10.
Calvin Coolidge (1923 – 1929)
9. Richard
Nixon (1969 – 1974)
In June,
1972, several of Nixon’s men were caught breaking into Democratic Party
headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC – bringing to light the
infamous Watergate Scandal. Nixon himself downplayed the scandal as mere politics,
but when his aides resigned in disgrace, Nixon’s role in ordering an illegal
cover-up came to light in the press, courts, and congressional investigations.
N. Nixon was named by the grand jury investigating Watergate as
“an unindicted co-conspirator” in the Watergate scandal. In light of his loss
of political support and the near certainty of both his impeachment by the House
of Representatives and his probable conviction by the Senate, he resigned on
August 9, 1974, after addressing the nation on television the previous evening.
He never admitted to criminal wrongdoing, although he later conceded errors of
judgment.
8. Zachary
Taylor (1849 – 1850)
The
slavery issue dominated Taylor’s short term. Although he owned slaves, he took
a moderate stance on the territorial expansion of slavery, angering fellow
Southerners. Taylor urged settlers in New Mexico and California to draft
constitutions and apply for statehood, bypassing the territorial stage. Southerners were furious with Taylor and with
California. Taylor held a stormy conference with Southern leaders who
threatened secession. He told them that if necessary to enforce the laws, he
personally would lead the Army.
7. John
Tyler (1841 – 1845)
Tyler’s
Presidency was rarely taken seriously in his time. Opponents usually referred
him to as the “Acting President” or “His Accidency”. The House of
Representatives considered the first impeachment resolution against a president
in American history. A committee headed by former president John Quincy Adams
concluded that Tyler had misused the veto, but the impeachment resolution did
not pass.
6.
Millard Fillmore (1850 – 1853)
Fillmore
ascended to the presidency upon the sudden and unexpected death of President
Taylor in July 1850. The change in leadership also signaled an abrupt political
shift in the administration, as Fillmore removed Taylor’s entire cabinet,
replacing them with individuals known to be favorable to the Compromise
efforts. Fillmore signed into law the Fugitive Slave Act as a compromise
between Southern slaveholding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. The act
sought to force the authorities in free states to return fugitive slaves to
their masters.
5.
Ulysses S Grant (1869 – 1877)
Grant
achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil
War. The first scandal to taint the Grant administration was Black Friday, a
gold-speculation financial crisis in September 1869, set up by Wall Street
manipulators Jay Gould and James Fisk. They tried to corner the gold market and
tricked Grant into preventing his treasury secretary from stopping the fraud.
The most famous scandal was the Whiskey Ring of 1875, exposed by Secretary of
the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow, in which over 3 million dollars in taxes were
stolen from the federal government with the aid of high government officials.
4. Andrew
Johnson (1865 – 1869)
Johnson
succeeding to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson
vetoed the first civil rights bill, stating that it gave “a perfect equality of
the white and black races in every State of the Union.” In a letter to the governor
of Missouri he wrote: “this is a country for white men, and by God, as long as
I am President, it shall be a government for white men.” The Republicans in
congress overrode his veto (the Senate by the vote of 33:15, the House by
182:41) and the Civil Rights bill became law. Johnson tried to remove Edward
Stanton as Secretary of War directly violating the Tenure of Office Act which
Johnson had vetoed. He was impeached (and is the first president to be so) but
found innocent by only one vote.
3. Franklin
Pierce (1853 –
1857)
He took office nervously exhausted. The most controversial
event of Pierce’s presidency was the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the
Missouri Compromise and reopened the question of slavery in the West. The Act
also caused widespread outrage in the North and spurred the creation of the
Republican Party, a sectional Northern party that was organized as a direct
response to the bill. Pierce is
the only elected president (as of 2007) not to be denominated by his party for
a second term.
In his
inaugural speech, Buchanan stated that the slavery issue was of “little
practical importance” because the Supreme Court was about to settle it. Two
days later they announced the Dred Scott decision in which it ruled that people
of African descent, whether or not they were slaves, could never be citizens of
the United States, and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in
federal territories. Buchanan was widely believed to have been personally
involved in the outcome of the case. Additionally, Buchanan’s administration
was troubled by the Panic of 1857 federal soldiers surrendered to Texas
troops. Historians in 2006 voted his failure to deal with secession the worst
presidential mistake ever made.
1. Warren
G Harding (1921 – 1923)
Harding’s
term as president was beset with scandal – both personal and political. Albert
B Fall, Harding’s Secretary of the Interior, became the first member of a
presidential cabinet to go to jail for his role in the Teapot Dome affair. . Some of these appointees used their power to rob
the government. Harding is reputed to have said: “I have no trouble with my
enemies, but my damn friends, my God-damned friends… they’re the ones that keep
me walking the floor nights!
