History Buff's Guide to the Presidents (2 page)

On average, presidents from the nineteenth century worked in seven or more occupations, whereas recent candidates rarely have experience in more than three different jobs. The same can be said of the general population. In 1800, a homestead often functioned as a schoolroom, seamstress shop, veterinary clinic, bakery, accounting office, and infirmary. In the year 2000, a home was more like a refuge from the workplace, which usually involved a single, specific career.

The transition occurred with the Industrial Revolution, where progressive technology created a fundamental shift from generalization to specialization. Blacksmiths were eventually replaced by sheet-metal workers, electroplating engineers, and electron-beam welders. Country doctors became diagnosticians, endocrinologists, or gastroenterologists. For better and worse, Americans have become less self-reliant and more interdependent.

Yet throughout this evolution, the electorate has preferred candidates from a rather narrow range of professions. In that long interview process known as the presidential campaign, a nominee’s background often speaks volumes about the population that supports him or her because it reflects what the masses value most in a potential leader. Listed below by volume are the job histories of those whom Americans deemed fit to hire.

1
. MILITARY OFFICER (29)

WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, MADISON, MONROE, JACKSON, W. H. HARRISON, TYLER, POLK, TAYLOR, PIERCE, LINCOLN, A. JOHNSON, GRANT, HAYES, GARFIELD, ARTHUR, B. HARRISON, McKINLEY, T. ROOSEVELT, TRUMAN, EISENHOWER, KENNEDY, L. JOHNSON, NIXON, FORD, CARTER, REAGAN, G. H. W. BUSH, G. W. BUSH
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For generations, Americans assumed that a candidate with a military background, especially one with combat experience, was a natural political leader. Who better to take charge, so the logic went, than someone who was practiced in the art of command?

The tradition began with George Washington, who was admired more for his personal restraint and the discipline of his troops than for his moderate successes on the battlefield. Military hero worship truly took root with the seventh president, as supporters of Gen. Andrew Jackson recounted his teenage defiance of a saber-swinging redcoat during the Revolution and held a massive fundraiser on the anniversary of his triumph against the British in the battle of New Orleans. Thereafter came Gen. William Henry Harrison in 1840, waltzing into the White House because of his “victory” against the pan-Indian settlement along Tippecanoe Creek in 1811. Apolitical Gen. Zachary Taylor was almost dragged into office because of his success in the Mexican War.

Two conflicts in particular produced a flood of candidates. Political novice Ulysses S. Grant was the first of six Union veterans to become president, five of whom were born in Ohio. The 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment alone produced Maj. Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes and Maj. William McKinley. Former Brig. Gen. Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland in 1888 partly because the latter was chastised as “unversed in war.”

Then four-star Gen. Dwight Eisenhower grabs a quick lunch while commanding in Europe during World War II.

Eight of the fifteen million men who served in the “Good War” of World War II ascended to the White House. First was five-star Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, followed immediately by a wave of naval officers: Lt. Jack Kennedy, Lt. Cmdr. Lyndon Johnson, Lt. Cmdr. Richard Nixon, Lt. Gerald Ford, and Annapolis graduate James Carter. Army Capt. Ronald Reagan shot training films in California, while decorated Navy pilot George H. W. Bush flew in the Pacific.
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Oddly, there have been eleven generals but not one admiral to reach the presidency. Nor has there ever been a representative from the Marines, nor a veteran from Korea or Vietnam.

In 1976, to rank George Washington above all other U.S. officers, Congress gave him the posthumous promotion of “General of the Armies of the United States,” a grade equivalent to a six-star general.

2
. LAWYER (27)

J. ADAMS, JEFFERSON, MADISON, MONROE, J. Q. ADAMS, JACKSON, VAN BUREN, TYLER, POLK, FILLMORE, PIERCE, BUCHANAN, LINCOLN, HAYES, GARFIELD, ARTHUR, CLEVELAND, HARRISON, McKINLEY, TAFT, WILSON, COOLIDGE, F. ROOSEVELT, NIXON, FORD, CLINTON, OBAMA

What is the federal government but a giant law office designed specifically to create, interpret, and enforce the country’s legal code? The highest officer must take an oath to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” a sacred vow not to the nation but to its national law. Nearly every inaugural speech has paid homage to the rule of law—William Howard Taft’s 1909 address was a virtual lecture on the subject, covering statutes on arbitration, child labor, commerce, tariffs, trust busting, and personal injury.

From the country’s very beginning, legal eagles have been at the forefront of government. Approximately 50 percent of the signers of the Declaration and 60 percent of those who created the Constitution were trained in law. In any given Congress since then, about half the members have been attorneys or legal counsels.

Lincoln made his name and money through attorney services, occasionally working for major corporations like the Illinois Central Railroad.

Some of the more gifted in the profession included John Adams, who successfully defended British troops who shot and killed five demonstrators at the March 5, 1770, Boston Massacre. William Taft was a far better lawyer than president, and in 1921 he attained his dream job of chief justice of the Supreme Court. A youthful Richard Nixon went from new hire to junior partner in a California firm in just two years. William Clinton achieved success as the attorney general of Arkansas, which he used as a springboard to the governorship.

Reflecting an increasingly litigious society, the West Wing is perpetually occupied by attorneys, but most of them are now staff members. Overall, lawyer-presidents are on the decline. In the 1800s, there were twenty presidents who had studied for the bar. In the 1900s, only seven had practiced professionally.
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In a law career that spanned a quarter century, Abraham Lincoln worked more than five thousand cases.

3
. STATE LEGISLATOR (22)

WASHINGTON, J. ADAMS, JEFFERSON, MADISON, MONROE, J. Q. ADAMS, VAN BUREN, W. H. HARRISON, TYLER, POLK, FILLMORE, PIERCE, BUCHANAN, LINCOLN, A. JOHNSON, GARFIELD, T. ROOSEVELT, HARDING, COOLIDGE, F. ROOSEVELT, CARTER, OBAMA

The axiom “All politics is local” certainly applied to the early Republic. Counting Washington and Adams, who served when their homes were still colonies, seventeen of the first twenty-one presidents worked as state legislators.

Their power, relative to the federal government, was exceptional. For more than seventy years, there was no such animal as the Internal Revenue Service; income taxes were paid to the state. No federal paper currency was then in use; everyday scrip bore the names of local banks, trusts, and states. Taken together, state militias always outnumbered the regular army, and there was no national draft. It was said that a person’s exposure to the federal government began and ended with the post office. Americans even acknowledged the relative power of states by referring to their country in the grammatically correct fashion, “The United States are…”

Prior to his service in the White House, James Buchanan had been a lawyer, Pennsylvania legislator, U.S. Representative, Andrew Jackson’s minister to Russia, U.S. Senator, James K. Polk’s secretary of state, and Franklin Pierce’s ambassador to London.

Ironically, that all ended with the “War for States’ Rights.” The sheer magnitude of the conflict forced the federal government to exercise its powers over the states like never before. The national budget exploded to thirty times its yearly average, and the army grew sixty times its normal size. Congress and the president imposed a national draft, a national railroad, federal income tax, the abolition of slavery, plus hundreds of other laws and measures. Washington truly became the center of government.

Consequently, candidates with ambition began to forgo grassroots politics for higher offices. Only five men born since the Civil War have risen from state houses to the White House. Calvin Coolidge was the last state representative to do so, and Barack Obama was a state senator.

In 1784, a signer of the Declaration of Independence lost a Virginia state congressional race to a wealthy planter. Each had a son who also went on to serve in state legislatures. Over time the two boys would run together for the White House under the slogan “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too.”

4
. GOVERNOR (20)

JEFFERSON, MONROE, JACKSON, VAN BUREN, W. H. HARRISON, TYLER, POLK, A. JOHNSON, HAYES, CLEVELAND, McKINLEY, T. ROOSEVELT, TAFT, WILSON, COOLIDGE, F. ROOSEVELT, CARTER, REAGAN, CLINTON, G. W. BUSH