Surprising attributes of America’s ‘forgotten’ chiefs

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Richard Lim
Real Clear Wire

Mark Twain was rarely impressed by politicians. He once wrote “there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” He once even said that the popular Theodore Roosevelt was “the most formidable disaster that has befallen the country since the Civil War.”

There was, however, one president for whom he expressed unqualified admiration.

Was it George Washington or Abraham Lincoln?

No. It was, in fact, Chester A. Arthur, America’s 21st president. “It would be hard indeed,” said Twain, “to better President Arthur’s administration.”

Arthur’s major accomplishment – signing a major civil service reform bill, the Pendleton Act – may seem modest today. For Twain, however, Arthur’s personal integrity stood out in the Gilded Age – an era remembered for rampant corruption.

As a lifelong student of history and the host of the “This American President” podcast, I’ve spent years studying the giants – the Washingtons, Lincolns, and Roosevelts of the world. As fascinating as they are, I’ve found, like Twain, that there is much to admire about their lesser-known counterparts. In fact, many of them were quite impressive and significant in their own right.

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Here are just a few examples:

Zachary Taylor was a national war hero who, despite being outnumbered on multiple occasions, won virtually all of his battles during the Mexican-American War. In doing so, he acquired thousands of acres of territory for the United States.

Ulysses S. Grant obtained an enslaved servant named William Jones in the late 1850s. Although Grant was very poor during this time and could have reaped a handsome profit by selling Mr. Jones, Grant instead freed him in 1859 purely out of principle. As president, he later used the military to destroy the Ku Klux Klan and protect the rights of African Americans.

Grover Cleveland was a man of integrity who defied political pressure and protected the Winnebago and Crow Creek Native Americans’ right to millions of acres in the Dakota Territory.

Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge labored tirelessly with their budget directors, meticulously going line-by-line over federal expenditures. Thanks to their spending cuts, the federal government ran a surplus almost every single year they were in office. They managed to cut the debt left over from World War I by about 28%.

Herbert Hoover was a brilliant administrator who organized relief for millions of Europeans during World War I. He was able to provide food to people starving from the dislocations of the war. Many historians credit him for single-handedly saving the lives of tens, if not hundreds of millions. Oh, and by the way, he could speak Chinese.

Gerald Ford was a football star in college and was even recruited to play for the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions. He also modeled for a time, with one of his photos landing on the cover of Cosmopolitan.

These are just a handful of the many surprising facts about America’s obscure presidents. Unfortunately, they are ignored in favor of a simplistic narrative in which only famous presidents are called “great” while everyone else is labeled a “failure.”

This narrative, however, ignores the impressive accomplishments and the fundamental integrity of many of our obscure presidents. It is a narrative that stems from the fact that few people, even historians, ever take the time to really study them.

The popular narrative also conflates presidential greatness with presidential activism. For decades, grade school and college students have been taught that the only chief executives worth learning about “did something” while everyone else is a punchline.

Even conservatives, who lament government activism, sometimes fall for this line of thinking. How many conservatives are even aware that Grover Cleveland was an excellent steward of the federal budget, vetoing hundreds of unnecessary spending bills, or that William Howard Taft staunchly defended the letter of the Constitution against progressive politicians? We have much to learn from their examples.

I’m not arguing that every obscure president was a good one. I’m arguing that we should be careful to label them failures if we haven’t truly taken the time to understand them.

If there is another compelling reason to study these forgotten figures, it is simply the fact that much – perhaps most – of American history happened under their stewardship. Much ink has been spilled about Lincoln and FDR, but for every one of them, there were two Clevelands and a Harrison. You could argue that most of American history happened under the Van Burens and the Pierces of the world rather than the Kennedys and the Reagans. To ignore them is to ignore so much of our nation’s history.

So this year on Washington’s Birthday (aka “Presidents Day”), let’s take a moment to appreciate the often mocked and misunderstood men who helped shape our nation.

Richard Lim hosts the “This American President” podcast.