James Madison

The French pirates Jean Lafitte and Pierre Lafitte were best known for their marauding ways in the Gulf of Mexico. The brothers smuggled goods and enslaved people to southern Louisiana and flouted the law.

Jean Lafitte redeemed himself when he helped defend New Orleans during the War of 1812, earning a pardon from Madison for his and his brother’s smuggling crimes. A national historical park and preserve is named after Jean Lafitte, as well as a former blacksmith shop on Bourbon Street that legend has it was used by the brothers and has laid claim to being the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States.

James K. Polk

John C. Frémont, known as the “Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains,” was a central figure in the exploration of the West. He was the military governor of California and an Army officer. But his insubordination during the Mexican-American War led to Frémont’s being court-martialed.

Polk pardoned Frémont, who went on to become the newly formed Republican Party’s first presidential nominee in 1856, a race that he lost.

James Buchanan

Brigham Young, a patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ascended to power as the first governor of the Utah Territory. But tensions had been festering between the federal government and the colonists in Utah, which prompted Young’s removal by Buchanan.

Image Brigham Young, a patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was also the first governor of the Utah Territory. Credit... Harvard Art Museum

The president sent U.S. Army soldiers to Utah to assert federal rule in the territory in what was known as the Utah War. Buchanan ultimately pardoned Young for treason and sedition.