Worst President of these three (19th-century Republicans)

[tpfkaw]

Have at it.

[tpfkaw]

Rather ironically, given the course of this thread, there's a solid case to be made that Grant was the most aggressively pro-gold standard POTUS ever (certainly up there with Jackson and Polk, in any event).

Anyway, if William Jennings Bryan had been elected and "free silver" enacted, the result would have been the instant failure of every bank in America. Everyone would have lost all their savings and credit markets would have been frozen for decades even if there weren't any further devaluations. The Royal Navy would've blockaded US ports until European creditors were paid in gold. It would have made the Great Depression look like Japan in the 80s.

There's a reason why nobody educated, not the "progressives," not writers for The Nation, not the faculty of Harvard, supported Bryan. Whatever your half-formed or fully-formed opinions about the gold standard, you may note that the transition from gold standard to fiat currency was an extremely gradual process lasting more than a century, and was not completed until after 1. the dollar had decisively replaced the pound as the world's reserve currency, and 2. everyone else had gone (or went simultaneously) off the gold standard. For an example of what happens to a prosperous country when it's run by "money cranks" who intentionally induce general debt defaults via sudden inflationary shocks, see Argentina.

I voted McKinley in the poll, but his keeping America from becoming a third world country is quite praiseworthy.