Description: The Marquis de Lafayette famously toured the United States in 1824 - 1825, and this Lafayette Farewell Tour design celebrates the 200th anniversary of the triumphant US tour of America's favorite fighting Frenchman. The back side (available on t-shirts only) features a list of cities Lafayette visited on his cross-country trek.
Description: This peg-legged philandering "Penman of the Constitution" is the most fascinating Founder most people have never heard of. Gouverneur Morris fully deserves his own musical, though it might be best to cut out his death scene. We certainly didn't shy away from talking about it in one of our favorite episodes, "Gouverneur Morris and the Vampire of Bizarre."
Description: This design is perfect for the history lover who feels like they're living in the Upside Down. Though John Adams didn't invent this famous quote, he famously used it in 1770 when he defended British soldiers for their role in the Boston Massacre, saying "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
Description: As the first Vice President of the United States, John Adams was sometimes called "Daddy Vice," a term he even used himself. Like kids passing notes in class, a Congressman once passed a note with this poem making fun of Adams: "I’ll tell in a trice- ‘Tis old Daddy Vice Who carries of pride an ass-load; Who turns up his nose, Wherever he goes, With vanity swelled like a toad." With this design you can set quite the vice precedent by marrying the best of 1790s New York and 1980s Miami.
Description: Championed as the successor to the Teddy Bear, the Billy Possum was a stuffed toy inspired by a famous possum dinner honoring William Howard Taft. Somehow, Billy Possum did not replace the teddy bear in the hearts of the nation's children, but the story of the wild efforts to promote this toy did make for one of our favorite episodes.
Description: This vintage comic book style design depicts an alternate version of the day during the War of 1812 when the British burned the White House just hours after first lady Dolley Madison had its valuables loaded onto wagons. This design answers the questions: What if Dolley Madison hadn't rejected her house manager's idea to blow up the White House when it was full of British troops? And what if the tornado that blew through Washington DC the next day had come early? Dolley is pictured here with two things she made sure escaped the White House that day: Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington, and her pet macaw Polly—star of the Plodding Through The Presidents episode "Potty-Mouthed Parrots."
Description: An obscure reference to the scurrilous Burr! In 1799, New York City needed clean water and Aaron Burr needed money and power, so he convinced Alexander Hamilton to help him charter The Manhattan Company—a water company that would bring "pure and wholesome water" to lower Manhattan. Buried in the charter's language was a clause allowing it to use its excess funds for anything it wanted, which let Burr create a bank that helped his Democratic-Republican Party win the Election of 1800 and went on to become the powerful Chase Manhattan Bank.
About Plodding Through The Presidents
