us_ch15_lesson6

=**Pinheads and Patriots**= Overview of individuals from the course and events from the course.

The following will be a list of the presidents that we discussed in class with a brief description of their presidency. Your job is to rate them with 1 being the best 33 being the worst.


 * James Polk:** Manifest Destiny (belief Americans had the right to expand west) led to Mexican War; questions as to who initiated the war; brought in western territory.


 * Zachary Taylor:** Mexican War hero; supports the tariff; slaveholder but avoids the issue; says he will veto Compromise of 1850 except the admission of CA as a free state; mysteriously dies.


 * Millard Fillmore:** Signs each part of the Compromise of 1850 into law including the Fugitive Slave Act; believes he avoided civil war; didn’t resolve the slavery issue.


 * Franklin Pierce:** Northerner with Southern principles; supported the 1850 Compromise and the Fugitive Slave Law; support for the Kansas-Nebraska Act (overturned 1820 Missouri Compromise), which led to hostilities in Kansas (Bleeding Kansas); tensions deepened between North and South.


 * James Buchanan:** Northerner with Southern principles; supported the Dred Scott Decision, which in essence meant slaves couldn’t sue for freedom – weren’t citizens; decision led to Panic of 1857; failed to stop Southern states from seceding and failed to stop the nation from being torn apart.


 * Abraham Lincoln:** Determined to preserve the Union and free the slaves; freed the slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation; his leadership during our nation’s biggest Constitutional crisis held the country together; he was determined to win the war and then graciously bring the South back in.


 * Andrew Johnson:** Took a pro-Southern stand on Reconstruction (no punishment for the South – did not support black equality); fought with Republicans who wanted to punish the South; impeached over the disagreements.


 * Ulysses S. Grant:** Keep is Civil War heroics out of the evaluation; favored the tariff and internal improvements; favored Reconstruction of Republicans and black equality; scandals surrounding those in his administration; biggest was Credit Mobilier (firm that got gov’t money for RR improvements, but kept much of the money) – Grant wasn’t the one who was corrupt; enforced Civil Rights Act of 1875 – future presidents did not.


 * Rutherford B. Hayes:** ended Reconstruction by pulling soldiers out (thought blacks would still have freedom, but Jim Crow era began, not that Hayes wanted that); began civil service reforms; vetoed silver coinage said it’d lead to inflation (Silverites wanted silver as a way to raise farm prices, but inflation would’ve increased all prices); didn’t interfere with labor strikes – let workers and owners work it out.


 * James Garfield:** assassinated shortly into presidency since he refused to give a government job to an office seeker – showed he didn’t support the spoils system; favored the tariff.


 * Chester Arthur:** seemed to support the soils system as a Stalwart with the New York Customs House, but passed the Pendleton Act, which made the civil service based on merit rather than spoils; reduced the tariff; passed Chinese Exclusion Act; vetoed frivolous spending on rivers and harbors.


 * Grover Cleveland:** set up Interstate Commerce Commission to monitor railroads; vetoed use of federal money to help farmers buy seed (said private charities should do this, not the gov’t – charities did and brought more money than the gov’t was willing to spend); stopped fraudulent Civil War pensions; fought for a lower tariff; in 2nd term (after Harrison – two non-consecutive terms) rescued America from Panic of 1893 by getting J.P. Morgan to bailout America.


 * Benjamin Harrison:** pass the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which outlawed monopolies – meant to limit business, but actually led to vertical integration of businesses à ones that controlled the process from raw materials to sales – a.k.a. businesses much larger; passed Sherman Silver Purchase Act that coined silver – led to inflation and along with tariff that passed triggered the Panic of 1893; modernized the navy.


 * William McKinley:** brought U.S. into world power status; got overseas territories (Hawaii annexed) and Spanish-American War brought in other territories; overseas territories brought in new markets; Open Door Policy in China opened China to trade; favored civil rights but not going back to Reconstruction.


 * Theodore Roosevelt:** began the Progressive Era in terms of belief that gov’t could solve social problems; known as a “Trust-buster” going after businesses viewed as monopolistic even before businesses hurt consumers; favored conservation (protect environment – use natural resources though); increase gov’t regulation of the railroads; began work on the Panama Canal; Big Stick Policy to work for peace but build a strong navy; felt immigrants must assimilate and become “American.”


 * William Taft:** was Progressive (gov’t should play key role); tariff bill didn’t lower tariff as much as expected – raised it on some goods; more anti-trust suits than TR; ICC increased power to regulate telephone companies; created Labor Department in gov’t to enforce labor laws; income tax amendment started; Child Labor laws.


 * Woodrow Wilson:** President in WWI – developed the Fourteen Points as a plan for peace, but agreed to harsh Versailles Treaty to get League of Nations (like global gov’t idea); favored eugenics; racist – segregated the military and gov’t offices; income tax put into effect; major increase in gov’t power over business in Clayton Anti-Trust Act; approved the new Federal Reserve (secret meeting to form central bank led by bankers); Espionage and Sedition Acts made anti-war aspects illegal.


 * Warren Harding:** prevented a major depression when economic began to go into a recession at the end of the Wilson presidency by cutting taxes and cutting gov’t spending; Washington Conference limited naval arms (didn’t address carriers or subs); spoke in favor of civil rights; scandals by those in his cabinet (Teapot Dome Scandal was biggest – Interior Secretary Albert Fall took bribes for oil deposits).


 * Calvin Coolidge:** reduced taxes and gov’t spending; cut gov’t waste; unemployment dropped below 2%; favored civil rights pushing for anti-lynching laws; consumer spending increased as new goods became available; pro-business stance led to the best times of the Roaring 20s.


 * Herbert Hoover:** when stock market crashed he increased taxes and gov’t spending on public works; gov’t size increased; used army to force out Bonus March (WWI vets demanded bonuses early); Smoot-Hawley Tariff raised the tariff – led to other nations doing the same – world trade stopped.


 * Franklin D. Roosevelt:** New Deal was plan to get out of the Depression – failed to get out; increased taxes and size of gov’t; many New Deal programs are seen as vital (Social Security, minimum wage, FDIC, SEC…) but do increase gov’t spending and reliance on the gov’t; New Deal formulated by Fabian Socialist Stuart Chase; WWII leadership; failed to rein in Stalin and the Communists.


 * Harry Truman:** decision to drop A-bomb; start of Cold War – Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Airlift; Korean War = Containment; fired MacArthur who wanted to go after Communist China; opposed a law that stopped workers from being forced to join a union; opposed tax and spending cuts (Republicans held Congress – the cuts prevented another depression in 1946); favored big government.


 * Dwight Eisenhower:** policies led to peace and prosperity in the 1950s; brinkmanship in foreign policy (threat of nuclear weapons to keep peace); favored civil rights – protected Little Rock Nine – pushed for legislation on black equality; Interstate Highway System; began space exploration/NASA; believed in domino theory in the Cold War (if one falls in Asia, others will – sent advisors to Vietnam).


 * John F. Kennedy:** failed to provide air support in Bay of Pigs Invasion; leadership in Cuban Missile Crisis; favored civil rights – urged legislation; sent first soldiers to Vietnam; numerous affairs.


 * Lyndon Johnson:** Civil Rights Act (opposed it under Eisenhower); committed U.S. to Vietnam with limited war strategy; Great Society (aimed to win war on poverty but did increase dependency on government as well as spending…Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, public education, food stamps, welfare)…government spending skyrocketed as did taxes – led to 1970s recession; committed U.S. to throwing money at the problem.


 * Richard Nixon:** Vietnamization – ended Vietnam conflict – turned fighting over to South Vietnam, but kept air support; détente – easing of tensions in the Cold War; favored environmentalism and began EPA – environmental regulations on businesses (such as auto industry); largest integration of schools under him with buses; first man on the moon; took Keynesian approach – led to inflation (high spending…mostly due to Great Society though); Watergate scandal led to resignation.


 * Gerald Ford:** pardoned Nixon; Vietnam fell to Communists (two years after U.S. left – Congress denied funding for Ford); recession due to inflation and high spending; oil crisis; continued détente with Helsinki Accords and another SALT agreement.


 * Jimmy Carter:** economic recession got worse through rest of the 1970s; energy crisis not resolved as he pushed solar and wind – long gas lines; pushed environmental regulations – led to cars made of cheaper materials, but less safe à decline of auto and steel industries; Camp David Accords was attempt at Middle East peace; Iran Hostage Crisis unsolved; called it all a “crisis in confidence” – blaming public.


 * Ronald Reagan:** Reaganomics – tax cuts especially on capital gains (investments) revived the economy; policies led to the end of the Cold War; plan to have satellites guide missiles led to improvements in U.S. technology.


 * George H.W. Bush:** continued Reagan Cold War policies – ended in his term; went after Noriega in Panama and drove Saddam out of Kuwait (Persian Gulf War); raised taxes against campaign promise


 * Bill Clinton:** failed health care bill (Hillary in charge); Brady Bill (gun control); NAFTA (began under Bush); fought against Republican agenda of balanced budget and welfare reform – ended up agreeing with GOP Congress (on welfare work requirements and lowering capital gains tax)...budget surpluses remaining four years; got out of Somalia; went into the Balkans after Milosevic; don’t ask don’t tell in the military; scandals.


 * George W. Bush:** War on Terror after 9/11; tax cuts revived economy; No Child Left Behind; bill to help pay for prescription drugs (Medicare); problems from prolonged wars and Katrina; financial collapse end of term – bailout. Debt from $5.5 trillion to $10.6 trillion.


 * Barack Obama:** economy worsened – bigger stimulus/bailout didn’t work (based on economic stats - nearly a trillion put into the economy, economy still struggling); Obamacare; increased debt more than any in history (from $10.6 trillion to over $20 trillion); favored Cap and Trade (higher taxes on oil, coal, and electric power plants that use oil and coal); committed to Progressive beliefs; favors taxing the rich to redistribute to the poor; drone missile attacks on terror sites. Rise of ISIS after pulling troops out of Iraq.


 * Donald Trump: ** Campaigned on returning America to traditional values (Judeo-Christian foundation; embrace capitalism). Tax reform cut personal and corporate taxes; also eliminated individual mandate on health care (under the health care law Americans had to have health care – this eliminated that force); also opened oil drilling in Alaska. Pushed for border security. Change in presidential style being more outspoken especially with theuse of social media (Twitter).


 * Be sure you’ve read each and ask if there’s an aspect you’re not sure of.


 * Top 5 Patriots and why – non-Presidents…must be American:**


 * Top 5 Pinheads and why – non-Presidents…must be American:**


 * Top 5 events most important to U.S. History (1850-Present) and why:**


 * Top 5 most important lessons every citizen should learn from history and why:**


 * List 5 concepts you learned this year that you didn’t know before:**

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