WARREN G. HARDING
On the plus side, his policies were progressive by modern
standards, especially regarding race relations and women's suffrage, and he did
set up the Bureau of the Budget for the national budget.
On the other hand, he filled every office he could,
including ones with a great deal of influence, with his longtime friends and
allies. Corruption was commonplace and even routine. Harry Daugherty, his
Attorney General, was tried twice and acquitted twice for corruption, with hung
juries.
Charles R. Forbes used the Bureau of Veteran Affairs as
his personal money machine, which resulted in very poor treatment of WWI
veterans under Harding.
Lesser offices experienced widespread bribery and
embezzlement, including among Prohibition officers, encouraging rather than
stopping organized crime's control over the liquor trade.
Accounts vary of many aspects of his life, because his
very protective wife destroyed nearly all of his personal and official papers
after his death, but many experts believe he also had multiple extramarital
affairs, compounding his administrative lapses with personal ones.
As if this wasn't enough (and more scandals, including Teapot Dome , came to light later), he died after only two
years in office.
FRANKLIN PIERCE
Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the U.S.
By opening Kansas and Nebraska
His personal life, while free of scandal, was beset by
tragedy, as he lost all three children at young ages, including one in a
terrible train accident to which he was a witness.
Though a Northerner, his Southern sympathies made him
especially unable to deal with the growing split in philosophies leading up to
the Civil War.
Though a Northerner, his Southern sympathies made him
especially unable to deal with the growing split in philosophies leading up to
the Civil War.
Upon leaving office, he said "All that's left is to
drink & die," which he did, and died of cirrhosis of the liver.
Explore the learn board attached to this learning titled
Franklin Pierce: Nice Guy, Terrible President to continue your education on the
14th President.
JAMES BUCHANAN
James Buchanan followed Franklin Pierce on the eve of the
Civil War, and was just as ineffective. Even though he believed that secession
was illegal, he did not believe that it was legal to go to war to prevent it,
and so in essence was unable to prevent secession.
During his tenure, the Dred Scott Decision was announced,
making any law prohibiting slavery in the territories illegal.
The battle over Kansas
His time also saw the first world financial crisis, the
Panic of 1857. He firmly believed the government's only role was to prevent
similar occurrences, not to do anything about the current one ("reform,
not relief").
Finally, the end of his presidency saw the actual
secession of the South, and the beginning of the Civil War. Having escalated
the situation at Fort Sumter by sending relief, he then alienated the North
by not retaliating for the Confederate attack, and gladly handed Lincoln
ANDREW JOHNSON
Andrew Johnson was never elected President; he entered
office on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Regarded as self-important and
abrasive by many, the many political battles he faced were made no easier by
his personality.
It is no small matter that Andrew Johnson was the first
president to be impeached, but his crime in this case was removing somebody
from government office without permission of Congress, due to the Tenure of
Office Act (which was only in effect for about two decades total). He had
battled the Republican-controlled Senate many, many times by this point, so his
impeachment was as much an outgrowth of that as it was the result of "high
crimes."
Johnson's focus on Reconstruction left him inattentive or
reliant on the status quo in most other matters. In many ways, his efforts also
undermined Reconstruction (including the black right to vote). The Civil War
and subsequent Reconstruction were a task ill-suited to those who had just
fought it, but they were the only ones available.
MILLARD FILLMORE
While he did admit
These acts were part of the "Compromise of
1850" that eventually led to the complete breakdown of the Whig party;
Fillmore, who only became president on Zachary Taylor's early death, was also
the last Whig to be elected to that (or, I believe, any other) office.
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON
Another ill-fated Whig President (the only four Whig
Presidents either died in office or were Whig Vice Presidents taking their
place), William Henry Harrison makes the list of the worst because he
accomplished so little: he died his 30th day in office, of pneumonia.
Some people feel it is unfair to count him on the list of
the worst, and for that reason many people ranking presidents will not bother
to rank him. If we are ranking based on moving the country in a positive
direction, though, he did not do that. No justices were appointed, no states
admitted, no laws passed. That year saw three presidents -- Van Buren before
him, and Tyler after him. His death (since he was the first president to die in
office) made the nation settle what should happen in cases like these.
He was also the first sitting president to be
photographed; while earlier presidents were photographed, they were
photographed AFTER him, while no longer in office.
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