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Anyone wishing to know American Political history could start here. This \u201cconspectus\u201d was created in 1880 to show how the political parties ebbed and flowed and how various movements were created by third parties and or absorbed by what has been a two party system except in the very beginning with George Washington who unhappily saw the beginnings of a two party system built around his Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton who learned from Europeans how to use the national government to create credit and Thomas Jefferson who had to keep creditors at bay when he borrowed money from them to keep up his lavish slave dependent lifestyle.<\/p>\n
This time frame shows the four year periods of our presidential elections. Remembering who got elected will keep your time frame up but for me to remember who was president depends on the stories I know about them. There have been two times I\u2019ve not had the stories sufficiently attached to my brain. The Time after Andrew Jackson\u2019s Veep, Martin Van Buren, turned President. Until Lincoln there are too many one term or Veep compromise Veeps who took over to the horror of the parties that nominated them when their Prez died too early. The first five were mostly Virginians who got their start in the Revolutionary War. Only John Adams a one-termer hailed from another state Massachusetts. The big political name after Jefferson, Madison and Era of Good feelings Monroe was Whig Henry Clay who was constantly denied the presidency. He was the first big west of the Appalachians pol but it was Indian fighter Andrew Jackson who got the presidency after Adam\u2019s son John Quincy got a single term like his father before him. <\/p>\n
Of the presidents between numbers 9-14 I\u2019ve been less sure of myself. Number 15 is most easily remembered as the incompetent Prez who hid from the looming Civil War that number 16 had to deal with. The next three after Abe are part of the Civil War aftermath that helps keep them in my head. Andrew Johnson our first impeached Prez, Grant war hero trashed up until my childhood as the incompetent enabler of corruption and Ruther\u201cfraud\u201dHayes whose election in 1976 necessitated the abandonment of former slaves to the Ku Klux Klan.<\/p>\n
Today I\u2019m reasonably confident of the next batch from 20 to 25 from who all fit between the 2nd and 3rd assassinated Presidents Garfield and McKinley. I\u2019ve known every president of the following century for as long as I remember. <\/p>\n
It seemed more important to remember all these men (so far) because early in my life my Dad asked his father in law if he remembered all the Presidents in order. I\u2019m sure like me he easily remembered all the presidents of his lifetime which stretched from Grover Cleveland (twice) to JFK. But he got through the list from Washington on which struck me as a feat when he did it. <\/p>\n
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If I make it to 84 years like my Grandfather I should catch up with him in Presidents – if after Trump\u2019s third term other people are allowed to run.If he can\u2019t run for a third time it will thanks to Republicans who were scandalized that FDR abided by the Constitution in running for President 4 times and winning each election. They passed the two year presidential election amendment.<\/p>\n