April birthdays
Half of these presidents were named James
April brings another quartet of presidential birthdays.
Out of this batch:
Grant was both the youngest (46!) and also the shortest (5’ 8”) elected.
Jefferson was obsessed with proving that America’s mammals were bigger than Europe’s mammals.
President Jackson wanted to send Buchanan to the North Pole to get him as far away as possible, but unfortunately we didn’t have a minster there. He sent him to Russia instead.1
The only foreign capital named for a U.S. president was named after Monroe — Monrovia, Liberia.
Here are their birthdays:
April 13, 1743: Thomas Jefferson2
April 23, 1791: James Buchanan
April 27, 1822: Ulysses S. Grant
April 28, 1758: James Monroe
If you prefer by birth order:
April 13, 1743: Thomas Jefferson
April 28, 1758: James Monroe
April 23, 1791: James Buchanan
April 27, 1822: Ulysses S. Grant
Half were named James
Buchanan is my least favorite of the Jameses.3
Political party
Democratic-Republican
Jefferson
Monroe
Republican
Grant
Democrat
Buchanan
Vice Presidents
I could rattle off facts about Jefferson’s VPs. But the other four that came out of this bunch? Strangers to me. I couldn’t tell you who they served under and didn’t know any weird trivia about them. Other than a quick mention of their VP status, there was virtually nothing about them on my website. I took this opportunity to fix that.
Jefferson’s VPs:
Monroe’s VP:
Daniel D. Tompkins
Kris Kringle mentions Tompkins in Miracle on 34th Street, erroneously says he was John Quincy Adams’ VP. (Kringle is pretty smug about it, too. Watch it here. Feel free to skip ahead to 1:29).
Buchanan’s VP:
Grant’s VPs:
You probably know that Burr was tried for treason, but was acquitted. Breckinridge was definitely a traitor. Annoyed that Kentucky didn’t secede, he resigned from the senate to join the Confederates. He was appointed by Jefferson Davis as the 5th (and final) Confederate States Secretary of War. Both fled to Europe (Burr to Britain and France for four years; Breckinridge to England for three). Then they both returned to America and their law practices. Is it just me or is that kind of wild? Also, is it just me but is maybe 1/3 of these guys being traitorous or allegedly4 traitorous maybe not great odds…?
What do Hiram Ulysses Grant and Jeremiah Jones Colbath have in common?
Both guys on that presidential ticket went by names they weren’t given at birth! Of course, we know Hiram as Ulysses S. Grant. And Colbath is Henry Wilson. He changed his name after he escaped indentured servitude.
Children
As the only Bachelor president, Buchanan didn’t have any kids. There are some interesting connections here with the other children:
Jefferson knew it was time to return to America after living in France for roughly five years when his daughter Patsy told him she wanted to be a nun.
Monroe’s daughter Eliza Monroe Hay’s husband died. Two days later, her mom died. A year later, her dad died…. after which, she lived in Paris in a convent.
Monroe’s daughter Maria Hester Monroe married her cousin/Monroe’s private secretary Samuel L. Gouverneur (nephew of First Lady Elizabeth Monroe) at the White House.
Grant’s daughter Nellie married Algernon Sartoris at the White House.
Grant’s granddaughter Julia Grant Cantacuzène (daughter of Frederick Dent Grant and Ida Marie Honoré) was born in the White House. Get this — she became a Russian princess!
Autobiographies
Buchanan wrote the first ever presidential autobiography. It was titled Jackson Sent Me to Russia and Maybe He Shoulda Left Me There: A Study in How America Was Worse After My Presidency.5
Grant needed to write his autobiography to support his family after he died.
Death
Both Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe died on July 4, five years apart.
Monroe was the first president not to die at home… or in his home sate. He didn’t even get to his own vault at first, he had to share Vault 147 with Robert Tillotson.
Laurens Hamilton (23-year-old soldier and grandson of Alexander Hamilton) drowned while escorting Monroe back to be re-interred in Virginia. Nobody realized he’d fallen overboard until his body was found; they thought he’d just gotten of the ship.
I found that particularly interesting since years before (and nearly exactly seven years before the infamous Hamilton / Burr duel), Monroe and Alexander Hamilton got into a spat and challenged each other to a duel. Monroe asked Burr to be his second. Burr went behind the scenes to put an end to the whole thing (only to himself kill Hamilton in the future).
Jefferson was buried on his estate.
Grant was the first interred in a public park with a big memorial service.
Buchanan and Monroe were both buried in cemeteries.
Monroe’s final resting spot is in the same cemetery as President John Tyler and Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Tyler and Monroe’s sites are largely ignored. Davis’ is meticulously cared for and adorned with red, white, and blue flowers and multiple stars & bars flags6 which makes me both nauseous and confused. Tyler was a traitor also and (to date, anyhow) the only president buried under the Confederate flag). Why ignore him? But also… ignore him.
Grant’s tomb, on the other hand, is the largest in America. Not of any president. The largest of all.
(And to tie it back to Jefferson Davis7 for a sec: during the Mexican-American War, Grant was promoted by Jefferson Davis. Buuuuut he had to rescind his acceptance, to avoid being court-martialed.)
Other doodles were inspired by:
Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal, by David Pietrusza
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness, by Harlow Giles Unger
Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, by Thomas J. Balcerski
The President Is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond, by Louis L. Picone
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph J. Ellis
Heirs of the Founders: Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants, by H. W. Brands
Perhaps Jackson just lacked a little imagination. If we can slap a tariffs on uninhabited islands, surely we can put a minister in the North Pole.
If you haven’t transitioned to the Gregorian calendar yet, then Jefferson’s birthday is April 2.
Full disclosure: I’m not a huge fan of Jefferson either.
Burr’s own attorney (Henry Clay) later said “it seems we have been mistaken about Burr”. Oopsie.
Obviously, that’s not the title.
At the time I read this book, anyhow. Maybe it’s changed since then, but I’m dubious.
Unclear why Jefferson Davis is getting so much play here. He wasn’t a president of the United States and he wasn’t even born in April.
"Accidentally" 😏
This is such a delight to read. I am never sad to see Henry Wilson’s name - what a character!