Rankings
Each student researched at least two former presidents. Some researched three former presidents. After our research, we discussed the failures and achievements of our country's leaders and came to agreements on a proper ranking. Here it is!
1. Theodore Roosevelt- Theodore Roosevelt is our #1 ranked president and was given 5 stars. He landed the presidency after the assassination of McKinley. With his military background Roosevelt began his reign with a strong executive force. He believed the president was to use all power, unless it was denied to him. He used his power to establish 5 new national parks, and preserved our land's natural resources. He seized opportunities and when the French backed away from Panama he swooped in and took control and built the canal. He is prized with his face on Mount Rushmore, and is the first American to win a Nobel prize. Teddy was one of the most likable people, he was the first president to invite an African American to the White House. He instilled the famous Square Deal which allowed the battle of trusts and industrial companies to not avoid trade. His list of works go on forever, and are known to this day. These reasons made him not only a likable president, but a role model to all.
2. Abraham Lincoln- Lincoln had a very successful presidency, and the United States would not be the same if it were not for his Emancipation Proclamation, and the fight to end slavery almost completely. He was elected President in 1860, slightly before the Civil War. Right before the Union’s success, He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was a self-taught lawyer and knew a lot about the legal process. He is extremely smart and knows politics like the back of his hand. He has a lot of experience and made lots of friends and enemies during his time in politics. He is a respectable family man, and I believe that he had good morals, and stood up for what is right.
3. Barack Obama- As a class we ranked Obama third due to his success in capturing Bin Laden, recovering the economy, creating jobs, and his success in finalizing the Climate Change agreement. During Obama’s presidency, the great recession ended, the banking industry saw huge improvement in regulations, and Obama was able to make peace with Iran. Obama did a lot for the environmental side of things, such as helping the carbon emissions decline. Not only that, but Obama was the first African-American president. However, the Obama administration spent a lot of money and many view his immigration actions in a dark light. For these reasons, our class believed that Obama should be ranked third.
4. James Monroe- The reason that we ranked James Monroe at number 4 was because of his role in making America independent. He helped America through a transition period when they turned away from Europe affairs and started making the American name known. He also started the push west by purchasing Florida from Spain. These are a couple of reasons why we believe James Monroe was the 4th greatest president.
5. Calvin Coolidge- Calvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States of America. He served as president from 1923 to 1929. Calvin was seen as a man with both positives and negatives to his presidency. He had a quick response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919, which made him famous for his decisive choices and made him national throughout the country. He also preserved the old moral and comic precepts amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during that time. But as we know, even our presidents have their lows during their terms. Calvin was unable to finish his 2nd term because of the death of his which led to his clinical depression.
6. James Polk- James Polk, a Democratic president, accomplished almost everything he promised when he was first elected, which made him a reliable and truthful president. He assisted and led the acquisition of the Oregon Territory, California, and the Territory of New Mexico; the positive settlement of the Texas border dispute; lower tariff rates; the establishment of a new federal depository system; and the strengthening of the executive office. He was especially skilled with the communication skills he had acquired. He also had strengths in satisfying America as a whole, not primarily focusing on one party over the other. He is said to have left office as the most successful president since George Washington in regards to his goals and accomplishments for the states. He led the nation in the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848. He is also said to have been one of the top presidents because of his “Manifest Destiny” to spread the country from coast to coast.
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt- Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States of America. He served from 1933-1945. And this may be seem odd to some people because that is longer than 8 years, more than a president should be able to serve. During the end of his presidency, World War Two broke out and it seemed unwise to elect a new president. They kept FDR as the same president for another four years until the war ended. During his troubling time of the Great Depression, FDR was still able to provide positive and negative effects for America. FDR issued the New Deal which was used to bring back more prosperity to America. His goal was to get unemployed reemployed and have banks open up again. Unfortunately, the New Deal was a negative effect as well because it didn’t provide any progress. Some people were able to obtain jobs, but it had a small recovery and provided little for the economy. It was only when America joined World War Two were they able to jump out of the Great Depression.
8. George Washington- George Washington had a very successful presidency, was well-liked among the 13 colonies, carefully put Hamilton's policies in place, and “In negotiating a treaty with England, Washington won some significant concessions that helped protect Americans on the frontier from attack by the Indians and the British”. However, even though he had many successes he also had his failures. He was said to have a pompous and aristocratic approach in office, the Hamilton policies favored wealthy citizens, and based on his approach to the French Revolution “he showed his lack of sympathy for true revolutionary principles and his conservative, oligarchical preferences.”
9. George Bush- We chose to rank George W. Bush based on his reformed homeland security. Bush unfortunately had to become a wartime president, due to 9/11. This changed everything that Bush had planned for his presidency. However, Bush was the fourth Republican president to serve 2 full terms. Bush has the biggest tax cut in American history, and his administration stopped a meltdown of the U.S. financial system in 2008. However, Bush is responsible for leading the nation into war with Iraq on incorrect intelligence reports, having the U.S. economic performance was as its weakest since Hoover’s presidency, his anti-terrorist tactics damaged the U.S. standing in the world, the U.S. did not capture Bin Laden, and the Republican party suffered setbacks in the second term. This is why we ranked Bush as ninth.
10. John Kennedy- As a class, we ranked John F. Kennedy tenth in our project of ranking presidents. Even though he wasn’t able to serve a full term, what he was able to accomplish in his few years as president was positive for the country. Some of these achievements included his dedication to the revolution of human rights, negotiated the Test Ban Treaty of 1963, improved the US economy, created the peace corps, and was responsible for the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Among these, he is the youngest president to have served and the first Roman Catholic president, which shows his ambition and strong roots coming through in his character. For the Cuban Missile Crisis; however, he seemed to prolong and worsen the situation more than nipping it in the bud right away. For all of these reasons, John F. Kennedy deserves to be number ten on our presidential rankings list.
11. Thomas Jefferson- As a class, we decided on ranking Thomas Jefferson in 11th. He was an extremely successful politician, who served as a Founding Father and wrote the Declaration of Independence. He also purchased the Louisiana Territory, advocated for the state’s individual rights, cut down on federal power, and was a huge spokesman for democracy. Despite these achievements which have greatly improved America overtime, his faults are what have lowered him on our class list. He was a racist and owned many slaves. Even though this was a lot more common at the time, it is still morally wrong and reflects who he was as a person. Some even say he had the opportunity to end slavery but did nothing about it. People were also not too fond of The Embargo of 1807 law that he passed, which prohibited American ships from trading internationally.
12. James Madison- Our class ranked James Madison as 12th. He wrote an outline for a new constitution known as the "Virginia Plan", and helped write "The Federalist Papers" and the Bill of Rights. Madison is called the Father of the Constitution. When Thomas Jefferson was president, he served under him as the Secretary of State. While Madison accomplished a lot, many people found him to be weak when it came to dealing with matters with France and England. Americans did not believe he was very fit to be president, and was too cautious and unable to handle tasks that the President of the United States needs to handle. Therefore, because of his weaknesses, we placed him 12th.
13. George H. W. Bush- We decided to rank George W. Bush here because he did a lot of good things foreign policy-wise, but he neglected some of the needs of those actually living in America. He had a lot of experience with being in office and had plans going into the White House that helped him be successful. He helped Panama and Kuwait to victory against oppressive governments, but he caused a recession and taxed US citizens more despite saying that he would not raise taxes. His inability to handle both foreign relations, and the economy are the reason he is not higher on the list, but his success in the world of foreign policy allowed him to be in the first half of the Presidents that we ranked.
14. Grover Cleveland- Grover Cleveland was a very effective and well-liked president to this day. He pursued a policy helping many economic groups, helped bring the south back to America after the Civil War and encouraged the country to come together, and strengthened the executive branch. While he thought more in a mindset of command instead of leadership it didn’t hinder his ability to be conscientious about his people while still being able to make hard decisions needed for the nation. Though he didn’t do anything major that drastically changed the course of our history, he was an effective and praised president from both parties. Because of this, he is ranked where he is, not at the very top but near the front.
15. Chester Arthur- We ranked Chester Arthur as one of our top 20 presidents due to the wow impact he relayed to the citizens when he stood his platform. Arthur was a well versed lawyer and had a deep understanding of the governmental system even before he came into power. With his previous occupation he was also already well versed in being strong willed and strong minded when it came to serious decision making. Arthur advocated and enforced the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. He was also a crucial part in solidifying the strong US Navy that we know well today. With his contribution and well suited personality, he deserves the ranking of #15.
16. Ronald Regan- Ronald Reagan was an actor in Hollywood and head of SAG (screen actor’s guild), served in the military, became Governor of California, and then finally became President of the US. He was affiliated with both the Democratic and Republican parties but spent the latter part of his life and his presidency as a Republican. Reagan is believed to have played a major role in ending the Cold War with his policies and talks towards the Soviet Union. There were worldwide fears about the Cold War and the fact that Reagan was able to calmly handle it with a mindset geared towards “solution”, was a major benefiting factor to his presidency.
17. William Taft- Theodore Roosevelt was deemed the “trust buster”, however I believe this would be a much more fitting name for President William Howard Taft. As president he prosecuted 75 total antitrust violations which is the most by far for a president at that time. Another success of his was the postal savings bank act which boosted the economy. His shortcoming as president came when he tried to deal with tariffs and ended up raising major tariffs while attempting to lower them which wasn’t great for the economy and did not make American citizens happy. The other major shortcoming he had as president was with the Ballinger-Pinchot affair which involved some shady dealings of some Alaskan coal lands.
18. Lyndon B. Johnson- As a class, we ranked Lyndon Johnson eighteenth in our project of ranking presidents. Coming into his presidency abruptly after the tragic loss of John F. Kennedy, he needed to act quickly and pick up where president Kennedy left off to be a strong leader for the nation in the midst of this dark time. He carried on the growing struggle of attempting to contain communism in Vietnam, which sadly ended in failure. However, he succeeded in other areas with the country and worked personally with Martin Luther King Jr. in passing the Civil Rights Act. He also played a part in ratifying the twenty-fourth amendment, which abolished poll taxes, and was also a part of the first successful orbit of the moon. Before office, he was also involved in the country and was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy during WW2 where he won a Silver Star in the South Pacific. All things considered, he was a great president who showed his dedication to the nation through all of his foreign and domestic efforts.
19. Ulysses Grant- Ultimately, President Grant remains somewhat of an enigma in American history. He was such a successful general that his failings as President seem hard to comprehend. He also executed a successful foreign policy and was responsible for improving Anglo-American relations. Counting killed, wounded, missing, or captured soldiers, Grant's forces suffered roughly 154,000 casualties while inflicting 191,000. Beyond this, he brought the Civil War to an end with a speed unimaginable to those who preceded him. His fearless and tactful leadership is what earns him rank #19.
20. Jimmy Carter- Jimmy Carter is currently the oldest living US President. Carter served in the Navy for a period before he entered the political scene. He then became the Governor of Georgia in 1971 and the President of the US in 1977. The most notable thing he did as President was issue amnesty to people who evaded the Vietnam draft. He also supported civil rights and wrote 32 books. By supporting civil rights, he was one of the more progressive political figures during that time period, which helped with societal relations.
21. Millard Fillmore- President Fillmore was ranked the way he was for a few different reasons. He was a big part in passing the Compromise of 1850 which led to a brief truce on the expansion of slavery. Besides this there wasn’t very much he did besides he supported the Fugitive Slave Act which made it harder for fugitive slaves to go free. He lost support for that and just not doing a lot of things through his presidency.
22. John Q. Adams- John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. We ranked him at 23rd because as president he was in the middle. He didn't do anything great nor did he do anything bad. He did make a lot of proposals that weren’t carried out. One proposal that did make the cut was to make more roads and canals to connect America.
23.Dwight Eisenhower- Eisenhower served as a general during World War II and was a member of the Republican party. After winning the presidency in 1953, he signed a truce with South Korea and relaxed tensions with Russia after the creation of the hydrogen bomb. Furthermore, Eisenhower also increased the minimum wage, Social Security, and created several departments that are still in use today, including the Health Department, the Welfare Department, and the Education Department. While Eisenhower was not a fan of dealing with Civil Rights, he disagreed with segregation and worked slowly but surely to eliminate it. Therefore, Eisenhower is in the upper 20s because of his involvement and care for U.S. relations, but his indifference to an important movement like the Civil Rights Movement.
24. Rutherford B. Hayes- Rutherford Hayes was a politically experienced man who served a multitude of government positions throughout his lifetime. He served as a president and later served in the house of representatives. We chose him to sit right in the middle because while he was a well experienced man, his contribution was not necessarily evolutionary to the country and our progression as a whole. His biggest accomplishment was overseeing Reconstruction of the nation in the times of the Civil War. He also attempted to rekindle unity after the civil war, which was a valiant effort but nothing very noteworthy.
25. Bill Clinton- Bill Clinton had good ideas for the nation that included, healthcare reform, gun control, civil rights, and environmental campaigns. However he failed to actually get any of these off the ground, he did have one of the lowest unemployment rates, and highest homeownership that the US has had in modern times, but his failures drowned out those successes. Another one of his downfalls was that he was the second president to be impeached because was suspected of having relations with an intern in the white house. He was found not guilty in the Senate, but Clinton’s name had already been spoiled in the minds of Americans. Clinton lead the American people to a near prosperous life, but he fell short in his promises and his integrity came into question, which is why he is near the middle, but in the lower 20 presidents.
26. Harry Truman- Truman was originally President Roosevelt’s vice president; however, following Roosevelt’s death only a few months after his induction into office, Truman took over the presidency. Truman’s first year as President of the U.S. became known as the “year of decisions”. This included approving the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II, creating the Truman Doctrine that showed eagerness to provide aid to any countries that are trying to resist the establishment of communism, and presenting a new Fair Deal program. Therefore, as a class, we decided to rank him 26th.
27. Woodrow Wilson- Woodrow Wilson’s greatest achievement came when he created the League of Nations after WWI, however it gets looked over because he failed to get the United States to join the league. He also played a major role in the ratification of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote. Along with that he ended child labor and mandated an 8 hour work day for railroad workers which was huge at the time. However his achievements are overshadowed by two acts he passed. The Espionage act and Sedition act took away the freedom of speech from some Americans and made it so you could be arrested for thinking different then the government or for speaking against it. This is a very un-American way to govern and is why he ends up landing so low on the list.
28. Warren Harding- Warren Harding as president really focused on taxes and revenue and was somewhat successful in these areas. He was able to lower taxes for some of the nation however the people that didn’t get them lowered complained about this. He was responsible for putting the countries first formal budgeting process into place which was huge because up to this point, it was a free for all on spending in some cases with no real guidelines. Ironically Warren Harding’s presidency was overshadowed by a bribery scandal with some large oil companies. Some members of his cabinet were even arrested for this scandal and it will forever leave a stain on his presidency.
29. Herbert Hoover- Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States of America. He served from 1929 to 1933. During his term of office, he was able to provide both positive and negative effects to his country. He was able to direct relief efforts to supply war-torn Europe and Russia during the First World War. Unfortunately for his presidency, his term of office lead to a traumatizing event for all people of America. During his last year as president, the stock market crash happened. This effected many people with losing their jobs and unable to provide income for their families. This event would have a toll on the incoming president.
30. Martin Van Buren- Serving from 1837-1841, Martin Van Buren proved to be a far from stellar leader of the United States. He seemed to mostly ride off the coattails of Andrew Jackson as he was a close and personal supporter throughout Jackson’s time as president. Van Buren was hesitant to support the annexation of Texas, a planned slave state, yet sided against slaves in the trial of the Amistad. He spent absorbent amounts of money on a war with Seminoles in Florida while taking power during an economic depression. He was a supporter of high states rights as well as low government involvement. One of his only beneficial and notable acts was to limit 10 hours of work in a day for federal public workers.
31. Andrew Jackson- Jackson was a huge proponent of decentralizing the money of America by dissembling the national bank during his presidency from 1829-1837. Jackson ran under the angle of being of the common people, gaining support by representing and not pretending to be pompous. He was a large supporter of slavery and ended up being responsible for the death of thousands of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears as he had them forcibly marched to foreign land after having been in charge of many campaigns crushing the natives. He did beat the Spanish in the South down in Florida and British Louisiana boosting morale. He was popular but his morals was questionable and he was ruthless.
32. Andrew Johnson- Johnson served in the Tennessee legislature and U.S. Congress and was governor of Tennessee. A Democrat, he championed populist measures and supported states' rights. During the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), Johnson was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union. Andrew Johnson is most known for being the president to take over after Abraham Lincoln was killed. He is also known for being one of the three presidents to be impeached. That is one of the main reasons our class decided to rank him #32.
33. John Tyler- John Tyler is most famously known for being the first president of the US that was not elected into office. This was because former President William Henry Harrison died, having only served in office for 32 days before his death. His biggest accomplishments were his signing of the Log Cabin Bill, giving settlers a right to claim land before its sale, buying it later for $1.25 per acre. Tyler also contributed to the annexation of Texas, in an attempt to make it a part of the United States. He signed a tariff bill that assisted in helping northern manufacturers. Finally, after the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, the government was able to end the border dispute with Canada, and the colonies along Maine’s border. He is the only president not buried under the American flag and failed to create a third party which made him run for office in absence of a political party.
34. Gerald Ford- As the first unelected President in the nation's history, Gerald Ford was tasked with restoring the nation’s confidence in our government after Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Ford pardoned Nixon from the Watergate Scandal which was highly controversial, but he argued that it was a necessary step to continue the healing of the nation. Moving past the Watergate scandal, Ford dealt with a domestic energy crisis and a weak economy due to high inflation and unemployment. He also struggled to get much done because of an extremely democratic congress that did not tend to agree with him. Ford was unable to send more troops to South Vietnam however because Congress wouldn’t approve further military action. He did however sign the Helsinki Accords to strengthen the relationship between Western nations and communist countries of Europe. Overall, Ford was tasked with cleaning up the mess of the Waterton Scandal and was unable to do much else, thus explaining his less than satisfactory ranking.
35. Franklin Pierce- President Pierce was not the greatest president which is why he received the ranking he did. He was a supporter of the Fugitive Slave Act and enforced it so he played a decent role. He also took down anti-slavery groups. He started making his mark early into his presidency which frustrated northerners and is probably what started the push for the Civil War.
36. James Buchanan- James Buchanan is a memorable President, being the only one elected from Pennsylvania and remaining a lifelong bachelor. He served immediately before the Civil War. He understood the law and was elected five times in the House of Representatives, and served for a decade in the Senate. He was known to pull a few strings in his office to deliver what the people of America wanted to hear. He was a moderate Democrat, whose actions to bring the North and the South to a compromise failed and led to the Civil War. He sided with the South most of the time, even though he claimed he thought slavery was morally wrong. From his perspective, a greater evil would have been freeing the slaves and letting them be upper class in society. Overall, he was unsuccessful at a compromise between the North and the South.
37. John Adams- John Adams instructed the building of Cumberland Road, appointed one of the greatest chief justices(John Marshall), and built up the arm forces. But was unsuccessful in his plans of strong federal leadership and scientific innovation. Law & Liberty says “John Quincy Adams’ presidency was a disappointment.” The arms force he built up ended up being far more than National Republican, Farwell-being homeownership he needed.
38. Benjamin Harrison- Benjamin Harrison was one of the most ineffective presidents in USA history which is why he has such a low rating. He seemed to sleepwalk through his presidency and had no passion for America and what he could do for America. However, Harrison did help promote issues such as the conservation of national resources, the linkage of world markets to national prosperity, and the civil rights of African Americans. He was also quite socially acceptable as president because he wasn’t very controversial. Because of his lack of effectiveness, he is ranked so low but because of his lack of controversy and acceptance by the people, he isn’t lower.
39. Richard Nixon- Nixon is commonly known to be the first president to resign from office which explains his low ranking. Nixon’s famous resignation occurred due to the Watergate Scandal where the Committee to Reelect the President (who worked for Nixon) was caught red-handed attempting to steal from democratic offices at the Waterton hotel to help Nixon win the election. In the Supreme Court case, “The United States v. Nixon”, Nixon was forced to hand over tapes that included evidence of his involvement in the scandal. Rather than facing impeachment, Nixon simply resigned. While we commonly remember Nixon for resigning, he did do some good things when he was in office. Nixon continued to desegregate Southern schools, passed multiple environmental initiatives such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and he declared war on cancer, illegal drugs, and hunger. So while Nixon got caught being corrupt, he did do some good things for our country prior to the Waterton scandal.
40. William McKinley- Falling low on the list is William McKinley. While during his reign he did do some good, the bad outweighed his good. Some of the goods included an economy that flourished, and a strong military win against Spain. He also reduced tariffs on imported goods, however he started the war with Spain based on false motives, and it caused our country to waste lots of money. He was also assassinated during his presidency therefore never finished his term. He was a decent president however his many mistakes put him low on our list.
2. Abraham Lincoln- Lincoln had a very successful presidency, and the United States would not be the same if it were not for his Emancipation Proclamation, and the fight to end slavery almost completely. He was elected President in 1860, slightly before the Civil War. Right before the Union’s success, He was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. He was a self-taught lawyer and knew a lot about the legal process. He is extremely smart and knows politics like the back of his hand. He has a lot of experience and made lots of friends and enemies during his time in politics. He is a respectable family man, and I believe that he had good morals, and stood up for what is right.
3. Barack Obama- As a class we ranked Obama third due to his success in capturing Bin Laden, recovering the economy, creating jobs, and his success in finalizing the Climate Change agreement. During Obama’s presidency, the great recession ended, the banking industry saw huge improvement in regulations, and Obama was able to make peace with Iran. Obama did a lot for the environmental side of things, such as helping the carbon emissions decline. Not only that, but Obama was the first African-American president. However, the Obama administration spent a lot of money and many view his immigration actions in a dark light. For these reasons, our class believed that Obama should be ranked third.
4. James Monroe- The reason that we ranked James Monroe at number 4 was because of his role in making America independent. He helped America through a transition period when they turned away from Europe affairs and started making the American name known. He also started the push west by purchasing Florida from Spain. These are a couple of reasons why we believe James Monroe was the 4th greatest president.
5. Calvin Coolidge- Calvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States of America. He served as president from 1923 to 1929. Calvin was seen as a man with both positives and negatives to his presidency. He had a quick response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919, which made him famous for his decisive choices and made him national throughout the country. He also preserved the old moral and comic precepts amid the material prosperity which many Americans were enjoying during that time. But as we know, even our presidents have their lows during their terms. Calvin was unable to finish his 2nd term because of the death of his which led to his clinical depression.
6. James Polk- James Polk, a Democratic president, accomplished almost everything he promised when he was first elected, which made him a reliable and truthful president. He assisted and led the acquisition of the Oregon Territory, California, and the Territory of New Mexico; the positive settlement of the Texas border dispute; lower tariff rates; the establishment of a new federal depository system; and the strengthening of the executive office. He was especially skilled with the communication skills he had acquired. He also had strengths in satisfying America as a whole, not primarily focusing on one party over the other. He is said to have left office as the most successful president since George Washington in regards to his goals and accomplishments for the states. He led the nation in the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848. He is also said to have been one of the top presidents because of his “Manifest Destiny” to spread the country from coast to coast.
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt- Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the 32nd president of the United States of America. He served from 1933-1945. And this may be seem odd to some people because that is longer than 8 years, more than a president should be able to serve. During the end of his presidency, World War Two broke out and it seemed unwise to elect a new president. They kept FDR as the same president for another four years until the war ended. During his troubling time of the Great Depression, FDR was still able to provide positive and negative effects for America. FDR issued the New Deal which was used to bring back more prosperity to America. His goal was to get unemployed reemployed and have banks open up again. Unfortunately, the New Deal was a negative effect as well because it didn’t provide any progress. Some people were able to obtain jobs, but it had a small recovery and provided little for the economy. It was only when America joined World War Two were they able to jump out of the Great Depression.
8. George Washington- George Washington had a very successful presidency, was well-liked among the 13 colonies, carefully put Hamilton's policies in place, and “In negotiating a treaty with England, Washington won some significant concessions that helped protect Americans on the frontier from attack by the Indians and the British”. However, even though he had many successes he also had his failures. He was said to have a pompous and aristocratic approach in office, the Hamilton policies favored wealthy citizens, and based on his approach to the French Revolution “he showed his lack of sympathy for true revolutionary principles and his conservative, oligarchical preferences.”
9. George Bush- We chose to rank George W. Bush based on his reformed homeland security. Bush unfortunately had to become a wartime president, due to 9/11. This changed everything that Bush had planned for his presidency. However, Bush was the fourth Republican president to serve 2 full terms. Bush has the biggest tax cut in American history, and his administration stopped a meltdown of the U.S. financial system in 2008. However, Bush is responsible for leading the nation into war with Iraq on incorrect intelligence reports, having the U.S. economic performance was as its weakest since Hoover’s presidency, his anti-terrorist tactics damaged the U.S. standing in the world, the U.S. did not capture Bin Laden, and the Republican party suffered setbacks in the second term. This is why we ranked Bush as ninth.
10. John Kennedy- As a class, we ranked John F. Kennedy tenth in our project of ranking presidents. Even though he wasn’t able to serve a full term, what he was able to accomplish in his few years as president was positive for the country. Some of these achievements included his dedication to the revolution of human rights, negotiated the Test Ban Treaty of 1963, improved the US economy, created the peace corps, and was responsible for the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Among these, he is the youngest president to have served and the first Roman Catholic president, which shows his ambition and strong roots coming through in his character. For the Cuban Missile Crisis; however, he seemed to prolong and worsen the situation more than nipping it in the bud right away. For all of these reasons, John F. Kennedy deserves to be number ten on our presidential rankings list.
11. Thomas Jefferson- As a class, we decided on ranking Thomas Jefferson in 11th. He was an extremely successful politician, who served as a Founding Father and wrote the Declaration of Independence. He also purchased the Louisiana Territory, advocated for the state’s individual rights, cut down on federal power, and was a huge spokesman for democracy. Despite these achievements which have greatly improved America overtime, his faults are what have lowered him on our class list. He was a racist and owned many slaves. Even though this was a lot more common at the time, it is still morally wrong and reflects who he was as a person. Some even say he had the opportunity to end slavery but did nothing about it. People were also not too fond of The Embargo of 1807 law that he passed, which prohibited American ships from trading internationally.
12. James Madison- Our class ranked James Madison as 12th. He wrote an outline for a new constitution known as the "Virginia Plan", and helped write "The Federalist Papers" and the Bill of Rights. Madison is called the Father of the Constitution. When Thomas Jefferson was president, he served under him as the Secretary of State. While Madison accomplished a lot, many people found him to be weak when it came to dealing with matters with France and England. Americans did not believe he was very fit to be president, and was too cautious and unable to handle tasks that the President of the United States needs to handle. Therefore, because of his weaknesses, we placed him 12th.
13. George H. W. Bush- We decided to rank George W. Bush here because he did a lot of good things foreign policy-wise, but he neglected some of the needs of those actually living in America. He had a lot of experience with being in office and had plans going into the White House that helped him be successful. He helped Panama and Kuwait to victory against oppressive governments, but he caused a recession and taxed US citizens more despite saying that he would not raise taxes. His inability to handle both foreign relations, and the economy are the reason he is not higher on the list, but his success in the world of foreign policy allowed him to be in the first half of the Presidents that we ranked.
14. Grover Cleveland- Grover Cleveland was a very effective and well-liked president to this day. He pursued a policy helping many economic groups, helped bring the south back to America after the Civil War and encouraged the country to come together, and strengthened the executive branch. While he thought more in a mindset of command instead of leadership it didn’t hinder his ability to be conscientious about his people while still being able to make hard decisions needed for the nation. Though he didn’t do anything major that drastically changed the course of our history, he was an effective and praised president from both parties. Because of this, he is ranked where he is, not at the very top but near the front.
15. Chester Arthur- We ranked Chester Arthur as one of our top 20 presidents due to the wow impact he relayed to the citizens when he stood his platform. Arthur was a well versed lawyer and had a deep understanding of the governmental system even before he came into power. With his previous occupation he was also already well versed in being strong willed and strong minded when it came to serious decision making. Arthur advocated and enforced the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. He was also a crucial part in solidifying the strong US Navy that we know well today. With his contribution and well suited personality, he deserves the ranking of #15.
16. Ronald Regan- Ronald Reagan was an actor in Hollywood and head of SAG (screen actor’s guild), served in the military, became Governor of California, and then finally became President of the US. He was affiliated with both the Democratic and Republican parties but spent the latter part of his life and his presidency as a Republican. Reagan is believed to have played a major role in ending the Cold War with his policies and talks towards the Soviet Union. There were worldwide fears about the Cold War and the fact that Reagan was able to calmly handle it with a mindset geared towards “solution”, was a major benefiting factor to his presidency.
17. William Taft- Theodore Roosevelt was deemed the “trust buster”, however I believe this would be a much more fitting name for President William Howard Taft. As president he prosecuted 75 total antitrust violations which is the most by far for a president at that time. Another success of his was the postal savings bank act which boosted the economy. His shortcoming as president came when he tried to deal with tariffs and ended up raising major tariffs while attempting to lower them which wasn’t great for the economy and did not make American citizens happy. The other major shortcoming he had as president was with the Ballinger-Pinchot affair which involved some shady dealings of some Alaskan coal lands.
18. Lyndon B. Johnson- As a class, we ranked Lyndon Johnson eighteenth in our project of ranking presidents. Coming into his presidency abruptly after the tragic loss of John F. Kennedy, he needed to act quickly and pick up where president Kennedy left off to be a strong leader for the nation in the midst of this dark time. He carried on the growing struggle of attempting to contain communism in Vietnam, which sadly ended in failure. However, he succeeded in other areas with the country and worked personally with Martin Luther King Jr. in passing the Civil Rights Act. He also played a part in ratifying the twenty-fourth amendment, which abolished poll taxes, and was also a part of the first successful orbit of the moon. Before office, he was also involved in the country and was a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy during WW2 where he won a Silver Star in the South Pacific. All things considered, he was a great president who showed his dedication to the nation through all of his foreign and domestic efforts.
19. Ulysses Grant- Ultimately, President Grant remains somewhat of an enigma in American history. He was such a successful general that his failings as President seem hard to comprehend. He also executed a successful foreign policy and was responsible for improving Anglo-American relations. Counting killed, wounded, missing, or captured soldiers, Grant's forces suffered roughly 154,000 casualties while inflicting 191,000. Beyond this, he brought the Civil War to an end with a speed unimaginable to those who preceded him. His fearless and tactful leadership is what earns him rank #19.
20. Jimmy Carter- Jimmy Carter is currently the oldest living US President. Carter served in the Navy for a period before he entered the political scene. He then became the Governor of Georgia in 1971 and the President of the US in 1977. The most notable thing he did as President was issue amnesty to people who evaded the Vietnam draft. He also supported civil rights and wrote 32 books. By supporting civil rights, he was one of the more progressive political figures during that time period, which helped with societal relations.
21. Millard Fillmore- President Fillmore was ranked the way he was for a few different reasons. He was a big part in passing the Compromise of 1850 which led to a brief truce on the expansion of slavery. Besides this there wasn’t very much he did besides he supported the Fugitive Slave Act which made it harder for fugitive slaves to go free. He lost support for that and just not doing a lot of things through his presidency.
22. John Q. Adams- John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. We ranked him at 23rd because as president he was in the middle. He didn't do anything great nor did he do anything bad. He did make a lot of proposals that weren’t carried out. One proposal that did make the cut was to make more roads and canals to connect America.
23.Dwight Eisenhower- Eisenhower served as a general during World War II and was a member of the Republican party. After winning the presidency in 1953, he signed a truce with South Korea and relaxed tensions with Russia after the creation of the hydrogen bomb. Furthermore, Eisenhower also increased the minimum wage, Social Security, and created several departments that are still in use today, including the Health Department, the Welfare Department, and the Education Department. While Eisenhower was not a fan of dealing with Civil Rights, he disagreed with segregation and worked slowly but surely to eliminate it. Therefore, Eisenhower is in the upper 20s because of his involvement and care for U.S. relations, but his indifference to an important movement like the Civil Rights Movement.
24. Rutherford B. Hayes- Rutherford Hayes was a politically experienced man who served a multitude of government positions throughout his lifetime. He served as a president and later served in the house of representatives. We chose him to sit right in the middle because while he was a well experienced man, his contribution was not necessarily evolutionary to the country and our progression as a whole. His biggest accomplishment was overseeing Reconstruction of the nation in the times of the Civil War. He also attempted to rekindle unity after the civil war, which was a valiant effort but nothing very noteworthy.
25. Bill Clinton- Bill Clinton had good ideas for the nation that included, healthcare reform, gun control, civil rights, and environmental campaigns. However he failed to actually get any of these off the ground, he did have one of the lowest unemployment rates, and highest homeownership that the US has had in modern times, but his failures drowned out those successes. Another one of his downfalls was that he was the second president to be impeached because was suspected of having relations with an intern in the white house. He was found not guilty in the Senate, but Clinton’s name had already been spoiled in the minds of Americans. Clinton lead the American people to a near prosperous life, but he fell short in his promises and his integrity came into question, which is why he is near the middle, but in the lower 20 presidents.
26. Harry Truman- Truman was originally President Roosevelt’s vice president; however, following Roosevelt’s death only a few months after his induction into office, Truman took over the presidency. Truman’s first year as President of the U.S. became known as the “year of decisions”. This included approving the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II, creating the Truman Doctrine that showed eagerness to provide aid to any countries that are trying to resist the establishment of communism, and presenting a new Fair Deal program. Therefore, as a class, we decided to rank him 26th.
27. Woodrow Wilson- Woodrow Wilson’s greatest achievement came when he created the League of Nations after WWI, however it gets looked over because he failed to get the United States to join the league. He also played a major role in the ratification of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote. Along with that he ended child labor and mandated an 8 hour work day for railroad workers which was huge at the time. However his achievements are overshadowed by two acts he passed. The Espionage act and Sedition act took away the freedom of speech from some Americans and made it so you could be arrested for thinking different then the government or for speaking against it. This is a very un-American way to govern and is why he ends up landing so low on the list.
28. Warren Harding- Warren Harding as president really focused on taxes and revenue and was somewhat successful in these areas. He was able to lower taxes for some of the nation however the people that didn’t get them lowered complained about this. He was responsible for putting the countries first formal budgeting process into place which was huge because up to this point, it was a free for all on spending in some cases with no real guidelines. Ironically Warren Harding’s presidency was overshadowed by a bribery scandal with some large oil companies. Some members of his cabinet were even arrested for this scandal and it will forever leave a stain on his presidency.
29. Herbert Hoover- Herbert Hoover was the 31st president of the United States of America. He served from 1929 to 1933. During his term of office, he was able to provide both positive and negative effects to his country. He was able to direct relief efforts to supply war-torn Europe and Russia during the First World War. Unfortunately for his presidency, his term of office lead to a traumatizing event for all people of America. During his last year as president, the stock market crash happened. This effected many people with losing their jobs and unable to provide income for their families. This event would have a toll on the incoming president.
30. Martin Van Buren- Serving from 1837-1841, Martin Van Buren proved to be a far from stellar leader of the United States. He seemed to mostly ride off the coattails of Andrew Jackson as he was a close and personal supporter throughout Jackson’s time as president. Van Buren was hesitant to support the annexation of Texas, a planned slave state, yet sided against slaves in the trial of the Amistad. He spent absorbent amounts of money on a war with Seminoles in Florida while taking power during an economic depression. He was a supporter of high states rights as well as low government involvement. One of his only beneficial and notable acts was to limit 10 hours of work in a day for federal public workers.
31. Andrew Jackson- Jackson was a huge proponent of decentralizing the money of America by dissembling the national bank during his presidency from 1829-1837. Jackson ran under the angle of being of the common people, gaining support by representing and not pretending to be pompous. He was a large supporter of slavery and ended up being responsible for the death of thousands of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears as he had them forcibly marched to foreign land after having been in charge of many campaigns crushing the natives. He did beat the Spanish in the South down in Florida and British Louisiana boosting morale. He was popular but his morals was questionable and he was ruthless.
32. Andrew Johnson- Johnson served in the Tennessee legislature and U.S. Congress and was governor of Tennessee. A Democrat, he championed populist measures and supported states' rights. During the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), Johnson was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union. Andrew Johnson is most known for being the president to take over after Abraham Lincoln was killed. He is also known for being one of the three presidents to be impeached. That is one of the main reasons our class decided to rank him #32.
33. John Tyler- John Tyler is most famously known for being the first president of the US that was not elected into office. This was because former President William Henry Harrison died, having only served in office for 32 days before his death. His biggest accomplishments were his signing of the Log Cabin Bill, giving settlers a right to claim land before its sale, buying it later for $1.25 per acre. Tyler also contributed to the annexation of Texas, in an attempt to make it a part of the United States. He signed a tariff bill that assisted in helping northern manufacturers. Finally, after the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, the government was able to end the border dispute with Canada, and the colonies along Maine’s border. He is the only president not buried under the American flag and failed to create a third party which made him run for office in absence of a political party.
34. Gerald Ford- As the first unelected President in the nation's history, Gerald Ford was tasked with restoring the nation’s confidence in our government after Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Ford pardoned Nixon from the Watergate Scandal which was highly controversial, but he argued that it was a necessary step to continue the healing of the nation. Moving past the Watergate scandal, Ford dealt with a domestic energy crisis and a weak economy due to high inflation and unemployment. He also struggled to get much done because of an extremely democratic congress that did not tend to agree with him. Ford was unable to send more troops to South Vietnam however because Congress wouldn’t approve further military action. He did however sign the Helsinki Accords to strengthen the relationship between Western nations and communist countries of Europe. Overall, Ford was tasked with cleaning up the mess of the Waterton Scandal and was unable to do much else, thus explaining his less than satisfactory ranking.
35. Franklin Pierce- President Pierce was not the greatest president which is why he received the ranking he did. He was a supporter of the Fugitive Slave Act and enforced it so he played a decent role. He also took down anti-slavery groups. He started making his mark early into his presidency which frustrated northerners and is probably what started the push for the Civil War.
36. James Buchanan- James Buchanan is a memorable President, being the only one elected from Pennsylvania and remaining a lifelong bachelor. He served immediately before the Civil War. He understood the law and was elected five times in the House of Representatives, and served for a decade in the Senate. He was known to pull a few strings in his office to deliver what the people of America wanted to hear. He was a moderate Democrat, whose actions to bring the North and the South to a compromise failed and led to the Civil War. He sided with the South most of the time, even though he claimed he thought slavery was morally wrong. From his perspective, a greater evil would have been freeing the slaves and letting them be upper class in society. Overall, he was unsuccessful at a compromise between the North and the South.
37. John Adams- John Adams instructed the building of Cumberland Road, appointed one of the greatest chief justices(John Marshall), and built up the arm forces. But was unsuccessful in his plans of strong federal leadership and scientific innovation. Law & Liberty says “John Quincy Adams’ presidency was a disappointment.” The arms force he built up ended up being far more than National Republican, Farwell-being homeownership he needed.
38. Benjamin Harrison- Benjamin Harrison was one of the most ineffective presidents in USA history which is why he has such a low rating. He seemed to sleepwalk through his presidency and had no passion for America and what he could do for America. However, Harrison did help promote issues such as the conservation of national resources, the linkage of world markets to national prosperity, and the civil rights of African Americans. He was also quite socially acceptable as president because he wasn’t very controversial. Because of his lack of effectiveness, he is ranked so low but because of his lack of controversy and acceptance by the people, he isn’t lower.
39. Richard Nixon- Nixon is commonly known to be the first president to resign from office which explains his low ranking. Nixon’s famous resignation occurred due to the Watergate Scandal where the Committee to Reelect the President (who worked for Nixon) was caught red-handed attempting to steal from democratic offices at the Waterton hotel to help Nixon win the election. In the Supreme Court case, “The United States v. Nixon”, Nixon was forced to hand over tapes that included evidence of his involvement in the scandal. Rather than facing impeachment, Nixon simply resigned. While we commonly remember Nixon for resigning, he did do some good things when he was in office. Nixon continued to desegregate Southern schools, passed multiple environmental initiatives such as the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, and he declared war on cancer, illegal drugs, and hunger. So while Nixon got caught being corrupt, he did do some good things for our country prior to the Waterton scandal.
40. William McKinley- Falling low on the list is William McKinley. While during his reign he did do some good, the bad outweighed his good. Some of the goods included an economy that flourished, and a strong military win against Spain. He also reduced tariffs on imported goods, however he started the war with Spain based on false motives, and it caused our country to waste lots of money. He was also assassinated during his presidency therefore never finished his term. He was a decent president however his many mistakes put him low on our list.