If there was an award for the most detested, reviled President of the United States, it would surely go to our 10th President, John Tyler. Historians seem to agree, putting him in the list with Warren Harding, Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan. Granted, these listings are arbitrary and slanted according to the bias of the pollsters. However, you have to believe that Tyler is going to rank rather low in any poll, regardless of who takes it based on historical evidence.
William Henry Harrison was the 9th President of the United States with Tyler as his VP. Tyler viewed his role as inconsequential so after the election was over, he went back to his Virginia plantation. A mere 31 days after the election, he received notice that Harrison had died, the first president to die in office. Tyler went back to Washington and took the oath of office to become the 10th POTUS.
Six years earlier, Tyler had angered the Democratic party and left them to join the Whigs. Now, Democrats and Whigs alike are angry with Tyler because at that time, the Constitution only allowed for the VP to assume the duties of a deceased president, not the actual office itself.
As the new president, Tyler made it clear he would not carry out his predecessor’s agenda of re-establishing a national bank, protective tariffs, and siding with those in favor of slavery.
The Whigs kicked him out of their party. When trying to establish a third political party, he couldn’t find enough supporters to back him up. A mass resignation of his cabinet, save one, took place. Animosity brewed to the point of violence with the gates of the White House being forced open, stones hurled at the Executive Mansion, and an effigy of the president ceremoniously hung and burned on the White House porch. Unable to muster any support for a re-election campaign, Tyler retreated to Virginia where he sided with the Confederacy.
When Tyler died, “a Confederate flag draped Tyler’s coffin as it was brought for burial to a Richmond, Virginia, cemetery. While bells tolled and flags were lowered to half-staff in the Confederate capital, silence greeted the news of Tyler’s death in the country he betrayed. Lincoln did not issue the customary official proclamation to observe Tyler’s passing, while the New York Times obituary noted that he had left the presidency as “the most unpopular public man that had ever held any office in the United States.”
“Some of Tyler’s successors didn’t think very highly of him either. Harry Truman called him “one of the presidents we could have done without.” “He has been called a mediocre man; but this is unwarranted flattery,” said Theodore Roosevelt. “He was a politician of monumental littleness.”1
Have you ever wondered who the most reviled and despised person of the Bible might be? Perhaps the honor (dishonor!) could go to Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal who butchered his family in Judges 9:5. “And he went unto his father’s house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten (70) persons, upon one stone: notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.”
Jezebel must rank rather high in the list. 2 Kings 9:36-37 says of her, “Wherefore they came again, and told him. And he said, This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel: (37) And the carcase of Jezebel shall be as dung upon the face of the field in the portion of Jezreel; so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel.” That’s gruesome!
Maybe the dishonor goes to the wicked Herod the Great who “… when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.” (Matthew 2:16)
Maybe Herod Antipas would be the most reviled. Luke 13:31 says, “The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.” This is the same Herod, along with his incestuous wife Herodias and her daughter, who were responsible for the death of John the Baptist.
High on most of our lists would have to be Judas Iscariot who betrayed our Savior for 30
pieces of silver and used a kiss as the signal to the bloodthirsty mob. Matthew 26:15 says, “And [Judas] unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.”
It’s hard not to develop some strong, negative feelings towards these individuals. However, we must always remind ourselves of a truth found in Romans 2:16. It’s the truth of a day that is rapidly approaching. “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”
“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.” (1 Corinthians 4:5)
1https://www.history.com/news/john-tyler-most-unpopular-president
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