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Presidential Last Words

George Washington:

(to his aide, Tobias Lear) “I am just going. Have me decently buried and do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead. Do you understand me?”

(Lear to Washington) “Yes, sir.”

(to Lear) “Tis well.”

John Adams:

“Thomas Jefferson still… survives.”

Thomas Jefferson:

(to his doctor) “Is it the Fourth? I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country.”

James Madison:

“I always talk better lying down.”

John Quincy Adams:

“This is the end of earth, but I am composed.” (may have said “…but I am content.”)

Andrew Jackson:

“Both white and black… Oh, do not cry. Be good children, and we shall all meet in heaven.”

Martin Van Buren:

“There is but one reliance.”

William Henry Harrison:

“I wish you to understand the true principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more.”

John Tyler:

(to his doctor) “Doctor, I am going.”

(the doctor) “I hope not, Sir.”

(Tyler) “Perhaps, it is best.”

Zachary Taylor:

“I am about to die. I expect the summons very soon. I have tried to discharge my duties faithfully. I regret nothing, but I am sorry that I am about to leave my friends.”

Millard Fillmore:

“The nourishment is palatable.”

James Buchanan:

“O Lord, God Almighty, as Thou wilt.”

Abraham Lincoln:

Unknown, but the last words that the president ever heard were, “Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologizing old man trap.”

Ulysses S. Grant:

“Water.”

Rutherford B. Hayes:

(to his son) “I know that I am going where Lucy (his wife) is.”

James A. Garfield:

(to his chief of staff, David G. Swaim) “Swaim, can’t you stop this? Oh, Swaim!”

Grover Cleveland:

“I have tried so hard to do right.”

Benjamin Harrison:

“Are the doctors here? Doctor… my lungs.”

William McKinley:

“It is God’s way. His will, not ours, be done.”

Theodore Roosevelt:

(to his valet, James Amos) “Please put out the light.”

Woodrow Wilson:

“I am a broken piece of machinery. When the machinery is broken… I am ready.”

Warren G. Harding:

(to his wife, after she read him a profile of himself published in the Saturday Evening Post) “That’s good. Go on; read some more.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt:

“I have a terrific headache.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower:

“I’ve always loved my wife. I’ve always loved my children. I’ve always loved my grandchildren. And I have always loved my country.”

John F. Kennedy:

Unknown, but several minutes before he was shot, Mrs. John Connely turned to him and said, “Mr. President, you can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you.” He replied, “That is very obvious.”

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