Did you know that for over 150 years, U.S. presidents had no term limits? Essentially, this means that someone could serve for life, which many people equated with monarchical rule. Beginning with George Washington and lasting through Harry S. Truman, presidents could serve as many terms as they could win. It wasn’t until after Franklin D. Roosevelt won four consecutive presidential elections, leaving office only because of his death, that the government warmed up to the idea of having term limits. Let's travel back in time to the founding era. Back then, the U.S. had no presidential term limits because under the Articles of Confederation, there was no such thing as a president. (There was a president of the Continental Congress in the 1780s, but it was not a chief executive position.) The Articles’ framers in the Second Continental Congress deliberately left out a head-of-state because they fretted over creating another king in the mold of King George III of Great Britai...

On this day in 1777,  Brigadier General George Clinton was elected as the first governor of the independent state of New York. Clinton would go on to become New York’s longest-serving governor, as well as the longest-serving governor in the United States. He held the post until 1795, and again from 1801 to 1804. In 1805, he was elected vice president of the United States, a position he maintained under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, until his death in 1812. There's no question that politics ran in Clinton's family. His father, Charles, immigrated to New York from Ireland and served in the New York colonial assembly. His brother, James, served as a major general during the Revolutionary War. In addition, James’ son, DeWitt Clinton, would follow in his uncle’s footsteps and serve as the governor of New York from 1817 to 1823. Clinton had a close friendship with George Washington, and his hatred of New York Tories wasn't lost on anyone. In fact, as govern...

On this day in 1800, President John Adams became the first acting president to take up residence in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the White House (or President’s Mansion or President’s House as it known at the time), was still unfinished, so Adams moved into temporary digs at Tunnicliffe’s City Hotel near the also half-completed Capitol building. The final site for the nation’s capital had been selected by George Washington while he was still president in 1790. Construction on the President’s House commenced in 1792, but was not completed until late 1800. When Adams first arrived in Washington on June 3, he wrote to his wife Abigail that he was pleased with the new site for the federal government and had explored the soon-to-be President’s House with contentment. However, he showed weariness at being unsettled. On November 1, Adams finally moved into his official residence, with the paint and plaster still drying and the building surrounded by weeds. Abigail Adams arrived in ...

"Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have is this. When I have a subject in mind, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it... the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought."  Can you guess the source of this quote? These words come from Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), the first treasury secretary of the U.S. under George Washington and the architect of the nation's financial system. Hamilton, who sang the praises of a strong central government, was a brilliant theorist and prodigious writer. He, along with James Madison and John Jay, wrote The Federalist Papers, which pushed for ratification of the U.S. Constitution. He championed the establishment of the First Bank of the United States and led the Federalist Party, the first political party to rise to power in the United States. It's no surprise that Hamilton's story b...

Below are two key historic events that took place on March 29 -- 139 years apart: 1790 : Future President John Tyler is born in Charles City County, Virginia. He was the last president to hail from the colonial Virginia planter class that also gave us Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. Family connections helped him secure a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1811. He then went on to serve in the army during the War of 1812 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1816 to 1821. Tyler was elected as William Henry Harrison's vice president in 1841 and became acting president when Harrison died one month into his term. Because of this, Tyler was given the derisive moniker "His Accidency." No commander has had more children than Tyler, a whopping 15 in total. He had eight with his first wife, Letitia (who died early into his presidency) and seven with his second wife, Julia, who was 30 years his junior. He w...

Ever heard of Montpelier? Neither had I -- at least not until a couple of years ago. It happens to be the plantation house where James Madison (1751-1836), 4th President of the United States and father of the U.S. Constitution, and First Lady Dolley Madison (1768-1849) lived. They didn't live there full-time, of course, until Madison completed his second term in 1817. Located near Orange, Virginia, the estate is comprised of a mansion, historic buildings, exhibits, garden, forest trails and archaeological sites. The origins of the name Montpelier are dubious at best, but the first recorded use of the name is traced back to a letter written in 1781. Madison liked the French spelling of the word -- Montpellier -- which translates to "Mount of the Pilgrim." Madison had a staff of roughly 100 enslaved African Americans at Montpelier who served in a variety of roles, from cooks to carpenters. It was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Reg...

On March 6, 1820, President James Monroe signed the Missouri Compromise (also called the Compromise Bill of 1820) into law. The bill sought to make even the number of slave-holding states and free states in the nascent nation. It allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state while Maine joined as a free state. What's more, the bill prohibited portions of the Louisiana Purchase territory north of the 36-degrees-30-minutes latitude line from engaging in slavery. Monroe, who was born into the Virginia slave-holding planter class, strongly supported states’ rights, but let Congress bicker over the issue of slavery in the new territories. He then closely examined any proposed legislation for its constitutionality. Although he realized that slavery ran contrary to the values written into the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, he, like fellow Virginians Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, feared abolition would rip apart the country they had fought so hard to crea...

I just finished reading "The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness." I remember spotting the book at a local Barnes & Noble bookstore a few months ago and wondering why Monroe never seems to get as much attention as other Founding Fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Interested in learning more about the last of the quartet of presidents who made up the so-called Virginia dynasty (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe), I purchased the book. I learned a great deal about Monroe. For example, did you know he's the only person ever to have held the positions of Secretary of State and Secretary of War at the same time? Or that Monrovia, the first permanent Black American settlement in Africa, is named after said president? Or that Monroe nearly dueled with Alexander Hamilton had it not been for Aaron Burr, who himself would go on to kill Hamilton in a duel. Monroe fought valiantly in the Revolutionary War and ...

On this day in 1784, future President Zachary Taylor (1784-1850) is born in Barboursville, Virginia. Surprisingly, despite Taylor's impressive resume, most Americans know little about him. A distant relative of America's fourth president, James Madison, Taylor served valiantly in the War of 1812, the Blackhawk War (1832), second Seminole War (1835-1837), and Mexican-American War (1846-1848), after which he ran for the presidency. The biggest controversy involving Taylor is the cause of his death, which continues to be debated to this day. On a searing Fourth of July in Washington D.C., he downed a large quantity of iced milk and cherries, followed by a few glasses of water. Some historians believe the water or milk may have been tainted with bacteria, causing him to contract cholera. (Outbreaks of cholera were common in Washington D.C. at time.) Others claim that he died of gastroenteritis, typhoid fever, or food poisoning. No evidence of foul play was ever found. Tay...