Abraham Lincoln - the 16th president of the United States

Born on February 12, 1809 in a backwoods cabin three miles south of Hodgenville, he was brought to the knob Creek palace when he was two years old.

When he was young, his family traveled westward to the frontiers of India and Illinois.

During the period of his growth into youth he spent much of his time reading, talking and after a fashion, making speeches. His political writings won great admiration from his neighbor.

When he was sixteen years old, Lincoln had his first lesson in oratory. He attended court at Boonville, county seat of Warwick County.

He had attended a few sessions of the court, and had become somewhat familiar with the practical application of legal processes. He had from the most discouraging beginnings, grown to be a notable political debater.

Lincoln’s election to the legislature of Illinois was in August 1834. He was reelected in 1836, 1838 and 1840 and thus for eight year had a full share in shaping the public laws of Illinois.

In 1846, he was elected to represent Illinois in the US Congress, where he served only one term. He ran for the US Senate in 1858, but lost. However, he had attracted attention and in 1860, the Republican Party, whose main goal was to abolish slavery, nominated Lincoln for president.

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. Lincoln was sworn on March, 1861. He is known as the president who freed the slaves and brought the United States back together.

On April 14, Abraham Lincoln went to see a play at Ford’s Theater in Washington. As he watch the play a man named John Wilkes Booth crept into the box and fired at the back of Lincoln’s head. Abraham Lincoln died early the next morning on April 15, 1865.
Abraham Lincoln - the 16th president of the United States

President Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845)

The seventh president, Andrew Jackson was born in Waxhaw, South Carolina, on March 15, 1767. Andrew Jackson's father died in 1767, only two years after immigrating to America from his native Ireland. He was captured during the Revolution at the age of 9. When Jackson was fourteen, his mother died while attending to American prisoners during the Revolutionary War.

Admitted to the bar in 1787, he was appointed prosecuting attorney for the west district of North Carolina in 1788. Jackson was a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention in 1796, a U.S. representative from 1796 to 1797, a U.S. senator in 1797, a member of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1798 to 1804, and a major general in the Tennessee militia.

During the War of 1812, he won a resounding victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans. Andrew Jackson had become a respected figure in the United States after his decisive victory at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.His resilience as a military leader earned him the nickname, Old Hickory. Jackson was also known to Americans as the Common Man.

Between 1815 and 1819, Jackson took time off from fighting Native Americans to secure political support in many parts of the nation. As an Indian fighter during this period, General Jackson brashly invaded Florida, which was then under Spanish ownership, and defeated the Seminoles, who had attacked American settlements across the border.

During the peace, Jackson invaded and occupied Spanish Florida without clear orders. His views on slavery and on Indians would be deemed more than just politically incorrect today. When he lost the election of 1824 despite winning the most votes, Jackson did not graciously withdraw but spent the next four years attacking the “corrupt bargain” that had thrown the Presidency to John Quincy Adams.

The hope of Jackson becoming president and his campaign efforts encouraged more men to take advantage of their new voting opportunities than ever before. Therefore, in the election of 1828, approximately 1.1 million people voted in comparison with 350,000 voters in the election of 1824.In 1829, Andrew Jackson, with an intense belief of true democracy, was inaugurated as the President of the United States.
President Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845)

Biography of President Gerald Ford

Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., July 14, 1913, his name was changed to that of his stepfather’s when Gerald Ford was a toddler.

Raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ford received his BA in 1935 from the University of Michigan, where he stared as a football center.  Declining offers from professional football teams, he earned an LLB from Yale University in 1941.

During World War II he served four years in the navy, first teaching aviators and then working as an aviation operations officer aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Monterey.

In 1948, Ford a Republican, was elected to the US House of Representatives and was continually reelected thereafter, becoming House minority leader in 1965.

President Nixon appointed Ford to the vice presidency after a plea of nolo contendere to income tax evasion forced Vice President Spiro Agnew from that office. The first vice president to take office in the middle of an administration, Ford was sworn in on December 6, 1973.

President Nixon resigned the office of the presidency due to Watergate scandal and in August 9, 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the presidency. Ford granted Nixon a full pardon for any crimes that he might have committed as president.

In 1976, Jimmy Carter the former governor of Georgia defeated Gerald Ford to become president of the United States.

After leaving the presidency, Ford joined many corporate boards gave numerous public addresses, published his autobiography, A Time to Heal (1979) and lived primarily in Palm Springs California. After a series of illness, President Ford died on December 26, 2006.
Biography of President Gerald Ford