Positive
none
+1: Minor accomplishment or trait; may well and easily have been accomplished by others or perhaps the president cannot take much credit from.
+3: Accomplishment or trait that the president should be proud of.
+5: Major accomplishment or trait that left a legacy beyond the president's service in office.
-1: Minor shortcoming, faux pas, problem. A blemish supporters might forgive. Also negative issues for which the president cannot take significant blame for.
-3: Unfortunate occurances that should be seen as something of an embarrassment to the administration.
-5: Major failure or shortcoming that transcends the administration; negative repurcussions that last beyond the administration.
I'm not including George W. Bush, partly because he's a sitting president and the legacy of his Administration has not fully played out, and the political climate is a bit hot right now; it's difficult to make a rational judgment of his performance when there's as much emotional interest in current events as they are.
I'll update this list slowly in time. Let's go worst to first, shall we?
James Buchanan, 1857-61, Democrat
Positive
none
Negative
-1: John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry underscores the level of desperation on the slavery issue.
-1: Buchanan does little when South Carolina fires on a Federal ship approaching Fort Sumter.
-3: Panic of ’57 sends thousands of businesses into failure for the next several years.
-3: Stacked his cabinet with pro-South Democrats.
-3: Endorsed a proslavery Kansas constitution.
-3: Buchanan’s Secretary of War John B. Floyd sent Federal arms to Texas for the CSA to stock up.
-5: Supported and even had a hand in the Dred Scott decision, nationalizing slavery.
-5: CSA is formed in Montgomery, Alabama under Buchanan’s watch.
Grand Total: -24
Andrew Johnson, 1965-9, Democrat-Union
Positive
+5: Secretary of State Seward purchases Alaska.
Positive Total: 5
Negative
-1: The murder of 48 anti-racist radicals in New Orleans in July of ’66 is a black eye for Johnson’s ridiculously lenient position.
-1: Saw Congress repeatedly overrides his vetoes.
-3: Fervent white supremacist.
-3: Opposed the 14th Amendment on the grounds that the Southern states were without representation.
-3: Lost mid-terms to Radical Republicans.
-3: Feud with Secretary of War Stanton led to an impeachment. Johnson only survived removal by 1 vote.
-5: Johnson’s stewardship over Reconstruction can be viewed nothing more than inept: he wanted immediate reinstatement of Southern representation and didn’t care whether or not there were safeguards for freedman. Black codes and some states refusing to repudiate their secession declarations. Reconstruction was a complete debacle under Johnson.
-5: Vetoed the Freedman’s Bureau and various civil rights legislation.
Negative Total: 24
Grand Total: -19
Martin Van Buren, 1837-41, Democrat
Positives
+1: Early labor-friendly policy as the 10-hour workday is instituted for public works projects.
+1: Had public officers hold public funds rather than send them to banks which were closing.
+1: Cut public expenditures for fiscal responsibility.
+1: Diplomatically kept Mexico and Britain at a distance from each other.
Positive Total: 4
Negatives
-1: Anglo-American relations hit a low as Canadian soldiers burn the American steamer Caroline, exposing American assistance to a rebellion in Canada.
-1: Attempted to send the Amistad slaves to their destination in Cuba.
-1: Van Buren couldn’t get Congress to agree on his plans to improve the economic situation.
-1: Public expenditures cuts would have mopped up some unemployment.
-1: Viewed as unfeeling in the time of a national crisis; spent considerable amount of time and money decorating the White House as a Depression was in full swing.
-1: Was resistant to adding Texas to the Union.
-3: Pro-slavery.
-3: Second Seminole War sees continued belligerence against the Natives.
-3: Panic of 1937.
-5: Shameful belligerence towards the Cherokees.
Negative Total: 20
Grand Total: -16
Franklin Pierce, 1853-7, Democrat
Positive
+1: Friendly treaty with Britain slightly warms relations.
+3: The Treaty of Kanagawa is Japan’s first modern diplomatic understanding with a Western nation.
+5: The Gadsden Purchase acquires southern New Mexico and southern Arizona.
Positive Total: 9
Negative
-1: Opposed homesteading.
-1: Opposed legislation to establish institutions for the poor mentally ill.
-1: Unenthusiastic about the federal government involving itself with a trans-continental railroad.
-1: Embarrassing episode in which the British minister to the US was caught illegally recruiting American mercenaries for the British army leads to uncomfortable tension when Pierce squeezes that ambassador out of his passport.
-1: Charles Sumner is beaten on the floor of the Senate, as republican ideals turn to violence.
-3: Recognized slavery as a right and naively hoped the issue was dead.
-3: The Ostend Manifesto was an embarrassing policy that could have sent America to war with Spain in order to expand American slavery to Cuba.
-3: The recognition of William Walker, an American self-proclaimed dictator in Nicaragua, alarms Britain.
-5: The Kansas question spirals American politics into new sectionalism and loses Pierce seats in Congress after the realignment; Pierce does nothing helpful on the Kansas issue.
Negative Total: 19
Grand Total: -10
Gerald Ford, 1974-7 Republican
Positive
+1: Reassuring successor to Nixon in the wake of a troubling event, a welcome contrast to Nixon.
+1: Honest, straightforward, refreshing in integrity.
+1: Slashed federal spending.
+1: Had a tax cut in 1975.
Positive Total: 4
Negative
-1: Reluctant bailout of a New York City highly in debt was something of a black eye politically to Ford.
-1: Publicly awkward, sometimes bumbling, and viewed as a laconic dullard, despite academic accomplishments to suggest the contrary.
-1: Initially asked Congress to raise taxes.
-1: Gridlocked with Congress, vetoing 66 bills in half a term.
-1: Flip-flopped often on economic issues.
-1: Fall of South Vietnam occurs under Ford’s watch, Khmer Rouge rises in Cambodia.
-1: Mayaguez-incident with Khmer Rouge was a brutal black eye, losing 41 servicemen to rescue 40 sailors.
-1: Helsinki Accords recognizes the Soviet Empire.
-1: Betty Ford’s public approval of immoral behavior on 60 Minutes, including condoning extra-marital sex and abortion.
-1: Fairly unpopular by the 1976 election.
-3: Worst economy since the 1930s.
Negative Total: 13
Grand Total: -9
Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-77, Republican
Positive
+1: Eventually dismissed appointments of one faction of Republicans in a momentarily enlightened effort to secure party discipline.
+3: Restored Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia to Union by speeding up Reconstruction in those states.
+3: Urged legislation to combat the KKK, and actively opposed Southern violence.
+3: Backed reduction of the currency even in the face of the Depression of 1874, probably preventing a miserable economic condition from going to cataclysmic.
+5: Was able to secure legislation that promised all paper money would soon be convertible to specie after his presidency.
Positive Total: 15
Negative
-1: Didn’t really have any policy, deferred to Congress who didn’t have one mind.
-1: The rout at Little Bighorn occurs.
-1: Was extremely incapable of stemming the still existing sectionalism from the Civil War.
-1: Congress refused Grant’s plan to annex Santo Domingo.
-1: Retroactive increases of Congressional pay was highly unpopular, mocked as “the Salary Grab”.
-1: Embarrassingly had Congress reject a Supreme Court nomination out of political spite.
-3: Engaged in patronage appointments when reformers were desperately needed.
-3: Tax collection controversy when John D. Sanborn, a tax collector, is allowed to keep some taxes for himself as arranged with the Treasury Secretary William A. Richardson.
-3: When his secretary Orville E. Babcock is implicated in a trial in which Grant argues “Let no guilty man escape”, the president secures the release of Babcock.
-3: A surge in gold prices sends the market spiraling and only quick action by Grant to sell off government gold reserves prevents an enormous economic catastrophe.
-3: Lost Southern state governments to Democratic elections.
-3: Credit Mobilier scandal implicated Republican congressmen in railroad bribery scams.
Negative Total: 24
Grand Total: -9
Benjamin Harrison, 1889-93 Republican
Positive
+3: Signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, a seminal piece of labor legislation.
Positive Total: 3
Negative
-1: Wounded Knee Massacre occurs under Harrison.
-1: Publically had an image as a personally bumbling man who spent too much time at leisure.
-3: Political corruption underneath with party bosses tarred the Party.
-3: Signed the McKinley Tariff of 1890, damaging the economy.
-3: Signed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, draining federal reserves and perhaps causing the Panic of 1893.
Negative Total: 11
Grand Total: -8
John Tyler, 1841-5 Whig
Positive
+1: Webster-Ashburton Canadian border treaty signed.
+5: Was crafty in paving the road to Texan annexation.
Positive Total: 6
Negative
-1: Gag rule on antislavery petitions is lifted in Congress, thanks to John Quincy Adams; Tyler opposed such discussions.
-1: Presidential election times are reformed; Tyler was not elected.
-3: First president to see a veto overridden.
-3: Completely alienating his own party, which saw some resignations and even pleading with Tyler for him to resign.
-3: Failed economic plan resulted in depositing federal funds into unstable state banks.
-3: Political fighting with Congress nearly leads to a censure or even impeachment.
Negative Total: 14
Grand Total: -8
Herbert Hoover, 1929-33 Republican
Positive
+1: Opposed handouts.
+1: Oversaw a moratorium on war debts to the US.
+1: Principled conservative, apolitical, and honest.
+3: Keynesian public works efforts put some desperate people to work.
+3: Created the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to infuse cash into the economy.
Positive Total: 9
Negative
-1: Failed in his attempt to infuse optimism during hard times and was viewed as cold-hearted by the public, public approval was minimal.
-3: High handed Bonus March suppression.
-3: Ineffective in dealing with Japanese expansionism.
-5: Signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, starting an international trade war on the dawn of worldwide Depression.
-5: High unemployment, massive bank failures: the Great Depression.
Negative Total: 17
Grand Total: -8
Jimmy Carter, 1977-81, Democrat
Positive
+1: Added cabinet members for education and energy.
+1: Cut spending.
+1: Reduced foreign aid to nations with poor human rights records.
+1: Normalized relations with China.
+1: Actively opposed Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
+5: Camp David Accords ends Egyptian belligerence to Israel.
Positive Total: 10
Negative
-1: Poor welfare and tax reform plans failed in Congress.
-1: Raised taxes.
-1: Inherited a bad economy and was incapable of improving it.
-1: Post-“Malaise Speech” cabinet in-fighting was attributed to Carter.
-1: Abandonment of SALT II a step back in Soviet-American relations.
-1: Unpopular president.
-3: The OPEC created energy crisis was a bitter black eye for Carter.
-3: Bungling military efforts in Iran humiliates America.
-5: Overthrow of the Shah sees the collapse of a pro-American Iran.
Negative Total: 17
Grand Total: -7
Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-9 Democrat
Positive
+1: Was very effective at getting Congressional cooperation.
+5: Voting Rights Act of 1965 realizes democratic principles.
+5: Civil Rights Act of 1964 effectively ends an ugly period of American history.
Positive Total: 11
Negative
-1: Was highly unpopular.
-3: Was somewhat deceptive with the American public on Vietnam issues, particularly the level of escalation.
-3: Was inept in prosecuting the conflict.
-5: War on Poverty and Great Society were ambitious domestic failures resulting in huge bureaucratic expansion.
-5: Escalates the unsuccessful war in Vietnam.
Negative Total: 17
Grand Total: -6
Bill Clinton, 1993-2001 Democrat
Positive
+1: Exuded optimism, empathy, vigor.
+1: 1996 Welfare reform promises a bit more responsibility and fairness.
+3: Presided over outstanding prosperity.
+3: Passes NAFTA.
+3: Bombing of Serbian forces yields Milosevic.
+3: Worthwhile peace efforts in Northern Ireland.
Positive Total: 15
Negative
-1: Government shut down over federal funding was a petulant political battle.
-1: Elian Gonzalez controversy.
-1: Haiti experiment was less than successful.
-1: Couldn’t close the deal on peace between Palestinians and Israel which led to the worst violence in many years.
-3: Sexual impropriety and public self-pity won little sympathy and brought massive political turmoil and a House impeachment.
-3: Lost Congress mid-term.
-3: First Lady’s health care reform failure was a political black eye.
-3: Branch Davidian debacle.
-3: Withdrawal from Somalia invigorated al-Qaeda.
Negative Total: 19
Grand Total: -4
James A. Garfield, 1881 Republican
Positive
none
Negative
-1: While he claimed to oppose political corruption and patronage, he engaged in it: his presidency was defined by choosing who to give favors to and weighing such favors as expenses against other potential beneficiaries of patronage.
-1: Viewed as ridiculously weak-willed.
Grand Total: -2
Richard M. Nixon, 1969-74 Republican
Positive
+1: Invasion of Cambodia was a sensible reversal of insane policy to intentionally limit American efforts to combat enemy forces in Southeast Asia.
+1: School desegregation was aggressively accomplished.
+1: Proposed the Family Assistance Plan.
+1: Created the Environmental Protection Agency.
+1: Ended the gold standard.
+1: Budget cuts for fiscal responsibility.
+3: The SALT I accord is another step away from nuclear brinkmanship.
+3: Creation of an all-volunteer military, replacing the draft.
+5: Opened China to trade and warm relations.
Positive Total: 17
Negative
-1: Roe vs. Wade is the most embarrassing ruling by the SCOTUS since Dred Scott.
-1: Keynesian in wage/price controls.
-1: Introduces affirmative action as a standard.
-1: Radical and failed 1971 health insurance plan that didn’t pass.
-1: Failed twice to get SCOTUS judges approved by Congress.
-1: Muscled by OPEC for high gas prices and gas lines.
-1: Stagflation and recession chokes nation’s economy.
-1: Awkward conclusion to the Vietnam conflict.
-3: The Kent State debacle and Nixon’s bumbling half-hearted reaction were embarrassing failures.
-3: Introduced institutional distrust for the government, creating a cynical American public.
-5: Watergate and the deception to cover it up.
Negative Total: 19
Grand Total: -2
Warren G. Harding, 1921-3 Republican
Positive
+1: Some excellent cabinet choices in Charles Evans Hughes (State), Herbert Hoover (Commerce), and Henry C. Wallace (Agriculture).
+1: Avoided the disastrous League of Nations.
+1: Joined the World Court.
+1: Cut taxes.
+1: Persuaded Congress to adopt unified federal budget making.
+1: Pardoned Eugene Debs who had been jailed under the 1917 Espionage Act.
+3: Backed the Washington Conference on naval disarmament, which ultimately modernized the US Navy.
+5: Generally brought unity into a government that had been divided during Wilson’s last months of frail health.
Positive Total: 14
Negative
-1: Unemployment and wage cuts increasing.
-1: Favored Prohibition.
-1: Sexual impropriety.
-3: Inside payoffs over the Teapot Dome and Elk Hills oil reserves.
-3: Corruption in the Veterans Bureau and Justice Department.
-5: Did little for failing farmers, an increasing national problem.
Negative Total: 14
Grand Total: 0
William Henry Harrison, 1841 Whig
Positive
+1: The Amistad case sends home potential slaves.
+1: Appointed an excellent cabinet which included Daniel Webster.
Positive Total: 2
Negative
-1: Died only a month in office, not particularly contributing as an executive.
Negative Total: 1
Grand Total: 1
James Madison, 1809-17 Democratic-Republican
Positive
+1: Replaced the disastrous Non-Intercourse Act with the Macon’s Bill regarding neutrality on the high seas.
+1: Madison left office with popularity, respect, and dignity, despite a difficult tenure.
+5: Peace at Ghent sees the United States secure its independence and provides an incredible surge of patriotism.
Positive Total: 7
Negative
-1: Shawnee alienation leads to conflicts.
-1: Madison is seen as soft by Congress on British impressments of American sailors .
-1: The media blamed Madison for the burning of Washington; he witnessed the Battle of Bladensburg which allowed British access to the capital.
-1: Protest of the War of 1812 sees a hint of secession by the New England states at the Hartford Convention; an anglophile New England essentially sits out the war.
-1: Madison’s party and cabinet were not particularly united, and Madison did not effectively wield executive power when it possibly was most needed.
-1: Failed in conquering Canada.
Negative Total: 6
Grand Total: 1
John Quincy Adams, 1825-9 Democratic-Republican
Positive
+1: Signed numerous trade treaties with nations in South and Central America, putting forward the value of republican principles.
+5: Significant public works projects including canals between the Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio and Delaware rivers, national roads, military academies, educational and science institutions, etc.
Positive Total: 6
Negative
-1: The public and Congress were indifferent to Adams.
-1: Charged, unfairly, with corruption by political opponents; ironically, because he didn’t play partisan politics, he was thought to play favorites to elites, not to principle.
-3: Tarif of Abominations is a political embarrassment for Adams.
Negative Total: 5
Grand Total: 1
Zachary Taylor, 1849-50 Whig
Positive
+1: Clayton-Bulwer Treaty is first step towards Central American canal.
+1: Popularity transcended incendiary sectional and party rivalries.
+1: Opposed the extension of slavery and secession in principle, opposing a major Congressional compromise proposed by Henry Clay.
Positive Total: 3
Negative
-1: Attempted to side-step the slavery issue, leaving it to Congressional decision.
Negative Total: 1
Grand Total: 2
William H. Taft, 1909-13 Republican
Positive
+1: Articulated “Dollar Diplomacy” to help shore up friendly foreign nations in need.
+1: Continued Roosevelt’s trust busting efforts, if to TR’s dissatisfaction.
+3: Helped put down Nicaraguan revolt.
+5: Oversaw the enactment of the 16th Amendment, which many deem is the fairest way to raise revenue by the government.
Positive Total: 10
Negative
-1: Political infighting between Gifford Pinchot and Richard Ballinger led to public and embarrassing exchanges.
-1: Teddy Roosevelt’s feud with Taft leads to poor in-party bickering and ultimately hands Woodrow Wilson a presidency.
-3: Lost Congress in mid-term elections.
-3: The Income Tax amendment means more taxation…
Negative Total: 8
Grand Total: 2
Andrew Jackson, 1829-37 Democrat
Positive
+1: Was fairly popular, considered a president of the people.
+3: Eliminated the national debt with fiscal conservatism.
+5: Created “the spoils system” in appointments, and by wielding the veto, made the presidency “modern”.
+5: Avoided Civil War with a firm stance against dissolution and instituting a compromise tariff that South Carolina agrees to.
Positive Total: 14
Negative
-1: Major slave revolt by Nat Turner in Virginia.
-1: Jackson’s opposition to the Second Bank of the United States was an ugly affair with regards to his political war with Congress and the Bank’s supporters, and even sees a censure against Jackson by the Senate which was eventually rescinded.
-1: South Carolina attempts to usurp federal power with the Ordinance of Nullification.
-3: Black Hawk War is an embarrassing episode.
-3: Enforced the Indian Removal Act of 1830, beginning the Trail of Tears.
-3: Did little to stem and perhaps created the Panic of 1837 through his financial policies.
Negative Total: 12
Grand Total: 2
Rutherford B. Hayes, 1877-81 Republican
Positive
+1: Quelled violence during railroad strikes.
+1: Successfully used the veto to combat riders on bills by Southern Democrats to remove federal troops from protecting blacks at voting polls.
+1: Opposed Chinese immigration restrictions.
+3: Shockingly refreshing humanitarian attitude towards Indian relations.
+3: Opposed unlimited coinage of silver, supported the redemption of greenbacks for gold.
+3: Ingeniously waited for Congress to end session to make appointments and enact civil service reform by replacing cronies with men of merit.
Positive Total: 12
Negative
-1: Was incapable of parlaying his just attitude towards Indians into meaningful policy.
-1: Was unable to stop the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 which forced the government to buy silver, although Hayes tried to compromise and lessen the damage.
-1: Was unable to enact legislation that would see federal assistance towards education of blacks.
-3: Elected under awkward circumstances that required questionable political compromises.
-3: Lost Congress to the Democrats in mid-term elections.
Negative Total: 9
Grand Total: 3
John F. Kennedy, 1961-3 Democrat
Positive
+1: Established the Peace Corps.
+1: Put down anti-black rioting in Mississippi.
+1: Although reluctantly, Kennedy eventually endorsed the sentiment of civil rights.
+1: Gave America youthful energy and optimism.
+3: Supported the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963, banning atmospheric tests.
+5: Successfully resolved the Cuban Missile Crisis.
+5: Enthusiastic supporter of a space program.
Positive Total: 17
Negative
-1: Sexual improprieties and possible drug abuse.
-1: Questionable enthusiasm for assassination as policy.
-3: Bay of Pigs debacle.
-3: 1961 Vienna summit gave his nemesis Krushchev a psychological edge.
-5: General ineptitude and questionable handling of an allied government in South Vietnam led to the escalation to that disastrous war.
Negative Total: 13
Grand Total: 4
Calvin Coolidge, 1923-9 Republican
Positive
+1: Considered highly honest.
+1: Cleaned house of the previous administration’s corrupt cabinet.
+1: Suppressed the Sandino revolutionaries in Nicaragua.
+1: Supported the noble, if naïve Kellogg-Briand Pact.
+3: Restored respect to the presidency after the Harding hangover.
+3: Approved of the Dawes Plan to easy German economic conditions.
Positive Total: 10
Negative
-1: Economic speculation continued unabated.
-3: Vetoed the McNary-Haugen bill to act upon an agricultural depression, in which the government would buy excess farm produce in order to raise prices by taking that produce off the market.
Negative Total: 4
Grand Total: 6
William McKinley, 1897-1901 Republican
Positive
+1: United the factions of the Republican Party at a time when the Party was at a post-Reconstruction crossroads.
+1: Argument for an Open Door Policy with China would benefit the United States.
+1: Boxer Rebellion is squashed.
+1: Abandons protectionist stance in the face of the war with Spain in which foreign markets now seem desirable.
+1: Popular president in a time of transition.
+5: Presides over successful war against Spain, which also heals some wounds from the Civil War in uniting the nation.
Positive Total: 10
Negative
-3: Huge supporter of tariffs, which lead to economic decline.
Grand Total: 7
George Bush, 1989-93 Republican
Positive
+1: Had a hand in helping German reunification.
+1: Balanced the budget.
+1: Passed the Americans With Disabilities Act.
+3: Invasion of Panama results in the successful arrest of Manuel Noriega and re-establishes faith in the US military.
+3: Maintained cool stability in the face of collapsing world powers and a Soviet coup.
+5: Masterful conduct on the Persian Gulf War.
Positive Total: 14
Negative
-1: Savings and Loans bailout is seen as a black eye for lax regulations.
-1: Was a little silent during the Tiananmen Square incident.
-1: Was an unenthusiastic and uninspiring president.
-1: Suffered through a brief recession, costing him political capital.
-3: Raised taxes after promising not to.
Negative Total: 7
Grand Total: 7
John Adams, 1797-1801 Federalist
Positive
+1: Washington and Hamilton put down a minor disturbance in Pennsylvania.
+3: The Library of Congress is established, although Thomas Jefferson must take the credit for its establishment, not Adams.
+3: While engaging in the Quasi-War with France, Adams manages to avoid full scale war with either France or Britain, thus maintaining a fragile sovereignty; Convention of 1800 solidifies this peace.
+5: Created a Department of Navy.
+5: Appointed John Marshall as Chief Justice of the SCOTUS.
Positive Total: 17
Negative
-1: Adams authority was undercut by his cabinet and the Federalists who sought leadership not from Adams but from Hamilton, and his inability to preserve party unity led to the demise of the Federalist party.
-1: The XYZ Affair angered Adams who sought friendly relations with France, while his Francophobe party gloated.
-3: The US is forced to agree to pay tribute to the state of Tunis to end pirate raids on commerce.
-5: Alien & Sedition Acts are un-American restrictions on free speech; also, they inspire the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions in response, which are the basis for states’ rights arguments in the future.
Negative Total: 10
Grand Total: 7
Chester A. Arthur, 1881-5 Republican
Positive
+1: Enacted tariff reform.
+1: Cut pork barrel spending down with the veto.
+1: Opposed Chinese immigration restrictions.
+3: Signed the Pendleton Act to help clear the way of the increasingly routine corruption in the civil service.
+3: Planted the seeds to modernize the decrepit US Navy.
Positive Total: 9
Negative
-1: The Standard Oil trust gains momentum.
Grand Total: 8
Grover Cleveland, 1885-9, 1893-7 Democrat
Positive
+1: Reputation as incorruptible, highly moral in a time of rampant political corruption.
+1: Firmness in the face of the Pullman strike, using federal troops, was admirable and crafty.
+1: The arrest of Coxey’s Army retains security.
+1: Repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
+1: Opposed high tariffs, although doing so was a political liability.
+1: Terminated the Tenure of Office Act.
+3: “Negative” president, conservative in the ideal sense Reagan Republicans would like government to be; he had a courageous sense of duty and was noble about it. “Federal aid in such cases weakens the sturdiness of our national character.”
+3: Interstate Commerce Act passed.
+3: Avoided war yet was bulldog-strong when dealing with the UK over the Venezuela-Guyana border dispute.
Positive Total: 15
Negative
-1: Haymarket Riot underscores how bad labor-business relations are.
-3: Plessy v. Ferguson ranks with the Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade decisions as a low for the SCOTUS.
-3: Had to borrow money from JP Morgan for the federal coffers, which is not only embarrassing, but was a political black eye in that it appeared the president was willingly letting the government be bought off by the aristocrat.
Negative Total: 7
Grand Total: 8
Millard Fillmore, 1850-3 Whig
Positive
+1: First opening of Japan occurs at Fillmore’s will.
+3: California enters as a free state.
+3: Slave trade barred in the District of Columbia.
+3: Acted firmly with federal troops in New Mexico, preventing Texas militia from seizing the territory and thus preventing a premature beginning to the Civil War.
+3: Also acted firmly in South Carolina, beefing up federal forces when it seemed secession was probably, thus deterring a Civil War beginning there. Fillmore was resolute in at least staving off the Civil War for awhile.
Positive Total: 13
Negative
-1: Unelected, Fillmore was never really seen as a leader.
-3: Fugitive Slave Law was a compromise to Southern interests.
Negative Total: 4
Grand Total: 9
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-45 Democrat
Positive
+1: Highly popular.
+1: Executive Order 8802 banned discrimination in defense industries in the face of protest.
+3: Established optimism with the voting public.
+3: Saw the end of Prohibition.
+3: Established the Works Progress Administration, putting people to work and creating the Federal Writers Project.
+3: Passed the Wagner Act to allow collective bargaining.
+3: Gained support and passed the Lend-Lease Act in 1941.
+5: Established the Tennessee Valley Authority to generate dams and work.
+5: Stabilized banks.
+5: Passed the Social Security Act.
+5: Excellent war-time president.
Positive Total: 37
Negative
-1: Perhaps ceded too much to Stalin at the Yalta Conference.
-1: Union friendly legislation power into union hands beyond the control of public good.
-1: Was handcuffed by Neutrality Acts to take a more active role in international politics; Congress should bear the brunt of blame, but FDR subsequently suffered.
-3: Established the NIRA, whose price/wage controls were decidedly too far reaching, according to the SCOTUS
-3: Social Security Act in the long run means public dependence upon federal coffers.
-3: Forever made the president of primary importance and the government bureaucracy massive.
-3: Attempted to stack the SCOTUS with judges when the SCOTUS opposed some of his legislation.
-3: Broke a sacred tradition established by Washington in limiting presidential terms. Particularly distressing when considering FDR had expanded the influence of the executive to unprecedented levels.
-3: Failed to attain trust of the Soviet Union, translating into the Cold War.
-3: Unjustly interned 112,000 Japanese-Americans.
Negative Total: 24
Grand Total: 13
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-61 Republican
Positive
+1: Cordial relations with the USSR meant no serious confrontations.
+1: Brown v. Board of Education overturns Plessy v. Ferguson.
+1: Prosporous peace, expansive economy in first term.
+1: Consistently had a balanced budget
+1: Highly popular, once achieved a 75% approval rating.
+1: Decidedly bipartisan, avoided the taint of McCarthyistic divisiveness.
+1: National Defense Education Act beefs up American education with federal spending.
+1: Put down Arkansas intransigence to Brown v. Board decision.
+3: Articulated the Domino theory and continued opposition to encroaching Communism.
+5: Concluded the Korean War, securing South Korean independence.
+5: Assured Austrian neutrality.
+5: Supported the creation of a massive interstate highway system.
Positive Total: 26
Negative
-1: Incapable of wresting Suez possession from Nasser.
-1: America is upstaged by the launching of Sputnik.
-1: Second term saw rising inflation and an economic recession.
-1: Scandal in 1958 led to chief of staff, Sherman Adams, leaving office.
-1: U-2 spy plane incident evaporated cordial relations with the USSR and led to a Communist propaganda victory.
-5: Hungary was left out to dry in a revolt against the USSR
Negative Total: 10
Grand Total: 16
James Monroe, 1817-25 Democratic-Republican
Positive
+1: Partisanship largely had made a temporary disappearance under Monroe and he was outstandingly popular.
+5: Canal building projects underway.
+5: Monroe’s agreeing to allow General Andrew Jackson free reign wins Florida and stems Seminole raiding.
+5: The so-called Monroe Doctrine is a lasting policy into the 20th century.
+5: Took part in the 1820 compromise, admitting Maine and Missouri to resolve a pressing issue of slavery and representation in the Senate.
Positive Total: 21
Negative
-1: Reasoned that if slavery could be legal in some states, then states admitted in the future should be able to determine if they want slavery or not.
-3: Missouri Compromise, while preserving the Union, also preserves slavery.
Negative Total: 4
Grand Total: 17
Harry S. Truman, 1945-53 Democrat
Positive
+1: Blunt, forthcoming, and honest.
+1: Anti-communist, called the USSR on their failures to allow Polish elections.
+1: Recognized the creation of Israel.
+1: Cut taxes.
+1: Ended some price/wage controls.
+1: Successfully airlifted supplies to West Berlin.
+1: Left office with a country secure, powerful, and prosperous.
+3: Created Council of Economic Advisers.
+5: Ended segregation in the US military.
+5: Forced an unconditional surrender from Japan.
+5: Created GI Bill of Rights.
+5: Articulated the Truman Doctrine and supports the Marshall Plan to combat international Communism and support democratic nations.
+5: National Security Act improves national defense.
+5: Signed to NATO.
Positive Total: 40
Negative
-1: Not entirely popular, fostered some mistrust by the public and business.
-1: Strikes and labor unrests take front page.
-1: Public feud with war hero MacArthur was embarrassing divisiveness under war conditions.
-1: Reprimanded by the SCOTUS when attempting to squash a strike by nationalizing steel mills.
-1: Failure to gain decisive and swift victory in Korea evaporated popularity.
-1: Failed to deflect accusations of being soft on Communism, nor capable to manage anti-Communist hysteria saw a level of internal divisiveness.
-3: Lost Congress in mid-term elections.
-3: Fair Deal was alienating to some of the electorate, and increased public dependency upon handouts.
-3: Allowed the Soviets to squash Czechoslovakian democracy.
-3: Allowed Soviets to blockade West Berlin.
-5: Allowed Communists victory in China.
Negative Total: 23
Grand Total: 17
Ronald Reagan, 1981-9 Republican
Positive
+1: Warm, amiable personality, instilled optimism in the public.
+1: One of the most popular presidents ever: left office with a 70% approval rating.
+1: Vehemently called Communism on its deficiencies.
+1: Iranian hostages were released on his swearing in.
+1: Articulated a post-Goldwater Republican ideology.
+1: Proposed SDI program.
+1: Combatted left wing revolutionaries in Grenada, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
+3: Engineered the largest tax cut in American history.
+3: Modernization of American military.
+3: Signs the INF treaty.
+5: Economic policy lead to enormous economic gains.
+5: Warm relations with Gorbachev led to a desirable downfall of the USSR when alternative doomsday scenarios seemed more likely given other circumstances.
Positive Total: 26
Negative
-1: Viewed as rather dull intellectually.
-1: Beirut barracks bombing angers Americans.
-1: High national debt, high federal spending.
-1: Early economic problems.
-1: Savings and Loans failures begin under Reagan’s watch.
-3: Iran-Contra Affair is the Administration’s largest black eye.
Negative Total: 8
Grand Total: 18
James K. Polk, 1845-9 Democrat
Positive
+1: Bear Flag Revolt pries California from Mexico.
+3: Passed a reduced tariff.
+3: Proved volunteer soldiers and regulars were superior to militia units, thus changing the face of the US military.
+3: Created an independent treasury.
+5: Annexes Texas.
+5: Settled the Oregon border without war.
+5: Presided over a successful war with Mexico.
Positive Total: 25
Negative
-1: Start of Mexican War on suspicious pretext.
-1: Length of war and irresolute conclusion made Polk eventually unpopular, as was the war effort; war was seen as an effort to extend slavery by the North.
-3: His hands on approach and meddling with generals could have been costly to the war effort; publicly feuded with popular war hero Taylor.
Negative Total: 5
Grand Total: 20
Thomas Jefferson, 1801-9 Democratic-Republican
Positive
+3: Provided a financially sound and conservative spending policy to help reduce the national debt.
+3: Victory in the Tripolitan War reduces tribute to the Barbary state of Tripoli.
+3: Lewis & Clark are sent to explore Western America, igniting dreams of westward expansion.
+5: First change of power with regards to parties; significant in its peaceful and routine manner.
+5: Louisiana Purchase is one of the defining moments in early American history.
+5: Federal road building increases.
+5: Jefferson convinces Congress to end the importation of slaves.
Positive Total: 29
Negative
-1: The Embargo Act is a naïve piece of legislation believing the United States as wielding greater international weight than it does and only ruins the US economy with its hardheaded positions against France and the United Kingdom.
Negative Total: 3
Grand Total: 26
Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-9 Republican
Positive
+1: Largely popular.
+1: Threats to nationalize coal mines ultimately saw an agreement between management and labor in 1902.
+1: Put down several strikes.
+1: Platformed labor friendly legislation, particularly anti-child labor laws.
+1: His regulation of capitalism essentially assured socialism would not get a foothold.
+1: Sent out the Great White Fleet to project American power, a symbol of his dedication to attain world power status for the nation.
+1: Articulated the American spirit, combined the conflicting Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian schools of American thought.
+1: Application of Sherman Act deemed Constitutional by the SCOTUS.
+3: Created the Department of Commerce and Labor.
+3: Roosevelt Corollary reinforced American dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
+3: Helped mediate a peace between Japan and Russia.
+3: Organized the Algeciras Conference to reduce tensions over Morocco.
+5: Enacted the Meat Inspection and Pure Food and Drug Acts of 1906.
+5: Secured Panamanian independence and a Canal.
+5: Conservationist platform set aside national parks.
Positive Total: 35
Negative
-1: Opposition to trusts invites precedence for the government to be belligerent to economic prosperity.
-1: Opposition to corporate America at times appeared arbitrary.
Negative Total: 2
Grand Total: 33
George Washington, 1789-97 Federalist
Positive
+1: As a celebrated icon, he was a surrogate for nationalism and helped foster patriotism.
+3: Put down the Whiskey Rebellion.
+5: Fashioned the presidency in republican form, provided a blueprint for republican morals; appreciated delegating authority yet having ultimate responsibility.
+5: Accepted Hamilton’s Bank of the United States.
+5: Signed the 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality, which while keeps the States out of Anglo-French entanglements, sees the President taking primary responsibility in foreign policy; this precedent lessens the Constitutional assumption that the Senate is in charge of foreign policy.
+5: Jay Treaty keeps American from war with Britain and, again, establishes the President as the arbiter of foreign policy.
+5: Engaged in numerous public works, canals, roads, etc.
+5: Established the precedent that presidents should only have 2 terms.
Negative
none
Grand Total: 34
Abraham Lincoln, 1861-5 Republican
Positive
+5: Presided victoriously over the Civil War.
+5: Vigorous opponent of slavery.
+5: Preserved the Union.
+5: Successfully maintained a coalition of “War Democrats”, Unionists, etc.
+5: Weeded out inept generals, provided a sound strategy to destroy the Rebel Army, and successfully found generals capable of carrying out the strategy.
+5: Wisely played his cards about emancipation as policy to keep border Unionist states in the Federal camp.
+5: Freed slaves initially with Emancipation Proclamation and looked to back it up with a Constitutional amendment.
+5: Kept France and Britain out of the war; was generally adept diplomatically when times most needed it.
Positive Total: 40
Negative
-1: Was highly unpopular, albeit with people of questionable repute.
Negative Total: 1
Grand Total: 39
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