Recollections of Thirteen Presidents (e-book) (used book) | bookbook.eu

Description

This historic volume was published in 1906.


A summary from the book's Introduction:

Since the adoption of the Constitution of the
United States in 1789 twenty-six individuals have
been Presidents in this country, of whom twenty-
five were Presidents of the United States, and one
of the Confederate States. Here they are :

1. George Washington, from 1789 to 1797.

2. John Adams, from 1797 to 1801.

3. Thomas Jefferson, from 1801 to 1809.

4. James Madison, from 1809 to 1817.

5. James Monroe, from 1817 to 1825.

6. John Quincy Adams, from 1825 to 1829.

7. Andrew Jackson, from 1829 to 1837.

8. Martin Van Buren, from 1837 to 1841.

9. William Henry Harrison, from 1841 until his death.

10. John Tyler, from 1841 to 1845.

11. James K. Polk, from 1845 to 1849.

12. Zachary Taylor, from 1849 until his death.

13. Millard Filmore, from 1850 to 1853.

14. Franklin Pierce, from 1853 to 1857.

15. James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861.

16. Abraham Lincoln, from 1861 until his death.

17. Andrew Johnson, from 1865 to 1869.

18. Ulysses S. Grant, from 1869 to 1877.

19. Rutherford B. Hayes, from 1877 to 1881.

20. James A. Garfield, from 1881 until his death.

21. Chester A. Arthur, from 1 881 to 1885.

22. Grover Cleveland, from 1885 to 1889 and
1893 to 1897.

23- Benjamin Harrison, from 1889 to 1893.

24. William McKinley from 1897 until his death.

25. Theodore Roosevelt, from 1902 to date (1906)

26. Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate
States of America, from 1861 to 1865.

The statement made by any man that he has
personally known one-half of these statesmen is
calculated to create the impression that he is old.
Yet before I was fifty-five years old I had per-
sonal acquaintance with John Tyler, Franklin
Pierce, James Buchanan, Jefferson Davis, Andrew
Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes,
James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover
Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley
and Theodore Roosevelt.

Believing that the following reminiscences and
anecdotes of these men will prove interesting, they
have been written with no ambitious purpose and
perhaps originated in personal vanity. But even
if that be so, it is hoped that they will nevertheless
prove entertaining to that large class which is
always interested in the personalities of prominent
men.

The reader will catch glimpses of these great
men quite different from their presentation by the
ordinary historian or biographer, and may form
some idea of how they looked and how they acted
in everyday life, without seeing too much of their
greatness or their plans of government.

Every one of them has possessed individuality,
strength of character, commanding personality,
and dominating force, which stamped him as far
and away above mediocrity, and so marked him
as a leader, that to refer to him as an ordinary man
elevated to his position by accident, is grossly er-
roneous, or weakly invidious; for men do not
attain positions of such importance by accident.