Johnson was named to deliver Texas electorally. Harry Truman surprised everybody when he succeeded the great FDR and proved an able and accomplished president. Calvin Coolidge silently cooled down the Harding scandals and preserved the White House for the Republican Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression. Chester Arthur, the embodiment of the spoils system, was so reviled as James Garfield’s successor that he had to defend himself against plotting Garfield’s assassination but he reformed the civil service.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded our greatest president, sided with remnants of the Confederacy in Reconstruction. He immediately sacked the entire cabinet and delayed an inevitable Civil War by standing with Henry Clay’s compromise of 1850. Millard Fillmore succeeded esteemed General Zachary Taylor. He was kicked out of his party and became the first president threatened with impeachment. John Tyler succeeded William Henry Harrison who died 30 days into his term. Only TR, Truman, Coolidge, and LBJ were re-elected. Only Theodore Roosevelt would have been elected in his own right.
In one way or another they vastly changed our history. Eight men have succeeded to the presidency when the incumbent died in office. The strength and prestige of the American presidency has waxed and waned since George Washington. This New York Times bestselling “deep dive into the terms of eight former presidents is chock-full of political hijinks-and déjà vu” ( Vanity Fair) and provides a fascinating look at the men who came to the office without being elected to it, showing how each affected the nation and world.
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