Free Republic

Apresident without a vice president is like a captain without a first mate, but some U.S. presidents — four, to be precise — have nevertheless had to serve without one. They were John Tyler (1841-1845), Millard Fillmore (1850-1853), Andrew Johnson (1865-1869), and Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885), all of whom ascended to the presidency when their predecessors died in office. Because the 25th Amendment didn’t lay out an official process for naming a new VP in such an event until 1967, those four commanders in chief simply went without one. All four failed to win reelection; some even failed to secure...

Over a century ago Washington laid the corner stone of the Capitol in what was then little more than a tract of wooded wilderness here beside the Potomac. We now find it necessary to provide by great additional buildings for the business of the government. This growth in the need for the housing of the government is but a proof and example of the way in which the nation has grown and the sphere of action of the national government has grown. ... As a matter of personal conviction, and without pretending to discuss the details or formulate the system,...

Over the course of the last week, some of President Trump’s most ardent and vocal online supporters have engaged in a bit of cognitive dissonance, praising the former president for his foresight and wisdom in calling for a federalist solution to one of the nation’s most intractable problems while simultaneously singing the praises of the one man who likely did more than any other American to crush the nation’s federalist history and culture. Specifically, President Trump called for the question of abortion to be handled by the states, for the federal government to relinquish its power over the issue and...

The fiscal 2024 funding package unveiled early Thursday would funnel $200 million toward the project to build a new FBI headquarters, a plan some House Republicans criticized and previously said should not get more funding. The General Services Administration last year picked Maryland as the home of the new FBI headquarters over Virginia, after a lengthy and high-profile competition over where the new facility would be built. Conservatives raised questions about that selection process and in general have expressed hostility toward the FBI this session, citing in part how the agency has handled politically sensitive investigations. The more than $1.2...

(Theodore) Roosevelt: An AutopsyONE thinks of Dr. Woodrow Wilson's biography of George Washington as of one of the strangest of all the world's books. Washington: the first, and perhaps also the last American gentleman. Wilson: the self-bamboozled Presbyterian, the right-thinker, the great moral statesman, the perfect model of the Christian cad. It is as if the Rev. Dr. Billy Sunday should do a biography of Charles Darwin - almost as if Dr. Wilson himself should dedicate his senility to a life of the Chevalier Bayard, or the Cid, or Christ. . . . But such phenomena, of course, are not...

John Hay was President Lincoln's personal secretary, a position that began nearly five decades of public service. A diplomat who served multiple Administrations from Lincoln to Roosevelt, he was a central figure in defining the U.S. foreign policy that would be the basis of the United States role on the world stage in the twentieth century.This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for...

In Washington, D.C., there is--or was--a place where Rock Creek crosses the main road and makes a ford which horses and, later, cars could cross if the creek was not in flood. Half a hundred years ago, I lived with my grandparents on a wooded hill not far from the ford. On summer days, my grandmother and I would walk down to the creek, careful to avoid the poison ivy that grew so luxuriously amid the crowded laurel. We would then walk beside the creek, looking out for crayfish and salamanders. When we came to the ford, I would ask ...

David McCullough, who was known to millions as an award-winning, best-selling author and an appealing television host and narrator with a rare gift for recreating the great events and characters of America’s past, died on Sunday at home in Hingham Mass. He was 89. The death was confirmed by his daughter Dorie Lawson. Mr. McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for two presidential biographies, “Truman” (1992) and “John Adams” (2001). He received National Book Awards for “The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal” (1977) and “Mornings on Horseback” (1981), about the young Theodore Roosevelt and his family. Deep...

A "problematic" statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside the American Museum of Natural History in New York City that has been criticized for symbolizing colonialism and racism has found a new home, more than a year after the city announced it will be removed. The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library said Friday it has agreed to take the statue of the former president, which has stood on the steps of the museum since 1940, for a long-term loan.... ...The statue is considered "problematic" due to its composition, the library said. The piece depicts Roosevelt on horseback, while Native American and African figures...

Until recently, boys grew up emulating real-life heroes who seemed larger than life. Coonskin caps and six-shooters were the uniforms of boyhood. Boys were enthralled with tales about Daniel Boone, John Glenn, and Davy Crockett. Flannelgraph images taught us about the courage of Noah, the faith of Moses, and the collapse of a giant at the hands of a young shepherd boy. We celebrated in the heroic deeds of George Washington, Paul Revere, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Meriwether Lewis, and William Clark. We reveled in stories about the Sons of Liberty, the Green Mountain Boys, the Rough Riders, and...

Five score and forty-five years ago, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, the “Boy General” of the Civil War, and most of his troopers were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn—or were they? I’ve written a series of comic novels that tell the story of how Custer was actually rescued by an Indian princess, and went on to lead a life, undercover, as a knight-errant in the West. The stories are meant to funny, and driven by action and adventure, but I confess, they have a point. That point is easily summarized by asking what it means to be...

A bronze monument depicting Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, situated in front of New York City’s American Museum of Natural History will be relocated over claims that the statue symbolizes colonialism. On Monday, The New York City Public Design Commission unanimously approved a measure to relocate the statue, which depicts Roosevelt on horseback, flanked by a Native American and black man on foot, to an institution celebrating Roosevelt’s legacy. The monument has been in place since 1940. The development comes as dozens of statues depicting historic Americans have been removed across the country following protests and...

Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt gave what would become one of the most widely quoted speeches of his career. The former president—who left office in 1909—had spent a year hunting in Central Africa before embarking on a tour of Northern Africa and Europe in 1910, attending events and giving speeches in places like Cairo, Berlin, Naples, and Oxford. He stopped in Paris on April 23, and, at 3 p.m. at the Sorbonne, before a crowd that included, according to the Edmund Morris biography Colonel Roosevelt, “ministers in court dress,...

Summary Three sequences of the funeral ceremonies held for President William McKinley: Sequence 1: McKinley's body lay in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol, Washington, D.C. on Sept. 17, 1901; views of officers on horseback, the Artillery Band (wearing dark headdresses), a squadron of cavalry, a battalion of artillery and coast artillery, Marine Band (wearing white helmets), battalion of Marines, civilians carrying umbrellas (may be the diplomatic corps), other civilians, guard of honor, pallbearers, and the horsedrawn hearse all turning the corner off what may be Pennsylvania Avenue on their way to the Capitol; camera pans the hearse, as...

President Trump called on federal law enforcement to target the “Radical Left” and Antifa after rioters in Portland on Sunday evening toppled statues of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt during “day of rage” protests over the Christopher Columbus holiday. “The FBI and Law Enforcement must focus their energy on ANTIFA and the Radical Left, those who have spent the summer trying to burn down poorly run Democrat Cities throughout the USA!,” the president wrote in a string of tweets Monday after the “indigenous peoples day of rage,” organized by a faction of Antifa. “Taking advantage of fools. Law &...

A group of protesters toppled statues of former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in Portland’s South Park Block late Sunday before moving into other areas of downtown, smashing windows and engaging in other acts of destruction. Police declared the event a riot and ordered people in the area to disperse but did not directly intervene until nearly an hour after the first statue fell. The crowd scattered when police cruisers flooded the area, and officers appeared to make several arrests. Protest organizers had promoted the event on social media as an “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage.” Monday is the...

The corporate media has made a fundamental mistake in dealing with President Donald J Trump. Day after day Trump is attacked with made-up conspiracies and personal innuendo and when the president defends himself, they say he doesn't look "presidential." But the American people know he is defending their interests. President Trump is not the problem, Trump is the solution. At his campaign rallies, President Trump has remarked that many compare his election in 2016 to that of Andrew Jackson in 1828. President Trump prominently displays a painting of Andrew Jackson in the Oval office. Jackson, America’s seventh president, was a...

In the wake of public protest against a statue of Theodore Roosevelt that has stood before the entrance of the American Museum of Natural History for 80 years, New York City Councilman Joe Borelli is taking a stand for liberty. Borelli has informed The Federalist in an exclusive that he plans to introduce legislation that would put the fate of New York City’s more than 800 landmarks up for a referendum before they are removed.

Since the museum has already explicitly stated Roosevelt had 'troubling views on race,' its condemnation is not merely of the monument, but of the man. As the woke mob continues its crusade, pillaging cities and purging history, the next victim of the “tear it all down” impulse is Theodore Roosevelt, or at least a statue of him. But if Teddy is so problematic he must be canceled, mustn’t we also cleanse all the artifacts connected to his legacy, including thousands of animals?The desecraters never intended to stop at Confederate monuments, of course, and now the sculpture honoring the 26th president...

The statue of President Teddy Roosevelt at the entrance to the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan will be removed amid widespread protests over racial inequality and police brutality in the United States, a report said Sunday. The statue, depicting the former president on horseback while flanked by a Native American man and a black man, has stood at the museum’s entrance since 1940, the New York Times reported.