Wilfrid Laurier (AMPU)

Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier (20 November 1841 – 17 February 1919), known as Wilfrid Laurier, was the 18th President of the United States serving from 1897-1909

Laurier is often considered one of the country's greatest statesmen. He is well known for his policies of conciliation, and overseeing the end of the last European colonies in North America. His vision for America was a land of individual liberty and decentralized federalism. He used the Quasi-War with Spain during the Cuban Revolution to broker more friendly relations with Britain, ending more than a century of hostility between the two countries. He passionately defended individual liberty, "America is free and freedom is its nationality," and "Nothing will prevent me from continuing my task of preserving at all cost our civil liberty." Laurier was also well-regarded for his efforts to establish America as an equal player on the world stage with the European empires.

Despite his reputation as a great negotiator, his administration was often plagued by internal disputes with Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1908, this dispute came to a head when Laurier broke with Presidential tradition and sought a third term, only to face a primary challenge from his own Vice President. Laurier ultimately lost his party's nomination to Roosevelt, who would go on to lose the 1908 Presidential Election to New York Governor William Randolph Hearst, who supported the passage of the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution which established the two term limit as national law.