History Buff's Guide to the Presidents (4 page)

With the exception of State and Defense, secretarial status has waned in the public view. The only cabinet members from the twentieth century to eventually become president were the Roosevelts (both were former assistant secretaries of the navy), Taft (War), and Hoover (Commerce).
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In large official gatherings, such as the State of the Union Address, the Secret Service often removes and sequesters a representative, a senator, and a cabinet member to be the “designated survivors.” This ensures a presidential successor in case of a cataclysmic attack or disaster.

10
. DIPLOMAT (8)

J. ADAMS, JEFFERSON, MONROE, J. Q. ADAMS, W. H. HARRISON, BUCHANAN, HOOVER, G. H. W. BUSH

Once upon a time, the foreign service was considered a presidential prerequisite. From the second through the sixth presidents, all but Madison had worked overseas, and all could speak French, the lingua franca of diplomacy.

It was a prestige assignment because the true powers resided across the Atlantic. Long before the United States could dictate its wishes upon other countries, its own national survival depended on the ambassadorial skills of a few good men stationed in Europe. During the Revolution, John Adams secured diplomatic recognition from Holland, along with several desperately needed loans. In 1782, Adams, Ben Franklin, and John Jay negotiated a peace treaty with Britain (much to the ennui of America’s wartime ally France). James Monroe, Jefferson’s envoy to Paris, played a critical role in closing the deal on the Louisiana Purchase. John Quincy Adams lived his entire adolescence in Europe, learning to speak several languages. In his adulthood he spent nearly two decades overseas, serving as the U.S. minister to Holland, Prussia, Russia, and Britain, negotiating trade agreements, fishing rights, neutrality on the high seas, and the peace treaty to the War of 1812.

In the twentieth century, only Herbert Hoover and George H. W. Bush served extensively in international affairs. Hoover and his wife worked as geological engineers across the globe before he entered politics (they both spoke German and Chinese fluently), and he headed relief programs in Europe after World War I. George H. W. Bush was Nixon’s ambassador to the UN and Ford’s envoy in China.

Oddly, as the United States has steadily climbed to the rank of global superpower, its leaders possess less and less international experience. As such, they are an accurate representation of their fellow countrymen. Fewer than one in four Americans own a passport.

While serving as the American emissary to the court of the Romanovs, John Quincy Adams witnessed Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1814, and he was more than happy when it failed.

James Polk insisted, “No President who performs his duty faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure.” Three months after leaving office, an exhausted and emaciated Polk died of cholera at his Nashville home. He was fifty-three.

Though few were as driven as Polk, most chief executives of the age echoed his sentiments. Almost all described the job as a kind of altruistic suffering. With two years left in office, Thomas Jefferson lamented, “To myself, personally, it brings nothing but unceasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.” Andrew Jackson equated being president with slavery. Benjamin Harrison once said of the White House, “There is my jail.”

Twentieth-century executives painted a much different picture. “No other president ever enjoyed the presidency as I did,” said Theodore Roosevelt, while his distant cousin Franklin later called it, “The grandest job in the world.” Bill Clinton admitted, “I love this job…Even in the worst of times—the whole impeachment thing—I just thank God every day I can go to work.”
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So what happened from one century to the next? Part of it was cultural. Americans initially preferred altruistic leaders, borderline martyrs who showed no pleasure in power. Also, the work was arguably harder. Congress initially appropriated no money for staff, so executives had to schedule meetings, write speeches, answer mail, attend to office seekers, organize travel, and manage their residence largely on their own or with the help of relatives. Mostly, presidents changed their attitude because of something that emerged with the Industrial Revolution—the invention of leisure time.

Automation left an increasing amount of work to machines, and the masses were gradually introduced to such concepts as vacation, public parks, and spectator sports. The year 1895 alone saw the arrival of the motion-picture camera, the wireless radio, the founding of the American Bowling Congress, the first professional football game, and the first U.S. Open Golf Championship.

The pursuit of leisure, once the epitome of aristocracy, became the very essence of democracy. Not only had it become socially acceptable for presidents to seek the perks of prosperity, but it also had become downright patriotic. Consequently, voters gradually turned away from the “noble sufferers” and toward eager, aggressive leaders. Few embodied the image of the bon vivant president better than the Roosevelts, Jack Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. In contrast, the likes of Herbert Hoover, Richard Nixon, and Jimmy Carter were ultimately seen as too prudent and grave to inspire confidence.

Following are the ten most common pastimes of the presidents while they were in office, listed in order of their overall popularity. As many illustrate, American culture was never accustomed to sitting still, and it continues to steadily accelerate.

1
. SMOKING AND DRINKING

This is a country virtually built on alcohol, tobacco, and firearms. In 1611, the settlement of Jamestown was on the fast track to failure just like every other English venture in North America—until John Rolfe discovered a way to cultivate a weed known for its slight hallucinogenic properties. The ensuing tobacco boom brought planters and fortunes to the Chesapeake (along with a demand for native lands and imported labor). Generations later, a tobacco planter inspired his soldiers to withstand the hardships of a revolution by giving them ample rations of rum.

Ever since, smoke and spirits have fueled many a president. Washington loved his rum, and he made sure to share a barrel at his 1789 inaugural. His vice president was fond of it as well, as was Thomas Jefferson. The man from Monticello was also a founding father of the American wine industry. Taken with the vineries of France and Italy, Jefferson encouraged growers to settle in the States, and he racked up a wine bill during his presidency that left him owing money to the government. Neither his pocketbook nor his palate could match John Quincy Adams, who could discern the region of nearly any bottle, a skill achieved through years of travel in Europe.

Vintage lost its vogue with the rise of Jacksonian Democracy, where hard cider and whiskey ruled. But most presidents of the middle 1800s tried to refrain, especially Pierce, Buchanan, Polk, Lincoln, and Grant. Grover Cleveland was not shy about consuming. The big man preferred beer, which he downed with piles of German food.

When a growing number of “dry” states ratified Prohibition in 1919, the presidents adjusted. Alcohol could not be bought or sold, but possession was not a crime, so Harding simply “acquired” cases of hard liquor and served it to his closest friends. Coolidge abstained, while Hoover discreetly visited various European embassies around town. The Belgians were most accommodating to his thirst for martinis. After repeal in 1933, the alcohol again flowed, as did millions of dollars in tax revenues.

Concerning tobacco, John Adams took up smoking by the age of ten. Andrew Jackson and later Gerald Ford were the only pipe aficionados, whereas Zachary Taylor was a chaw man. Through heavy advertising and copious free samples in World War II ration boxes, cigarettes reached their apex in the middle twentieth century. FDR, Eisenhower, and LBJ were all chain smokers, though the latter two quit for health reasons. In the twenty-first century, health care became a major campaign issue, which may have led Barack Obama to quit cigarettes early in his presidency.

JFK enjoys a cigar during the last summer of his life.
Cecil Stoughton, White House

The most popular choice was cigars. U. S. Grant was famous for puffing down twenty or more a day. During the Civil War, admirers sent him thousands, which may have led to his eventual bout with terminal throat cancer. William McKinley almost never exercised, unless walking while smoking counts. Calvin Coolidge liked gargantuan Fonseca Coronas Fines de Luxe. Millionaire Herbert Hoover demanded large black Juan Alones Havanas, which he consumed at the rate of a hundred a week. Legendary is Kennedy’s acquisition of more than a thousand Upmann Petit Coronas before he signed a total embargo against Cuba. Nixon, like Adams, smoked when he was nervous or celebrating. Bill Clinton’s fondness for stogies became famous during the L
EWINSKY
A
FFAIR
, but he may not have lit up. Like most businesses and public buildings at the time, the Clintons followed the trend of an increasingly antitobacco nation and banned smoking throughout the White House.
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From the FDR administration through LBJ’s, formal White House dinners often concluded with retirement into adjacent rooms, where the refreshments were coffee and cigarettes for women, brandy and cigars for men.

2
. READING

Before his eyesight failed him, George Washington liked to recite from newspapers to his wife before bedtime. But he made it a point never to read in the presence of company, as he thought it the pinnacle of rudeness.

John Adams read quickly, and in French, neither of which Washington could do. He was partial to science and mathematics, while Jefferson read almost everything he could find, though he found law to be uninspiring. James Madison enjoyed the purity of Greek and Latin rather than relying on English translations. All three amassed personal libraries numbering several thousand volumes, an expensive undertaking at the time. Jefferson’s collection eventually became the core of the Library of Congress, while Madison donated the bulk of his collection to the University of Virginia.
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The White House would not have a library of its own until the 1850s, built by a couple who had met when she was a teacher and he was her student. Their lifelong pursuit of learning inspired Millard and Abigail Fillmore to ask Congress to fund a permanent executive library. Aided by a five-thousand-dollar grant, the Fillmores packed the second floor oval room with works on law, history, engineering, and the classics.
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Lincoln preferred Byron, Poe, and Shakespeare, especially
Macbeth
. Nothing enthralled him more than heavy satire, which often made him chuckle while reading. Not one to laugh alone, he would often recite long passages to anyone within earshot, which sometimes proved uncomfortable for those who were busy with more pressing matters. Certainly more refined than Lincoln, the well-read James Garfield enjoyed Jane Austen’s subtle critiques of class-bound England. He also read ancient Greek and Latin.

For some, reading was a physical challenge. James Buchanan was farsighted in one eye and nearsighted in the other, which made him unconsciously cock his head to the side. Theodore Roosevelt plowed through history, politics, biographies, Dickens, Poe, Shelly, and Tennyson. He read at night, the only time he was sitting still, but poor eyesight required him to read inches from the page. A boxing injury while president also damaged his left retina, which eventually rendered the eye blind. Cerebral Woodrow Wilson read nearly as much as TR, but far slower, because he struggled with dyslexia.
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Reflecting their culture, the later presidents either read quickly or not at all. Reagan and the Bushes rarely found time, whereas Truman and Nixon concentrated on biographies. Suitably, Nixon viewed tragic heroes as the most intriguing. For Kennedy it was newspapers, piles of them, and he could read fifteen hundred words a minute, nearly as fast as Jimmy Carter at two thousand words and more than 90 percent retention. One of Bill Clinton’s favorite classics was Tolstoy’s
War and Peace
, but he perused a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction, and he often had several books going at once. Barack Obama developed an affection for books while in college and read from a broad spectrum of biographies, novels, history, and philosophy thereafter.
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