Domestic Policy: In 1794 Washington personally leads a militia to stomp out the whiskey rebellion. This shows the US gov has power to enforce laws.

Economic Event: In 1791 Washington establishes the first Bank of the United States in line with Hamilton's plan.

Political Event: In 1794 Washington's ambassador to Britain John Jay creates the Jay treaty, averting war between the countries.

Domestic Policy: 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts meant to crush opponent Jefferson (who had foreign support) made it more difficult to become a citizen and made deportation legal. No one was arrested but many fled.

Economic Event: Adams throughout his presidency set in motion government funded infrastructure. Part of the "American System" proposed by Henry Clay

Political Event: In 1798 Adams passed the 11th amendment which declared that federal courts shall not have the jurisdiction over litigation between individuals from one state against individuals from another state. 

Domestic Policy: As a staunch anti-federalist Jefferson supports states rights, lower taxes, and a free economy.

Economic Event: Embargo of 1807-1809. Forbade exports of all goods from the US trying to stay neutral and promote US industry. It backfires though and hurts the economy.

Political Event: Revolution of 1800. John Adams who was Federalist peacefully transfers power to Jefferson who is a Democratic Republican

Source for all: APUSH Cheatsheet

Domestic Policy: Madison other than the bank focused mostly on foreign conflict.

Economic Event: Madison supports the rechartering of the National Bank

Political Event: In 1812 Madison comes foward with a list of grievances against the British. He listed the impressment of US soldiers, arming Inidans, and trade restrictions. This convinces Congress to declare war.

Domestic Policy: The Era of Good Feelings is occuring and the nation is united toward progress

Economic Event: Panic of 1819 caused by land speculation and the 2nd bank giving out too many loans which could not be reapid by farmers.

Political Event: The Adams-Onis treaty negotiated by John Quincy Adams purchases Florida from Spain and changes the US border to give us land on the Pacific Ocean.

Source for all: APUSH Cheatsheet , UVA Miller Center

Domestic Policy: In his first message to Congress Adams presented an idea for the creation of a national market that included roads, canals, a national university, a national astronomical observatory, and other initiatives. In line with Henry Clay American System.

Economic Event: 1828 The Tarriff of Abominations. JQA raises taxes on imported manufactures to reduce foreign competition with US manufacturing. South felt this helped Northern manufacturing at their expense.

Political Event: 1824 The Corrupt Bargain. John Quincy, Henry Clay, Crawford, and Jackson run for president. Came down to house decision. They choose Quincy because he agrees to make Clay Secretary of State.

Source for all: APUSH Cheatsheet, Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Trail of Tears 1831. Jackson forces all Cherokee to leave their land. He made their new land more than 800 miles away. Over 4,000 Cherokees die during this 116 day journey.

Economic Event: Bank War. After 1832 Jackson fears Biddle is going to manipulate the banks. Jackson decides to remove federal deposits effectively killing the Bank of the US. This caused inflation because the state pet banks set up printed too much paper money.

Political Event: The Spoils System. Democrats reward political supporters with public offfice. Jackson appoints a shady guy Samuel Swartwout and he ends up stealing money.

Source for all: APUSH Cheatsheet

Domestic Policy: Van Buren announced in 1837 he does not support the annexation of Texas.

Economic Event: Economic Panic of 1837. English banks are failing and stop pumping money into US, then US who have overextended credit and ask British to pay loans they cannot pay.

Political Event: Innauguration speech explains Van Buren wants to tread in the footsteps of Jackson, retains entire cabinet.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Tyler supports slavery and wants Texas to join as a slave state.

Economic Event: Tyler refuses to revive The Bank of The United States. His entire cabinet resigns and his party disowns him.

Political Event: Tells everyone he is president in full and complete power. Refuses to accept being known as a stand in.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Westward Expansion. Polk encourages Manifest Destiny and moving westward.

Economic Event: Walker Tariff 1846. The tariff moved rates downward towards revenue-only levels. Overall good.

Political Event: In l846 Mexican troops cross the Rio Grande and kill 11 U.S. soldiers. In response, Polk requests a declaration of war from Congress.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Urges new states to apply for statehood even knowing they will likely ban slavery.

Economic Event: Cant really find anything

Political Event: 1850 Threat of Secession. Taylors letting people vote on it idea would disrupt the balance. Southern Dems call for a secession convention and Taylor says he will hang them.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Slowly 5 bills pass. Texas settles border, Cali, NM, Utah become states, fugitive slave law passes, slavery outlawed in the District of Columbia.

Economic Event: Filmore helps open Japan to world trade.

Political Event: Takes the oath of office in the Capitol and does not give a speech.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Kansas-Nebraska act passes repealing the prohibition against slavery in the territories north of the latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes. Destroys Whigs, weakens Dems who split on issue.

Economic Event: Gasen Purchase US buy land from Mexico for 15 million, allows US to build transoceanic canal, but never happens.

Political Event: Son dies only 2 months prior to innaguaration. Super good speaker who gives sorta sad 20 min speech.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: 1857 Dredd Scott decision does not recognize slaves as citizens and defines them as property.

Economic Event: Focused on looming civil war instead.

Political Event: Buchanan urges members of the supreme court to vote with the South. Knows about decision and is involved in swaying it. This makes pro-slavery love him and abolitionists hate him.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Civil War. Long bloody war, North vs South. Appoints Grant and Sherman because he loves their aggressive tactics. Lincoln looks to end the war as quick as possible by destroying the South.

Economic Event: Appoints Salmon Chase who in 1862 passed the legal tender act to issue greenbacks to help finance the war. He also later supervises the first income tax.

Political Event: 1861 Inaugural Address. Reaffirms that the nation needs to get along and that he will not take the Souths slaves.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Reconstruction. He appointed provisional governors to the defeated states and required them to call special conventions to draft new constitutions that abolished slavery and renounced secession. After the ratification of these constitutions they sent representatives to Congress, and the states would be restored to the Union.

Economic Event: In 1866 to buy Alaska Seward offered $7.2 million and the Russians accepted.

Political Event: Johnson hit the campaign trail in an effort to elect congressmen who supported his policies. Johnson's plan backfired on him however, as his racism became obvious offending many Democratic moderates and uncommitted voters.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Grant was determined to follow Lincoln's policy of reconciliation with the South.

Economic Event: Grant was a fiscal conservative, a man who believed that the country's currency should be backed by gold

Political Event: In his inaugural address, he urged the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, which would give citizens the right to vote regardless of race or previous servitude. He proudly signed off on the Amendment in 1870.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Wants southern states to obey the Reconstruction amendments guaranteeing civil and voting rights. Beliefs the schoolhouse, not the railroad station, was the key to political stability and to economic prosperity in the South and elsewhere. He calls for federal aid for education.

Economic Event: Wage cuts, on top of earlier reductions, led to the Great Strike of 1877 which then led to riots.

Political Event: On June 22, 1877 Hayes issued an executive order prohibiting political assessments and forbidding civil servants to manage political parties, conventions, and campaigns. Hayes wanted to depoliticize the civil service.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Died in 100 days

Economic Event: Recalled gov bonds and refinanced them saving the US a lot of money.

Political Event: Died in 100 days

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Known as the "Father of the Steel Navy," Arthur sought the construction of steam-powered steel cruisers, steel rams, and steel-clad gunboats.

Economic Event: Acting in defiance of the President, Congress passed the infamous "Mongrel" Tariff of 1883, which dropped rates on a varied list of items by an average of 1.47 percent.

Political Event: In 1883, he signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. The law banned salary kickbacks, apportioned federal appointments among the states, and ruled that new employees must begin their service at the bottom of the career ladder, advancing only by merit exams.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Though he did not campaign for the bill, he eagerly supported and signed into law the Dawes Act of 1887, which empowered the President to allot land within the reservations to individual Indians.

Economic Event: Cleveland did push two legislative initiatives during his first term, the repeal of the Bland-Allison Silver Purchase Act of 1878 and tariff reduction. His efforts however were ineffective and poorly presented.

Political Event: Consistent with his actions as governor of New York, Cleveland was not shy about using his veto power.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: The Harrison administration supported the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.

Economic Event: Ohio's William McKinley submitted, with Harrison's support, the highest protective tariff in the nation's history. Known as the McKinley Tariff of 1890.

Political Event: On several occasions, Harrison demonstrated that he was willing to go up against foreign nations when American interests were at stake. For example, he took the nation to the brink of war with Chile over an incident involving harm done to United States sailors.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Cleveland did not believe that the government should sponsor work projects to relieve the depression, and the march did nothing to change his mind.

Economic Event: Cleveland's second administration began in 1893, just as the nation entered the most severe depression in its history. By 1894, nearly 18 percent of the nation's workers were unemployed.

Political Event: Cleveland was mostly silent on the issue of women's suffrage.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: McKinley increased his favorable standing with organized labor by his support for the Dingley Tariff and his appointment of various labor leaders to government positions.

Economic Event: In 1900, he signed the Gold Standard Act, which formally placed U.S. money on the gold standard. All currency was fully backed by gold, with a fixed price at $20.67 an ounce.

Political Event: McKinley denounced lynching in his 1897 inaugural address but failed to condemn that practice formally.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Roosevelt believed that the government should use its resources to help achieve economic and social justice.

Economic Event: In 1904, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the government and ordered the company dismantled. The high court's action was a major victory for the administration.

Political Event: When he visited Panama in 1906 to observe the building of the canal, Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to leave the country during his term of office.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Taft entered the White House determined to implement and continue Roosevelt's program. His central ambition regarding reform was to create an orderly framework for administering a reform agenda.

Economic Event: Among the significant pieces of legislation passed by Congress during Taft's presidency was the Mann-Elkins Act of 1910, empowering the Interstate Commerce Commission to suspend railroad rate hikes and to set rates.

Political Event: Dismissal of Roosevelt's friend, the chief forester of the United States, Gifford Pinchot. The resulting explosion tore the Republican Party apart and drove an inseparable wedge between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Wilson expanded upon TR’s example, emphasizing the central role of the presidency within America’s constitutional system, making it the dominant branch.

Economic Event: Wilson focused first on tariff reform, pushing through Congress the Underwood-Simmons Act, which achieved the most significant reductions in rates since the Civil War.

Political Event: In April 1913, at the opening of a special session of Congress called by the president to consider tariff reform, Wilson appeared personally before a joint session of the House and Senate to explain his program. No president had addressed Congress personally since John Adams

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Being president stressed Harding out but he appoints an incredible cabinet to basically do everything.

Economic Event: Harding signed a revised version of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which allowed the President to present a unified budget for the first time

Political Event: As a condition for the pardon, Harding insisted that Debs come to the White House after being released from jail so the two men could meet.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Coolidge's belief was that the President should not undertake sweeping new reforms to address the challenges of the modern, industrial age. He favored instead a hands-off leadership style and delegated tasks to his Cabinet

Economic Event: The centerpiece of Coolidge's domestic agenda was his tax cutting he championed the Revenue Acts of 1924 and 1926.

Political Event: After learning of his ascendancy to the presidency following the death of Warren Harding in 1923, Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a justice of the peace, in the middle of the night and promptly went back to bed.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Great Depression was biggest worry. Hoover's advisers drew up proposals to stimulate the economy with reductions in taxes, a plan for the Federal Reserve to loosen its credit policies, and more public works spending. Hoover also called openly for local and state governments to expand public works projects, and organized a series of conferences in November 1929 which brought together leaders of industry, labor, and government to discuss the economy.

Economic Event: By June, more than one-quarter of the factory work force was unemployed, along with 15 percent (more than eight million people) of the total work force. Bank failures continued to rise, with more than 2,200 banks folding in 1931 alone.

Political Event: He directed the Department of the Interior to improve conditions for Native Americans on government-controlled reservations.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Hundred Days from March to June 1933 in which the new President won passage of numerous bills designed to end the nation's economic troubles. In general, the First New Deal looked to stabilize the U.S. financial system, provide relief and jobs to the suffering, and reenergize America's capitalist economy. He sought to achieve this last objective by building partnerships between business and government to resuscitate industrial production.

Economic Event: On March 12, FDR went on the radio giving the first of many fireside chats to explain his plan to Americans and to assure them that their money would be safe in the re-opened banks. During the following weeks, Americans returned nearly $1 billion dollars to bank vaults.

Political Event: With this collection of advisers FDR set up his White House staff. Eschewing a hierarchical form of organization Roosevelt meted out tasks to his advisers, sometimes charging them with similar duties.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: At home, Truman protected and reinforced the New Deal reforms of his predecessor, guided the American economy from a war-time to a peace-time footing, and advanced the cause of African-American civil rights.

Economic Event: Truman called for new public works programs, legislation guaranteeing "full employment," a higher minimum wage, extension of the Fair Employment Practices Committee, a larger Social Security System, and a national health insurance system.

Political Event: Truman's appointees contributed little to his presidency. Most notably, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath became the center of a corruption scandal which cut into Truman's popularity.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Eisenhower favored a more moderate course, one that he called Modern Republicanism, which preserved individual freedom and the market economy yet insured that government would provide necessary assistance to workers who had lost their jobs or to the ill or aged.

Economic Event: Although mild recessions slowed growth in 1953-1954, 1957-1958, and again in 1960, the economy expanded robustly during most of the 1950s. Unemployment was generally low, and inflation usually was 2 percent or less.

Political Event: Eisenhower often got his way with Congress, especially during his first term. But in his last years as President, with Democrats in control of both the House and the Senate, Congress spent more for domestic programs than Eisenhower would have preferred.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: His domestic agenda, outlined in his “New Frontier” acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in July 1960, faced a difficult passage through Congress. The president was unable to call on the Democratic majority in Congress to support his most progressive legislative reforms, and many Southerners in his own party were suspicious of Kennedy.

Economic Event: To stimulate the economy, Kennedy pursued legislation to lower taxes, protect the unemployed, increase the minimum wage, and energize the business and housing sectors. Kennedy believed these measures would launch an economic boom that would last until late 1960s.

Political Event: Kennedy's political strategy had been to delay sending a civil rights bill to Congress until his second term, when he could afford to split his party and pick up the backing of moderate Republicans to pass the measure.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Johnson presidency marked a vast expansion in the role of the national government in domestic affairs. He called on the nation to move not only toward "the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society," which would "end poverty and racial injustice."

Economic Event: Partly as a result of these initiatives and also due to a booming economy, the rate of poverty in America declined significantly during the Johnson years.

Political Event: He signed the bill at the one-room schoolhouse that he had attended as a child near Stonewall, Texas. With him was Mrs. Kate Deadrich Loney, the teacher of the school in whose lap Johnson sat as a four year old.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Nixon adopted a policy of monetary restraint to cool what his advisers saw as an overheating economy. "Gradualism," placed its hopes in restricting the growth of the money supply to rein in the economic boom.

Economic Event: The economy continued to deteriorate. By the middle of 1971, unemployment reached 6.2 percent while inflation was unchecked.

Political Event: In August 1971, Nixon gathered all of his economic advisers at Camp David and emerged with a New Economic Policy. The NEP violated most of Nixon's long held economic principles and his dramatic turnaround on economic issues was popular.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: The deteriorating American economy was the key domestic issue Ford had to address. He overall fails.

Economic Event: In 1973 OPEC embargoed its shipments of oil to the United States in protest of the Nixon administration's decision to support Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The embargo ended before Ford took office but the price of foreign petrol remained high.

Political Event: Ford re-opened old wounds when exactly one month into his tenure, he granted Richard Nixon a "full, free, and absolute pardon . . . for all offenses"

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Carter came from the Wilsonian southern tradition. He was a reformer and progressive, who put his faith in science and technology to advance the human condition, even as he had deep religious faith.

Economic Event: His Energy Security Act created the U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation, which would provide $20 billion in joint ventures with private industry. Would lead to a vast increase in the supply of energy in the 1980s and consequently a lowering of prices.

Political Event: On inauguration day Carter got out of the limousine and walked to the White House, delighting the crowd and horrifying the Secret Service.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: He promised to cut taxes, curb government spending, and balance the federal budget or at least reduce the deficit.

Economic Event: Firing the PATCO strikers also sent a clear message to corporate America, which was encouraged to bargain more firmly with organized labor and hold down wages.

Political Event: The administration angered civil rights organizations on a number of fronts. Reagan made ill-considered remarks about Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1982 as Congress debated making King's birthday a national holiday.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: In his inaugural address, Bush spoke about the plight of homelessness, crime, and drug addiction. He advocated volunteerism and community involvement.

Economic Event: In October, after a brief government shutdown that occurred when Bush vetoed the budget Congress delivered to him, the President and Congress reached a compromise with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. The budget included measures to reduce the deficit by cutting government expenditures and raising taxes.

Political Event: Bush initially nominated John Tower as his secretary of defense but the Senate voted against his confirmation due to charges of inappropriate behavior, including excessive drinking and womanizing. Bush loyally stuck with Tower's nomination like a real one.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Clinton began his transition into the presidency promising to focus "like a laser beam" on the economic needs of the nation: unemployment, the runaway deficit, the health care crisis, and welfare reform.

Economic Event: His 1993 economic package passed without a single Republican vote in either chamber of Congress, and despite that party's dire predictions that it would result in economic chaos. This economic policy lowered the deficit from $290 billion in 1992 to $203 billion by 1994.

Political Event: In January 1998, news broke that President Clinton had engaged in an affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Bush often used the term, “compassionate conservative,” to describe himself and his political approach. The term meant using traditional conservative ideas, such as small government and free-market principles, to accomplish social goods and help those in need.

Economic Event: Bush proposed a tax plan that called for a $1.6 trillion reduction in taxes. It doubled the child tax credit, incentivized more retirement savings, and phased out federal estate taxes.

Political Event: Bushisms were sayings he would make up or alter. Amused American public.

Source: Miller Center

Domestic Policy: Obama wanted to do more as president than economics. He also sought to enact Obama Care.

Economic Event: Even before taking the oath of office, Obama had endorsed President George W. Bush’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), a $700-billion initiative to rescue the nation’s major banks by lending enough money to keep them solvent.

Political Event: Controversy over the Affordable Care Act did not end when Congress enacted it. After Republicans won control they began voting regularly to repeal it. In January 2016, Obama vetoed the first repeal bill that Congress sent him.

Source: Miller Center