The Presidents: #20

#20: John Adams
Term: March 4, 1797 - March 4, 1801
Grade: C

Grading the first four Presidents is a complicated task, considering who the Presidents are. Each one played a vital role in the founding of our country before they became President. It is hard to detach their roles during the Revolution and/or the Constitutional Convention from their administrations, all of which fail to live up to those other accomplishments.

Tonight I take on our 2nd President, arguably the most complicated President of the first four. Maybe I am far too influenced by reading John Adams fairly recently, and maybe I like Paul Giamatti too much as well. Still, I don't believe John Adams' administration is defined entirely by the reprehensible Alien and Sedition Acts.

True, he signed these bills into law, and deserves scorn for doing so. These laws are an embarrassment to our nation's history, and it is why he isn't ranked any higher. He doesn't deserve the entire blame for these acts, as they were passed by a very Anglo friendly Federalist Congress. Still, he was the President, and ultimate responsibility rests with him.

However, John Adams deserves credit for keeping us out of a very nasty war with Great Britain or (more likely) Napoleonic France. Getting involved in European politics at that time would have made us as independent as the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Naples, and would have ruined our great experiment in Independence. He also gets credit for keeping Alexander Hamilton and the high Federalists from taking over and establishing a bad precedent, quite possibly even extending to a military dictatorship.

By standing for the right path, he was despised by Jefferson and his Democrats, and by Hamilton and his Federalists. He wasn't very popular as he lost the election to Thomas Jefferson, and left Washington early and without pomp. Still, he left willfully and showed that we could peacefully transfer power to an opposing party. He wasn't exceptionally good, but he wasn't exceptionally bad. He was in the middle, and that is where John Adams belongs.

The Presidents: #24

#24: Benjamin Harrison
Term: March 4, 1889 to March 4, 1893
Grade: C

Benjamin Harrison sits in the middle of a group of Presidents who were neither extraordinarily good or bad. Starting with Chester A. Arthur, and ending with William McKinley, I must admit to knowing only very little about them. When I think about Benjamin Harrison (which is rarely ever), I usually think about The Simpsons song about mediocre presidents. It should be noted that Benjamin Harrison is so unremarkable as to not get mentioned in that song.

Still, unlike some of the lesser known Presidents*, at least Harrison doesn't seem to have done much harm, and actually was party to a few good things. He signed the law that made Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks (although did little to preserve them), and also signed the Sherman Antitrust law (while not really pursuing cases). He fought (and lost) for civil rights in a time when it was not very popular. He believed in reform of the civil service, although didn't seem too prepared to defend it. If signing bills and not executing them effectively were a criteria, he probably would be much higher on this list.

Ultimately, he was taken down by the expensive nature of high tariffs and by the Homestead strike debacle. He lost to Grover Cleveland, the man he beat in the Electoral College in 1888. Thus, he became the only President to lose to the previous incumbent. I suppose being the clunky part of a unique Presidential story is a fitting legacy for him.

*See 1850-1861 for more information