In 1762, Thomas Gladstones and Helen Neilson move to Braintree, Province of Massachusetts Bay, where two years later, they give birth to John Gladstone, who first becomes a merchant and philanthropist, until 1812 when he became the 3rd Senator from Massachusetts, the first of four generations of Gladstones to serve in US politics.
John Gladstone, will hold this position he will hold until his death on December 7th, 1851. He was a great friend of John Quincy Adams, with rumours of Gladstone being picked as Adams' Vice Presidne in 1825.
On December 29th, 1809, John Gladstone gives birth to William Ewart Gladstone, who was a Representative from 1832 to 1851, when he carried on from his father in the senate. On January 3, 1861, William was elected as Governor of Massachusetts, a position he will hold till January 4, 1872, beating Levi Lincoln, Jr., as longest period of uninterrupted service as Governor.
On June 3rd, 1840, William E. Gladstone and hist wife, Catherine née Glynne., were blessed with their first son William Henry Gladstone.
Nearly ten years after his grandfather's death, on 4th March 1861, William Henry Gladstone takes the same office in the Senate as his grandfather and father.
On March 4, 1869, Ulysses S. Grant and his running mate William Henry Gladstone are inaugerated as President and Vice President of the United States of America.
On April 29th 1871, President Grant, nine days after setting up the Civil Right Act, is assassinated by George W. Gordon, a former general of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, after the war, he practiced law in Pulaski, Tennessee, where the Ku Klux Klan, was formed of which he was one of the Klan's first members.
On April 30th 1871, William Henry Gladstone becomes the 19th President of America, a position he holds for the remaining term but declines to stand for his own, so on March 4th, 1873, Rutherford B. Hayes, is elected as the 20th President.
Although in 1872, he choose his father, as 29th United States Secretary of the Treasury, replasing George S. Boutwell, who had left to sit in the Senate.
In 1880, William Ewart Gladstone, was elected as the 24th President, becoming the first father to become president after his son. His first term saw many reforms, such as the the introduction of secret voting and the re-birth of the US Navy.
In 1884, he was not chosen as the Republican nominatee, due to backstabbers in the party, who saw him as too much of a Liberal. However Benjamin Harrisson lost the election to Grover Cleveland.
In 1888, William Ewart Gladstone, re-gained the nomination (some say he was seen as a democratic Republican), was re-elected as the 26th President, being the only US president to serve two nonconsecutive terms (1880–1884 and 1888–1896), the only prsident to serve more then the conventional two terms (three terms 1880, 1888, 1892) and to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents.
His last term, was marked with tradegy after, firstly his son, died on the 4th July 1892 and then the split of the Republican party, into the Progressive Party and the Conservative Party, seeing a sad end to the Grand Old Party.
In 1896 his Vice President, William McKinley, who famously had the Progressive Party, gain support from the Democrats, who were mainly run by the socialist.
In 1898, two years after leaving office, William E. Gladstone died, many said this was a blessing, as he would have hated to see his friend and vice-president assassinated in 1901.
Gladstone is famous for his oratory, his religiosity, his liberalism, his rivalry with the Conservative Party representatives, James G. Blaine, and Benjamin Harrison.
Gladstone was known affectionately by his supporters as "The People's William" or the "G.O.M." ("Grand Old Man", or, according to James G. Blaine, "God's Only Mistake").Gladstone is consistently ranked as one of America's greatest Presidents.