Well, as they say, every President has his day: (some of these are kind of funny actually)
George Washington: Offering money for arms and food to French planters in Haiti in order to suppress the slave rebellion.
John Adams: Signing the Alien and Sedition Acts. Allowing the president to deport non-citizens who were considered dangerous and to detain non-citizens during wartime.
Thomas Jefferson: Breaking a treaty with the Cherokee nation that guaranteed the tribe lands in Georgia, effectively establishing the policy of “Indian removal.”
James Madison: Vetoing the charter of the Second National Bank, leaving America unable to fund the War of 1812.
James Monroe: Ordering Andrew Jackson to fight the Seminoles and occupy Florida without Congressional approval.
John Quincy Adams: The “corrupt bargain,” in which he made Henry Clay his Secretary of State in exchange for Congress electing him President.
Andrew Jackson: Ignoring the Supreme Court’s
Worcester v. Georgia ruling and beginning the process of Indian removal. DIrectly responsible for killing up to 20,000 Native Americans
Martin Van Buren: Presiding over the “Trail of Tears.”
William Henry Harrison: Forgetting to wear a coat in the rain, setting a bad example for generations of kids.
John Tyler: Pursuing the annexation of Texas, setting up the Mexican-American War.
James K. Polk: Starting the Mexican-American War.
Zachary Taylor: Eating
too many cherries.
Millard Fillmore: Signing the Compromise of 1850, which included the infamous Fugitive Slave Act.
Franklin Pierce: Supporting and signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act/presiding over “Bleeding Kansas” sectarian conflicts.
James Buchanan: Pressuring the Supreme Court to issue a more “comprehensive” ruling in
the Dred Scott decision, and persuading Associate Justice Robert Cooper Grier, from Pennsylvania, to vote with the Southern justices.
Abraham Lincoln: Suspending habeas corpus in order to imprison Civil War protesters.
Andrew Johnson: Mishandling Reconstruction, allowing most Southern states to pass “Black Codes” and opposing efforts to assist freedmen.
Ulysses S. Grant: Presiding over probably
the most corrupt administration in American history.
Rutherford B. Hayes: Using federal troops to put down the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.
James Garfield: Not giving
Charles Guiteau a job, am I right?
Chester A. Arthur: Signing the Chinese Exclusion Act, a ban on Chinese immigration that would last 10 years.
Grover Cleveland: Using federal troops to break the Pullman Strike of 1894.
Benjamin Harrison: Sending federal troops to disarm the Lakota Sioux in what turned into the Wounded Knee Massacre.
William McKinley: Beginning American imperial expansion in the Pacific, annexing Hawaii and the Philippines.
Teddy Roosevelt: Issuing the Roosevelt Corollary to justify American military intervention throughout Latin America.
William Howard Taft: Intervention and occupation of Nicaragua.
Woodrow Wilson: Pushing for the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act, and using them to imprison World War I opponents like Eugene V. Debs.
Warren G. Harding: Appointing Charles R. Forbes Director of the Veterans’ Bureau, and issuing executive orders that allowed Forbes to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from World War I veteran funds.
Calvin Coolidge: Signing
the Immigration Act of 1924 to limit immigration from Eastern Europe.
Herbert Hoover: Authorizing Mexican Repatriation, a forced removal of Mexican immigrants, in response to the Great Depression.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Ordering the internment of over 100,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Harry S. Truman: Dropping two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing as many as 200,000 Japanese civilians.
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Authorizing the CIA’s overthrow of the Iranian government.
John F. Kennedy: Authorizing, and then botching, the Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba.
Lyndon Johnson: Escalating American involvement in Vietnam.
Richard Nixon: The secret bombings of Cambodia and Laos.
Gerald Ford: Pardoning Richard Nixon.
Jimmy Carter: Mishandling the Iranian Revolution and the Iran hostage crisis.
Ronald Reagan: Ignoring the national AIDS epidemic.
George Bush: Authorizing military intervention in Panama.
Bill Clinton: Bombing a pharmaceutical factory in the Sudan. Not being able to define what sexual relations meant
George W. Bush: Invading and occupying Iraq.
Barack Obama: Expanding the drone war, specifically the killing of two American citizens without due process.
President Grant embraced assimilationist views for the most part. - “Assimilationists” believed that Indians could be “civilized” as they learned the ways of mainstream white society, including farming, Christianization, the English language, concepts such as democracy and private property, and eventually U.S. citizenship. “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” was a common refrain heard among assimilationists.
Top 10 Most Harmful Decisions from U.S. Presidents
Declaring a second war on Iraq (George W. Bush)
The events of 9/11 did not justify declaring war on Iraq, which resulted in the deaths and injuries of many innocent civilians. It is impossible for civilians to be unaffected by war.
A war waged against WMDs that never existed. Not only did it cost $2 trillion and many lives, but it also destabilized the entire Middle East, plunging the region into chaos.
Vietnam War (Lyndon Johnson)
America had no reason to get directly involved in the Vietnam War. They could have just sent supplies to South Vietnam, but no, they had to get involved, leading to thousands of deaths there. Many people also died back in America, like at Kent State in 1970, where four people were killed by the National Guard after protesting the invasion of Cambodia.
The Vietnam War was unnecessary, as the domino theory proved false. The draft was reinstituted, leading to significant loss of life and financial costs. It also damaged public trust in the government for generations.
Allowing the South to secede (James Buchanan)
The Civil War was prone to happen anyway, but on top of placating Southern slaveowners throughout his entire term, Buchanan's decision to do absolutely nothing as Southern states left the Union was appalling. The war may have been unavoidable, but he could have at least tried to do something.
Japanese American Interment (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
The rounding up of thousands of Japanese Americans, removing them from their families, jobs, and businesses, and putting them into camps was both racist and oppressive.
Fighting a second war with Britain (James Madison)
This war was fought for American pride and to seize Canadian land from Native Americans. The White House was attacked, and the very existence of the United States was in danger.
The War on Drugs (Richard Nixon)
Nixon's own advisors later admitted it was a tool to suppress hippies and Black people, but nonetheless, the Controlled Substances Act resulted in the incarceration of millions for small marijuana possession and punished severe addicts instead of helping them.
The Phillipines-American War (Theodore Roosevelt & William McKinley)
Although rarely mentioned in history books, this early 1900s genocide was an instance of the United States using brutal tactics to colonize the Philippines.
The Embargo Act (Thomas Jefferson)
To maintain neutrality in foreign affairs, Jefferson banned American trade with Britain and France. This led to a short-term depression that hurt many poor and working-class people. Plus, he owned over 600 slaves, see below.
At least 13 US presidents owned slaves at some point in their lives, including eight who owned slaves while in office:
- George Washington: The first president owned many slaves, including 123 at the time of his death
- Thomas Jefferson: Owned more slaves than any other president, with over 600
- James Madison: Owned several dozen slaves
- James Monroe: Owned 75 slaves
- Andrew Jackson: An interregional slave trader until at least the War of 1812
- Martin Van Buren: Owned one slave during his early career
- William Henry Harrison: Owned 11 slaves
- John Tyler: Owned 70 slaves
- James K. Polk: Owned 25 slaves
- Zachary Taylor: Owned more than 150 slaves
- James Buchanan: Some claim he purchased and freed slaves out of his personal hatred of the institution
- Andrew Johnson: Owned eight slaves
- Ulysses S. Grant: Owned a slave at some point in his life
