Now a quick note before I get going. Although America has had 43 Presidents, only 39 of them are actually eligible to be included. I believe in order to fully judge a presidents legacy, he must be not only out of office, but well out of office.....say 16 years out of office. Up until that point much of what any given president did can not be rightly judged without involving "recent" emotional attachments to said president.
Which means President Obama and President Bush are not included.
The other two presidents not to be included are James Garfield and William Henry Harrison. Garfield was shot 3 months into his term, and languished a basic invalid unable to execute the powers of office for 3 more, Harrison died 31 days into his. Neither really had a long enough term to do anything, and given the empathizes on the "first 100 days" it seems unfair to judge two presidents who didnt get that far.
So with those disclaimers in mind, lets get rolling with America's 10th greatest President:
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| Chester Arthur. 21st President |
Chester A. Arthur is my dark horse pick. By which I mean you will probably NEVER ever see another top 10 list with his name on it and honestly, for good reason. By many accounts Arthur was a failure. His record on civil rights for blacks was decent, kinda, but his record on native american rights was horrible (many of his actions were later overturned). He also signed the Chinese Exclusion Act (prohibiting Chinese Immigration) as well as signing a law excluding disabled immigrants and put a tax on all immigrants. He did try, but fail, to improve the then obsolete navy. So thats one positive.....slight points for trying.
Also for what its worth, Arthur was never actually elected president (1 of 5 men not to be) taking over only on the death of James Garfield. Now its worth noting, their is a good argument to be made Arthur didnt want to be president especially not a second term.....he'd been diagnosed with a terminal disease, which he hid from the public, during his first term, which killed him months after leaving office. Its rumored that Arthur didnt want to run because of the morale impact the deaths of two consecutive presidents would have on the public.
So why is he on this list? For 1 reason and 1 reason alone. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act.
That act is probably the single piece of legislation any president has ever signed that has had the longest lasting positive impact on the country. Basically Pendleton forced all government appointments to be merit based and not patronage based. the idea behind patronage is that you did a favor for someone, they repaid you with a government job, usually one that was overpaid and had easy access to even more kickbacks, even if you have zero qualifications. The merit system was a (mostly) successful way to ensure government officials had some knowledge about what they were doing, made it harder to take kickbacks, and generally reduced corruption.
Most presidents before Arthur had some scandal where some part of their cabinet would be linked to some kind of money grabbing scheme using government connections to get rich and with one exception (spoiler: not nixon) you havnt really seen that since....at least not at the federal level (Pendelton doesnt apply to states)
Number 9:
Also for what its worth, Arthur was never actually elected president (1 of 5 men not to be) taking over only on the death of James Garfield. Now its worth noting, their is a good argument to be made Arthur didnt want to be president especially not a second term.....he'd been diagnosed with a terminal disease, which he hid from the public, during his first term, which killed him months after leaving office. Its rumored that Arthur didnt want to run because of the morale impact the deaths of two consecutive presidents would have on the public.
So why is he on this list? For 1 reason and 1 reason alone. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act.
That act is probably the single piece of legislation any president has ever signed that has had the longest lasting positive impact on the country. Basically Pendleton forced all government appointments to be merit based and not patronage based. the idea behind patronage is that you did a favor for someone, they repaid you with a government job, usually one that was overpaid and had easy access to even more kickbacks, even if you have zero qualifications. The merit system was a (mostly) successful way to ensure government officials had some knowledge about what they were doing, made it harder to take kickbacks, and generally reduced corruption.
Most presidents before Arthur had some scandal where some part of their cabinet would be linked to some kind of money grabbing scheme using government connections to get rich and with one exception (spoiler: not nixon) you havnt really seen that since....at least not at the federal level (Pendelton doesnt apply to states)
Number 9:
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| Dwight Eisenhower. 34th President |
Next up Dwight Eisenhower. Now a word here. I'm ONLY considering what happened when these guys were president when making these ratings. Which means as far as Ike's standing, I could give a crap if he won World War II.
As president Eisenhower was actually a bit of a mixed bag. The economy kinda sucked during his 8 years (he saw 3 different recessions), and the CIA was doing all kinds of illegal things we still may not know about to destabilize foreign governments to try overthrow them and replace them with "US friendly" governments (and for the record, I dont think thats ever really worked out for us). He also expanded the US Nuclear arsenal.....although in his defense it did seem like the best and cheapest idea at the time
That said, he did end the Korean War (or at least most US involvement in it since North and South Korea are still at war to this day, and we still have the whole DMZ thing) Also the famous image of the young black girl being taken to school by the National Guard after the racist governors refused to integrate? yea Ike signed that order. Also after Sputnik launched, Eisenhower created and massively funded NASA to compete with the Soviets, so Kennedy really should thank his predecessor on that famous promise. Ike also expanded Social Security, and actually attempted on multiple occasions to negotiate and deal with the USSR following the death of Stalin. The fact that they shut him down, doesnt affect him as negatively as if he'd failed.
And perhaps most famously, and perhaps his most used (if not associated with him) legacy, he created the Federal Interstate Highway system. And hell who hasnt used that?.......and wished maybe he'd made it a little wider.....fucking traffic jams........
Number 8:
As president Eisenhower was actually a bit of a mixed bag. The economy kinda sucked during his 8 years (he saw 3 different recessions), and the CIA was doing all kinds of illegal things we still may not know about to destabilize foreign governments to try overthrow them and replace them with "US friendly" governments (and for the record, I dont think thats ever really worked out for us). He also expanded the US Nuclear arsenal.....although in his defense it did seem like the best and cheapest idea at the time
That said, he did end the Korean War (or at least most US involvement in it since North and South Korea are still at war to this day, and we still have the whole DMZ thing) Also the famous image of the young black girl being taken to school by the National Guard after the racist governors refused to integrate? yea Ike signed that order. Also after Sputnik launched, Eisenhower created and massively funded NASA to compete with the Soviets, so Kennedy really should thank his predecessor on that famous promise. Ike also expanded Social Security, and actually attempted on multiple occasions to negotiate and deal with the USSR following the death of Stalin. The fact that they shut him down, doesnt affect him as negatively as if he'd failed.
And perhaps most famously, and perhaps his most used (if not associated with him) legacy, he created the Federal Interstate Highway system. And hell who hasnt used that?.......and wished maybe he'd made it a little wider.....fucking traffic jams........
Number 8:
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| James Polk. 11th President |
The only president to sport a mullet......Ok that has nothing to do with his ranking.
Polk is a president (like Arthur) that no one has really heard of. Or if they have, they have heard of him for one reason and one reason only, the Mexican American war. Which he kinda provoked into happening, possibly illegally, by sending troops into "disputed territory" (that we really didnt have a legit claim on and he probably knew it) and acting SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YA when they got shot at.
Polk is a president (like Arthur) that no one has really heard of. Or if they have, they have heard of him for one reason and one reason only, the Mexican American war. Which he kinda provoked into happening, possibly illegally, by sending troops into "disputed territory" (that we really didnt have a legit claim on and he probably knew it) and acting SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YA when they got shot at.
That said, he is the president responsible for "finalizing" the shape of the contiguous United States. He not only acquired Texas, California, New Mexico, and Arizona in the war, but he negotiated with Britain for the Oregon Territory, which was not just Oregon but Washington state Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming as well, making Polk president for the second largest expansion of US territory in history after Jefferson.
He also reestablished an Independent Treasury, which was kinda needed since Andrew Jackson destroyed the Second Bank the United States, and fucked over the economy for much of the next few decades. An Independent Treasury wasnt quite the same thing as a National Bank, and it wasnt the best system, but it did at least separate the purse strings of the united states from private banking industry control.
Now that said he is somewhat hampered by his "both sides of the fence" approach to slavery. Personally believing that Slavery wouldn't expand into the newly acquired southern states, he refused to sign the bill to make that law, opting instead to support the idea of just extending the Missouri Compromise line all the way to the pacific. Which may not be the ballsiest stand but does make him much better on the issue than the 4 jag offs who followed him, so at the end of the day, he gets some credit.
Finally his last accomplishment in office was the creation of the Department of the Interior in part to oversee all the land he acquired for the country. Which kinda means we have him to thank for setting up the system Teddy Roosevelt used to create the national parks. That said, in an inverse of the above paragraph, this doesnt count for him as much as it otherwise would....he was presented with the bill his last day in office, probably opposed it on principal, but didnt have enough time to come up with a reason to veto it, so signed it out of duty.
Next time, Part 2, and Presidents 7-5 or 4.....I really havnt decided yet (although I know WHO they are).
He also reestablished an Independent Treasury, which was kinda needed since Andrew Jackson destroyed the Second Bank the United States, and fucked over the economy for much of the next few decades. An Independent Treasury wasnt quite the same thing as a National Bank, and it wasnt the best system, but it did at least separate the purse strings of the united states from private banking industry control.
Now that said he is somewhat hampered by his "both sides of the fence" approach to slavery. Personally believing that Slavery wouldn't expand into the newly acquired southern states, he refused to sign the bill to make that law, opting instead to support the idea of just extending the Missouri Compromise line all the way to the pacific. Which may not be the ballsiest stand but does make him much better on the issue than the 4 jag offs who followed him, so at the end of the day, he gets some credit.
Finally his last accomplishment in office was the creation of the Department of the Interior in part to oversee all the land he acquired for the country. Which kinda means we have him to thank for setting up the system Teddy Roosevelt used to create the national parks. That said, in an inverse of the above paragraph, this doesnt count for him as much as it otherwise would....he was presented with the bill his last day in office, probably opposed it on principal, but didnt have enough time to come up with a reason to veto it, so signed it out of duty.
Next time, Part 2, and Presidents 7-5 or 4.....I really havnt decided yet (although I know WHO they are).
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