Pointless Presidential Pfacts #52 - "Deathdays Second Best"

The month of June is the SECOND most important month in terms of deathdays of a POTUS, while August is the SECOND least presidential deathday month.

On the first of the month in June of 1868 James Buchanan, the only bachelor to be elected until Grover Cleveland in 1884, died and, interesting, was the last Democratic candidate elected until Cleveland's '84 win. The fifth of June belongs to Ronald Reagan in 2004. June eighth from 1845 is when Andrew Jackson succumbed to old age. Four years after Old Hickory went, Young Hickory, James K. Polk had the shortest retirement from office at such a young age dying June fifteenth, 1849, just three months after leaving a self-imposed single term. Next deathday in the month of June is the twenty-fourth in 1908 and the presidency...also number twenty-two, but only in the presidency, Cleveland the popular vote winner in '84, '88 and '92, but only in the Electoral College in '84 and '92. The twenty-eighth of the month in 1836 sees the death of James Madison.

That's SIX days and SIX presidential deaths.

June is just the second most interesting, if not morbid, and pointless, presidential deathday related pfact!

THE DEAD PRESIDENTS - DEAD HOPE - JACKSON

THE DEAD PRESIDENTS - THE A-TEAM

Illustrated by Jeremy Massie

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #46 - "Sherman's Death 101"

The first time a vice president died in office was in the year 1812 and the last time a vice president died in office was in 1912.

James S. Sherman of New York, 27th VPOTUS.

In the 1912 presidential election, the Republicans renominated President William Howard Taft and Vice President James S. Sherman that summer. It was the first time in 84 years that a vice president was being considered for reelection.

That moment 84 years ago was Vice President John C. Calhoun's reelection in 1828 with Andrew Jackson. Four years prior to the 1828 election Calhoun was the running mate for both Jackson and John Quincy Adams. While neither of those candidates secured a majority in the Electoral College, Calhoun did. JQA won the election in the House of Representatives and was defeated in '28. So, Calhoun's reelection was with a different president.

Daniel Tompkins of New York, 6th VPOTUS.

The last time a vice president was reelected with the same president was in 1820 when James Monroe and Daniel Tompkins cruised to victory in the Electoral College without much competition.

Death and the vice presidency seems more rampant than in the presidency. Not including assassinations, there have been 4 presidents that have died of natural cause: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Warren Harding and Franklin Roosevelt. In the vice presidency there have been 7 deaths. The first death in the vice presidency was when the 4th VPOTUS, George Clinton died on April 20, 1812. Vice President Clinton, no relation to the presidential Clinton, was the first to be elected and serve with 2 different presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Clinton's successor won election with President Madison in the fall of 1812, but like Clinton Vice President Elbridge Gerry, the 5th VPOTUS, would not live out the term becoming the second vice president to die in office. Madison and his dying vice presidents.

William R. King of Alabama, 13th VPOTUS.
The next VPOTUS to die in office would be in 1853 with the lucky 13th vice president, William R. King. Vice President King was the first and only VPOTUS to be sworn in on foreign soil, Cuba. King won election in 1852 with Franklin Pierce. Pierce's presidency started with the death of his son on the train ride from New Hampshire to Washington, while just a little over a month in to the new administration and Vice President King died.

President Ulysses S. Grant's second vice president, Henry Wilson, the 18th VPOTUS, would join the list in 1875. Ten years later in 1885, Thomas A. Hendricks, the 21st VPOTUS, died less than a year into the first term of the new administration headed by Grover Cleveland. Before the 19th Century ended in 1899, one more VPOTUS passed away. President William McKinley's first vice president, Garret Hobart, the 24th VPOTUS, died leaving the office vacant until Theodore Roosevelt was nominated in 1900 to shut him up.

TR would of course get the nomination and be sworn in as the 25th VPOTUS in March of 1901, however he would become the 26th POTUS six months later. It's during the 1912 election that a former President Roosevelt is seeking a third, non-consecutive, term. With the Republican Party split between Progressives and Conservatives, the Democratic ticket with Woodrow Wilson at the top of it won the election. Roosevelt 26's Progressive Party, or Bull Moose Party, did what no 3rd Party has done before or since, placing 2nd in the popular and electoral votes. So the ticket of Taft/Sherman placed 3rd, but had they won the Republican Party designated Nicholas M. Butler to receive the electoral votes that would've gone to Sherman. In the end the office remained vacant until Thomas Marshall was sworn-in on March 4, 1913. Vice President Marshall would become the first VPOTUS to win reelection with the same POTUS, Wilson, since Monroe/Tompkins.

Thomas Marshall of Indiana, 28th VPOTUS.

As the 20th Century moved on there would be no more deaths in the vice presidency. There would be more renominations of vice presidents and the occasional moving on (FDR in 1940, 1944 and Gerald Ford in 1976). While the office remained vacant whenever there was a death, in either the presidency or the vice presidency, it wouldn't be until 1967 when the Constitution provided a way to fill the vacancy. The sign now outside the Vice President's office reads: "101 Years Without a Death".

Joe Biden of Delaware, 47th VPOTUS.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #45 - "THE TERM OF RESIGNATIONS"

It had been 141 years since a Vice President of the United States resigned the office.

On October 10, 1973, the vice presidency had become vacant for the second time because of a resignation. It had been vacant because of death 7 times, the last being James Sherman in 1912. While Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency the following year would be a first for that office, it would not be for his second-in-command. When Nixon chose a running-mate in 1968, he chose a little known governor, Spiro Agnew, instead of a star that would take attention away from the top of the ticket. What Agnew did bring was that attack dog persona and while a moderate in the GOP appeased conservatives and southerns, since he was from Maryland. Nixon hoped Agnew would resign before the 1972 reelection so he'd be easier to replace with Nixon's preferred vice president, John Connally, the guy that also got shot, but only wounded, on November 22, 1963.

Spiro Agnew of Maryland. 39th VPOTUS.

Agnew was reelected VPOTUS with Nixon in 1972, Nixon had deal with his decision from 1968 for another four years, or would he? When Baltimore started cleaning up corruption, investigations led to corruption in the Governor's Office, the former governor turned vice president of the United States. Nixon eventually got his wish, but he got it too late. Agnew resigned in the first year of the second term, 1973, and became the first vice president to resign because he faced criminal charges, among them bribery and tax evasion.

With Agnew's resignation, there was a vacancy in the vice presidency for the first time since the States ratified the 25th Amendment in 1967, just 6 years earlier. Nixon became the first president to appoint a vice president, not including nominating conventions, but because the Constitution says so. However, by the end of 1973, Nixon was not as popular as he was just a year prior when he won one of the biggest landslides in presidential history. Watergate continued to grow from a piece in the Washington Post in June of 1972, to investigation of the president and threat of impeachment if he does not comply. Nixon had to choose someone that was not going to divide the country any more than his administration had achieved by covering up the Watergate scandal and no cooperating with the Congress. Connally, a Democrat turned Republican, would not be a favorite for Republicans in Congress, both the House and the Senate, for fear of Nixon's removal would put a scalawag in office. Nixon was in no position to get what he wanted.

Gerald Ford of Michigan. The soon-to-be 40th VPOTUS on the cover ofTIME magazine in October of 1973. (later the 38th POTUS)

Less than 2 months after Agnew's resignation, Gerald Ford became the first appointed vice president after both houses of Congress confirmed him on December 6, 1973, the Senate confirmed him over a week before the House. The new vice president, "a Ford, not a Lincoln", easily won the votes because he was a moderate and a nice guy. He served in the House of Representatives for 24 years and only sought to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives, one-half of the leadership of the Legislative Branch of the United States, the Congress. Instead he'd have to settle for the other half, the vice presidency, which is also, the President of the Senate. The 40th VPOTUS would go on to be the 38th POTUS after the 37th resigns in August of the next year. Connally and Agnew, almost became president, but politics, and the law, came into play as it always does.

Now more than ever, but really this is from 1968.

The ticket of Nixon/Agnew won the 1968 election in one of the closest elections and won reelection in a landslide only Roosevelt 32 and Johnson 36 had accomplished. The ticket of Nixon/Agnew would not last the full second term, and become the only ticket to resign before the term expired...so far, of course. (2013) History showed that John C. Calhoun's resignation was not a one-time occurrence, just a rarity.

Calhoun, resigned for different reasons. Calhoun and Agnew share nothing more than being known for their resignations. While Agnew had a short rise from Baltimore County Executive to the Vice presidency in just six years, Calhoun is an American political legend. They both were southerners, but Calhoun was from South Carolina and not a border State like Maryland. They didn't get along that great with their Chief Executive. While Nixon tried his best to avoid Agnew and realized, when it was too late to replace him, that Agnew was not smart enough for the job of Commander-in-Chief (so avoiding him, is a great way to prep him for the job). Calhoun did not get along with his President either, Andrew Jackson. And Jackson wasn't even Calhoun's first President. He was the second VPOTUS to serve two presidents. Calhoun won election to the vice presidency in 1824, when he was on both John Quincy Adams' ticket and Jackson's ticket. In that uncertain election, the House of Representatives chose Adams to be the president while Calhoun easily won enough Electoral Votes to win the vice presidency. He won reelection to the office when Jackson ran again in 1828, but wouldn't be around by election day in 1832.

John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. 7th VPOTUS.

Calhoun was proponent of States' Rights and limiting the power of the Federal government, which rankled Jackson. The president even threatened to go to South Carolina and hang Calhoun. Calhoun would eventually resign to win a seat in the Senate where he could do more against Jackson than as his Vice President, a weak and powerless office at the time. Martin Van Buren would be put on the bottom of the ticket in '32 and win election with Jackson. Van Buren would then gain Jackson's approval as his heir-apparent in the 1836 election. Van Buren easily won.

Unlike Agnew, Calhoun would continue his illustrious career defending the peculiar institution of slavery, illustrious to southerners, not those in favor of progress like the Abolitionists, while serving in some capacity in the Federal Government of the United States. Agnew would go into political obscurity and really only reappear at Nixon's funeral in 1994, three years before his own death. Because of Nixon's resignation in 1974, Ford's elevation to the presidency created another vacancy in the vice presidency. Ford appointed Nelson Rockefeller to his recently vacated office. The Ford/Rockefeller Administration became the first where neither the president or vice president had campaigned for the offices. From then on, there would be no vacancies in the vice presidency...so far.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #43 - "Popular Vote Loser Presidents"

On occasion our representative democracy has produced a president that did not receive the most popular votes in the General Election became the head of the Republic, because our Constitution says it is a majority of votes in the Electoral College that matter. The first president to enter office without having won the popular votes was John Quincy Adams in 1825.

The 1824 Presidential Election was the first where various States, not all of them that would be the next election, counted the popular vote in determining the distribution of electoral votes. JQA was facing three other opponents in the general and all from the same party since the Federalists were no longer a threat as a national party to the Democratic-Republicans. Andrew Jackson received a plurality of votes in both popular and electoral votes, with JQA in second place. Third place in the Electoral College went to William Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, and 4th place went to Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In the popular vote column the two switch finishing positions, but once again it is the electoral votes that matter. Since there was no clear majority of electoral votes, the Constitution instructs that the House take the top 3 vote getters and vote on them with each State having one vote, so delegations with more than one representative would have to vote among themselves to determine whom they cast their vote for. Crawford suffers a stroke, which makes the House competition between JQA and Jackson, with Clay as presiding officer of the House. Supporters of Jackson believe a "corrupt bargain" was struck between Speaker Clay and Secretary of State Adams, the presidency for appointment to head the State Department, then a stepping stone to the presidency (James Madison and James Monroe, both incumbent secretaries of state before being elected president). Since John C. Calhoun was the vice presidential nominee for both Adams 6 and Jackson, he won a majority of electoral votes in the General Election and later in the Electoral College vote, so there was no need for the Senate to determine the vice president, but they would have had either Adams 6 or Jackson had their own vice presidential candidate. JQA won the House vote and Clay eventually became the secretary of state and Jackson literally began campaigning for 1828. His supporters took up the label Democrats and the Democratic Party was born. Adams 6 and Jackson would face each other again and Jackson would finally get the presidency with 56% of the popular vote and a clear majority in the Electoral College.

Jackson and Adams 6's first encounter in 1824.

And then again in 1828...

52 years later in 1876, the nation would experience another unusual election. Samuel Tilden, the Democratic nominee once again won the popular vote while Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican, won the Electoral College votes. But it was determining the distribution of electoral votes that was the problem in 1876. Various State governments in the Reconstruction of the South after the Civil War sent two sets of votes representing their State, so a commission of Democrats, Republicans and independents met to determine which candidate got which electoral votes. A deal, or rather, a compromise was made just days before the March 5, 1877 Presidential Inauguration. The Compromise of 1877 allowed Hayes to receive the electoral votes, if Federal troops are removed from the South, thus ending Reconstruction. Since March 4th landed on a Sunday, the public ceremony would be on the 5th, fearful of retaliation by Tilden supporters so closely after the Civil War Hayes was sworn in on the 3rd in the Red Room of the Executive Mansion with President Ulysses S. Grant by his side. They of course had nothing to fear as the inauguration came and went without a problem. Hayes promised to serve just one term and Tilden never faced the voters again, dying ten years after the election.

Two years after Tilden's death in 1888, the nation once again had another unusual election, but that's about it. The 1888 Presidential Election is pretty straight when compared to 1824, 1876, and 2000. President Grover Cleveland won the popular votes while his opponent from Indiana, Benjamin Harrison, grandson of William Henry Harrison, won the majority of votes in the Electoral College. The Democrat won the popular vote, but the Republican, once again, won the Electoral College. No questions asked. But like in 1828, 1892 would pit the 1888 candidates against each other again, a rematch. And just like in 1828, the candidate that won more votes in the previous election came back and won. Former President Cleveland became the first, and so far only, former president to win a General Election and thus serve two non-consecutive terms. Harrison 23, like Adams 6 and Tilden, never ran for the presidency again after their defeats the second time.

Cleveland 22 runs against Harrison 23 in their first match-up.

Four years later in a rematch, Cleveland became the first and only former president to defeat an incumbent and serve two non-consecutive terms, thus becoming Cleveland 24, as in the 24th POTUS.

It wouldn't be until the year 2000 that nation would experience an election that doesn't go just right. Vice President Al Gore was hoping to do what Vice President George Bush did after 8 years as VPOTUS, and he came pretty close. Gore won more than 500,000 popular votes but it came down to 537 votes in the State of Florida. The election was so close that Gore asked for a recount, but George W. Bush, the presumed winner of the Florida electoral votes, stakes a claim that he won the State. The Florida Supreme Court sides with Gore and the recounts in various counties goes forth, until the Federal Supreme Court sides with Bush in the ruling of Bush v. Gore. Yes, the States' Rights party, went to the central government to decide a local matter. With the Supreme Court's ruling, Gore could do nothing but concede, again. Had the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks not happened, former vice president Gore might have followed in Jackson and Cleveland's footsteps in winning a 4-years-later rematch. But instead Gore went the way of Tilden and did not seek the office where more voters liked him over the Electoral College winner.

With George W. Bush's reelection to the presidency in 2004, another close and controversial election, Bush 43 breaks away from these other popular-vote-loser-presidents. Unlike Adams 6 (another member of the POTUS Father/Son pair) and Harrison 23 (another member of a POTUS dynasty, but grandfather/grandson), Bush 43 would not be defeated in an election. Another difference of course is those two faced a rematch. Bush 43 didn't run against Gore in '04, but Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry. While the votes in Ohio are questionable, and determined the presidency in 2004, just like Florida was in 2000, but this time Bush 43 won both the popular and electoral votes. His victory in '04, finally getting the presidency with the popular vote, broke the whole popular-vote-loser-president never winning the popular vote. This is very similar to what vice-presidents-turned-presidents through death and assassination and their turn at the top of the ticket and winning an election in their own right. Whereas John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester A. Arthur never won the presidency at the top of a presidential ticket, Bush 43's break from tradition like Theodore Roosevelt, the first vice-president-turned-president that went on to be renominated and win the presidency in his own right. Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon Johnson would follow in those footsteps. Gerald Ford would come close, but lose to Jimmy Carter.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #38 - "California Love For a '75 Ford or Female Assassins vs. the POTUS"

Since the Secret Service officially began protecting presidents with the 26th, Theodore Roosevelt, after the assassination of William McKinley, the 25th, in September of 1901, the organization has only lost one president in 1963 with John F. Kennedy, the 35th. In 1975 Gerald Ford, the 38th and first appointed POTUS, was targeted twice by two different assassins. The first time a POTUS was targeted by a females. And both attempts took place in California.

President Gerald Ford in Sacramento's Capitol Park.

First at a park in Sacramento, his assassin wannabe, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme pointed a hand-gun at President Ford. She wanted to bring attention to the California Redwoods. A Secret Service agent grabbed the gun and prevented it from firing. As after any breech of security, procedures are reviewed, more precaution on future presidential outings.

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, after failed attempt at assassinating President Gerald Ford.

Like the one three weeks later in San Francisco, he was leaving the St. Francis Hotel when Sara Jane Moore aimed her gun at Ford from a crowd of people wanting a glimpse of the POTUS from across the street. Moore, like the first wannabe presidential assassin Richard Lawrence in 1835 attempted two shots, first shot missed and just as she was about to shoot another bullet the shot is deflect and misses nearly hitting the president in the head, but the bullet, now ricochet, wounds a taxi driver.

Ford, the Secret Service, the press and everybody react to the shots fired at the president.


Sara Jane Moore after her arrest.

Both wannabe-assassins were sentenced to life in prison, however Moore was paroled in 2007 and Fromme, a follower of Charles Manson, was paroled in 2009. Richard Lawrence is still dead.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #28 - "From The East Front to the West Front"

Andrew Jackson's first term and the 11th inaugural ceremony on March 4, 1829, was the first to take place outside on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol building. This tradition of taking the oath on the East Front would last until President Jimmy Carter's swearing-in on January 20, 1977.

President John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961 on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol.

A new precedent began with a new president, with Ronald Reagan's swearing-in on January 20, 1981, presidents have taken the oath of office on the West Front. The West Front of the Capitol allowed for more space both on the make-shift stage and the crowds of people. It also gave the television audience sweeping scenes of the Mall.

President Barack Obama's first term inauguration in 2009 on the West Front.

POTUS QUOTUS - AJ7 SECOND INAUGURAL 1833 - "This Inaugural is Worth 20 Bucks"

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #16 - "Back-to-Back 50 Percenters (D)"

Barack Obama is one of only 3 Democratic presidents to be reelected back-to-back with over 50% of the popular vote. Franklin Roosevelt received over 50% of the popular vote in all four of his elections (1932, 1936, 1940, 1944). Before FDR, you have to go back to the first Democrat elected president, Andrew Jackson won both his elections (1828, 1836) with over 50%. In 2008, Obama was the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter's 1976 election to receive 50% of the popular vote.

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #1 – “The Rematches of the Centuries!!!”

Rematches are an American thing, from the United States and Germany in two world wars to Rocky versus Apollo in the first two Rocky films. Presidential candidates have also had rematches going as far back as the fourth election in 1800 and continuing into the mid-20th Century. But before you can have the rematch you have to have the first match.In 1796 John Adams became the first of only four incumbent vice presidents to be elected president. He defeated Thomas Jefferson. But seeing that it was a pre-12th Amendment election, the loser became the vice president. Vice President Jefferson would make President Adams’ term a difficult one building to a rematch and the only time the sitting president and vice president competed for the Executive Mansion.

Vice President John Adams vs. former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson in 1796.

The election of 1800 was not going to have the same results as four years prior. President Adams and Vice President Jefferson each ran with a “running-mate” so as to avoid being stuck with an ideological opponent disrupting the administration. Good idea, but it was still a pre-12th Amendment America. The plan sort of worked. Jefferson and his running-mate, Aaron Burr, got the same number of Electoral votes, but without distinguishing between the desired offices, throwing the election to the House of Representatives for the first time.

The 1800 rematch between, now incumbent President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, quickly became a match-up between Jefferson and his desired pick for the vice presidency, Aaron Burr.

The House couldn’t stand Burr and by the 36th ballot Jefferson won the election. To make sure the election of 1800 wasn’t repeated, the 12th Amendment was amended to the Constitution before the 1804 election. For the first and only time the vice president defeated the president for the presidency, but a House elected president would just be the first of two.

Twenty-four years after that election came the first match-up between the son of the 2nd president, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, and Tennessean and former war hero Andrew Jackson. But these were not the only two running in an era of good feelings. After the Federalist Party ceased existence post-War of 1812, the Democratic-Republicans were the party of the United States and in the election of 1824 produced four candidates. Speaker of the House Henry Clay and Secretary of the Treasury William Crawford were the other two contenders. In the end Jackson had the most number of popular and Electoral votes in the first election where a number of the States counted the popular vote. Adams was in second with Crawford and Clay in third and fourth, respectively.

Andrew Jackson ran against John Quincy Adams twice, once in 1824 and the rematch in 1828. In the year 2000, a Democrat from Tennessee will get more votes but not the presidency, when he runs against another presidential son.

But a plurality of votes doesn’t get you the highest office in the land. Without a majority of Electoral votes, the presidency, for a second time, was decided by the House. This meant that the top three vote getters would be decided on, but Clay was the leader of the body to decide the presidency. The Senate did not have to perform its Constitutional duty of selecting a vice president since John C. Calhoun received a majority of Electoral votes both thanks to the 12th Amendment which separates the voting for both president and vice president, but also because he was on two tickets, Adams and Jackson. Crawford had a stroke and the contest in the House ends up being between Jackson and Adams. Adams wins and Jackson believes that a corrupt bargain was struck between Adams and Clay, who would go on to be the secretary of state, the stepping stone office to the presidency. Over the next four years Jackson would essentially run for the presidency, with the support of a new grassroots party calling themselves Democrats, and in a rematch in 1828 Jackson would again get more votes than Adams, but this time with the needed majority to become the 7th president.

President Jackson's handpicked successor, Martin Van Buren, became the last incumbent vice president to win the presidency until 1988. But in the 1836 election Vice President Van Buren easily won election against William Henry Harrison...this time. Four years later, a united Whig Party mimicked the president they despised by running on Harrison's war record just as Jackson had. The 1840 election is the first to have a campaign tune: "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!" Just as Jackson was the hero of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, Harrison was the hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 against a confederacy of native peoples led by Tecumseh in the Territory of Indiana. "Tyler" referenced John Tyler of Virginia, and a former Democrat nominated by the Whigs. Four years prior, Harrison obviously had problems with the campaign slogan: "Tippecanoe and Granger Too!"

Harrison-9's victory in 1840 was short lived once he took office on March 4, 1841 and died thirty days later. Forty-eight years later, President Grover Cleveland, the 22nd president, goes up against Harrison-9's grandson, Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland wins the popular vote, but not the Electoral vote and Harrison becomes the 23rd president. Upon leaving the Executive Mansion in March of 1889, outgoing First Lady Frances Cleveland wanted the staff to keep things in order because the Clevelands would be returning in four years. Four years later the former president was re-nominated and defeated Harrison in both the popular and Electoral votes going on to become the 24th president and the only former president to win an election.

Unlike the 1824, 1876 and 2000 Presidential Elections, the 1888 established a popular vote winner, President Grover Cleveland and the Electoral College winner, Benjamin Harrison. No House of Representatives, no commission, and no Supreme Court. But there like in 1828 to 1824, there was a rematch between President Harrison and former President Cleveland. Cleveland would become the first former president to be reelected non-consecutively, of course, in 1892.

Following the Cleveland-Harrison-23 rematch in 1892 would be the first round for the next match-up, but gone were the match-ups of the popular vote winner returning to reclaim the people’s wish as Jackson and Cleveland did. The next match-up pitted Republican Ohio Governor William McKinley and the Democratic former member of the House William Jennings Bryan, at 36 years old the youngest man to run for president. The winner of the 1896 election would be McKinley and four years later the rematch. In 1896 Bryan became the first presidential candidate to actively campaign for the election traveling the country speaking directly to the people, while McKinley continued the tradition of not actively seeking the sacred office. However in their rematch in 1900, McKinley’s young vice presidential candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, would emulate Bryan’s campaign style. 1900 would be McKinley’s win over Bryan, again.

Fifty-two years after that rematch came the last match-up in presidential General Elections, so far. The 1952 and 1956 elections mirrored the 1896 and 1900 elections in that the two presidential candidates were the same and so were the victors and losers, and coincidentally the same political parties. The Democratic Governor from Illinois, Adlai Stevenson went up against the commander of D-Day and Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower, twice. And lost both times.

While not a rematch it is somewhat of a proxy rematch between President Ronald Reagan and the previous administration, this time former Vice President Walter F. Mondale in for the 1980 Democratic candidate President Jimmy Carter.

It has been over fifty years since there was a presidential rematch. There have been proxy rematches like Ronald Reagan versus former Vice President Walter Mondale in 1984 instead of Mondale’s running-mate four years earlier, President Jimmy Carter and then there’s George W. Bush versus Al Gore in 2000 essentially George H.W. Bush versus Bill Clinton but with their political heirs instead. Since there probably won’t be a Barack Obama-John McCain rematch in 2012, we’ll probably be waiting a long time before we experience another presidential rematch or we may get a proxy rematch with Obama versus Sarah Palin in 2012.

Expanding to Crisis

Thirteen colonies banded together to become an independent nation from Great Britain in 1776. Northern and southern colonies formed a union of States, united together for independence. Two different societies developed the industrialized north and the rural south, both with a common goal. After their revolution from Great Britain, these United States expanded westward beyond the Appalachian Mountains. Their territory increased and new states were admitted to the Union. These United States coexisted peacefully as northern free states and southern slave states, however the admittance of new states threatened the peace. The expansion of the United States and the addition of new states disrupted the sectional divide between the two regions plunging the nation into civil war.

Aside from the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 was one of the most important pieces of legislation passed by the Continental Congress. The ordinance established how our nation would expand westward, creating territories that would form new states and be admitted to the Union. The ordinance also banned slavery in the Great Lakes region, which established the regional divide between northern free states above the Ohio River and the southern slave states below the river. This political divide played out in the United States Senate as new states formed, with southern senators fearful that their “peculiar institution” of slavery would be destroyed.

The young nation expanded in the 1790s in both the northern and southern regions always maintaining that equal balance of power. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of our nation with the Louisiana Purchase. This allowed for the addition of new states to form and join the Union once the vast expanse of land was filled by westward moving Americans. This westward movement created the sectional crisis, as the expansion of slavery into the new territories came into question.

Missouri emerged as a state from the Louisiana Purchase. With the admittance of Missouri into the Union the balance between free and slave states began to tip. To balance the power in the Union, Maine was admitted as a free state. Maine was a non-contiguous part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. This compromise of admitting one slave state and one free state stabilized the balance of power between the two regions. Another part of the compromise was the prohibition of slavery in the remaining northern territory of the Louisiana Purchase. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 maintained order in the Union, but the nation continued to expand.

The expansion of the nation and the admittance of new states threatened the balance of power. If the north out numbered the south in the senate then the way of life in the southern states might be threatened. The south did not want to lose their right to have slaves and did not believe that the federal government could abolish it. Maintaining an equal number of states in both regions protected them against the threat of the federal government interfering with their “peculiar institution.” The south felt the issue was a states’ rights issue. However slavery would not be the first issue that the southern states felt the federal government was threatening their states’ right.

In 1828 the sectional divide heated up not over slavery, but another states’ right issue. The southern economy, which slavery was a part of, relied on trade with foreign countries. The imposition of a tariff, or a tax, on foreign trade threatened the southern economy. Vice President John C. Calhoun of South Carolina supported the idea of nullification proposed by his home state, which would allow states to null and void legislation passed by the federal government. It was a states’ right to do so. President Andrew Jackson thought nullification to be unconstitutional. Jackson loved the Union and wanted nothing more than to preserve the Union. Jackson threatened South Carolina with military force and believed nullification a treasonous act. In the end the state backed down and the Union was preserved, however the nullification crisis foreshadowed events to come.

By the late 1830s citizens of the United States were venturing westward filling and occupying the land purchased from France. Although one region in particular that was not apart of the Louisiana Purchase drew numerous citizens of the United States and that was Texas. Texas became an independent nation from Mexico in 1836 populated by an overwhelming amount of Americans. Texans fought for their independence and after winning sought annexation by the United States. If the United States were to admit Texas then the balance between free and slave states would be disrupted. Northern states did not want Texas admitted to the Union because they feared it would expand slavery, while the southern states welcomed the state. Just a few days before leaving office in March of 1845, President John Tyler signed the resolution annexing Texas as a state.

While Texas was a hotly debated topic for almost a decade, the issue of admitting it into the Union no longer became an issue by the time James K. Polk assumed the presidency in 1845. Aside from limiting himself to a single term in office, he committed himself to achieving four goals during his administration. Two of the goals were connected to the expansion of the Union, acquiring the Oregon territory from Great Britain as well as California and New Mexico from Mexico. Polk set out to turn the United States into a continental power, establishing a “manifest destiny.”

To achieve the manifest destiny of our nation Polk took us to war. Obtaining Oregon from Great Britain did not require a fight, but obtaining California and New Mexico would not be as simple. The Mexican-U.S. War lasted from 1846 to 1848. The Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo ended the war and expanded the nation all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The new territory gained from the treaty created the question of whether to admit states into the Union as free or slave.

The new territories which emerged from the war brought the balance of power between the two regions to a boil. Once again a compromise was needed. Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed a number of measures which included admitting California as a free state; the territory of New Mexico would be organized without the prohibition of slavery; the slave trade was prohibited in the District of Columbia, while slavery was not abolished; and fugitive slave laws were strengthened. The compromise was opposed by President Zachary Taylor, however he died in 1850 and his successor Millard Fillmore supported it. This Compromise of 1850 tempered the crisis brewing between the north and the south.

While the start of the decade attempted to put the sectional crisis to rest it became just a stepping stone to the impending crisis. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin became an important part the abolitionist cause and 19th Century American literature. The novel had an affect on attitudes toward slavery and the slaves themselves. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which attempted to quench the slavery issue was repealed two years after Stowe’s novel was published.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 repealed the Missouri Compromise which sought to end the debate on the expansion of slavery. Now through popular sovereignty the settlers of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska were to determine if they were a free state or a slave state. The settlers of Kansas turned to bloodshed as northerners moved in to claim the territory as a free state, while southerners did the same but for pro-slavery reasons. The anti-slavery side eventually triumphed over the pro-slavery side, but once again this event was another foreshadow of things to come but on a larger scale.

As the nation expanded and the expansion of slavery grew with it, a political party emerged in 1854 in opposition to its expansion. The Republican Party formed in 1854 and by the presidential election of 1856 had its first presidential candidate on the ballot. However in the end John Fremont was defeated by Democratic candidate James Buchanan. President Buchanan continued the disorder that was maintained by the previous administration of Franklin Pierce. In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled on the Dred Scott case, stating that a slave was not a citizen and thus had no rights under the Constitution. The ruling intensified northern opposition to the expansion of slavery.

In 1858 an Illinois seat in the United States Senate gained attention as the two competitors for that seat debated for their party’s dominance in the Illinois state legislature, which appointed United State Senators at the time. Democrat Stephen Douglas debated Republican Abraham Lincoln. In the debates Lincoln said “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.” The house represented the country and its sectional division of free and slave states. The Democrats won the election in Illinois returning Douglas to the United States Senate, while Lincoln gained national attention. The house divide was on the verge of collapsing.

In 1859 John Brown attempted to start a slave rebellion. Brown led an attack on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. He seized the federal armory and held the citizens hostage. The rebellion was squashed and Brown was hung. Rebellion was in the air, but not from the anti-slavery side.

Lincoln’s prominence in the senatorial debates propelled him to the Republican nomination for president in 1860 defeating party heavy weight William Seward of New York. The election of 1860 pitted Republican Lincoln against, against a fractured Democratic party. The southern pro-slavery Democrats nominated the incumbent Vice President John C. Breckinridge, while the northern Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas. A fourth candidacy came from the Constitutional Union Party, a party comprised of former Whigs and Know-Nothings. The Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell. With the lowest popular vote percentage of any president ever and with only the electoral votes of the northern states, Abraham Lincoln was elected the 16th President of the United States.

With Lincoln’s election, the south believed the anti-slavery party would abolish their “peculiar institution.” Before the year of 1860 was out the state of South Carolina seceded from the Union, an act deemed unconstitutional by President Buchanan and President-elect Lincoln. However Buchanan felt there was nothing he could do. Lincoln attempted to heal the wounds with his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861. The south ignored Lincoln and on April 12th attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Fort Sumter in Lincoln’s eyes was Union property; the war between the states had begun.

Two different regions, one free and the other slave holding, fought together to overthrow a tyrannical king. These United States expanded their territorial reach over the North American continent. Their expanse disrupted the peaceful sectionalism which existed in revolution. Compromises were made to maintain the peace as the nation grew. However expansion turned these United States into a house divided, long preventing it from becoming a more perfect union as the United States.