Lincoln’s name has seven letters.
Kennedy’s name has seven letters.

Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Lincoln defeated Stephen Douglas who was born in 1813.
Kennedy defeated Richard Nixon who was born in 1913.

Lincoln failed to win the Vice Presidential nomination in 1856.
Kennedy failed to win the Vice Presidential nomination in 1956.

Lincoln was elected president in 1860.
Kennedy was elected president in 1960.

Lincoln lost a child to death while President.
Kennedy lost a child to death while President.

Lincoln had two sons named Robert and Edward. Edward died at an young age and Robert lived on.
Kennedy had two brothers named Robert and Edward. Robert died at an young age and Edward lived on.

Lincoln’s secretary, Kennedy, warned him not to go to the theatre.
Kennedy’s secretary, Lincoln, warned him not to go to Dallas.

Lincoln was shot on a Friday.
Kennedy was shot on a Friday.

Both were shot in the head and their wives were sitting beside them when they were assassinated.

Lincoln and Kennedy died in places beginning with the initials P and H.
Lincoln died in Petersen’s house.
Kennedy died in Parkland Hospital.

John Wilkes Boothe was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939.

John Wilkes Booth has 15 letters.
Lee Harvey Oswald has 15 letters.

Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.

Booth was shot and killed in the police custody before going to trial.
Oswald was shot and killed in the police custody before going to trial.

Lincoln was succeeded, after assassination, by vice-president Johnson.
Kennedy was succeeded, after assassination, by vice-president Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

Andrew Johnson had a pug nose and slicked-back hair.
Lyndon Johnson had a pug nose and slicked-back hair.

Andrew Johnson was a heavy drinker with crude behaviour.
Lyndon Johnson was a heavy drinker with crude behaviour.

Flash forward a couple of years and, in 2008, Andrew appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, where he received a standing ovation and provoked tears from a stunned audience. Andrew’s voice was so startling in its purity, one could have almost believed glass might shatter when he hit the high notes of Pie Jesu.

Andrew was born in Scotland and has known a hard life. He was raised as the child of a single parent, following his parent’s divorce. He did not let hard times prevent him from moving forward with his singing aspirations and, in time, he became a head chorister at Carlisle Cathedral. He has since graduated and continues his education at home, while undertaking lessons at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Andrew’s performances on Britain’s Got Talent earned him a recording contract by means of the SyCo Music label, owned by Simon Cowel. He went on to record his first album, One Voice, which has climbed to number 4 on British album charts.

Andrew’s voice has seen some changes as he has matured. His high voice is now in the tenor range.

Andrew Johnson–Pie Jesu

Britian’s Got Talent-Final–Andrew Johnson

Andrew came out and delivered a polished rendition of Pie Jesu, which was clearly a favorite with fans the first time around and captured a worldwide following for Andrew’s talent. In his second performance, Andrew displayed new-found confidence.

Andrew Johnson’s “never say die” attitude is an inspiration for the rest of us and shows what’s possible when one has the courage to go against the grain.

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Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the 17th President of the United States (1865–1869). Following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Johnson presided over the Reconstruction era of the United States in the four years after the American Civil War. His tenure was controversial as his positions hostile to the Freedmen came under heavy political attack from Republicans.

When Tennessee seceded in 1861, Johnson was a U.S. Senator from Greeneville in East Tennessee. A Unionist, he was the only Southern senator not to resign. He became the most prominent War Democrat from the South and supported Lincoln’s military policies during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. In 1862, Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of occupied Tennessee, where he was energetic and effective in fighting the rebellion and beginning the transition to Reconstruction.

Johnson was nominated as the vice presidential candidate in 1864 on the National Union Party ticket. He and Lincoln were elected in November 1864 and inaugurated on March 4, 1865. Johnson succeeded to the presidency upon Lincoln’s assassination on April 15, 1865.

As president, he took charge of Presidential Reconstruction – the first phase of Reconstruction – which lasted until the Radical Republicans gained control of Congress in the 1866 elections. His conciliatory policies towards the South, his hurry to reincorporate the former Confederate states back into the union, and his vetoes of civil rights bills embroiled him in a bitter dispute with Radical Republicans. The Radicals in the House of Representatives impeached him in 1868, charging him with violating the law (specifically the Tenure of Office Act), but the Senate acquitted him by a single vote.

Johnson’s party status was ambiguous during his presidency. As president, he did not identify with the two main parties – though he did try for the Democratic nomination in 1868. While President he attempted to build a party of loyalists under the National Union label. Asked in 1868 why he did not become a Democrat, he said, “It is true I am asked why don’t I join the Democratic Party. Why don’t they join me … if I have administered the office of president so well?” His failure to make the National Union brand an actual party made Johnson effectively an independent during his presidency, though he was supported by Democrats and later rejoined the party as a Democratic Senator from Tennessee from 1875 until his death.  Johnson was the first U.S. President to undergo an impeachment trial. He is commonly ranked by historians as being among the worst U.S. presidents.

1. Andrew Johnson’s inauguration as Abraham Lincoln’s vice-president in 1865 was marred slightly by the fact that Johnson was extremely drunk.

2.  The twentieth president James Garfield had a party trick he used to pull. He would simultaneously write in Latin with one hand while writing Ancient Greek with his other.

3. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States was not only a key Founding Father and the principal author of the beloved Declaration of Independence! No, he also invented the swivel chair.

4. Taft was the largest president- so large that he got stuck in his bath tub (more than once) and had to be helped out.

5. Barack Obama is our 44th president, but there actually have only been 43 presidents: Cleveland was elected for two nonconsecutive terms and is counted twice, as our 22nd and 24th president.

6.  Adams, Jefferson, and Monroe all died on the 4th of July; Coolidge was born on that day.

7. Eight presidents were born British subjects: Washington, J. Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J. Q. Adams, Jackson, and W. Harrison.

8. George Washington was not the first President of the United States. The first President was John Hanson. On November 5, 1781, Hanson was elected by the Constitutional Congress to the office of “President of the United States in Congress Assembled.” He served for one year.

9. William Henry Harrison’s 1841 term as the ninth president is the shortest ever – he made it through just less than 31 days before he died of pneumonia.

10. 32nd president of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt was related, either by blood or by marriage, to 11 former presidents.

 2. These days, most presidents have a cat or a dog as their presidential pet. However, John Quincy Adams and Herbert Hoover both had pet alligators, Calvin Coolidge had two lions, a wallaby, and a pygmy hippopotamus (among others), while Theodore Roosevelt kept a badger called Josiah who used to bite citizens.

3. William Henry Harrison’s 1841 period as the ninth president is the shortest ever – he made it through just under 31 days of presidency sooner than inconveniently dying of pneumonia.

4. Sucky presidential nicknames: Andrew Jackson was known as ‘Old Hickory’, Ulysses S. Grant was unflatteringly acknowledged as ‘Unconditional Surrender Grant’, short-lived William Henry Harrison was ‘Tippecanoe’, and Zachary Taylor revelled in the name ‘Old Rough And Ready’.

 5. Twentieth president James Garfield had a merrymaking trick in which he would at the same time write in Latin with one hand, and Ancient Greek with the other. Show-off.

6. The only president to get married in the White House was Grover Cleveland in 1886. The 49-year-old Cleveland married 21-year-old Frances Folsom, who he called ‘Frank’, and whose legal guard he had previously been after her father (a close friend of his) died. This would probably be extra controversial if it happened these days.

7. The Secret Service has codenames for the president, vice-president and their family members. Ronald Reagan was ‘Rawhide’, George H. W. Bush was ‘Timberwolf’, Bill Clinton was ‘Eagle’, George W. Bush was ‘Trailblazer’ and Barack Obama is ‘Renegade’. Al Gore’s daughter Karenna often complained that she was put on the spot and told to select her own code name; she quickly regretted opting to be called ‘Smurfette’ wherever she went.

8. William Howard Taft was the heaviest American president – so fat that he occasionally got caught in the White House bath, and had to be helped out by aides. He eventually got a bigger bath.

9. In elections since the end of WWII, the taller of the two major party candidates has won the election 75% of the time. Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush are the only post-war presidents to have defeated taller rivals. Since 1900, nobody under the height of 5ft 9in has ever won the presidential voting.

10. Thomas Jefferson, the third (and many would say greatest) president of the United States was not merely one of the major Founding Fathers and the principal author of the Declaration of self-rule – he also imaginary the swivel chair.

1. Andrew Johnson was incredibly drunk during his inauguration as Lincolns vice president. He was so drunk in fact, that he slurred his oaths, and gave up swearing in new senators.

2. Did you think presidents only had cats and dogs? Well, think again! John Quincy Adams, and Herbert hoover both owned alligators; Calvin Coolidge owned many animals including two lions, a wallaby, and a pygmy hippo; and finally Theodore Roosevelt owned a badger with a habit for biting people.

3. Our ninth president, William Henry Harrison, had the shortest term ever. He lasted 31 days of presidency before dying of pneumonia.

4. James Garfield had the ability to write in Latin with one hand and Ancient Greek with the other at the same time.

5. The only president to get married in the white house was Grover Cleveland.

6. What makes that marriage even more unusual is that the 49 year-old president married 21 year-old Frances Folsom, who he’d been the legal guardian of since she was 11!

7. William Howard Taft was so large that he constantly needed help getting out of the bath.

8. Thomas Jefferson invented the swivel chair.

9. Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were so similar that it’s creepy. Here’s a few of the many similarities and coincidences:

a. Both of their last names have seven letters

b. The vowels and consonants fall in exactly the same places in both of their last names.

c. Both were elected 100 years apart.

d. Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln.

e. After their assassination they were both succeeded by vice president Johnson.

f. Both of their vice presidents were born 100 years apart, had names with 13 letters, were heavy drinkers with crude behavior, and had pug noses with slicked back hair.

g. Both of them were sitting beside their wives when shot.

h. Both of them were shot of a Friday.

i. Lincoln was shot in a theatre and the assassin ran to a warehouse, while Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and the assassin ran to a theatre.

And there you have it, a tons of interesting, weird and sometimes scary facts about our countries presidents.

All four have been relatively long-term patients of the medical center, having received inpatient or outpatient care as one of the requirements for being chosen as an ambassador.

The youths will attend fund raisers, parades, ribbon-cutting ceremonies and other hospital events.

`As ambassadors they represent all the children who have been treated at the hospital,’ said the hospital’s media relations manger, Belinda Monnin.

Now a junior at Patterson Career Center, Duckett weighed only one pound at birth, staying at the hospital for a year. In 2007, he spent three months in the hospital undergoing two operations.

In spite of his health complications, Ronald said he tries `to be honest and fair in everything,’ and offers this as his advice to others. Each year the hospital staff nominates patients for thee ambassador program, which began 11 years ago. Usually two ambassadors are chosen a year; this was the first year the hospital chose four.

`They have to be comfortable talking to people and comfortable talking about their illness,’ said Janet Schooley, director of development at the hospital.

Jill Clark, a freshman at Northmont High School, says she doesn’t mind speaking in public about her kidney disease.

`If you were born this way, why be uncomfortable with it?’ she said. `You have it (an illness), you have to deal with it and live with it.’

All of the youths said they are excited about their upcoming duties.

`It’ll be cool because you get to meet other people and more children in the hospital,’ said Sara Vesey, a fifth-grade student at Fairbrook Elementary School, who was diagnosed with severe asthma at the age of 18 months. Her asthma does not stop her from taking taekwondo classes regularly. Another youth who doesn’t let his ailment stop him from activities is Andrew Johnson, a fifth-grader at Cedar Cliff Elementary School.

In 1996, Andrew was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, a form of bone cancer. He endured eight operations and chemotherapy and has had his right leg amputated.

He is now in remission.

Andrew plays Little League baseball for Carl Atley Farms, even stealing second base once this past season, running with a prosthetic leg. He also gives lectures at schools in Clark County on overcoming obstacles.

`He just gets up and says `My name is Andrew, and I am a cancer survivor,’ and he gets the audience’s attention right away,’ Andrew’s mother, Debbie Johnson, said. `He’s really comfortable speaking. He’ll even pop off his (prosthetic) leg and show it to the kids.’

            Andrew Johnson’s relationship with Congress and the South played a part in his impeachment. Part of the problem with the relationship with the President and the republicans in congress was the fact that the President was a southern democrat who had no interest what so ever with working in compliance with the northern republicans of congress and had no real intentions of continuing reconstruction as intended by Lincoln. Johnson’s relation with the radical republicans can be summed up by “His radical foes denounced him as a trickster, a culprit, a man touched with insanity, corrupted with lust, stimulated with drink” (pg 8).  There was a constant tension between congress and the President. Because congress at the time was mostly comprised of radical northern republicans the government was in a constant battle, an internal turmoil; a republican congress verses their democratic president. A major issue was reconstruction, and both sides had a different idea on the matter. Because of the resistance between the two, the president vetoed all that was presented to him by congress. The president’s relationship with the south was different and was divided. He himself came from the white working class. He hated rich southern land owners, which is why they had to beg to be readmitted. While he hated these people he shared many of the same beliefs that the former slaves should not hold too much power, or rise up so much so that they take away from the working class whites. While he favored with the south it was with only parts of the south. These relationships contributed to Johnson’s problems with reconstruction due to the fact that the country was not on the same page in trying to reconstruct the country. Like the fact that was stated before that Congress and the President had different views on reconstruction. Because he was against congress “disapproving bills” and Johnson literally became the force stopping the ability for the reconstruction aimed for by Lincoln.

            Reconstruction would have differed if Lincoln was still alive and was not assonated, due to the Lincolns way of thinking. He would have based his decisions and decided the best course of actions that were best for the country as a whole and that would help reconstruction because he believed “public opinion in this country is everything.” (pg 3) Much of what congress wanted to do and the bills they wanted to pass were denied by Johnson. If Lincoln was alive most likely more of the bills presented by congress would be passed and enforced. This is because Lincoln was a republican and congress was trying to create a type of reconstruction that Lincoln would have approved of and supported. If this was the case congress and the president would not be separated and reconstruction would not have to be derived from pure congressional reconstruction. Reconstruction would have held on to its promises. By this I mean when the land that the landowners lost was given to the freedmen. However while Johnson was president this did not last; he allowed for former landowners to take back their land, betraying the promises to the freedmen.

Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Kennedy was elected a century later, in 1960. Lincoln was warned not to attend the Ford Theatre on the night he was shot. Kennedy was warned not to visit Dallas.

Both men were shot on Friday, in public view, while sitting happily and at ease beside their wives.

Both men were shot from behind, and the fatal bullet, in each case, entered the back of the head.

Both were succeeded by men named Johnson : Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, Kennedy’s successor was born in 1908.

Both successors were Democrats, Southerners and former senators. The only difference was that while Kennedy was a Democrat, Lincoln was a Republican.

John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theatre and was found in a warehouse. Lee Harvey Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and was found in a theatre. Both murderers were shot down before they could be brought to trial.

The importance of Freemasonry to the Founding Fathers of America is amply illustrated in a number of revealing ways, perhaps most obviously by the symbols they chose to represent the newly formed Government of the United States.  The Nation Seal, for example (which was adopted from a design proposed by Grand Freemason William Barton in 1782), displays the Egyptian “all-seeing eye” on the tip–one of the Freemason’s most significant and ancient symbols.  It also (originally) depicted a phoenix perched on a shield, which has been a Brotherhood of Freemasonry symbol for a least 3,000 years. (The phoenix was eventually replaced by the bald eagle in 1841).  And among the other symbols on the seal is the Latin inscription Novus Ordo Seclorum which means, “Beginning of a new order of the ages.” This indicates that the Fathers envisioned a change in the entire world social order–as they had already announced in their official manifesto: Fama Fraternitis.

The influence of Freemasonry continued beyond the founding of America, and was in fact perpetuated by many U. S. Presidents including James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Gerald Ford–all of whom were practicing Freemasons.  And the influence didn’t end at the presidential level.  In 1924 (for example), the U. S. Senate had sixty Senators registered as Freemasons, as well as 290 members of the House.  And significantly, during WW II, both presidents who served were freemasons; Truman, who ordered the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was often photographed wearing his Freemason necklace and apron while in the Oval Office. (Pictures are available on the Internet.)  And although the Masonic presence in the American Government has diminished in recent years (as least in terms of those admitting Freemason membership), their continued influence on the American Government can hardly be denied, ignored, or dismissed.

While the American voter routinely considers age, education, personal interests, family background, physical appearance, military experience, personal ethics and morals, and religion when choosing someone for public office (an issue quite apparent concerning Christine O’Donnell and her admitted association with Wicca), we seem less concerned about putting our future in the hands of individuals who represent an ideology beyond the merely political.  And this could be due to the fact that Freemasonry remains, for the most part, a mystery.  In fact, few outside the Masonic circle know how the organization functions, or what its ultimate goals are.  And subsequently, few know exactly what over-all affect its influence has had on the American Government.  In this time when American policies both domestic and foreign are cause for national concern, perhaps it’s time to take a closer look at our candidates and what possible hidden agenda they harbor.

All images via wikipedia.org