Presidential Tib Bits

Abraham Lincoln did not write the Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope. In fact, he worked on that address for two weeks.

It was Cicero, not President John F. Kennedy, who first said words to the effect of, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Some scholars believe Andrew Jackson was born at sea in 1755, not 1767, and thus was not eligible to be president of the U.S. However, at least two states, North Carolina and South Carolina, claim his birth place, about a mile apart.

In 1824, Andrew Jackson received more popular votes than John Adams, yet lost the election. The vote was so close that neither candidate received a majority of the electoral votes. The decision then went to the House of Representatives, which elected Adams.

Zachary Taylor, twelfth president of the U.S., did not vote until he was sixty-two. He did not even vote in his own election.

President Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested during his term of office. He was convicted of exceeding the Washington speed limit on his horse and was fined $20.