INTRODUCTION
“Who Is the President Anyway?”
Since the first president took office in 1789, forty-four men have served as the highest-ranking politician in the United States. Each has wielded executive power over one of the foremost countries in the world, serving not only as political leader but also as commander in chief of all American military forces. Each of these men, from George Washington to Donald Trump, has a unique story, unique accomplishments, and unique … well … failures.
Oh, and since we’re talking about failures, even though Trump is known officially as the forty-fifth president of the United States, he’s actually the forty-fourth guy to hold the title—because one president (Grover Cleveland) actually had two nonconsecutive terms, and he messed up the count for everyone.
Unlike the Roman emperors or the Russian tsars of long ago, the president of the United States does not wield unlimited power to just rule America with an iron fist. The president is, in fact, a democratically elected politician, and no matter how much he might want to try to steamroll his opposition, the president is bound to the Constitution and held accountable by a system of checks and balances that keep him from getting out of control. So, to keep any one branch of government from dominating the country, the federal government is split among three branches: the judicial (Supreme Court), the legislative (Congress), and the executive (president).
Another big difference between the old medieval kings and the president of the United States of America is that the president is chosen by the people, for the people—just like American Idol contestants. Maybe voting for guys as if they’re on Dancing with the Stars isn’t the best idea ever, but it beats the way they used to do it, when power just passed from the king to his son until someone got mad, killed the king, and crowned a new one. No, in America there’s a presidential election every four years, where American citizens from all fifty states vote for a new president and then immediately start complaining about him.
There are only three requirements to run for the presidency: You must be a “natural born” citizen (meaning born in the United States), you need to have lived in the United States for at least fourteen years, and you need to be at least thirty-five years old. So any American meeting these requirements can technically become president, but it takes a special kind of person to be the president …
And as you’ll read in this book, just because someone can be president, and was elected to be president, doesn’t mean he should be president … or that he did a particularly great job!
CHAPTER 1
First Presidents
“We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.”
—George Washington
The year was 1776, and the bloody fighting of the American Revolution was in full swing. American colonists had openly challenged the authority of King George III of England, and the first shots of the conflict rang out over Boston Harbor and echoed across the Atlantic. While many brave and poorly equipped American patriots stood their ground against the might of the British Empire, the members of the Second Continental Congress were frantically scrambling to try to figure out what the heck to do next.
You see, what had started as a slightly rowdy antitax demonstration of protesters cosplaying as Native Americans (the Boston Tea Party) now escalated into a shooting match between the largest military the world had ever seen and a ragtag group of untrained militiamen that was low on gunpowder. If this revolution was going to be a real war for independence, America was going to need a powerful, talented, and effective leader to take command and lead the country to freedom.
On July 4, 1776, members from all thirteen colonies had finally come to an agreement. It was a hot Thursday afternoon at the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia. And on that day, the members of the Continental Congress signed their names to the Declaration of Independence, which decreed America’s separation from England. The fifty-six delegates who signed the document declaring their independence from Great Britain knew that if they lost the war, they would all be dead men walking—betraying the king of England was a crime punishable by death. Today we know these men as the Founding Fathers, but at the time, they were just rebels-with-a-cause in funny-looking wigs. They were labeled traitors to the Crown.
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson working hard on writing the Declaration of Independence
Founding Father and future president George Washington was not present at this historic signing, mostly because he was too busy getting shot at by redcoats on the battlefield. He ended up being the leader America was looking for, even though, for a famous war hero, General George Washington actually lost a lot of battles. Like, a ton. In fact, Washington lost way more battles than he won.
Contrary to urban legend, George Washington didn’t have wooden dentures and never chopped down a cherry tree (it’s all a lie!). What is true, though, is that Washington was born on February 22, 1732, to a super-rich colonial family in Virginia and that he inherited his family’s entire fortune, like an eighteenth-century Tony Stark.
Regardless of his impressive losing streak as commander in chief of the Continental Army, George Washington was an inspiring leader who never gave up no matter how many times the British beat up his armies. After Washington endured years of tough battles and miserable combat conditions, his luck finally changed late at night on Christmas 1776, when he and his troops crossed the freezing Delaware River under the cover of darkness and led a successful surprise attack on the British garrison at Trenton, New Jersey. That battle dealt the redcoats one of their worst defeats yet. The American soldiers were still far from winning the war, but Washington gave them the hope they needed to persevere.
The war raged on for seven more years, from the bitter lows of Valley Forge to the climactic victory at Yorktown, where Lord Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington. Finally, the American colonies managed to secure their freedom from England with the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
Eager to get their young country on the right track, the Founding Fathers came together in the Philadelphia convention and crafted the Constitution we know so well today, along with the Bill of Rights and the basic structure of the federal government.
General Washington crossing the Delaware during the Revolutionary War. Fun Fact: Washington was joined by future president James Monroe and Alexander Hamilton.
The preamble read: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The US Constitution was ratified in 1788, and the new government began in 1789. The only thing left to do was to elect a leader …
Not a King but a President
In 1789, the Electoral College unanimously voted in George Washington as the first president of the United States. John Adams, who had the second most votes, became his vice president, while Thomas Jefferson served as Washington’s secretary of state. Unlike the presidents that followed, Washington actually operated in New York City rather than the current capital. (Washington, DC, hadn’t even been built yet!) From the start, he was adamant about having a neutral foreign policy and not getting involved in the business of other countries, which is pretty funny considering how many of his successors have ignored his advice over the years.
Most of Washington’s presidency was spent trying to maintain the peace, building a country, and establishing precedents for future presidents. When the Whiskey Rebellion rose up in Pennsylvania, protesting a new tax meant to pay for the debts incurred during the Revolutionary War, Washington personally led the military in to quell the insurgency. Luckily, the protesters disbanded before things got ugly, but to this day it remains the only time in American history when the sitting president led an army in the field.
By far the most impressive thing about Washington, though, is that instead of using the presidency to rule as a king-for-life, the man turned over the keys after his two terms were up. Washington thought it was important to set an example by leaving after eight years—America had just fought a war to overthrow a king, and he didn’t want to simply replace one monarch with another. After leaving the presidency behind, he retired to his farm at Mount Vernon, where he focused on his real passion: brewing moonshine (no joke)!
Dueling Presidents
In 1797, John Adams became our second president. Unlike Washington, who was loved by pretty much everyone, Adams wasn’t as likable of a dude—he faced constant opposition from all angles, from his own vice president, Thomas Jefferson, to his own party, the Federalists.
After a contentious first term, the election of 1800 ended up being one of the wackiest in American history. When fellow Founding Father Thomas Jefferson threw his hat into the ring to oppose Adams, the president took it personally. The candidates were on opposing sides of a schism between the American people: Jefferson was a Democratic-Republican who sided with rural Americans, while Federalists, like Adams, were strong advocates of the constitutional authority of the federal government. Adams versus Jefferson was the no-holds-barred, winner-take-all match of the century!
Sometimes during elections, campaigns can get a little heated, and instead of focusing on the issues at hand, politicians start attacking their opponent—explaining why people shouldn’t vote for the other guy, instead of why people should vote for them. This is called mudslinging, and it’s nothing new. In fact, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were pioneers of this form of campaigning.
These two Founding Fathers didn’t just throw shade at each other, they went above and beyond in trying to out-insult the other. Jefferson first called Adams weak, then Adams retorted by calling Jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow.” It was like a kindergarten playground face-off between scholars.
Jefferson, claiming to be above such low tactics, instead hired James Callender to do his dirty work. Callender was so effective that he convinced voters that Adams wanted to start a war with France, despite that almost certainly being fake news. Callender was later charged with slander, and Jefferson washed his hands of the whole affair.
In response to the deluge of insults, Adams’s campaign ramped up the anti-Jeffersonian rhetoric and claimed that if Jefferson won the election, murder and robbery would be openly taught and practiced, the ground would be soaked with blood, and America would become a nation of criminals. As it turns out, Thomas Jefferson did win the election, and none of Adams’s predictions came true.
Thomas Jefferson, famed author of the Declaration of Independence, served two terms as America’s third president, from 1801 to 1809. President Jefferson was a champion of education, science, and the pursuit of knowledge. He even sent some of his personal collection—6,487 books!—to the Library of Congress. Dude loved to read, I guess.
During his time in office, Jefferson cut the country’s debt in half, unleashed the US Navy on pirates, and was a champion of both religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1803, he also carried out the Louisiana Purchase for super cheap from a guy named Napoleon (perhaps you’ve heard of him?), approximately 828,000 square miles of territory for $15 million! The Louisiana territory would later make up all or part of fifteen states! This was a big deal, because if it wasn’t for Jefferson swooping in on this deal, most of North America today would probably belong to France.
In their later years, after decades of heated debate and outright hatred on opposite ends of the political spectrum, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams began writing each other and became close friends, much like Batman and Superman after they stopped punching each other long enough to realize they were on the same side after all. The dynamic duo stayed in touch as the closest of pen pals regardless of their opposing viewpoints.
Both Adams and Jefferson, lifelong frenemies, died on the same day—July 4, 1826—the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Text copyright © 2019 by Erik Slader and Ben Thompson
