Appendix 3
U.S. Presidents and Their Administrations
| Year4 President (Party) | Opponent |
| 1. 1789 George Washington VP: John Adams | — |
Only ten states actually took part in the first presidential election. The New York legislature did not choose electors; North Carolina and Rhode Island had not yet ratified the Constitution.
| 1792 George Washington VP: John Adams | — |
| 2. 1796 John Adams (Federalist) VP: Thomas Jefferson | Thomas Jefferson (Dem.-Rep.) |
| 3. 1800 Thomas Jefferson (Dem.-Rep.) VP: Aaron Burr | John Adams, Aaron Burr |
Prior to the evolution of a clear two-party system and separate election of the president and vice president, there were often three or four contenders for the presidency, often from the same party. The most famous instance of this came in 1800. Jefferson, who was unofficially his party’s candidate for president, and Burr, both Democratic-Republicans, tied with seventy-three electoral votes. The two opposing Federalist candidates, John Adams and Charles C. Pinckney, trailed with sixty-five and sixty-four, respectively. The election was decided in the House of Representatives in the so-called Revolution of 1800 (see Chapter 3).
| 3. 1804 Thomas Jefferson (Dem.-Rep.) VP: George Clinton | Charles Pinckney (Federalist) |
This was the first election in which electors voted for president and vice president on separate ballots.
| 4. 1808 James Madison (Dem.-Rep.) VP: George Clinton | Charles Pinckney (Federalist) |
| 1812 James Madison (Dem.-Rep.) VP: Elbridge Gerry | DeWitt Clinton (Federalist) |
| 5. 1816 James Monroe (Dem.-Rep.) VP: Daniel D. Tompkins | Rufus King (Federalist) |
| 1820 James Monroe (Dem.-Rep.) VP: Daniel D. Tompkins | John Quincy Adams (no party) |
| 6. 1824 John Quincy Adams (Dem.-Rep.) VP: John C. Calhoun | Andrew Jackson (Dem.) |
In the 1824 election, there were four legitimate candidates for the presidency: John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and William H. Crawford. Jackson won the most popular and electoral votes, but lacked the majority of electoral votes needed. The election was thrown to the House of Representatives, which went for John Quincy Adams when Clay, a powerful House leader, threw his support to the New Englander in the so-called corrupt bargain.
| 7. 1828 Andrew Jackson (Dem.) VP: John C. Calhoun | John Quincy Adams (Dem.-Rep.) |
| 1832 Andrew Jackson (Dem.) VP: Martin Van Buren | Henry Clay |
On September 26, 1831, the Antimasonic Party, one of the first serious “third parties,” chose William Wirt as its candidate in America’s first nominating convention. Wirt finished fourth in the race, with two electoral votes.
| 8. 1836 Martin Van Buren (Dem.) VP: Richard M. Johnson | William H. Harrison (Whig) |
| 9. 1840 William Henry Harrison (Whig) VP: John Tyler | Martin Van Buren (Dem.) |
| 10. 1841 John Tyler (Whig) |
On Harrison’s death, of pneumonia on April 4 after one month in office, Tyler became the first vice president to succeed to the office owing to the death of a sitting president, on April 6, 1841. Tyler retained Harrison’s cabinet, and named no new vice president. There was no constitutional provision for replacing a vice president until ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967.
| 11. 1844 James K. Polk (Dem.) VP: George M. Dallas | Henry Clay (Whig) |
| 12. 1848 Zachary Taylor (Whig) VP: Millard Fillmore | Lewis Cass (Democrat) |
| 13. 1850 Millard Fillmore (Whig) | |
| (Succeeded Taylor on his death in July 1850.) | |
| 14. 1852 Franklin Pierce (Dem.) VP: William R. King | Winfield Scott (Whig) |
| 15. 1856 James Buchanan (Dem.) VP: John C. Breckinridge | John C. Frémont (Rep.) |
| 16. 1860 Abraham Lincoln (Rep.) VP: Hannibal Hamlin | John C. Breckinridge (Dem.), John Bell (Constitutional Union), Stephen A. Douglas (Dem.) |
| 1864 Abraham Lincoln (Union) VP: Andrew Johnson (Dem.) | George McClellan (Dem.) |
| 17. 1865 Andrew Johnson | |
| (Succeeded Lincoln following his assassination on April 15, 1865.) | |
| 18. 1868 Ulysses S. Grant (Rep.) VP: Schuyler Colfax | Horatio Seymour (Dem.) |
| 1872 Ulysses S. Grant (Rep.) VP: Henry Wilson | Horace Greeley (Liberal Republican) |
The candidates of the Liberal Republicans and the Northern Democrats in 1872 were Greeley and B. Gratz Brown. Greeley died on November 29, 1872, before his 66 electors voted. In the electoral balloting for president, 63 of Greeley’s votes were scattered among four other men, including Brown.
| 19. 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes (Rep.) VP: William A. Wheeler | Samuel J. Tilden (Dem.) |
Tilden won a small majority in the popular vote and led in the Electoral College, but was one short of the required number of electoral votes. Twenty-two electoral votes were in dispute because Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon each sent in two sets of election returns. To win, Tilden needed just one of these; Hayes needed all twenty-two. The chairman of the Republican Party claimed Hayes had won all twenty-two votes, and the dispute lasted until March 1877. The vote was accompanied by widespread fraud, especially in the South. Congress was left to decide the issue, and an electoral commission was established to settle the question. Splitting on straight partisan lines, the commission gave the election to Hayes, who had promised the South that he would bring an end to Reconstruction and withdraw federal troops from their states.
| 20. 1880 James A. Garfield (Rep.) VP: Chester A. Arthur | Winfield S. Hancock (Dem.) |
| 21. 1881 Chester A. Arthur (Rep.) | |
| (Succeeded Garfield following his assassination in September 1881.) | |
| 22. 1884 Grover Cleveland (Dem.) VP: Thomas A. Hendricks | James G. Blaine (Rep.) |
| 23. 1888 Benjamin Harrison (Rep.) VP: Levi P. Morton | Grover Cleveland (Dem.) |
In the election of 1888, Cleveland won the popular vote with 48.6 percent of the votes cast, but lost the election in the Electoral College, where Harrison won 233–168.
| 24. 1892 Grover Cleveland (Dem.) VP: Adlai E. Stevenson | Benjamin Harrison (Dem.) |
| 25. 1896 William McKinley (Rep.) VP: Garret Hobart | William J. Bryan (Dem.) |
| 1900 William McKinley (Rep.) VP: Theodore Roosevelt | William J. Bryan (Dem.) |
| 26. 1901 Theodore Roosevelt (Rep.) | |
| (Succeeded McKinley following his assassination on September 14, 1901.) | |
| 1904 Theodore Roosevelt (Rep.) VP: Charles Warren Fairbanks | Alton B. Parker (Dem.), Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) |
| 27. 1908 William H. Taft (Rep.) VP: James S. Sherman | William J. Bryan (Dem.), Eugene V. Debs (Socialist) |
| 28. 1912 Woodrow Wilson (Dem.) VP: Thomas R. Marshall | Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive), William Taft (Rep.) |
| 1916 Woodrow Wilson (Dem.) VP: Thomas R. Marshall | Charles E. Hughes (Rep.) |
| 29. 1920 Warren G. Harding (Rep.) VP: Calvin Coolidge | James M. Cox (Dem.) |
| 30. 1923 Calvin Coolidge (Rep.) | |
| (Succeeded Harding, who died of a heart attack on August 2, 1923.) | |
| 1924 Calvin Coolidge (Rep.) VP: Charles G. Dawes | John W. Davis (Dem.) |
| 31. 1928 Herbert C. Hoover (Rep.) VP: Charles Curtis | Alfred E. Smith (Dem.) |
| 32. 1932 Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem.) VP: John Nance Garner | Herbert Hoover (Rep.) |
| 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem.) VP: John Nance Garner | Alfred M. Landon (Rep.) |
| 1940 Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem.) VP: Henry A. Wallace | Wendell Willkie (Rep.) |
| 1944 Franklin D. Roosevelt (Dem.) VP: Harry S Truman | Thomas E. Dewey (Rep.) |
| 33. 1945 Harry S Truman (Dem.) | |
| (Succeeded Roosevelt at his death on April 12, 1945.) | |
| 1948 Harry S Truman (Dem.) VP: Alben W. Barkley | Thomas E. Dewey (Rep.) |
| 34. 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower (Rep.) VP: Richard M. Nixon | Adlai Stevenson (Dem.) |
| 1956 Dwight D. Eisenhower (Rep.) VP: Richard M. Nixon | Adlai Stevenson (Dem.) |
| 35. 1960 John F. Kennedy (Dem.) VP: Lyndon B. Johnson (Dem.) | Richard M. Nixon (Rep.) |
| 36. 1963 Lyndon B. Johnson | |
| (Succeeded Kennedy following his assassination on November 22, 1963.) | |
| 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson (Dem.) VP: Hubert H. Humphrey | Barry Goldwater (Rep.) |
| 37. 1968 Richard M. Nixon (Rep.) VP: Spiro T. Agnew | Hubert H. Humphrey (Dem.) |
| 1972 Richard M. Nixon (Rep.) VP: Spiro T. Agnew VP: Gerald Ford | George McGovern (Dem.) |
Nixon’s running mate, Agnew, the former governor of Maryland, was accused of tax fraud and having taken bribes while a county executive. He later pleaded no contest to the tax evasion charge and resigned as vice president. Under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, enacted in 1967 to ensure orderly succession in the event of a president’s death or resignation, Nixon appointed Representative Gerald Ford as vice president, and Congress confirmed him.
| 38. 1974 Gerald Ford (Rep.) |
Ford succeeded Nixon following his resignation on August 9, 1974, in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Ford, under the Twenty-fifth Amendment, appointed Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York as vice president.
| 39. 1976 Jimmy Carter (Dem.) VP: Walter Mondale | Gerald Ford (Rep.) |
| 40. 1980 Ronald Reagan (Rep.) VP: George Bush | Jimmy Carter (Dem.) |
| 1984 Ronald Reagan (Rep.) VP: George Bush | Walter Mondale (Dem.) |
| 41. 1988 George Bush Michael Dukakis (Dem.) VP: J. Danforth Quayle | (Rep.) |
| 42. 1992 William Jefferson Clinton George Bush (Rep.), VP: Albert Gore Jr. | (Dem.) H. Ross Perot (Ind.) |
| 1996 William Jefferson Clinton Robert Dole (Rep.), VP: Albert Gore Jr. | (Dem.) H. Ross Perot (Ind.) |
| 43. 2000 George W. Bush (Rep.) VP: Richard Cheney | Albert Gore Jr. (Dem.) |
| 2004 George W. Bush (Rep.) VP: Richard Cheney | John Kerry (Dem.) |
| 44. 2008 Barack H. Obama (Dem.) VP: Joseph Biden | John McCain (Rep.) |