Pondering our Worst Presidents

History is where I take refuge when the present is too vexing to deal with.   Presidential history is my default position and I am currently reading my 17^th Presidential biography.

            The names that are almost uniformly at the top of Presidential rankings (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, John Adams and Harry Truman) are already checked off my list, so the other eight books have been selected from the middle (Grover Cleveland) to bottom (Chester A. Arthur) of the pack.  

For reasons that should be obvious to anyone with a brain and a television, I find myself pondering the worst Presidents in America’s history.  Who is on this dubious hit parade?  Both liberal and conservative historians place the following Presidents at the very bottom of the list of Presidential effectiveness: James Buchanan, Warren G. Harding, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, William Henry Harrison, Millard Fillmore and John Tyler.  Were there some things they had in common?  Was there a nexus that brought these unloved, disregarded souls together. 

First, none of these men were considered a first choice for President.  They were what was left over when squabbling between the presumed leaders could not be resolved.  Harding and Pierce were nominated under these circumstances.  Andrew Johnson, Fillmore and Tyler were Vice Presidents, selected only to “balance” the ticket, and achieved the office upon the death of their President.  None were re-elected.

The second thing to notice about this group is that all but one of them (Warren G. Harding) had a pretty impressive resume.  Buchanan, for example, had 26 years of public service prior to becoming President.  He had been in the state legislature, five terms in the U. S. House of Representatives, been ambassador to both Russia and England and had served as Secretary of State.  He was also a pro-slavery proponent of the Lecompton constitution and thought the Dred Scott decision, delivered shortly after his inauguration, was a correct read of the law.  His statement that the federal government had no right to prevent states from seceding left Lincoln with a country actively on the way to Civil War. 

Evidently experience in public service is not everything.  In fact, the seven Presidents on the bottom of our list carried a total of 119 years (!!!) of civil service into their dubious Presidencies.  Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and William Henry Harrison each had over 20 years.  By contrast, our ten best Presidents generally had less than ten years of experience prior to their Presidency (Jefferson and Truman being the only exceptions, and their years were in the low double digits). 

Balancing this we do have outstanding Presidents who entered the office under similar circumstances.  Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman were Vice Presidents to a deceased President and they were great Presidents.  Lincoln was a compromise nominee.  Neither does there seem to be any magic in the idea that governors make better Presidents.  Four of our best have been governors, but so have two of our worst.  What then is left?

Leadership is an amorphous quality, subtle yet studied, aggressive but with deliberate yielding.  [Winston Churchill said that he would accede to any compromise that would get him his way.]  Our best Presidents were tireless workers and surrounded themselves with smart, independent people.  They have been willing to make decisions knowing there is no one else to blame for the consequences. They don’t complain of rigged systems or vast right-wing conspiracies.  They own their successes and their failures.    

History gives me something to ponder while I keep the faith.