This leads to a larger question which is captured in the title of this blog. Just how important is it to have been elected to public office for some length of time?
The record is mixed and I will devote several blogs to this issue. Let’s start with those who had a fair amount of elected political experience but were not shining lights in the White House. One can come up with a decent list of those who fit this bill but were arguably not amongst our above average, let alone great, Presidents. Such as who? John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, James Madison, Martin Van Buren, Andrew Johnson, and (a controversial choice) Richard Nixon come to mind though many would add our current President.
John Adams had a long, long history in politics. He had served in the First and Second Continental Congress before becoming a diplomat and then George Washington’s Vice President (a functionally useless position in those days), and he finished his political career by serving but one term as President of the U.S. He is better remembered as something of a political philosopher than as a career politician. An undeclared naval war with France took up most of his time as a one-term President. This war led to the XYZ Affair followed by the Alien and Sedition Acts, which marred his Presidency because of their severe limitations on a free press.
Few have come better prepared for the President’s office than John Adams’ son John Quincy Adams. J.Q. Adams had served as his father’s private secretary before enjoying a fruitful career as a diplomat and U.S. Senator. He was exceptional as a Secretary of State—arguably one of the best in our history. But, the circumstances surrounding his selection by the House of Representatives in 1824 as the 6th President doomed his Presidency to but one term. He had an outstanding program to propose to Congress, but none of it was passed. He finished his career, almost literally dying with his boots on, as a Congressman of the highest possible integrity.
James Madison had had an even more sterling career, if that is possible, before becoming President. He was a superb leader in the colonial Virginia legislature and earned being remembered as “Father of the Constitution” and the Bill of Rights. He was a leader in Congress after that and became Thomas Jefferson’s Secretary of State (which was then the pathway to the Presidency as it would be for J.Q. Adams). But, he led the U.S. into the arguably un-necessary War of 1812 and had the dubious distinction of having the British burn the White House in retaliation for American depredations in Canada.
Martin Van Buren served with
distinction as a member of
New York’s assembly before
becoming a close personal
advisor for President Andrew
Jackson. He was regarded as
a “Wizard” when it came to
politics. Unfortunately,
that did not serve him well
when he came to the
Presidency after Andrew
Jackson’s two terms. The
U.S. suffered its first
significant depression under
his Presidency and he was
spectacularly unsuccessful
in dealing with it.
Andrew Johnson’s early life
story is a compelling one of
how a poor boy can become
successful and rise to the
heights of American life.
His wife cured him of his
illiteracy, and he built a
fine political career
leading him to the U.S.
Senate from Tennessee.
There, he was the only
Southern Senator to stay
with the Union. His
courageous stand led him to
be selected as Abraham
Lincoln’s running mate in
1864.
Unhappily, however, he was ill-suited for the Presidency. He was unwilling to stand for civil rights for former slaves. His world view was that government had done enough just to end slavery, and he stood by as the Southern states, under his Reconstruction plan, passed a series of “black codes” which severely restricted opportunities for the freedmen and elected many former Confederate leaders to the offices they had held before the secession crisis. He was cantankerous and lacked the political skills to form reasonable compromises with the Radical Republicans in Congress. He proved to be stubborn and intemperate in his speeches regarding his political enemies. He is recalled today as a failed President who was so disliked that he came within one vote of losing his office in his impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate in 1868.
Finally, there is the sad
case of Richard Nixon. He
forged a fine academic
career at Whittier College
and Duke’s law school before
serving with distinction in
the Navy in WWII. He then
became a Congressman and a
Senator before serving for 8
years as Ike’s Vice
President. While there were
many positives to his
Presidential career
especially opening up China
and developing revenue
sharing schemes for the
states, he will always be
remembered as having
obstructed justice in the
Watergate scandal, which he
never really owned up to.
So, what is one to conclude
from these vignettes?
Simply put–there is more,
maybe much more, to becoming
a good President than having
a fair amount of prior
elected experience. It is
NOT essential though that
seems counter-intuitive.
Stay tuned for the rest of this series.
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