Odd Bits about U. S. Presidents Quiz

Answer: He would often serve Sunday dinner in the White House to citizens who happened to drop by.

Although little remembered, James Knox Polk is considered one of the best U. S. presidents by the historians who take polls about such things. He expanded the landmass of the United States by a third, and the resulting squabble about how to handle slavery in the new territory helped to bring on the Civil War.

He died just three months after he left office, the shortest retirement of the 42 presidents covered by this quiz. Romantics love his reported dying words to his wife: "I love you, Sarah. For all eternity, I love you."

Answer: Believing the 1972 election already lost, he declined McGovern's request to be his vice-presidential running mate.

Although he did believe McGovern unelectable, Carter actually wanted to become his vice-presidential candidate and campaigned for the position. However, McGovern chose Thomas Eagleton (who later had to withdraw and was replaced by Sargent Schriver). Generally thought an ineffective president, Carter is widely considered the most successful ex-president in U.S. history.

Answer: He ran away from home at 13 to become a cabin boy on a schooner.

When he was 14, Johnson's mother and step-father apprenticed him to a tailor, which became his primary trade. In 1868, no longer president, Johnson ran to become Senator from Tennessee again. He failed. So in 1872 he tried for the House of Representatives. Again, no success. Finally, however, in 1874 the Tennessee state legislature elected Johnson Senator, making him the only U.S. ex-president through 2000 to ever serve in the Senate.

He was well received by his former opponents, but only served 150 days before dying of a stroke.

At his own wish, he was buried with a copy of the Constitution.

Answer: "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both."

Alice Roosevelt Longworth is well worth reading about. She stayed a celebrity long after Teddy had left the national scene, and throughout her life people followed her activities with fan-magazine-style interest. And Alice continued to reward people's attention with her unusually honest directness. She would say "If you can't say anything nice, come sit next to me." And as an elderly woman, when her home was broken into, she fought back by planting poison ivy all around various entrance points.

Answer: He was Ambassador to the Court of St. James (England).

George Bush's wide experience also including serving as Ambassador to the United Nations, Professor of Administrative Science at Rice University, Chief of the U. S. Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China (ambassador-substitute while the U.S. and China had no formal diplomatic relationship), and of course vice-president under Ronald Reagan.

Answer: Cleveland credited his re-election in part to the hair transplant he had between his terms.

Odd and interesting, yes? Here are some other interesting facts I considered using:
1. While Sheriff of Erie County, Cleveland personally hanged two murderers.
2. Cleveland responded to the negative campaign tactic "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" by admitting to paying child support, although it was uncertain whose child he was supporting. After he won, his supporters circulated the answer: "Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!"
3. Elected as a reformer, Cleveland refused to appoint Democrats to government positions where the Republican occupant was doing a good job.
4. In Cleveland's losing 1888 campaign, Benjamin Harrison of Indiana won in the electoral college even though Cleveland won the national popular vote. This was entirely because the Republicans won Harrison's home state of Indiana by fraud--and even then by only 2,348 votes. As the Clevelands were leaving the White House, Mrs. Cleveland asked the servants to take good care of the place until they came back.
5. Cleveland declared ANY international issue in the Western hemisphere a matter of interest to the United States. The best example of Cleveland's version of the Monroe Doctrine was when the US forced Britain and Venezuela, in a dispute about the border between Venezuela and British Guiana, to submit to binding arbitration.
6. When Cleveland developed a carcinoma in his mouth, to avoid panic he had his surgery performed in secrecy on a yacht off of Long Island. Reporters were fed a cover story about the President needing two bad teeth removed.
7. Cleveland's dying words were "I have tried so hard to do right."
8. Because of Cleveland's two non-consecutive presidential terms, the US Mint's Presidential Dollar Coin Program is producing two distinct Cleveland dollars.

Answer: For one day he was simultaneously a Congressman, Senator-elect, and President-elect.

Then-Congressman Garfield had been appointed Senator by the Ohio legislature, but he continued to serve as Congressman until his Senate term began in March, 1881. In the meantime he was elected President. Therefore, on election day November 2, 1880, Garfield did hold all three offices simultaneously. He resigned his roles as Congressman and Senator immediately after the election results were official. He is the only sitting Representative to be elected President.

He was shot by Charles Guiteau, disappointed for not being appointed Consul in Paris and a political "Stalwart" (the wing of the Republican party at the time opposed to Garfield's wing, the "Half-Breeds".) Modern scholars believe Garfield could easily have survived the wound if he had had competent medical personnel attending him. Interestingly, that was Guiteau's defense, and it didn't save him from hanging.

Answer: He is the first president both to be handpicked by his predecessor and to handpick his successor.

There is no doubt that Van Buren was handpicked by Andrew Jackson, but William Henry Harrison, his successor, was the Whig candidate who defeated him in his campaign for a second term.

The reason Van Buren was the first president to be born a citizen is that all the presidents before him were born before the United States was formed.

Answer: He was the only president up through 2000 to have served in the House of Representatives before becoming president.

James Garfield was the only President to have been elected while a member of the House of Representatives.

Taft didn't mind losing the presidency after one term as much as most one-term presidents have. He had always wanted to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and President Harding nominated him to that position in 1921. (That is how he came to administer the oath of office to Coolidge and Hoover.) Taft later said he could hardly remember having been president. As Chief Justice he successfully argued for the building of the current Supreme Court building, but unfortunately died before it was completed.

Answer: the Bank of the United States

James Madison fought hard against the creation of a national bank. The Bank of the United States was pushed through by Alexander Hamilton over Madison's strong opposition (although later, during the war of 1812, Madison dropped his opposition and used the bank to fund the war effort).

On the other hand, while others were involved, Madison wrote so much of the Constitution and the first 10 amendments that he is often known both as "The Father of the Constitution" and as "The Father of the Bill of Rights." And although Thomas Jefferson is usually credited with forming the Democratic-Republican party (originally known as the Republican party, known today as the Democratic party), Madison was a strong and equal co-founder. Madison made so many more contributions, such as writing over a third of the Federalist Papers, that I encourage you to read more about him.