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In the history of our great county, only 43 men have served as the President of the United States. Not all Presidencies are created equal. William Henry Harrison, for instance, died just 31 days into his term as President. Gerald Ford became President after replacing Spiro Agnew as Vice President and then Richard Nixon as the nation’s chief executive.
Four Presidents have their faces on the side of a mountain in South Dakota. Most of them have statues somewhere in the country and some even have libraries. Missouri’s only President was Harry S. Truman from Independence. First elected as Franklin Roosevelt’s Vice President, Truman became President when FDR died. He beat Thomas Dewey in the 1948 Presidential election to win his own full four-year term.
The Presidency was a very unique idea in 1788. Not only is the President, the chief executive of the government, they also serve as the head of state and commander in chief of our armed forces. The Presidency was and is a shining example of how democracy can work. Every four years, we peacefully transfer power from one individual to the next.
America is great because our founding fathers believed in a government of the people, for the people and by the people. Each of our Presidents has upheld and added to the greatness of our democracy.
So whether they were Republicans or Democrats, Whigs or Federalists, today we celebrate those who have served this country as Presidents of the United States.
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