George Washington

March 4: Traditional Presidential Inauguration Day Through 1933

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March 4 was set up in the Constitution as Inauguration Day every four years, and every inauguration through 1933, except for the first, was held on that day.

George Washington was delayed in reaching the then capital of New York City in 1789, and did not arrive for the inauguration until April 30, but every other elected President from John Adams to Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4.

Then, the 20th Amendment in 1933 changed the inauguration date to January 20, beginning in 1937 and every fourth year since.

So March 4 was historic, particularly with the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln in 1861 and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, at the two most delicate and dangerous moments in our history, the oncoming Civil War, and the worst moments of the Great Depression.

Other March 4 inaugurations which stood out historically include 1829, 1841, 1865, and 1877.

In 1829, the newly inaugurated Andrew Jackson invited the crowd to come back to the White House and celebrate, and a mob descended on the White House, and proceeded to break the windows, and commit other destruction since many were drunk!

In 1841, newly elected President William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural address in American history on a cold, rainy day, and contracted pneumonia, and died exactly a month later.

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address became the most memorable such speech in American history, at least until Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Inaugural Address in 1933.

And in 1877, President Rutherford Hayes was inaugurated, after only learning of his selection by the specially constituted Electoral Commission two days earlier, in a political compromise agreement known as the Compromise of 1877. Many had wondered whether a new civil war was in the offing because of the dispute over the Presidential election results.

So March 4 will always remain a particularly historic day in American history.

The Ten Most Important Presidential Elections In American History

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With Presidents Day coming on Monday, this is a good time to reflect on the 56 Presidential elections that this country has had, and to judge which ten are the most significant, path breaking elections.

Of course, there can be debate and disputes as to the judgment of this author and blogger, but here goes, in chronological order.

Presidential Election of 1789–the selection by the Electoral College of our first President, George Washington, the absolutely right choice for the beginning of our nation under the Constitution, as Washington set important precedents for the future, and had no ambition to grab power long term.

Presidential Election Of 1800–the first time we had an opposition party come to power with grace, and without violence, setting a standard for the future, as Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams, and the dispute between him and Vice President Aaron Burr, who claimed a tie in the Electoral College, was settled peacefully as well, and caused a modifying of the Electoral College process.

The Presidential Election of 1828–the first one decided by popular vote synchronizing with the electoral vote, and giving the country a so called “Common Man” in the Presidency, Andrew Jackson, representing city workers and frontiersmen alike.

Presidential Election of 1860–leading to the election of Abraham Lincoln, who set out to preserve the Union at all costs, and wielded power in a controversial, but thoughtfully considered way, through four years of the Civil War.

Presidential Election Of 1912–the triumph of progressivism, the recognition that government’s role had been changed irrevocably in a country that had been transformed from an agricultural to an industrial nation, had tripled in population since the Civil War, had become a multi ethnic nation, and had recognized the need for the regulation of capitalism in the public good, as well as political reforms and social justice. And it was the most exciting election, as three Presidents, past (Teddy Roosevelt), present (William Howard Taft), and future (Woodrow Wilson) competed against each other.

Presidential Election Of 1932–the triumph of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the worst moments of the Great Depression, offering hope and action (the New Deal) to revive the spirits of the nation, and have the American people believe in the future. Without his victory, there might have been social revolution and bloodshed on a large scale.

Presidential Election of 1960–witnessing the first Catholic President elected (John F. Kennedy) and the promotion of idealism and a new beginning in the advancement of social justice and political reform.

Presidential Election Of 1964–the victory of liberalism with the election of Lyndon B. Johnson, and the defeat of Barry Goldwater and conservatism, therefore insuring the continuation of the New Deal, and the evolution of the Great Society.

Presidential Election Of 1980–seeing the triumph of conservatism under Ronald Reagan, with some modifications of the New Deal and Great Society, and great speeches, but not the conservative “heaven” that many imagine it was, but making Reagan a national icon like Washington, Lincoln and FDR.

Presidential Election Of 2008–witnessing the first African American President (Barack Obama), and his work to provide health care reform, preserve the New Deal and Great Society, and overcome the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The author welcomes discussion and debate on this post!

Mitt Romney’s Investment In American Financial Institutions: Not Preferred Over Bermuda, Cayman Islands, And Switzerland

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Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor, would be, by latest estimate, the FOURTH wealthiest President if he was elected, just behind George Washington, Herbert Hoover, and Thomas Jefferson, and ahead of John F. Kennedy, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Zachary Taylor, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and James Madison.

Romney would have twice as much wealth (at about $250 million) than the last eight Presidents combined, from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama. And over time, he could be worth more than the three Presidents ahead of him, and become historically the wealthiest President ever!

And we have now learned that Mitt Romney pays only 13.9 percent of the wealth he has gained by investment, rather than by working, and that he has large amounts of money invested outside the United States, notably in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and in Swiss banks.

So while he wishes to promote American economic recovery, he is, apparently, not willing to keep his investments in America!

This could become a major issue in the Presidential campaign of 2012!

The Issue Of Presidential Sexual Scandals And The Candidacy Of Newt Gingrich

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The controversy surrounding former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s private life has multiplied, with the revelation by his second wife of Newt’s desire for an “open marriage”, so that he could carry on an affair with the woman who became his third wife, since his second wife disagreed with his desire for an open marriage. This issue arose when the second wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, just as the move by Newt to divorce his first wife came when she was diagnosed with cancer.

Have Presidential candidates and Presidents before now been involved in sex scandals? Of course, the answer is yes, but only becoming public knowledge and controversy in the past 25 years with the candidacies of Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, Rudy Guiliani, and Newt Gingrich, and the planned but aborted candidacies of Mark Sanford and John Ensign.

Have Presidents had affairs in the past, in or out of office? Of course yes is the answer, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Buchanan, James Garfield, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton, that we are aware of. But ONLY Bill Clinton was revealed to be involved in such scandals before he was elected, and during his Presidency, as news and gossip on other Presidents was kept well hidden from the news media and the general public.

Have Presidents or Presidential candidates ever been divorced? The answer is yes, although only Ronald Reagan has been elected. But Adlai Stevenson, Bob Dole, John Kerry, and John McCain all were married for the second time when they ran for the White House.

Has any candidate ever been married THREE times, and openly cheated on his first two wives, other than Newt Gingrich? The answer is NO, and the hypocrisy of Newt Gingrich is that he pursued the impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998-1999 while pursuing his own affair outside of marriage.

No President or Presidential candidate has openly pursued the idea of a “open marriage”, although one could argue that Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton, at the least, seemed to accept such a concept in the sense that they knew their husbands were involved in cheating and did not choose to break up their marriages.

Other First Ladies and wives of Presidential candidates MAY have silently agreed to their husbands committing adultery and staying married, but that is all speculation at best.

The point is that the second wife of Newt Gingrich, in revealing the “open marriage” idea of her former husband, made it clear that Newt had said that Callista, the third wife, had no problem with “sharing” Newt.

So what this means is that IF Callista Gingrich becomes First Lady, we will have the first acknowledged believer in an open marriage, who has no concept of a problem with adultery. In the past, there were choice words for such a woman, which will not be used here. It indicates the likelihood of an “open marriage” between Callista and Newt from the beginning of their marriage, and the excellent possibility that there would be sex scandals in the White House, something we do not need to occur, or to learn about.

In a country in which many “religious” people claim to believe in the sanctity of marriage, and the importance of “family values”, to have Newt and Callista Gingrich in the White House would be a mockery of the concept of marriage and loyalty, and a degradation of the Presidency as an institution.

And for conservatives, such as Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh to ignore this, and to support Newt, indicates the total hypocrisy of the Right, which was only too eager to remove Bill Clinton from office on moral grounds.

Birthday Of The Most Misunderstood And Underappreciated Founding Father: Alexander Hamilton!

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On this day, January 11, in either 1755 or 1757, depending on which historical records one believes, Alexander Hamilton was born in the British West Indies.

Hamilton went on to a life of success, migrating to the American colonies, serving George Washington in the American Revolution, being a delegate to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia, becoming President Washington’s first Secretary of the Treasury, founding the first political party (the Federalists), and promoting what has become the “liberal” interpretation of the Constitution (although it was termed “conservative” at the time).

Hamilton was always controversial, outspoken, opinionated, egotistical, and had so called “skeletons in his closet” regarding his financial and love lives.

But he saved the country during its early years under George Washington with his policies of paying off the national and state debts. He developed the broad interpretation of the Constitution, utilized later by Chief Justice John Marshall and the Supreme Court in the doctrine of “judicial review”. He developed the US Mint; the US Coast Guard; emphasized the importance of manufacturing and industry in the American economy alongside agriculture; started the Bank of New York; and developed the oldest continually published newspaper in America, the New York Post.

Hamilton would be tragically killed by Vice President Aaron Burr in an infamous gun duel in New Jersey in the summer of 1804, dying at the young age of 47 or 49, and remains one of the tragic losses of a young politico, alongside John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. among others.

It is hard to imagine how America would have evolved without the contributions of Alexander Hamilton!

In Interview, Barack Obama Compares Himself In Accomplishments To Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, And Lyndon B. Johnson! Is That Appropriate?

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President Obama has now compared his accomplishments after three years in office to three other Presidents–Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.

This comment will stir much reaction and commentary, and it requires analysis and judgment, which will go on forever!

Certainly, Obama’s time in office has caused tremendous controversy and turmoil, but one could argue the same for Lincoln, FDR, and LBJ!

Assuming that the Supreme Court does not declare Obama’s Health Care plan unconstitutional, that achievement will stand out as one of the most profound in American history!

Obama also has saved the auto industry, prevented a Great Depression, and has brought about more reforms in his time in office than anyone except FDR, LBJ, and possibly Woodrow Wilson! He also has been extremely impressive in his attack on terrorism and Al Qaeda, and in ending the war in Iraq.

It is certainly true that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan had a great significance in our history!

It is also true that even James K. Polk, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton had major accomplishments that will not be forgotten.

But in terms of pure legislative accomplishments, Obama must, at this point, rank with FDR and LBJ, and again possibly Wilson, and Lincoln always needs to be mentioned when talking about accomplishments, although for Lincoln, it was in time of the Civil War.

But it will be the whole record of Obama, not just the first three years, that will be part of the ultimate judgment on his tenure. If he is reelected, the odds of a favorable view of his Presidency will grow, while if he is defeated for a second term, his reputation will be dimmed, typical of one term Presidents.

Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, And History: Fact Vs Fiction! Addendum Correction And Apology!

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Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck are well known political commentators, and both have millions of fans and followers of their television and radio programs.

Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck have the right to say whatever they wish on their programs, and they have the right to write and publish whatever books they wish to produce!

Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, however, are not historians who work at producing accurate, valid historical works, and one has to realize that they are more outstanding in producing historical fiction than fact, when they make references to the past via speech or by publication.

So the fact that O’Reilly has published a book on the Lincoln assassination, which the Fords Theatre bookstore in Washington, DC will not sell because of alleged incorrect or unsubstantiated information without documentation, and this decision is backed up by expert historians on the Civil War period, has become the center of controversy.

O’Reilly is, of course, furious, and he has a right to be, as any author can feel, but the historical profession needs to legitimize what is called “history”, and to challenge publications that claim to be “history”, but are in fact historical fiction!

Certainly, there is much interpretation that goes on in the historical community of scholars, but there is a responsibility when there appears to be a lack of accuracy and validity on a book and topic that many will read and believe is totally true, when experts make it clear it is NOT accurate, or backed up by appropriate documentation!

So it means a serious student of history should have a doubting view of anything that Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck (author of a supposed authoritative view of George Washington), or any other political propagandist chooses to publish!

Anyone can write and publish what he or she wishes, but we have the right to make a judgment on its validity and to state so, whether that author likes it or not!

ADDENDUM: It has now been reported that there were only four minor errors in O’Reilly’s book, and they have been corrected, and Fords Theatre has NOT removed his book from their store as reported incorrectly in the media. O’Reilly is owed an apology, and I will also apologize. However, any reader should always be alert to any book published, whether by O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, or anyone else, as to whether it is accurate in its factual basis and documentation!

Michele Bachmann And Hollywood Celebrities: John Wayne And Elvis Presley!

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Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is running for the Republican Presidential nomination, but she has shown herself to be a total embarrassment when it comes to having accurate information both about American History and Hollywood celebrities. One has to wonder how one could trust her economics knowledge if she fails to have basic understanding and knowledge of what a President should know!

As is well known, Bachmann claimed that New Hampshire was the birthplace of the American Revolution with the military events at Lexington and Concord, rather than Massachusetts!

She also claimed that the Founding Fathers ended slavery, seemingly not realizing that it continued until the Civil War, and that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and other Southern Presidents all owned many slaves throughout their lifetimes.

But even more shocking is her lack of awareness about Hollywood celebrities. She earlier claimed that John Wayne, the actor, was born in Waterloo, Iowa, as she was, rather than the mass murderer John Wayne Gacy!

Now, yesterday, on the 34th anniversary of the DEATH of Elvis Presley, she wished him HAPPY BIRTHDAY! How can she NOT know the difference, and one can imagine Elvis fans, and even those who are not Elvis fans, rolling their eyes and sighing!

Bachmann praised Elvis, which is also interesting, as it is Evangelical Christians, which she says she is, who CONDEMNED Elvis, his clothes, his gyrating hips, and his music 55 years ago, when he first appeared on the musical scene.

Having visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland two weeks ago, and seeing the film footage of evangelical Christian ministers saying Elvis was in league with the Devil and other things more horrible, it makes one laugh at their bigotry, narrow mindedness, and backwardness, and makes one wonder how well Michele Bachmann understands her own religious beliefs, or is she simply propagandized, and now wishes to perpetrate her propaganda on the rest of us with her holier than thou statements on gay rights, abortion, and many other issues–and in the process taking away personal freedoms as those ministers 55 years ago wished to do in the field of music!

The Ignorance Crisis In America: Belief In Conspiracy Theories Runs Amuck, Danger Sign For America’s Future!

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America is in deep trouble for the future in so many ways, but it is likely that the greatest crisis the country faces is the Ignorance Crisis, in which Conspiracy Theories run amuck!

It is shocking how many people, and we mean adults over the age of 18 but working its way up to include even the elderly, display such ignorance and lack of a sense of reality, that they truly believe in conspiracy theories, accepting false evidence as factually true. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but millions of citizens seem to be unwilling to face reality and accept factual details, choosing to believe what they want to believe, no matter how crazy or loony it is!

Among the Conspiracy theories widely believed are the following:

1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt engineered the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, crippling our naval fleet, in order to get us into World War II!

2. Aliens landed in Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947, and our Defense Department has covered it up ever since, keeping the aliens under lock and key!

3. The assassination of John F. Kennedy was engineered by elements within the government, and involved multiple gunmen who made Lee Harvey Oswald the patsy!

4. American astronauts did not land on the moon in July 1969, but were instead part of a great coverup by the news media and government officials, and they actually were landing in the deserts of Arizona!

5. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld engineered the attacks of September 11 on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, in order to increase Presidential power and put us into a world wide war against Islamic civilization!

6. Barack Obama was born in an Islamic country, either Kenya or Indonesia, not the United States, and there was a great conspiracy to plant a birth announcement in Hawaii newspapers in 1961, so as to allow us to elect him the first black President, and allow him to promote Sharia law and Socialism in America fifty years later!

7. In a more generalized way, the Masonic Order has been involved in a conspiracy to control the government and economy of the United States from George Washington to the present!

8. The Federal Reserve Banking System, created under Woodrow Wilson in 1913, is part of a great conspiracy by powerful capitalists and bankers, many of them foreigners, to control and manipulate the American economy, so as to exploit the average American citizen, and enrich the international conspiracy against America’s interests!

9. There is a great conspiracy by people from Latin America, particularly Mexico, to take over the American nation, and dilute it with the “inferior” racial stock that Hispanics and Latinos represent!

10. The United States is threatened by “old Europe”, the “inferior” nations and laws of nations such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy and other countries all over Europe, who are trying to undermine our laws and traditions! Also, all international organizations, including NATO and the United Nations, are working to undermine American “exceptionalism” and values!

When one examines all of these conspiracy theories and how many Americans truly believe them, despite lack of evidence and facts, one must mourn for the long term future of this great nation, which has allowed the development of an inferior education system and poor family values to undermine what was once a great nation, but is now in great danger and under great threat of collapse over the next few generations!

All good, educated, sensible people want our nation back to what it once was, and mourn the serious mental illness we are now suffering through!

March 4: The Ultimate Day In The History Of The Presidency!

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Today, March 4, is indeed the ultimate day for political junkies about the American Presidency!

March 4 was the Inauguration Day for all but 5 of the first 32 Presidents of the United States. Only George Washington (first term delayed inauguration to April 30), and the four Presidents (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Alan Arthur) never elected President before 1937 were NOT inaugurated on March 4, and since Washington WAS inaugurated for his second term on March 4, you could say four and a half Presidents were NOT inaugurated on March 4!

Of course, Inauguration Day was changed to January 20, via the 20th Amendment in 1933, making that the day of the inauguration, beginning every fourth year in 1937.

Not only was March 4 the Inauguration Day, but also it has been historic several times beyond just the simple fact of the date itself!

Today, 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President in the midst of a national crisis which would lead to the outbreak of the undeclared Civil War six weeks later!

Also, 78 years ago today, Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated President in the midst of the greatest economic collapse in American history, the Great Depression!

Despite the generally acknowledged greatness of both Lincoln and FDR, there are still heated debates today by those who would condemn the actions these two Presidents took to save the nation!

But March 4 is more than just the historic inaugurations of our two greatest Presidents in 1861 and 1933.

It is also the 210th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson, the first opposition party candidate to be inaugurated peacefully, a marvel in world history.

It is also the 182nd anniversary of the inauguration of Andrew Jackson, the first President truly elected by popular vote of the masses, introducing the concept of democracy!

It is also the 146th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, often regarded as the best ever delivered!

It is also the 110th anniversary of the second inauguration of William McKinley with a new Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt, who within six months and ten days would suddenly succeed to the office of the Presidency, and have a massive impact on the institution and the country that no one could have imagined!

So March 4 is indeed an historic day, clearly the single most significant day of the year in the history of the American Presidency!