Whenever people ask me who was the worst US president, I usually say it was either Woodrow Wilson or Abe Lincoln.
This usually shocks people.
Not so much the Wilson part. From a libertarian perspective Wilson’s sins are pretty obvious. His administration gave us the national income tax, the Federal Reserve, and US entry into WWI.
Wilson also massively increased the power of the presidency and engaged in propaganda and political repression against any who disagreed with the radical changes he made to the Republic — all of which were awful, in my view.
Wilson’s presidency is particularly noxious if you believe (as I do) the many historians who claim that the US entering WWI broke a stalemate and set the conditions in Europe that led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis.
So that’s all pretty bad, and I haven’t even really gotten started. For those who want a very deep dive into the awfulness that is Woodrow Wilson, I recommend the very lengthy multi-part podcast series on him done by CJ Killmer in his Dangerous History podcast.
But as bad as all that was, Lincoln was worse.
People revere Lincoln because he “freed the slaves and saved the Union”. Nice story. Good PR. I’m not buying it though. I prefer the more honest view of Lincoln we get from historians like the great Tom DiLorenzo of the Mises Institute.
Chattel slavery was largely abolished throughout the western world in the mid 1800s and that would surely have happened in the US as well. Fighting a war over it wasn’t necessary, and in fact, Lincoln didn’t start that war over slavery.
Lincoln cared only for “preserving the Union”. And in waging this bloody and destructive war over it, I say he is a monster and the worst US president ever.
To this day, whenever US citizens (or states) bring up the subject of seceding from the US, they hear some version of, “Nope. Lincoln settled that matter.”
That’s pretty nuts. Might makes right? We can’t leave?
That sentiment sure would have shocked the people who created the United States of America and ratified its constitution. Every state who entered into the Union sure thought they had the right to exit it should the central government displease them or become oppressive.
Who on earth would join a thing that they could never again unjoin, on pain of death? The very concept is insane.
None of this is to suggest that the slave-owning southerners who wanted to leave the Union over concerns related to slavery weren’t monsters as well. Of course they were. But that doesn’t change the nature of the Union or the rights of the peoples of the various states to leave it.
Abraham Lincoln (himself a hideous racist who advocated that black people, once freed from bondage, should be kicked out of the US and resettled in Haiti) is a blood-soaked tyrant. As well as all the murder he committed in the south, he jailed his political opponents in the north and even members of the press who disagreed with the war.
Whenever I hear people praise Lincoln, I cringe. Lincoln is like the guy who, when he hears that his wife wants a divorce, beats the holy hell out of her, then brags about his stable and long-lasting marriage.
The war was such a bloody disaster that to this day, we are still trapped in this abusive marriage. We are so haunted by Lincoln and his violence that we (much like a battered wife) are traumatized into believing that leaving our abuser is impossible.
Well, to hell with that.
Worst president ever. Definitely.
One day soon, I hope to interview Tom DiLorenzo about Lincoln and his recent appointment to preside over the Mises Institute. He’s a very smart and interesting man.
Naturally,
Adam