Kaylajo Berger, Noel Beher, Marissa Ackerson

                                                                                                                                                                               2/1/11      

                                                                                                                                                                           PER.1/2  

                                                                                                                                                                               E.L.A.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                    PRESIDENTS HISTORY

GEORGE WASHINGTON: On April 30, 1789, George Washington, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office as the first President of the United States. He pursued two intertwined interests: military arts and western expansion. From 1759 to the outbreak of the American Revolution, Washington managed his lands around Mount Vernon and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. When the Second Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia in May 1775, Washington, one of the Virginia delegates, was elected Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, he took command of his ill-trained troops and embarked upon a war that was to last six grueling years. Ensuing battles saw him fall back slowly, then strike unexpectedly. Finally in 1781 with the aid of French allies--he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

JOHN ADAMS: John Adams was more remarkable as a political philosopher than as a politician. During the Revolutionary War he served in France and Holland in diplomatic roles, and helped negotiate the treaty of peace. From 1785 to 1788 he was minister to the Court of St. James's, returning to be elected Vice President under George Washington. Adams' two terms as Vice President were frustrating experiences for a man of his vigor, intellect, and vanity. When Adams became President, the war between the French and British was causing great frustrations for the United States. Adams sent three commissioners to France, but in the spring of 1798 word arrived that the French Foreign Minister Talleyrand and the Directory had refused to negotiate with them unless they were to pay them money of there liking. Adams reported the insult to the Congress, and the Senate printed the correspondence, in which the Frenchmen referred to as "X, Y, and Z Fever." Since then, the federalist had never been so popular. 

THOMAS JEFFERSON: In apart of the Virginia House of Burgesses and the Continental Congress, he contributed his writing rather than his voice to the patriot cause. As the "silent member" of the Congress, Jefferson, at 33, drafted the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson had written a bill establishing religious freedom, an enacted in 1786. Jefferson opposed a strong centralized Government and championed the rights of states. As a reluctant candidate for President in 1796, Jefferson came within three votes of election. Through a flaw in the Constitution, he became Vice President. Thomas Jefferson Cut back Army and Navy expenditures eliminated the budget, through away the tax on the whiskey.

JAMES MADISON: He was born in 1751; Madison was brought up in Orange County, Virginia, and attended Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). A student of history and government, well read in law, he participated in the framing of the Virginia Constitution. In 1776 he served in the Continental Congress, and was a leader in the Virginia Assembly. When delegates to the Constitutional Convention assembled at Philadelphia, the 36-year-old Madison took frequent and emphatic part in the debates. During the first year of Madison's Administration, the United States prohibited trade with both Britain and France; then in May, 1810, Congress authorized trade with both, directing the President, if either would accept America's view of neutral rights, to forbid trade with the other nation.

JAMES MONROE: Born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1758. Monroe attended the College of William and Mary, fought with distinction in the Continental Army, and practiced law in Fredericksburg, Virginia. As a youthful politician, he joined the anti-Federalists in the Virginia Convention which ratified the Constitution, and in 1790, an advocate of Jeffersonian policies, was elected United States Senator. As Minister to France in 1794-1796, he displayed strong sympathies for the French cause; later, with Robert R. Livingston, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.