Which president is considered the weakest president in American history?

Answer 1

The absolute weakest president in terms of being effective and wielding influence is, of course, still a matter of debate. There is, however, some consensus on several presidents who are consistently rated at or near the bottom.

Andrew Johnson took over right after the assassination of Lincoln. He was from Tennessee, a state which had joined the Confederacy, so that immediately worked against him. He was also a "War Democrat" - a member of the Democratic party that broke with the rest of the Democrats to support the war and oppose a quick peace with the Confederacy that would have potentially allowed the Confederacy to continue to exist. He was thus technically from a different party than Lincoln. Lincoln and Johnson ran on the "National Union" party for the 1864 election - a temporary change of name for the Republican party for that one election which allowed Lincoln to garner both the Republican vote and the War Democrat vote. He thus had neither the support of the Republicans in the legislature nor the Democrats. Johnson also was more moderate in his view of how the defeated South should be dealt with than the "bloody-shirt Republicans" who controlled the legislature, wanted revenge on the South for the war, and had enough power to try to impeach him when he tried to remove Johnson notified Congress that he had removed Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War and replace him in the interim with Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas. Johnson had originally wanted to replace Stanton with General Ulysses S. Grant, but Grant refused to accept the position. This violated the Tenure of Office Act, a law enacted by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto, specifically designed to protect Stanton. Johnson had vetoed the act, claiming it was unconstitutional. The act said, "...every person holding any civil office, to which he has been appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate ... shall be entitled to hold such office until a successor shall have been in like manner appointed and duly qualified," thus removing the president's previous unlimited power to remove any of his cabinet members at will. (Years later in the case Myers v. United States in 1926, the Supreme Court ruled that such laws were unconstitutional.)

Ulysses S. Grant, while a successful general was a fairly ineffective president. Reconstruction dominated most of Grant's presidency, with sectional riots over the status of what the new freedman would have in post-Civil War society. Booming post-war industrial markets and the expansion of the American West fueled wild speculation and corruption throughout the United States, only to come to an abrupt crash with the Panic of 1873. Grant, who knew little about finance, relied on bankers for advice on how to curb the panic. Secretary of Treasury William A. Richardson responded by liquidating a series of outstanding bonds. The banks, in turn, issued short-term clearing house certificates to be used as cash. By October 1, $50,000,000 had been released into an economy desperate for paper currency. This was done without undermining the value of the dollar. By January 10, 1874, Richardson continued to liquidate bonds that released a total of $26,000,000 of greenback reserves into the economy. Although this curbed the Panic on Wall Street it did nothing to stop the ensuing five year depression. Grant did nothing to prevent the panic and responded slowly after the banks crashed in September.

Grant's inability to establish personal accountability among his subordinates and cabinet members led to many scandals during his administration. Grant often attacked vigorously when critics complained, being protective of his subordinates. Although personally honest with money matters, Grant was weak in his selection of subordinates, often favoring military associates from the war over talented and experienced politicians. He also protected close friends with his Presidential power and pardoned several convicted officials after they had served only a few months in prison. His failure to establish working political alliances in Congress allowed the scandals to spin out of control. At the conclusion of his second term, Grant wrote to Congress that, "Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent." Nepotism was rampant. Around 40 family relatives financially prospered while Grant was President.

Ironically, when Warren G. Harding was elected, he was enormously popular with the electorate - he and his running mate Calvin Coolidge won the popular vote by a record margin of 60.36% to 34.19%. Harding's relationship with Congress, however, was strained and he did not receive the traditional honeymoon given to new Presidents. Prior to Harding's election President Woodrow Wilson had been ill by a debilitating stroke for eighteen months and before that Wilson had been in Europe for several months attempting to negotiate a peace settlement after World War I. The legislature had thus assumed considerably more power relative to the president, weakening the position by the time Harding took over. Harding rewarded friends and political contributors, referred to as the Ohio Gang, with financially powerful positions. Scandals and corruption eventually pervaded his administration; one of his own cabinet and several of his appointees were eventually tried, convicted, and sent to prison for bribery or defrauding the federal government. The financial and political scandals caused by these men severely damaged President Harding's personal reputation. In addition to Harding had his own own personal controversies. Warren G. Harding had extramarital affairs with four women. These women included: Susie Hodder and Carrie Fulton Phillips, Mrs. Harding's personal friends; Grace Cross, Harding's senatorial aide; and Nan Britton. Britton, who had a profound obsession with Harding beginning in high school, alleged that she was his mistress before and during his administration, at one point having sex with him in a closet at the White House. Beginning in the spring of 1905, Harding had a 15-year relationship with Carrie Fulton Phillips, wife of businessman and friend James Eaton Phillips of Marion, Ohio. More than 100 intimate letters between Harding and Mrs. Philips were discovered in the 1960s, but publication of the letters was enjoined by court order in Ohio until 2024. During the election campaign, Campaign manager Lasker struck a deal with Harding's paramour, Carrie Phillips, and her husband Jim Phillips, whereby the couple agreed to leave the country until after the election; ostensibly, Mr. Phillips was to investigate the silk trade. As knowledge of his infidelities filtered out, respect for him declined and impeded his ability to advance his agenda.

Franklin Pierce comes out near the bottom as well. As president, he made many divisive decisions which were widely criticized and earned him a reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history. Pierce's popularity in the North declined sharply after he came out in favor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repealing the Missouri Compromise and renewing the debate over expanding slavery in the West. Pierce's credibility was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto. The Ostend Manifesto was a document written in 1854 that described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain and implied the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. When the document was published, it outraged Northerners who viewed it as a Southern attempt to extend slavery. The Pierce Administration was irreparably damaged by the incident. Pierce had been highly sympathetic to the Southern cause, and the Ostend Manifesto contributed to the splintering of the Democratic Party. Internationally, it was seen as a threat to Spain and to imperial power across Europe. It was quickly denounced in Madrid, London, and Paris. Abandoned by his party, Pierce was not renominated to run in the 1856 presidential election and was replaced by James Buchanan as the Democratic candidate. His reputation was destroyed during the American Civil War when he declared support for the Confederacy, and personal correspondence between Pierce and Confederate President Jefferson Davis was leaked to the press. He also had a lifelong battle with alcoholism.

Pierce's successor James Buchanan didn't fare much better. After turning down an offer for an appointment to the Supreme Court, President Franklin Pierce appointed him Minister to the United Kingdom, in which capacity he helped draft the controversial Ostend Manifesto, so he had that hanging over him even before he was elected President. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War. Buchanan's view of record was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. His weaknesses in the stormy years of his presidency were magnified by enraged partisans of the North and South. Probably the greatest reason for his weak influence was the irreconcilable differences between the pro- and anti- slavery forces. He tried to appease both sides but satisfied neither.

An additional note:

The first poster who answered this suggested G. W. Bush. The most recent rankings by academicians (who tend to look more unfavorably upon modern conservative politicians than their liberal contemporaries) ranks him near the bottom of the third quartile or near the top of the 4th quartile - in other words - as a lower tier president but much above the men listed above.

Answer 2

Until recently it was James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States followed by Jimmy Carter. Currently Barack Obama is leading in this catagory. Obama's vacillation on Syria followed by being upstaged by President Putin has pretty much sealed this. He "leads from behind" which is called following. He has failed at leadership but is good at campaigning. His own party and the media is starting to lose respect for him in his second term. His failure to produce a budget thoughout his tenure and his inability to work with the Congress (increasingly with Democrats) both demonstate a failed leader.

During his first term he staged an "Apology Tour" where he went aroung the world, meeting fow foreign leaders and dowing to many of them. This attempt at undoing the perceived damage of the previous 43 adminstrations has actually failed in its intended purpose and weaked both Obama and the United States on the international stage.

His first term was plagued with attempted cover ups on Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the NSA scandal, the IRS scandals, the Fort Hood terrorist attack, and many others of lesser importance. These coverups demonstrate more his skill at campaigning than and true leadership.

Answer 3

I think most people would give that distinction to James Buchanan who is commonly named "The Do Nothing President."

(A second choice might be William Henry Harrison who was so literally weak that he spent almost all of his term in bed and died after a month.)