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Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, was born on October 4, 1822, in Delaware, Ohio, and died on January 17, 1893. A lawyer, Union general, congressman, and three-term governor of Ohio, Hayes entered the presidency with a reputation for personal integrity and reform-minded Republicanism. His presidency came at a pivotal moment: the nation was emerging from the Civil War and Reconstruction while entering an era of rapid industrialization, and Hayes's controversial victory in the disputed election of 1876 made his administration one of the most debated in American history. Hayes's youth was shaped by both hardship and opportunity. His father died approximately ten weeks before his birth, leaving his mother, Sophia, to raise him and his older sister, Fanny. Despite these early losses, Hayes received an excellent education, attending private schools before entering Kenyon College, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1842. He subsequently attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1845 and entering the Ohio bar that same year. After initially struggling to establish himself as a lawyer in Lower Sandusky, Hayes moved to Cincinnati in 1849, where he eventually became a successful criminal defense attorney. In 1852, he married Lucy Ware Webb, whose strong religious convictions, abolitionist sympathies, and commitment to temperance would have a major influence on his life. Hayes's early career was transformed by the political crisis over slavery and the Civil War. Although initially more focused on his legal practice than politics, he became a Republican and increasingly opposed the expansion of slavery. When the Civil War began in 1861, nearly forty-year-old Hayes volunteered for the Union Army despite having a family and no previous military experience. He rose from major to brigadier general and was wounded several times, earning a reputation for personal courage and leadership, particularly during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns. While still serving in the army, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1864, refusing to leave his military post to campaign. After the war, he served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and then became governor of Ohio, serving from 1868 to 1872 and again from 1876 until his inauguration as president. As governor, he supported Reconstruction and voting rights for African Americans and promoted education and government reform. Hayes's presidency began under extraordinary circumstances following the disputed election of 1876. Although Democrat Samuel J. Tilden won more of the popular vote, the electoral votes of Louisiana, Florida, and South Carolina were contested, and a special Electoral Commission ultimately awarded the disputed votes to Hayes, giving him the presidency by a single electoral vote. His opponents accused Republicans of stealing the election, and Hayes became known derisively as "Rutherfraud." Once in office, Hayes sought to restore public confidence in government through civil service reform, opposition to political patronage, and a stronger executive branch. He also ended the federal military presence that had sustained Republican governments in the remaining Reconstruction states, effectively bringing Reconstruction to a close. At the same time, Hayes supported the gold standard, opposed efforts to inflate the currency, confronted powerful Republican senators over patronage, and promoted competitive examinations for government positions. His presidency was relatively quiet compared with those of Lincoln or Grant, but his efforts helped strengthen presidential authority and laid groundwork for the broader civil service reforms that followed his administration. True to a promise he had made during the 1876 campaign, Hayes served only one term and retired from the presidency in March 1881. He returned to his Ohio home, Spiegel Grove, where he remained active in public affairs rather than withdrawing completely from civic life. Education became one of his principal causes, and he advocated universal public education and improved educational opportunities for both Black and white Americans, particularly in the South. He also became increasingly concerned about poverty, inequality, prison conditions, and the growing power of large corporations during America's industrialization. Hayes supported prison reform, opposed the death penalty, and argued that education could help address poverty and crime. His retirement was unusually active for a former president, and he continued writing, speaking, traveling, and supporting educational and social reforms until the end of his life. Hayes was deeply affected by the death of his wife, Lucy, who died from a stroke in 1889, but he continued his public work for several years afterward. He died of heart disease on January 17, 1893, at the age of seventy, and was buried at Spiegel Grove in Fremont, Ohio. His legacy is complicated: his administration helped restore presidential authority and advanced civil service reform, but his withdrawal of federal troops from the South contributed to the collapse of Reconstruction and left African Americans increasingly vulnerable to disenfranchisement and segregation. Nevertheless, historians generally recognize Hayes as a conscientious and reform-minded president who confronted a deeply divided country and attempted to move it beyond the corruption and sectional conflict of the post-Civil War period. His presidency is therefore remembered both for the controversy surrounding its beginning and for the reforms and institutional changes that outlasted his single term. President, Governor, Representative, General

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JD Vance James David Vance is an American author, lawyer, investor, and Republican politician who became the 50th individual to serve as vice president of the United States. Before becoming vice president, he represented Ohio in the United States Senate. His rise to national office followed the publication of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy , his work in venture capital, and his election to the Senate in 2022. Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio, and was raised largely by his grandparents in a working-class family. His childhood experiences in Middletown and his family's Appalachian background later became central subjects of his writing. After graduating from Middletown High School, Vance enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served for four years, including a deployment to Iraq. He subsequently attended Ohio State University, where he graduated, and Yale Law School, where he earned his law degree. After law school Vance worked as an attorney and entered the investment world, focusing on technology and startup companies. In 2016 he published Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis . The book described his upbringing and his family's Appalachian roots and became a national bestseller. Its publication brought Vance national attention and made him a prominent participant in discussions about economic change, working-class communities, and American politics. Vance entered electoral politics in 2022 when he ran for the United States Senate from Ohio. He won the Republican nomination and then the general election, taking office in January 2023. As a senator, he worked on legislation involving manufacturing, trade, immigration, labor, technology, and economic policy. In 2024 Donald Trump selected Vance as his running mate. The Trump-Vance ticket won the presidential election, and Vance was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 2025. As vice president, Vance serves as president of the Senate and participates in the Trump administration's executive policy-making. His responsibilities include representing the administration domestically and abroad and working with members of Congress on legislation. He has also cast Senate tie-breaking votes, as permitted by the Constitution. As of September 2026, he remains the sitting vice president. Vance's historical significance is still developing because his vice presidency is ongoing. His career already spans military service, law, authorship, private investment, the U.S. Senate, and the vice presidency, and he is the first person born in the 1980s to hold the office. His rise also represents the shortest period between election to the Senate and election to the vice presidency among the modern sequence of vice presidents. Vice President, Senator

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Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953 during one of the most consequential transitions in American history. A Democrat from Missouri, Truman unexpectedly assumed the presidency after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April 1945, inheriting the responsibility of guiding the United States through the final months of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. His presidency included the decision to use atomic bombs against Japan, the creation of the postwar international order, the implementation of the Marshall Plan, the establishment of the Truman Doctrine, and the Korean War. Though his approval ratings fell sharply during his presidency, Truman left office with a reputation for decisiveness, plainspoken leadership, and a willingness to accept responsibility for difficult decisions. Truman was born on May 8, 1884, in Lamar, Missouri, to John Anderson Truman and Martha Ellen Young Truman. His family moved to Independence, Missouri, when he was a child, and he was raised in a farming family with strong Democratic and Baptist influences. Truman graduated from Independence High School in 1901 but did not attend college, instead working in clerical and agricultural jobs while helping his father operate the family farm. He developed an early interest in history and politics and became an avid reader, particularly of military history. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Truman joined the Missouri National Guard and eventually served as an artillery officer in France, where he gained valuable experience in leadership and administration. After returning from the war, Truman entered politics and business in Missouri. He opened a men's clothing store in Kansas City with a wartime associate, but the business failed during the economic downturn of the early 1920s. Truman nevertheless continued his political career, becoming a county judge in Jackson County, Missouri, in 1922. He later became presiding judge and developed a reputation for supporting public infrastructure projects, including roads and public buildings. In 1934, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he initially attracted little national attention. During World War II, however, Truman became nationally prominent as chairman of the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, commonly known as the Truman Committee, which exposed waste and inefficiency in military procurement. His reputation for hard work and government accountability helped make him a leading national Democratic figure, and in 1944 Roosevelt selected him as his running mate. Truman became president on April 12, 1945, following Roosevelt's sudden death, with almost no preparation for the enormous responsibilities he inherited. Within months, Germany surrendered, and Truman participated in the creation of the United Nations and met with Allied leaders at the Potsdam Conference. In August 1945, he authorized the use of atomic bombs against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. Truman then confronted the emerging rivalry with the Soviet Union and adopted policies that helped establish the Cold War, including the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, the creation of NATO, and the Berlin Airlift. Domestically, he proposed the Fair Deal, which sought to expand the New Deal, though much of his agenda was blocked by Congress. Truman won an unexpected victory over Republican Thomas E. Dewey in the 1948 presidential election. During his second term, the United States entered the Korean War, and Truman's decision to remove General Douglas MacArthur after MacArthur publicly challenged civilian authority demonstrated Truman's commitment to civilian control of the military. He left office in January 1953 with his presidency deeply controversial but with several institutions of the postwar international order firmly established. After leaving the White House, Truman returned to Independence, Missouri, where he and his wife, Bess, lived a comparatively modest life. He devoted much of his retirement to establishing and developing the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in 1957 and became a center for research into his administration and the history of the presidency. Truman remained politically engaged, writing his memoirs, corresponding with political leaders, giving speeches, and defending many of the decisions made during his presidency. Unlike many former presidents, he did not accumulate great personal wealth after leaving office and became known for his independence from corporate and political influence. As historians reassessed the early Cold War and his leadership during the transition from World War II to the postwar era, Truman's historical reputation gradually improved. Truman died on December 26, 1972, in Kansas City, Missouri, at the age of 88. He was buried at the Truman Library in Independence alongside Bess, who survived him until 1982. His legacy remains closely associated with the transformation of the United States into a leading postwar world power and the emergence of the Cold War international system. Supporters regard him as a president who made extraordinarily difficult decisions without retreating from responsibility, while critics continue to debate his use of atomic weapons, his conduct of the Korean War, and other aspects of his foreign and domestic policies. Over time, Truman has generally risen in historical rankings, and he is now widely regarded as one of the most consequential American presidents of the twentieth century. President, Vice President, Senator

< Back Institute on the Constitution Educational Nonprofit Institute on the Constitution is an educational effort originally out of Pasadena, Maryland, now based in Dover, Delaware. Our desire is to help individuals across America to understand their own history, and to learn and fully appreciate their own heritage by reacquainting them with the worldview and vision of our Founders. We believe that by understanding the way in which the framers of our Constitutional Republic viewed their relationship to God, to other nations, among the various states and to each other, we can gain valuable insight into the foundational principles of America and the difficulties that face us at this time and the times to come. We hope to encourage individuals, families, churches, legislatures, civic and other organizations to become conversant with the foundational principles on which American civil government and proper jurisprudence rest. We believe that, so informed and educated, the American people will be empowered to take an active and meaningful role in the Biblical jurisdictions of family, church and civil government. Our Challenge Alexis de Tocqueville, who toured this country during the 1820 - 30's, and who wrote extensively of his experiences as an observer of American culture, after noting American ignorance about European affairs, wrote the following... “But if you question [the average American] respecting his own country, the cloud that dimmed his intelligence will immediately disperse; his language will become clear and precise as his thoughts. He will inform you what his rights are and by what means he exercises them; he will be able to point out customs which obtain the political world. You will find that he is well acquainted with the rules of the administration, and that he is familiar with the mechanism of the laws. The citizen of the United States does not acquire his practical science and his positive notions from books; the instructions he has acquired may have prepared him for receiving those ideas, but it did not furnish them. The American learns to know the laws by participating in the act of legislation; and he takes a lesson in the forms of government from governing. The great work of society is ever going on before his eyes and, as it were, under his hands.” Clearly, major changes have occurred in America since the time of Tocqueville’s observations and we suffer the results of our current ignorance of our history by living in a culture that gradually acquiesces to increasing infringements on rights and liberties that our Founders considered God-given and unalienable. Indeed, there are many who make the case that we are living in slavery in America at this time.

William McKinley William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. Born on January 29, 1843, in Niles, Ohio, McKinley rose from modest beginnings to become one of the leading Republicans of the late nineteenth century. His presidency marked a major turning point in American history, overseeing the Spanish-American War, the acquisition of overseas territories, the emergence of the United States as a world power, and a return to economic prosperity after the severe depression of the 1890s. McKinley grew up in a large, hardworking family in Ohio and received his early education in local schools before attending Allegheny College in Pennsylvania. His education was interrupted by illness and financial difficulties, and he returned to Ohio, where he studied law and eventually began working as a teacher. When the Civil War began in 1861, McKinley enlisted in the Union Army as a private in the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He served throughout the war and distinguished himself at the Battle of Antietam, where he repeatedly carried food and supplies to soldiers under heavy fire. By the end of the war, he had risen to the rank of brevet major, a distinction that remained an important part of his public identity. After the war, McKinley studied law, was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1867, and established a successful legal practice in Canton, Ohio. He entered politics as a Republican and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1876. During his fourteen years in Congress, he became one of the nation's leading advocates of protective tariffs, believing that tariffs could protect American industries and workers from foreign competition. His support for the McKinley Tariff of 1890 made him nationally prominent, although the law's high rates contributed to Republican losses in the 1890 elections and ended his congressional career. He subsequently served as governor of Ohio from 1892 to 1896, where he gained a reputation as a moderate, disciplined, and increasingly popular Republican leader. His political partnership with wealthy industrialist Mark Hanna helped secure the Republican presidential nomination in 1896. McKinley's presidency began during a period of economic uncertainty and intense political debate, but he quickly established a program centered on economic recovery, protective tariffs, and the gold standard. The Dingley Tariff of 1897 raised tariff rates, while the Gold Standard Act of 1900 formally placed the nation's currency on a gold basis. The defining event of his presidency, however, was the Spanish-American War of 1898. Following Spain's brutal suppression of the Cuban independence movement and the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor, McKinley asked Congress for authority to intervene, and war was declared in April 1898. The United States rapidly defeated Spanish forces in Cuba and the Philippines and captured Puerto Rico and Guam. Under the Treaty of Paris, Spain surrendered control of Cuba and ceded Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines to the United States. McKinley subsequently supported the annexation of Hawaii and pursued an increasingly active American role abroad, transforming the United States into an emerging overseas power. After winning reelection in 1900, McKinley began his second term with the country enjoying relative prosperity and greater international influence. He traveled widely during the spring and summer of 1901, including a highly publicized visit to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. On September 5, he delivered a speech at the exposition advocating expanded international commerce and friendly relations among nations. The following day, while greeting visitors at the exposition's Temple of Music, McKinley was shot twice by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist who opposed government and political authority. McKinley initially appeared to recover, but his condition suddenly deteriorated as a result of infection and gangrene. He died on September 14, 1901, at the age of fifty-eight. Vice President Theodore Roosevelt succeeded him, and McKinley's death helped usher in a new era of American politics. His legacy remains closely associated with the rise of the United States as a global power, the Spanish-American War, the expansion of American territory, protective tariffs, and the transition from the nineteenth-century republic into the increasingly international and industrial America of the twentieth century. President, Governor, Representative

As Chief Censor you are tasked with reporting to the Joint Chiefs of Staff data gathered by relevant Chiefs for meetings in the form of presentation. < Back Censor Apply Now Job Type Volunteer About the Role As Chief Censor you are tasked with reporting to the Joint Chiefs of Staff data gathered by relevant Chiefs for meetings in the form of presentation. Requirements Have Experience with data collection, organization, and presentation. About the Company Amending America is an educational support services 501(c)(3) that specializes in American History, Civics, and Constitutional Law, and provides a variety of different resources for people to learn from including online courses, research projects, videos, and an extensive library of primary source documents. Apply Now

< Back Megan Krause Volunteer Megan Krause is an American Historical Researcher at Tarpeia. She recently graduated from St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Theology and Religious Studies. She is most captivated by the Early Republic era and religious history. In her free time Megan enjoys experimenting with new recipes, walking the beaches of Lake Michigan, and playing with her two dogs, Finnigan and Ridley. She is excited to develop her research with Tarpeia because she firmly believes, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it (George Santayana).”

William Paterson Paterson was one of the most accomplished members of the early Supreme Court. His career encompassed nearly every level of the new American constitutional system: he helped create New Jersey's revolutionary government, represented the state at the Constitutional Convention, served in the U.S. Senate, became governor of New Jersey, and ultimately served thirteen years on the Supreme Court. His judicial opinions are particularly important for understanding early American federalism and the distinction between constitutional law and ordinary legislation. Paterson was born in Ireland on December 24, 1745, and immigrated with his family to the American colonies while still a child. His family settled in New Jersey, where his father operated a school. Paterson attended the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, graduating in 1763, and subsequently studied law under Richard Stockton. Paterson was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1768 and quickly entered public life. During the Revolution he served as secretary of New Jersey's Provincial Congress and helped draft the state's first constitution. After independence he served as New Jersey's attorney general, became a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and signed the Constitution. He subsequently served in the U.S. Senate from 1789 to 1790 before becoming governor of New Jersey. Washington nominated Paterson to the Supreme Court on March 4, 1793, and he took his seat later that year. Paterson became one of the Court's most important early opinion writers. His best-known constitutional opinion came in Calder v. Bull (1798), where the Court considered whether a state legislature's retroactive law violated constitutional limitations. Paterson explained that certain fundamental principles existed beyond the specifically enumerated constitutional restrictions, while also distinguishing between constitutional limitations and ordinary judicial policy preferences. He also wrote the Court's opinion in United States v. La Vengeance and participated in important early cases concerning federal jurisdiction and admiralty. Paterson remained on the Court for the remainder of his life. His health declined during his final years, and he died near Albany, New York, on September 9, 1806, while still serving as a justice. He was seventy years old. Paterson helped define the early Court's understanding of the federal government's constitutional structure. His opinions are especially important because they demonstrate that early constitutional interpretation was not limited to literal textualism: Paterson also recognized principles inherent in the constitutional order. His Calder opinion became particularly influential in later debates over substantive constitutional limitations on legislative power. Constitutional approach: Original/structural constitutionalist with natural-law elements. His jurisprudence combined constitutional text with structural principles and what he regarded as fundamental principles of republican government. Key Supreme Court cases Case Subject Paterson's participation Vanhorne's Lessee v. Dorrance (1795) State constitutional limitations Opinion in the circuit court Hylton v. United States (1796) Federal taxation Participated Calder v. Bull (1798) Ex post facto laws / fundamental rights Separate opinion United States v. La Vengeance (1796) Admiralty jurisdiction Opinion of the Court Cooper v. Telfair (1800) Constitutional review Participated Stuart v. Laird (1803) Judiciary Act / judicial power Participated Little v. Barreme (1804) Executive power / maritime seizure Participated Separate opinions: His most famous separate opinion was in Calder v. Bull , where he articulated a broader theory of fundamental constitutional limitations. Justice, Governor, Senator, Delegate to the Constitutional Convention

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