, but he was not that good a politician. Though he won the presidential elections twice, in 1868 and 1872, he was politically naive. Many people in his office took advantage of this. Grant’s tenure saw a lot of dishonest deals. Though he was not involved in any of this, he did nothing to stop them either.

After his tenure, Grant partnered in a financial institution that went bankrupt soon. To pay off his debt and take care of his family, Grant started writing about his life. It was then he realized that he had cancer in the gut. He really did race against death to finish his script. Grant died in 1885, soon after finishing the last page. But his words lived on. His memoir earned nearly 4,50,000 dollars!

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After Lincoln was shot dead, America was entrusted in the hands of Andrew Johnson. He became the 17th president of the United States and it was his responsibility to help the North and South work together again.

Much to the disappointment of the Republicans, Johnson continued the lenient policies towards the South that were initiated by Lincoln. He also sanctioned the readmission of those states that were separated from the Union with few provisions for reform or civil rights for freed slaves. Though free, they were largely uneducated and subject to exploitation and mistreatment.

Johnson and Congress agreed on very little. He opposed the granting of citizenship to former slaves. However, the African-Americans were granted citizenship as per the 14th Amendment of the 1866 Congress. Due to the many disagreements, the House of Representatives voted to impeach him in 1868.

This was the first such occurrence in the history of the US. Johnson was not found guilty; however, he ended his term after the trials.

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Abraham Lincoln needs no introduction; he is perhaps the most famous American president. He became the 16th president of the United States in 1861. In 1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared the slaves within the Confederacy free forever.

America was torn apart when Lincoln took office. But he made sure that the country was reunited by the end of his term. He was elected as the president in 1860. Seven states had left the U.S. and had formed the Confederate States of America by the time he took office in 1861. Four more states- Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee- joined the Confederacy soon after. Lincoln said he would fight to save the Union and he did live up to his word.

The rift began when rebels fired on Port Sumter, a U.S. military base. The civil war lasted for almost four years. On January 1, 1863, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. After a long and tragic civil war, Robert E. Lee the Confederate general, surrendered to U. S. General Ulysses S. Grant in 1865.

Lincoln played an influential role in building the Republican Party into a strong national organization. He also successfully brought in many Democrats to the cause of the Union.

Abraham Lincoln was born into a poor Kentucky family. His childhood was tough; he did not receive any formal education. But he taught himself to read and write. His hard work did not go in vain. As a young man, Lincoln became a successful lawyer and was elected to the Illinois state legislature and then to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lincoln was shot on 14th April, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, a staunch advocate of slavery. He died the following day.

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James Buchanan’s term as the president was marked by conflict between the Northern states and the Southern states.

Northerners wanted to stop slavery from spreading to new parts of the country, while some others known as abolitionists wanted to end slavery forever. Southerners were of the opinion that the new states and territories should be able to choose whether to allow slavery or not.

Buchanan’s term began when a historic case was filed by Dred Scott. Scott was an enslaved African-American man who sought freedom for himself, his wife, and two daughters. However, the court ruled that enslaved people were property and not citizens. The court said that slaves remained slaves anywhere.

Buchanan’s endorsement of the court’s decision created uproar amongst the Northerners. He also joined with Southern leaders in attempting to admit Kansas to the Union as a slave state. He thereby angered not only the Republicans but also many Northern Democrats. This became a very serious issue and the problem continued till the end of his tenure. Buchanan was succeeded by Abraham Lincoln.

Buchanan never married and remains the only bachelor president of the United States.

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In 1852, the members of the Democratic Party could not come to a common consensus regarding the presidential candidate and in the end, they chose Pierce. Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States.

His tenure was marked with personal tragedies unmatched by any other American president.

Pierce was born in New Hampshire in 1804. He entered politics after completing his law degree. At the age of 24, he was elected to the New Hampshire legislature. He went on to become the Speaker in two years.

Pierce was relatively young when he was elected as the president. But this did not assure him much cheer. A few weeks before his inauguration, eleven-year old Bennie, his only surviving child, died in a railroad accident. His wife Jane Pierce never fully recovered from the shock of this tragic episode. She had never approved his candidacy either. Pierce began his term as a sad and tired man.

Pierce signed into law the Kansas-Nebraska Act; the Act said that settlers in Kansas and Nebraska could choose whether or not to allow slavery. This Act undid the antislavery part of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Democratic Party didn’t support his re-election at the end of his tenure.

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