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We all have opinions about the perfect and worst presidents in U.S. historical past.
But – save for the eight who died in workplace – America’s commanders in chief have gone on to do loads of good, and a few unhealthy, after the White House as effectively.
So, who had been the perfect and worst former presidents?
Let’s begin with the underside of the barrel.
John Tyler could take the cake on this one, which is an ironic reality, provided that he was by no means speculated to be president within the first place.
In workplace from 1841 till 1845, Tyler was America’s first unintended president. As vp, he acquired the highest job when his boss, William Henry Harrison, died 31 days into his time period.
Jared Cohen, left, with Presidents John Tyler, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce and Theodore Roosevelt proven in insets. They’re contenders for the worst former chief executives based mostly on their after-White House actions. (Fox News Digital; Universal History Archive/Getty Images | PhotoQuest/Getty Images | Bettmann/Getty Images | © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis through Getty Images)
During Tyler’s time period, his detractors who didn’t assume he ought to be president referred to as him “His Accidency,” most of his cupboard resigned, and the Whigs expelled him from the celebration.
But if the Tyler presidency was a failure, his post-presidency was even worse.
With the Civil War looming in 1861, former President John Tyler, a slaveholder from Virginia, defected from the Union and gained a seat within the Confederate House of Representatives.
He died a traitor in January 1862.
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President Lincoln denied his predecessor a state funeral. Instead, Tyler was honored in Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital.
The Civil War didn’t convey out the higher angels in a number of of America’s former presidents. Franklin Pierce, in workplace from 1853 till 1857, might see that the nation was about to separate aside.
Even folks whose presidencies we admire can have failed post-presidencies.
He was a Northerner who favored widespread sovereignty – the concept democracy allowed residents, and never the federal authorities, to determine if the territory through which they lived would enable slavery.
He tried to rally the residing ex-presidents in 1861 to resolve the Civil War earlier than it acquired too bloody.
President Franklin Pierce is depicted leaving Willard’s Hotel in 1853. Pierce, in workplace from 1853 till 1857, might see that the nation was about to separate aside. He tried to rally the residing ex-presidents in 1861 to resolve the Civil War earlier than it acquired too bloody. (Library of Congress)
But his efforts had been torpedoed by former President Martin Van Buren.
Pierce turned a vocal critic of Lincoln, a sympathizer for the South, and a confidant to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
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The third Civil War-era post-presidential failure was Abraham Lincoln’s vp, Andrew Johnson, who turned president after the Lincoln assassination in 1865.
After surviving America’s first impeachment trial, Johnson left the White House disgraced. He then didn’t win a Senate seat in 1868, and fell quick in securing a seat within the House in 1872.
We know who’s accomplished it badly. But who acquired the post-presidency proper?
He solely returned to public workplace in 1875, 5 months earlier than his dying.
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Even folks whose presidencies we admire can have failed post-presidencies.
Theodore Roosevelt ran once more in 1912 as a third-party Bull Moose candidate, taking on his successor, Republican William Howard Taft, and Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
He got here in second, however his post-presidential run cut up the Republican Party that 12 months, handing the White House to Wilson, a person he despised.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the twenty sixth president of the United States (1901-09), sitting at his desk working, circa 1905. Roosevelt’s post-presidential run in 1912 as a third-party candidate cut up the GOP — handing the White House to Woodrow Wilson, a person he despised. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Roosevelt may need run once more in 1920, and will have gained, however he died instantly.
He’d suffered for years from strains of malaria picked up within the Amazon and from a damaged coronary heart after his son Quentin’s dying in battle throughout World War I.
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There’s a motive we don’t assume to rank post-presidencies, in fact.
Without the workplace of the White House, former presidents haven’t got as a lot energy as they as soon as did.
Former presidents do have the power to vary historical past, and for the final 200 years, we’ve seen how.
They can’t ship troops into battle, they usually can’t appoint their allies throughout the chief department.
But they do have the skill to vary historical past, and for the final 200 years, we’ve seen how.
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We know who’s accomplished it badly.
But who acquired the post-presidency proper?
Seven men get the best marks
There are loads of contenders, however seven men, from America’s founding to at the moment, could get the best marks.
After the White House, Thomas Jefferson based the University of Virginia.
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John Quincy Adams was elected to the House of Representatives and have become a number one abolitionist.
Grover Cleveland ran for president once more and gained.
Bestselling writer Jared Cohen, in his new e-book, “Life After Power,” lays out the “search for purpose beyond the White House” by seven American presidents — and the way they modified historical past. (Fox News Digital; Jared Cohen/Simon & Schuster)
William Howard Taft turned chief justice of the United States.
Herbert Hoover led humanitarian aid missions after World War II and served as a trusted adviser to Presidents Truman and Eisenhower.
Jimmy Carter, within the longest post-presidency in American historical past, helped to eradicate illnesses, promoted democracy, and was a relentless thorn within the sides of his successors on all the things from the Middle East to home surveillance packages.
We could haven’t any selection however to concentrate to America’s former presidents.
And George W. Bush, a person who has largely pale from the limelight, has skilled a reputational renaissance, as many Americans have come to admire somebody who can transfer on from politics and mannequin good character after the White House.
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The post-presidency is without doubt one of the least studied, however most intricate, establishments in American life. It’s had its ups and downs.
But Americans had higher maintain a watch on ex-presidents.
One is working for president at the moment.
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And all of them live longer than ever earlier than.
That signifies that we could haven’t any selection however to concentrate to them.
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Excerpted from “Life After Power: Seven Presidents and Their Search for Purpose Beyond the White House,” © copyright Jared Cohen (Simon & Schuster, Feb. 2024), by particular association. All rights reserved.
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