Born: 1858, New York, NY
Died: 1919

The son of a wealthy banker, “Teddy” Roosevelt was a sickly youth who overcame his frailty through exercise and sheer grit. After graduating from Harvard he entered politics as a Republican reformer, but when his wife and mother both died on the same day, he temporarily left public life to become a rancher in the Dakota Territory. He remarried in 1886 and went to work on the Civil Service Commission, then became New York’s Police Commissioner. Appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy by President McKinley, Teddy led the Rough Rider Regiment in Cuba during the Spanish American War. Elected New York Governor in 1898, he was McKinley’s running mate in 1900.

Upon McKinley’s assassination, the progressive new President tackled the industrial monopolies, earning the label “trust-buster.” A passionate defender of the wilderness, he expanded the National Parks. In foreign policy he said, “speak softly and carry a big stick,” and he helped create the Panama Canal. The nation liked his Square Deal and elected him in a landslide in 1904. In 1906 he won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War. He retired in 1908, but resurfaced in 1912 to head the Bull Moose ticket. Although he lost, Teddy showed his usual flair. Shot in the chest while campaigning, he delivered his hour-long speech before going to the hospital.

Twenty-Sixth President
Republican

Born: 1843, Niles, OH
Died: 1901

William McKinley was a peace-loving man, whose very docility placed America in the hands of jingoists and big-business interests. A major in the Civil War, McKinley became a lawyer and was elected to Congress at 34. He served 14 years, sponsoring the protectionist McKinley Tariff Act of 1890. Supported by wealthy businessmen, he was twice elected Governor of Ohio and then chosen as the 1896 Republican Presidential candidate.

From his “front porch” in Ohio, McKinley spoke of “a full dinner pail.” He supported a high tariff and the gold standard. His opponent, fiery Nebraska populist Williams Jennings Bryan, appealed to farmers and the less fortunate, advocating “free silver” to increase the money supply. Aided by an economic upturn, McKinley won. Congress increased the tariff in 1897 and adopted the gold standard in 1900. The Spanish-American War, ignited by the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana Harbor, ended in swift victory for America with territorial gains in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. McKinley paved the way for an “open door” trade policy with China, and sponsored annexation of the Hawaiian Territory in 1898. Easily re-elected in 1900, he was shot by an anarchist the following year and died eight days later.

Twenty-Fifth President
Republican

Born: 1833, North Bend, OH
Died: 1901

The grandson of President William Henry (“Tippecanoe”) Harrison, Benjamin Harrison was a conservative Indiana lawyer and a staunch advocate (some said pawn) of big business. He served as a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1881, where he supported a high tariff. Chosen as the Republican Presidential candidate in 1888, Harrison received substantial campaign contributions from American manufacturers who favored his protectionist stance.

President Harrison sponsored the first Pan-American Congress. In domestic affairs, he supported the McKinley Tariff Act, which increased import duties; a new Pension Act and other appropriation bills; the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which regulated monopolies; and the Silver Purchase Act, which authorized the minting of additional silver coins. In all, Congress spent over $1 billion in a single session, setting a peacetime record. While manufacturers benefited from high tariffs under Harrison, they did not pass the benefits on to labor. Faced with mounting resentment among industrial workers, and a depressed farm economy, Harrison lost his big for a second term to former President Grover Cleveland — the same man he had defeated four years before.

Twenty-Third President
Republican

Born: 1830, Fairfield, VT
Died: 1886

Son of an Irish Baptist preacher, Chester Arthur practiced law in New York, winning two key civil rights cases for blacks, and was appointed Quartermaster General of New York when the Civil War broke out. In 1871, President Grant made him collector of the Port of New York, where he dispensed patronage in league with Senator Roscoe Conkling and the Stalwart Republicans. He was removed by President Hayes in 1878 as part of an effort to reform the Customs House.

Arthur was selected as the 1880 Vice-Presidential candidate to placate the Stalwart Republicans. When he entered in the White House upon Garfield’s violent death, many were worried about his close association with supporters of the spoils system. But President Arthur confounded his critics by urging passage of the Pendleton Government Jobs Act, which reformed the civil service. His actions so antagonized the Stalwarts that they refused to back him for a second term. Arthur had contracted a fatal kidney disease soon after taking office; he suffered in secret during his Presidency, and died in 1886.

Twenty-First President
Republican

Born: 1831, Orange, OH
Died: 1881

James Garfield was born in a log cabin on an Ohio farm. His father died when he was only two, and Garfield worked on canal boats to put himself through Williams College, later becoming a classics professor and college president. A vociferous opponent of slavery, he fought for the Union in the Civil War, rising to the rank of major general. He reluctantly resigned his commission when elected to Congress in 1862, after serving three years in the Ohio Senate. “Boatman Jim” was chosen by the Republicans in 1880 as a compromise Presidential candidate on the 36th ballot. He defeated the Democrats by less than 10,000 popular votes.

Once in office, Garfield took a stand against political corruption. He won a showdown with powerful New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, with his choice of Conkling’s rival to head the New York Customs House. But an unrelated patronage decision cost Garfield his life. On July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot by an attorney who had been denied a government post. He died two months later – the second President killed by an assassin’s bullet.

Twentieth President
Republican

Born: 1822, Delaware, OH
Died: 1893

Rutherford B. Hayes presided over a war-torn nation reveling in a measure of stability – with a stable leader at the helm. A Harvard-trained lawyer and Civil War hero wounded in battle four times, the former Ohio governor brought integrity and skill to a White House badly in need of both. His election in 1876 was a rancorous affair, however, the most controversial in U.S. history. Democrat Samuel Tilden outpolled Hayes in popular votes, with the electoral votes of four states in dispute. A special Electoral Commission made up of a Republican majority awarded all the disputed votes to Hayes.

Once securely in office, President Hayes reformed the civil service, basing appointments on merit rather than the spoils system. He appeased Southern Democrats by withdrawing Federal troops from the South and appointing former Confederates to government positions, thereby bringing Reconstruction to an end. Hayes’s economic policies inspired confidence among business leaders. The President refused to seek a second term, turning over to his successor a nation prosperous and at peace.

Nineteenth President
Republican

Born: 1822, Point Pleasant, OH
Died: 1885

Apart from his years in command of the victorious Union forces in the Civil War, the life of Ulysses S. Grant was filled with sorrow and setbacks. Alcoholism forced the unremarkable West Point graduate to resign from the Army after serving in the Mexican war under General Zachary Taylor. Grant tried various jobs, and finally settled down as a clerk in his father’s Illinois leather goods store. He re-enlisted when Civil War broke out. His military acumen earned him successive promotions, and in 1864 Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief. Roughly one year later, General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. In 1868, Grant was chosen by the Radical Republicans to follow the beleaguered Andrew Johnson.

The war hero proved a poor chief executive, filling many jobs with corrupt or incompetent relatives and friends. Although personally honest, he drew criticism for accepting expensive gifts and his two terms in office were plagued by scandals. After he left, Grant joined a New York investment firm and lost his entire fortune through the chicanery of his associates. He completed his memoirs — a work of clarity and grace — while dying of cancer. The proceeds were to pay off his creditors and provide for his family.

Eighteenth President
Republican

Born: 1809, Hardin County, KY
Died: 1865

Abraham Lincoln grew up in poverty on the Indiana frontier. Hard-working and self-educated, he was a farmhand, boatman, store manager, postman and surveyor before entering Illinois politics and becoming a successful trial lawyer. Passionately opposed to slavery, “Honest Abe” joined the Republican Party in 1856, and ran against Democrat Stephen Douglas for the U.S. Senate two years later. He lost, but his brilliant campaign oratory secured him the Republican Presidential nomination in 1860.

Between Lincoln’s election and inauguration, seven Southern states seceded. On April 12, 1861, the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter. Nearly two years later, the Civil War still raging, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation (slavery was later banned by the 13th Amendment). In November 1863, Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, vowing “that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The bloodiest conflict in U.S. history, the Civil War cost more American lives than the two World Wars and Vietnam combined. Re-elected in 1864, Lincoln lived to see the south surrender on April 9, 1865. Five days later, he was assassinated, before he could fulfill his pledge to “bind up the nation’s wounds.”

Sixteenth President
Republican

Born: 1767, Quincy, MA
Died: 1848

Like his father, President John Adams, John Quincy Adams was steadfast in his principles. But he had a prickly personality that earned him few friends. The Harvard-trained lawyer served as a U.S. Senator and the nation’s first Ambassador to Russia. He excelled as Monroe’s Secretary of State, helping to formulate the Monroe Doctrine and negotiating the acquisition of Florida.

Adam’s election to the Presidency was decided by the House of Representatives since neither he nor his political nemesis, Andrew Jackson, had won a majority (although Jackson received more electoral and popular votes). Jackson and his followers in Congress opposed Adams throughout his Presidency, criticizing him as a monarchist and blocking his efforts to create a National Bank and university, and to improve the nation’s infrastructure. Adams did succeed in opening the Erie Canal and established the Smithsonian Institution, but he remained unpopular throughout his term and was soundly defeated in his re-election bid. Returning to Massachusetts, he was elected to Congress, where, for 17 years until he died, he opposed slavery and supported civil liberties.

Sixth President
Republican

Born: 1758, Westmoreland Co., VA
Died: 1831

Faithful and competent, James Monroe benefited from the company of men more brilliant than he. He fought with Washington in the Revolutionary War and studied law under Thomas Jefferson. He was a Virginia legislator, Governor, and U.S. Senator. As Jefferson’s Minister to France he acquired cultivation and taste, which he put into good use in the White House. The peace-loving President also ushered in the so-called “era of good feeling” with a goodwill tour of the strongly Federalist states of New England. Buoyed by his and a prosperous economy, Monroe handily won a second term.

In 1818, a Treaty set the 49th Parallel as the boundary between the U.S. and Canada. America’s southern border was redrawn four years later when Spain ceded Florida to America, following the Seminole War. The Missouri Compromise, an ill-conceived attempt to straddle the deep division over slavery, served only to delay armed conflict between North and South. It permitted the slave state of Missouri to join the Union if the free state of Maine also joined, and prohibited slavery entirely north and west of Missouri. the Monroe Doctrine proved more enduring. Declaring that the U.S. would oppose any foreign interference in North and South America, it remains a keystone of U.S. policy today.

Fifth President
Republican