Entries by Peter Cates

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Andrew Jackson

by Peter Cates Andrew Jackson The seventh former President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) has drawn much controversy during the more than 180 years since his years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from 1829 to 1837. His stand against the abolition of slavery, his being a wealthy plantation owner with slaves at his large Tennessee mansion known as […]

REVIEW POTPOURRI: First Lady Elizabeth Monroe

by Peter Cates First Lady Elizabeth Monroe Former 5th First Lady Elizabeth Kortright Monroe (1768-1830) was one of the most anti-social FLs to live at the White House during her eight years (1817-1825) while her husband James Monroe (1758-1831) ushered in what was known as the Era of Good Feelings, that period of “happiness” sometimes […]

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Five LPs from my youth

by Peter Cates Arlo Guthrie During my senior year at Kent’s Hill boarding school the spring of 1969, I lived in Wesleyan Hall dormitory and was acquainted with a fellow whose father was a wholesale record distributor. He provided me with five LPs for sale at $2 each and gave me several days to audition […]

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Years without a first lady

by Peter Cates Years without a first lady Christine Sadler’s delightfully gossipy, but well-researched 1963 book America’s First Ladies tells us the following about the years of Thomas Jefferson’s occupation of the White House: “Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) and the country, too, apparently, rocked along quite well without a First Lady for the eight years beginning […]