Excerpts

The History Buff’s Guide to the Presidents features a myriad of top-ten lists covering a spectrum of subjects. The following are a few excerpts from those top-ten lists…

From:

Top Ten Debt Presidencies: #2. Woodrow Wilson (2,500% Increase)               

President Wilson had cause to avoid the Great War, aside from its horrific effusion of blood. As the Balkan crisis escalated into a continental Armageddon, the Empires were not only losing millions of able-bodied young men, they were also bleeding cash...                               

     Initially the U.S. benefited from the melee, providing loans and foodstuffs to the capital-hungry conflict. But when Imperial Germany initiated unrestricted submarine warfare on an already fragile Atlantic trade network, Wilson called for a declaration of war against the Central Powers. The decision spawned the creation of a 4 million-man armed force, and a flurry of federal spending never before seen in U.S. history.

            To pay for it, the government reintroduced the federal income tax. The added revenues only covered 40 percent of costs. The rest had to be borrowed. Much of it came through “Liberty Loan” drives, offering bonds at around four percent interest.

            The relatively successful bond drives fueled an industrial boom. Between 1914 and 1918, the nation’s steel production went up 235 percent, and shipbuilding increased over one thousand percent. But the relative cost of fighting had also exploded. In the rifle-dominated Civil War, it took about 100 pounds of spent ordnance to produce one battlefield fatality. In World War I, where heavy artillery ruled, it took four tons per KIA. The Allied Powers were killing by the millions, and each one cost an average of $36,485.   Nine months after the war ended, the U.S. national debt peaked at an astounding $26,594,267,878.45. The government was hoping to recoup some of this by selling surplus grain and pork to the starving nations of Europe. Federal Food Administrator Herbert Hoover dismissed the idea, arguing it was unethical and impractical to let food rot on the docks while waiting for countries to give money they did not have.

            In addition to its own deficits, the U.S. had loaned billions of dollars to more than twenty different countries, many of which were unable or unwilling to pay. After many years of negotiating, the largest debtors agreed to yearly payments lasting several decades. Greece was set to payoff its loan by 1948, Germany by 1981, Finland, France, Estonia, and Great Britain by 1984, and Austria by 1990.

            For one American economist, this was ideal. Predicting the Roaring Twenties would go on for some time, he argued “the United States will retire all its debt by about 1950…receipts from foreign debtors will run on to 1985 or to 1990. Therefore for a period of 35 to 40 years the future generations will enjoy a subsidy.” Indeed, those generations would live to see a great many subsidies, most through money borrowed rather than money lent..      

Top Ten Presidential Pastimes: #4 Cards

Nearly every president in the nineteenth century played, except James Polk, whose wife Sarah forbade the pastime in the White House.  The games were much like the general population of the northeast, mostly of English origin and accompanied by French and German variations. The popular game early on was whist, a 4-player contest involving tricks and trump. After the Civil War, euchre became the national diversion and was a favorite of James Garfield, with pinochle and cribbage not far behind.

    Over time, whist evolved into the female-dominated bridge, while males turned toward competitive poker, an ancient game introduced into the United States sometime in the 1820s. Adept at reading people, Grover Cleveland thrived on it. FDR and Truman played for small pots. The most skilled players were Eisenhower and Nixon, who both made ample sums in their younger days, but elected for friendlier games while in office.

Top Ten Most Religious Presidents: #7 Benjamin Harrison

“He is a cold-blooded, narrow-minded, prejudiced, obstinate, timid old psalm-signing Indianapolis politician.” Theodore Roosevelt may have been a tad callous in his assessment of Benjamin Harrison, but he was not alone in the sentiment. Benjamin Harrison was hard to like, in part because he was such a contradiction. He could charm crowds with his brilliant oratory, but in person he was tactless and aloof. He would skip out of the White House to play with his grandchildren, yet squeeze twelve-hour workdays out of his staff. Apt to change his mind often, he chastised anyone who dared contradict him.

   Ben Harrison was born in 1833 in the hinterlands of Ohio, a time and place deep in the evangelical throws of the Second Great Awakening. His parents were devout, as was his presidential grandfather. By age 27 he was an elder in the church, a Sunday school teacher, and a deacon. He intended on going into the ministry, until he surmised that an eager Christian could do more in politics. As he once told his fellow students at Miami of Ohio, “civil society is no less an institution of God than the Church.”

Top Ten Assassinations and Attempts: #3 James Garfield

             By the audacity of the act, anyone who tries to murder a president is often assumed to be insane. More than likely, the assumption was correct with thirty-nine year-old Charles Guiteau. He was of unstable lineage. At least two cousins and an uncle perished in mental asylums. His abusive father claimed to be immortal. Himself a hyperactive but cerebrally slow child, Guiteau attained four things in adulthood: a dubious law degree, religious fanaticism, an incurable case of syphilis, and the belief that he would one day be president.

             His lofty aspirations seemed tangible after the elections of 1880. Guiteau had written a flavorless, wandering speech endorsing Republican candidate James Garfield. He mailed it to the nominee, passed out copies to strangers, and may have once or twice delivered the drowsy lecture to small audiences. When Garfield won, Guiteau believed his little writing caused the outcome, and he expected to be compensated.

            Throughout the spring of 1881, he wrote letters, grilled party officials, and pestered White House staff. No one would listen to him. Convinced that Garfield would know who he was, he lined up with other office seekers, met the President in person, and demanded an ambassadorship. When Garfield abruptly rejected him, Guiteau left and bought a .44 snub-nosed revolver. For weeks he stalked Garfield around Washington, waiting for the right moment, reassuring himself that Garfield would be “happier in Paradise.”