Nixon Not the First President to Think of Resigning

Richard Nixon

Thirty-seven years ago today, on August 9, 1974, Richard M. Nixon became the first President of the United States to resign from office.  Faced with the Watergate scandal and the increasing likelihood that he would be impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate, Nixon chose to hand the reigns of government over to his appointed vice president, Gerald R. Ford.  

While Nixon was the first president to resign from office, he wasn’t the first to think about it.  John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, and Dwight Eisenhower (and maybe others), all burdened with the presidency, either voiced thoughts about resigning or began to make preliminary plans for resigning.