#2 John Adams: Got Screwed by Everyone but his Wife (1797-1801)

"John Adams" by David McCullough 2001

It is no secret that John Adams got screwed by history- no monuments to him, no picture on money, no universities named after him. So far the best tribute to him is an HBO miniseries starring Paul Giamatti based on this biography. And it was so good all I could envision as I read was Paul Giamatti's face throughout the whole book, even in spite of all the Adams pics included in the book.  BUT, one HBO miniseries is not nearly enough to honor this man- hard working, loyal, intelligent, persistent (some might say stubborn), and probably the biggest driver of the Declaration of Independence. 

Adams was from a poor farming family in Massachusetts.  The family could only send one kid to college and pinned all their hopes on him. He then became a "circuit" trial lawyer and  also took over the farm after his dad died.  He was constantly working and trying to make ends meets.  Maybe his poor background made him feel like he had to work twice as hard to prove himself. It seemed like Adams believed that  wealthy people who were his "betters" would always be good, honest people.  However this was totally not true in his life (i.e. Thomas Jefferson) but it  explained why he always seemed to be surprised and hurt when people screwed him over in politics.

Abigail Adams was the best thing to ever happen to him.  While he went all over the world as various ambassadors, peace negotiator, etc, she literally ran the farm and raised the kids all by herself.  They were very much in love and wrote such great letters constantly.  She was also very intelligent and well read and offered opinions on all political points.  She was also a fierce defender of his... as can be seen in her letters to Jefferson. If she was around today, people would call her "Hillary".  In Adams time they commented that she had more backbone than he did.

After pushing Congress to publish the Declaration of Independence and nominating Washington for General, Adams spent a large chunk of the revolutionary war in Europe- trying to get the French to actually help us in the war.  The Frenchies were mainly all talk and Adams was not getting much help from his colleague Ben Franklin,  who talked about him behind his back a lot.  Franklin was very popular with the French, mainly because he told funny stories and did not actually try to get them to do anything.  Adams pushed more and so the French got irritated.  So he went to the Netherlands where he had more success getting some financial help for the revolution. He finished his foreign service as Ambassador to England right after the war-- an impossibly difficult  job since we had just kicked their asses.  It did not go well- no fault of his, but he sort of felt like a failure when he was recalled home.

His relationship with Jefferson was complicated- mainly because Jefferson kept screwing Adams over behind his back.  Jefferson was a HUGE fan of France, having taken over as French ambassador after Adams.  Jefferson thought Adams was too close to Britain. They were such opposites- Jefferson was a slave owner, Adams hated slavery, Jefferson was big spender, Adams was very economical. Jefferson was a republican who believed in limited central government, states' rights, a  small army and  a close relationship with France.  Adams was a Federalist who believed in a strong federal govt, a standing army (he founded our navy) and that improved relations with Britain would help our economy and avoid another war with them.  The big difference is that Adams stood proudly for his ideas and got crucified.  Jefferson was constantly undercutting Adams behind the scenes.

When Adams became vice president with George Washington, he was ignored for 8 years.  However, that was because he kind of screwed himself this time.  Before Washington took office, Adams kept pushing for all this ceremony, honors, titles and fuss for himself and Washington, wanting to be called "your highness" .  This was a stupid move in a country that had just gotten rid of one king.  It made people believe Jefferson's lies that Adams was too close to Britain. 

He served one term as president, during which there was constant tension with France (which was in a chaotic revolution by this time) and Britain (still mad at us and wanting us back).   Adams was constantly being fought by his own cabinet members (most of them were Washington leftovers)... namely Alexander Hamilton, his treacherous VP  Jefferson  and a dude named Thomas Pickering.  But he still built up our defenses which forced France to sign a treaty with us. 

He retired to his farms and spent a lot of time advising his son, John Quincy Adams, on his career.  It must have been good advice, since JQ ends up as the sixth president and a great abolitionist.  Adams lived a long life and eventually started writing to Jefferson again in their old age.

In Conclusion.

No matter the piles of  criticism, ( which stung Adams deeply), he held to his beliefs and was always honest, hardworking and tireless in his pursuit of independence. He sacrificed most of his life, going wherever and whenever his country sent him.   He never stooped to underhanded, anonymous tactics or stupid arguments in the press.  I wish our current politicians would let a love of liberty guide them as much as John Adams did.

FYI- this is by far the best written biography I have read so far. Five star rating.

#10 John Tyler : Spoiled Rich Kid to Paranoid Quitter (1841–45):

August 8, 2017

"John Tyler: The Accidental President"  by Edward P. Crapol 2006

Loser??

     John Tyler was raised on a wealthy ,slave owning,  family plantation in Virginia. His family served as  judges, governors,  and other important positions in the state.   He had the best schooling money could buy and finished college at age 17.  Not because he was any sort of genius, it just seems like they started earlier back then. He then became a lawyer working with his dad etc.  Almost immediately, he was elected to a series of influential offices and was a US senator by age 21 or something crazy like that.  Obviously, not based on his skills.

     As a politician, he was known for defending slavery.  However, he did not seem to want any more slaves to be imported from Africa.  He had the INSANE idea that slavery would just fade away through diffusion.  Huh???!  Well, he was a HUGE proponent of the US expanding into every space it could (Texas, Oregon, Mexico, Hawaii, Cuba, the moon ). His diffusion idea was that the more land the US had, the more the existing slaves would spread out everywhere.  Then slavery would be less concentrated in the south.  Once it was so thinly spread out, slavery would just sort of fade away.  I know this sounds absolutely CRAZY!  As president Tyler was ruled by his blind loyalty to slavery.  (Tyler actually took his slave manservant to serve in the White House.  He had to stand in the carriage by Tyler holding an umbrella over him!😝💩)

     Tyler then starts becoming a quitter.  He quits being governor of Virginia because he thinks he does not have enough power.  THEN, he quits as US Senator because he gets mad over the slavery issue and the Missouri Compromise.  As president, he was  actually kicked out of his own party (the Whigs) while he was in office.  He refused to support their main issue and reopen a national bank,  so they kicked him out.  Then 99% of his Whig cabinet buddies quit too.  OK, so technically he did not quit his party.  But he certainly quit supporting its ideas.  THAT ability to totally buck your party and do what you think is right was one of the few things I liked about him.  You would NOT see that today.

     Tyler was the first vice president to succeed a president- after William Henry Harrison died after only one month in office.   Since the constitution did not specifically say how presidential succession works, he had to move fast to take control.  Tyler did this very well since he knew Harrison was dying and he  was ready with a plan.  The "Tyler Precedent " was then set for all future successions.  It was actually added to the constitution much later by the 25th amendment.

      Tyler also was totally paranoid that England was trying to overthrow slavery and thus destroy the union.  He thought England was to blame for every foreign issue and even parlayed this paranoia into the admission of Texas into the union.  He stoked fears that England would take over Texas if we did not and then  the Brits would sneak across the border freeing slaves and other horrible things.  

     Since he was kicked out of his party, he couldn't really run for a second term, so he quits the race.  Shocking, huh.  Once out of office, he had lots of kids with his much younger second wife (who sounds very high maintenance and snooty).  He has the most descendants of any president since he was still having kids into his seventies- a total of 15 kids.  He also supported Virginia seceding from the union and was elected to a seat in their new government- but died before taking office.   So he is called the "traitor president" because he literally QUITS THE UNION. 

Conclusion:
I really had a hard time with this guy since he was unapologetic about slavery and did not even attempt to set his slaves free.  Supposedly he was a "nice slave owner"- whatever that means.   He was really unpopular which I think sort of hurt his feelings. He was very concerned for the rest of his life with making sure he got credit for bringing Texas into the union. 

#22 & #24 Grover Cleveland: So Nice He is Elected Twice (1885–89 and 1893–97)

July 18, 2017

"Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character" by Alyn Brodsky 2000

Why did I pick to read Cleveland?  I was intrigued by  the only man who was president, lost, then became president again.  That makes him both our 22nd and 24th president, and the only democrat elected between the 15th and 28th presidents.  I was also interested how a man who had an illegitimate son, could just seem to admit this fact very openly and then still be elected- people had that much respect for his reputation for honesty.  Yet he sold out his honesty when he had cancer surgery on a boat during his second term and hid it from the public for almost 100 years.  Also, a man who  can go from being mayor of Buffalo to president in 3 and a half years, is sort of shocking.  

Early Life

Grover was raised in a large family, mainly in New Jersey and New York.  His father was a poor preacher and the boys of the family had to help out financially and then take care of the mother and younger siblings when the father died fairly young.  Eventually Grover got to go to law school even though he was never very bright, just very hardworking.   In fact, during his entire life he had to memorize all  his speeches since he could not think on his feet. (Doesn't that seem like that would be an important skill for a lawyer??)  As a young man in Buffalo, he enjoyed good beer, good food, cards, fishing, and disliked exercise-- which is why he was always heavy, 300 lbs at one point.

Early Politics

Grover served as an assistant DA and then was elected sheriff of Buffalo, NY, a job that allowed him to make some money.  As sheriff, he was known for being very honest and hard working, but not brilliant.  Years later at the age of 44, he ran for mayor of Buffalo.  The reforms he brought to the finances and running of Buffalo, led to his nomination as governor of New York. However his honesty also earned him the wrath of the Tammany Hall democratic machine bosses in New York.  They were pretty awful to Cleveland his whole career and yet he never really caved in to them.  Impressive stance, but it made it difficult for him within his own party. However, this stand lead to a great deal of respect from the rest of the country and his presidential nomination in 1884.

Nomination for president

Cleveland never liked campaigning, due to his need to memorize everything I guess, and just mainly kept working as governor during the campaign.  He ran on a pledge to return the US to the gold standard- a stand that angered a lot of his own party but gained him support from many republicans- a group called mugwumps.   In fact his acceptance speech sort of chastised his own party,  " Parties may be so long in power, and may become so arrogant and careless of the interests of the people, as to grow heedless of their responsibility to their masters.  ." During the campaign, his illegitimate child was brought up.  While he was not entirely sure the kid was his, Cleveland had slept with the woman so he offered financial support for the child.  The woman turned out to be a horrible mother and sort of nutty, so Cleveland helped arrange an excellent adoptive home for the kid.  Cleveland told everyone involved to just "tell the truth" and it must have worked.  He won the popular vote by just 23,000 and only won NY by 1000 votes. 

Presidency 1884

Grover worked to get tariffs reduced since the government at that time had a huge budget surplus. (WOW) However, he worried the surplus was just a temptation for congress to spend frivolously and was hard on poor people.  He also reformed civil service by refusing to fire republicans in appointed positions, if they were doing a good job. Once again, this angered his own party but gained some republican admirers.  He also hated the policy where appointed party members were required to kick back 2% of their salary to the party. However, he made an executive order that forbade appointed government employees from displaying "obtrusive partisanship"- effectively a gag order of their political opinions.  But he backed off actually enforcing it.   He also  believed his job was just to act on legislation proposed by the congress and not really put forward legislation of his own.  But this approach also led to him being called the veto president.  

During his first presidency, he married Frances Folsom.  He was 49 and she was 22- and  she had been his ward/goddaughter after her dad, a friend of his, died when Frances was young.  The romance and wedding in the White House made her a celebrity and the press just followed her everywhere, adding to Cleveland's hatred of the press. In fact the Clevelands only lived in the White House about 4 months of the year because they felt it was too open to the press and people.  Primarily they lived in a rented home in DC.  However, the marriage was very happy, producing 5 kids (the only birth in the White House)

He lost the presidency in 1888 to Harrison, mainly because of lack of support from his own party. Also he had a bad habit of being rather thin skinned about criticism and always wanting the last word, responding with harsh letters that he usually regretted later.  (Who else is like that??) He won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote to Benjamin Harrison.

Second Presidency 1892

Harrison totally blew the surplus that Cleveland worried would be spent frivolously.   Cleveland was reelected mainly because the economy was on very shaky ground. He pledged to repeal the silver act and return to the gold standard which sounded like it would help.  But still the Panic of 1893 was the worst economic disaster our country had faced... bank failures, unemployment, gold hoarding.  This forced him to keep selling bonds to raise gold and keep the government solvent.  Also, his choice to send in federal troops and declare martial law in Chicago during the Pullman Strike, earned him the wrath of organized labor.

 Cleveland was very anti imperialistic. He wanted to keep the US out of foreign messes and not impose its will on others.  However when a group of Americans facilitated the overthrow of the Hawaiian queen, he should have been more forceful in returning her to power. Cleveland also was sort of racist, believing that blacks and indians needed to be educated and civilized by whites.   And he said that southern whites were the best to educate the blacks??!   WTF!

Conclusion
When he left office, to be succeeded by McKinley, he was very unpopular with both parties.  He moved to Princeton and became a college trustee.  He struggled with depression but closer to his death became more respected. His final words sum up his life pretty well, "I have tried so hard to do right".  Cleveland was probably too honest and forthright for politics, never really taking the easy road by giving into corruption in his own party.   That is so admirable to me... even if he was not the most intelligent or dynamic president.  However, the author of this book pretty much worships Cleveland so not sure how unbiased this book really is. 

 Interesting Quotes

" I don't think there ever was a time when newspaper lying was so general and so mean as at present and there never was a country under the sun where it flourished as it does in this.  The falsehood daily spread before the people in our newspaper, while they are proofs of the mental ingenuity of those engaged in news paper work, are insults to the American love of decency  and fair play." Grover Cleveland

#11 James K Polk (Aka Andrew Jackson's Mini-me ): Got shit done! (1845–49).

July 5, 2017

"Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America" by Walter R. Borneman 2008

Why is he ranked so highly?

James K Polk is often listed as a top ten president.  Yet I was skeptical about that before reading this book and sort of lumped him with the duds that seemed to pass through the office in the early  to mid 1800's. I also knew he was a slave holder and wanted to pigeon hole him as a horrible person.   But I was selling him so short. The following quote sums up the justification for his top ten position.  "First, Polk accomplished the objectives of his presidential term as he defined them; second, he was the most decisive chief executive prior to the civil war; and third, he greatly expanded the executive power of the presidency, particularly its war powers, its role as commander in chief and its oversight of the executive branch.  "
Early Life
Polk was raised in Tennessee  surrounded by the large Polk clan who were much involved with land and slave owning.  James was a sickly child due to a case of "urinary stones" that required dangerous surgery at the age of 17 and which probably left him sterile.  (Tough guy had surgery without anesthesia!!)  😬😬😬  After graduating from the University of North Carolina, he then passed the bar and moved to Nashville, where he got the politics bug.   Polk then ran for the Tennessee legislature- partly  to impress and win Sarah Childress as his wife.  Her close family links to Andrew Jackson sealed Jackson's lifetime support of Polk and lead to Polk's total support of Jacksonian policies.  Thus began Polk's slightly creepy worship of Jackson - in fact he loved being called "Young Hickory" . 
Early Politics
Polk was then elected to 8 terms as a US congressman from Tennessee.  His presidential papers noted how much cider, whisky and brandy were purchased for voters on election day for that office. (Imagine how voter turnout would be today if they served those at the voting booths!!)  One of the biggest issues in the early 1830's was the problems caused by the electoral college and the need to abolish it. (Seriously!)  To prep for a future presidential run, he became Governor of Tennessee but then lost reelection to that office twice.  He was a loyal democratic party man but that loyalty was not always returned by his party .
Election to Presidency
Polk really just had his mind on being vice president in the 1844 election.  However, when Andrew Jackson pulled his support from Martin Van Buren , who was against bringing Texas into the union,  Polk then got the Democratic nomination- pretty much just based on Jackson's influence . (Very weird to me that Jackson had just sort of anointed the next president.)  Polk was a diehard and vocal proponent on the issue of Texas AND Oregon joining the union and the expansion of the US to the Pacific.  When he was elected in 1844,  at the age of 49 he was the youngest president to date but he pledged to serve only one term.  Jackson died shortly after Polk's election.
Presidency
Polk immediately finished the process of joining Texas to the union and then quickly provoked a war with Mexico to seize the rest of the southwest and California.  In fact, congress felt Polk overstepped his presidential authority by inciting the Mexicans to attack THEN asking congress to rubber stamp the action with a declaration of war.  This war with Mexico lasted much longer  than planned and became unpopular, even though the US was largely undefeated and lost significantly less men then Mexico. The main problem was the constant turnover in the Mexican presidents office, so negotiations were constantly having to start over.  Polk  even paid Santa Anna to return from exile so the US could negotiate with him, but then Santa Anna double crossed him and continued the war.  But considering how much land we won, I can see why Mexico has never fought us again.

Polk developed some powerful enemies through the years, Henry Clay, Thomas Hart Benton, John C Fremont.  Polk also was  frequently invoking executive privilege to negotiate with Mexico and withhold information about the war from congress. His veto on the new idea of adding "pork" to bills also did not help him win friends in congress.   He was also a micromanager who trusted little to his subordinates.  In fact, he literally worked himself to death- dying two months after leaving office.  His death by gastroenteritis was probably from the nasty drinking water in the White House.
  Conclusion
Under Polk  the US expanded its size by about 30%,  established an independent US treasury structure that lasted until 1913, and reduced tariffs to make imported goods more affordable.  Most impressive, he still kept the tariffs at a level that protected American businesses.  However, he  consistently avoided the issue of slavery and deliberately kept his own slave owning/selling very low key.  He did add a line to his will encouraging Sarah to free their slaves after her death.  

This biography was enjoyable to read but I really felt like it missed the opportunity to tell more about his personal life.  Seeing how absolutely blindly devoted he was to Andrew Jackson and his ideas, it is difficult for me to tell if he really believed it or just followed Jackson like some sort of lapdog.   Also, if Jackson would have lived during Polk's presidency, I wonder how independent he would have been.  He was obviously very intelligent and determined but could also be sort of underhanded and secretive.   But overall, I can see why he makes the top ten.