| | |by the people, for the people, shall not |
| | |perish from the earth." More than any other |
| | |one man, he helped make these words come |
| | |true. Ranked by historians as a truly |
| | |"great" President. |
|17. Andrew |1865-1869 |Took office in a. time of great trouble. |
|Johnson | |Fought for what he believed was right, but |
| | |did not have the power to persuade and lead |
| | |men. Was impeached by Congress and came |
| | |within one vote of being removed from |
| | |office. Ranked by historians from "near |
| | |great" to "below average." |
|18. Ulysses |1869-1877 |Was personally honest, but many of the men |
|Simpson Grant | |around him were crooks. His administration |
| | |was one of the most dishonest in American |
| | |history. One of the three Presidents rated |
| | |as a "failure". |
|19. Ruthertord |1877-1881 |Ended the period of Reconstruction. Tried to|
|Birchard Hayes | |reform the federal government after the |
| | |Grant administration. Tried to improve the |
| | |civil service system, but met with little |
| | |success. Ranked by historians as "average." |
|20. James Abram|1881 |Was killed only a few months after taking |
|Garfield | |office. Yet his death may have done more to |
| | |improve honesty in government than he could |
| | |have done had he lived. |
|21. Chester |1881-1885 |Helped pass the first effective civil |
|Alan Arthur | |service laws and administered them honestly.|
| | |Helped develop a modern navy. Ranked by |
| | |historians as "average." |
|22 and 24. |1885-1889 |Made needed reforms in the federal |
|Grover |and |government. Helped restore the confidence of|
|Cleveland |1893-1897 |the people in their government. His |
| | |intentions were always good, but his methods|
| | |sometimes failed. Ranked by historians as a |
| | |"near great" President. |
|23. Benjamin |1889-1893 |Favored a strong foreign policy. Enlarged |
|Harrison | |the navy. Wanted a better civil service, but|
| | |Congress continually opposed him. Ranked by |
| | |historians as "average." |
|25. William |1897-1901 |Allowed the United States to be pushed into |
|McKinley | |war with Spain, but made the United States a|
| | |world power. Acquired the Philippines, |
| | |Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico as United |
| | |States possessions. Ranked by historians as |
| | |"average." |
|26. Theodore |1901-1909 |Brought tremendous energy and vitality to |
|Roosevelt | |the office of President. Used the powers of |
| | |his office to control the power of huge |
| | |business concerns. Worked to establish |
| | |national parks and forests and the Panama |
| | |Canal. Ranked by historians as one of the |
| | |"near great" President. |
|27. William |1909-1913 |Worked hard for conservation of natural |
|Howard Taft | |resources. Helped improve the Post Office |
| | |system. Fought to break the power of the |
| | |trusts. Ranked by historians as "average." |
|28. Woodrow |1913-1921 |Reformed the banking laws. Worked to improve|
|Wilson | |the antitrust laws, to help the American |
| | |worker, and to lower the tariff. Tried to |
| | |stay out of World War I, then tried hard to |
| | |make it a "war to end all wars." Worked for |
| | |a League of Nations to keep the world at |
| | |peace. Failed, but left an ideal of which |
| | |people still dream. Ranked by historians as |
| | |a "great" President. |
|29. Warren |1921-1923 |In large measure let Congress and his |
|Gamaliel | |Cabinet run the nation. Was more loyal to |
|Harding | |his friends than to his country. His was |
| | |probably the most dishonest administration |
| | |in United States history. Ranked by |
| | |historians as a "failure." |
|30. Calvin |1923-1929 |Believed the powers of the President should |
|Coolidge | |be very limited and that government should |
| | |leave business alone. Took very little |
| | |action but restored honesty and dignity to |
| | |the presidency. Ranked by historians as |
| | |"below average." |
|31. Herbert |1929-1933 |Saw the country plunged into its worst |
|Hoover | |financial depression and was unfairly blamed|
| | |for it. Tried to improve business, but his |
| | |efforts were not enough. Ranked by |
| | |historians as "average." |
|32. Franklin |1933-1945 |Saw the United States through two grave |
|Delano | |crises: the Great Depression of the 1930s |
|Roosevelt | |and World War II. Promoted laws that changed|
| | |the course of American government. Ranked by|
| | |historians as a "great" President. |
|33. Harry S. |1945-1953 |Was faced by important decisions and made |
|Truman | |most of them correctly. Established the |
| | |Truman Doctrine by which the United States |
| | |would help other nati-ons trying to stay |
| | |free of Communist control. Worked for social|
| | |welfare and civil rights laws. Ranked by |
| | |most historians as a "near great" President.|
|34. Dwight |1953-1961 |Ended the war in Korea. Tried to lessen |
|David | |troubles with the Soviet Union. Sent troops |
|Eisenhower | |to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce school |
| | |integration. Ranked by most historians as |
| | |"average." |
|35. John |1961-1963 |Worked for equal rights for all citizens. |
|Fitzgerald | |Established the Peace Corps. Forced the |
|Kennedy | |Soviet Union to withdraw its missiles from |
| | |Cuba |
|36. Lyndon |1961-1969 |Pushed more important laws through Congress |
|Baines Johnson | |than any President since Franklin Roosevelt,|
| | |including civil rights and antipoverty |
| | |measures. Tried unsuccessfully to make peace|
| | |in Vietnam |
|37. Richard |1969-1974 |Ended U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. |
|Milhous Nixon | |Opened relations with Communist China. His |
| | |administration was caught in one of the |
| | |worst political scandals in American |
| | |history. |
|38. Gerald |1974-1977 |His fair and open administration helped to |
|Rudolph Ford | |heal the wounds of Watergate. Improved |
| | |relations with China. Was the first person |
| | |to occupy the White House without having |
| | |been elected either President or Vice |
| | |President. |
|39. Jimmy |1977—1981 |Helped bring about a peace treaty between |
|(James Earl) | |Israel and Egypt. Improved relations with |
|Carter | |Latin America by giving control of the |
| | |Panama Canal to Panama. Worked to improve |
| | |human rights throughout the world. |
|40. Ronald |1981-1989 |Built up U. S. military power Worked to |
|Wilson Reagan | |reduce inflation and led the fight to reduce|
| | |taxes. The national debt increased massively|
| | |during his administration. In his second |
| | |term, he began arms-limitation talks with |
| | |Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. |
|41. George |1989-1993 |His election marked the 200th anniversary of|
|Herbert Walker | |the U. S. presidency. Presided during the |
|Bush | |breakup of the Soviet Union and the fall of |
| | |Communist rule in Eastern Europe. In the |
| | |Persian Gulf war, led a coalition of nations|
| | |in driving the Iraqi army out of Kuwait. |
|42. Bill |1993— |Won back many of the Democratic and |
|(William | |independent voter" who supported Reagan |
|Jefferson | |during the previous decade. The first |
|Biythe) Clinton| |President born after World War II, he took |
| | |office in a time of transition. The Cold War|
| | |was over, and Americans were beginning to |
| | |focus on problems at home, including the |
| | |national debt and a sluggish economy. |
Excerpts from Inaugural Addresses of American Presidents
Every four years when the new President of the United States is
introduced into his office, i. e. inaugurated, he takes the oath of office
and delivers a speech on the steps of the Capitol.
The American Dream
Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and
Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative
government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the
exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; possessing a chosen
country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and
thousandth generation; enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed,
and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth,
temperance, gratitude and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an
overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it
delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -
with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and
prosperous people?
Thomas Jefferson, 1801
The Unity of the Nation
One section of our country believes slavery is right and ought to be
extended, while the other believes it is wrong and ought not to be
extended. This is the only substantial dispute.
My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole
subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. Such of you as are
now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the
sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the new
administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either.
If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in
the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action.
In your hands, my dissatisfied country-fellowmen, and not in mine, is the
momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall
have the most solemn one "to preserve, protect, and defend it."
Abraham Lincoln, 1861
Good Will and World Politics
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall
pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend,
oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty.
This much we pledge - and more.
To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we
pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot
do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do -
for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder.
To those new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge
our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away
merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not
always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to
find them supporting their own freedom — and to remember that, in the past,
those who foolishly sought power by riding on the back of the tiger ended
up inside.
To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to
break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them
help themselves, for whatever period is required - not because the
Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it
is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot
save the few who are rich.
Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we
offer not a pledge, but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for
peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf
all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.
John F. Kennedy. 1961
The literature
1. English №17 1998 – page 12
2. English № 48, page 1
3. English №16 1996 – page 2-3
4. English №19 2000 – page 14-15
5. Павлоцкий В. М. «Знакомимся с Америкой»
6. Учебное пособие по страноведению, США-М, 1995
7. SpeakOut 2000 №6, page 2-3, 4-5
