I Wish I Knew That: U.S. Presidents: Cool Stuff You Need to Know (3 page)

Without waiting for permission to begin, L’Enfant started to work. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson finally fired him, but not before the cellars were dug and some of the materials for the building had already been delivered.

Jefferson instead decided to hold a contest to design plans for the president’s house and for the Capitol building where Congress would be doing business. The winner of the contest was James Hoban, an Irish architect who received a prize of $500. His plan was for an elegant mansion, and Washington and the commissioners thought it would be just perfect—and cost much less money.

In October 1792, the cornerstone was laid. But in order for the Congress to have a place to do its work, it was decided that the Capitol and other government buildings be built first, so work on the president’s house was delayed.

Abigail Adams’s Big, Fancy (But Empty) Laundry Room

When the new home, which became known as the White House, was finally completed, the first president to move in was John Adams with his wife, Abigail, in November 1800. Abigail called it “a castle of a House,” “built for ages to come.” The problem was that the house wasn’t even finished. Only half of the rooms were completed. There wasn’t even enough furniture for the family. The lawn was full of tree stumps, weeds, and piles of rubble, and there was even an outdoor toilet where everyone could see it!

“Not one room or chamber is finished,” the First Lady complained. She didn’t have enough help to keep all the fireplaces burning to heat the house. There were no fences to make a yard so the family could sit outdoors. And the elegant East Room, which was supposed to be for the president to use for entertaining guests, wasn’t ready so Abigail used it as place to hang and dry her laundry.

Lucky for Mrs. Adams, she didn’t have to live in the White House for long. John Adams lost the presidency to Thomas Jefferson, and by March, Abigail was back home in Massachusetts. Jefferson, who had designed his own house in Virginia, quickly set to work on finishing the president’s house, changing it inside and out.

3rd President ~ 1801–1809

THOMAS JEFFERSON

The Sage of Monticello

“Every generation needs a new revolution.”

Born

April 13, 1743 Shadwell, Virginia

Political Party

Democratic-Republican

Vice Presidents

Aaron Burr George Clinton

First Lady

Martha

Children

Martha, Mary, and four children who died in infancy

Pets

Mockingbird, dogs, horses, and bears

Man of the People

After he was sworn in as president in 1801, Thomas Jefferson walked across the street to a boardinghouse to get some dinner. There were no empty seats, so he waited. When he moved into the White House, he stopped one custom that General Washington had started—the president bowing to visitors. Jefferson shook hands instead.

Jefferson did not like stuffiness or fancy clothes. His idea of an enjoyable evening was to have people over to talk about books and ideas. He had a round table made so that everyone sitting at it would feel equal. Sometimes he would wear his slippers to dinner. He hated appearing in public, but once ate a tomato in front of people to prove that the strange, new vegetable was not poisonous.

One of his greatest loves was books. His collection of 6,000 volumes became the first Library of Congress. In the White House, Jefferson had a pet mockingbird named Dick that rode on his shoulder and hopped up the stairs next to him when he went up to bed. Jefferson rode his horse for at least two hours nearly every day.

Expanding to the West

In 1803, Jefferson bought 828,000 square miles of land from France. Known as the Louisiana Purchase, this acquisition doubled the size of our country, for a mere $15 million. Then he sent his Virginia neighbor’s son, Meriwether Lewis, and Captain William Clark to explore the area and try to find a boat route to the Pacific Ocean. When they returned from what is now called the Lewis and Clark Expedition, they brought Jefferson some huge bears they had captured. Jefferson had them displayed in cages on the White House lawn for everyone to see.

FUN FACTS

Thomas Jefferson came up with an early version of the wooden coat hanger.

Jefferson wrote the epitaph for his own gravestone. It does not mention the fact that he was president of the United States.

Inventor, Musician, Architect

Jefferson liked to invent things. The swivel chair, a letter-copying machine, and the dumbwaiter were just some of his ideas. He played the violin, spoke six languages, and taught himself architecture. He designed and built his home, Monticello, and the nearby University of Virginia.

Thinking Ahead

Like his fellow Virginia farmer George Washington, Jefferson owned slaves. And like him, Jefferson realized that the evil of slavery would be one of the biggest problems the nation, as a free people, would have to solve. In 1808 Jefferson banned the import of slaves from Africa.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

MAN OF MANY TALENTS

Thomas Jefferson Started the World’s Biggest Library

Among America’s great statesmen, Thomas Jefferson stands out as a man who was interested in an amazing number of things. He was always busy doing and learning. He designed and watched over every detail of the building of his home at Monticello. He managed the farm and all its workers. He was interested in law, geography, plants, natural history, music, and fine food and wine. He wanted to know about everything, and he wrote about anything that interested him. His writings on agriculture alone fill a 704-page book. He loved to read and his personal library was used to start the Library of Congress in 1815.

When the government moved to Washington, D.C. in 1800, Congress decided to start a library. The first shipment of books came from London, packed in 11 trunks. During the War of 1812, British soldiers came to Washington and burned the Capitol building, and all the books from London were destroyed. Thomas Jefferson offered to sell the government his personal library of 6,487 volumes. Many congressmen jumped at the chance; others weren’t so sure. The collection, after all, contained books in foreign languages and story books, which the members of Congress felt weren’t serious subjects for a government library. Jefferson’s offer was finally accepted, but at first, the library was only for the use of the Congress. When Thomas Jefferson became president, the president’s office could use it, and by the 1850s, the public was also welcome.

The collection now fills 535 miles of shelves in three enormous buildings. Among its treasures are rare texts: the oldest surviving book printed in the U.S., documents of the first 14 congresses, early Hawaiian books, a scientific paper written by Copernicus, Oriental scrolls, and medieval manuscripts. The most valuable book is a 1455 Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever printed with movable type. And it has books written in 470 languages.

Only about one-fourth of the items in the library are books. There are also four million maps that fill two acres of cabinets. There are nine million photographs of the Old West, the Civil War, and such important events as the Wright Brothers’ first airplane flight. There are papers written by America’s greatest inventors like Robert Fulton, Thomas Edison, and Alexander Graham Bell. More films, government papers, and music are stored here than anywhere else on earth. And 10,000 items are added every day!

Today, the collections of the world’s greatest library don’t just sit on the shelves. Thanks to Thomas Jefferson, they can be studied and enjoyed by everyone.

4th President ~ 1809–1817

JAMES MADISON

Father of the Constitution

“If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

Born

March 16, 1751 Port Conway, Virginia

Political Party

Democratic-Republican

Vice Presidents

George Clinton Elbridge Gerry

First Lady

Dolley

Pet

A green parrot belonging to Mrs. Madison

The Bill of Rights

One of only two presidents (along with Washington) who signed the U.S. Constitution—the set of rules and laws for governing the country—James Madison never thought the Constitution went far enough to protect individual rights. So before he became president, he pushed Congress to pass the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments), which spells out and guarantees things like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to a trial by jury if someone’s accused of a crime.

The War of 1812

Even though the British had surrendered in the American Revolution, they hadn’t really given up. On the high seas, they kept stealing U.S. ships and cargo, and even kidnapped American sailors and forced them to serve in the British navy. On the frontier, the British were giving weapons to the Indians so they could attack American settlers.

By 1812, the United States had had enough and President Madison declared war on England, a kind of second war of independence. At first, the War of 1812 didn’t go well. The U.S. wasn’t ready. The British invaded Washington and burned the Capitol building and the White House. President Madison wasn’t home at the time, but luckily his wife Dolley was. When she heard the British were coming, she calmly packed up all of her husband’s important papers and a famous painting of George Washington and got away safely.