US History/Presidents
Presidents of the United States
Although Washington was a member of the Whig Party before the Revolution, after the war he was not a member of any party, though he tended to lean toward Federalist positions. Since the formation of the Democratic-Republican party and the Federalist Party, there has always been at least one viable political party. Today the United States has a two party system. Their have been many third party movements, such as Ralph Nader, and Theodore Roosevelt, but these attempts to create a three-party system have, thus far, failed.
| # | President | Years in Office | Political Party | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | George Washington | 1789-1797 | Unaffiliated | British officer in the French and Indian War, American general, war hero in Revolution against the British. Robert E. Lee is a distant relative. The only President to have been elected without a political party. Reluctant to become president. Set many precedents in office. |
| 2 | John Adams | 1797-1801 | Federalist | |
| 3 | Thomas Jefferson | 1801-1809 | Democratic-Republican | |
| 4 | James Madison | 1809-1817 | Democratic-Republican | |
| 5 | James Monroe | 1817-1825 | Democratic-Republican | |
| 6 | John Quincy Adams | 1825-1829 | Democratic-Republican | Son of former President John Adams |
| 7 | Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | Democrat | |
| 8 | Martin Van Buren | 1837-1841 | Democrat | |
| 9 | William Henry Harrison | 1841 | Whig | Died in Office |
| 10 | John Tyler | 1841-1845 | Democrat | Succeeded President Harrison |
| 11 | James Knox Polk | 1845-1849 | Democrat | |
| 12 | Zachary Taylor | 1849-1850 | Whig | Died in Office |
| 13 | Millard Fillmore | 1850-1853 | Whig | Succeeded President Taylor |
| 14 | Franklin Pierce | 1853-1857 | Democrat | |
| 15 | James Buchanan | 1857-1861 | Democrat | |
| 16 | Abraham Lincoln | 1861-1865 | Republican | Assassinated |
| 17 | Andrew Johnson | 1865-1869 | Democrat | Succeeded President Lincoln, Impeached by House, acquitted by one vote in the Senate |
| 18 | Hyram Ulysses Grant | 1869-1877 | Republican | |
| 19 | Rutherford Birchard Hayes | 1877-1881 | Republican | |
| 20 | James Abram Garfield | 1881 | Republican | Assassinated |
| 21 | Chester Alan Arthur | 1881-1885 | Republican | Succeeded President Garfield |
| 22 | (Stephen) Grover Cleveland | 1885-1889 | Democrat | Also served as the 24th President |
| 23 | Benjamin Harrison | 1889-1893 | Republican | Grandson of former President William Henry Harrison |
| 24 | (Stephen) Grover Cleveland | 1893-1897 | Democrat | Also served as the 22nd President |
| 25 | William McKinley | 1897-1901 | Republican | Assassinated |
| 26 | Theodore Roosevelt | 1901-1909 | Republican | Succeeded President McKinley. Roosevelt was fought in the battle of San Juan hill, Esperanto speaker, on the staff of National Geographic while President |
| 27 | William Howard Taft | 1909-1913 | Republican | |
| 28 | (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson | 1913-1921 | Democrat | |
| 29 | Warren Gamaliel Harding | 1921-1923 | Republican | Died in office |
| 30 | (John) Calvin Coolidge, Jr. | 1923-1929 | Republican | Succeeded President Harding |
| 31 | Herbert Clark Hoover | 1929-1933 | Republican | |
| 32 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt | 1933-1945 | Democrat | Died in office |
| 33 | Harry S Truman | 1945-1953 | Democrat | Succeeded President Roosevelt |
| 34 | Dwight David Eisenhower | 1953-1961 | Republican | |
| 35 | John Fitzgerald Kennedy | 1961-1963 | Democrat | Assassinated |
| 36 | Lyndon Baines Johnson | 1963-1969 | Democrat | Succeeded President Kennedy |
| 37 | Richard Milhous Nixon | 1969-1974 | Republican | Resigned over Watergate, author of No More Vietnams and The Real War |
| 38 | Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. | 1974-1977 | Republican | Succeeded President Nixon |
| 39 | James Earl Carter, Jr. | 1977-1981 | Democrat | |
| 40 | Ronald Wilson Reagan | 1981-1989 | Republican | |
| 41 | George Herbert Walker Bush | 1989-1993 | Republican | |
| 42 | William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton | 1993-2001 | Democrat | Impeached by House, acquitted by Senate |
| 43 | George Walker Bush | 2001-2009 | Republican | Son of former President George Herbert Walker Bush |
| 44 | Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. | 2009-present | Democrat | First African-American president. |
Vice Presidents of the United States
| # | Vice President | Years in Office | Political Party | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Adams | 1789-1797 | Federalist | Second President |
| 2 | Thomas Jefferson | 1797-1801 | Democratic-Republican | Founder of the Democratic-Republican Party |
| 3 | Aaron Burr | 1801-1805 | Democratic-Republican | Shot Alexander Hamiltion in a duel. Bribed electors to vote for him, and ended up tied with Jefferson. Scandal resulted in the 12th Amendment. |
| 4 | George Clinton | 1805-1812 | Democratic-Republican | Died in office. |
| 5 | Elbridge Gerry | 1813-1814 | Democratic-Republican | Died in office. |
| 6 | Daniel D. Tompkins | 1817-1825 | Democratic-Republican | an entrepreneur, jurist, Congressman and Governor of New York |
| 7 | John Caldwell Calhoun | 1825-1832 | Democratic-Republican | Resigned |
| 8 | Martin Van Buren | 1833-1837 | Democrat | |
| 9 | Richard Mentor Johnson | 1837-1841 | Democrat | |
| 10 | John Tyler | 1841 | Whig | Succeeded President Harrison |
| 11 | George Mifflin Dallas | 1845-1849 | Democrat | |
| 12 | Millard Fillmore | 1849-1850 | Whig | Succeeded President Taylor |
| 13 | William Rufus DeVane King | 1853 | Democrat | Died in Office, strong believer in "Manifest Destiny." |
| 14 | John Cabell Breckinridge | 1857-1861 | Democrat | |
| 15 | Hannibal Hamlin | 1861-1865 | Republican | |
| 16 | Andrew Johnson | 1865 | Democrat | Succeeded President Lincoln |
| 17 | Schuyler Colfax | 1869-1873 | Republican | President Ulysses S. Grant and Vice President Colfax, both 46 at time of entering offices, were the youngest presidential team until election of Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1992. |
| 18 | Henry Wilson | 1873-1875 | Republican | Died in Office |
| 19 | William Almon Wheeler | 1877-1881 | Republican | |
| 20 | Chester Alan Arthur | 1881 | Republican | Succeeded President Garfield |
| 21 | Thomas Andrews Hendricks | 1885 | Democrat | Died in office |
| 22 | Levi Parsons Morton | 1889-1893 | Republican | |
| 23 | Adlai Ewing Stevenson | 1893-1897 | Democrat | |
| 24 | Garret Augustus Hobart | 1897-1899 | Republican | Died in office |
| 25 | Theodore Roosevelt | 1901 | Republican | Succeeded President McKinley |
| 26 | Charles Warren Fairbanks | 1905-1909 | Republican | |
| 27 | James Schoolcraft Sherman | 1909-1912 | Republican | Died in office |
| 28 | Thomas Riley Marshall | 1913-1921 | Democrat | |
| 29 | John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. | 1921-1923 | Republican | Succeeded President Harding |
| 30 | Charles Gates Dawes | 1925-1929 | Republican | |
| 31 | Charles Curtis | 1929-1933 | Republican | |
| 32 | John Nance Garner | 1933-1941 | Democrat | |
| 33 | Henry Agard Wallace | 1941-1945 | Democrat | |
| 34 | Harry S Truman | 1945 | Democrat | Succeeded President Roosevelt |
| 35 | Alben William Barkley | 1949-1953 | Democrat | |
| 36 | Richard Milhous Nixon | 1953-1961 | Republican | |
| 37 | Lyndon Baines Johnson | 1961-1963 | Democrat | Succeeded President Kennedy |
| 38 | Hubert Horatio Humphrey | 1965-1969 | Democrat | |
| 39 | Spiro Theodore Agnew | 1969-1973 | Republican | Resigned |
| 40 | Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. | 1973-1974 | Republican | Succeeded President Nixon |
| 41 | Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller | 1974-1977 | Republican | |
| 42 | Walter Frederick Mondale | 1977-1981 | Democrat | |
| 43 | George Herbert Walker Bush | 1981-1989 | Republican | |
| 44 | James Danforth "Dan" Quayle III | 1989-1993 | Republican | |
| 45 | Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. | 1993-2001 | Democrat | Nobel Prize winner for film "An Inconvenient Truth", ran unsuccessfully against Bush in 2000 |
| 46 | Richard Bruce Cheney | 2001-2009 | Republican | |
| 47 | Joseph Biden | 2009-present | Democrat | Senator for the state of Delaware for 36 years |