I started thinking about this topic during the Clinton years when I heard some ignorant slut on TV say that "they all did it," i.e., all presidents had had affairs. The fact is that the great majority of presidents did not do that, so far as is known. It occurs to me belatedly to set down the information I have.

In reading this you should be aware that it is all from an old man’s fallible memory, not current research.

GEORGE WASHINGTON: It is apparently the case that he was in love with his best friend’s wife, Sally Fairfax. The important point, however, is that he never did anything about it beyond writing her to that effect.

JOHN ADAMS: was of characteristically New England puritan ancestry, the remote descendant of the Priscilla Mullin-John Alden match. (I assume people today are still regaled with the story of Miles Standish sending John Alden to carry his proposal of marriage to Priscilla who responded, "speak for yourself John." It should not, however, be thought that the Puritans overdid "puritanism." Comparison of marriage and birth records shows that large numbers of Puritan women had children within six or seven months of marriage.)

In any event, what is known of Adams’ sex lfe is epitomized by his remark about the rumor that he and his running mate in 1800 had imported two youmg Frenchwomen as mistresses: "I swear tis’ not true; or if it is, I was cheated for General Pinckney got both the girls and I had neither."

THOMAS JEFFERSON’s reverent early 20th Century biographer Dumas Malone resolutely denied that as a young man Jefferson had seduced the wife of another Virginia plantation owner. But to accept that denial one must: a) believe the woman lied to her husband; AND/or b) believe the husband lied when publically alleging that his wife admitted the affair to him.

Malone also denied that during his stay in France Jefferson had an affair with the artist Maria Cosway. There is no question however that Jefferson and Maria were very close friends and that she was then estranged and living apart from her husband the artist Richard Cosway. In fact, Jefferson broke his wrist engagng in some acrobatics to impress Maria.

There is no truth whatever to claims that Jefferson fathered children by his beautiful slave Sally Hemings who would easily have passed for white and would not have relations with other slaves. Both Jefferson’s brother and two nephews apparently fathered children on her.

JAMES MADISON, JAMES MONROE: Nothing is known about their affarrs, if any.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS wrote soft core pornography – to his wife about her body. Nothing is known about affarrs, if any.

ANDREW JACKSON had extensive pre-marital relations w/ - and then bigamously married -- a woman whom they both believed had been divorced by the worthless husband who had abandoned her. But Jackson censured and censored adverse comment about his wife and their relationship by calling out and killing any man who dared to make such comments.

MARTIN VAN BUREN, WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: nothing known about their affairs, if any.

JOHN TYLER had 11 children by two wives. If he had time and energy left over for other women, I don’t know of it.

JAMES K. POLK. ZACHARY TAYLOR, MILLARD FILLMORE and FRINKLIN PIERCE – nothing known about their affairs, if any.

JAMES BUCHANAN: In his own day it was rumored that he was gay. He never married. He had been engaged once but that ended for some reason which he later promised to leave papers revealing after his death. He did not.

The gay lover he was alleged to have had died before he became president.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Mary Todd Lincoln was a mentally troubled woman. Lincoln’s law partner Herndon was among the many people who detested her. Herndon wrote a biography claiming that Lincoln had loved and proposed to a woman named Anne Rutherford (or was it Rutledge???) who died. No information about affairs, if any.

ANDREW JOHNSON, ULYSSES S. GRANT, and RUTHERFORD B. HAYES: No information about affairs, if any.

JAMES GARFIELD: His wife forgave him for a pre-presidential affair. No information about other affairs, if any.

CHESTER B. ARTHUR: No information about affairs, if any.

GROVER CLEVELAND entered the White House as a bachelor though he had  acknowledged fathering a bastard. He married the beautiful Frances Fulton, his ward who was less than half his age, and fathered several children before his death.

WILLIAM McKINLEY: No information about affairs, if any.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT: No information about affairs, if any. As they grew up, it was generally assumed he would marry Edith. But when he went away to Harvard he met, wooed and wed the beautiful but empty headed (according to Edith) Alice Lee. When she died giving birth to their daughter, the broken- hearted TR threw over everything, resigned from the legislature and went out west to fail as a rancher. When he returned he met Edith again and they married despite TR’s view that a widower was tied to his deceased wife until he died. The marriage was good for TR since, inter alia, Edith rode herd on him to make sure they kept the money he made as a writer.

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT: No information about affairs, if any.

WOODROW WILSON was extremely dependent on a woman’s care. When his wife died during his first term he expressed the desire that he be assassinated. (There were many assassinations of heads of government by anarchists at the time.) Instead Wilson remarried within the year. No information about affairs, if any. But Alice Roosevelt who hated him because of the way he treated her father, invented the following Q & A:

Q: what did Mrs. Galt do when the president proposed?

A. She was so surprised she fell out of his bad.

There is no substance to Republican rumors that Wilson caught the clap in France. His later collapse was from a stroke.

WARREN HARDING: had various affairs, including one allegedly w/ a woman who killed herself when he threw her over. His long-standing affair was w/ a woman of German extraction who told him she would never see him again if he voted for war against Germany. He did and she did despite his piteous letters. Then he took up w/ 16 year old Nan Brittan who after his death wrote about the matter in THE PRESIDENT’S DAUGHTER. Among other things she revealed that when he was a senator she and her clothes had to be bundled into a closet when late one night a couple of colleagues unexpectedly descended on his senate office.

CALVIN COOLIDGE, HERBERT HOOVER: No information about affairs, if any.

FDR: Hi first known affair was with the beauteous Lucy Mercer. Eleanor discovered this in 1919 and immediately offered him a divorce. FDR wanted to marry Lucy but the idea was quashed by his mother who, though she had always been contemptuous of Eleanor, told FDR: a) that he would never be elected to any office if he was divorced and b) that he would have to start working for the first time in his life because she would cut him off w/o a dime.

So long to Lucy who later married a man alleged to be the wealthiest in America. Enter Marguerite (Missy) LeHand who became FDR’s secretary for the rest of his life, turning down numerous proposals to do so.

Though he had promised Eleanor to do so, FDR never ceased writing and seeing Lucy, and Missy had two nervous breakdowns and a stroke coincident to these visits though there was apparently nothing amorous about them. On April 12, 1945 FDR was struck with his fatal heart attack in Lucy’s presence.

HARRY S. TRUMAN: Nothing is known about affarrs, if any.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: It was widely alleged that he was sleeping w/ his British driver Kay Summersby. She wrote books denying it, but later wrote  a book alleging it. The allegation got her a lot of attention and sold a lot of her books. It is dismissed by many of Ike’s wartime associates who noted that his sleeping arrangements did not admit of it.

JFK: before and during WWII he had an affair which was closely observed by the FBI w/ a Danish woman they suspected of being a spy. After the war, while in Congress JFK and a colleague had a yacht in which they sailed up and down the Potomac with a vast coterie of women. During his presidency he famously had affairs with Marilyn Monroe, Angie Dickinson and Judith Exner to name only the best known. Reputed to be an entiely selfish, self-absorbed lover.

LBJ: As promiscuous as JFK but the women were much less well-known,

RICHARD NIXON, GERALD FORD, JIMMY CARTER, RONALD REAGAN, GEORGE BUSH Sr. Nothing is known about their affairs, if any.

BILL CLINTON: Reported to have put it to any woman who was willing and several who were not.

GEORGE BUSH Jr., BARACK OBAMA: Nothing is known about their affairs, if any.

The foregoing covers all the credible information and speculation about presidential affairs. To reiterate, there is no known information about dalliances for the great majority of them.