Date sent:        Sat, 27 Apr 96 12:24:49 -0700

Richard M.  Nixon
The 37th President.
By:

  Richard Nixon was the first president to the United States to resign from office.  Richard
  resigned in 1974 to avoid being impeached.  
 In 1968, in a political comeback unprecedented in American history, Richard was elected as
 the 37th president of the United states.  This victory followed two major defeats for
 Richard.  In his first bid for the presidency in 1960, he was beaten by John F. Kennedy the
 Democratic Candidate.  Two years later he suffered a crushing loss in his campaign for the
 governorship of his home state of California.  After those 2 devastating losses he retired
 to practice law. Before the election of 1960 Nixon’s political career was a series of
 unbroken success.  He was elected to the United States Congressman 1946, entered the Senate
 as the youngest member in history, and two years later he became the nation’s second
 youngest vice-president at the age of 39.  As vice-president he served 2 terms under Dwight
 D. Eisenhower. Richard Milhous Nixon was born in Yourba Linda, a farming village in Orange
 County, California.  He was the second of five sons of Francis (Frank) Nixon and Hanna
 Milhous Nixon.  Frank came from a Scotch-Irish farming family.  He was a descendant of
 James Nixon, who emigrated from Ireland to settle in Delaware in 1753.  Richard’s father
 was born near McArthur, Ohio, had to go to work after only six years of school.  His last
 job in Ohio was as a streetcar motorman.  One winter day his feet were frostbitten in the
 car, and he decided to move to a warmer climate.  In Whittier, California.  There he took a
 job running a trolley. Whittier a Quaker settlement wan named fro the Quaker poet John
 Greenlear Whittier and founded in 1887.  Here Frank and Hannah met.  Hannah was one of nine
 children of Franklin Milhous whose ancestors had emigrated from Germany to England and then
 to Ireland.  Later they moved to Pennsylvania to practice the Quaker religion freely.  When
 Hannah was born, her parents lived near Butlerville, Indiana.  In 1897 they moved to
 California.  Frank met Hannah at a Quaker meetinghouse party in February of 1908.  They
 were married four months later.  Frank then changed his religion from Methodist, to Quaker.
 The year before Richard was born, his father bought land in Yourba  Linda.  On the land d
 he built a house and started a lemon grove.  Richard’s brothers Frances, Donald and Arthur
 were also born in Yourba Linda. 10 years latter the Nixons gave up the struggles of running
 an unsuccessful fruit stand and moved back to Whittier.  In Whittier the last of the Nixon
 children, Edward, was born. Frank started a gas station, where he also began to sell some
 groceries.  Later he bought an old house which he turned into a general store.  When the
 boys were old enough to help out they would work at the gas station of in the general
 store. Richard became interested in politicks because of his father.  Frank started a
 neighborhood debate club.  When most children were reading fairy tales Richard was reading
 the opinion and business pages! Richard’s life was never easy.  Arthur the second youngest
 brother of Richard died when he was seven.  When Richard was in high school his older
 brother, Harold, died of tuberculosis.  Richard would also get up at four am and drive 12
 miles to a produce market then drive back and arrange the counter before school! When
 Richard was 17 he went to Whittier College, a Quaker institution that his mother had
 attended.  When he was a sophomore he represented Whittier in more than 50 debates and won
 most of them.  Richard graduated 2nd in his class in 1934 Richard wanted to be a lawyer but
 his family was out of money because his brother’s long illness had use all of the Nixons
 savings.  However, his good college Richard and recommendations from his teachers earned
 him a scholarship to Duke University, in Durham, NC In Durham Nixon shared a $25 a semester
 apartment with three other students.  to help pay for this share of the rent he took a job
 at the schools library.  Richard was named “Gloomy Gus” because of his tendency to brood. 
 In June of 1937 he graduated third in his class. Five months later Richard was admitted to
 the California bar.  He joined the firm of Wingert and Bewley in Whittier.  Latter the firm
 became Bewley, Knoop, and Nixon.
In the Whittier theater group Nixon met “Pat” Ryan, a new teacher in the town high school. 
Pat was intelligent and attractive, with red hair and brown eyes.  ON June 21, 1940, two
years after their first meeting, they were married. Thelma Ryan was born on March 16, 1912,
in Ely Nevada.  Thelma like Richard had a though life.  Her Mother died when she was 13 and
then her Dad when she was 17.  Pat worked many odd jobs to pay her way through collage.  She
even took a few parts in Hollywood movies.  After she married Richard she continued to
teach.

 In 1942 Richard joined the navy.  After World war 2 was over Nixon returned to the United
 states.  He was then assigned to work on Navy contracts while awaiting discharge.  Then he
 received a telephone call that changed his life.  A republican citizen’s committee in
 Whittier was considering Nixon as a candidate for Congress in the 12th Congressional
 District.  In December 1945 Nixon accepted the candidacy with the promise that he would
 “wage a fighting rocking socking campaign.” Jerry Voorhis, a Democrat who had represented
 the 12th District since 1934 was running for reelection.  Earlier in his career Voorhis had
 been an active Socialist.  He had become more conservative over the years and was now an
 outspoken anti-Communist.  Despite Voorhis’ anti Communist stand the Los Angeles chapter of
 the left-wing Political Action Committee (PAC) endorsed him, apparently without his
 knowledge or approval.	 The theme of Nixon’s campaign was “a vote for Nixon is a vote
 against the Communist-dominated PAC.”  The approach was successful.  On November 5, 1946
 Richard Nixon won his first political election. The Nixons’ daughter Patricia (called
 Tricia) was born during the campaign, on February 21, 1946.  July their second daughter was
 born July 5, 1948. Richard knew that he could hold his own in the Senate, so he ran for
 senate in 1950.  Nixon worked as hard as he could .  While in Senate he hammered hard at
 three main issues: the war in Korea, Communism in government, and the high cost of the
 Democratic party’s programs.  At the 1952 national convention the Republicans chose him as
 Eisenhower’s running mate in an effort to balance the ticket with a West coast
 conservative.  Eisenhower and Nixon’s campaign seamed doomed once an article entitled
 “Secret Rich Men’s Trust Fund Keeps Nixon in Style Far Beyond His Salary.” was published in
 The New York Post.  After that Republicans were panic-stricken and begging to have Nixon
 thrown off the ticket. The secret fund was hardly secret.  Nixon was a main without much
 money, and when he won a seat in the Senate a group of business men publicly solicited
 funds so Nixon could keep in touch with the voters in his home state while he served in the
 Senate.  Nixon was outraged by this so he went on national TV and delivered what is now
 known as the “Checkers” speech.  In the speech Richard states that he had received money
 from some business men but used it to campaign not to live the good life.  He went on to
 say that he kept only one thing, a little cocker spaniel named Checkers.  “The kids love
 that dog, and I want to say right now that regardless of what they say, we’re going to keep
 it.”
The Republicans easily won the election.
 The only duties listed for the vice-president are to preside over the Senate and vote if
 there is a tie.  Luckily Eisenhower didn’t agree.  He had Richard sit in on cabinet
 meetings and help with many president type duties such as preparing and giving speeches. 
 Because of this he was able to fill in for Eisenhower  when he suffered a major hart attack
 in 1955, abdominal surgery in 1956, and a mild stroke in 1957. In 1960 the Republican’s
 decided to have Richard run for president with running mate Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.  Voters
 turned out in record numbers.  When all sixty-eight votes were counted John F. Kennedy had
 become the firs Roman Catholic resident and Nixon came out the looser loosing by about
 100,000 votes. Many of Nixon’s supporters blamed his defeat on irregularities in the votes
 in Texas and Illinois.  Some blamed it on Richard’s poor appearance onseveral debates.  
 After the loose to Kennedy Nixon ran as the Republican candidate for governor of
 California.  Nixon also lost this race and announced during a press conference that he was
 done with politics forever.  Later he moved to New York where he entered a law practice.

