America’s Worst Presidents
by A chronological order of America’s Worst Presidents.
America has had a number of pretty lousy Heads of State. In chronological order, these are currently the top five;
Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
President Pierce attempted to forge a compromise between slave-holding and Free states which is evidenced in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, where boundary lines were redrawn so for every new Free State would be accepted into the Union there would be a Slave state.He wanted to annex Cuba, which angered Northern States and his prevarication only fueled the future-Confederate desire to split from the Union. When booted out of office and asked what he intended to do he replied;”Get drunk.”
James Buchanan (1857-1861)
Succeeding Pierce as the fifteenth President, Buchanan religiously opposed slavery and its expansion, but refused to challenge the constitutionality of it and even signed many compromises which spread slavery into the western territories.Buchanan supported the decision in the Dred Scott case disallowing states to ban slavery within their own borders; (Dred Scott was a slave taken by his master into a free state).
When Buchanan was threatened with the secession of the Confederate states, he declared that states had no constitutional right to break away from the Union,but also that the Union itself had no constitutional authority to go to war with the seceding states in order to prevent it.
Andrew Johnson (1865 – 1869)
Coming into office at the assassination of President Lincoln, Johnson resisted the Republican policies aimed at providing civil rights for African-Americans following the Civil War.
He showed a racist unresponsiveness to freed African-Americans who sought protection of civil rights and vetoed a bill to renew the Freedman’s Bureau as well as the first introduced civil rights bill.
This caused a great deal of opposition and he was impeached though never convicted for entangling himself in bills that would reverse the effects of
the Civil War and virtually give victory to the Confederacy.So unpopular, Johnson was not the Republican nominee for reelection.
Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) 
Grant succeeded Johnson as the eighteenth president of the United States.
Having been the leading general of the Union army during the American Civil War, it was thought Grant would made a great president.
He didn’t.
U.S. Grant’s time in office was one of the most corrupt periods in America’s history.
His Cabinet didn’t just ignore the dishonesty among his aides but protected them.
In an attempt to enforce civil rights legislation,President Grant suspended habeas corpus, the writ that protects American citizens from unlawful detention trying to stop the Klu Klux Klan.
Although many considered it to be an admirable move to defend African-American rights, it violated the Constitution especially when there were mass arrests.
Warren Harding (1921-1923)
Harding best summoned up his presidency, by stating”I am not fit for this office and should never have been here”.
He could take both sides of an issue; i.e. supporting and refuting American sponsorship of the League of Nations after World War I.
He spent his time as President gambling, drinking,(prohibition was in force), playing golf and conducting affairs with various women.
Harding’s administration was riddled with scandals.The conduct of several of his cabinet members brought considerable criticism against the president and the Republican party.
The “Teapot Dome Affair” was perhaps the most important scandal of Harding’s administration. After jurisdiction over naval oil reserves were transferred to the Department of the Interior, secretary Albert B. Fall leased Teapot Dome to oil interests in exchange for a bribe.
He eventually spent time in a federal prison because of his actions. The incident also resulted in the resignation of Secretary of Navy Edwin N. Denby, who had consented to the transfer of the reserves.
Attorney General Daugherty was charged with receiving payments from prohibition violators, and was forced to resign by Calvin Coolidge (Harding’s successor).
Time will tell if George W. Bush (2001-2009)joins this list. (Although a number of surveys and scholars have already placed him upon it). Having taken America from an Economic Boom to a virtual Depression, embroiling America in the unnecessary war in Iraq, creating an environment of fear, trampling human rights,it seems that all that left to argue is his numerical placement.
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Post CommentBlade619
On January 22, 2009 at 10:57 am
Interesting list their certainly ones you don’t normally see.
Citation?
On January 22, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I don’t think you’ve referenced any single source for this information in the entire post. How are we supposed to know if this is truthful or not?
Here is an example,
“Time will tell if George W. Bush (2001-2009)joins thislist. (Although a number of surveys and scholars havealready placed him upon it). Having taken America from an Economic Boom to a virtual Depression, embroiling America in the unnecessary war in Iraq, creating an environment of fear, trampling human rights,it seems that all that left to argue is his numerical placement.”
What surveys, who are the scholars? Is this coming from an unbiased standpoint? What evidence do you have that the “virtual depression” was actually caused by him?
Is this fact or opinion?
a fool
On January 22, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Today, with the ability to Google or use Wikipedia the ‘false’
claim is easily eroded. Were this an academic thesis I would
give all the citations, footnotes, etc. What I’d say to Citation
is don’t believe me, do the research yourself. You can get mostly
everything from Wiki and then do a Google of each name.
Basically, the five I selected; plus Bush are considered the worst
tho’ different analysts may move the numerical order, some finding
Johnson at #1 others placing Harding at #1.
Tom
On January 25, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Why are we putting the blame on the man or men who serve as presidents? Maybe in the past when news traveled by horse back i could see the lack of knowledge of a candidate and voting for party only.
But today when news comes at us in real time 24/7 no one can blame bush. He admitted to his indiscretions prior to election in 1999 and we all had full knowledge of his education and failings in life. A man I would not hire to do my tax returns was made the leader of the free world! Rove guided bush falawlessly with greed in one hand and predujdice in the other.
No W.Bush was not the worst president, like a wild bear that craps in the woods Bush only did what was natural to Bush!!!
The worst these past two terms were the 50 million Americans that gave him the power to do so much harm!!!
a fool
On January 25, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Tom, in the list above, the ‘man’ is to blame. Take Johnson; he was
never elected. He was a V.P. He turned against the programs of his own party.
Pierce and Buchanan had no position and prevaricated, giving no
leadership. Bush signed ‘executive’ orders; he did. And as to
people voting for him? Both elections were rather tainted, weren’t they?
Tom
On January 25, 2009 at 5:57 pm
a fool — Yes you are right i spoke out of turn and I live in Florida. Just tring to make sence on why this happened.
a fool
On January 25, 2009 at 10:29 pm
Bush happened because no one had the courage to really challenge
the ‘chads’. In my country this crap wouldn’t have happened. I
know this for a fact because one year they had so stuffed the
ballot boxes that the leader of one Party ‘lost’ to a virtual
unknown of the other. And when the ballots were counted, a
sane person said this can’t work. So very quietly a number
of ballots were thrown away.
If this hadn’t happened, there would be civil war. In America,
Gore and then Kerry just thought it better to step aside.
The world knows that when your brother is the Gov. of the state
that decides the election it’s rigged. The world knows that
Gore won, that Kerry won, and the world expects revelations of
the kind of the corruption that Rumsfeld and Chaney operated
to be revealed soon enough.
We don’t blame the American people or the ‘government’ we know
it is Bush. We know that the WMD were frauds, Colin Powel was made to make a fool out of himself in front of big people.
The ‘old boys’ network Pres. Obama mentioned exists. It is
how certain people got into power. The chaps above, outside
of Johnson were ‘dark horse’ candidates that were thrown up
by the party machines. Once in office, they did what they
pleased.
kalewis
On February 20, 2009 at 9:04 am
its true
A. Fool
On September 5, 2009 at 5:54 pm
People tend to ignore the parts of history which don’t ‘match’ with what the current view is. For example, I’ve never heard a black person in America lauding U.S. Grant, yet he actually suspended the Constitution to protect the rights of the freed slaves.
Few people even mentioned the long list of Harding’s affairs
while in office, and the children he subsequently supported.
L.E.Monist
On October 24, 2009 at 5:45 pm
You know, I read the remark by Citation and it’s like hello? Keyboard to Brain are you there?
This is the era of INTERNET. If you are on the In Ter Net you can verify everything. All you have to do is go to Google or Wikipedia and (gasp) type in like…oh….Warren Harding…and GUESS WHAT? You’ll find all the data entered about him…and you can go from one site to another just in case you aren’t convinced by the first 92 sites.
Me
On October 25, 2009 at 11:32 am
Where’s Obama & Bush?
A. Fool
On October 25, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Obama’s Presidency is not over; hence he can not be rated. Currently historians are examining the Bush Presidency. I assume Bush will make the list. I have a distinct feeling the magnitude of the corruption has not as yet been uncovered
A. Fool
On April 10, 2010 at 3:38 pm
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