THE EXPANDING POWERS OF THE

EXECUTIVE BRANCH

The Presidents of the United States of America, from George Washington to Barack Obama

GEORGE WASHINGTON

As the first President of the

United States, he established

precedents for all who would

follow him. During his two

terms in office, he saw the Bill

of Rights created, signed the

Judiciary Act into law, put

down the Whiskey Rebellion,

and delivered his famous

“Farewell Address” to shape

American foreign policy for

years to come.

JOHN ADAMS

The second President of the United

States, John Adams was a

Federalist concerned with

protecting American interests and

securing the nation’s government.

The Alien and Sedition Acts, passed

during his Presidency, probably

violated the Constitution, and were

steadfastly opposed by the

emerging rival party of the day,

Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-

Republicans.

THOMAS JEFFERSONAlthough he was the creator of the Statute of Religious Freedom in Virginia, the author of the Declaration of Independence, and the President of the United States; an accomplished architect, political philosopher, scientist, and writer; and the man who bought the Louisiana Territory, sent the Corps of Discovery and Lewis & Clark to explore it’ and double the size of the United States – despite all of this – his proudest accomplishment was that he founded the University of Virginia.

JAMES MONROE

Monroe was the President of the United States during the so-called “Era of Good Feelings” – there was only one political party: The Democratic-Republican Party. During his time in office, though, politicians began to form two distinct parties: The Whigs and the Democrats. His is probably most famous for his famous “Monroe Doctrine”, a warning to European nations that the Western Hemisphere, including all of North and South America and the Caribbean, was no longer available for colonization.

ANDREW JACKSON He was the hero of the Seminole Wars in Florida and the leader of American forces at the Battle of New Orleans at the end (technically, after the end…) of the War of 1812. As President, he destroyed the National Bank, established the “Spoils System”, assured the Cherokee Nation of their fate by refusing to enforce the Supreme Court’s decision in Cherokee Nation V. Georgia, and threatened to invade South Carolina after South Carolina threatened to secede over the “Tariff of Abominations” during the Nullification Crisis. He is photographed to the right in his old age.

JAMES K. POLK

“Young Hickory”, a president who

considered himself a follower of

Andrew Jackson’s “common man”

Democracy, was the President

most responsible for securing the

United States “Manifest Destiny”

– controlling the North American

continent from “sea to shining

sea” by taking the Oregon

Country and the Mexican Cession

during his Presidency.

ABRAHAM LINCOLNWidely considered the greatest of all American Presidents, Lincoln led the nation through the Civil War. His Emancipation Proclamation freed all of the enslaved people of the South, and he insisted that in order for the nation to be reunited, Southern States would have to pass the 13th Amendment, banning slavery. His sense of compassion and his eloquence, as evidenced by the Gettysburg Address, helped Americans to survive the most troubling years in our History. He was assassinated in April of 1865 by John Wilkes Booth, just days after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, VA.

ULYSSES S. GRANTAlthough he is frequently condemned as a poor President due to the corruption and graft of his administration, Ulysses S. Grant was genuinely devoted to the cause of Civil Rights for African-Americans and Reconstruction. He continued to support Freedmen during the Reconstruction by funding the Freedman’s Bureau and keeping up the military occupation to the end of his time in office. His own memoirs are probably a more accurate account of his life than the group of Southern historians that disparaged him after his death.

He became President when McKinley was assassinated, and was the youngest President in US History at the time. He was known as a trustbuster, for enforcing the Sherman Anti-Trust Act against companies like Standard Oil. After reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, he helped to pass both the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act. As a committed conservationist, he helped to establish the National Park System.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT

He was the only President to

serve on the United States

Supreme Court after having

been President.

During the Election of 1912,

he ran against his political

mentor – Theodore Roosevelt,

and Woodrow Wilson, who

defeated them both.

WOODROW WILSON“He Kept Us Out of War” was

this President’s campaign

slogan in the Election of 1916.

In April of 1917, he asked

Congress to declare war on

Germany to “Make the World

Safe for Democracy.” His

Fourteen Point Plan to restore

Europe after World War I was

adopted in the Treaty of

Versailles. On a personal level,

he was an extremely racist man

who re-segregated the White

House and gave D.W. Griffith’s

The Birth of a Nation rave

reviews.

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT He designed the AAA, the CCC,

the REA, the FDIC, and many

other New Deal Programs. Re-

Elected four times, this man

was the longest serving

President of the United States.

He was the victim of polio at a

young age, and restricted to a

wheelchair for much of his life;

nevertheless he was extremely

active and a charismatic leader.

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE COULD HARDLY HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG: TRUMAN WON HIS RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN 1948, AND WENT ON TO SERVE FOR FOUR MORE YEARS.

Harry S Truman

Harry Truman made the decision to drop nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

He is also the President who desegregated the United States Military by executive order in 1948

The Election of 1948

DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWERThis Nebraskan and World War II

hero directed Operation

Overlord on D-Day in Normandy,

France prior to becoming the

President of the United States.

While he was in office, he was

caught lying about U-2 spy

planes missions over the Soviet

Union. He also sent troops into

Central High School in Little

Rock, Arkansas to force the

school to integrate peacefully.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

Kennedy was the President of the United States during the embarrassing “Bay of Pigs” Invasion and the terrifying Cuban Missile Crisis which came frighteningly close to producing a nuclear holocaust. His youth and energy, however, inspired a generation to dream big – he made it his goal to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s and return him safely to the Earth – and it happened. Kennedy was assassinate in Dallas, TX in November of 1963.

LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON

His “Great Society” reforms like Medicaid, Medicare, and Head Start

were considered magnificent accomplishments; the Civil Rights Act

of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 were signed during his

Presidency, but his legacy was damaged the Vietnam War.

RICHARD NIXON

This President was in office when

Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.

He opened diplomatic relations

with the People’s Republic of China

during his time in office. Yet, he is

the only President in the history of

the United States of America to

resign from office. Had he not

resigned, he would likely have been

impeached and removed from office

for breaking in to the 1972

Democratic national headquarters

and lying about the criminal act.

RONALD REAGAN

He was President of the United States during the height of the Cold War, and once called the Soviet Union an “Evil Empire.” Yet, once Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the USSR and pledged to improve relations with the West, Reagan joined Gorbachev in a partnership which reduced Soviet tyranny over Eastern Europe. In perhaps his most dramatic oration, Reagan, standing before the Berlin Wall, exclaimed, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” By 1989, the wall had crumbled.

RONALD REAGAN’S POLITICAL GLOBE:

GEORGE H.W. BUSH

He was President of the United States

during a dramatic moment in world

history – the collapse of the Soviet

Union and its empire. In the

aftermath of the Cold War, attempted

to establish a “new world order.”

During his Presidency, the United

States fought a war against Iraq in

order to liberate and maintain the

sovereignty of the tiny, oil-rich nation

of Kuwait, which had been attacked

by Saddam Hussein’s forces.

WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON

Bill Clinton was the President of the United States of America during the 1990s, a time of great prosperity and growth for the United States economy. During his time in office, the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement. Interestingly, although he was elected twice, Clinton never won more than 49% of the popular vote – in both the Election of 1992 and 1996, an independent candidate, Ross Perot, split the vote three ways. The unseemly affair he had with a White House intern did nothing to improve the honor of the office of the Presidency. He was impeached for lying to Congress.

GEORGE W. BUSHHe was the President of the United

States when Al-Queda terrorists

crashed airplanes into the World

Trade Center buildings, the Pentagon,

and a field near Shawsville,

Pennsylvania. While he was

president, the US military overthrew

two regimes – the Taliban in

Afghanistan, and Saddam Hussein’s

dictatorship in Iraq. He signed the

Patriot Act into law. Hurricane Katrina

was perhaps his worst moment as a

leader – although given his

unpopularity by the end of his second

term, there were other possibilities.

BARACK OBAMA

President Obama is the first African-American president.

To date, his most important accomplishments include the passage of Health Care Reform – The Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare), the conclusion of the war in Afghanistan, and the killing of Osama bin Laden. During his Presidency, an economic downturn dubbed “The Great Recession” has come to a slow end, and economic growth has occurred. Bitter partisanship and gridlock have characterized Washington D.C. politics throughout his term in office