Worst Presidents: John Tyler (1841-1845)

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P.S. J. Laub. Don't be a tool bag. First Nation American Indian people have not gotten over genocide and Jews have not gotten over the holocaust. That's not the way oppression works. If it worked that way, Indians would have a national voice & power outside the reservation and Israel would have no need for statehood. Think.

salemowalk of TX 5:42PM January 19, 2012

The question of why theses antebellum presidents are ranked so poorly has less to do with their stance on slavery itself, and more to do with their inaction and appeasement around the issue. When the nation is in crisis, it needs a President who will make sound, thoughtful, and ethical decisions to avert crisis. Most of these presidents failed to do that. In fact, they all seem to fit into one (or more) of four categories: failure in preventing succession, failure in preventing/ending financial crisis, failure to end corruption in their administration, and failure to stay alive long enough to enact policies. It seems that Americans value wrong decision more than indecision.

salemowalk of TX 5:31PM January 19, 2012

This guy is a really bad president or thats my opinion!

Sally of KY 1:40PM January 05, 2012

So wrong...so wrong. The man had reasons for vetoing a National Bank and just because he opposed the ideals of his party makes him awful? Retarted.

Gianfranco Ocampo of IL 9:17PM December 08, 2011

It's true that the Constitution at the time undermined Tyler's claim to be a full-fledged president. But then he failed to consolidate his power once in office.
Being an ex-Democrat party-jumper, the Whigs didn't totally trust Tyler from the start, and then he abandons the Whig platform. He goes on to nominate 22 people for the six Cabinet positions, because they keep quitting on him. Tyler finally gets kicked out of his own party.
He once claimed that his great achievement as president was getting Texas, then an independent republic, admitted to the Union. The trouble with Tyler's boast is that Texas leaders like Sam Houston had always wanted Texas to join the US anyway. Plus, its admission was universally deemed necessary to preserve the delicate slave state-free state balance in Congress. In reality, Texas joining the Union was a no-brainer.
On his last full day as president, Congress overrides one of Tyler's vetoes -- the first time in American history this had occurred. That's embarrassing.
During the Civil War, being a Virginian and a strong states'-rights guy, Tyler gets elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. Thus many Northerners regard him as a turncoat, and when he dies in mid-war in 1862, he becomes the only president, ever, whose death is not officially mourned in Washington.
Tyler's experiences had something to do with circumstance, but he also lacked the political skill to make much out of his opportunities. He's a Bottom 10 president in my book.

creamnsugar of FL 9:53PM August 21, 2011

If you don't know your history you are doomed to repeat it...

Cady of CA 2:41PM April 12, 2011

Now it's the Republicans and neocons

Donut of CA 11:25PM February 28, 2011

Eric has it right -- Tyler's status was quite ambiguous as far as the Constitution was written at that time. This is a very, very profound point that was never settled in a satisfactory manner until the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, and later with the 25th Amendment.
After Reagan was shot in March, 1981, Secretary of State Alexander Haig thought he was next in line. He was completely ignorant of the 25th Amendment.

Allen Davis of IN 9:46PM January 14, 2011

yeah, slavery was bad, yeah it was horrible. You know what, get over it. We were by no means the first, and we weren't the last either. How about a little sympathy for the indians, they were almost wiped of the face of their own lands. Or what about the jewish community... they've been persecuted since biblical times. The fact is, alot of people, through out history, have made slaves of other humans and continue to do so. deal with it and move on, because you'll never move into the future if your always stuck in the past.

J. Laub of PA 2:28AM December 08, 2010