There is some debate over who is the most recent president without a college degree. There are a number of people who were elected to office in the United States, and there are a few names that come to mind when discussing this topic. Some of them include Harry S. Truman, Millard Fillmore, and Andrew Johnson. While they all have a lot in common, there are also some things that are different about them. Whether they were born and raised in the same place or lived in different parts of the country, these leaders were all able to serve their country and have a great influence on their country’s history.
Harry S. Truman
Truman was born in Lamar, Missouri in 1884. His parents were poor farmers and did not have enough money to send him to college.
Luckily, he was able to attend school and finish high school. He also took courses at Spalding’s Commercial College and the Kansas City School of Law.
Despite his education, Truman was not a perfect student. During his time at Spalding’s, he dropped out after one semester. As for the University of Kansas, he graduated in 1916.
Truman was not as scholarly as some of his predecessors, and did not have a law degree. But he did have a strong mind, and an interest in history. This led to his involvement in a wide variety of notable domestic and foreign achievements.
One of his biggest contributions was the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. He also helped establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which started the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union.
Truman also became a leading figure in World War II. Although he was not a great public speaker, he was a forceful opponent of Soviet expansion in Europe and the Asia Pacific.
As the country’s 33rd president, he was a driving force behind the end of World War II. He also played an important role in the post-war economy. During his first term, he initiated the “Fair Deal” program. It included federal grants for education, health care, and civil rights.
However, he also made several major policy blunders. He was too soft on communism and too hard on inflation. After a midterm election in 1946, congressional opposition to his policies grew. The country went through a wave of strikes in major industries.
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States. Although Fillmore was a prominent political figure, he never earned a college degree. This was in contrast to other presidents who received a college education.
He was the son of a Scottish Presbyterian father and an impoverished, frontier family. He spent his formative years in poverty, working as a tailor. After some time, he moved his family to Buffalo, New York. Eventually, he opened a law practice.
He was a member of several different political parties, including the Whig Party, the Anti-Masonic Party, and the Know-Nothing Party. At the time of his death, he was the last member of the Whig Party to hold office.
When he was 18, Fillmore obtained six months of schooling. While in school, he met Abigail Powers. They became a couple, and they later had two children. The family was able to move to Buffalo when Fillmore began his career as a lawyer.
Fillmore grew to be an active figure in local politics, serving as the President of the New York State Assembly from 1828 to 1831. In 1832, he was elected to the House of Representatives.
During the Civil War, Fillmore opposed Lincoln’s policies. He insisted that the Federal government should enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. His position alienated the North.
Fillmore also supported Andrew Johnson’s Reconstruction efforts. Despite his support for Reconstruction, Fillmore was unable to get the necessary electoral votes to win the presidency. However, he did help keep the American Civil War from spreading to the Southern states.
Despite his failure to win the presidential election, Fillmore died in Buffalo, New York on March 8, 1874. Among his many contributions to the nation, Fillmore is credited with the founding of the University of Buffalo.
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren was the eighth president of the United States. He served from 1837 to 1841. His presidency was plagued by a series of costly wars, including the Second Seminole War. In the end, he died in Kinderhook, New York.
When Martin Van Buren was a teenager, he attended a one-room schoolhouse in the New York town of Kinderhook. There, he was taught to speak the Dutch language and had his first taste of politics.
After graduating from law school in 1803 and passing the bar, he opened his own practice. As a lawyer, he gained a reputation as a smart and savvy politician. Having been a judge and a governor before, he knew what to expect when he became president.
Martin Van Buren was a strong supporter of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party. Although his opposition to the Patriot War weakened the nation’s relations with Great Britain, it also contributed to a healthy relationship between the United States and Canada in the 20th century.
While Andrew Jackson was the first president of the United States, he supported the Democratic Party, a political party that advocated Jeffersonian principles. As the leader of the Democratic Party, Van Buren established the framework for a two-party system.
During his four years as president, Martin Van Buren inherited a four-year economic depression caused by Jackson’s fiscal policies. The financial crisis of 1837 eroded Van Buren’s popularity.
Van Buren lost the reelection bid in 1840 to William Henry Harrison. He also faced a backlash against federal authority, which hurt congressional Democrats in the 1838 midterm elections.
Despite his failure to carry any state in the 1840 presidential election, Martin Van Buren is a vital figure in American history. He helped create the modern two-party system.
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was a distinguished military leader and Southern politician. He served as the 12th President of the United States from 1848 to 1850. His administration established a hard line in foreign policy. However, his administration was also widely maligned.
Despite having no formal education, Taylor earned a reputation for his military acumen. A native of Orange County, Virginia, he was a descendant of prominent Virginia planters.
After obtaining a commission in the U.S. Army, he was assigned to the Seventh Infantry. In 1815, the War Department decided to reduce his rank.
The Taylor family had moved to Kentucky in 1785. At the time, slavery was expanding in new western territories. As a result, tensions between Northerners and Southerners grew.
Zachary Taylor was an avid slaveholder. While he owned many slaves, he did not consider his slaves as his own. Instead, he used the term “workers” to describe the people who were responsible for his plantations.
While serving as a general, Taylor became a national hero. His military victories in the Mexican-American War made him popular with Americans.
In 1848, he ran for president as a member of the Whig Party. However, Taylor was ill-prepared to take on the presidency. Before his election, he had never voted for a presidential candidate.
In his first term, the slavery issue dominated Taylor’s politics. While he had some support from his Democrat opponents, the Whigs gained significant ground.
When it came to slavery, Taylor was opposed to the compromise bill offered by Henry Clay. This bill combined the admission of California into the Union with the abolition of the slave trade in Washington, D.C. Moreover, it included the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson is the only president in United States history to hold the office of president without a college degree. His education came largely from work and personal mentorship. He served in the House of Representatives for ten years, but he was never able to complete a formal education.
Johnson’s policies on Reconstruction prompted a political power struggle. Radical Republicans were upset with his lenient treatment of the South. They wanted to re-impose military rule on the Southern states. The Congress, controlled by northern abolitionists, opposed his policies.
After his inauguration, President Andrew Johnson faced accusations of violating the Tenure-of-Office Act and other restrictions on the president. The Senate, however, acquitted him by a single vote.
During his presidency, Andrew Johnson urged Southern states not to ratify the 14th Amendment, which would grant citizenship to blacks. He wanted to re-admit the former Confederate states to the Union with a few conditions.
Andrew Johnson died of a stroke in Tennessee in 1875. His ashes are buried in a cemetery near his birthplace in Greeneville, Tennessee. A museum and library dedicated to him and his family are open to the public. There are two homes in the city that are also open to the public.
Andrew Johnson was the first US President to be impeached. His trial lasted almost three years, testing constitutional principles of checks and balances.
Although he was a vice presidential candidate for the Republicans in the 1864 campaign, his party decided to go with Abraham Lincoln. It was then that the Civil Rights Act was passed, which defined all persons born in the US as citizens.
- What Degree Do You Need to Be a Zoologist? - 2 February, 2023
- Which Global Entry Strategy Has the Highest Degree of Risk? - 2 February, 2023
- Which Algebraic Expression is a Polynomial With a Degree of 4? - 2 February, 2023
