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Interesting Presidential Facts

Most presidents had these words as their most prominent: government (15), nation (10), people (6), world (3), public (2), great (2), country (2), war (2 – Madison 1813 & Lincoln 1865)

There were, however, a few unique ones, who didn’t copy anyone else. I wonder what that says about them? Are these unique words somehow more defining of the American Identity?

President – Unique Most Prominent Word of Inaugural Speech – Interesting Quote From Speech

George Washington (1789) said “oath” twice
His tag cloud is the only one that is completely uniform. He never using any word more than once, except “oath”, which he used twice, speaking of the oath he was about to take.
He led the Continental Army to victory over the Kingdom of Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and served as the first President of the United States of America (1789–1797).

James Monroe (1821) said “great” 29 times
in reference to all manner of things: size of the country, strength, government, his satisfaction, etc. Is “great” the pilgrim equivalent of the word “like” ?
He was the fifth President of the United States (1817–1825). His administration was marked by the acquisition of Florida (1819); the Missouri Compromise (1820), in which Missouri was declared a slave state; the admission of Maine in 1820 as a free state; and the profession of the Monroe Doctrine (1823), declaring U.S. opposition to European interference in the Americas, as well as breaking all ties with France remaining from the War of 1812.

William Henry Harrison (1841) said “power” 63 times
“We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.” This dude was the most repetitious, using the word “power” 63 times in a single speech.
He was an American military leader, politician, the ninth president of the United States, and the first president to die in office. The oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, Harrison had served 31 days in office, still the shortest tenure in United States presidential history, before his death in April 1841. His death created a brief constitutional crisis, but ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment.

Franklin Pierce (1853) said “right” 15 times
speaking of American people’s rights; constitutional rights.
He was the fourteenth President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857, an American politician and lawyer. To date, he is the only President from New Hampshire. He suffered tragedy in his personal life and as president subsequently made decisions which were widely criticized and divisive in their effects, thus giving him the reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

James Buchanan (1857) said “states” 22 times
largely in reference to the Constitution, Courts, and Government thereof.
He was the fifteenth President of the United States (1857‚Äì1861) and the last to be born in the 18th Century. To date he is the only President from Pennsylvania and is the only never to marry. As president he was a “doughface” (a Northerner with Southern sympathies) who battled Stephen A. Douglas for control of the Democratic Party. As Southern states declared their secession in the lead-up to the American Civil War, he held that secession was illegal but that going to war to stop it was also illegal and hence remained inactive. His inability to avert the Civil War has subsequently been assessed as the worst single failure by any President of the United States.[2] Buchanan has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the worst Presidents.

Abraham Lincoln (1861) said “constitution” 24 times
Abe went back to fundamentals, quoting the constitution all over the place, in regard to many things, including slavery, and the strength (growing weakness) of the Union.
He was the sixteenth President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery. Assassinated as the war was drawing to a close, Lincoln had been the first Republican elected to the Presidency. Before his presidency, he was a lawyer, an Illinois state legislator, a member of the United States House of Representatives, and twice an unsuccessful candidate for election to the Senate.

Ulysses S. Grant (1869) said “law” 8 times
“It will be my endeavour to execute all laws in good faith. . . Laws are to govern all alike.”
He lead the Union general in the American Civil War. Presidential experts typically rank Grant in the lowest quartile of U.S. presidents, primarily for his tolerance of corruption. In recent years, however, his reputation as president has improved somewhat among scholars impressed by his support for civil rights for African Americans.

Woodrow Wilson (1917) said “purpose” 9 times
regarding unselfish moral purpose.
“Nothing will alter our thought or our purpose. They are too clear to be obscured. They are too deeply rooted in the principles of our national life to be altered. We desire neither conquest nro advantage. We wish nothing that can be had only at the cost of another people. We always professed unselfish power and we covet the opportunity to prove our professions sincere.” Great speech.
He was the twenty-eighth President of the United States. A devout Presbyterian and leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey in from 1911 to 1913. He proved highly successful in leading a Democratic Congress to pass major legislation that included the Federal Trade Commission, the Clayton Antitrust Act, the Federal Farm Loan Act, America’s first-ever federal progressive income tax in the Revenue Act of 1913 and most notably the Federal Reserve Act. SHAME ON HIM!

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933) said “national” 9 times
national life, national scale, national planning, national economy, national recovery, national emergency, national unity
He is often referred to by his initials FDR, was the thirty-second President of the United States. He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945 and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems. He provided Lend-Lease aid to Winston Churchill and the British war effort before America’s entry into World War II in December, 1941. On the home front he introduced price controls and rationing, and relocation camps for 110,000 Japanese-Americans. Roosevelt led the United States as it became the ‘Arsenal of Democracy’.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1945) said “peace” 6 times
just & honorable peace, durable peace,
“We can and we will achieve such a peace. We shall strive for perfection. We shall not achieve it immediately — but we still shall strive. We may make mistakes — but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle . . . We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away . . . We have learned the simple truth, as Emerson said, that “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” We can gain no lasting peace if we approach it with suspicion and mistrust or with fear. We can gain it only if we proceed with the understanding, the confidence, and the courage which flow from conviction.” That’s the majority of his speech! Very short!
He is often referred to by his initials FDR, was the thirty-second President of the United States. He was a central figure of the 20th century during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war. Elected to four terms in office, he served from 1933 to 1945 and is the only U.S. president to have served more than two terms. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Roosevelt created the New Deal to provide relief for the unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reform of the economic and banking systems. He provided Lend-Lease aid to Winston Churchill and the British war effort before America’s entry into World War II in December, 1941. On the home front he introduced price controls and rationing, and relocation camps for 110,000 Japanese-Americans. Roosevelt led the United States as it became the ‘Arsenal of Democracy’.

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953) said “free” 21 times
on the American people and their spirit.
“The strength of all free peoples lies in unity; their danger, in discord.”
He was the thirty-fourth President of the United States from 1953 until 1961 and a five-star general in the United States Army. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944‚Äì45. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO. As President, he oversaw the cease-fire of the Korean War, kept up the pressure on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, made nuclear weapons a higher defense priority, launched the Space Race, enlarged the Social Security program, and began the Interstate Highway System. Eisenhower also was highly involved in the 1953 Iranian coup d’?©tat, the overthrow of Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mossadegh and replacing him with the pro-Western Shah. He has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the greatest U.S. Presidents.

John F. Kennedy (1961) said “side” 8 times
both sides’ quest for peace; both sides overburdened by the cost of mordern warfare; remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness; Let both sides explore what problems unite us.
“Let both sides join in creating a new endeavor, not a new balance of power, but a new world of law, where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved.”
He is often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. To date, he is the only practicing Roman Catholic to be president. He was the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43.[1][2] Kennedy is also the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.[3] Events during his administration include the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early events of the Vietnam War.

Richard Nixon (1973) said “America” 21 times
in reference to all manner of things: America was bleak in spirit; promise of America; America’s work to preserve freedom.
“The time has passed when America will make every other nation’s conflict our own.” O-RLY?
He was the thirty-seventh President of the United States (1969–1974), and the only president to ever resign the office. He was also the thirty-sixth Vice President of the United States (1953–1961). In the face of likely impeachment for his role in the Watergate scandal,[1] Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a pardon for any federal crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.

Bill Clinton (1997) said “century” 21 times
the last inauguration of the 20th century; challenges that await us in the next century; new century; 18th century; The American Century; We need a new government for a new century;
He served as the forty-second President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He was the fifteenth Democrat elected to that office. He became president at the end of the Cold War, and as he was born in the period after World War II, is known as the first Baby Boomer president. Clinton presided over the longest period of peace-time economic expansion in American history, which included a balanced budget and a reported federal surplus of $559 billion.

George W. Bush (2005) said “freedom” 27 times
defending freedom; human freedom; triumph of freedom; use our influence confidently in freedom’s cause;
“The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. . . . We have essential work at home — the unfinished work of American freedom.”
He served as the forty-third President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was the forty-sixth Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 before being sworn in as President on January 20, 2001. Eight months into his first term as President, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks occurred and Bush announced a global War on Terrorism, ordered an invasion of Afghanistan that same year and an invasion of Iraq in 2003, becoming the first national leader in history to declare war upon a strategy. Bush was a popular president for much of his first term, peaking after the September 11 terrorist attacks when his nearly 90% approval rating was the highest of any president in American history to date. His popularity declined sharply during his second term, when he received the lowest approval rating as well as the lowest sustained approval numbers in American history.

To recap, the unique words are
oath, power, right, states, constitution, law, purpose, national, peace, free, side, America, century, freedom

For the record, Obama’s most prominent word was “nation” – 15 times – nation at war; prepare the nation for a new age; we remain a young nation; powerful nation; duty to our nation; “In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned.”

Biographical facts from Wikipedia.
Word counts & quotes from the New York Times.