Resultados narrador por "Sean Runnette" en Todas las categorias

President James Monroe recognized that as the United States matured, it had to convey forcefully what the nation’s place in the world would be. In articulating the Monroe Doctrine, the fifth president declared that the new democratic republic would refrain from seeking to exert control over other nations.

In testing the scope of the president’s power in the field of foreign affairs under the Constitution, John Adams quickly learned that an aggressive approach to exercising executive power could backfire. He found himself caught in a political tug-of-war between the Federalists and the Jeffer­sonian Republicans over foreign affairs.

Benjamin Harrison, the “Centennial President,” failed to achieve many of his goals (for instance, he was unable to secure passage of federal leg­islation to ensure public school education and voting rights for African Americans in the South). Yet he successfully pressed Congress to pass the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to deal with the growing threat posed by cor­porate trusts and monopolies.

Harry S. Truman, a farmer and soldier from Missouri and a latecomer to politics, was thrust unexpectedly into the presidency when President Roo­sevelt died in office with World War II raging in Europe. Truman was a plain-speaking, decisive, and sometimes impulsive leader who dropped the atomic bomb to end the war.

President Rutherford B. Hayes, the first Gilded Age president, began his career as an antislavery Union soldier. Yet the Compromise of 1877, which led to his prevailing in the wake of the hotly contested Hayes-Tilden elec­tion, caused Hayes to abandon Reconstruction and turn his attention to economic priorities such as using federal troops to subdue railroad strikes.

President William McKinley initially tried at all costs to avoid war with Spain over a rebellion in Cuba. Refusal by Spain of his offer to arbitrate an end to the conflict triggered US military action, which resulted in a swift American victory.

Thomas Jefferson displayed a rich, complex, and sometimes contradictory view of the Constitution. Among early presidents, Jefferson was the lead­ing advocate of limited federal power, instead favoring strong authority for the states.

Calvin Coolidge inherited a presidency tainted by the Teapot Dome scandal and sought to bring stability to the White House to restore public trust. He won a victory in asserting his pardon power to commute the jail sentence of an Illinois man imprisoned for violating the unpopular Pro­hibition laws, and he appointed Justice Harlan Fiske Stone—a forward-thinking justice—to the Supreme Court.

President Andrew Johnson succeeded to the presidency suddenly, when Abraham Lincoln was killed by an assassin. Confronted with the prospect of Reconstruction—bringing the Union back together after a prolonged Civil War—Johnson tolerated harsh treatment of former slaves in South­ern states, believing that it was up to the states to determine their status.

Herbert Clark Hoover, first an international businessman, a global hero during World War I, and then a cabinet officer under Presidents Harding and Coolidge, was elected president in 1928. The next year, as President Hoover embarked on his progressive agenda for the country, the Roaring Twenties ended, crashingly, in the Great Depression.

John Tyler, despite his adroitness in establishing that he had inherited com­plete presidential power when his predecessor died in office, became a weak and maladroit chief executive during his own time in the White House. Yet, Tyler was not afraid to exercise his authority.

President Richard M. Nixon, the first president to resign from office in disgrace, sought to exert so much power in office that he eventually became tangled up in the Watergate scandal and its cover-up. These incidents ultimately led to the appointment of a special prosecutor and a burgeoning criminal investigation of his own conduct. Nixon’s secret White House taping system provided the smoking gun that would lead to the unraveling of his administration.

Chester A. Arthur, who had profited from a plum patronage position dur­ing the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, found himself thrust into a dif­ficult role when his predecessor, James Garfield, died of a gunshot wound. With Garfield’s death, the controversy over political patronage bubbled to a head.

President William Jefferson Clinton, the first baby boomer to occupy the White House, took office with a group of political foes viewing him as an unworthy president. Clinton was dogged by the Whitewater scandal, the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, and the Monica Lewinsky revelation. His own decision to sign the controversial independent-counsel statute back into law—which led to the appointment of Independent Counsel Kenneth W. Starr—haunted him throughout his time in office.

President William Henry Harrison died after only thirty-one days in office, the shortest term served by any American president. A celebrated military hero who had defeated Native American tribes at the Battle of Tippecanoe, Harrison delivered an inaugural address that lasted nearly two hours.

George W. Bush (“Bush 43”) won office as a result of a highly contested election that was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, dividing the country anew after the polarizing Clinton impeachment. The son of the forty-first president, George W. Bush sought to build a new, more powerful presidency. When ter­rorists struck the World Trade Center on 9/11, Bush used the full authority of his office to wage an unprecedented “war on terror.”

James Garfield, a powerful figure in the Reconstruction-era Congress, took office in 1881 with a goal of uniting the Republican Party, which was split between the Stalwarts (who strongly favored political patronage) and the so-called Half-Breeds (who believed patronage bred corruption).

Grover Cleveland, the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms, stood up to Congress in asserting his constitutional prerogative to remove certain federal appointees without the Senate’s approval, forcing the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act, which had plagued his predecessors.

President Barack Obama, the first African American chief executive in the history of the United States, inspired millions of people to believe in his mes­sage of hope. His administration’s signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act, came under persistent attacks as he sought to implement sweeping health-care reform. The Obama administration exercised executive powers aggressively - refusing to deport many undocumented immigrants who had entered the country as children.

Zachary Taylor, a professional soldier and sugar planter with no previous political experience, held the office of president for barely sixteen months before dying of acute gastroenteritis. A war hero before moving into the White House, he immediately confronted a rogue effort to seize Cuba and had to address issues involving slavery in the new territories acquired from Mexico.