http://www.whatsdutch.org Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:22:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://www.whatsdutch.org/2009/government-politics/ http://www.whatsdutch.org/2009/government-politics/#comments Sat, 01 Aug 2009 17:30:58 +0000 rickwhelan http://www.whatsdutch.org/?p=204

American Presidents of Dutch ancestry:

• Martin Van Buren – 8th President; key organizer of the Democratic Party; first president not of English, Irish, or Scottish descent. He also was the only president not to have spoken English as his first language – rather grew up speaking Dutch.
• Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President; was a Progressive reformer with a “cowboy” persona.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt – 32nd President; elected to four terms, the only president to be elected more than twice; ranked as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents.  He was raised and lived in the Hudson Valley (Dutchess County).

Dewitt Clinton – 1st Governor of New York and responsible for construction of the Erie Canal

Eleanor Roosevelt – First Lady of the United States as wife to the 32nd President; advocate for civil rights, active in the formation of the United Nations; author and speaker.

The Dutch were the first to acknowledge the independence of the United States in 1776 by saluting the American flag.

The Hague (Netherlands) was the first American Embassy in the world

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