Remembering Some US Presidents Who Get Forgotten Quiz

Answer: Herbert Hoover

Republican Herbert Hoover served as president from 1929 to 1933. He had the bad luck to be in office when Wall Street crashed Oct. 29, 1929, ushering in the Great Depression, so he took all the blame in the public mind. Just before the crash, he said, "We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land". He was remembered as a hands-off president, somewhat confused over what to do to help the country's slide into unemployment and poverty.

Historians have pointed out that he actually did take actions similar to Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, but people still felt he was responsible for "Hoovervilles" where shanties were the only housing. He faced hostile crowds and lost solidly in the 1932 election, as the country demanded anyone better.

Answer: James K. Polk

James K. Polk, a Democrat, served from 1845 to 1849, including the brief Mexican American War, April 1846 to February 1848. The war was supported far more in the US south than the north, as citizens both north and south saw it was a way to gain more land for slavery. Henry David Thoreau's essay "Civil Disobedience" was about Thoreau's refusal to pay taxes that would support the war, even if he had to spend a night in jail.

Despite Polk's clearly southern leaning, he could be praised for actually keeping his campaign promises, whether one agreed with them or not. Besides leading the country to victory in the Mexican-American War and thereby settling disputes in the US southwest, he settled Oregon Territory by buying it from the British, lowered the tariff (which pleased the south), and created an independent treasury. The Smithsonian Institution, Washington Monument and US Naval Academy were also begun under his presidency.

Answer: Warren G. Harding

Warren G. Harding (1865-1923) was succeeded by Calvin Coolidge, his vice president. Harding was well-liked upon his death, but as his term's monetary scandals and extra-marital affairs were gradually revealed, his popularity fell. He didn't personally participate in any of the monetary scandals, but he did little to stop them.

Yet somehow even his irregular activities didn't make him stand out of the crowd enough to be on the tip of everyone's tongue. It's hard to distinguish him from the other H president of the same general era, Hoover, or from anyone, really. He was a quiet, calm man, running in a quiet calm way, from an unremarkable state, Ohio, helping the country recover from the First World War, which had ended two years before he was elected.

Laddie Boy, the first dog, had a special chair to sit in for cabinet meetings. He "helped" the president play golf by fetching the ball when it hit a tree. He became popular enough that he was used to help raise money and knowledge about animal cruelty issues by the president and his wife. Neighborhood dogs were invited to join him for birthday parties with dog biscuit cake. Laddie Boy made the president seem even more normal and unremarkable -- and forgettable.

The Teapot Dome scandal had to do with leases for a government oil reserve in Wyoming by that name, and who got the money, There was also a Veterans' Bureau scandal over money. He supposedly had at least two mistresses, Nan Britton, who wrote a book afterwards, and Carrie Phillips,

Answer: Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson, who served from 1865 to 1869, unexpectedly became president when the previous leader of the country, Abraham Lincoln, was shot at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC. Johnson had the unfortunate luck to have the same last name as a later president, Lyndon Johnson, and he was in office at a time most people today consider less interesting than what came before -Reconstruction, rather than the Civil War. Those two things alone made him somewhat forgotten, but he also left an unimpressive legacy.

He was against federally protected rights for African-Americans. He was impeached in the house of representatives and missed being impeached in the senate by one vote, for trying to get rid of cabinet member Edwin Stanton -- not even an exciting scandal. All in all, his was not a memorable or spectacular presidency.

Answer: James Madison

James Madison served from 1809 to 1817, the fourth president. He was considered the Father of the US Constitution, but that was in 1789, before he was elected. During his presidency, he led the nation in the War of 1812, which gave several historic moments.

Francis Scott Key gained fame for writing the period military song and national anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner," as he watched Ft. McHenry valiantly being defended in Maryland.

General Andrew Jackson celebrated victory in the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. Many people know the catchy modern song by Johnny Horton:

"We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin'
Down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico."

Even Commander Oliver Hazard Perry had a chance to give the report, "We have met the enemy, and they are ours," made even more famous when Walt Kelly rewrote it in the 20th Century comic strip "Pogo" with a clever twist, as "We have met the enemy and he is us," most famous on an Earth Day poster showing pollution in the famous swamp of the comic strip.

They were all little historic snippets that have lasted for 200 years, but the war didn't do anything for poor Madison's own fame. The economy did well, but he was hard on vice presidents, having two die in office. The second one, Elbridge Gerry, was even famous for being the father of the word Gerrymander, a combination of Gerry and salamander.

President Madison just didn't have any luck at being famous himself while he was in office.

Answer: James A. Garfield

Most modern Americans, when asked who Garfield was, would probably say it's an orange cartoon cat. The president never had a solid legacy, nor an annoying friend named Odie. He only served from March to September in 1881, though he tackled corruption in the Post Office and began to strengthen the US Navy, a job that his vice president would finish.

He was shot by a man generally described as a disgruntled office seeker who believed he should have been given a civil service job. Garfield was already working on the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, but not soon enough to save himself.

The act was signed into law a few years later. Civil service jobs used to be awarded based on who you helped get elected, not on your merit. Office seekers swamped newly elected officials, whoever had the power to award jobs at different levels, federal or state.

Answer: Grover Cleveland

Democrat Grover Cleveland served as both the 22nd and 24th presidents. Otherwise, he fought patronage and corruption, and stood out for his honesty, but that wasn't enough to make him truly memorable. During his second term, he was tested with economic troubles and strikes, but he struggled through with his usual strong character intact.

The Republicans had a landslide victory in the election that put him out of office for good, simply because his policies weren't liked, but as an individual, he was still respected. The rest of his presidential accomplishments were forgotten, including the biggest one, two terms with no scandals.

I wavered between putting both him and William Henry Harrison in this quiz, or neither, or Harrison instead, because both of their legacies mostly depend on trivia achievements: non-consecutive terms, shortest term. But Garfield had a long chance to make his name known; he just didn't. Harrison never had the time. I thought Garfield therefore "won" the honor of being unmemorable for his own (lack of) achievements.

Answer: Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was a Democrat from New Hampshire who was popular among northerners, something unusual. He tried to make everyone like him, but his deals and decisions after he became president made northerners gradually turn against him. The Kansas-Nebraska act made possible a midwest transcontinental railroad, something northerners liked, but it flooded the midwest territories with settlers hoping to vote for or again slavery, since it undid the Missouri compromise, and caused the mess of "bleeding Kansas."

He tried to choose Democratics for civil service conditions, while reforming the civil service situation with required tests, a combination that didn't work.

His personal life included his wife Jane, who suffered from depression and tuberculosis, three children who died at age 11 or younger, and Pierce himself was a heavy drinker who died at 65 of cirrhosis of the liver.

Rufus King, his vice president, a southern plantation owner, died of tuberculosis a month and a half into his term and was never replaced. King was a close friend of James Buchanan and, similar to Pierce, supported neither the southern fire-eaters or the northern abolitionists.

Answer: Zachary Taylor

Zachary Taylor died while president, serving from March 1849 to July 1850. A war hero, he served in the War of 1812, the Blackhawk War, the Second Seminole War, and the Mexican-American War. His short presidency included the compromise of 1850 over slavery.

A slave-owner himself, he still didn't definitely take the side of slave-holders, but he became ill and died before he could have much impact on the compromise. His death of a stomach problem caused much speculation, right up into when his body was exhumed in 1991 and tested for arsenic poisoning.

It was found negative for poison, though others said the test was the wrong kind. The general consensus was that he died of some illness from drinking milk and eating unclean fresh fruit -- including a big bowl of cherries. Either the germs were on the unwashed fruit, in the water to wash the fruit or in the unpasteurized milk, not even an exciting way to die.

Answer: Chester Alan Arthur

Chester A. Arthur of course had a last name, Arthur, but it doesn't seem like one. He began with a slightly negative reputation, after running New York's political machine. But he gained the presidency when another man on this quiz, James A. Garfield, was killed by an angry office seeker, and he vowed to clean up the civil service system, which he accomplished.

He also strengthened the US Navy. The photo shows the Navy's new ships in 1889, led by the flagship USS Chicago, followed by USS Yorktown, USS Boston, and USS Atlanta.

He did little else, but he caused little trouble either, and was soon forgotton as neither a good nor bad president. Mark Twain wrote, "[I]t would be hard indeed to better President Arthur's administration." But he still did nothing memorable enough to be talked about 100+ years later, like Lincoln, Washington or Jefferson.