Snowstalker Ranks The Presidents from Bottom to Top

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

W. Harrison and Garfield not included.

#41. James Buchanan
Fiddled as Rome burned


The list has started with a rather expected bottom. James Buchanan was elected in 1856 to replace Franklin Pierce, also a terrible president. Both were similar in ideology; Northerners who sympathized with the Southern cause. With sectional tensions reaching their boiling point, America could have used a neutral leader who would deal with the issues at hand and hold the nation together. James Buchanan was not that man. He supported the Dred Scott decision, let Kansas tear itself apart, and of course, refused to intervene when the South seceded in his lame duck period, arguing that secession was wrong but that he had no constitutional authority to force them back in (other than being, you know, Commander-in-Chief). His failure to deal with the issue and kick it to a much more highly-ranked president puts him at the bottom of the barrel.

FACT: James Buchanan is from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, making him the only president from what has usually been one of the biggest and most important states in the country.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

He not only supported Dred Scott, but actively pressured northern Democratic Justices to vote with Taney so that it wasn't an "all southern" majority opinion. He also corresponded and directly coordinated with Taney about the case leading up to the ruling. He even announced in his Innaugural Address that, "The Supreme Court will soon permenently resolve this question".  Such a direct meddling in the Judiciary by the executive brance was before that, and has been since, unheard of.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

So yeah, even worse.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

So is Lincoln or FDR #1?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

#40. Andrew Johnson
Bungled Reconstruction, but could anyone have done it right?


To gain support from War Democrats and for regional unity after the war, Lincoln made Andrew Johnson, an anti-secession Democrat from Tennessee, his running mate. Johnson would ascend to the presidency when Lincoln was assassinated shortly after his second inauguration. Thus, he would hold the job of winning the peace and bringing the Southern states back into the Union. As a racist Southern Democrat, he opposed Congress's efforts to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which he vetoed but was overturned by a 2/3 majority. The 1866 CRA would later be repassed as the 14th Amendment. Though Johnson was clearly wrong in hindsight for attempting to block basic rights for freedmen, the Radical Republicans weren't all that much better, having attempted to remove Johnson from office by passing a clearly unconstitutional law, the Tenure of Office Act, then impeaching him when he refused to abide by it. Given the sectional tensions which still boiled after the war, it could be argued that anyone who attempted to tackle Reconstruction would have failed. Had Lincoln not been assassinated, would he be near the bottom of this list?

FACT: The two most famous assassinated presidents, Lincoln and Kennedy, were both succeeded by men of the last name Johnson (Andrew and Lyndon).

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

#39. Franklin Pierce
Sold out the North and divided the nation


Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire was elected easily over what should have been a strong opponent, General Winfield Scott. His landslide win showed that the Whig Party was dead. Running a deliberately vague campaign, Pierce's presidency would be much less vague. He was the quintessential "doughboy"; a Northern Democrat who sympathized with the political interests of the South. Pierce, despite being from one of the least Southern states, served the interests of Southerners. He effectively destroyed the Missouri Compromise by signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and supported the Ostend Manifesto, which demanded that Cuba be ceded by Spain, which would almost certainly add another slave state. During the Civil War, Pierce openly sided with the Confederacy and even kept contact with Confederate President Davis. Pierce, Johnson, and Buchanan, all hovering around the Civil War, are given a special spot at the bottom of this list; any one of these three men could be considered the worst.

[Rooney]

I have always felt that President Pierce has been given a raw deal by history. One must remember that it was Northern railway interests and homesteaders who desired the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. They desired this for a common sense reason: once the territory of Nebraska was established a legislature could begin to issue land contracts. Senator Stephen Douglas, who opposed the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution in Kansas, introduced the plan because he felt that it would benefit the North at the expense of the South since a Transcontinental Railroad could run through Nebraska as opposed to Texas. It is true that Southerners took advantage of the law but so did Northerners and all is fair in love and war. 

Additionally, Pierce and Attorney General Caleb Cushing examined the possibility of passing the law with an eye on the Supreme Court voting down the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Senators Douglas and Atchinson, both Midwesterner men, were the ones who convinced Pierce to not seek this judicial remedy. Once again he did not cowtow to Southern demands but demands that sought the unity of the Democratic Party.   

One must also comment on the men whom Pierce appointed as the governors of Kansas territory. After two incompetent selections which he is at fault for he eventually settled on John W. Geary who tried to curb the influx of pro-slavery men into the territory, opposed the Lecompton Constitution and left the territory of Kansas in a peaceful state well on the road to statehood. President Pierce is to be applauded for appointing so competent a person as territorial governor of a troubled place.

Pierce made many errors in office as all leaders do. I fail to see, however, in what ways he "sold out" the North or divided the nation.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

From a purely political standpoint, you give an excellent point. However, I have a solid mix of whether a president was politically successful with whether his actions were morally right. And Douglas was indeed the backer of Kansas-Nebraska because he wanted a railroad based in Chicago.

[Rooney]

From a purely political standpoint, you give an excellent point. However, I have a solid mix of whether a president was politically successful with whether his actions were morally right. And Douglas was indeed the backer of Kansas-Nebraska because he wanted a railroad based in Chicago.

Very well then. I can see what you mean by that standard. You are doing a great job, by the way.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

#38. Millard Fillmore
The not-so-great compromiser


After Zachary Taylor's death from food poisoning (or was it? ), Millard Fillmore immediately faced the minor issue of the country being on the verge of tearing itself apart. Zachary Taylor, largely an ignored president, opposed the Compromise of 1850, but Fillmore supported it. Though the Compromise admitted California and successfully delayed war as the North was able to industrialize, it expanded slavery to the Mexican Cession and enacted a tough new fugitive slave law, one last victory for Calhoun and his fire-eaters. Though compromise is in no way inherently bad, Fillmore's signing of the Compromise of 1850 showed that the South was still able to get its way for now.

FACT: In 1856, Fillmore ran a third-party candidacy based around nativism, often considered the last election featuring the Whigs. He won only the state of Maryland, an old Whig stronghold.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I look forward to seeing this progress. If Garfield and Harrison are exluded, that makes it a list of 43 Presidents. Are you also not doing Obama?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

I look forward to seeing this progress. If Garfield and Harrison are exluded, that makes it a list of 43 Presidents. Are you also not doing Obama?

There were already 43 presidents since Cleveland was 22 and 24, and remove two, you get 41.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I look forward to seeing this progress. If Garfield and Harrison are exluded, that makes it a list of 43 Presidents. Are you also not doing Obama?

There were already 43 presidents since Cleveland was 22 and 24, and remove two, you get 41.

Forgot about Cleveland. That makes sense.

[Oakvale]

I hope you're not going to be one of those liberals who gives Nixon a decent ranking.

[All Along The Watchtower]

FDR, Lincoln, LBJ, Wilson, and Obama should be at the bottom, obviously, with Coolidge and Cleveland at the top.

[© tweed]

gave up?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

gave up?

Nah, forgot.

I'll do the next one tonight.

[Oswald Acted Alone, You Kook]

Is it "Tonight" yet?

[barfbag]

Thomas Jefferson had the best ideology and George Washington has been the best model for the presidency. I like Reagan the best because he did the most to advance conservatism.