Some Education for this Super Tuesday

Nothing to do with bikes here, just some interesting info. Here's a great site I found called "The Political Graveyard". It has insane lists of political information such as politician who suffered the most losses (23 losses by James C. Horvath), ones who won Olympic gold metals (7), born in log cabins (48), and my favorite section, though macabre- by cause or circumstance of death.

In reading the different causes, I noticed a 3 died from poisoning at the inauguration of President James Buchanan. I wanted to know more so here you go-
excerpt snagged from here.

"On February 23, 1857, United States President James Buchanan was poisoned at the National Hotel in Washington, DC. The story goes that President Buchanan, as was customary with men of his station, had a table reserved for himself and friends in the dining room at the National Hotel. The President was known to be an inveterate tea drinker. In fact, Northern people rarely drink anything else in the evening; Southern men prefer coffee. To carry out their intentions towards Buchanan and his Northern friends, arsenic was sprinkled into the bowls containing the tea and lump sugar, which were then set on the table where he was to sit. The pulverized sugar in the bowls used for coffee on the other tables was kept free from the poison. Not a single Southern man was affected or harmed. Fifty or sixty persons dined at that table that evening, and as nearly as can be learned, about thirty-eight died from the effects of the poison. President Buchanan was poisoned but, because of knowledge he had of the symptoms, he was able to communicate to his physician what may have happened, such as arsenic poisoning, and be treated accordingly, thus saving his life."

HOWEVER I also found this-

"During the election of 1856 between Franklin Pierce (Republican) and James Buchanan (Democrat) it was universally know that war was soon to start in the United States.

Franklin Pierce lost the election to Buchanan. At the Buchanan inaugural dinner, the Pierce mom put arsenic in the salad dressing and 80 persons were thus poisoned and made deathly sick. Thirty-eight of the guests at the inaugural dinner eventually dies from the poisoning."

Here's some more facts you can amaze your coworkers with today. These have come up from talking with my bosses this morning.
1. If the president-elect dies before inauguration, then the vice-president-elect becomes president-elect. (section 3, 20th Amendment, 1933).

2. If the president-elect and vice-president elect both die before inauguration, Congress is charged with the power to either select the new President elect, or to create a manner to select a new President elect.

3. John Tyler was the first to be married while president. He was married twice and had fifteen legitimate children. His first wife died while he was serving as president.

4. Grover Cleveland, the only president to be elected twice for non-consecutive terms, was a bachelor when he was elected. He was the second to be married in office and the first to have the wedding in the white house. He was 49, she was 21 and the daughter of his friend. He was also the winner of the popular vote for President three times—in 1884, 1888, and 1892—and was the only Democrat elected to the Presidency in the era of Republican political domination that lasted from 1860 to 1912.

5. Woodrow Wilson, another president who married in office after his first wife died, was avid sportsman. He cycled regularly, including several cycling vacations in the Lake District in Britain. Unable to cycle around Washington, D.C. as President, Wilson took to playing golf. Wilson holds the record of all the presidents for the most rounds of golf, over 1,000, or almost one every other day. During the winter, the Secret Service would paint golf balls with black paint so Wilson could hit them around in the snow on the White House lawn.

6. A little drink please- Supposedly Martin Van Buren, Franklin Pierce (died of cirrhosis), James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson (appeared drunk at the inauguration in 1865), Ulysses S. Grant, and Chester A. Arthur all hit the bottle pretty hard during their presidency.




And that's your history lesson for today...