Frequently Asked Dead Presidents Questions

What Were The Dead Presidents' Last Words??

George Washington

I am just going. Have me decently buried and do not let my body be into a vault in less than two days after I am dead. Do you understand me? ["Yes," replied Tobias Lear, his secretary.] 'Tis well.

John Adams

[Asked by Mrs. Clark if he knew what day it was.] Oh, yes; it is the glorious Fourth of July. It is a great day. It is a good day. God bless it. God bless you all. [He then lapsed into unconsciousness. He awakened later, and mumbled] Thomas Jefferson.... [This is often reported as the beginning of the sentence "Thomas Jefferson still survives," but this cannot be held reliable. If this is indeed what John Adams was saying, he was wrong. He spoke the words at the approximate time of Jefferson's actual death; Jefferson preceded Adams in death by a couple of hours.]

Thomas Jefferson

Is it the Fourth? [Asked of his doctor, Robley Dunglison, who replied, "It soon will be."] I resign my spirit to God, my daughter to my country. [Like John Adams, Jefferson died on the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.]

James Madison

Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear. I always talk better lying down. [In response to a niece, who asked, "What is the matter, Uncle James?"]

James Monroe

(unknown)

John Quincy Adams

This is the end of Earth. I am content.

Andrew Jackson

I hope to meet you all in Heaven. Be good children, all of you, and strive to be ready when the change comes.

Martin Van Buren

There is but one reliance...

William Henry Harrison

Sir, I wish you to understand the true principles of government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more. [Spoken in delerium to Vice President John Tyler.]

John Tyler

Doctor, I am going. ["I hope not, sir," said the doctor.] Perhaps it is best.

James Polk

I love you, Sarah. For all eternity, I love you. (spoken to his wife)

Zachary Taylor

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

Millard Fillmore

[Accepting a spoonful of soup from his doctor.] The nourishment is palatable.

Franklin Pierce

(unknown)

James Buchanan

Whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that at least I meant well for my country. Oh Lord God Almighty, as thou wilt.

Abraham Lincoln

It doesn't really matter. [In response to his wife's admonition not to hold her hand at Ford's Theater, because people might see them. Lincoln's final utterance was laughter. During the performance of the play Our American Cousin, one of the actresses called for a shawl to protect her from the draft. An actor then ad-libbed a reply, "You are mistaken, Miss Mary, the draft has been stopped by order of the President." Lincoln was laughing at this line when he was shot.]

Andrew Johnson

Oh, do not cry. Be good children and we shall meet in Heaven.

Ulysses Grant

Water.

Rutherford Hayes

I know that I am going where Lucy is. [Lucy was his beloved wife.]

James Garfield

[To his chief of staff, David G. Swaim] Oh Swaim, there is a pain here. Swaim, can't you stop this? Oh, oh, Swaim!

Chester Arthur

(unknown)

Grover Cleveland

I have tried so hard to do right.

Benjamin Harrison

Are the doctors here? Doctor...my lungs.

William McKinley

Good-bye -- good-bye, all. We are all going. It's God's way. His will be done, not ours. Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. We are all going, we are all going, we are all going. Oh, dear.

Theodore Roosevelt

Please put out the light.

William Taft

(unknown)

Woodrow Wilson

Edith. I am a broken machine, but I am ready. [Spoken to his wife.]

Warren Harding

That's good. Read some more. [To his wife, who was reading him flattering newspaper accounts.]

Calvin Coolidge

Good morning, Robert. [To a carpenter working on his home.]

Herbert Hoover

(unknown)

Franklin Roosevelt

I have a terrific headache. (FDR died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.)

David Bornus advises: According to Conrad Black in his biography "Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom," page 1110, FDR was sitting for a portrait when he put his left hand to the back of his head and said: "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head." He then was carried to his bed by several people, as they were doing this "he was understood by Laura Delano to say, only semiconsciously, 'Be careful.' These were his last words."

Harry Truman

(unknown)

Dwight Eisenhower

I've always loved my wife, my children, and my grandchildren, and I've always loved my country. I want to go. God, take me.

John Kennedy

That's very obvious. [Spoken in response to Mrs. Connolly's comment, "Mr. President, you can't say that Dallas doesn't love you."] [Some claims have been made that President Kennedy exclaimed "My God, I've been hit." but one of the Secret Servicemen riding in the car when the president was shot said that Kennedy made no remarks after he was struck.]

Lyndon Johnson

Send Mike immediately! [To a Secret Service agent over an in-house telephone.]

Richard Nixon

(unknown)

Ronald Reagan

(unknown)