Franklin Pierce, one of eight children of Benjamin and Anna Kendrick Pierce, was born in Hillsborough, N. H., on Nov. 23, 1804. His father had served in the American Revolution and later became governor of New Hampshire. Pierce was educated at Hillsborough Center, Hancock Academy, and Bowdoin College, from which he graduated in 1824 after advancing from last place to fifth from the top of his class.
In 1829, he was elected to the state legislature, two years after his father won election to the governorship. Pierce was then chosen Speaker of the House in 1831. Franklin Pierce was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he voted the Democratic party line on nearly all issues. Life in Washington took its toll on Pierce. The city in the 1830s was an unpleasant place. Politicians serving there mostly lived in shabby boardinghouses. Bored and homesick, many found comfort in alcohol. Drinking quickly became a problem for Pierce. In 1834, the congressman married Jane Means Appleton, the daughter of Jesse Appleton, who had been President of Bowdoin College. Franklin and Jane Pierce seemingly had little in common. Socially, Jane Pierce was reserved and shy, the opposite of her husband. She disliked Washington and usually refused to live there, even after Pierce became an U.S. Senator in 1837. By 1841, Pierce and his wife had had enough of Washington, and he resigned from the Senate, moving his family back to New Hampshire. Returning to Concord early in 1848, Pierce continued his law practice and gave strong support to the Compromise of 1850. In June 1852 the Democratic national nominating convention, unable to choose among Stephen A. Douglas, James Buchanan, Lewis Cass, and William Marcy, named Pierce on the 49th ballot. The presidential election of 1852 brought Pierce into contention with his former military commander, Gen. Winfield Scott. Scott divided his party by hinting that he might approve the modifications of the Fugitive Slave Act. He pledged a strong foreign policy and promised to respect the rights of the states. The freedom with which he promised to do favors and the difficulty he experienced in saying "no" to admirers brought him votes on election day, but at the cost of problems later, when he found that he had promised more than he could deliver. At age 48, Pierce, now nicknamed "Young Hickory of the Granite Hills," became president.
Jane Pierce was a deeply religious woman, and her beliefs penetrated almost every aspect of the family's lives.
John Adams was born on October 30th, 1735 to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston Adams. He was the oldest of three and lived in Braintree, Massachusetts. His father was a farmer, deacon, and town councilman. The Adams were not very wealthy and John Adams’ father knew he could only send one son and he wanted to send his eldest. However, John Adams told his father “I do not love books and I wish you would lay aside thoughts of sending me to college.” His father in reply asked him- “What would you do child? Be a farmer?” John insisted that he wanted to be a farmer and not a scholar. His father brought him to work the fields the next day. Farming was strenuous work and was most likely rough on John’s hands and back. The night after the long day of farming, His father questioned him “Well John are you satisfied with being a farmer.” John Adams refused to admit that his father was right but John Adams Sr said “I do not like it[farming] so well, so you shall go to school.” John Adams and his father found a compromise- John would go to a tutor that challenged his students instead of the town teacher that was unbearably easy. Adams excelled under the tutors teaching and was accepted to Harvard in 1751.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, author of the Declaration of Independence, was born on April 13, 1743 and grew up on the family plantation at Shadwell in Albermarle County, Virginia. His father was Peter Jefferson, who, with the aid of thirty slaves, tilled a tobacco and wheat farm of 1,900 acres and like his fathers before him, was a justice of the peace, a vestryman of his parish and a member of the colonial legislature. The first of the Virginia Jefferson's of Welsh extraction, Peter in 1738 married Jane Randolph. Of their ten children, Thomas was the third. Thomas inherited a full measure of his father's bodily strength and stature, both having been esteemed in their prime as the strongest men of their county. He also inherited his father's inclination to liberal politics, his taste for literature and his aptitude for mathematics. The Jefferson's were a musical family; the girls sang the songs of the time, and Thomas, practicing the violin assiduously from boyhood, became an excellent performer.
Thomas Jefferson was who authored extraordinary words and it was there words that changed a nation. Jefferson’s ability to write made him prominent author of write the Declaration of Independence, (among other significant works). Jefferson’s writings reflected on the rights of mankind and what rights a government must offer its people. His use of words to fight for Human rights makes him one of the greatest American Hero’s. Thomas Jefferson’s writings on basic human rights caused a radical shift in American Colonist thoughts and these stunning ideas would influence the Americans to break away from Great Britain.
Washington was born in Westmore County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732. He is the son of the late Augustine Washington and Mary Ball Washington. Augustine was a tobacco farmer and a stock raiser. Washington spent most of his early childhood on the Ferry Farm in Fredricksburg, Virginia. He attended school up until his fifteenth year. Washington married Martha Dandridge on January 6,1759.
The soldier’s time to serve would be up in just ten days, the British continued to win battles, all hope of winning the war was fading and everyone was ready to put down their weapons and surrender to Great Britain. However, George Washington was not settling with anything less than trying their best. He kept that little flicker of hope that was still left, alive. The Continental Congress did not see much hope in the war either and turned the responsibility of the war to General George Washington. Washington received a message from Congress saying,
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 on his family’s plantation in Shadwell, Virginia. The third of six children his parents raised him modestly and his father schooled him to be a gentleman. The young Jefferson suffered an emotional shock, when at the age of 14 his father Peter Jefferson died. The young Jefferson was the first male of the family and so he received the bulk of his father’s assets, leaving him with a sizable fortune.
On April 23, 1791, a great man was born; fifteenth president of the United States, James Buchanan.He was born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. His father, James Buchanan, and his mother Elizabeth Speer Buchanan, raised their son a Presbyterian. He grew up in a well to do home, being the eldest of eleven other siblings. His parents cared for them all in their mansion in Pennsylvania. They sent him to Dickinson College.
President Thomas Jefferson 1801 - 1809. Thomas Jefferson came into presidency with the intention of limiting the size and power of the central government. His success and failures in accomplishing this goal were many. Thomas Jefferson was America’s third president in reign from 1801 – 1809, once tying in the presidential race with Aaron Burr, where the decision was made by the House of Representatives to choose Jefferson, whom they thought was less dangerous than Burr. As president he was the first to be inaugurated in Washington, which was a city he had helped to plan. President Jefferson's inauguration was probably the start of the changes in government.
Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 in Albermarle County, Virginia. He was born in a simple four-room house in Shadwell, Virginia, what is now Monticello. His father, Peter Jefferson, was a planter who was a bright, brave, and strong man. His mother was a very gentle lady. She was boring under one of the most distinguished families in the area. His family had prospered since the first Jefferson arrived in America from Whales in 1612. Soon after Jefferson’s birth, the French and British began fighting their third war in a half of century over North America’s territory.
John Adams, who became the second president of the United States, has been accused by some historians of being the closest thing America ever had to a dictator or monarch (Onuf, 1993). Such strong accusations should be examined in the context of the era in which Mr. Adams lived and served. A closer examination of the historical events occurring during his vice presidency and his term as president, strongly suggests that Adams was not, in fact, a dictator. Indeed, except for his lack of charisma and political charm, Adams had a very successful political career before joining the new national government. He was, moreover, highly sought after as a public servant during the early formation of the new federal power (Ferling, 1992).
Thomas Jefferson's ideals and beliefs were derived from a deep regard for life, liberty, and freedom. His concept of individual freedoms strongly disagreed with the notion of a "guided republic" which he believed concentrated a great deal unchecked power among a few people. This could have the potential of tyrannical government that might suppress personal freedoms of any kind especially those of religion, which Jefferson feels very strongly felt should be protected. After fighting hard to rid America of British domination, Jefferson was determined to create a government that was responsible to, and derived its powers from, a free people. As the writer of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, Jefferson is thought by many to be the founder of the Democratic Party. He was foremost among the influential men who believed that laws should be made by those who are to obey them. Thomas Jefferson pushed hard to create a government that would serve and protect all its constituents.
“He always took the right side,” a courtroom observer describing Thomas Jefferson. For Thomas Jefferson was an intelligent man from the time he was a child. Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743 on the Shadwell plantation in Virginia. Jefferson’s mother was Jane Jefferson, who was a descendant of royal English and Scottish family. His father on the other hand, Peter Jefferson, was a successful farmer on the Shadwell plantation. The Jefferson’s had a large family consisting of four girls and another boy besides Thomas. Jefferson spent most of his childhood before going to school learning how to perform basic tasks on the farm, outdoor sports, and hunting.
He is best remembered as a great president and as the author of the Declaration of Independence. He also won lasting fame as a diplomat, a political thinker, and a founder of the Democratic Party. Jefferson's interests and talents covered an amazing range. He became one of the leading American architects of his time and designed the Virginia Capitol, the University of Virginia, and his own home, Monticello. He greatly appreciated art and music and tried to encourage their advancement in the United States. He arranged for the famous French sculptor Jean Houdon to come to America to make a statue of George Washington. Jefferson also posed for Houdon and for the famous American portrait painter Gilbert Stuart. Jefferson also enjoyed playing the violin in chamber music concerts. In addition, Jefferson served as president of the American Philosophical Society, an organization that encouraged a wide range of scientific and intellectual research. Jefferson invented a decoding device, a lap desk, and an improved type of moldboard plow. His collection of more than 6,400 books became a major part of the Library of Congress. Jefferson revised Virginia's laws and founded its state university. He developed the decimal system of coinage that allows Americans to keep accounts in dollars and cents. He compiled a Manual of Parliamentary Practice and prepared written vocabularies of Indian languages. ( Thomas Jefferson, by David Saville Muzzey. New York, Scribner, 1918)
“[T]he man on the ten-dollar bill is the father of the American treasury system, a signer of the Constitution, one of the primary authors of the Federalist Papers, and the loser of the infamous duel with Vice President Aaron Burr. Alexander Hamilton's earlier career as a Continental Army officer is less well known. Yet Hamilton's first experience in public service is important, not only because it was the springboard to his later career, but because it also deeply influenced his values and thinking” (Hamilton).
A war veteran, leader, and first president of the United States of America, George Washington was one of our greatest leaders of all time. As one of the founding fathers, George Washington lived during the era of struggle and colonization. As the first President of our country, Washington learned valuable skills as a young boy, became a war hero, and set the standard for the future leaders of the United States of America.