Calling Ex-Presidents Back to Service
Former presidents -- and former political enemies -- Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush are cooperating to encourage and coordinate private relief efforts following the disastrous tsunami in Asia. George W. Bush appointed his two immediate predecessors, thus ensuring that the joint leaders would represent both parties and also bring presidential prestige.
Was it odd that he avoided naming another former president distinguished for his post-presidential humanitarian activities, Jimmy Carter? Politically, it was not. Clinton provided bi-partisanship, yet was more likely than Carter to seek consensus by smoothing over differences. Carter might well have refused the appointment in any case, to avoid supporting the administration’s policy of shifting much responsibility -- even for enormous disasters -- from public to private sources.
This circumstance was far from ordinary. What do former presidents do under normal conditions? Presidents are powerful, and observers scrutinize them constantly to see how they use their power. Ex-presidents, however, to a large extent are on their own. The system has never really made satisfactory provision for them. Not until the 1950s did it give them so much as office space and a pension. There remains no established mechanism even to make use of their expertise.
Former presidents may escape the intense observation that was unavoidable while they held office. Yet, because of their most unusual status, they may continue to exercise considerable influence -- after all, they belong to a far more exclusive group than that “exclusive club,” the Senate. It is rare for anyone who is relatively free from public scrutiny to have such potential to affect political development.
How have ex-presidents exercised that potential -- or have they? Clearly, many of them have, although a surprising number of chief executives had no post-presidency at all. William Henry Harrison in 1841 (one month after his inauguration), Zachary Taylor in 1850, Warren G. Harding in 1923, and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945 died in office of natural causes. Abraham Lincoln in 1865, James A. Garfield in 1881 (six months after his inauguration), William McKinley in 1901, and John F. Kennedy in 1963 fell victim to assassins. Thus, of the forty-two men who have been president, eight died in office. Another, Richard M. Nixon, resigned his presidency in disgrace in 1974. Forcing Nixon from office brought to nine the number who failed to complete their terms, more than 20 percent of the total.
Nixon, though, had a lengthy post-presidential career, writing prolifically, seeking to restore his reputation, and striving even to become an “elder statesman.” There are those who believe that he succeeded, and he did offer advice to a number of his successors. Certainly he managed to have one highly unusual public, if not exactly official, achievement: in 1985 he mediated a strike of baseball umpires.
Seven former presidents exercised influence in the most direct way, by seeking political office. Two of these won election to Congress.
John Quincy Adams lost to Andrew Jackson after one frustrating term ending in 1829. The following year he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until his death in 1848. He is best known for his impassioned and ultimately successful opposition to the “gag rule,” by which representatives from the South sought to prevent any discussion of slavery or any restriction of their efforts to expand it throughout the territories or beyond. He also successfully argued the Amistad case before the Supreme Court on behalf of a group of kidnapped Africans who had seized the slave ship transporting them. He should be remembered, also, for his tenacious dedication that brought ultimate approval for what became the Smithsonian Institution. It was during this, the most distinguished part of a distinguished career, that he came to be known as “Old Man Eloquent.”
The other former president who returned to Congress, the impeached and nearly removed Andrew Johnson, is in a far different category. After several attempts, he won election to the U.S. Senate, taking his seat in the short spring session in 1875. He made one major speech, fervently condemning President Grant’s civil rights policies. That summer he died of a stroke.
President William Howard Taft lost the presidency in the election of 1912. Taft had never been happy as president, and gratefully accepted the Kent Chair of Law at Yale -- although the portly ex-president joked that a sofa of law would fit him better. His goal had never been the presidency, but a seat on the Supreme Court. In 1921 President Harding appointed him chief justice, fulfilling his dream. Taft wrote some years later that his days on the Court were so happy that he had forgotten about being president. He served there with great competence until 1930, when poor health forced him to retire.
Four former presidents sought to regain the office. The first was Martin Van Buren, who in 1840 after one term lost to the first Whig president, William Henry Harrison. In 1844, Van Buren nearly won the Democratic nomination again, but Southern delegates blocked his bid. He had moved so far toward anti-slavery that in 1848 the Free Soil Party -- a new and short-lived party dedicated to preventing slavery’s spread into the territories -- nominated him for president. He ran a respectable race, carrying no states, but securing enough votes to deny victory to the Democrat, Lewis Cass. He thus changed history, and brought election to Zachary Taylor, only the second Whig (and the final one) ever to win a presidential election.
The second former president to try again was Millard Fillmore, who had filled the remainder of Taylor’s term after Taylor died in 1850. Fillmore did not receive the Whig nomination in 1852, but he returned in 1856 as the candidate of a third party. He ran well, and carried the state of Maryland, but did not affect the outcome of the race which the Democrat, James Buchanan, won. Fillmore did his reputation no good by becoming the candidate of the American Party, the “Know Nothing” Party that sought to restrict power to native-born Protestants.
The third former president to try again succeeded. After one term, Grover Cleveland in 1888 won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote to his Republican challenger, Benjamin Harrison. As Cleveland and his wife, Frances, left the executive mansion, she told the servants to take good care of everything, because in four years they would be back. They were. In 1892, Cleveland became the only president to achieve two, non-consecutive, terms.
The fourth president who attempted to return to the office will almost assuredly be the final one because of the Twenty-Second Amendment. Theodore Roosevelt left the White House in 1909 after nearly two terms, thus fulfilling his promise not to run in 1908 -- although he surely could have been elected. In 1912, unhappy with the administration of Taft, his chosen successor, he attempted to re-gain the Republican nomination. Roosevelt won most of the primaries, but the convention chose Taft, the more conservative incumbent. TR and his Progressive Party then embarked upon the famous “Bull Moose” campaign. He came in far ahead of Taft, who carried only Utah and Vermont, but lost to the Democrat, Woodrow Wilson. The Roosevelt candidacy carried into office only the second Democrat between the Civil War and the Great Depression. TR remained active and outspoken until his death in 1919.
A number of presidents contributed greatly to their country following their administrations. Washington had yearned for retirement, but left it to raise an army at President Adams’s request. Fortunately, the threatened war with France failed to materialize. Jefferson founded the University of Virginia, sold his books to the government to become the nucleus of the Library of Congress, and along with John Adams, greatly enriched our heritage with their voluminous correspondence.
Madison countered the nullifiers, and prepared the report of the Constitutional Convention. Others wrote memoirs or autobiographies, including Van Buren, Buchanan, Coolidge, Hoover, Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, the first Bush, and Clinton. These vary in quality, but many are valuable, as is Theodore Roosevelt’s Autobiography. Grant’s superb memoirs are generally considered to be a literary masterpiece.
Many former presidents have been active in charitable, civic, and educational activities. Hoover contributed much through the longest post-presidency of all. He headed the two Hoover Commissions on government re-organization, and worked tirelessly on behalf of Boys’ Clubs of America. On the other hand, diatribes against the New Deal form much of his huge written output. Carter in his private activities has been the most distinguished of all, monitoring foreign elections, working to eliminate diseases in deprived countries, and devoting labor to Habitat for Humanity. Clinton has devoted enormous energy to many causes, including combating AIDS around the world.
The extent to which former presidents have advised successors is often less clear. Jefferson and Jackson did so; Eisenhower gave hawkish advice to Kennedy and Johnson on Vietnam. The first Bush is in a unique position among modern presidents to influence a successor, but the evidence is slight, and mixed. As with so many other questions, the answers wait for historians to discover.