The 5 Worst Presidents

Ranking the presidents is a popular pastime for many history buffs, such as myself. In this article, I present the five men who I feel were our worst chief executives.

The criteria in this ranking are simple. I judged each president on his achievements, leadership qualities, failures, and faults (including any scandals involved with his administration). I did not include William Henry Harrison, who was in office for just one month, or James Garfield, who did not last much longer. I also excluded George W. Bush because he is still in office and much can happen before his term expires.

Without further adieu, here are our worst presidents:

Our fifth-worst President: Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)

Millard Fillmore was the first of three consecutive presidents (all of whom are on this list) that prolonged the slavery crisis by being too weak to lead decisively. He was a proponent of compromise, hoping that the country could survive indefinitely as half-slave and half-free.

Fillmore ascended to the presidency when President Zachary Taylor died suddenly in 1850. At that time, the predominant issue facing the country was the possible ratification of the Compromise of 1850, which sought to ease the slavery crisis by a series of moderate proposals. Under the Compromise, California would be admitted to the Union as a free state (to placate the abolitionists), while escaped slaves would be returned to their owners by federal officers (to please slaveholders). Fillmore supported the Compromise of 1850.

Although it may seem honorable to seek to avoid confrontation by trying to appeal to both sides, that is not the job of a president. At a time of crisis, the country needs its Chief Executive to lead with confidence and conviction. Fillmore, instead, led with indecision and caution.

The Whigs - Fillmore's party - were not fond of the president, and he was not nominated for reelection in 1852. This ended his term in office. He was one of the leaders of the American, or "Know-Nothing" party, and ran for president under that banner in 1856. He was unsuccessful in that venture, and lived the rest of his life as a political bystander.

Our fourth-worst President: Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)

Abraham Lincoln's successor, in the words of author Nathan Miller, "exhibited... ineptitude on a colossal scale". His lack of adequate leadership in the years following the Civil War led to a century of prolonged violence and bitter racial tension throughout the country.

His idea of Reconstruction (the process of reinstituting the southern states into the Union) was to welcome back the white leaders who had seceded from the Union in the first place. He put in place governments that passed so-called "Black Codes", which continued the policy of oppressing blacks and treating them as inferior, unpaid laborers. In effect, he advocated the return of pre-war conditions.

The hallmark of his term in the White House was a bitter and public battle between himself and the Radical Republicans in Congress, who opposed his lenient Reconstruction plans and wanted to punish the leaders of the Confederacy. In 1868, the Senate held a vote to determine whether or not to remove him from office under Articles of Impeachment passed by the House of Representatives. Thirty-five senators declared Johnson guilty, just one less then the number needed to remove him from office and make him the first president to be removed by Congress.

Johnson's policies gave southern aristocrats - who still believed in slavery - the confidence to abandon any thoughts of repentance. Under the protection of this admittedly racist president, they felt free to subject their black citizens to a subservient existence; one that would prevail for many decades.

Our third-worst President: Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)

Pierce assumed the office of president after the indecisive term of Millard Fillmore. Sadly, Pierce's administration was even less effective. Difficult times require forceful leadership, and Franklin Pierce did not espouse any of the qualities of a forceful leader.

The most profound event of Pierce's presidency was the ratification of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Whereas the Compromise of 1850 has succeeded in temporarily calming the growing tension over slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act reopened the issue of slavery in the new western territories. It championed the policy of popular sovereignty, which allowed the residents of the new territories to decide the slavery question for themselves.

Pierce, as was often the case, was bullied into supporting the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He was never one to stand up for what he believed. In fact, he was not a leader at all, and was ill-prepared to lead the nation at such a critical time. Theodore Roosevelt - one of our most effective presidents - called Pierce "a small politician of low capacity and mean surroundings, proud to act as the servile tool of men worse than himself but also stronger and abler."

Pierce was nominated to run for president because the Democrats were looking for a moderate who could appeal to supporters of both sides of the slavery issue. This lack of conviction and foresight, however, proved to be the deciding factor in his failed presidency. He declined to take decisive steps to decide the major issue of the day, and allowed the country to continue wavering on in limbo.

He was chosen as President because, unlike the other political leaders of the day, he angered no one. In the end, Pierce pleased no one. Even his own party declined to make him their nominee in the 1856 election.

Our second-worst President: Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)

Warren Gamaliel Harding was, by all accounts, an honest, affable man. His problem, which explains his presence on this list, was his friends. In fact, Harding himself once declared, "I have no trouble with my enemies, but my damn friends, my goddamned friends...they're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!"

Indeed, Harding is often rated by scholars as our worst president because of his inability to control his own administration. He brought with him to Washington many of his old pals, who quickly proceeded to use their new posts as stepping stones to personal profit. Known as the "Ohio Gang", these associates masterminded an alarming number of scandals right under the (probably) unknowing nose of the president.

The largest and most infamous of these scandals was the Teapot Dome affair. Harding's Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall, used his position to lease public oil fields to business associates in exchange for large sums of money and other financial benefits. In 1931, he found himself in prison for the deeds.

The Teapot Dome scandal was emblematic of Harding's lack of institutional control. He had rewarded his friends with places in his government, and they had shown their gratitude by destroying his reputation. He was unable, or unwilling, to say no to his old buddies, and it allowed them to engulf his presidency in controversy, though not until after he was no longer in the White House.

Harding died in office, in 1923, just as the scandals were coming to light. Although it was officially a stroke that killed him, the possibility that he was poisoned has always been whispered. Many feel that his wife had him poisoned to spare him from public shame.

If only she had asked his permission first; he probably would have agreed.

Our worst President: James Buchanan (1857-1861)

The Presidential triumvirate of Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan, which encompassed the years 1850-1861, propelled the nation into the depths of Civil War. Each of them tried in vain to avoid the crisis by stepping out of the way.

Buchanan, in particular, stood by and watched as the nation fell apart. He literally did nothing as state after state seceded from the Union in the final months of his administration, after Abraham Lincoln had been elected to replace him. Officially, he declared that secession was illegal, but that the Federal government had no legal power to stop a state from leaving the Union. This was basically an admission that he planned to do absolutely nothing.

To make matters worse, Buchanan did not even attempt to prepare the military for the coming war, which helped in leading to a long, bloody war rather than what might have been a short struggle. He once tried sending reinforcements to one of the few southern forts still under federal control (Fort Sumter) but he abandoned even that feeble attempt when South Carolina batteries fired on the civilian steamer he had sent to do the job.

Buchanan was utterly unqualified to deal with the monumental issues facing the country. Like his two predecessors, he did not possess the mental toughness and strength of character to lead effectively.

On his last day in office, he said to President Lincoln, "If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man."

References

Miller, Nathan. Star-Spangled Men: America's Ten Worst Presidents. New York: Touchstone, 1998.