Theodore Roosevelt (1858 — 1919) Theodore Roosevelt was the most forceful and aggressive President since Andrew Jackson and equally colorful and popular. Both men were born fighters and leaders of men, who underwent the trial of chronic disease before they matured. Though T. R. resembled Jackson in aggressiveness and temperament, he vied with Jefferson in versatility and variety of interests...
Andrew Jackson (1767 — 1845) May 30, 1806, marked the halfway point and the dramatic crisis in the life of Andrew Jackson. On that day Jackson killed a man in a duel and in turn received a chest wound from which he never fully recovered and which eventually caused his death. As in the Greek drama, the tragic guilt of the hero was inexorably followed by his punishment and his redemption. After the...
James Madison (1751 — 1836) When James Madison was President, Washington Irving described him as a “withered little Apple-John.” He meant the exquisite kind of apple which attains its finest flavor when it looks wrinkled and shrunken. Since early childhood Madison appeared delicate and fragile and never displayed youthful vigor and exuberance. He had the high, bald forehead and the...
George Washington (1732 — 1799) If you look closely at the best-known portrait of George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, you will observe a bulging of the cheeks, as if they had been stuffed with cotton. It has been reported that Gilbert Stuart actually did use cotton to fill out the sunken cheeks of the illustrious sitter of this portrait, who at the time was wearing a set of ill-fitting dentures...
John Adams (1735 — 1826) Panegyrical romances will never be written, nor flattering orations spoken to transmit me to posterity in brilliant colors,” wrote John Adams. He must have felt that he lacked glamor. John Adams succeeded to the Presidency the towering figure who had become a legend in his own time, George Washington; and was followed by one of the most colorful personalities in...
