Hoover's reaction to the Great Depression was insufficient if not naive. But I think it was mean spirited how he wound up inseparably linked to its iconography. Hoovervilles, as an example.
I think most of the presidents immediately leading up to the Civil War, i.e. Pierce, Buchanan, etc. are treated unfairly by history. There really wasn't much they could do to ease the tensions between the abolitionists and the pro-slave members of Congress, and at the time the executive was relatively weak compared to Lincoln and some of his successors. Besides that, if you read up about Pierce, he had to have had one of the most tragic lives of any American President. All three of his children died during childhood, one of them because of a train accident (he was crushed to death and nearly decapitated). I don't see how anyone could govern effectively with all that tragedy.
I think most of the presidents immediately leading up to the Civil War, i.e. Pierce, Buchanan, etc. are treated unfairly by history. There really wasn't much they could do to ease the tensions between the abolitionists and the pro-slave members of Congress, and at the time the executive was relatively weak compared to Lincoln and some of his successors. Besides that, if you read up about Pierce, he had to have had one of the most tragic lives of any American President. All three of his children died during childhood, one of them because of a train accident (he was crushed to death and nearly decapitated). I don't see how anyone could govern effectively with all that tragedy.
True. It would have taken someone of Solomon's wisdom to fix the slavery problem. And with a couple exceptions (Jefferson, Jackson), the Presidency itself was different. It was more of a "do no harm. We will call you if we need you" office. Slavery was a problem for the States and Congress. James Buchanan gets a bad rap for being a do nothing president, an American Emperor Honorius, playing with his chickens while the barbarians sack Rome. Buchanan's sins were worse, he kowtowed to the South. He pressured the Supreme Court to rule South in Dred Scott, he recognized the Lecompton Constitution for Kansas, ludicrous as it was. Buchanan did reverse this after Secession. He balked at surrendering US installations to the Confederates.
Andrew Johnson gets bad ink. He was impeached for standing up to the Republican Congress. Johnson hated the Secessionists. He was a commoner in Tennessee and railed against the planter class that ruled the South. But he was no friend to the freed slaves. He rebelled against efforts to help the free blacks. He damaged race relations in the US but that's not why he was impeached. Bad president, but not for the reasons history thinks.
Nixon did a lot of good things. Did these pluses outweigh the minuses, no. In the end, Richard Nixon thought he was above the law. If anyone should NOT be above the law, it's the President.
Looking on, she sings the songs. The words she knows, the tune she hums
