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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BEQUEST 
 
 OF 
 
 STEWART HENRY BURNHAM 
 1943 
 
/ComeW University Library 
 Lives of the presidents. 
 
 3 1924 028 698 664 
 
 
 Date Due 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028698664 
 
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LIVES OF THE 
 
 PRESIDENTS 
 
 TOLD IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE. 
 
 By jean S. REMY. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 NEW toek: 
 A. L. BUBT, PUBLISHED. 
 
fSp^i^hi^ 
 
 Copyright, 1900, by A. L. Burt. 
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 By Jean S. Remy. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 George Washington 1 
 
 John Adams 16 
 
 Thomas Jeffeeson 20 
 
 James Madison 25 
 
 James Monroe 39 
 
 John Quincy Adams - • • 33 
 
 Andrew Jackson 38 
 
 Martin Van Buren 43 
 
 William Henry Harrison 45 
 
 John Tyler 47 
 
 James Knox Polk , 49 
 
 Zachary Taylor 53 
 
 Millard Fillmore 54 
 
 , Franklin Pierce . . . : 56 
 
 James Buchanan 58 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 60 
 
 Andrew Johnson 66 
 
 Ulysses Simpson Grant 68 
 
 EUTHERFORD B. HAYES 73 
 
 James Abram Garfield 75 
 
 Chester Alan Arthur 78 
 
 Stephen Grover Cleveland 80 
 
 Benjamin Harrison 83 
 
 William McKinley 86 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS, 
 
 GEORGE WASH-ING-TON. 
 
 Way down in Yir-gin-i-a, near a small creek, called 
 Bridg-es Creek, there is a shaft of white stone ; — on it is the 
 name of George Wash-ing-ton and the date of his. birth : 
 Feb-ru-ar-y 22d, 1732. 
 
 On this spot once stood the big brick house in which 
 George Wash-ing-ton was born ; it was built in 1657 by John 
 Wash-ing-ton ; his grand-son, Au-gus-tine, was the f a-ther 
 of the lit-tle boy who be-came our first pres-i-dent. The 
 moth-er of George Wash-ing-ton was Ma-ry Ball ; so sweet 
 and fair was she, when she was a young girl, that she was 
 known as " Sweet Mol-ly." 
 
 Now she was not the first wife of Au-gus-tine Wash- 
 ing-ton ; and he had two boys, Law-rence and Au-gus-tine, 
 when he made her his wife. These boys were so kind to 
 their small broth-er George, when he was young, and gave 
 him so much help, all through his life, that their names 
 should stay in your minds. When George was three years 
 old his home was burned to the ground, and his fa-ther 
 built a fine new house, just o-ver the riv-er from where the 
 cit-y of Fred-er-icks-burg now stands. Here George went 
 to his first school, and the name of the man who taught 
 him was so queer, it will not go out of your mind ; — it was 
 " Hob-by." In those old days, the boys wrote to their boy- 
 
3 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 friends, just as they do at this day. See what George, when 
 he was nine years old, wrote to his best friend, Rich-ard 
 Hen-ry Lee : — " Dear Dick-ey, I thank you ver-y much for 
 the pret-ty pic-ture book you gave me. Sam asked me to 
 show hina the pic-tures and I showed him all the pic-tures 
 in it ; and I read to him how the tame el-e-phant took care 
 of his mas-ter's ht-tle boy, and put him on his back and 
 would not let an-y-bod-y touch his mas-ter's lit-tle son. I 
 can read three or four pages some-times with-out miss-ing 
 a wprd. Ma says I may go to see you and stay all day with 
 you next week if it be not rain-y. She says I may ride my 
 po-hy, He-ro, if Uncle Ben will go with me and lead He-ro. 
 I have a lit-tle piece of po-et-ry a-bout the book you gave 
 me, but I must n't tell you who wrote the po-et-ry. 
 
 " G. W.'s com-pli-ments to R. H. L. 
 And likes his book full well. 
 Hence-forth will count him as his friend. 
 And hopes ma-ny hap-py days he may spend. 
 
 " Your good friend, 
 
 " Geobge Wash-iitg-ton." 
 
 " I am go-ing to get a whip top soon, and you may see 
 and whip it." 
 
 You see the boys in those old days were fond of books, 
 and toys and hors-es just as the boys of to-day are ; and 
 there is a tale of G-eorge, and a young colt, which shows 
 that he was a brave and strong boy, who did not fear to 
 tell the truth, though he had done wrong. He and some of 
 his boy-friends were in a field, in which were kept sOme 
 young colts, some of which had been used. 
 
 The boys caught one colt, put a bit in its mouth, and 
 held it, while G-eorge sprang on its back. The colt, mad 
 
GEOEGE WASHINGTON. 3 
 
 with fear, sprang in the air, tore through the field, and tried 
 in vain to throw the boy ; at last he leaped with such force, 
 that he broke a blood ves-sel, and fell to the ground dead. 
 Just at this time George's moth-er came out, and saw the 
 dead colt. She asked the boys if they knew how he died. 
 "Yes, mad-am," at once said her own boy ; and then he told 
 the whole truth. There are more tales of the boy-life of 
 George and all show that he was a brave, strong boy, full of 
 life and fun, and at the head in games and sports of all 
 kinds. 
 
 His fa-ther died when he was on-ly e-lev-en (11) years 
 old ; but his moth-er lived to be an old, old la-dy, who was, 
 you may be sure, ver-y proud of her great son. 
 
 Af-ter his f a-ther's death George made his home with 
 his broth-er, Au-gus-tine, un-til he was six-teen (16) years 
 old ; and the short notes which he wrote to his moth-er 
 were not like those he sent to his boy-friends, or like those 
 which you boys and girls write to-day. He be-gan, " Hon- 
 ored Mad-am ; " and end-ed the stiff lit-tle note, — " Your 
 du-ti-ful son." 
 
 In those days folks lived on great big farms, or plan- 
 ta-tions, as they were called, and raised to-bac-co, which 
 was sold for much mon-ey in Eng-land. George's fa-ther 
 had a ver-y large plan-ta-tion and ma-ny slaves to work on 
 it ; some day this would all be-long to George, and so he 
 was taught how to write in a big round hand, how to do 
 sums, and to look out for those who were in his care. 
 
 All through these years there was talk of war ; for a 
 cru-el war be-tween the French and Eng-lish, known as 
 King George-'s War, had be-gun ; and the boys, who heard 
 so much talk of war, of course played at it ; and George 
 was ev-er at the head, ev-er lead-ing these bands of young 
 
4 liltT'ES OP THE PEESIDEN'TS. 
 
 sol-diers ; he longed, just as boys would to-day, to throw 
 a- way his books, to leave school, to go to the true war and 
 bear a real gun ; and when he was fif-teen, his broth-er 
 Law-rence, who was a sol-dier, tried to make his moth-er 
 let him join the na-vy, as he was too young to go to the 
 war. But this moth-er was a ver-y wise wo-man, and said 
 no ; that his place was at home un-til he knew how to care 
 for the great plan-ta-tion and the ma-ny slaves that in five 
 or six years would be his. 
 
 Now, at this time, this great land of ours was so wild 
 that it was hard to tell how much land a man owned, just 
 where one great farm end-ed and the next be-gan ; and a 
 man who knew the land so well that he could tell folks just 
 these things would be of much use ; so George now be-gan 
 to give much time to just this work ; and so well did he do 
 it that soon folks came to him when they were in doubt. 
 
 In fact this work led, as you shall see, straight up to the 
 pres-i-dent's seat. His broth-er Law-rence had mar-ried 
 Anne Fair-fax, and in their home at Mt. Ver-non George 
 met ma-ny great men ; a-mong oth-ers was Lord Thom-as 
 Fair-fax, who owned a piece of land so large that he did not 
 know how big it was ; he sent George to find this out ; and 
 now this young boy had a rough piece of real work to do. 
 
 In March, 1748, he and a young friend, George Wil-liam 
 Fair-fax, left the ease of Mt. Ver-non to live in the wild 
 woods, where they would see on-ly Indians, or, at the best, 
 rough white men ; in the log huts of the white men they 
 found so much dirt that, af-ter one tri-al, rath-er than sleep 
 on dir-ty straw, with nc sheet, and but one torn, thin blan- 
 ket, they ei-ther lay on the bare floor, near the big wood-fire, 
 or else built a huge fire in the woods and lay close to it on 
 ' the earth. They had to swim their hors-es o-ver streams ; 
 
GEORGE WASlirnGTOlC. 5 
 
 they shot wild deer and birds, and of -ten cooked and ate 
 them, alone in the great wild woods, far from e-ven the camp 
 of the In-di-ans. Once, at least, we know, from a little book 
 in which each night George wrote of what they had done 
 that day, that they saw a grand war-dance of the In-di-ans ; 
 the mu-sic by which they danced was made by a pot half 
 full of wa-ter, with a deer-skin o-ver the top, and a gourd 
 
 MOUNT VEBNON— THE HOME OF WASHINGTON. 
 
 filled with shot; this must have made queer mu-sic to 
 dance by. 
 
 The boys were gone six weeks, and did their work so 
 well that the gov-ern-or heard of it, and he made George a 
 " pub-lie sur-vey-or ; " that is, it was his place to find out the 
 size of all the new farms ; and his word was to be law. He 
 must have done this work well, too, for the lines which he 
 
e- LIVES 01* l^HS pkesidehts. 
 
 laid down were the ones used by the new States years and 
 years af-ter his death. 
 
 Now, for weeks at a time, he was a-lone in the woods with 
 the In-di-ans ; hv-ing in their camps, and learn-ing of their 
 hfe; they taught him ma-ny things; and they, in turn, 
 learned to love and trust him ; this lone-ly life made him a 
 grave and qui-et man ; one who talked lit-tle ; and it taught 
 him to think for him-self, at an age when most boys are 
 told what to do by their par-ents and friends. 
 
 When he was not in the woods, hard at work, he was 
 at Mt. Vernon ; and here the talk was of the great lands in 
 the west ; and of the war bet- ween the Eng-lish and the 
 French, who were each try-ing to drive a-way the oth-er, 
 and were both try-ing to force out the In-di-ans. It was 
 pret-ty hard for the In-di-ans, who now had not on-ly to fight 
 each oth-er, but the white men, too. At last they took sides, 
 some with the Eng-lish, some with the French ; and a fierce 
 war broke out o-ver the land near the 0-hi-o River ; no white 
 men had yet lived there, and both sides wished to own it. 
 
 The French moved ver-y fast, and built great forts, and 
 sent men there to keep the Eng-hsh a-way ; it was no " play- 
 war " in which Wash-ing-ton now took part ; he had real 
 men under him ; but, just as he be-gan to learn what real 
 war was, he had to go to the West In-dies with his broth-er 
 Law-rence, who was ver-y sick. They spent the win-ter 
 there, but Law-rence did not get well, and came back to Mt. 
 Yer-non in the spring, where he died in Ju-ly, 1753. 
 
 He left his land in charge of Wash-ing-ton, who now 
 made his home there; and when his broth-er's daugh-ter 
 died he be-came the own-er. 
 
 Now, while Wash-ing-ton had been a-way, the French 
 had been ver-y ac-tive; they had made friends with the 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. t 
 
 In-di-ans, and had e-ven dared to send some Eng-lish tra-ders 
 in a ship to France. 
 
 At this act Eng-land was up and in arms, and sent 
 o-ver great ships and ma-ny men to help fight the French. 
 The first step that Eng-land took was to send men to, warn 
 the French a- way from the Eng-lish forts in Penn-syl-va-ni-a ; 
 and Washing-ton, who knew bet-ter than a-ny one else the 
 rough wild woods, and who was a friend of the In-di-ans, 
 led a lit-tle band of sev-en men through the dense, dark 
 woods and o-ver riv-ers filled with fioat-ing ice, up to the 
 French lines. He told the chief man of the French troops 
 just what the Eng-lish said, but this French man would 
 not give up one inch of ground that he had won from the 
 In-di-ans, and gave Wash-ing-ton a note to take back with 
 him, in which he said as much. 
 
 Of course Eng-land could take but one course now ; 
 and so the long, fierce war known as the " Sev-en Years' 
 War" be-gan. Wash-ing-ton was made a colo-nel, and 
 showed so much skill, and was so brave, that in a short 
 time he took charge of part of the troops of Gen-er-al Brad- 
 dock. 
 
 In June, 1755, the troops «iade a start for Fort Du- 
 quesne, where they were to stay; and on this trip, while 
 they were deep in the woods, the In-di-ans, with fierce 
 shrieks and wild cries, sprang on them from the rocks and 
 trees. The horse on which Wash-ing-ton rode was shot; 
 Gen-er-al Brad-dock got such a wound that he died, and 
 ma-ny poor men were killed. Here again Wash-ing-ton 
 act-ed so brave-ly, and was so wise, that the sol-diers said 
 that Brad-dock had lost the day and Wash-ing-ton had 
 saved the ar-my. 
 
 At Brad-dock's death Wash-ing-ton was made chief of 
 
8 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 all the troops in the col-o-nies ; and the first thing he did 
 was to place men neat the homes which the white men 
 were mak-ing in the new lands, and so help these ear-ly 
 set-tiers to stop the In-di-ans when they came to rob them 
 and to burn up their lit-tle log cab-ins, for a great fear of 
 the red men was o-ver all the land. Now, when the war 
 came to a close with the fall of the French, we find that 
 Wash-ing-ton is a very great man, that his troops love him 
 ver-y much, and that the heads of the states feel that he is 
 a strong, wise man, and one whom they can trust. All 
 this time, you know, he was an Eng-lish sdl-dier, fight-ing 
 for Eng-land ; but, deep in his heart, and in the hearts of 
 all the brave men who fought with him, there was, we 
 may be sure, a love for this fair land, and a long-ing for its 
 best good. 
 
 After the war was at an end Wash-ing-ton, who was 
 ver-y glad to give up his post, mar-ried Mrs. Eus-tis, a young 
 wid-ow with two lit-tle chil-dren, a girl of six years and a 
 boy of twelve, and went to Mt. Ver-non to five. For tweh-ty 
 years now he lived the qui-et life he loved so well. He took 
 good care of his farm, was hap-py with his fam-i-ly and 
 friends, and grew, day by day, in power. He did not lead 
 an i-dle life, you may be sure ; he rose ear-ly, had his break- 
 fast at sev-en in sum-mer and eight in win-ter ; then rode 
 o-ver his farm and saw that all was right. He had his din- 
 ner at two o'clock ; then ■ had an ear-ly tea, and of -ten was 
 in bed by nine o'clock. Twice a year he sent to Lon-don 
 for things need-ed in the way of dress for his fam-i-ly and 
 slaves, for tools, books, drugs, etc. Some of the things he 
 bought for the chil-dren I think you boys and girls would 
 like, too. He sent for " tops, lit-tle books for chil-dren to 
 read, a doll, and oth-er toys." 
 
GEOEGE WASHINGTOlSr. 9 
 
 Wash-ing-ton loved hors-es and was ver-y fond of hunt- 
 ing. The name of his pet horse was " Blue-skin " ; he must 
 have looked ver-y fine when he was on horse-back ; for he 
 was a big man, with bright blue eyes and high color, and 
 
 MARTHA WASHINGTON. 
 
 he wore a red vest with gold lace on it, and a dark blue 
 cloth coat. Mrs. Wash-ing-ton rode in a fine car-riage drawn 
 by four hors-es, and her driv-er wore the Wash-ing-ton col- 
 ors of red, white and gold. These old days were full of life 
 
10 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 and fun, but there was work as well, and soon came more 
 talk of war. 
 
 All through these twen-ty years this land was grow- 
 ing big-ger and big-ger ; and at last came the time when 
 folks did not see why they should not be free from Eng-land 
 and rule their own land in their own way. 
 
 At last Eng-land made a law called the " Stamp Act," 
 which put so high a tax on goods that folks here would not 
 pay it ; tea was one of the things on which this tax was put ; 
 and when Eng-land sent o-yer three ships full of tea to Bos- 
 ton, our men would not' let it be ta-ken from the ships, but 
 broke the great chests and threw all the tea in the wa-ter. 
 This act is known as the " Bos-ton Tea Par-ty " ; and now 
 the first signs of war were seen ; a fierce fight took place at 
 Lex-ing-ton, one Sun-day morn-ing, be-tween the Brit-ish and 
 A-mer-i-can troops ; and now, all o-ver the land, went up the 
 cry, " To arms ! To arms ! " 
 
 This is how the great War of In-de-pend-ence be-gan ; 
 and you know the name of the man who was at once put 
 at the head of the 'A-mer-i-can ar-my — George Wash-ing-ton, 
 of course ! Now he is not an Eng-lish-man fight-ing for his 
 king, but an A-mer-i-can fight-ing to free his own land. A 
 long, hard fight it was, too, but not once did Wash-ing-ton 
 or his brave men lose heart. He drove the Brit-ish out of 
 Bos-ton, and then, for fear they would go to New York, he 
 sent men there ; but the Brit-ish ships went to Can-a-da in- 
 stead, and made that land theirs. 
 
 It was just at this time that Eich-ard Hen-ry Lee, the 
 boy-friend of Wash-ing-ton, made a move in Con-gress that 
 our land should say to the whole world that it would be free 
 from Brit-ish rule ; and so the Dec-lar-a-tion of In-de-pend- 
 ence was drawn up and sent out to the world on July 4, 1776. 
 
GEOEGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 11 
 
 War now be-gan in dead-ly earn-est ; and, at the great 
 bat-tie of Long Isl-and, our men met with great loss of life, 
 and had to flee from the foe. Soon af-ter this bad news the 
 Brit-ish took Phil-a-del-phi-a, and 
 now Wash-ing-ton was sad at heart ; 
 on Christ-mas day of 1776, though, 
 our troops won in the great fight 
 that took place at Tren-ton, and 
 there was joy in the whole land ; 
 good news came with the New 
 Year, too, for Wash-ing-ton won 
 ma-ny fights ; and at last, in Oc-to- 
 ber, 1777, the Brit-ish troops in 
 charge of Gen-er-al Bur-goyne gave 
 up their arms to Gen-er-al Gates, lieotenant-general burgoynb. 
 That win-ter of 1777 was a bad one ^^—^-eiish print, ms. 
 for Wash-ing-ton and his men ; at no time in the war did 
 they suf-f er so much ; the time was spent at Val-ley Forge, 
 and the men lived in log huts which they had first built, 
 in long straight lines, like cit-y streets ; twelve men lived 
 in each hut, and there was a fire-place at the back, but no 
 fire could keep out the aw-ful cold, and no hut was snug 
 e-nough to keep out the snow that fell in great drifts a-round 
 this lit-tle town of log huts. To make things worse there 
 was lit-tle food to be had ; the men had on-ly poor, thin 
 clothes, and their bare feet oft-en left marks of blood on 
 the white snow. But the men did not lose hope, and kept 
 their faith through all the long months in their great 
 lead-er, whose lot was quite as hard as theirs was ; the 
 farm-house in which he had a room still stands, and it is 
 hard to be-lieve, as you look at this old house on the banks 
 of the Pel-aware Eiv-er, that once the big or-chardback of it 
 
13 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 and all the pret-ty fields were filled with poor little wood-en 
 huts in which, for the sake of free-dom, lived and suf~fered 
 thou-sands of brave men. 
 
 In the spring things were bet-ter, for France joined 
 A-mer-i-ca in her fight for free-dom, and three years from 
 this time the Brit-ish were beaten at York-town and A-mer- 
 i-ca was free. One of the great French-men, who gave us 
 
 much help, and was a firm friend of 
 Wash-ing-ton's, was the Mar-quis de 
 La-fay-ette. 
 
 A ver-y sad thing dur-ing these 
 last years of the war was the base act 
 of Ben-e-dict Ar-nold, who made up 
 his mind to sell to the Brit-ish some 
 posts near West Point, of which he 
 had charge. He sent a note to Clin- 
 ton* by a young Brit-ish spy, Ma-jor 
 An-dre ; but on his way to the Brit- 
 ish lines this young man was caught by three of our men. 
 They found the note in his boots and he was brought to 
 the A-mer-i-can camp, tried for his life and hung as a spy. 
 Ben-e-dict Ar-nold had made his way to a ship and set sail 
 for Eng-land, and his name is hat-ed, not on-ly by his own 
 land, but by e-ven the land to whom he tried to sell his 
 coun-try. 
 
 It was in March, 1783, that the news of peace spread 
 through the land, and it is said that Wash-ing-ton wept 
 with joy, as he read the glad news to his troops ; he gave 
 or-ders that the whole ar-my should give thanks to God ; and 
 this was done at a great meet-ing on the day af-ter Lord 
 Corn-wal-lis laid down his sword. Then there was a great 
 ball giv-en at Fred-er-icks-burg, and Wash-ing-ton's old moth- 
 
 MAEQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 13 
 
 er, sev-en-ty-four years old, was there l6an-ingon the arm of 
 her son ; and do you not think she was proud, as one af-ter 
 an-oth-er of the great French of-fi-cers bowed to her, and 
 spoke in her son's praise ? 
 
 It was on Christ-mas eve that Wash-ing-ton came home 
 to Mt. Yernon, af-ter eight years of war : rid-ing in state, 
 with his wife at his side, this great A-mer-i-can, feared now 
 
 SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS AT YORKTOWN. 
 
 by kings, and loved more than ev-er by the coun-try he had 
 made free, came glad-ly back to take up the qui-et coun-try 
 life he loved so well ; and here, could he have had his way, 
 he would have lived un-til his death ; but this new coun-try 
 need-ed at its head a man whom folks loved and trust-ed, 
 and of whom oth-er lands stood in fear. No man but Wash- 
 ing-ton could fill this great place ; and so, at the end of 
 
14 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 three years, once more at his coun-try's call, he left his 
 home, — this time to be-come the first Pres-i-dent of the 
 U-ni-ted. States. Not one voice was a-gainst him ; eve-ry 
 man in the new coun-try vot-ed to give him this last hon-or ; 
 and on Ap-ril 30th, 1789, in New York Ci-ty, he took the 
 oath of of-fice. Wash-ing-ton, who was a ve-ry rich man, 
 had tak-en no mon-ey for serv-ing his coun-try in the war ; 
 and said he would take none now ; but be-cause oth-er Pres- 
 i-dents might not be rich e-nough or good e-nough to want 
 to do the same, the peo-ple made him take $25,000 a year ; 
 now, you. know, the Pres-i-dent gets $50,000 a year. 
 
 Wash-ing-ton was in New York but one year, then the 
 cap-i-tal was moved to Phil-a-del-phia, and here he lived in 
 great state, un-til af-ter eight years in the Pres-i-dent's chair, 
 once more, and for the last time, he came back home to Mt. 
 Ver-non. 
 
 At the end of his term of of-fice, Wash-ing-ton on-ly 
 wait-ed to see the next Pres-i-dent, John Ad-ams, take the 
 chair, and soon af-ter he came back talk a-rose of war with 
 France; and, of course,- the coun-try turn-ed to him; he was 
 a-gain put in charge of the ar-my, and took up the pub-lie 
 life he had so glad-ly laid down. But he had not long, to 
 bear it this time, for on De-cem-ber 12th, 1799, while rid-ing 
 in a hard rain-storm, he took a heav-y cold, from which he 
 died on Sat-ur-day night, De-cem-ber 14th, be-tween ten and 
 twelve o'clock. 
 
 Wash-ing-ton was bur-ied at Mt. Ver-non, and to-day 
 the tomb of " The Fa-ther of his Coun-try,'' as he is lov-ing-ly 
 called is a sa-cred place ; not on-ly to us, but to the men and 
 wo-men of the old lands, which were taught by him so long 
 a-go to hon-or and fear this great, new A-mer-i-ca. 
 
 Wash-ing-ton had been dead just one hun-dred years on 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON. 
 
 15 
 
 De-cem-ber 14th, 1899, and the date was made much of in 
 the U-nit-ed States : in New York Ci-ty, in "Wash-ing-ton, 
 and at Mt. Yer-non there was a great time in his hon-or, for 
 this great man is as dear to his coun-try to-day as he was 
 when he was a-hve. 
 
 WASHINGTON FAMILY VAULT. 
 
16 LIVES OJ* ^SE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 JOHN AD-AMS. 
 
 John Adams was born, not in the far South withma-ny 
 slaves to wait on him, but on a small farm in Brain-tree, 
 Mass. Here, from old Eng-land had come, in 1636, his great- 
 grand-fa-ther, Hen-ry Ad-ams ; and in this old home was 
 born on Oc-to-ber 19th, 1735, John Ad-ams, who was to be 
 the sec-ond Pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States. Now, on this 
 farm in the east, there was much work to be done, and few 
 to do it ; the folks who had made their homes here did not 
 lead such lives of ease as those who lived on the great farms 
 in the South. 
 
 As a small boy, though, of course, he was taught to 
 read and write, John Ad-ams had a good deal of hard work 
 to do. There was wood to chop, and snow to be cleared 
 a-way ; there were hors-es and cows to care for, and there 
 was much work to do in the fields. In all this work John 
 took his part, like the brave, strong boy that he was. When 
 the days grew long and cold, he was sent to an old school 
 near his home, and here he at once took his place with the 
 boys; as one who would lead in fun and sport of all kinds. 
 There was a good deal of fun, too, in those days, for boys 
 and girls both ; in the cold days there was good, strong ice 
 on which to skate ; there was snow to play in, and to make 
 fine roads for long rides in a sleigh ; and, when the days 
 were long and hot, there were fish in the big streams, and 
 there was game in the wild woods. John was not f oijd of his 
 books, but still he did good worTs at school ; and when he 
 was quite young went to Har-vard Col-lege. He left it in 
 
JOHN ADAMS. 
 
JOHN ADAMS. 1? 
 
 1755, just at the start of the " Sev-en Years' War " ; and the 
 name of G-eorge Wash-ing-ton, the brave young Col-o-nel of 
 Vir-gin-ia, rang loud in his ears. 
 
 He taught school in Wor-ces-ter to earn the means to take 
 up law ; and in 1758 he he-came a law-yer. He had ma-ny 
 cas-es, and grew wise and great, though he did not make 
 much mon-ey, as folks in the small town of Brain-tree 
 were far from rich and paid small fees. But he did make 
 ma-ny kind friends, and far and near he was known as a 
 man of clear, strong mind and quick, bright thoughts ; he 
 had a fine, sweet voice, too, and his speech-es were al-ways 
 wise and showed much thought. 
 
 In the strife with Eng-land he was, from the start, on 
 the side of A-mer-i-ca. So much did Eng-land fear him 
 in 1757, the Eng-lish king sent word that he would give him 
 great wealth if he would serve him at this time. Ad-ams 
 would not do this; he would speak and act just as he 
 thought right, and be bound by no king. When the " Stamp 
 Act " passed in 1764, he made a great speech, which was 
 sent to those at the head of his State ; and when, in 1770, 
 a troop of Brit-ish fired on a mob of A-mer-i-can men and 
 boys in the streets of Bos-ton, he took the case to the 
 courts, and spoke for the Brit-ish Cap-tain and his men, 
 though they had killed five of our men. It may seem 
 strange to you that Ad-ams, who stood for A-mer-i-can 
 rights, should here take sides with the Brit-ish ; but^ first of 
 all, he stood for law ; and, though he knew he ran the risk 
 of los-ing his high place in the hearts of A-mer-i-can men, 
 still he would do what he thought right. But men love 
 truth, and like to see a brave man act as he thinks right, and ' 
 so felt that he had just the clear, cool head and brain and the 
 strong warm heart to give aid in the dark days that were to 
 
18 
 
 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 come to the land. He was sent to the First Con-gress and 
 was one of the three men who drew up the Dec-la-ra-tion of 
 In-de-pend-ence. 
 
 He was al-so one of 
 three men to go to France 
 and ask for the aid which 
 she gave to A-mer-i-ca, in 
 the spring af-ter that hard 
 win-ter at Val-ley Forge. 
 Do you see why this trip 
 at this time, was a brave 
 act, and one by which Ad- 
 ams ran a great risk of los- 
 ing his life ? Eng-land had 
 no wish that he should 
 reach France, and her ships 
 tried in vain to get him. If 
 he had been caught he 
 would have been hung, as a 
 man who was false to his 
 land and his king. You know that he went to France 
 though, and did his work well. He stood up for our rights 
 and had a bill passed which made the ports of France and 
 Eng-land free to our goods. At the end of the war he was 
 sent to Eng-land to look out for our rights there; and, 
 though now this is a pleas-ant task, it was not then, for it 
 was hard for Ad-ams to be true to A-mer-i-ca and yet not 
 an-ger the Eng-lish king, George HI. 
 
 But we have seen how bold and brave a man he was, 
 so the first thing he said to the king was : " I must tell your 
 Maj-es-ty that I love no coun-try but my own " ; and said the 
 king : " An hon-est man will nev-er love an-y oth-er." In 
 
 CARPENTER'S HALL. 
 
 Where the first Continental Congress met Septem- 
 ber, 1774. 
 
JOHN ADAMS, 
 
 19 
 
 spite of this, Ad-ams met with much rude-ness at the Eng- 
 lish court ; but he did his best for his coun-try, and when 
 he came home in 1787, af-ter .twelve 
 years of hard work, he was met with 
 great joy. He was made Vice-Presi- 
 dent with "Wash-ing-ton, and at the 
 end of Wash-ing-ton's term of of-fice 
 he was made Pres-i-dent. He served 
 on-ly four years and then made way 
 for Thom-as Jef-fer-son. 
 
 At the age of six-ty-eight years, 
 with the love of the whole land, he 
 went to his home in Quin-cy, Mass. 
 His heart was ever with his coun-try ; 
 and he lived un-til his son, John 
 Quin-cy Ad-ams, was made Pres-i- 
 dent of the U-nit-ed States. 
 
 His last thoughts were for his coun-try. On June 30th, 
 1836, he gave as a toast for the great feast to be held on 
 Ju-ly 4th the words : " In-de-pend-ence f or-ev-er." 
 
 He died on the night of this, 
 A-mer-i-ca's great day. His last 
 words were of , Jef-fer-son. He said : 
 " Thom-as Jef-fer-son still lives." 
 But this was not so, for Jef-fer-son 
 had died a few hours be-fore on 
 this same day ; and this young land 
 wept for two of her great men, both 
 of whom, in giving up their best to their coun-try, helped 
 to make it the great, free land that it is to-day. 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 From an anonymous print. 
 
 EESIDENCE OF JOHN ADAMS. 
 At Quincy, Mass. 
 
20 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 THOM-AS JEF-FER-SOK 
 
 "When Thom-as Jef-fer-son was a boy Ms home was so 
 near the In-di-ans' camp and he saw so much of them that 
 I am sure all boys will like to read of him. His f a-ther, 
 Pe-ter Jef-fer-son, took his bride, Jane Ean-dolph, to a house 
 on a wild tract of land of o-ver 1,000 a-cres, way out in Vir- 
 gin-ia, right in the midst of great woods. He was a big, 
 strong man, and this strength was ve-ry use-ful to him in 
 mak-ing his new home, for he had to chop down huge trees 
 and then cut them up in-to the logs of which the lit-tle log 
 cab-in was built. He took with him in-to this wild new land 
 on-ly a few slaves, but with their help his farm soon grew 
 large, and he be-came a rich man. The In-di-ans were great 
 friends of his, and al-ways sure of a warm wel-come in his 
 home. 
 
 Still, the In-di-ans were not al-ways at peace with the 
 white men, who had come to make their homes so near 
 thehi, and folks had to be on the watch for fear the red 
 men would rob and kill. them. Pe-ter Jef-fer-son was made 
 Col-o-nel of the men who kept the In-di-ans back in the 
 woods, and a-way from the lit-tle town that was fast grow- 
 ing up near his home. 
 
 Now, this great, strong man was fond of books, and it 
 was with his fa-ther that lit-tle Thom-as be-gan to stu-dy. 
 He was al-so taught to ride, to swim and to shoot ; and as 
 he was fond of mu-sic he spent long hours in learn-ing 
 to play on the vi-o-lin, or " fid-die " as it was then called, 
 
THOMAS JEFPEKSOlSr. 21 
 
 The In-di-ans near his home hked him, and he used to play 
 tunes for the ht-tle, brown In-di-an boys to dance by. 
 
 He was on-ly nine years old when he went to board-ing 
 school with a Mr. Doug-lass, and here he be-gan to stu-dy 
 Lat-in, Greek and French. He was so near home that he 
 did not stay a- way long at a time ; and in-deed, this home 
 was such a hap-py one, so full of life and fun, that he did not 
 want to be a- way from it long at one time. 
 
 But this hap-py time did not last long, for Thom-as was 
 but four-teen years old when his brave fa-ther was shot in 
 a fight with the In-di-ans. This boy was now at the head of 
 as big a place as the fa-ther of George Wash-ing-ton had left 
 to him, and though he kept on with his books he had the 
 care of this great farm to think of and plan for. He was a 
 bright, well-read boy ; and was but six-teen when he took a 
 place at Wil-liam and Ma-ry Col-lege. Here, his love for 
 books and mu-sic kept him from the wild life led by some 
 of the young men there, and made friends for him a-mong 
 the great men, whose homes were in Wil-liams-town. 
 
 He met a great law-yer, George Wythe, and began the 
 stu-dy of law with him when, at the end of two years, h6 
 left cbl-lege. In five years he be-gan the prac-tise of law in 
 his old home in Vir-gin-ia. In two years, so bright and 
 quick was he, and of such a strong, clear mind, that he had 
 198 cas-es, held a high place in his State, and was a rich 
 man. 
 
 In 1770, while he and his moth^er were a-way from 
 home, the old house burned down. "When news of this 
 came to Jef-f er-son, his first thought was for his books, and 
 he said to the slave who had told him : " Did you save an-y 
 of my books?" "No, mas-ter," said the slave, "but we did 
 save your fld-dle." You see e-ven when he was a great and 
 
23 
 
 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 MONTIOELLO. 
 The Home of Thomas Jefferson, 
 
 bu-sy man he still loved his M-dle ; but the loss of all his law 
 books was ve-ry hard for a bu-sy law^yer, and it took him a 
 long while to get the new books that he must have. 
 
 He had be-gun to 
 
 ■■r « J' , - . '^^tmM ^^^ build a ve-ry large new 
 W 1* «&'■"■ 1^*"^^^^^ house at Mon-ti-cel-lo, 
 
 and so in the lit-tle end 
 of this he now went to 
 live. Two years lat-er, 
 to this home, which was 
 to be-come known all 
 o-ver the world, he 
 brought his bride, Mrs. 
 Mar-tha Skel-ton, a 
 young and ve-ry rich 
 wid-ow. They^ were 
 mar-ried on New Year's Day, 1772, and came to their home 
 in such a hard snow-storm that the hors-es could not drag 
 the coach through the big drifts, so these two young folks 
 left the warm coach, and rode the tired hors-es up to the 
 door of their new home. Jef-fer-son and his wife gave 
 great care to Mon-ti-cel-lo, and it was known far and near 
 for its great beau-ty and for its choice and rare fruits and 
 flow-ers. 
 
 But Jef-fer-son was much from home. In 1763 he was 
 sent to Con-gress, and here he at once stood at the head of the 
 1band of wise and great men who were then there. His 
 mind was so clear and bright that in all the grave things 
 that came up he knew at once just what to do, he had the 
 trust of all men. 
 
 He was a great help in writ-ing the Dec-la-ra-tion of In- 
 de-pend-ence ; in fact, it may "vvell be said that he wrote it. 
 
THOMAS JEFPEESO]Sr. 33 
 
 Soon af-ter this great act he left Con-gress and turned his 
 mind to the laws of his own State ; he made them safe and 
 just for all men, both rich and poor. In 1779 he was made 
 goy-ern-or of Vir-gin-ia ; and now his work was hard ; not 
 on-ly must he find a way to keep the In-di-ans from the 
 hous-es of the white men but the Brit-ish came down to the 
 south and laid his fair home in ruins. Not for long years 
 did Mon-ti-cel-lo grow in beau-ty once more. But through 
 all the dark years of war Jef-fer-son did his work well ; he 
 forced back the In-di-an foes, and gave help and aid to his 
 State while the War for In-de-pend-ence went on. When the 
 war was at an end, this strong, just man, with his clear, 
 wise brain, was just the one to stand up for our rights in the 
 lands a-cross the sea, so he was sent to France at the time 
 Ad-ams was in Eng-land. While here he had a bill passed 
 by which Eng-land said she would look on our land as free ; 
 and this was a big point for us to gain. 
 
 When Jef-fer-son came home he was made Sec-re-ta-ry 
 of State, and in this high of-fice did much good work ; it 
 was he who first gave us our own coins to use in place of the 
 Eng-lish coins, which, up to that timq had been in use here. 
 Now, Al-ex-an-der Ham-il-ton was in charge of the work of 
 mak-ing the coin, and a great feud came up be-tween hinu 
 and Jef-fer-son as to how this should be done. Men, of 
 course, took sides in this strife, and so two bands sprang up 
 which were known as Re-pub-li-cans and Fed-er-al-ists ; to- 
 day these two bands are known as Re-pub-h-cans and 
 Dem-o-crats. Al-ex-an-der Ham-il-ton was killed in a du-el 
 by Aa-ron Burr in Ju-ly, 1804. 
 
 In 1801, Jef-fer-son was made Pres-i-dent ; and while he 
 was in the chair this land grew strong and great. 
 
 Our first steam-boat was built by Rob-ert Ful-ton while 
 
24 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 Jef-fer-son was Pres-i-dent ; and it did not look at all like the 
 great boats of to-day ; it was a heav-y, clum-sy boat, which 
 went by sails as well as steam. 
 
 Jef-fer-son tried hard to put an 
 end to the slave-trade, which he 
 felt was a great wrong ; he thought, 
 too, that folks should have the 
 right to serve God in their own 
 way ; and he held that on-ly men 
 THE CLERMONT. who couM read and write should 
 
 Eob-ert Ful-ton's first Steam-boat. .^_ j-p 
 
 He was a great and a wise man ; books were his dear 
 friends ; and so one of the hard-est things he had to do, af-t6r 
 he went home to Mon-ti-cel-lo, when he left the White House, 
 was to sell all his books to Con-gress in or-der to get mon-ey 
 to live on. To his own home hosts of friends and stran-gers 
 came to see the great man, just as they had when he was in 
 Wash-ing-ton. But he sold his books so cheap that the 
 mon-ey did not help him much ; and, at last, it seemed as 
 if he must sell his dear old home. But now the peo-ple for 
 whom he had done so much helped him, and a big fund was 
 raised, so that he could keep his home and live there in 
 com-f ort un-til his death. 
 
 He lived to be a ver-y old man, and e-ven when he was 
 so weak he could not rise from his bed, his great, strong 
 brain was still clear. You know that he died on the 4th of 
 Ju-ly, 1826, just a few hours be-fore the death of his old 
 friend, John Ad-ams. 
 
 Next to the name of George Wash-ing-ton, there is no 
 name a-mong the great men of our land, of which the peo- 
 ple are so proud, as that of Thoni-as Jef-fer-son. 
 
THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
JAMES MADISON. 
 
JAMES MADISON. 35 
 
 JAMES MAD-I-SON. 
 
 In the home of his grand-fath-er at Port Con-way, Vir- 
 gin-i-a, was born, in the spring of 1751, the small boy who 
 was to be our fourth Pres-i-dent. He was ver-y young, 
 though, when he went to live at Mon-ti-cel-lo, his fath-er's 
 great farm in Vir-gin-i-a, and here he led much the same 
 life as George Wash-ing-ton did when a boy. He was but 
 a small boy when the French and Eng-lish War be-gan, and 
 when Brad-dock lost the day, a great fear of the In-di-ans 
 spread to the ver-y door of his home ; and he grew up with 
 the name of George "Wash-ing-ton ev-er in his ears, as a 
 great he-ro. 
 
 His school days were much like those of Jef-fer-son. 
 He was a young boy when he could read French and Span-ish 
 with ease, and was as well hard at work at Greek and Lat-in. 
 In 1769 he went to Prince-ton Col-lege, and here, as well as 
 when he was at home, Jef-fer-son was a great help to him. 
 The old-er man wrote to the boy in the qui-et old col-lege 
 town, a-bout the scenes of war ; he told him much of the 
 Brit-ish troops in the Bos-ton streets, of young John Ad- 
 ams and of Wash-ing-ton. So, when in 1771 he left col-lege, 
 he knew a great deal a-bout the strife of the day, and had 
 deep, clear thoughts a-bout it. At home he led a qui-et life 
 with his books, un-til 1774, then he was put at the head of a 
 few men, who were to guard their own town if the Brit-ish 
 troops came there. In this post he showed such a wise, 
 clear mind and did his part so well that in a short time he 
 was put in a high place in his State, and from there in 177Q 
 
26 
 
 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 was sent to Con-gress. Jef-f er-son was at this time Gov-ern- 
 or of Vir-gin-i-a, and the two men were close, warm friends. 
 For twen-ty five years Mad-i-son was one of the first 
 men in this land. He had no taste for war, but he soon 
 took a high place with those who made the laws of the land. 
 One of the great things he did was to help draw up the 
 Con-sti-tu-tion of the U-nit-ed States, 
 
 In 1794 this grave and qui-et man mar-ried, as Wash-ing- 
 
 ton and Jef-fer-son had 
 done, a young and love-ly 
 wid-ow. She was but twen- 
 ty-two years old, twen-ty- 
 years young-er than he, and 
 her name was Mrs. Dor-o- 
 thy Payne Todd. Lat-er on, 
 the folks who grew to love 
 this fair la-dy so well, gave 
 her the name by which we 
 know her to-day — "Dol-ly 
 Mad-i-son." She was a 
 Quak-er-ess, and so fair and 
 sweet was she, in her qui-et 
 lit-tle gown of gray, that 
 once a friend said to her : 
 "Dol-ly, tru-ly thou must 
 hide thy face, so ma-ny 
 stare at thee." 
 
 For one year af-ter 
 his mar-riage, Mad-i-son 
 lived at Mont-pel-ier ; then' 
 a-gain he went in-to pub-lie life, first in his State, and 
 af-ter that, in 1800, as Sec-re-ta-ry of State un-der Jef-fer-son. 
 
 MRS. DOLLY PAYNE MADISON. 
 
JAMES MADISOH. S7 
 
 Now, be-gan the gay life at the "White House, for which 
 " Dol-ly " Mad-i-son won so much fame. Jef-fer-son's wife 
 was dead, and it was the wife of his friend that helped him 
 en-ter-tain the White House guests. Well did this love-ly 
 la-dy do her part, and in 1808 when, as the wife of the Pres- 
 i-dent, she be-came the real mis-tress of the White House, 
 more than ev-er did the peo-ple love her. To-day, of all the 
 pic-tures of the Pres-i-dents' wives that hang up-on the 
 White House walls, none is more love-ly than that of the 
 gay and pretty " Dol-ly Mad-i-son." 
 
 Mad-i-son was most of all a man of peace, and yet it was 
 while he was in of -fice that the U-nit-ed States was drawn in-to 
 the War of 1812. Eng-land, then at war with France, said she 
 had the right to search A-mer-i-can ships to see if they were 
 tak-ing aid to France. A-mer-i-ca would not give this right 
 to Eng-land, and so the war be-gan. In 1814 the Brit-ish 
 came to the cit-y of Wash-ing-ton, and for the on-ly time in 
 A-mer-i-can his-to-ry the Pres-i-dent had to leave his home. 
 
 Mad-i-son, with the Sec-re-ta-ry of State and some 
 friends, went to a lit-tle inn near Wash-ing-ton, and here 
 they were met by Mrs. Mad-i-son, who had stayed as long 
 as she could at the White House to save some things from 
 the hands of the Brit-ish. She had brought the great Dec- 
 la-ra-tion of In-de-pend-ence, and had cut from its big frame 
 the pic-ture of Wash-ing-ton and brought it safe-ly a-way. 
 The Brit-ish troops set fire to the White House, the na-vy 
 yard, the Cap-i-tol, and in fact the whole town. They left 
 in great haste, though, when they heard that our troops 
 were on the way, and the next day Mrs. Mad-i-son put on the 
 dress of a wash-wo-man, so folks would not know her, and 
 made a start for her home, but the British had set fire to 
 a bridge she had to cross on the way and then she begged 
 
28 LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 
 
 an A-mer-i-can sol-dier to row her o-ver the riv-er. He 
 would not do so un-til she told him who she was, and then 
 he was ver-y glad to take this brave lit-tle la-dy in his boat. 
 On-ly black ash-es marked the spot on which the White House 
 had once stood, so she had to. go to her sis-ter'shome, where 
 the Pres-i-dent soon joined her. 
 
 The Eng-lish troops now tried to take Bal-ti-more, but 
 our brave men drove them back ; and when they tried 
 to make a raid on New Or-le-ans, Gen-er-al Jack-son and 
 his troops fought so hard that the foe could not get in-to 
 the cit-y. 
 
 This was the last fight of this war, and peace was signed 
 at Ghent, De-cem-ber 24th, 1814. From that day Eng-land 
 has had to leave our ships a-loneand to treat A-mer-i-caas 
 one of the great nations of the world. 
 
 In 1817 Mad-i-son was not sor-ry to go back to his old 
 home, and here ma-ny hap-py years were spent, for the fair 
 la-dy of the White House kept open house in her own 
 home, and guests from far and near were glad to come 
 here. One of Mad-i-son's dear-est friends was old Thom-as 
 Jef-f er-son, who oft-en rode o-ver from his home at Mon-ti- 
 cel-lo, which was on-ly thir-ty miles from Mont-pel-ier. 
 
 Mad-i-son wrote a good deal at this time ; and once 
 a-gain was seen in pub-lie life. In 1829 he was at the head 
 of the great change made in all the laws of the whole land. 
 
 He died af -ter a long sick-ness at his home in Mont-pel- 
 ier on June 28th, 1836. 
 
JAMES MONEOE. 29 
 
 JAMES MON-ROE. 
 
 James Mon-roe was, like Wash-ing-ton, Mad-i-son and 
 Jef-fer-son, born in Yir-gin-i-a. Our first Pres-i-dent was 
 just twen-ty six years old when, in West-more-land County, 
 on A-pril 28tli, 1758, was born the boy who was to be the 
 fifth Pres-i-dent. His fa-ther, Colo-nel Spense Mon-roe, 
 owned a big farm and was quite rich. Lit-tle James was sent 
 to good schools and did not have to work to earn the means 
 to stay in school. He learned at first to hunt, to skate and 
 to swim ; and was good friends with all the boys ; but 
 through all the fun and school work came up the talk of 
 war ; of the long strife with Eng-land and the fierce red 
 men. It was hard for a brave boy to hear such talk and 
 yet keep on at his books, and though Mon-roe did go to 
 Wil-liam and Mary Col-lege, he did not stay long, for we 
 hear of him in 1775 at the camp near Bos-ton. In 1776' we 
 see him at the head of a band of men, and from' that time 
 on he was in the thick of the fight. He fought at "White 
 Plains and Har-lem. Heights, and was so brave that the great 
 Wash-ing-ton gave him high praise for his work, and made 
 him, when but eight-een years old, a cap-tain in the ar-my. 
 At the great fight at Tren-ton he got a bad wound and had 
 to rest for some time. In the big fights of the war this 
 brave young man was one of the first in the field ; his hopes 
 were ev-er high, and he put heart in-to the weak and worn 
 men who looked to him for help in the sad years of the war. 
 In 1780 he be-gan the stud-y of law with his old friend 
 
80 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 Thom-as Jef-fer-son and soon led the bright men of the 
 day. 
 
 So good a friend of his was Jef-fer-son, that the home 
 to which Mon-roe took his bride.in 1785, was planned for him 
 by Jef-fer-son, who, so it is said, al-so gave him the nails to 
 build it with. 
 
 In 1794 he was sent to France to look out for A-mer-i- 
 ca's rights, but he found talk of war there at that time. 
 The peo-ple did not want a king an-y long-er, but wished to 
 be-come a free land like A-mer-i-ca, with a pres-i-dent at the 
 head ; and Mad-i-son, who was a Ee-pub-li-can, took sides 
 with the Ee-pub-li-cans in France. The king did not like 
 this, and so Mad-i-son had to come home at the end of two 
 years. 
 
 But he met with a wel-come at home, and his own State 
 made him its Gov-ern-or. In 1803 he was once more sent 
 to France ; this time to buy the State of Lou-is-i-an-a from 
 the French, and he paid Na-po-le-on for this large State 
 $15,000,000. 
 
 Twice Mon-roe was sent to Spain and once to Eng-land, 
 where his task was to force Eng-land to stop her search of 
 A-mer-i-can ships. You know he could not do this, for that 
 was the cause of the War of 1812. 
 
 Tired and sad at heart, he came back home, and was 
 glad to rest for a while in his own home ; but he was of too 
 much use to his coun-try to be i-dle long. Once more, in 
 1811, he was made Grov-ern-or of Vir-gin-i-a. 
 
 Then came the War of 1812 ; and it was Mon-roe, now 
 Sec-re-ta-ry of State, who, at the head of a few men, saw 
 the Brit-ish land near Wash-ing-ton and sent word to Mad- 
 i-son to leave the cit-y. He al-so act-ed as Sec-re-ta-ry of 
 War at this time, and so well did he do his part that in 1816 
 
JAMES MONROE. 31 
 
 he was named for Pres-i-dent by the Dem-o-crats. He got 
 the most votes and so took the first place in our great 
 land. 
 
 His first act was to pay off the great debt which the 
 War of 1813 had brought on us. He did this in a ver-y short 
 time ; and now our trade grew so great that rail-roads were 
 built ; and so our first rail-road was made while Mad-i-son 
 was Pres-i-dent. 
 
 FIRST EAILROAD TRAIN. 
 
 There was a fierce war with the In-di-ans in Flor-i-da 
 at this time ; but Gen-er-al Jack-son was sent down there 
 and he forced them to lay down their arms and keep the 
 peace. 
 
 Just at this time, too, we got Flor-i-da from the King 
 of Spain, and gave up Tex-as, af-ter pay-ing a big sum of 
 mon-ey to the A-mer-i-cans, who had been robbed by 
 Spain. 
 
 Mis-sou-ri came in-to the Un-ion while Mon-roe was 
 Pres-i-dent, and there was a fierce storm of words ; the 
 North said she should not hold slaves after she was a State, 
 the South said that she should. 
 
 At last Con-gress gave way to the South-ern States ; 
 but made a law that there should be a line drawn through 
 the land, north of which no State should hold slaves. 
 
 In 1825 Mon-roe was free to go to his home at Oak Hill, 
 Yir-gin-i-a, and here he lived un-til 1830. His wife died in 
 
33 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 that year, and then he went to live with his daugh-ter in 
 New York. He died here on the 4th of Ju-ly, 1831, and his 
 name is one that the whole land loves and hon-ors. 
 
 He was bur-ied in New York, but on the one hun-dredth 
 an-ni-ver-sa-ry of his birth, his bod-y was tak-en to Eich- 
 mond, Vir-gin-i-a, and a hand-some stone raised o-ver his 
 grave. 
 
JAMES MONROE. 
 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 
 
JOHN QUmCY ADAMS. 33 
 
 JOHN QUIN-CY AD-AMS. 
 
 The lit-tle boy who be-came our sixth Pres-i-dent led a 
 hfe not at all like that of an-y oth-er of the boys of whom 
 you have read. His fa-ther was John Ad-ams, our sec-ond 
 Pres-i-dent, and when, on Ju-ly 11th, 1767, lit-tle John Quin-cy 
 Ad-ams was born in the old home at Brain-tree, Mass., his 
 great fa-ther was al-read-y speak-ing brave-ly for his coun- 
 try's rights in the cit-y of Bos-ton. In 1772 the f am-i-ly moved 
 to Bos-ton, and lit-tle John, for two years, saw, as the oth-er 
 boys did, the Brit-ish sol-diers in their bright red coats on 
 pa-rade in the Bos-ton streets, and heard on all sides talk of 
 war with Eng-land. He saw a lit-tle of real war, too ; for 
 when he was eight years old, his moth-er took him on top 
 of a high hill, called Be-mis Hill, from which he saw the 
 smoke and heard the roar of can-non in that aw-ful bat-tie 
 of Bunk-er Hill. When, in 1776, the Brit-ish left Bos-ton, 
 this lit-tle lad of nine years used to oft-en ride on horse- 
 back in and out of the city to bring home the lat-est news. 
 This was a ride of twen-ty-two miles from the old home at 
 Brain-tree, where Mrs. Adams had gone when herhus-band 
 went to Con-gress, and I think it took a pi;et-ty brave . and 
 strong boy to ride all those long miles a-lone. 
 
 When John Ad-ams went to Prance to try and get her aid 
 for A-mer-i-ca, he took with him his lit-tle boy, then ten years 
 old. It was a rough, hard trip ; for, not on-ly were there 
 fierce winds which lashed the waves in-to fu-ry, but they 
 were chased by Brit-ish ships, for Eng-land did not want 
 
34 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 John Ad-ams to get this help from France. But they 
 reached Par-is in safe-ty, and ht-tle John was at once 
 put in a French school. He on-ly stayed for a-bout a 
 year and went back home with his f a-ther in the spring. 
 Now for three months he was with his moth-er, and then 
 in No-vem-ber he and some oth-er boys who were placed in 
 his f a-ther's care, all start-ed for France, where they were 
 to be put in a good school. 
 
 This trip was hard-er than the oth-er one, for the big 
 ship, " Sen-si-ble, " sprang a leak, and af-ter some days of 
 great per-il, they were glad to go to the near-est land, which 
 was Spain ; and now there was a long, hard trip by land 
 be-fore France could be reached. They had sailed on Nov. 
 13th, 1779, and it was not un-til Feb. 5th, 1780, that the 
 lit-tle par-ty reached Par-is. 
 
 For two years now our lit-tle lad was hard at work 
 with his books in Par-is ; then his f a-ther was sent to the 
 Neth-er-lands as A-mer-i-can Min-is-ter, and he took his lit-tle 
 son there and placed him in a school in Am-ster-dam ; from 
 here he went to the U-ni-ver-si-ty at Ley-den, where he 
 stayed un-til Ju-ly, 1781. 
 
 He was now on-ly four-teen years old ; but you see he 
 had been in so ma-ny lands, that he could speak as the 
 folks did in those strange lands, and this was a rare thing 
 in those days. In 1781 Fran-cis Da-na, then the A-mer-i- 
 can Min-is-ter to Rus-sia, need-ing some one to help him in 
 his work, sent to Ley-den for this young boy. They passed 
 through Ger-ma-ny on the way to Rus-sia, and here John 
 Quin-cy learned some-thing of an-oth-er new land. Then, 
 af-ter a year in Rus-sia, he left Mr. Da-na and stud-ied for 
 a year in Swe-den. The next spring he went to his f a-ther 
 m Hol-land, and then went to Par-is with him, and was 
 
, JOHF QUINCY ADAMS. 35 
 
 pres-ent when the trea-ty of peace be-tween Eng-land and 
 A-mer-i-ca end-ed the War of In-de-pend-ence. 
 
 For two years more he stud-ied a-broad, and then sailed 
 for home in May, 1783. He at once en-tered the jun-ior 
 class at Har-vard Col-lege and grad-u-a-ted with next to 
 the high-est hon-ors in 1787. Then he took up law, as his 
 fa-ther had done, and be-gan to prac-tise in Bos-ton. He 
 made few friends ; folks did not love him as they had 
 ei-ther Madi-son or Mon-roe, but he was al-ways known to 
 be a man of great pow-er, and of great learn-ing; and 
 know-ing so much of other lands, he was just the man to 
 be sent as A-mer-i-can Min-is-ter to these coun-tries. 
 
 In 1794 Wash-ing-ton sent him to Hol-land, and in 1796 
 he was sent to Ber-hn. 
 
 When, in 1801, Ad-ams came back home, it was to find 
 new hon-ors wait-ing for him. He was sent first to the 
 State Sen-ate and then to Con-gress. You see the steps by 
 which our Pres-i-dents rose to pow-er were much the same 
 in ev-er-y case. A du-ty well done in a small place led to 
 some-thing a lit-tle high-er, and so on to the great-est hon-or 
 of all — the Pres-i-dent's chair. 
 
 The State of Mas-sa-chu-setts was ver-y proud of John 
 Quin-cy A-dams ; not only was he a great states-man and the 
 son of the man whom they all loved, but he was, as well. 
 a fine schol-ar, and a bril-liant speak-er. In 1809 he was 
 sent a-broad a-gain for his coun-try ; this time to Rus-sia, 
 where he had not been since he was a boy of four-teen ; in 
 1815 he was sent to France, but he was here on-ly a few 
 months, when war broke out in France, and all the min- 
 is-ters from oth-er coun-tries were called a- way ; he went at 
 once to Eng-land, and here he had a much more pleasant 
 time than his father had when he went there as the first 
 
36 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 Amer-ican min-is-ter ; the U-nit-ed States was now known 
 as a big strong coun-try,, and no one dared to be rude to her 
 min-is-ter. In 1817 his own land felt the need of the great 
 man who had served her so well a-broad, and he was called 
 home to be-come Sec-re-ta-ry of State. No man was so well, 
 fit-ted for this post as he ; for there were ma-ny men from 
 the lands a-cross the sea, now com-ing and gO-ing in the 
 . cap-i-tal of the U-nit-ed States, to talk o-ver great ques-tions ; 
 there were new states com-ing in-to the Un-i-on ; and oth-er 
 lands \yere al-ways try-ing to gain a lit-tle pow-er here ; so 
 John Quin-cy Ad-ams, who not on-ly was a great schol-ar, 
 and a fine law-yer, but al-so knew well so ma-ny lands be- 
 sides his own, was just the man to help Pres-i-dent Mon-roe 
 through his eight years of work. 
 
 He al-so was the man best suit-ed for the Pres-i-dent's 
 chair, at the end of Mon-roe's term of of-fice. Not once, 
 while Ad-ams was in "Wash-ing-ton work-ing hard, did he 
 f or-get his old fa-ther, watch-ing, in his home at Quin-cy, the 
 bu-sy life of his great son. Once ev-er-y year he went to 
 the qui-et old home, and told his fa-ther of the life in Wash- 
 ing-ton, in which the old-er' man had once held so great a 
 place. 
 
 At the age of six-ty-eight, Ad-ams went back to his 
 home in Quin-cy, but in 1830 once more he was sent to Con- 
 gress, and for six-teen years he kept his seat there ; he grew 
 old and gray serv-ing his na-tive land ; he made bit-ter en-e- 
 mies, but ma-ny warm friends ; he feared no one, and his 
 voice was al-ways for the free-dom of this great land. On 
 No-yem-ber 19th, 1846, he had a stroke of par-al-y-sis while 
 walk-ing in Bos-ton ; but three months later we saw him 
 a-gain in Wash-ing-ton, and tak-ing his old seat in Con-gr^ss. 
 As the gray old man came feeb-ly in-to the hall, ev-er-y man 
 
JOHN QUmCY ADAMS. 37 
 
 pres-ent rose to his feet, and so stood un-til he took his seat. 
 He was too weak now to talk, and on-ly once more did he 
 try to speak his mind on one of the great ques-tions of the 
 day. This was on Feb-ru-a-ry 21st, 1848. He rose to speak, 
 but fell in-to the arms of a man near him ; at once they 
 took him in-to a cloak-room, and sent for his wife. For two 
 days did he lay there, and then, on the morn-ing of Feb-ru- 
 a-ry 23d, his great soul took its flight. His last words were : 
 " This is the last of hfe, and I am con-tent." 
 
38 LIVES OF THE PKESIDENTS. 
 
 •AN-DEEW JACK-SON. 
 
 The boy who was to be our sev-enth. Pres-i-dent did not 
 lead the sort of hf e, as boy or man, that the oth-er Pres-i- 
 dents did. He was the son of a poor I-rish-man who came 
 here from Ire-land in 1765. He was born on March 15th, 
 1767, in a small place in South Car-o-li-na, called the Wax- 
 haw Set-tle-n;ients. Poor and mean was the log house in 
 which he first saw the light, and when his fa-ther died, 
 which was when An-drew was a wee baby, the hfe of the 
 lit-tle home was hard-er yet. His moth-er was a brave, 
 good wo-man, and so well did she do her hard part in life 
 that she was loved by all who knew her, and was known 
 far and near as " Aunt Bet-ty." 
 
 Andrew was a great care to her when a boy, for, full of 
 life and fun, he did not care for books, and was at the head 
 in all sorts of wild sport. He was ev-er read-y for a fight 
 with boys who made him an-gry ; the small boys looked to 
 him for help in any strife with boys big-ger than they ; and 
 so strong was he, or read-y to knock a boy down for a real 
 or a f an-cied wrong, that they soon found it best to give him 
 his own way, and let him take his place as lead-er a-mong 
 them ; when he was at the head all went well. 
 
 He was just nine years old when the Dec-la-ra-tion of 
 In-de-pend-ence was signed, and then came four years of 
 war with Eng-land. In 1780 this war was car-ried into the 
 South, and on May 29th a number of Brit-ish sol-diers un-der 
 Colo-nel Tarle-ton killed and wounded over 200 of the men and 
 boys from the Wax-haw set-tle-ments. A-mong those who 
 
ANDREW JACKSON. 
 
AISTDREW JACKSON:, 39 
 
 helped to care for the hurt and dy-ing men were Mrs. Jack- 
 son and her hoys. An-drew was on-ly four-teen when he fell 
 in-to the hands of the Brit-ish, and he, with o-ver one hun- 
 dred sick and dy-ing men, was kept for days inadir-typen, 
 with no heds, lit-tle to eat and on-ly stale wa-ter to drink. 
 To make things worse, small-pox hroke out and An-drew 
 was one of those who had it. His brave moth-er was at 
 last a-ble to free him, and it was ow-ing to her lov-ing care 
 that he did not die at this aw-ful time; 
 
 Af-ter he was well e-nough to be left, his moth-er, who 
 was ver-y sor-ry for the poor A-mer-ican sol-diers, went to 
 Charles-ton to take care of those who were sick and wound- 
 ed here. Just as she had be-gun her no-ble work she was 
 ta-ken sick and died. 
 
 Soon af-ter her death came the good news of peace ; and 
 now young An-drew be-gan to pay some heed to his books, 
 with the hope of stud-y-ing law. He al-so taught school for 
 a while, though he could not have been a ver-y good teach- 
 er, for he nev-er learned how to spell ver-y well him-self. 
 Still, in 1787, we find he has learned e-nough to take up the 
 prac-tice of law, and he be-gan this work in Nash-ville, Ten- 
 nes-see ; and now we see the boy who had been the lead-er 
 in boy-ish sports, games and fights, be-come at once a 
 lead-er a-mong men. He was tall and quite good look-ing, 
 with bright blue eyes and red-dish hair, and he was full of 
 fun and life ; he rode horse-back well, and knew how to 
 shoot straight ; and a-bove all he was a brave man, a-fraid of 
 noth-ing. 
 
 In 1788 he was giv-en a place in which he had to try 
 for the State all men who had done wrong and it need-ed, 
 in those wUd days and in that new land, a brave man for 
 such a work, for he would make ma-ny foes, both a-mong 
 
id LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 the bad white men and the In-di-ans. His work took him 
 from Nash-ville to Jones-bor-ough, and here the In-di-ans 
 were ver-y strong and ver-y cru-el, kill-ing and rob-bing the 
 white men and wo-men, and e-ven the Ut-tle ba-bies in their 
 moth-ers' arms. Hear-ing and see-ing day by day more and 
 more of this sav-age war-fare, al-ways in dan-ger of be-ing 
 killed by night or day by some In-di-an hid-ing , be-hind a 
 tree or house, Jack-son learned to know the In-di-ans and 
 their hab-its bet-ter than most men did, so was read-y to 
 fight them in their own way in a few years. 
 
 He made his home in Nash-ville and built up a good 
 law prac-tice. He grew in pow-er so fast that in 1797 he 
 was sent as the first man from Ten-nes-see to Con-gress. 
 He went all the way from his home to Phil-a-del-phi-a, a dis- 
 tance of 800 miles, on horse-back. In 1798 we see him 
 a-gain at home as Judge of the Su-preme Court, and here 
 he stayed un-til 1804. Then came four-teen years of peace 
 for the land, and a hap-py home life for him, A-mong 
 oth-er things which Jack-son did at this time was to build 
 a large log store in which he kept all sorts of things which 
 both the white men and the In-di-ans want-ed. His home, 
 which was called " The Her-mit-age," was a fine house for 
 those days, and in later years it grew as well known as 
 Mt. Ver-non and Mon-ti-cel-lo. Jack-son was all through 
 his life a man who would stand up for his own way, if it 
 led to strife with his best friend, and more than once he 
 fought du-els to the death. In Con-gress he would, when he 
 rose to speak, some-times choke with blind rage if he could 
 not make his point and force men to yield to him. 
 
 Af-ter years of peace came the War of 1812, and from 
 that hour Jack-son's name was first in the minds of men. 
 He showed great skill in his fights with the red men, and 
 
ANDEEW JACKSOK. 41 
 
 won much fame in a fierce fight with the Creeks, a bad 
 tribe of In-di-ans in Al-a-ba-ma. 
 
 He could force men to do as he said ; the young men of 
 that day looked up-on him with awe and fear, but rushed 
 to fill his ranks and serve un-der him. 
 
 In 1815 he won the day at New Or-le-ans, and put the 
 Brit-ish troops to flight with great loss of life. At the end 
 of the war, back home went Jack-son for the rest of which 
 he stood in sore need ; but, in 1818, strife with the Sem-i- 
 nole In-di-ans in Flor-i-da came up, and Jack-son was sent 
 there. 
 
 At this time Spain owned Flor-i-da, and it was both Span- 
 ish troops and In-di-an foes that Jack-son had to meet, but he 
 won his way, and at last made Spain yield her rights in Flor- 
 i-da and sign a peace. In 1823 she sold Flor-i-da to us for 
 $5,000,000 ; not such a great sum when we think what a 
 rich and great place this " Land of Flow-ers " is. Jack-son 
 was now put at the head of things in Flor-i-da, and the 
 hard-est part of his work was to keep peace in the bad 
 tribe of Sem-i-nole In-di-ans. With their chief Os-ce-o-la at 
 their head they would creep out from the woods and 
 swamps of Flor-i-da, rush on the homes of the white men, 
 and burn them to the ground, and then dash back to the 
 woods, where they could saf e-ly hide. At the end of four 
 years Jack-son was glad to go home to the Her-mit-age ; 
 here he and his wife led a qui-et life and kept up ma-ny of 
 the ways of their young days, though now they were quite 
 rich. Af-ter din-ner, they would sit, one on each side of the 
 great big wood fire, in the large hall, and smoke their old 
 pipes, with the long stems, just as they had in their log 
 cab-in of long a-go. But the great gen-er-al could not live 
 this qui-et life long ; in 1823 he was sent to Con-gress ; and 
 
42 LIVES OF THE PEESIDEISTTS. 
 
 here he met with high hon-or. On New Year's Day, 1824, 
 the great men of the day gave him the pock-et tel-e-scope 
 that "Wash-ing-ton had owned ; a year from the day on 
 which the Bat-tie of New Or-le-ans was fought, John Quin-cy 
 Ad-ams gave him a great feast, at which were men, who 
 held high rank here and in oth-er lands ; and on the day 
 that he was fif-ty-sev-en years old, Pres-i-dent Moh-roe gave 
 him a gold badge for his brave acts in his fights for his 
 coun-try. In 1828 this rough, but brave and kind, old man, 
 was made pres-i-dent ; and now he stood up for his own 
 way, just as he had in the wars of his land, and when he 
 was but a boy. His first act was to stop some states in the 
 South from leav-ing the Un-ibn. John C. Cal-houn 'vyas at 
 the head of a band of men, who felt that the North had 
 more rights than the South ; had more than its share of 
 wealth and land ; so rose the wish to set up a rule just for 
 the South. " But," said Jack-son, " if one state goes out 
 oth-ers will ; and our great land will be a ru-in." So he 
 stopped this plan, just in time. 
 
 All the years that Jack-son was pres-i-dent, our great 
 land gained in strength ; new rail-roads were built ; and 
 new steam-boats ; the land grew rich year by year. 
 
 In 1824 the slaves in Mex-i-co were set free, and Tex-as 
 came in-to the Un-ion. 
 
 On the whole. Jack-son's term was a good one for the 
 land ; and so well did the peo-ple like him, that he is the 
 ou-ly pres-i-dent of whom it has been said that he was 
 bet-ter liked when he went out of of-fice than when he 
 went in. 
 
 The last years of his life were spent at " The Her-mit- 
 age," where he died on June 8th, 1845. 
 
THE. Life of maetih van bueen. 43 
 
 THE LIFE OF MAR-TIN VAN BUREK 
 
 The place in which Mar-tin Van Bu-ren was born was 
 far from the homes of the oth-er boys who be-came our 
 *pres-i-dents ; and his hf e, as a boy, was not one bit hke theirs. 
 His f a-ther and m oth-er were Dutch ; Hoes was his moth-er's 
 queer name ; and the name of the small town, in which, on 
 De-cem-ber 5th, 1782, he was born, was Dutch too — Kin-der- 
 hook ; the lit-tle town was on the Hud-son Riv-er, way up 
 in New York state. His fa-ther kept a good inn, and had 
 a small farm ; so he could send Mar-tin to good schools : 
 Mar-tin was so quick and bright at his books that he took up 
 the study of law when he was four-teen ; and at twen-ty- 
 one he was a law-yer and at work in Kin-der-hook. He 
 was a man who made friends with great ease ; and as he 
 was a good law-yer as well, his state soon saw that he was 
 the man to speak for it at Wash-ing-ton. So in 1821 he 
 was sent to Con-gress ; then in 1828 he was made gov-ern- 
 or of New York state ; and this was a big step toward the 
 pres-i-dent's chair ; he was sec-re-tary of state when Jack-son 
 was pres-i-dent ; and in 1837 he took the oath of of-fice, 
 and be-came pres-i-dent. 
 
 He was in of-fice on-ly one term ; and those four years 
 were hard ones for him. 
 
 Just at this time the men in Can-a-da tried to be free 
 from Eng-land, and have home-rule ; and some of our men 
 took sides with them ; this made Eng-land an-gry of course ; 
 and if Van Bu-ren had not put a stop to such things, we 
 
44 LIVES OF THE PRESIDEKTS. 
 
 should have had war once more ; but he said all who tried 
 to give aid to Can-a-da should be sent to jail ; and so the 
 fear of war was put down. 
 
 At the end of Van Bu-ren7s first term some want-ed 
 him to take the chair a-gain ; but more want-ed Gen-er-al 
 Har-ri-son, who had made a great name in the In-di-an wars. 
 Van Bu-ren was rich, and Har-ri-son was poor ; and this 
 race for the pres-i-dent's chair was called the " Log Cab-in 
 a-gainst the White House." Af-ter Har-ri-son took the chair, 
 Van Bu-ren went back to his home at Kin-der-hook, where 
 he lived in qui-et, until, in 1848, he was once more put up 
 for pres-i-dent ; but JameS K. Polk had more votes than he, 
 and so won the e-lec-tion. 
 
 In 1853 Van Bu-ren and his son went to Eu-rope, where 
 they stayed two years. He spent the rest of his Ufe at his 
 old home, where he died on Ju-ly 24:th, 1863. 
 
/^MARTIN VAN BUREN. 
 
WILLIAM H. HARRISON. 
 
WILLIAM HENEY HAEEISOK 
 
 WIL-LIAM HEN-EY HAE-EI-SON. 
 
 WiL-LiAM Hen-ey Har-ri-son was born in Berke-ly, Yir- 
 gin-i-a, on Feb-ru-a-ry 9tli, 1773; his fath-er, Ben-ja-min 
 Har-ri-son, was not a rich man, but hved at ease on a small 
 farm ; he was a man of much force in his state, and was 
 at one time its gov-ern-or. He was a brave, strong man, 
 and taught his small son to be like him ; now while lit-tle 
 Wil-liam was hard at work at school, he heard much talk 
 of the In-di-an wars ; and his heart was full of long-ing to 
 fight these cru-el foes of the white men. 
 
 So, though he went to Hamp-den Syd-ney Col-lege, he did 
 not stay long, but left to join the ar-my. He was such a 
 brave fight-er that, when he was twen-ty-one, Wash-ing-ton 
 put him in charge of the troops at Fort Wash-ing-ton, just 
 the place where the In-di-ans were strong-est and most 
 cru-el. 
 
 Ma-jor Gen-er-al Wayne was at the head of the ar-my, 
 and so rash and fear-less was he, that his troops called him 
 " Mad An-tho-ny." He knew well how to fight the red men 
 though, and in 1794 beat them in a fierce fight, on the spot 
 where the cit-y of De-troit now stands. So brave was 
 young Har-ri-son at this time, that he was made a cap-tain ; 
 for six years Har-ri-son was in the heat of the In-di-an 
 wars; and learned all the sav-age ways of war; then he 
 went home to rest, but was soon sent to Congress. So well 
 did he do his work here, that In-di-an-a now chose him for 
 gov-ern-or ; and here he was so much liked that he kept his 
 
46 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 seat three terms ; the hard-est task that he had to do while 
 gov-ern-or was to keep peace with the In-di-ans ; and side 
 by side with his name, stands that of a great and good 
 In-di-an chief Te-cum-seh ; for years these two men tried to 
 help the In-di-ans and teach them to live in peace ; but at 
 last the hate of the red men for the whites who were forc- 
 ing them f rOni their lands, end-ed in a great fight at Tip- 
 pe-ca-noe, where the In-di-ans lost the bat-tie. So brave had 
 Har-ri-son been in this fight, that he was made a gen-er-al ; 
 and in the War of 1812 was put at the head of the ar-my. 
 At the close of the war, the brave old In-di-an fight-er went 
 to live on his farm at South Bend, In-di-an-a, in the then 
 state of 0-hi-o ; but he was too great a man to live a qui-et 
 life, and was sent to Con-gress twice and once a-broad in 
 his coun-try's serv-ice. Then in 1836, he ran for Pres-i-dent, 
 but did not get the most votes ; four years la-ter he was 
 put up once more, and he and John Ty-ler won by a big 
 vote. It was in this race for Pres-i-dent, that the song was 
 sung, whose cho-rus you hear to-day : " Tip-pe-ca-noe and 
 Ty-ler, too." 
 
 On the 4th of March, 1841, Wil-liam Hen-ry Har-ri-son, 
 the old In-di-an fight-er, now six-ty-eight years old, came 
 from years of qui-et home life, to take up the cares and 
 wor-ries of a pres-i-dent's life, but the task was too much 
 for him, and a month af-ter-ward, on A-pril 4th, 1841, the 
 brave old man died. 
 
JOHN TYLEE. 47 
 
 JOHN TY-LER. 
 
 As a boy, the life of John Ty-ler was much the same 
 as that of the boys of to-day. He was born on March 29th, 
 1790, in Charles Cit-y, Vir-gin-i-a, at a time when the whole 
 land was at peace. No talk of the red men came to his 
 young ears ; and no fear fell like a dark cloud over the fun 
 and play of his boy-hood. He was the son of a man who 
 had for friends the great men of his day ; — Wash-ing-ton 
 and Ben-ja-min Har-ri-son were warm, close friends of old 
 John Ty-ler ; and he was at one time Gov-ern-or of Vir- 
 gin-i-a. Young John was sent to school when he was a very- 
 small boy ; and, though he was fond of sports and games, 
 he kept hard at work at his books and won a high place at 
 school. He was a mere boy when he could en-ter Wil-liam 
 and Ma-ry Col-lege ; and he left in 1806 at the head of his 
 class. He at once took up law with his fa-ther, and soon 
 showed the good stuff of which he was made. Clear and 
 quick was his mind, swift to think and feel ; and his words 
 came as fast as his thoughts. He rose with great, quick 
 strides towards the first place in the land. In 1825 he was 
 made Gov-ern-or of Vir-gin-i-a ; and in 1827, was sent to Con- 
 gress, where he kept his seat for six years ; these were years 
 of strife as to the slave trade, and there were fierce, hard 
 words and harsh thoughts be-tween the men of the North 
 those of the South. Ty-ler was at home for a few years af- 
 ter he left Con-gress, and took a high place as a law-yer. In 
 1836 he was put up with Har-ri-son in the race for the pres- 
 
48 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 i-dent's chair. But it was not till 1840 that he won this 
 place ; then, as the vice-pres-i-dent had not a great deal to 
 do, Ty-ler went home to Wil-liatns-burg. It was here that 
 the sad news of Har-ri-son's death was brought to him, and 
 he at once went on to Wash-ing-ton. Here he found he had 
 a hard task; for he and his Con-gress did not think the 
 same on the great ques-tions of the day and were ev-er at 
 strife. One of his first acts was to put down a state war in 
 Mis-sou-ri. A Mor-mon, by the name of Smith, and a band 
 of men who thought as he did went down there to live ; folks 
 there did not like this and tried to drive them out of the 
 state, but this was a hard thing to do, for there were a-bout 
 12,000 Mor-mons. At last, Ty-ler sent troops there to put 
 down the strife, and the Mor-mons were sent to Il-li-nois. 
 They were here but a short time when the same old strife 
 a-rose, and then they fled to the lands in the far west — ^where 
 they are to-day, in the state of Utah. War broke out in 
 Tex-as while Ty-ler was in the chair, and af-ter fierce fights 
 be-tween the Tex-ans and Mex-i-cans the Tex-ans won, and 
 were at the head of the state. They asked at once to come 
 in-to the ITn-ion, and in 1845 this great state came in. In the 
 last year of Ty-ler's rule Sam-u-el F. B. Morse found out how 
 to send words in just a flash of time through miles and miles 
 of space ; and you chil-dren know well that the flne wire 
 stretched from one great pole to the next on which the 
 quick news was sent was called the " tel-e-graph." 
 
 At the end of Ty-ler's first term, James Knox Polk had 
 the most votes, and so took the pres-i-dent's chair ; and this 
 news was the first that was sent o-ver the tel-e-graph wires. 
 
JOHN TYLER. 
 
JAMES K.POLK. 
 
JAMES KNOX POLK. 49 
 
 JAMES KNOX POLK. 
 
 As a boy James Knox Polk led a life that would please 
 a good ma-ny of the boys of to-day. He was born in Meck- 
 len-burg County, North Car-o-li-na, on No-vem-ber 3d, 1705 ; 
 but in 1806 his fa-ther went to Duck Farm, Ten-nes-see, and 
 lit-tle James, e-lev-en years old, was of much help in the 
 new home. Where the day's work took the big, strong fa- 
 ther, there went the small son ; if there was a long ride to 
 get food or clothes from some big town, lit-tle James could 
 help care for the hors-es and when his fa-ther and oth-er 
 men, for weeks at a time, were in the great, wild woods, 
 hunt-ing, mak-ing new roads, or helping each oth-er 
 build the log cab-ins, which were the homes of these 
 ear-ly set-tiers, James would be there too, cook-ing meals 
 and keep-ing the camp neat and bright for the men who 
 came back tired and hun-gry at night. 
 
 So years passed by with much work in the o-pen air 
 and ht-tle of stud-y or books ; but when James was four- 
 teen years old it was time that he should earn mon-ey. 
 
 He was not a big, strong boy ; he could not stand rough, 
 hard work on a farm ; he did not love to hunt ; he had no 
 taste for war ; so he was put in a small store, that he might 
 learn to man-age a big store when he grew old. 
 
 Here he first saw some books, and his love for them 
 a- woke ; for weeks and months he worked a-lone with an-y 
 book or pa-per he could find. 
 
 At last his fa-ther took him from the store and sent 
 
50 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 him to school ; he was now eight-een, but he was so quick 
 to learn, so bright and smart, that five years from this time 
 he left the U-ni-ver-si-ty of North Car-o-li-na at the head of 
 his class. 
 
 When he came back to Duck Riv-er, not on-ly was his 
 fa-ther proud of his boy, but all Ten-nes-see knew that he 
 was one of the bright-est young men in the state. 
 
 Now, just at this time, Gen-er-al Jack-son was fight- 
 ing so brave-ly a-gainst the In-di-ans and all the boys of 
 Ten-nes-see were as proud of this great he-ro as the boys of 
 Vir-gin-i-a had been of Wash-ing-ton. In 1819, when young 
 ■ James Polk went to Nash-ville, Ten-nes-see, to take up law, 
 he was near Jack-son's home ; and he and the great Gen- 
 er-al be-came fast friends. It was ow-ing to Jack-son's 
 help that, in 1824, Polk, then a bright young law-yer, took 
 his first pub-lie step and was sent to the state leg-is-la-ture. 
 
 He a-rose so fast in the love and trust of his state that 
 he was sent to Con-gress when on-ly thir-ty years old ; and 
 here he stayed for thir-teen years. 
 
 In 1840 he went back to his home at Grun-dy's Hill in 
 Nash-ville, hav-ing made a great name in Wash-ing-ton ; 
 not once did he lose his hold on the great ques-tions of the 
 day, e-ven while here at home ; and in 1845 he was chos-en 
 pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States. 
 
 While he was in of-fice, once more the U-nit-ed States 
 was at war, and this war is known as the " Mex-i-can War." 
 Its cause was this : — 
 
 Our peo-ple in Mex-i-co said that a big tract of land down 
 there was theirs ; the Mex-i-cans laid claim to it too ; so 
 Gen-er-al Tay-lor went down to see that our rights were 
 looked af-ter. 
 
 In the first fight he won, and lost but nine men ; then 
 
JAMES KNOX POLK. 51 
 
 he laid siege to their great cit-y of Mon-te-rey, and af-ter a 
 hard fight took the town. 
 
 That same year Gen-er-al Scott took the cit-y of Ve-ra 
 Cruz ; on Sep-tem-ber 14th, 1847, the A-mer-i-can troops took 
 the cit-y of Mex-i-co, and the long war was at an end. 
 
 In 1848 came the news of great gold mines in Cal-i-for- 
 ni-a ; and men went in such num-bers to this state that 
 the " Gold Fe-ver of 1849 " is a well known term to-day. 
 
 While Polk was in the chair, three new states came 
 in; and two of them were free states; that is, no slaves 
 could be kept there ; just at this time some men formed a 
 band, and said that no slaves should be kept in an-y new 
 state which the U-nit-ed States should gain. 
 
 In 1849 Polk went home to Nash-ville, Ten-nes-see ; he 
 was on-ly fif-ty-eight years old ; but was so worn out with 
 years of work that he lived but a few months af-ter he 
 got home ; he died on the 15th of June, in the same year. 
 
52 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 ZACH-A-EY TAY-LOR 
 
 Zach-a-ry Tay-lor was born in Vir-gin-i-a, on No-vem- 
 ber 34th, 1784 ; but when he was a small boy his fa-ther 
 went to live in Ken-tuck-y ; and long af-ter the rest of the 
 land was at peace this state was the scene of such fierce 
 fights with the In-di-ans that it was known as " The dark 
 and blood-y ground." It is not strange that this boy, who 
 lived at a time when wo-men as well as men had to know 
 how to load and fire guns, so that they could help to keep 
 the red nien from their homes, should have grown up to be 
 a brave, strong man. 
 
 As a boy he went to good schools, but cared far more 
 for the tales of war which his brave fa-ther told him than 
 he did for his books ; he did love books which told of great 
 fights and brave men, and read all that he could get. "When 
 he was just of age he went to war, in place of a friend, and 
 was so brave and fear-less that he soon took a high place. 
 
 He was in the great fight of Tip-pe-ca-noe ; and all 
 through the "War of 1812 he showed great skill in his fights 
 with the red men ; — well he knew all their tricks and modes 
 of war. He gained great fame in Flor-i-da, when he was 
 sent there to make the Sem-i-nole In-di-ans keep the peace. 
 For years had this tribe of In-di-ans made war on the white 
 men ; their chief, Os-ce-o-la, had, years a-go, gone to one of 
 the forts with his wife, who was a slave girl ; he had been 
 put in chains, and she held at the fort. In his rage, he had 
 sworn to lead his men in war, when he could get to them ; 
 at last his chance had come, and he had fled by night from 
 
ZACHARY TAYLOR. 
 
MILLARD FILLMORE. 
 
ZAGHARY TAYLOR. 63 
 
 the fort. To rouse his tribe and hurl them at the whites, 
 was his first thought ; and long and cru-el were the fights 
 that went on for years. At last Tay-lor was sent to Flor- 
 i-da ; and now a trick was played on this great chief of the 
 In-di-ans ; with a flag of truce, he came to the fort to talk 
 with the gen-er-al ; and by the or-ders of the gen-er-al, he 
 was held there a pris-on-er ; he was sent, at last, to Fort 
 Moul-trie in Charles-ton har-bbr, and there, in the year 1838, 
 he died. With their chief dead, the Sem-i-nole In-di-ans had 
 no heart for war ; and soon the few red men left of this 
 great, fierce tribe were put far a-way from each oth-er, in 
 new states, and there was peace in Flor-i-da. 
 
 Gen-er-al Tay-lor won great fame in the Mex-i-can War ; 
 in 1847 he won the fight of Bu-e-na Vis-ta, which took place 
 on Wash-ing-ton's' birth-day ; and he won too the fights of 
 Pa-lo Al-to and Mon-te-rey. On Sep-tem-ber 34th, 1847, our 
 troops took the cit-y of Mex-i-co, and the war was brought 
 to an end. As Tay-lor went home to Ba-ton Rouge, he met 
 with praise, at each place he passed ; folks came in crowds 
 to see the great he-ro ; cheers filled the air ; fiags were raised 
 and guns were fired ; he was the i-dol of the land. His men 
 too were fond of him, for all through the war he had been 
 kind and good to them, and shared their hard life. He was 
 such a he-ro to the whole land, that it is not strange that 
 he was named for the next pres-i-dent, and got the most 
 votes. He took the chair of state in 1849, but the brave old 
 man came in just at the time when the strife a-bout slaves 
 was at its height ; and the cares of the of-fice were too much 
 for him, as they had been for Har-ri-son. On Ju-ly 4th, 
 1850, there was a great time in Wash-ing-ton, in which he 
 took part ; but his health was too weak to stand this strain ; 
 and in the midst of his work, on Ju-ly 9th, 1850, the brave 
 
64 LIVES OF THE PRESIDEKTS. 
 
 MIL-LARD FILL-MORE. 
 
 In a log ca-bin way out in the western part of New 
 York State, deep in the dense, wild woods, was born, on 
 Jan-u-a-ry 7th, 1800, the boy who was to be the thir-teenth 
 pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States. His fa-ther had gone 
 there from Yer-mont, to get a- way from the In-di-ans, who 
 gave no peace in his old home ; and no house stood near-er 
 than four miles to the lit-tle home he had built in the wild 
 new land ; there was no school ; and if there had been 
 lit-tle Mil-lard had not much time to go ; for he was ver-y 
 young, when he was taught to earn mon-ey and help in the 
 lit-tle home. He learned how to make cloth from the soft 
 white wool ; and was hard at work, in this way, till he was 
 nine-teen years old ; then a love of books came to him ; and 
 a law-yer took note of him and gave him such aid that he 
 soon took a high place in the law-stud-ies. When he was 
 twen-ty-two, he went to Buf-fa-lo, and taught school, to 
 help pay his way, as he went on with the stud-y of law. 
 He was bright and quick, and, in 1823, he be-gan to prac-tise 
 law and soon rose to such a high place in the state bar that 
 his state sent him to Con-gress. Here his work was done 
 so well that he was made vice-pres-i-dent, when Tay-lor 
 took the pres-i-dent's seat ; and on his death be-came pres- 
 i-dent. 
 
 While he was in the chair one of his aids was the great 
 Dan-iel Web-ster, who looked af-ter the laws of all the 
 states. He had been in of -lice but a short time, when a 
 
MILLARD FILLMORE. 65 
 
 band of men tried to get Cu-ba from Spain ; but they were 
 soon put down. He was in of-fice one term, and then went 
 home to Buf-f a-lo, and took up the prac-tice of law a-gain. 
 In 1855 he went to Eu-rope, where he stayed for one year ; 
 he then came home to lead a qui-et life, full of stud-y, till 
 his death on March 8th, 1874. 
 
56 LIVES OF THS PRESIDENTS. 
 
 FEANK-LIN PIEECE. 
 
 A BRAVE sol-dier in the War of the Rev-o-lu-tion was 
 Ben-ja-min Pierce, the fa-ther of the boy who was to be our 
 f our-teenth pres-i-dent ; and it was in the old town of Hills- 
 .bor-ough, New Hamp-shire, that, on No-vem-ber 22d, 1804, 
 Frank-Hn Pierce was born. The fa-ther was a big strong 
 man, fond of sports and fun of all kinds and much liked 
 by all ; he was the chief man in Hills-bor-ough, and was at 
 one time gov-ern-or of his state. In such a home it is not 
 hard to see that the life of lit-tle Frank-lin would be full of 
 work and play as well. He was sent to good schools, and 
 was just six-teen when he went to Bow-do-in Col-lege, He 
 was full of fun, and at once took the lead in the col-lege 
 life ; but he worked hard at his books too ; in 1824 he left 
 col-lege, and took up the stud-y of law, and soon be-came 
 one of the bar. He was now at his old home in Hills-bor- 
 ough, and folks felt that he was a man of brains and great 
 force ; he was sent to Con-gress, and held high of-fice in his 
 state while he was stilla young man ; and in the Mex-i-can 
 "War he showed him-self as brave a man as his f a;-ther had 
 been. At last, in 1853, he was made pres-i-dent. At this 
 time, the strife as to the slave trade was at its height ; 
 some states wished to have slaves, while some held it 
 wrong. At last Con-gress made a law that all new states 
 should do as they pleased. The first " World's Fair " was 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE.. 
 
JAMES BUCHANAN. 
 
FEANKLIN PIEECB. 67 
 
 held in New York, just at this time, in a great hall made of 
 glass, which was known as " The Crys-tal Pal-ace." 
 
 Pierce was in of-fice one term ; at the end of that time 
 he went back home to Con-cord, Mas-sa-chu-setts, where he 
 lived a qui-et life un-til his death, on Oc-to-ber 8th, 1867. 
 
68 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 JAMES BU-CHAN-AK 
 
 A STEONG, brave, young man from Ire-land was the 
 fa-ther of our fif-teenth pres-i-dent. He had come here in 
 1783, and bought a small farm in Penn^syl-va-ni-a ; so well 
 did he do that he soon bought a store as well ; and when, 
 on A-pril 23d, 1791, at Cove Gap, lit-tle James was born, his 
 fa-ther was quite a rich man. He sent his son to the best 
 schools and he was just six-teen years old when lie went to 
 Dick-in-son col-lege. Here he took first place with ease. In 
 1809, when he left col-lege, he be-gan the stud-y of law. In 
 the War of 1813 he served in the ar-my ; and at the close of 
 the war his state chose him to help make her laws. He 
 was a young man when his state sent him to Wash-ing-ton 
 where he held his place in Con-gress for ten years. In 1831 
 he was sent to Eus-sia to look out for our rights there ; and 
 in 1853 he held the same post in Eng-land. You see, he rose 
 fast to the first place in the land, for in 1857 he was made 
 pres-i-dent. "While he was in the chair of state, the Prince 
 of Wales came here for the first time, and this shows that 
 Eng-land felt we were now one of the big coun-tries of the 
 world, and that she must treat us as such. 
 
 It was while Bu-chan-an was pres-i-dent that Cy-rus W. 
 Field laid the first wire un-der the 0-cean, by which words 
 could be sent from this new land to those old lands on the 
 oth-er side. The talk a-bout slav-er-y was so fierce at this 
 time that a fight in which brave lives were lost took place, 
 and the name which shines out bright is that of John 
 
JAMES BUCHANAN. 59 
 
 Brown of Kan-sas. He was a friend of the black men, and 
 took their part. He struck the first blow in their cause at 
 the fort at Har-per's Fer-ry, which he held for two days. 
 He took all the guns that were there, as he wished to arm the 
 black men and then lead them to the South to fight for their 
 friends, held there as slaves. Of course this was a-gainst 
 the law of the land, and troops were sent to seize this brave 
 and good man. His two sons fought with him, and he saw 
 them both shot down, but he did not give up till in the heat 
 of the fight he fell with six wounds. He did not die at this 
 time; af-ter this he was hung as one who had fought 
 a-gainst the law of his land. His last act, as he was on his 
 way to the place where he was to be hung, was to kiss a 
 lit-tle ba-by which a poor slave held up to him as he passed. 
 
 His death was not in vain, for from now on the ques- 
 tion of sla-ver-y was the talk of the whole land, and in 1860 
 South Car-o-li-na took the lead and said that she would not 
 bear the laws of the Un-ion, but would rule her land in her 
 own way. Soon, six more South-ern states said the same ; 
 and these states which cut loose from the North were called 
 the " Con-f ed-er-a-cy ; " at the head as pres-i-dent was Jef-fer- 
 son Da-vis. 
 
 This was the state of things when Bu-chan-an left the 
 chair, and went to his home in Penn-syl-va-ni-a, at a place 
 called Wheat-land. 
 
 In the last year of his life he wrote a book of his life, 
 which is still in print. He died at his home on June 1st, 
 1868. He was the last of the "Peace " pres-i-dents, for it 
 was A-bra-ham Lin-colh who took his place, and in his term 
 the strife as to the slave trade led to our " Civ-il War." 
 
60 
 
 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 A-BEA-HAM LIN-COLIT. 
 
 Thom-as Lin-coln, who was the fa-ther of A-hra-ham 
 Lin-coln, had seen a sad sight when he was but a boy of 
 eight years ; while he and his brothers were hard at work 
 with their fa-ther in the dense, wild woods which grew 
 close to their small home in Ken-tuck-y, an In-di-an chief 
 crept close to thom ; he fired one shot, and the boys saw their 
 big, strong fa-ther fall dead. They were brave boys, and 
 while one ran for help, the oth-ers kept at bay the In-di-ans 
 who came from the woods. A band of men soon came to 
 their aid, and drove the fierce red men back to the woods. 
 It was a rough, hard fife in which Thom-as Lin-coln grew 
 
 up ; and he could not read or 
 write when, at twen-ty years, 
 he took as his wife Miss Nan- 
 cy Hanks ; she was a bright 
 girl and soon taught him at 
 least to write his name. 
 
 It was a poor log-house in 
 Har-din Coun-ty, Ken-tuck-y, 
 to which he took his bride ; 
 and yet in this home so mean 
 and small, was born, on Feb- 
 ru-a-ry 12th, 1809, the boy who 
 was to be pres-i-dent of this 
 great land. Few boys and girls know what it is to be 
 as poor as this lit-tle boy was, or to lead as hard and 
 sad a life. His clothes were thin and poor, his shoes, 
 
 LINCOLN'S EAELY HOME. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN". 61 
 
 when he had an-y, were of t-en full of holes ; he did 
 not al-ways have as much as he would like to eat, and 
 in the long, hard win-ters he was of t-en ver-y cold. It 
 was not an eas-y life, and it was full of hard work, for 
 peo-ple in this rough place could not read and there were no 
 schools ; but when he was still a young boy his folks moved 
 to In-di-an-a, and though there was more work to be done, 
 life was not quite so sad, for he and his sis-ter Nan-cy now 
 had a play-mate, their cous-in, Den-nis Hanks, who was full 
 of life and fun. " Abe," as folks called him, was but eight 
 years old when his par-ents went out into the West to Uve, 
 but he was so strong that he could help chop down the 
 trees of which the new home was made ; then, too, he 
 learned how to shoot the game and wild fowl in the big 
 woods, and so could bring good things in-to the house to eat. 
 But a dark time came in his life soon, for the kind, good 
 moth-er took sick and died. Her death was a great loss to 
 " Abe," and he felt much grief that there was no one to say 
 a pray-er at her grave ; so he wrote to the min-is-ter in the 
 old home in Ken-tuck-y, and asked him if he would not come 
 there and bless his moth-er's grave. This good man came 
 as soon as he could, but it was a long while af-ter her death 
 be-fore " Abe " had his wish. That win-ter was long and 
 hard for the poor lit-tle boy and girl with no moth-er to see 
 that they were warm, or that they had good food to eat ; 
 but in the fall of 1819, the fa-ther brought home a new wife, 
 Mrs. Sal-ly John-son and now at last a ray of bright light 
 came to stay with " Abe " and Nan-cy. The new moth-er 
 was a good, kind wo-man, and was quite rich for those days. 
 She soon had the home bright and neat ; she put good warm 
 clothes on " Abe " and E"an-cy ; saw that they had food to 
 eat and at once sent them to school. 
 
63 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 " Abe " was now e-lev-en years old, tall and big, and of 
 more strength than most boys of his age. His f a-ther hired 
 him out for all sorts of work ; to pitch hay, to chop wood, 
 to help on the farm ; no work was too hard for this big, 
 strong boy ; but, with all this work, he kept at his books 
 too. Late at night, while all the rest slept, he would stud-y 
 his books ; and as books were few he read them ma-ny 
 times o-ver ; one of the books he loved the most was the 
 " Life of Wash-ing-ton." 
 
 He was a young man, for it was in March, 1828, that 
 a chance came to him to see more of life ; he was hired to 
 take a boat filled with skins down the Mis-sis-sip-pi Eiv-er 
 to New Or-le-ans ; he did this work well,, and when he came 
 back was paid a good price for it. He was just of age when 
 his folks went to Il-li-nois to live ; and now he helped build 
 a home, cleared a big field in which it stood, split rails to 
 fence it in, and then went off to make his own way in life. 
 The first thing he did was to help build a flat-boat and 
 then take it down to New Or-le-ans ; when he came back 
 the man who owned the boat gave him a place in his store 
 at New Sa-lem ; and now he had a good chance to get books 
 to read ; and you may be sure he was glad of this. He 
 was soon known in the place as a bright young man, and 
 one who would not lie, or steal, or do an-y mean thing ; he 
 was full of fun and jokes, and the folks in the town were 
 all fond of him ; he was called " Hon-est Abe." When the 
 " Black Hawk War " broke out he went at the head of a 
 small band of men to the seat of war ; he was in no great 
 fight, but learned much of war and how to rule the 
 rough men who were in his care. 
 
 When he came home he was felt to be one of the first 
 men in the town, and in 1834 he took a high place in the 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 63 
 
 state. He now took up the stud-y of law, and was soon in 
 ac-tive prac-tise ; he had a good, kind heart, and did much 
 good to those who were too poor to pay him. In 1846 he 
 was sent to Con-gress ; this time he was there but one year ; 
 then came back to Spring-field, Il-li-nois, and built up a fine 
 law prac-tise. His name was now known through all this 
 great land ; and in the slave strife he was al-ways on the 
 side of the slaves. He spoke so of t-en for the slaves that in 
 1860, the South said if he was put up for pres-i-dent, by the 
 North and West, they would leave the Union. But he was 
 just the man to fill this high office at this time ; and as he 
 had the most votes he took the of-fice of Pres-i-dent in 1861. 
 There is a sto-ry told of these days, which shows that Lin- 
 coln, when a great man, had no shame for the days when 
 he was poor. Old John Hanks, who had helped him build 
 that rail fence so long a-go, came to Il-li-nois with two of 
 those rails ; and on them was a big card which told where 
 they came from, and who split them. Lin-coln was just 
 a-bout to make a speech to a big crowd ; and when he saw 
 these rails he said that he had split them when a boy, but 
 thought he could do bet-ter now. Then shouts and cheers 
 went up from the crowd, you may be sure ; and from that 
 time Lin-coln was known in the race for pres-i-dent as " The 
 Eail Split-ter." 
 
 When he left his home to go to Wash-ing-ton, a great 
 crowd came to see him off, but he was so sad he could not 
 say much to them. There were plots to kill him at this 
 time, and he knew it ; but he gave no thought to his own 
 life, and went straight to his post of du-ty as Pres-i-dent. 
 It was with a sad heart that he saw this great land torn 
 with war ; and he would have been glad to keep peace, but 
 this he .could not do. When the South fired at the flag 
 
64 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 of the Un-ion at Fort Sum-ter, a cry went up through the 
 whole land. The South fought for what it called " States 
 Eights;" the right of each state to rule in its own way; 
 but this Lin-coln would not have. He cared more for the 
 Un-ion than he did for the slaves ; for, though he thought 
 all men should be free, he said, if he could save the Un-ion, 
 he did not care if not one slave. was made free ; he had no 
 wish to keep the South from its rights ; but, at last, he felt 
 it wise to send out a bill, which said that all the slaves 
 should be free, and have the same rights as white men. 
 This land was in no state for war ; much had to be done ; 
 clothes and food got for the troops ; and arms as well had 
 to be made or bought at once. The first great fight was at 
 Bull Run in Yir-gin-i-a ; and the loss of life on both sides 
 was great ; the North lost from the first ; men who had 
 nev-er been in a fight be-fore went mad with fear and ran 
 for their lives. But at the fight at Get-tys-burg the men of 
 the North were brave and fought with such skill that the 
 great fight was won by the North. 
 
 Grant was put at the head of the troOps who went down 
 to free Mis-sis-sip-pi ; and it was not long be-fore he placed 
 the Stars and Stripes over this fair state. The South made 
 a brave fight, for what it thought was right and just ; but 
 as the war went on, the troops of the South were in a bad 
 state; they could get no food, no clothes, and so ma-ny 
 men had been shot that in the last years of the war young 
 boys had to help fill up the ranks. Now came Sher-man's 
 march to the sea, and he took Sa-van-nah and all its guns 
 and stores. This was a great blow, and now one by one 
 the sea-ports of the South fell in-to the hands of the North. 
 At last Gen-er-al Lee, a great and good man of the South, 
 sent word to Grant that he would come to terms and make 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLIT. 65 
 
 peace. Grant was kind at this hard time ; he let Lee keep 
 his sword, and said that the men might keep all their 
 hors-es. It was ill A-pril, 1865, that peace came to our 
 great land ; and the North went mad with joys ; bells 
 pealed, and fires blazed in the streets ; flags were raised 
 and guns were fired ; but in the South there was no joy ; 
 on-ly great grief. 
 
 From the grief of the South a great crime sprang ; on 
 the night of A-pril 14th, as Lin-coln sat in a box at the 
 the-a-tre watch-ing a play he was shot by a man from the 
 South named Wilkes Booth. When he had shot Lin-coln, 
 this man sprang on the stage and tried to run from the ^ 
 place; he fell and broke his leg; but in this state he got 
 to the door, where he jumped on his horse and fled for his 
 life. He was found at last in a barn, and made such a 
 brave fight for his life that the barn had to be set on fire 
 be-fore he could be caught ; e-ven then he would not come 
 out and give him-self up ; but fought till he was shot down 
 where he stood. 
 
 Lin-coln had been shot in the back of his head, and 
 could not move or speak ; — men took him with care to a 
 house near by, but there was no help for him ; and in the 
 ear-ly morn of the next day a great life came to a sad end. 
 The whole land, the South as well as the North, wept at his 
 death ; for no sane man felt that Booth's deed was wise or 
 just ; and to this day the name of A-bra-ham Lin-coln, the 
 " Sav-iour of his Coun-try," is held dear by North and 
 South. 
 
 S 
 
LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 AN-DEEW JOHN-SOK 
 
 An-deew John-son's life as a boy was quite as hard as 
 that of ht-tle " Abe " Lin-coln. He was born in Ea-leigh, 
 North Car-o-U-na, on De-cem-ber 39th, 1808, in a small log 
 cab-in ; and near his home were the big farms of the rich 
 men of the South, on which lived in more ease than he the 
 slaves, who looked down on his fa-ther and mo-ther as 
 " poor white trash." 
 
 His fa-ther died when An-drew was but four years old ; 
 he must have been a brave man, for he lost his life try-ing 
 to save a man from drown-ing. Lit-tle An-drew was too 
 poor to go to school ; he had to try and earn mon-ey, when 
 he was but ten years old ; so he was sent to a tail-or to learn 
 to make clothes ; here, for five years he worked hard ; and 
 then he heard a man read ; and for the first time it came 
 to his mind that he could learn to do this ; he got the men 
 in the shop to teach him his " A, B, C ; " and he was so quick 
 to learn that soon he could read a lit-tle ; but it was not till 
 he was wed to a bright yo' pag girl that he learned a great 
 deal of books ; this was ^ Aen he was eight-een, and he had 
 gone to Green-ville, Ten-nes-see, to set up in life for him- 
 self. These young folks were both poor, but both bright ; 
 and the wife was a great help to John-son all through his 
 life. He rose fast in his new home ; we see him, from the 
 first, take the part of the poor ; and he was soon put in high 
 of -fice in the town ; it was not long ere he rose to a high 
 place in the state, and, in 1843, we see the poor lit-tle tail-or 
 
ANDREW JOHNSON. 
 
AISTDEEW JOHNSOlSr. 67 
 
 boy of 1826 in tlie halls of Con-gress, stand-ing up for the 
 rights of the class in which he was born. In 1846 he took 
 the seat of John Quin-cy Ad-ams, who was too sick to hold 
 it ; does it not seem strange that two men who had lived as 
 boys so un-like should rise to just the same place ? For ten 
 years he was in Wash-ing-ton, where he helped make the 
 laws of the land ; then in 1853, he was made gov-ern-or of 
 Ten-nes-see. When the Civ-il War broke out, he took sides 
 with the North, though he was born in the South and lived 
 there ; and when Lin-coln was made pres-i-dent he took the 
 next place as vice-pres-i-dent. 
 
 On Lin-coln's death, he took the pres-i-dent's chair. The 
 whole land was now up-set ; in the South the white men 
 had no work ; and the slaves did not know how to care for 
 them-selves. In the North there was strife as to the terms 
 on which the South should come back in-totheUn-ion; and 
 on ma-ny things John-son and his Con-gress did not think 
 the same ; so there was strife be-tween them. It came to 
 its height in 1868, when the Sen-ate tried John-son for 
 " high crimes and mis-de-mean-ors ; " this means that Con- 
 gress thought the pres-i-dent did not act for the good of the 
 land, and should be put out of of -flee ; but the men who 
 tried him did not all think the same ; and most of them 
 said he should keep his place. 
 
 So he was in the chair for four years, and then went 
 home to E-liz-a-beth-town, Ten-nes-see, where he lived till 
 his death on Ju-ly 29th, 1875. 
 
68 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 U-LYS-SES SIMP-SON GRANT. 
 
 The boy who was to be first a great gen-er-al in the 
 ar-my, and then Pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States, was born 
 at Point Pleas-ant, 0-hi-o, A-pril 27th, 1822. As a boy he 
 did not care for books, but was fond of sports and games, 
 and had a great love for horses ; he was but eight years 
 old when he put a young colt to a sled, and hauled sticks 
 and logs from the woods to his home; and he was but 
 twelve when he made a trade of a horse he had for a young 
 colt which had not been used much; on his way home a 
 dog sprang at the colt, which, at once, mad with fear, tried 
 to run a- way ; the boy held fast to his reins, and stopped 
 the colt just on the edge of a great cliff ; but it was in such 
 fear that it would not move, and the boy for a time knew 
 not what to do. At last he took his hand-ker-chief , tied it 
 o-ver the colt's eyes, and so drove him home. Folks near 
 the Grant home said , there was no horse which young 
 U-lys-ses could not ride ; he was a boy who had a firm will 
 and strong nerves ; and was at the head in all sports or 
 games ; for young boys soon learn which one of them must 
 take the lead. 
 
 He did not stand so high in school, but did his tasks well ; 
 and in 1839 he went to "West Point. Here he soon had 
 ma-ny friends ; and they gave him a name which clung to 
 him for life ; he was called " Uncle Sam," from the U. S. in 
 his first two names. At West Point, he read a great deal 
 of war, and the men who had done brave deeds for their 
 
ULYSSES S. GRANT. 
 
' ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 69 
 
 coTin-try ; and when he left there he was, at heart, as well 
 as in name, a sol-dier of his coun-try. He at once took his 
 place with the troops, who were at war with the In-di-ans 
 in the "West ; but his first big fight was at Pa-lo Al-to in 
 1846. At the close of this war Grant, who had shown 
 much skill, and knew no fear, was sent to the West once 
 more to force the In-di-ans to keep peace. 
 
 He was in Cal-i-for-ni-a while the gold craze was at its 
 height, to try and make the rough men who came in search 
 of gold keep the laws of the land. Then, from 1854, he had 
 a few years of peace, and start-ed to tan hides and skins, in 
 Ga-le-na, Il-li-nois ; but his life was ev-er at his coun-try's 
 call ; and he was one of the first men to take up arms in 
 the Civil War. He was made a gen-er-al soon af-ter the 
 war broke out ; and one of his first acts was to block all 
 the streams and roads near his post at Cai-ro, on the 0-hi-o 
 River, so that the South could get no food or arms. Grant 
 was known as a brave fight-er, and of t-en was in the midst 
 of the fight at the head of his men. At a great loss of life 
 to his troops, he took two strong forts from the South, 
 Forts Hen-ry and Don-el-son; and then came that great 
 fight at Shi-loh ; where the troops of the South were cut 
 down, and the North won the day ; Grant was now put 
 next to the head of the whole ar-my ; and at once tried to 
 take the cit-y of Vicks-burg. The siege of this cit-y was 
 hard for those in its walls, and for the troops in front of it ; 
 for Grant and his men could get no food from the North, 
 and the cit-y was quite cut off from help. The cit-y made 
 a brave stand for two long months; but had to give in 
 at last, and at the end of that time Grant and his men 
 marched in-to the cit-y ; now this great gen-er-al showed 
 what a kind heart he had, for he gave food and clothes to 
 
70 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 the poor men who had fought so long and so well, to save 
 their town ; and he tried hard, at this time, to think of 
 some way to bring the war to a close. Grant was not a 
 hard man, but he was a just one ; and in his camps, the 
 men must live the right sort of lives ; he would not let his 
 men steal food from the farms a-bout them, or rob the poor 
 folks in their homes. He was a plain man, and his dress 
 showed his plain tastes; once, when he had his troops 
 march past him, that he might see how they looked, he 
 wore such a plain garb that his cap-tains were dressed 
 bet-ter than he. He wore no sword, sash, nor belt ; just a 
 plain, dark suit, with a soft felt hat on his head, and a pair 
 of kid gloves on his hands ; he was a great smoker, and, it 
 is said, his big plans were all made when his ci-gar was in 
 his mouth. In 1863, Grant won a great fight at Chat-ta- 
 noo-ga ; and in the fierce fight in the Wil-der-ness, he and 
 Gen-er-al Lee met for the first time. 
 
 Grant's next great work was to seize Pe-ters-burg ; and 
 so he laid siege to the town ; he dug a huge mine in front 
 of the doomed cit-y, and filled it full of pow-der that would 
 go off when fired with a match ; when this great charge 
 went off, the fort was blown to small bits, and heaps 
 of dead and dy-ing men lay in the midst of the ru-in ; 
 but the brave men of the South still held the fort, and 
 drove back the troops from the North as they rushed 
 up ; and so well did they fight that Grant and his men 
 had to draw back, and leave Pe-ters-burg a-lone for some 
 time. 
 
 The next time he tried to take the town though, Gen- 
 er-al Lee, who was in charge, was forced to yield ; and soon 
 the red, white and blue waved o-ver the South-ern cit-y. 
 Soon af-ter this. Grant took from Lee all the troops in his 
 
ULYSSES SIMPSON GEANT. 71 
 
 charge ; and it was now plain to see that the war must 
 soon end. 
 
 You read in the hf e of Lin-coln, of the terms of peace 
 which Grant gave to the great chief of the South ; and it 
 seems that these two men, Grant and Lee, had no hard 
 thoughts for each other ; for when peace was made, they 
 shook hands, and part-ed friends. Each had done his best 
 in the cause he thought right. Grant's trip to the North 
 when the war was at an end was a grand one ; crowds 
 rushed to see the man who had saved the Union, and cheers 
 and shouts rang to the skies. He was, of course, named for 
 pres-i-dent and a great vote put him in of-fice. 
 
 He was in the pres-ident's seat for two terms ; and was 
 the on-ly man since Wash-ing-ton, who was thought of for 
 a third term ; but this the whole land said no to ; as no man 
 should be pres-i-dent longer than Wash-ing-ton had been. 
 In Grant's last term, a big fair was held in Phil-a-del-phi-a, 
 called the " Cen-ten-ni-al ; " to keep in mind this was the great 
 day on which this land was made free. At the end of 
 Grant's two terms, he took a tour of the world ; and all 
 lands made much of the sol-dier pres-i-dent ; rich gifts were 
 placed in his hands ; and at the courts of the old world, 
 kings and queens were glad to have this plain qui-et man 
 as a guest. 
 
 His last home was in New York ; and here, in 1884, he 
 fell sick ; he lost much mon-ey at this time, and was, in 
 truth, a poor man. But he was, to the last, a brave man ; 
 and in the midst of much pain, he wrote the book of his life, 
 that when he was dead his wife should have mon-ey from 
 its sale. 
 
 He died after eight long months of great pain, at Mt. 
 Mc-Greg-or, near Sar-a-to-ga ; on July 23d, 1885, his bod-y lay 
 
73 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 in state in New York for some days, and crowds from far 
 and near came to view this great man for the last time. 
 
 He was laid to rest Au-gust 8th, 1885, at Eiv-er-side Park, 
 New York Cit-y ; and the white mar-ble tomb that marks 
 this spot is a gift to the great dead, from the land he served 
 so well. 
 
EUTHEEFORD B. HAYES. IS 
 
 EUTH-ER-FOED B. HAYES. 
 
 EuTH-ER-FORD B. Hayes was born in Del-a-ware, 0-hi-o, 
 Oc-to-ber 4th, 1823 ; such a strong, ro-sy ht-tle boy was he, 
 that he had the pet name of " Eud-dy ; " his fa-ther had a 
 big farm and a store as well, so he was quite rich, and lit- 
 tle Eud-dy grew up in a bright and hap-py home. He came 
 of a race of brave men, who had fought and died for this 
 fair land in the wars of the Eev-o-lu-tion and of 1812 ; and 
 he grew up as brave as they. He and his lit-tle sis-ter Fan- 
 ny went when young to a small school near their home ; and 
 the good, wise moth-er helped them with their books at home ; 
 Euth-er-f ord worked hard at school, and went when quite 
 young to the high school, where he soon stood at the head 
 of his class. He was six-teen when he went to Ken-yon Col- 
 lege, Ohio. Now, though he was so good at his books, he 
 loved sport and fun as well ; and he was so strong, that he 
 could walk miles on the cold-est of days, and yet get no hurt. 
 Once he walked all the way from col-lege to his home and 
 back, when the snow lay deep on the ground, and this was 
 for-ty miles ; he could swim and skate, and knew how to 
 fish and hunt ; the boys at col-lege all liked him ; he had 
 hosts of friends, and the strong, brave will that kept him at 
 the head in games and sports put him first in his class too. 
 He left col-lege in 1842, and took up the stud-y of law at 
 Har-vard Col-lege ; in 1846, he was made one of the bar, and 
 took up prac-tise of law in Cin-cin-nat-i. "When the Civ-il 
 War broke out, he, as cap-tain of a band of men from his 
 home, did brave, good Work. Once he was shot and fell to 
 
74 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 the ground ; but he did not give up ; he told his men what 
 to do as he lay there in great pain, and kept up till some one 
 came to take his place as lead-er. At the end of the war, 
 he was a gen-er-al ; and was much loved by his men. He 
 was sent to Con-gress by his state ; and then made its gov- 
 ern-or for three terms. In 1876, he was made pres-i-dent ; 
 though some thought by a fraud in the count ; and the 
 Dem-o-crats said that their man, Sam-u-el J. Til-den, 
 should have been pres-i-dent. While Hayes was at the White 
 House, there was a great la-bor strike, from the East to the 
 West, on all the rail-roads. The heads of the roads said that 
 they would not pay the men, in their hire, as much as they 
 had done ; and so, all the men left their work and no trains 
 could run, for the men came in great mobs to stop them ; 
 at last, they rose in arms, and then the troops were sent out 
 to force them to keep the peace ; nine men were killed, and 
 some of the rest were bad-ly hurt. But the men did not 
 give up for a long time ; they held Pitts-burg for two days, 
 and burned cars and. the grain kept in them. 
 
 Of course, in the end, the law had to be o-beyed and the 
 mobs were made to come to terms, and lay down their 
 arms. 
 
 There was a war with the In-di-ans while Hayes was 
 in the chair ; but this was put down by Gen-er-al How-ard ; 
 and after some fierce fights, the chiefs were caught and 
 bound to keep the peace. There was a change made in the 
 way of life at the White House while Hayes was there, for 
 no wine was ever put on the ta-ble for guests or for the 
 pres-i-dent and his wife ; this was the first time, and so far, 
 the on-ly time, that wine has not had its place at least at the 
 state meals at the White House. Hayes was in Wash-ing- 
 ton for one term and then went to his home in Mas-sil-lon, 
 0-hi-o. He died on Jan-u-a-ry 17th, 1893. 
 
RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 
 
JAMES A. GARFIELD. 
 
JAMES ABEAM GAEFIELD. 75 
 
 JAMES A-BRAM GAR-FIELD. 
 
 In rough log cab-ins, out in the midst of wild woods, 
 we have read that six of our pres-i-dents were born ; the 
 sev-enth, James A-bram Gar-field, was born in Or-ange, 
 0-hi-o, on No-vem-ber 19th, 1831. 
 
 His fa-ther had built, with his own hands, their small, 
 rude home ; and it stood deep in the wild wood, whose trees 
 would, at times, catch fire from the sparks thrown from 
 the steam en-gines some miles off. Near the Gar-field home 
 was their field of grain ; one day this caught fire, and in 
 trying to save his wheat, the fa-ther of lit-tle James lost his 
 life. It was a hard life to which he left his young wife 
 and the four lit-tle ones ; but she was a brave good wo-man ; 
 she had to work hard of course, and so did . the boys ; 
 but the moth-er taught them from books as well ; and lit-tle 
 James was but four years old when he went to his first 
 school. He was a tough, strong boy, and soon did a large 
 part of the farm work ; in the long sum-mers he had the 
 most work to do, and then in the win-ters he could go to 
 school ; he was a brave boy, for the school was miles from 
 home, and his road lay through the deep woods, in which 
 wild beasts roamed at will. But he went his way, and if 
 he felt fear, did not show it ; he had a great love for books, 
 and late at night, with the big wood-fire for his light, he 
 would read o-ver and o-ver his few books. His, moth-er had 
 taught him to love the Bi-ble, and this Good Book he knew 
 well. But, at last, the time came when he was so old that 
 
Ye LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 he could leave home, and so help the moth-er more than he 
 had done. The first thing he did was to drive mules on the 
 tow-path of the 0-hi-o Ca-nal; here he earned flO.OO a 
 month, hut the men he met were coarse and rough, and 
 the life rude and vile ; so, with a sad heart, the young boy, 
 fresh from his^ood home in the qui-et woods, took what 
 he had made here, and went back to the place he loved. He 
 was sick for a long while now ; and as he lay on his bed, 
 he made up his mind that he would go to col-lege, and lead 
 a good, use-f ul life out in the big world ; that he would use 
 his brains more than his hands. With this hope in front 
 of him, he made mon-ey in the sum-mer to pay his way at 
 school in win-ter ; and soon knew all that they could teach 
 and went to Hi-ram Col-lege ; here at first he did all sorts of 
 work to pay his way ; rang the bells, swept the floors, and 
 built the flres ; but he was soon paid to teach in the col- 
 lege, for he was too bright and quick to do such hard work 
 long. In 1854, he went to Wil-liams Col-lege, and left at 
 the head of his class in 1856. 
 
 From now on he rose fast ; he taught school when he 
 left col-lege ; his boys loved the big strong man and said 
 so much in his praise, that men learned to love him too ; 
 and in 1859 he was made one of the 0-hi-o Sen-ate, and soon 
 af-ter sent to Con-gress. Then came the Civ-il War, in 
 which he fought brave-ly ; he won much fame in some of 
 the great bat-ties, and was made a gen-er-al. He was a warm, 
 close friend of Lin-coln ; and on the day of Liin-coln's death, 
 it was Gar-field who spoke such calm, good words to a mob 
 of men on Wall Street, New York, that he kept them from 
 rash acts at this sad time. At the close of the war, Gar- 
 field was in Eu-rope for a short time ; and when he came 
 home, he was sent to Con-gress, where he kept his seat for 
 
JAMES ABRAM GAEFIELD. W 
 
 a long time. In 1880 he was named for pres-i-dent, and took 
 his seat in 1881. But there was a great grief in store for 
 this land, once more. On July 2d, 1881, just four months 
 from the time he took his seat, Gar -field was shot by Charles 
 Gui-teau, as he, with James G. Blaine, was on his way to 
 take a train north from Wash-ing-ton. They bore him back 
 to the "White House, and the man who had done this foul 
 act was seized. The whole land prayed for Gar-field's life, 
 but he grew worse fast ; and it was thought best at last to 
 take him to Long Branch, where it was cool-er than in 
 "Wash-ing-ton. But the long, hot months dragged on ; and 
 the sick man did not grow well in the cool salt air, as it had 
 been hoped ; in spite of all care, the pres-i-dent failed day 
 by day ; and on Sep-tem-ber 19th, 1881, the whole world 
 heard with sorrow of this good man's death. The great 
 men of the day wept side by side, as Gar-field lay in state 
 in Wash-ing-ton ; and men of note, in all walks of life, felt 
 his death as a great grief. He now lies at rest in Cleve- 
 land, 0-hi-o. Gui-teau was hanged for the crime he had 
 done ; and it is but just to say, that some thought he was 
 not in his right mind when he shot Gar-field. 
 
18 LIVES OF T^E PEESIDENTS. 
 
 CHES-TER AL-AN AE-THUR 
 
 Ches-ter Al-an Ar-thur was born in Eair-field, Yer- 
 mont, on Oc-to-ber 5th, 1830, and his f ath-er had charge of 
 the church in that place and was one of the first men to 
 speak for the poor slaves. Now, in those days, those good 
 men did not live as well as they do now ; for folks were poor 
 in the small towns ; so this small boy was al-so born in a 
 log cab-in ; but he was sent to good schools, and was quite 
 young when he knew so much that he could go to Un-ion 
 Col-lege. All the time he was here he paid his own way, 
 and when he left Ool-lege he taught school, so that he could 
 lay by means to go to New York and stud-y law. He was 
 soon in law prac-tise, and he and an old school-mate made 
 the name of their firm well known. Ar-thur took the part 
 of the black race, just as his f a-ther had done, and in 1856, 
 he won a suit which let the ne-groes ride in horse-cars with the 
 whites. A slave-girl had been put off a car and Ar-thur took 
 up her case and won it. For some years he held high of-fice 
 in the state of New York and was a gen-er-al in the Civ-il 
 War ; he was not in the fights, but saw that the troops had 
 clothes and food ; he did this hard task so well that, when 
 the war was at an end, the pres-i-dent gave him the best placo 
 in New York State ; he was made chief of the great port of 
 New York and held this post for two terms. 
 
 In 1880 he was made vice-pres-i-dent with Gar-field as 
 pres-i-dent ; and, of course, took the chair when Gar-field 
 died. He held this place for one term and then went back 
 
CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 
 
CHESTEE ALAN" AETHUR. 79 
 
 to his home in New York Cit-y, and took up his law work. 
 There was a spht in his par-ty at the end of his term ; some 
 men wished Ar-thur to run once more for pres-i-dent, but 
 more wished James G. Blaine of Maine ; so, of course, 
 Blaine was named. The Dem-o-crats named Gro-ver Cleve- 
 land ; and as all the men on that side wished this one man 
 to win, he had the most votes ; and for the first time in a 
 long while, the Dem-o-crats won in the race for pres-i-dent. 
 Two years from the time that Ar-thur came home, and 
 right in the midst of his law work, he died in New York 
 Cit-y ; this was on No-vem-ber 18th, 1886 ; and he was laid 
 to rest in Al-ba-ny. 
 
80 LIVES OP THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 STE-PHEN GRO-YER CLEVE-LAND. 
 
 The race of brave, strong men from whom Ste-phen 
 Gro-ver Cleve-land sprang made their first homes here, in 
 Mas-sa-chu-setts, as far back as 1635. His fa-ther had 
 charge of a small church in Cald-well, New Jer-sey, and 
 here, in a neat white frame house, which you may see for 
 your-selves to-day, was born, on March 18th, 1837, the boy 
 who was to rise, step by step, to the pres-i-dent's seat. 
 
 He was three years old when they moved to Fay-ette- 
 ville. New York, and here he first went to school and lived 
 till he was twelve years old. He showed a strong will, and 
 a great love for books, as a small boy ; he would have his 
 own way, if he could get it ; and this was why he was sent 
 to a high school, when he was not so old by some years, as 
 the rest of the boys there ; he gave his fa-ther no rest till 
 he sent him ; and once there he made up his mind to lead his 
 class. 
 
 He was just twelve when his strong will sent him to 
 work in a store near his home, so that he could help care 
 for the big f am-i-ly in the small home. The man who hired 
 him, soon saw that, if he was young, he knew how to work 
 well, and that he could trust him ; for two years he worked 
 in the store and then went back to his books. 
 
 But, just at this time, his fa-ther died ; and he then had 
 to find a way to care for those in great need at home. With 
 the same pluck that he had shown in the past, he now went 
 to work in a " Home for the Blind," in New York. In this 
 big cit-y, the bright boy saw and heard much which gave 
 
STIIPHEN GROVER CLEVELAND. 81 
 
 him new thoughts, and put in his heart the wish to make, 
 his life a great one. At the end of two years in the " Home," 
 he made up his mind to learn law ; and he asked a man 
 whom he knew to lend him twen-ty-five dol-lars to start him; 
 The fact that this man did so shows that he had trust in 
 young Gro-ver Cleve-land ; he could now start his work, and, 
 went to Buf-f a lo to do so. Here he lived for eight years ; at 
 first he helped his un-cle, in the care of a big farm, and the 
 mon-ey he so made was sent to his moth-er. Soon he had 
 the chance to stud-y law ; the place where he went was two 
 miles from his un-cle's home, but back and forth, rain or 
 shine, he walked each day. There is told a tale that shows 
 how he loved the books of law ; for, the first day he went to 
 this place, a book was put in his hands to read ; he kept at 
 it for hours, till dark came ; then he found the rest of the 
 men had gone home ; all the doors were locked ; and he 
 must stay there all night. 
 
 Such hard work soon made him a man who well knew 
 the law ; and folks gave him big cases that brought him 
 much fame. He did not go to the war, when it broke out, 
 for he felt that he could not leave his folks at home with no 
 one to care for them. 
 
 He rose fast in his law work; and more than one great 
 case did he win ; he cared far more to take the part of the 
 poor than of the rich ; and at no time in his life did he look 
 for high place or fame ; it came to him though, for he was 
 just the man to fill a high post well. His name was soon 
 known in his state and at Wash-ing-ton ; for three years he 
 was Sher-iff of E-rie Coun-ty and then he took up his law 
 prac-tise once more ; but soon he was put at the head of his 
 cit-y as its May-or ; and then was made the G-ov-ern-or of the 
 great state of New York. Here he did good work ; he put 
 
82 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 down those who had tak-en bribes, and had not been good, 
 true men, and he tried to see that the laws were well kept ; 
 men saw that he was the right man to fill this high place, 
 for he had no fear of what might he thought of him ; he 
 just did as he felt right; and so, while he was still .gov-ern- 
 or, he was named for pres-i-dent by a great vote, and was 
 e-lect-ed. When he took the oath of of-fice in Wash-ing-ton, 
 he did not kiss the big Bi-ble which oth-er pres-i-dents had 
 kissed, but a lit-tle old book, mudh worn with use, which 
 his moth-er had giv-en to him when he first left home. He 
 was in the chair four years and while here, he took for his 
 wife Miss Fran-ces Fol-som ; he was the first pres-i-dent to 
 wed in the White House. Cleve-land was pres-i-dent for 
 four years ; at the end of that time, the Re-pub-li-cans placed 
 Ben-ja-min Har-ri-son in the pres-i-dent's chair. 
 
 But, at the end of one term, once more the Dem-o-crats 
 won the day ; and a-gain, in 1893, we see Gro-ver Cleve-land 
 pres-i-dent. 
 
 In. May of 1894, the World's Fair was o-pened ; and few 
 boys and girls are too young to know some-thing of the 
 beau-ty of the Great White City built on the shores of Lake 
 Mich-i-gan in Chi-ca-go. In the last years of Cleve-land's 
 term, there was much talk of the state of things in Cu-ba. 
 The men there wished to be free from Spain, who had ruled 
 them, with a hard hand, for hun-dreds of years. 
 
 Spain sent down troops of sol-diers ; and harsh laws 
 were made to force the Cu-bans to keep the peace. But 
 Cu-ba would not give up ; and the U-ni-ted States be-gan to 
 feel pit-y for this brave lit-tle is-land, try-ing to get free. 
 
 In the midst of the strife, Cleve-land's term of of-fice 
 caine to' an end, and he came to New York to live and take 
 up law a gain. He now has his home in Prince-ton, New 
 Jer-sey, and has a large law prac-tise. 
 
GROVER CLEVELAND. 
 
BENJAMIN HARRISON. 
 
BENJAMIN HAREISON. 83 
 
 BEN-JA-MIN HAR-RI-SON. 
 
 In the first part of this book, you heard of a brave In- 
 di-an fight-er, whose name was Wil-Uam Hen-ry Har-ri-son ; 
 and you saw this brave man mount step by step to the 
 pres-i-dent's chair. It is his grand-son, Ben-ja-min Har-ri- 
 son, whom we now see pres-i-dent of the U-ni-ted States. 
 He was born in his grand-f a-ther's home at North-Bend, 
 In-di-an-a, on Au-gust 20th, 1833. There were no good schools 
 near his home ; so in a small log house, in his grand- 
 fa-ther's grounds, he first went to school ; he and a few 
 oth-er boys and girls were taught here by those whom the 
 Har-ri-sons hired. In this school the seats were of planks, 
 laid on sticks that were stuck in holes in the floor ; they 
 had no backs ; and were so high that the small boys and 
 girls could not touch their feet to the floor. On-ly in the 
 win-ter did this small boy go to school ; in the sum-mer he 
 had work to do on the big farm ; he did his work well ; but 
 he also learned to shoot, to fish, to swim, and to ride. 
 
 He was much liked by all the boys, for he was full of 
 sports and jokes. In 1820 he went to Mi-a-mi Col-lege, and 
 left in 1822, to stud-y law. In one of his first cases, the 
 light was so dim, that he could not see the notes he had 
 made with such care. "What should he do ? There was but 
 one thing he could do : fling to one side the notes and 
 plead his case without an-y. This was a hard thing to do ; 
 but he did it so well, that he won his case ; and the great 
 men of the day gave him much praise for his speech. 
 
U LIVES OP* THE tHESlDENTS. 
 
 When the Civ-il War broke out he raised a troop of men, 
 from his own state, and was made the col-o-nel of this band, 
 which was called the '* 70th In-di-an-a." 
 
 He served for two years, and won fame in some of the 
 great bat-ties of the war ; so brave was he at Re-sa-ca, that 
 he was made a Brig-a-dier Gen-er-al. Through the long 
 years of war, he was kind and good to the men in his care ; 
 they loved him well, and gave him the name of " Little 
 Ben." 
 
 Not till the war was at an end, did he leave the field ; 
 then with much fame, he went back home, and took up his 
 work at law. He took a high place in his own state and 
 made some great speech-es. 
 
 It was now the year 1889 ; just one hun-dred years had 
 passed since Wash-ing-ton, our first pres-i-dent, took his 
 place as Pres-i-dent of the U-nit-ed States ; and the whole 
 land thought it right to cel-e-brate the date. So in New 
 York Cit-y, on A-pril 29th and 30th, was held the " Wash- 
 ing-ton Cen-ten-ni-al." The cit-y was hung from end to end, 
 with red, white and blue ; the grand, good face of Wash- 
 ing-ton, framed in the flag of the land, or wreathed in green, 
 looked down on the gay scene. Rank by rank, the troops 
 filed by a-midst the shouts and cheers of the dense crowds 
 that filled the streets, and looked from the win-dows of 
 stores and hous-es. Rich and poor, great and small, kept 
 this great day ; the pres-i-dent and oth-er great men from 
 Wash-ing-ton were brought to the foot of Wall Street, on a 
 barge hung with flags ; here all the ships of war were drawn 
 up on each side ; and as the par-ty went to the spot where 
 Wash-ing-ton took his oath of of-fice, young girls, clad in 
 white, cast flow-ers be-fore them. As the troops filed past 
 the pres-i-dent, one saw, not just those from the North ; but 
 
BENJAMm HAEEISON. 85 
 
 up from the South came hosts of men, bearing the flags of 
 their states ; all glad to share in this great day of the na-tion ; 
 and there were men from across the seas too ; the Ger-mans 
 and the French marched side by side with the A-mer-i-cans. 
 By night, fire- works and bon-fires filled the streets with 
 light, and blazed in beau-ty ; no such great time had ever 
 been known in this land ; and this was as it should be ; for 
 it was all done for the great, good man, who had led our 
 troops so well in our first war, that he had made us free ; 
 and had then, by a wise and just rule, helped us to be the 
 great, strong land that we are to-day. 
 
 While Har-ri-son was inof-fice, work wasbe-gun for the 
 " World's Fair," which was held in Chi-ca-go, in 1892, just 
 one hun-dred years since Co-lum-bus first saw A-mer-i-ca. 
 Har-ri-son went to Chi-ca-go and o-pened the fair with a 
 speech on Oc-to-ber 14th, 1892 ; but folks could not go there 
 till the next year. In 1893, Har-ri-son went home to In-di- 
 an-a, and took up his law work, once more ; he is still a-live, 
 is well known as a good law-yer, and has many warm 
 friends a-mong the great men of our day. 
 
 We have seen that Gro-ver Cleve-land now be-came 
 pres-i-dent ; at the end of his four years, the Epe-pub-li-cans 
 put Wil-ham Mc-Kin-ley in of-fice. 
 
86 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 WIL-LIAM MC-KIN-LEY. 
 
 The man, who now, in the year 1900, stands at the head 
 of our great land, . was' horn at Mies, 0-hi-o, on Jan-u-a-ry 
 29th, 1843. In the schopls near his home he was taught 
 his let-ters and, as a child, was fond of books, and quick to 
 learn. He was a mere boy, when he taught school to earn 
 the means to go to Ool-lege. The school-house in which he 
 taught still stands ; it is a plain, square, white house, with 
 two win-dows in front and three on each side. His moth- 
 er was a good wo-man, - with a clear, strong brain ; she 
 taught him, as well as his eight broth-ers and sis-ters, to 
 love truth, and to live brave and strong lives. 
 
 Young Wil-ham was not long to lead a life of peace ; 
 for in 1861 he, then but a boy of eight-een, left his books 
 and his home, and went to the war. Many, sto-ries prove 
 how brave he was while there ; but two will show you why 
 he rose so fast from, the ranks. At one time the guns had 
 been left on the road, af-ter^a great fight ; and it would be a 
 hard task to go back near the foe to get them. But, young 
 Mc-Kin-ley said, " The boys will haul them ; " and he and a 
 few oth-ers went back for them and brought them into our 
 lines. Then he was at one time two miles from the fight, 
 in charge of the food ; he was quite safe; but he thought 
 our men would fight bet-ter, if they had some cof-f ee and 
 food. So he filled a cart and drove straight to the lines, 
 where our brave men were hard at work. Was this not a 
 brave act 2 To risk his fife for the sake of tak-ing food and 
 
WILLIAM Mckinley. 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY. 87 
 
 1 
 
 drink to the worn men. He worked his way straight to 
 the front and came out of the war a cap-tain. He went 
 home at once and took up the stud-y of. law in Can-ton ; 
 one of his first speech-es was for the rights of the black 
 men ; he said that they should have the same right to vote 
 that white men had ; and he was ev-er on the side of the 
 black man. In 1869 Mc-Kin-ley was mar-ried to Miss I-da 
 Sax-ton. They were both very young when their two lit- 
 tle chil-dren died. The young law-yer did all he could to 
 cheer his wife ; and she was as brave as he, and did not let 
 her grief keep him from his work. He rose fast in his 
 state, and held high place more than once ; then, in 1877, 
 he was sent to Congress. In 1891 he was made gov-ern-or 
 of 0-hi-o ; and in 1897, he had made such a great name for 
 him-self that he was put up for pres-i-dent by the Re-pub-li- 
 cans, and e-lect-ed. Just as he came in-to of-fice, the strife 
 in Cu-ba was at its height ; and men here in our great, free 
 land had much pit-y for the Cu-bans, who were try-ing to 
 get free from Spain, just as we had tried to shake off the 
 hand of Eng-land long years a-go. The Span-ish rule grew 
 worse and worse, as Spain found that Cu-ba would not give 
 in. At last Gen-er-al Wey-ler, a harsh and cru-el man, was 
 sent there to force peace on an-y terms ; but Gen-er-al Go- 
 mez knew his foes well, and his brave men fought with a 
 strength born of a great hate for Spain. By and by, when 
 Spain saw she could not win the day, she sent word th^t if 
 Cu-ba would lay down her arms, she could have the rights 
 for which she had asked in vain in the past. 
 
 But it was too late ; Cu-ba had no faith in Spain, and 
 would now be free from her hard yoke. There was much 
 want in the big towns of Cu-ba at this time, for Wey-ler 
 had made all the poor folks, who had lived in peace on their 
 
88 LIVE8 OF THE PRESIDENTS. 
 
 small farms, come in-to the towns. He said they gave help to 
 the Cu-ban troops, and so he forced them to leave their homes 
 and would on-ly -let them bring with them just the few 
 things that they could put on their backs. Then he had 
 their lit-tle homes, and their crops which they had raised 
 with care, all burned to the ground. He had lit-tle food to 
 give this great host of poor peo-ple, and ma-ny died in the 
 streets for the want of bread. You may be sure that our 
 great land saw the pain and want down in Cu-ba, and 
 longed to give aid ; but an act of help on our part would 
 mean war with Spain, and this Mc-Kin-ley did not wish. 
 But there came a day when a great cry went up through 
 the U-nit-ed States at a foul deed done in the bay of Ha- 
 va-na. Our great war ship, the " Maine," was blown up by 
 a bomb, as she lay at an-chor in the har-bor. The thought 
 of our poor men sent to such a death raised the cry of war 
 in all hearts. , " Ee-mem-ber the Maine," was the war-cry; 
 and men cried for war at once with Spain. But Mc-Kin-ley 
 gave Spain one more chance to stop the fight and free Cu- 
 ba ; this she would not do. So on A-pril 21st, 1898, once 
 more the U-nit-ed States had to make read-y for war. 
 From all the states men poured in and camps sprang up 
 here and there, where the men were taught to load and fire 
 their guns. Off at Hong-Kong, in charge of our war-ships, 
 was brave Ad-mi-ral i)ew-ey. He knew that the Span-ish 
 fleet was in Ma-ni-la Bay, near the Phil-ip-pine Is-lands. 
 which were ruled by Spain ; the loss of these ships would 
 be a great blow to Spain just at this time ; so Dew-ey 
 steered his ships there to strike a blow for his coun-try. 
 
 It was night when he reached the spot, and be-fore the 
 Span-iards knew he was near, six of his great ships had 
 slipped past their forts. Then a fierce fire poured on him 
 
WILLIAM McKINLEY. 89 
 
 from the forts ; but it did not do much harm. At last the 
 Span-ish fleet saw him, and at once the ships o-pened fire ; 
 but Dew-ey's flag-ship, the " 0-lym-pi-a," sent out such a 
 storm of shot and shell, that the first of the Span-ish ships 
 was sunk, and all on board killed. 
 
 The fight last-ed two hours ; and at the end of that 
 time the Span-ish fieet had all been sunk. Great joy was 
 felt in the U-nit-ed States when this glad news was heard, 
 and Dew-ey was the he-ro of the whole land. 
 
 Our men down in Cu-ba fought well, and ma-ny brave 
 deeds were done. On June 6th Ad-mi-ral Samp-son fired 
 on the forts at San-ti-a-go ; our men put their hearts in 
 their work and their aim with the great guns was true and 
 straight. The Span-iards did not aim so well, and their 
 shots did not go so far, and so the shot and shell from 
 their forts did not do us much harm. 
 
 Soon our men had stopped the fire from all the forts 
 save Cas-tle Mor-ro, and this fort was rent and torn in great 
 holes. 
 
 On June 24th our " Rough Ri-ders," with The-o-dore Roose- 
 velt at their h«ad, were sent out to clear the way to San-ti-a- 
 go. The foe poured a hot fire on our men from the tall grass 
 and weeds in which they lay hid-den ; and there was great 
 loss of life. Full of fire and pluck were these " Rough Ri- 
 ders," and led by their brave colo-nels, Roose-velt and Wood, 
 they forced the Span-ish troops back, foot by foot. The line 
 of fight was five miles long ; the heat was fierce ; and food 
 and wa-ter scarce. But at last the troops came to the fort 
 of San Juan Hill ; then, with a mad rush, up, up went 
 our men to the Span-ish fort at the head ! Cheers and 
 shouts rose to the skies as the red, white and blue 
 waved from the old Span-ish fort ; but the cost of this fort 
 
90 LIVES OF THE PEESIDENTS. 
 
 had been great, for there was- much loss of hfe on both 
 sides. On Ju-ly 3d Cer-ve-ra, the Span-ish Ad-mi-ral, tried to 
 sail his fleet out of the bay of San-ti-a-go ; he was seen, 
 though, by oiir men, and af-t6r a hot chase and fierce fight- 
 ing, the whole Span-ish fleet was burned or sunk. 
 
 Spain lost scores of brave men ; but on our side not one 
 man was killed, nor did we lose a ship. 
 
 The end of the war was near ; on Ju-ly 10th we laid 
 siege to San-ti-a-go, and on Ju-ly 17th we went in-to the 
 cit-y and raised ov-er it the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 In this part of the world the last shot had been fired ; 
 but Dew-ey in the far east did not know this, and so he 
 istruck one more blow for his coun-try. 
 
 He took the cit-y of Ma-ni-la with the loss of but 
 twelve men, and when our flag waved o-ver this cit-y, the 
 end of the Span-ish war had come. On Jan-u-a-ry 1st, 1899, 
 the Span-ish flag, which for four hun-dred years had waved 
 o-ver Cu-ba, was hauled down ; the red, white and blue of 
 our own land took its place ; and Cu-ba, free from the hard 
 rule of Spain, blessed the great na-tion that had come to 
 her aid. 
 
 In Sep-tem-ber of 1899 Ad-mi-ral Dew-ey came home ; 
 and from end to end of this land his name was cheered. 
 
 He was the guest of the cit-y of New York for three 
 days ; and well did the cit-y hon-or the he-ro of Ma-ni-la. 
 
 When we took Ma-ni-la from Spain, and so closed the 
 Span-ish war, it did not give us the Phil-ip-pines. The men 
 there were glad to have us drive out the Span-iards, but did 
 not wish us to take their place. Long months of war fol- 
 lowed, but now, A-gui-nal-do, their chief, has yield-ed and 
 peace seems to be at hand. . 
 
 It was not eas-y to see when Mc-Kin-ley be-came pres- 
 
WILLIAM Mckinley.. 91 
 
 i-dent that we were soon to be in the midst of war ; but our 
 land has borne her part well. We have gained new lands in 
 the far east, and our flag waves o-ver strange peo-ple who 
 have not yet learned that it stands for f ree-dom. They still 
 fear that the yoke of the U-nit-ed States will be as hard to 
 bear as that of Spain. This is not so, and it will not be long 
 be-fore all th«se far-off lands will learn to love and bless the 
 Red, "White and Blue, just as ev-er-y State in our great 
 Un-ion does to-day. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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