Kenneth (kensmind) wrote in potus_geeks,
Kenneth
kensmind
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Get a Job!

So yesterday I was wondering whether there were more lawyers or generals that became presidents. The answer is lawyers, 25 to be exact, compared with 12 generals. Behind the cut below is a list of the presidents and the jobs they had before the presidency.


President: Major Jobs Before the Presidency

1. George Washington: surveyor, planter, general of the Army of the United Colonies planter

2. John Adams: schoolteacher, lawyer, diplomat, vice president under Washington

3. Thomas Jefferson: writer, inventor, lawyer, architect, governor of Virginia, secretary of state under Washington, vice president under Adams, gentleman farmer

4. James Madison: lawyer, political theorist, U.S. congressman, secretary of state under Jefferson

5. James Monroe: soldier, lawyer, U.S. senator, governor of Virginia

6. John Quincy Adams: lawyer, diplomat, professor, U.S. senator, secretary of state under Monroe

7. Andrew Jackson: soldier, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, governor of Florida, gentleman farmer

8. Martin Van Buren: lawyer, U.S. senator, governor of New York, vice president under Jackson

9. William Henry Harrison: soldier, diplomat, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from Ohio

10. John Tyler lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, vice president under Harrison

11. James Knox Polk: lawyer, U.S. congressman, governor of Tennessee

12. Zachary Taylor: planter, soldier

13. Millard Fillmore: lawyer, U.S. congressman, vice president under Taylor

14. Franklin Pierce: lawyer, soldier, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from New Hampshire, gentleman farmer

15. James Buchanan: lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, U.S. secretary of state

16. Abraham Lincoln: postmaster, lawyer, U.S. congressman from Illinois

17. Andrew Johnson: tailor, U.S. congressman, governor of Tennessee, U.S. senator from Tennessee, vice president under Lincoln

18. Ulysses S. Grant: U.S. Army general

19. Rutherford Hayes: lawyer, soldier, U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio

20. James Abram Garfield: schoolteacher, soldier, U.S. representative from Ohio

21. Chester Alan Arthur: schoolteacher, lawyer, tariff collector, vice president under Garfield

22/24. Grover Cleveland: sheriff, lawyer, mayor, governor of New York reelected president

23. Benjamin Harrison: lawyer, soldier, journalist, U.S. senator from Indiana

25. William McKinley: soldier, lawyer, U.S. congressman, governor of Ohio

26. Theodore Roosevelt: rancher, soldier, governor of New York, vice president under McKinley

27. William Howard Taft: lawyer, judge, dean of the University of Cincinnati Law School, U.S. secretary of war (and after the presidency: chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court)

28. Woodrow Wilson: lawyer, professor, president of Princeton University, governor of New Jersey

29. Warren G. Harding: newspaper editor, U.S. senator from Ohio

30. Calvin Coolidge: lawyer, governor of Massachusetts, vice president under Harding

31. Herbert Hoover: engineer, U.S. secretary of commerce

32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: lawyer, governor of New York

33. Harry S. Truman: farmer, soldier, haberdasher, judge, U.S. senator, vice president under Roosevelt

34. Dwight D. Eisenhower: supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, U.S. Army chief of staff

35. John F. Kennedy: journalist, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator from Massachusetts

36. Lyndon Johnson: schoolteacher, soldier, congressman, U.S. senator from Texas, vice president under Kennedy

37. Richard Milhous Nixon: lawyer, U.S. congressman, U.S. senator, vice president under Eisenhower

38. Gerald Ford: lawyer, U.S. congressman, vice president under Nixon

39. Jimmy Carter: peanut farmer, governor of Georgia writer

40. Ronald Reagan: actor, corporate spokesman, governor of California

41. George Herbert Walker Bush: oil executive, U.S. congressman, U.S. ambassador to the UN, Director of CIA, vice president under Reagan

42. Bill Clinton: lawyer, governor of Arkansas

43. George Walker Bush: oil executive, sport team owner, governor of Texas

44. Barack Obama: community organizer, lawyer, constitutional law professor, Illinois state senator, U.S. senator

As you may have gleaned from the list, those presidents who were also lawyers were:

1. John Adams
2. Thomas Jefferson
3. James Madison
4. James Monroe
5. John Quincy Adams
6. Martin Van Buren
7. John Tyler
8. James K. Polk
9. Millard Fillmore
10. Franklin Pierce*
11. James Buchanan
12. Abraham Lincoln
13. Rutherford B. Hayes*
14. Chester Alan Arthur*
15. Grover Cleveland
16. Benjamin Harrison
17. William McKinley
18. William Howard Taft
19. Woodrow Wilson
20. Calvin Coolidge
21. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
22. Richard Nixon
23. Gerald Ford
24. Bill Clinton
25. Barack Obama

(*Also a General)
Tags: presidents' occupations
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