Born William Jefferson Blythe IV two months after his father died, Bill Clinton later took his stepfather’s surname. Raised in Arkansas, Clinton was part of the “baby boom generation” that came of age during the Vietnam war, the civil rights and women’s liberation movements. He studied at Georgetown, Oxford and Yale Law — where he met his wife, Hillary — then went home and entered politics, eventually serving five terms as Governor. Joining the 1992 Presidential race when incumbent Bush looked unbeatable, Clinton rode an economic downturn to victory in a tight three-way race.

President Clinton won passage of NAFTA and the “Brady Bill,” but lost his bid for health care reform. Then in 1994, the Democrats lost their Congressional majority to Republicans who stressed conservative themes. Clinton heard and refocused — on the deficit, crime and welfare reform. Reelected in 1996, Clinton pushed for peace in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the Mideast, and for racial healing at home. but he himself became a divisive figure when an investigation by the Special Prosecutor’s Office revealed his illicit relationship with a White House intern. Clinton’s denial of the impropriety led to his 1998 impeachment by the House, though the Senate failed to convict. In his final year, Clinton increased America’s parklands and supported Hillary’s winning Senate run (D.N.Y.)

Forty-Second President
Democrat

A top graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, engineer Jimmy Carter reluctantly left the Navy in order to run his family’s peanut business. He entered Georgia politics and was elected Governor in 1970. In 1976, he captured the Democratic Presidential nomination — a Washington outsider untainted by the insider politics of the Nixon era. Carter’s earnest oratory, deep religious faith, and down-to-earth policies impressed a jaded electorate, especially his vow that he would never lie to the American people.

One of Carter’s first Presidential acts was to pardon the Vietnam draft dodgers. He decreased the federal budget deficit, deregulated domestic oil prices and formed an Energy Department. He also improved bureaucratic efficiency, and placed many women and minorities in senior government jobs. but Carter never got along with Congress and he was blamed for high interest rates and inflation. In foreign affairs, Carter stressed human rights. He facilitated the historic Camp David Accord between Egypt and Israel, and the Treaty ceding the Panama Canal. But these accomplishments were overshadowed by the Iranian hostage crisis. Carter’s inability to secure release of the American hostages, by force or otherwise, frustrated the public, who rejected him in the 1980 election. After leaving office, Carter has remained active in the cause of human rights and world peace.

Thirty-Ninth President
Democrat

John F. Kennedy was blessed with wealth, charm, intelligence and good looks. He was the second child of a Boston millionaire whose driving ambition was to put a son in the White House. After graduating from Harvard, “Jack” joined the Navy. He earned a hero’s medal for leading his surviving crew to safety, despite a grave back injury, after the Japanese sunk his PT boat. When his older brother was killed in action, Jack inherited the politician’s mantle. Elected to the U.S. House and then the Senate, he lost his bid for the Democratic Vice-Presidential nomination in 1956. In 1960, he led the ticket. Aided by his TV debates and choice of Lyndon Johnson as his running mate, JFK narrowly defeated Richard Nixon — becoming the nation’s first Catholic and youngest elected President.

In 1961 Kennedy supported a failed mission by anti-Castro Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs. The next year, the Soviets put nuclear missiles in Cuba, but withdrew them after JFK imposed a naval blockade. Tensions eased with the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty though the “space race” continued. A supporter of the arts, JFK was also mindful of the disadvantaged. He founded the Peace Corps and proposed wide-ranging civil rights legislation though he never saw its enactment. On November 22, 1963, he was shot to death in a Dallas motorcade. The nation watched and mourned as he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Thirty-Fifth President
Democrat

Missourian Harry Truman was a gutsy and straight-talking politician who suffered chiefly from having to fill the shoes of a giant, FDR. Truman ran the family farm until World War I sent him to the French front. After the war he married and launched an unsuccessful clothing store. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1934, he gained national recognition through his unflinching investigation of war contracts. Chosen as FDR’s running mate in 1944, Truman became President when Roosevelt died four months after the election.

Noted for his candor and wit, Truman originated the line, “The buck stops here.” Indeed, President Truman faced up to difficult decisions. When Japan vowed to continue fighting after Germany surrendered, he authorized the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing the war to an end. In the Cold War that followed, he stood firm against the Soviets. In Greece, Turkey, West Berlin and South Korea, Truman carried out a policy of “containment.” In domestic affairs, his Fair Deal proposals included civil rights legislation and a national health program. He won a surprise victory over Thomas Dewey in the 1948 election, living up to his campaign cheer, “Give ‘em hell, Harry!” He retired at the end of his term.

Thirty-Third President
Democrat

Franklin Delano Roosevelt led America through some of its darkest hours. A cousin and admirer of Teddy Roosevelt, FDR became a New York State Senator, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy and finally the Democrats’ unsuccessful Vice-Presidential candidate in 1920. In 1921 he was crippled by polio, but after intensive therapy was able to walk with crutches. His vigor undimmed, he became New York Governor in 1928, then President.

Inaugurated at the height of the Depression, FDR inspired Americans with the words, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He launched the New Deal, instituting social security and unemployment benefits. His public works projects included the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Works Progress Administration. His mobility hampered, he reached millions by radio in his “fireside chats” while his wife, Eleanor, tirelessly toured the country. FDR was re-elected in 1936, 1940 and 1944. In 1940, he responded to Hitler’s aggression in Europe by sending the British 50 destroyers in exchange for military bases, followed by massive “Lend-Lease” aid. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and America entered World War II. With Stalin and Churchill, Roosevelt laid the groundwork for the post-war world, and the creation of the United Nations. But he did not live to see it, dying of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945.

Thirty-Second President
Democrat

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Woodrow Wilson was a progressive reformer and idealist. He was also remote and rigid — righteous to a fault. After attending Princeton and practicing law briefly, he returned to his alma mater as a professor of political science, becoming president of the University in 1902. In 1910, Wilson was elected Governor of New Jersey and in 1912 he became the Democrat’s Presidential nominee on the 46th ballot.

Backed by a Democratic majority in Congress, President Wilson pushed through numerous reforms, including a graduated income tax, a lower tariff, laws restricting child labor, and the Federal Reserve Act. In 1916 the war in Europe was the major issue of the day — Wilson opposed intervention and narrowly won re-election. Soon after, Germany’s mounting aggression against the U.S. forced the President to declare war, to “make the world safe for democracy.”

In his “Fourteen Points” peace plan, Wilson called for a “League of Nations” after the Allied victory. But Congress, by then Republican and isolationist, failed to ratify the League’s Treaty (of Versailles). Wilson suffered a stroke while on a national tour promoting the League, which had become his passion. In 1920 he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Twenty-Eighth President
Democrat

A prominent lawyer in Buffalo, New York, Grover Cleveland was elected Mayor of that city in 1881. He earned a reputation for honesty and fairness, and went on to become state Governor. Cleveland’s opposition to political corruption, at a time when the Republicans were still strongly associated with the spoils system, helped to win him the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1884. He was elected despite revelations that the unmarried Cleveland was supporting an illegitimate son.

Soon after his inauguration, Cleveland became the first President to wed in the White House. In his first term, he signed the Interstate Commerce Act, improved the civil service, denied fraudulent pension claims, set aside illegal land grants to the railroads, and tried to lower the national tariff. The tariff issue dominated the 1888 Presidential campaign and while Cleveland won the popular vote, Benjamin Harrison received the electoral victory.

Cleveland returned to the White House in 1892, after defeating Harrison in a rematch. Faced with a nationwide depression, Cleveland focused on monetary policy rather than on direct assistance to the needy. This plus the hard line he took against striking rail workers, caused his party to back Williams Jennings Bryan in 1896.

Twenty-Second & Twenty-Fourth President
Democrat

A lawyer, Congressman, Senator and Secretary of State under Polk, James Buchanan was untainted by the fractious domestic politics of the Franklin Pierce Presidency, thanks to his posting overseas as Pierce’s Minister to Britain. Chosen as the Democrat’s Presidential candidate in 1856, Buchanan favored popular sovereignty in the territories and tried generally to downplay the divisive slavery issue. His attitude of denial worked for a time — he defeated the candidate of the newly formed Republican party, which opposed slavery’s extension. Just days after his inauguration the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision, holding that Congress could not bar slavery from the territories. But in 1858 Republicans controlling the House of Representatives refused to allow Kansas into the Union as a slave state. The government became deadlocked.

In 1860 the Democrats abandoned Buchanan. Now split into Northern and Southern wings, each with its own Presidential candidate, the party essentially handed over the Presidency to the Republican, Abraham Lincoln. Seven southern states seceded rather than accept the election and Buchanan’s Southern Cabinet members, resigned to join the Confederacy. Buchanan called the secession illegal, but took no action to save the Union.

Fifteenth President
Democrat

Franklin Pierce was thrust into the Presidential melee of 1852 by New Hampshire supporters, after 47 ballots failed to produce a Democratic nominee. Having been the youngest-ever member of the U.S. Senate in 1837, he became the then-youngest President when elected in 1853. The tragic death of Pierce’s 11-year-old son in a train wreck darkened the early days of his Presidency. National events were no more portentous of a happy tenure in the White House.

Northern opposition forced Pierce to abandon his plans to acquire Hawaii, Alaska and Cuba, although he did manage to buy a large tract from Mexico that is now part of Arizona and New Mexico (the Gadsen Purchase) for a Southern railroad. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act superceded the Missouri Compromise. It enabled residents in all the new territories to determine their own slavery policy. Both pro and anti-slave factions poured into Kansas to try to wrest control of that pivotal territory. Shooting and bloodshed followed, giving Americans a foretaste of the Civil War. “Bleeding Kansas” lost President Pierce the support of his party and the Democrats failed to nominate him for a second term.

Fourteenth President
Democrat

James Polk was a Tennessee lawyer, Governor and U.S. Speaker of the House before he emerged as the Democrats’ compromise Presidential candidate in 1845, defeating the Whig leader Henry Clay. The “dark horse” President claimed America had a “manifest destiny” to expand across the continent. The public agreed, but his own party was divided on the issue, knowing that Polk’s vision could well result in war with Mexico or Britain.

The Mexican War began in 1846 after Texas joined the Union. Triumphant American forces entered Mexico City in 1847. The Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty of 1848 established the Texas border at the Rio Grande and provided for America’s purchase of a huge tract of land encompassing what is now California and Nevada and parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. War with Britain in the Northwest was averted by the Oregon Treaty of 1846, which fixed most of that territory’s boundary at the 49th parallel.

Polk fulfilled all his campaign pledges, including lowering the national tariff and establishing an independent Treasury. The Presidency took a toll on his health, however, and he died three months after leaving office.

Eleventh President
Democrat