How Many U.S. Presidents Have Come from Michigan?
Well, none, really, unless you count Gerald Ford, who actually was born in Omaha, Neb. We’ve had our share of contenders, though — even if you’ve never heard of them
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So you think you know your michigan political history?
* If you're certain you aced the test, you can stop reading here. Otherwise, we'll let you in on the answers gradually (unless you need to collect on a bet; iun that case, skip to the answers at the end of the story.
So, the presidential election is next month and, once again, Michigan doesn’t have an entry in the main event. Detroit native Mitt Romney, who a year ago was a leading contender for the Republican nomination, folded his tent before Valentine’s Day.
That keeps our national record for electing those from Michigan to the presidency intact: at precisely zero.
Ohio, which has only slightly more people than Michigan, has produced seven presidents. Virginia, which has considerably fewer, has sent eight men to the White House.
Michigan can claim only Gerald Rudolph Ford, who, as a matter of fact, wasn’t originally from Michigan and wasn’t initially named Ford. He was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Neb. (His parents divorced, and his name was later changed to that of his stepfather.)
And, as another matter of fact, Michigan’s only president never wanted to be president. Nor was he ever elected president or vice president.
He never got the one job he really wanted: speaker of the house. He became president only because of a chain of the most bizarre circumstances in our nation’s history.
Then, when he finally decided he liked the big job and asked the voters to give him four years in his own right, they tossed him out.
Clearly, Michigan gets no respect. Even tiny Vermont has sent two men (Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur) to the White House. These days, we’re lucky if we can even get the current president to meet with the CEOs of the not-so-big-anymore three.
But it could have been different. Four times, major parties have nominated men from Michigan for the office of president of the United States. Naturally, the two everyone thought were from Michigan were actually born elsewhere.
The one who was born and bred in Michigan actually is best remembered as the governor of New York. Two of Michigan’s nominees were favored to win, and lost decisively to underdogs. One of them was sort of the George Washington of our state; another helped save our nation from a national nightmare.
But they all had this in common: Whenever they tossed their hats in the ring, went for the gold, and tried to be the man, American voters slammed the door. So who were our men-who-could-have-been? Here’s a brief look:
Lewis Cass
Today, few of us know that before his name became that of an infamous urban corridor, Cass (1782-1866) was actually a real person who became the father of our state. He’s also the reason we’re called Michiganders.
Born in New Hampshire to a fighting blacksmith at the tail end of the American Revolution, Cass was a hero of the War of 1812, especially in the fighting around Detroit. He was rewarded by being made governor of Michigan Territory, back when it really was the Wild West. He fought Native Americans until he won their trust.
A staunch Jeffersonian Democrat, Cass gave the state a law code, a judicial system, and later was secretary of war, minister to France, and, after Michigan became a state, a U.S. senator.
He also attracted the attention of an unknown first-term congressman from Illinois, a backwoods guy with a wicked sense of humor who noticed that Cass had gotten so fat that he waddled. Abraham Lincoln sarcastically called him “the great Michigander.”
The name stuck, and, especially after Lincoln achieved modest fame, it began to be applied to all Michigan residents. At the time (1848), however, Cass was far more famous than Lincoln, and easily won the Democratic presidential nomination that summer.
He ought to have won easily. But the party split over slavery. Cass tried to steer a middle course, which turned out to be disastrous. Former President Martin Van Buren, the H. Ross Perot of his day, ran on a third-party ticket and split the Democrats.
That handed the election to Zachary Taylor, a not-very-bright general who had won a couple of key victories in the Mexican War.
Old Lewis sucked it up, stayed in the Senate, and went on to serve with distinction as secretary of state, quitting on principle when President James Buchanan refused to try to stop the South from seceding. He went back to Detroit and helped raise troops for the Civil War, earning Lincoln’s respect and gratitude.
He outlived Lincoln, dying a year after the war was over, and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery just east of downtown — a cemetery he had helped found, as he did so much else.
This article appears in the October 2008 of Hour Detroit.
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