George Washington Inauguration

The inauguration of the first President of the United States took place on the afternoon of April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall, which overlooked Broad and Wall streets. As Washington came out on the balcony he got a thunderous ovation from the people who jammed the streets and housetops as far as anyone could see. Then, as he took the oath of office in his dark brown American-made suit, a deep silence swept over the crowd. There was not a sound from the streets until Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, who administered the oath, stepped forward to the railing and shouted, "Long live George Washington, President of the United States." Again the crowd broke into cheers. The Stars and Stripes were raised on the staff above the balcony, and from the harbor a thirteen-gun salute announced the birth of a new republic.

President Washington had a box and gave many theater parties in the John Street Theater, New York, which flourished from 1785 to 1798.

President Ulysses S. Grant 1869-1877

Grant's closing years were tragic. After a trip around the world, following his second term, he formed a Wall Street brokerage firm. His unscrupulous partner, borrowing huge sums on Grant's name, plunged the firm into bankruptcy. Penniless, in disgrace and dying of cancer of the throat, the old General began to write his Personal Memoirs so that he could pay his debts and leave something for his family. He died on July 23, 1885, and was buried in a temporary tomb on Riverside Drive, New York. The permanent tomb, was dedicated in 1897.

Chester A. Arthur 1830-1886 President 1881-1885

Chester Alan Arthur, a machine politician from New York, looked like a president, he was over six feet tall, courtly, and always stylishly dressed and to everyone's surprise acted like one from the moment he took the oath of office. Arthur was sworn in at his Lexington Avenue home, New York, at 1:30 a.m., September 20, 1881. Two days later the oath was formally administered in Washington.

The Brooklyn Bridge was finally opened on May 24, 1883 at a cost of fifteen million dollars and twenty workmen's lives, it had taken thirteen years to build. President Arthur and Grover Cleveland, Governor of New York, led the first walk across the bridge.

William McKinley 1843-1901 President 1897-1901

On September 6, 1901, at Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition, a young anarchist named Leon Czolgosz, who had a revolver concealed in a handkerchief, took his place in the reception line filing past the President. As he came face to face with McKinley he fired twice through the handkerchief. One bullet struck McKinley in the breastbone; the other ripped through his abdomen. As the wounded President was caught and supported by his aides, he whispered to his secretary, "My wife be careful, Cortelyou, how you tell her, oh be careful. McKinley died eight days after the shooting. "I thought it would be a good thing for the country to kill President," said Czolgosz in his cell. He was electrocuted forty-five days after McKinley's death. Mixed with the sorrow of the people was a wave of humiliation that such a terrible record of assassination could exist in America.

Theodore Roosevelt 1858-1919 President 1901-1909

On September 13, 1901, Roosevelt was in the heart of the Adirondacks when a guide brought him a telegram to the effect that President McKinley was dying. He hastened to Buffalo, arriving there thirteen hours after the President's death, and took the oath of office.

The Closing of Two Newspapers by Military Force Ordered by President Abraham Lincoln

                                                                                                                             Executive Mansion, Washington, May 18, 1864

Major-General John A. Dix, Commanding at New York:

Whereas there has been wickedly and traitorously printed and published this morning in the New York World and New York Journal of Commerce, newspapers printed and published in the city of New York, a false and spurious proclamation purporting to be signed by the President and to be countersigned by the Secretary of State, which publication is of a treasonable nature, designed to give aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States and to the rebels now at war against the Government and their aiders and abettors, you are therefore hereby commanded forthwith to arrest and imprison in any fort or military prison in your command the editors, proprietors, and publishers of the aforesaid newspapers, and all such persons as, after public notice has been given of the falsehood of said publication, print and publish the same with intent to give aid and comfort to the enemy; and you will hold the persons so arrested in close custody until they can be brought to trial before a military commission for their offense. You will also take possession by military force of the printing establishments of the New York World and Journal of Commerce, and hold the same until further orders, and prohibit any further publication therefrom.

                                                                                                                                             A. LINCOLN