8 Dreadful Acts From US Presidents
Sometimes the past is more sinister than the present, sometimes.
To truly grasp what constitutes a horrible deed it's best to look to the past. When you can wholly ascertain cause and effect you get a much clearer idea on what goes against your particular political ideals, and what is decidedly bad.
For that reason we're completely ignoring any action from Jimmy Carter to the Current President because we need the instrument of time to understand what impacts were made that can be considered terrible.
The worst thing about looking into the past and finding dreadful actions from presidents (or indeed ANY world leader) is that nobody comes off as innocent. Sometimes when you hold a position of extreme power and have the ability to influence a numerous amount lives, horrible decisions will be made.
Every president has done something horrible, it comes with the job. Even William Henry Harrison who decided to show off how tough he was by giving a two hour speech in February without a coat. He died a month later by the way... didn't impact a lot of people but it was pretty stupid.
The actions we discuss are not always of equal quanitities of evil, at least one is just funny, but they are certainly the acts of jerks.
This is going to be a dark one, sorry.
8. John Adams Makes It A Crime To Say Anything Bad About Him
Professional Paul Giamatti impersonator, John Adams, was the second president of the United States and had some big shoes to fill. A deeply intelligent man, it's actually quite amazing to see someone so smart do so many self destructive things.
First some historical context, relations between America and France where at an all time low (amazing as America had only really existed for less than 50 years) after the XYZ affair. XYZ were the names given to three French delegates by Adams who had apparently demanded bribes for opening dialogue on the issue France's habit of taking American ships.
This really pissed off Adams who began preparing for a possible war with France.
One of the ways in which Adams prepared was a set of domestic policies called the Alien and Sedition Acts.
They were a series of four acts, the first three are somewhat understandable, but the fourth act is a real piece of work.
The sedition act declared that publication of anything scandalous, malicious, or false would mean jail time and a fine, which it did for many news paper editors who had published work critical of the Adam's administration.
The sedition act and two of the other four alien acts were allowed to expire, with Adams being the only president to make it a crime to criticise the government.