Presidential Truthiness

Do we love how Washington had his dollar-bill head even as a boy? Kinda creepy, Grant Wood. Kinda creepy. 

Happy birthday to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln! While I don't think that all U.S. presidents merit celebrating today (Harding? Hayes? Carter?), these two are definitely winners. I was pondering these two great men earlier today, and you know what I realized they both have in common (besides February birthdays)?

Honesty.

Think about it. "Honest Abe." George Washington and that whole cherry-tree legend (which, ironically, is actually not true of itself - made up by Parson Weems and all... but still, I'm sure G-Dub was plenty honest himself).

This makes me wonder - is honesty so rare in politicians that it became a defining trait for two of our nation's finest?

(Need I even ask that question? Is the Pope Catholic? Does, as my friend Mike so delicately puts it, a bear crap in the woods?)

So, in the spirit of good, ol'-fashioned American honesty, I wanted to share some fun--and true--presidential factoids, courtesy The Mental Floss History of the United States (and my own trivial knowledge gained as an American studies major / American Heritage TA):

• George Washington was the only president who lacked a political party--and, in fact, he warned against them in his farewell address. I wonder if that correlates with how he seems to be the only president who escaped snarky nicknames. Dirty political name-calling: an American tradition since 1798.
• Washington was also the Founding Father to free his slaves.
• John Adams and his family got lost in the woods around the White House when moving in. Whoops!
• My personal favorite, James Madison, was our shortest president ever at 5'4 (which has long saddened my tall heart. Ah, Jemmy. We were never to be!).
• John Quincy Adams had a habit of swimming nekked in the Potomac each morning, a fact which journalist Anne Royall exploited: she sat on his clothes until he agreed to grant her an interview!
• Andrew Jackson survived an assassination attempt when the would-be assailant's two guns both misfired, after which Jackson beat the culprit senseless.
• The shortest presidency honor goes to William Henry Harrison, who caught a cold after delivering the longest inauguration speech ever and died just barely over two months later.
• Abraham Lincoln gained respect as a formidable wrestler during his days as a flatboat ferrier on the Mississippi. He was also the tallest president at 6'4. (Swoon!)
• Andrew Johnson was buried with his head resting on a copy of the Constitution. 
• Ulysses S. Grant was not the president's real name. He was born Hiram Ulysses Grant, but the congressman nominating him to the Military Academy got his name wrong, and Grant went with it.
• There were a few wifeless presidents, either from being bachelors or widowers. The only one to wed while in office, however, was Grover Cleveland -- and to a woman less than half his age at that! (She was 21; he was 49. Ewwwww. Creeper!)
• William Howard Taft was the largest president to occupy the Oval Office. In fact, on more than a few occasions he actually got stuck in the White House bathtub!
• Lyndon B. Johnson liked Fresca so much that it was on tap at the White House.
• Richard M. Nixon funded his first congressional campaign with wartime poker winnings.
• Jimmy Carter was the first president born in a hospital.
• George H.W. Bush is distantly related to fellow presidents Franklin Pierce, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gerald Ford, as well as to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

More important than trivia (is there such a thing?) are these wise words from the past -- truthiness, indeed! -- that our current leaders should heed:

• "The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." -- John Adams
• "The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for the general prosperity." -- Martin van Buren
• "I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free." -- William Henry Harrison
• "Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters." -- Grover Cleveland (a wise creeper, apparently)
• "We Americans have no commission from God to police the world." -- Benjamin Harrison
• "Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law." -- William McKinley
• "The world is not going to be saved by legislation." -- William Howard Taft
• "The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help." -- Ronald Reagan