History Buff's Guide to the Presidents Read Free Page A

had been heads of individual states.
    Voters subconsciously prefer governors because they are effectively minipresidents. Governors are the head of a government, work with a legislature, manage a budget, act as commander in chief over militias or national guards (when they are not under direct federal authority), and nearly all have the power of vetoes and pardons. Before there was a federal executive, the young states of Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina referred to their respective governors as “president.” 4
One future president desperately wanted to be governor but never won. In 1962, Richard Nixon narrowly lost the California race to Democrat Pat Brown. The Republican subsequently announced his retirement from politics and told reporters, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore.”
    5 . U.S. REPRESENTATIVE (18)
MADISON, JACKSON, W. H. HARRISON, TYLER, POLK, FILLMORE, PIERCE, BUCHANAN, LINCOLN, A. JOHNSON, HAYES, GARFIELD, McKINLEY, KENNEDY, L. JOHNSON, NIXON, FORD, G. H. W. BUSH
    Much like state legislators, U.S. representatives reached their apex of influence in the nineteenth century. More than half the presidents in the 1800s came from the lower house, compared to only five during the 1900s and none thus far in the 2000s.
    Nearly all of them had long stays on Capitol Hill. Lincoln became one of the few exceptions when he opposed the popular war with Mexico and was driven out. In contrast, James Madison served four terms as one of Virginia’s first representatives. James Knox Polk worked for fourteen years and became the first (and to date only) Speaker of the House to become president. James Garfield served the Nineteenth District of Ohio from 1863 to 1880, until he became the GOP’s pick for president.
    The twentieth century witnessed a string of former representatives: Jack Kennedy, an aristocrat representing the working-class district of Boston; Lyndon Johnson, who placated his white constituents with several votes against civil rights; anticommunist Dick Nixon, who won many supporters through his hardhearted treatment of suspected spy Alger Hiss; and moderate George H. W. Bush, a supporter of the Vietnam War and tax incentives for independent oil companies. 5

    James K. Polk is, to date, the only Speaker of the House to become president. In the nineteenth century, however, he was just one of thirteen veterans of the U.S. House of Representatives to reach the White House.
    None were more respected than Michigan’s Gerald Ford. He won twelve congressional terms, all by landslides. A fiscal conservative, he opposed minimum-wage increases, fought Medicare, and endorsed an all-or-none commitment to Vietnam. But he used logic over raw emotion, exuded honesty, and was genuinely considerate when discussing controversial issues, leading many to call him a “Congressman’s Congressman.” 6
    But no sitting member of the House has been elected to the White House in nearly 130 years. Today, the once-prestigious chamber is commonly viewed as a mere apprenticeship for those seeking higher office.
In 1861, former U.S. Congressman John Tyler was elected by his fellow Virginians to the House of Representatives of the Confederate States of America. He died before he could take office.
    6 . U.S. SENATOR (16)
MONROE, J. Q. ADAMS, JACKSON, VAN BUREN, W. H. HARRISON, TYLER, PIERCE, BUCHANAN, A. JOHNSON, B. HARRISON, HARDING, TRUMAN, KENNEDY, L. JOHNSON, NIXON, OBAMA
    From its conception, the Senate possessed the air of lordship. Membership required U.S. residence of at least nine years (two more than the House), and senators were selected by state legislatures rather than by popular vote (a custom that lasted until 1913 with the Seventeenth Amendment). Inductees represented whole states rather than mere districts, and their terms were a courtly six years rather than a curtly two. There was also a greater presidential connection. Until 1886, the order of succession went from the