Warren Harding

8G History Lesson 110 Assignment – Part 1

This week I was to write about presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge. I decided to split it into two essays, this is the first part.

Overview

Warren Harding was the 29th president. He promised to help the U.S. return to normalcy after World War 1, but he accomplished little in office. His short time as president was marked by many scandals, which upset many people. Most people consider Warren Harding’s time in office as one of the worst.

Life and Presidency of Harding

Warren G. Harding was born on November 2, 1865 in the state of Ohio. He grew up on a farm, but his father later abandoned farming and became a physician. Warren grew up the oldest of 8 children. He tried many different careers, and bought a small newspaper company in Ohio. He became interested in politics, and slowly became more well-known.

Harding served as a senator, and was a member of the Republican party. He ran for president in 1920, under the slogan “Return to Normalcy.”

Harding didn’t do much in office. His biggest acts were to increase tariffs, and lower taxes on business. But the thing he is most remembered for is the scandals that took place during his presidency. Harding wasn’t the most honest man, and he didn’t appoint very trustworthy people.

Harding died of a heart attack while returning from a vacation in 1923. This marked the end of his presidency, and Calvin Coolidge took over.

Reference:

www.britannica.com/biography/Warren-G-Harding

11
Apr, 2025

Calvin Coolidge

8G History Lesson 110 Assignment – Part 2

This is part two of my assignment for this week.

Overview

Calvin Coolidge was our 30th president. He became president after Harding died in office. In my opinion, he was one of the best presidents ever, but he is often forgotten.

Life and Presidency of Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge was born on July 4, 1872. He was an only child, and his parents raised him well. His father was a storekeeper, and taught Calvin many Puritan virtues. Coolidge loved reading and nature as a child.

Coolidge decided to pursue a career in law, starting in 1897. He married Grace Goodhue in 1905. Coolidge was chosen as mayor of Northampton in 1909, and was active in the Massachusetts government. He was a popular republican cantidate for Vice President, and made it onto the ballot with president Harding. They were easily elected into office by a 60 percent popular vote.

Coolidge was thrust into the presidency when Harding unexpectedly died. Harding had left Coolidge a seat surrounded by scandals. However, Coolidge was determined to restore the people’s trust. In 1924, he was nominated for president. He won more than half of the popular vote under the campaign “Keep Cool with Coolidge”.

Coolidge improved the U.S. economy and government in many ways. He was very supportive of business and the free market, and dramatically lowered the income and property tax rates. He also supported smaller government. His Secretary of the Treasury was Andrew Mellon. He believed that lowering taxes would help expand the economy. Coolidge vetoed the McNary Haugen bill 2 times, which Congress was trying to approve. This bill was a plan for the government to subsidize American crops. Coolidge’s move to veto it was a controversial one, and some people were not happy. He was also a supporter of racial equality, and tried to move the U.S. towards it.

Some people criticize Coolidge for his “lack of action”, and blamed the Great Depression on him. They thought that he should have taxed the rich more, and enact more laws that subsidized the economy.

Coolidge oversaw almost a decade of prosperity, and in 1928, he decided not to run again. 1929 saw the election of Herbert Hoover, and the biggest economic crash in United States history.

In summary, Calvin Coolidge was a somewhat controversial president, but I think the things that he did (and the things that he didn’t do) helped the economy and America as a whole.

Reference:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Calvin-Coolidge

Woodrow Wilson

8G History Lesson 100 Assignment

This week’s assignment is about Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president.

Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856, in Virginia. His father was a Presbyterian minister, and his mother was the daughter of an English Presbyterian minister. He was raised as a Christian. Wilson didn’t learn how to read until he was 10, but he became very interested in literature and politics. He went to Princeton University, then went to the University of Virginia, where he studied law. He became bored and felt like law wasn’t the right career for him, so he studied government at Johns Hopkins University. He is the only president to earn a Ph.D, and he wrote many books on politics.

Woodrow Wilson married Ellen Louise Axon in 1885, and guess what? She was the daughter of a Presbyterian minister! They had three daughters. He started teaching at Princeton in 1890, and quickly became president of the university. This attracted the attention of many politicians, and he decided to resign as president of Princeton to run for governor of New Jersey, where he became very popular as a conservative.

Wilson decided to run for U.S. president in 1912. There were not one, but two rivals he faced in the main race for president. Theodore Roosevelt split from the Republicans to join the Bull Moose party, and William H. Taft ran as a Republican. He won with a huge 435 electoral college votes, compared to Roosevelt’s 88 votes and Taft’s 8.

As president, Woodrow Wilson increased tariffs significantly, and added an income tax. He also helped to start the Federal Reserve. He was troubled by his wife’s death in 1914, and the beginning of WWI didn’t help things. The U.S. stayed neutral at first, but as America’s ally Britain was being attacked by German ships, Wilson was on the verge of declaring war.

He was again successful in the re-election of 1916, barely winning against Charles Hughes. Woodrow made an attempt at peace in January 1917. But the Germans didn’t care, and kept attacking American ships. After that, Wilson asked Congress to declare war on Germany. The American troops helped the Allies out, and Germany begged for peace in November of 1918.

Wilson returned to “normal” presidency, but his health was failing. He had a stroke on October 2, 1919 that made him partly paralyzed on his left side. His wife Edith Galt, who he married in 1915, tried to cover up Wilson’s condition. She made a lot of the decisions instead of Wilson.

In his later years, Wilson remained active in politics for a few years. He died somewhat unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of 67.

References:

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Woodrow-Wilson

7
Feb, 2025

Abraham Lincoln

8G History Week 13 Essay

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. He was born in backwoods Kentucky. His father was a pioneer named Thomas Lincoln. In 1816, a lawsuit challenged their land, so they moved to Indiana, where Lincoln helped with the crops, hunting, and fishing. He didn’t enjoy that type of work at all.

When Lincoln was 9, his mother died. His father remarried another woman, who became very fond of Lincoln. She taught him to read and write, which was very beneficial to him, as he had not received much schooling. He was said to walk miles just to borrow a book!

In 1830, Lincoln’s family moved to Illinois. Lincoln was 21, and drove the oxen there. Lincoln didn’t care for farming, so he tried out many jobs, including rail-splitting, boating, surveying, and others.

Lincoln decided to pursue law and politics. He started as a prairie lawyer and took small cases. He gradually took on bigger and bigger cases. After 20 years in his career, he was one of the most successful lawyers in Illinois.

Lincoln became president in 1860. He was president during the Civil War, so the nation was divided. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, the act that ended slavery. Most people think that Lincoln was against slavery, but he really didn’t have strong opinions. He felt pressured to end it. He just wanted to preserve the Union, even if that meant slavery would still be legal.

31
Jan, 2025

Henry Ford

Personal Finance Week 14 Assignment

Henry Ford was an American industrialist and inventor. He was famous for inventing the model T, the first mass-produced car.

Henry Ford was born on July 30, 1863, to William and Mary Ford. He worked on the family farm as a kid. Ford moved to Detroit at age 16. He built a type of tractor.

Ford experimented with gas-powered motors, and in 1896 he completed a gas-powered horseless carriage. He sold that model to work on making a second model.

Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903, and it started with good success. The Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers didn’t give him a license. They said he couldn’t continue producing cars. Ford won the case.

In 1908, the Ford Motor Company unveiled the Model T, a very affordable car due to its mass-production. Ford sold more than 16 million cars while it was on the market. The cars were built on an assembly line, at a rate of one car every 93 minutes, which was revolutionary at the time!

Ford increased the amount that his workers were being paid, and dropped the time that they needed to work, which led people to praise him for his humanitarianism.

The Ford Motor Company also produced other models besides the model T, but in 1909, Ford said that he would only produce the model T in the future. Some people were upset about this. However, it allowed the company to focus completely on the model T. They continued to improve it and make it cheaper.

Ford was a determined man who shaped history. His inventions helped pave the way for modern-day assembly lines, which have revolutionized the way products are made.