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Show PAGES PAGE9 UNIVERSITY JOURNAL FOCUS ON: PRESIDENTS' DAY • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1S, 1001 For ·your information • Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. • John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. • Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. , • John F. ~nnedy was elected President in 1960. • The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters. • Both were were P.articular1y concerned with civil rights. • Both wives lost their children while living in the White House. • Both Presidents were shot in the head. • Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy. • Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln. • Both were assassinated by southerners. • Both were succeeded by southerners. • Both successors were named Johnson. • Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. • Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908. • John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. • Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939. • Both assassins were known by their three names. • Both names compromise 15 letters. • Booth ran from the theatre and was caught in a warehouse. • Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theatre. • To cap it all off, Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials. With less than one year of formal education in his youth, Abraham Lincoln worked hard to become the 16th President of the United States. Born in Hardin County, Ky., on Feb. 12, 1809, Lincoln grew up working on a farm. He had an older sister named Sarah and an older brother, Tom. His family moved to Indiana when he was eight and he lived there until he was 22 years old. Lincoln started school with his sister when he was 9 and learned to read, write and count, but that was all. When he was 10, his mother died and his father remarried. He worked on the farm splitting rails for fences among other chores. He was ambitious and worked hard to learn all he could. Lincoln would often be found walking great distances to borrow books from neighbors. In 1831 , he left home and moved to New Salem , Ill. He worked in various jobs and also studied to be a lawyer, after which he moved to the new Illinois capitol, Springfield. On Nov. 13, 1842 he married Mary Todd. They had four sons, but Only Robert Todd lived to adulthood. Lincoln was a circuit lawyer for many years and The first leader of a nation From House of Burgesses to president A nevv deal out of the depression BY CATHERINE CHAN JOURNAL STAFF WRITER President washington also acted with Congress to establist) the first great executive departments and to lay the foundations of the George Washington is the first president of modern federal judiciary. the United States and this coming Presidents He directed the creation of a diplomatic Day, Feb. 19, is the celebration of the U.S. service. Three presidential and five President. congressional elections carried the new Born in Westmoreland County, Va., on Feb. government, under the Constitution, through 22, 1732, washington was the its initial trials. washington conferred on eldest son of Augustine washington. the presidency a prestige so When Washington retired great that political leaders afterward esteemed it the from public life in 1797, his highest distinction to occupy homeland was vastly different from what it had been when the chair he had honored. he entered public service in He found that success 1749. depended on their He made an outstanding cooperation and that they contribution to this nation. would do best if they had Largely because of his faith in causes and leaders. leadership, the13 colonies He believed that a leader should make the best of their became the United States, a sovereign, independent nation. good qualities and as a national leader he upheld the Drawing from his knowledge right of every sect to freedom of the American people and of of worship and equality the way they lived and fought, before the law, condemning washington took advantage of George Washington was the all forms of bigotry, British methods of fighting that first president of the United States of America. intolerance, discrimination, were not suited to a semiand persecution. primitive environment. He Throughout his public life, Washington alternated betwe~n daring surprise attacks and the patient performance of routine duties. contended with obstacles and difficulties. His Washington took a leading part in the courage and resolution steadied him in _danger, and defeat steeled his will. He was making of the Constitution and the campaign for its ratification. Its success was assured by generous in victory. He was, indeed, in every 1797. at the ~nd of, the.second .term of his .. sense of the word, a wise, a good, and a great man. presidency.. Thomas Jefferson started his political career in the House of Burgesses under Britain~ rule BY STACY VENTURA SENIOR STAFF WRITER Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, was born on April 13, 1743 in Albermarle County, Va. jefferson was the third of 1O children. He grew up on his family plantation, Shadwell, where his father, Peter Jefferson, tilled a tobacco and wheat farm. At 14, Jefferson's father died in 1757, leaving him heir to their expanding estate. Also, he was ordered to receive a complete education at the College of William and Mary. At 17, Jefferson entered the Conege of William and Mary where he founded his education in science under the influence of his professor, William Small , professor of mathematics. However, upon his graduation in 1762, Jefferson took up studying law. Jefferson's public life began until the age of 26 when he became a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses in May 1769. George washington was also a member. His public career lasted nearly half a century. Jan. 1, 1772, married Martha justice, all he had received from wayles Skelton, the daughter of his father. John wayles, a wealthy In May 1776, news had reached Williamsburg lawyer, where she congress that the Virginia inherited large belongings. A few convention had voted for days after the marriage, Thomas took her to their home, Monticello. independence. On June 10, 1776, a committee of five was selected The next year, Martha's father to prepare a draft of the died, bringing in a great fortune Declaration. These men were which doubled his estate. During March of 1775, Jefferson Jefferson, Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman headed for and Robert Richmond where Livingston. he became a Jefferson became member in a the chairman of convention. the committee Toward the end of and was asked to the convention, write the they appointed document. Jefferson to the However, vacancy in the congress delegation of subjected it to a Vifginia of long revision, Congress. On making changes June 21 , 1775, he and toQk his seat as a improvements. substitute for Later, Jefferson Peyton Randolph. was part of a Jefferson Thomas Jefferson was the committee who became a useful author of The Declaration of devised a seal for member to the Independence in 1776. the newborn congress with his country. . readiness in Although he had been elected composition, his profound again, Jefferson resigned his seat knowledge of the British law and in congress in the fall of 1776 due his innate love of freedom and to his wife's failing health and the condition of his household. In January 1779, the Virginia legislature elected Jefferson as governor of the state. However, his governorship of two years ended sadly, mostly due to the fault of circumstances. He declined re-election. On September 6, 1782, Martha died and Jefferson was left with three daughters to tend to. After a struggling with his wife's death, Jefferson returned to the public life and succeeded Benjamin Franklin as minister to France in 1785. However, his compassion for the French Revolution got him into many conflicts while secretary of state in President Washington's cabinet, one being with Alexander Hamilton. After three years, he retired from the office and through a flaw in the Constitution, he became the vice president. In 1800, Jefferson ran for president, won and served two terms. Jefferson retained his health to his last days and had the opportunity to see the 15 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He died on July 4, · 1816. to regain mobility in his arms and chest. He eventually had enough mobility to walk with the use of crutches. Roosevelt won the seat for New York governor in 1928. As governor he gave a tax relief to farmers and Herbert Hoover was being blamed for the severity of lowered the cost of public utilities. the depression so a new deal was what this nation In 1932 after two terms as governor he was needed. nominated to run on the Democratic ballot for Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on Jan. 30, president. His campaign was focused on 1882, in Hyde Park, N.Y. to James and Sara reconstructing the nation during the depression. His Roosevelt. plan was called the New Deal. Roosevelt graduated from ,,...,...,.,- - - . Roosevelt won the election Harvard University in 1903 but against Herbert Hoover with moe stayed a fourth year as a than 7 million poll votes and 472graduate student, studying history 59 electoral college votes. and economics. During the first 100 days of his From 1904 to 1907 Roosevelt presidency, Roosevelt put his New studied law at Columbia but never Deal into action. _"_,-,·-~,,." graduated. He passed the bar A four-day bank holiday was exam and was hired at a New taken to stop panic withdrawals, York City firm as a law clerk. increased government loans to In 1910 Roosevelt ran for the farmers and homeowners and New York State Senate as a created federal bank deposit Democrat in a predominantly insurance. He created the Civilian Republican district. The Conservation Corps, which gave Democratic party was surprised tens of thousands of people jobs when he won. He was reelected on conservation projects. in 1912 but gave up his seat in The New Deal also set up Social , 1913 when President Woodrow Franklin Delano Roosevelt was'elected Security, unemployment insurance Wilson appointed him as to the presidency in hope that he could and federal aid to dependent assistant secretary of the navy. bring the nation out of the depression. children. In 1920 Roosevelt resigned Roosevelt would serve three full from the Navy Department when he was nominated by the Democratic Party for the vice terms as president. He was elected for a fourth term, but in April of 1945 he collapsed from a cerebral presidency on the ticket with presidential candidate hemorrhage and died a few hours later. A train carried James M. Cox. They were defeated by Republicans his body back to Washington D.C., where it lay in state Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. in the VVhite House. The train then continued to Roosevelt left politics for three years when he was Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park where he is buried. stricken with polio in 1921 . He worked for three years BY STACEE CHILDS FOCUS EDITOR |