Rate the Presidents, Installment #17: Andrew Johnson

[JonathanSwift]

Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869

Previous Results
Abraham Lincoln: 4.45 Stars
George Washington: 4.42 Stars
Thomas Jefferson: 3.65 Stars
James Monroe: 3.57 Stars
John Quincy Adams: 3.5 Stars
James Madison: 3.23 Stars
Zachary Taylor: 3.15 Stars
Martin Van Buren: 3.04 Stars
James K. Polk: 2.85 Stars
John Adams: 2.58 Stars
Andrew Jackson: 2.43 Stars
William Henry Harrison: 2.38 Stars
Millard Fillmore: 2.33 Stars
John Tyler: 2.11 Stars
Franklin Pierce: 1.6 Stars
James Buchanan: 1.41 Stars

[SWE]

One star is way too generous for this scumbag

[TDAS04]

Second worst president.  One star.

[Gass3268]

Honorable that he sided with the Union, but an awful President and probably Lincoln's biggest mistake of his administration was making him VP. Hamlin would have been much better.

[Gass3268]

Also why is John Quincy Adams color coded as a Republican when he was a Democratic-Republican when he was President.

[OSR stands with Israel]

1 star

[JonathanSwift]

Also why is John Quincy Adams color coded as a Republican when he was a Democratic-Republican when he was President.

Because the Atlas uses blue to represent him.

https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1824&off=0&elect=0&f=0

[Xing]

Awful in so many ways. One star.

[Zioneer]

Almost as bad as Buchanan. Also, who on earth is voting 5 stars for this guy?

[Anti-Bothsidesism]

The 2nd worst president of the USA. He was the one true racist that was president Or maybe it was Woodrow Wilson.

[Antonio the Sixth]

3 stars. Honestly, I never got the hatred for him. His handling of Reconstruction was certainly far closer to what Lincoln envisioned than that of Radical Republicans.

He probably wasn't a good person and his Presidency was far from a success, but I don't think it's fair to blame him entirely.

[sparkey]

3 stars. Honestly, I never got the hatred for him. His handling of Reconstruction was certainly far closer to what Lincoln envisioned than that of Radical Republicans.

He probably wasn't a good person and his Presidency was far from a success, but I don't think it's fair to blame him entirely.

True to some degree. We can get a good look at what a Radical Republican reconstruction policy might have looked like in a microcosm by looking at the Brownlow administration in Tennessee. Let's just say that it didn't go over well. Lincoln understood the risks, as did Johnson.

Andrew Johnson is in a lot of ways like John Tyler. They were both the last of a breed (Johnson was the last Jacksonian President; Tyler was the last Jeffersonian President); they were both VPs who came to power after the death of the President; they both disagreed with the party they ran with; and they both fought Congress their entire term. They same people who think that Tyler was so terrible also seem to think the same about Johnson.

That said, as one of the few people who think Tyler was a good President, I don't exactly think that Johnson was. He definitely didn't go far enough in guaranteeing rights for freedmen. There was a balance to be struck to avoid further Civil War and avoid inciting terrorism, but he didn't quite strike it. 2 stars.

[Cryptic]

Utterly horrible. 1 star.

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

The worst.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The 2nd worst president of the USA. He was the one true racist that was president Or maybe it was Woodrow Wilson.

I hate to break it to you, but there have been many racist presidents.

[ScottieF]

Quite possibly the bottom of the barrel. Only Pierce gives him a run for his money. 1 star.

[JonathanSwift]

Final Result: 1.72 Stars

[Maxwell]

3 stars. Honestly, I never got the hatred for him. His handling of Reconstruction was certainly far closer to what Lincoln envisioned than that of Radical Republicans.

He probably wasn't a good person and his Presidency was far from a success, but I don't think it's fair to blame him entirely.

My thoughts exactly.

[Dancing with Myself]

He didn't deserve to be President at any point of his life because he had none of the goods required to be a success. Too hard-headed,stubborn, and bitter against the upper class to make an impact.

When it come down to it he was a wanna be Andrew Jackson.

[SWE]

3 stars. Honestly, I never got the hatred for him. His handling of Reconstruction was certainly far closer to what Lincoln envisioned than that of Radical Republicans.

Given how abhorrent Johnson's handling of reconstruction was, that sounds more like a criticism of Lincoln than it does a praise for Johnson

[Antonio the Sixth]

3 stars. Honestly, I never got the hatred for him. His handling of Reconstruction was certainly far closer to what Lincoln envisioned than that of Radical Republicans.

Given how abhorrent Johnson's handling of reconstruction was, that sounds more like a criticism of Lincoln than it does a praise for Johnson

That's certainly a debate worth having (I personally am not sure what the best course of action would have been), but regardless, it takes away the ludicrous argument that Johnson "betrayed" Lincoln's legacy.