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The censure of Andrew Jackson for replacing his Secretary of Treasury raised the question of a president's authority to control the actions of his cabinet members.
Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.
In this issue, 30 historians provide a detailed look at presidential misdeeds — from inattention to “high crimes” — over the last 230 years.
Partisan political differences mushroomed into a battle over the conduct of Barack Obama and other administration officials.
In
Fierce debate among early political factions led to many allegations of misdeeds and abuse of power in Washington's administration, but there was no serious misconduct.
Historians have reached no consensus in their interpretations of the administrations of George Washington and John Adams, but two statements can be made with little fear of contradiction.
There was widespread fraud, especially in the swing state of Florida. We are talking, of course, about 1876.
Editor’s Note: Roy Morris Jr.
Critics saw him as weak, but, in his single term in office, Carter had significant achievements in foreign affairs, the environmental, and energy policy.
Editor’s Note: The author was a longtime columnist and senior editor at Newsweek, and since has been a television commentator, documentary filmmaker and author of three New York Times bestsellers.
Recently declassified documents reveal that Alexander Haig and other White House staff actively worked to remove Richard Nixon — the president they worked for — from office.
Editor's Note: Ray Locker is the author of Haig's Coup: How Richard
After his father's death in 1848, Charles Francis Adams, Sr. became the last great hope of America's first—and, at the time, only—political dynasty.
Excerpted from the George Washington Book Prize finalist Heirs of an Honored Name: The Decline of the Adams Family and the Rise of Modern America, by Douglas R. Egerton (Basic Books).
FDR waged his own war on "fake news," specifically on the Chicago Tribune publisher Robert R. McCormick.
Editor's Note: Stephen Bates teaches First Amendment law, writing, and other subjects at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.
Maeve McKean, Robert F. Kennedy’s granddaughter, and her young son died in a canoe.
On a windy afternoon this April, Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, a vibrant blue-eyed 40-year-old, and her son Gideon hopped into a canoe to chase a ball that had blown into the water. But the wind and waves swept them into the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis. Then, they disappeared.
Although he was forced to resign as Nixon’s Vice President, Agnew’s tough-guy persona set the precedent for subsequent anti-establishment figures, including Donald Trump.
Although he was forced to resign as Nixon’s Vice President, Agnew’s tough-guy persona set the precedent for subsequent anti-establishment figures, including Donald Trump.
Although he was forced to resign as Nixon’s Vice President, Agnew’s tough-guy persona set the precedent for subsequent anti-establishment figures, including Donald Trump.
Newly released personal papers and transcripts of closed-door hearings reveal both the depth of the senator’s conniving and his surprising charm.
Editor's Note: Historian Larry Tye has just written a definitive biography of the controversial Red-hunting Senator, Joe McCarthy,
Histories written about the nation's greatest crisis focus on Lincoln and the military campaigns. But an intriguing group of characters in Congress also played a major role, advising and prodding the president.
America faced its greatest crisis in 1861 as the nation literally unraveled and the rest of the world wondered whether its experiment in self-determination would succeed.
Only hours after being sworn in, Lincoln faced the most momentous decision in presidential history.
On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln’s first day in office, a letter from Major Robert Anderson, commander of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, landed on the new president’s desk, informing him the garrison would run out of provisions in a month or six weeks.
Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence announced a new epoch in world history, transforming a provincial tax revolt into a great struggle to liberate humanity from the tyrannies of the past.
The Senate's inquiry into a Kennedy Administration defense contract is considered one of the longest and most extensive congressional investigations ever undertaken.
The Kennedy administration took office under a small political cloud. Allegations of fraud and vote-stealing filled the air in the days following John F.
There was widespread misconduct in Harry Truman’s administration, but historians discount the president's responsibility.
Harry S. Truman became president of a country much changed from the pre-war America of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Relative prosperity born of war had replaced depression, and government had turned its attention from combatting hardship to underwriting an immense military enterprise.
Though no scandals touched Eisenhower personally, the media showed occasional interest in the number of gifts he received.
Because of the heavy barrage of criticism the Republicans had directed at the scandals in the Truman administration during the 1952 campaign, both the executive and legislative branches were particularly sensitive to the issue of corruption in government for the duration of Dwight D.
After the Department of Justice brought suit to nullify the Bell telephone patents, it was discovered the action could have made Attorney General Garland a multi-millionaire.
Elected mayor of Buffalo in 1881, governor of New York in 1882, and president of the United States in 1884, Grover Cleveland owed his rapid rise in politics to his reputation for honesty, retrenchment, and administrative reform. In 1884 he ran as the clean candidate against James G.
To many voters—some Republicans, as well as most Democrats—Hayes' title to the presidency was a fraudulent one.
Rutherford B. Hayes entered the White House under the cloud of the disputed election of 1876 and the ensuing electoral crisis, and the cloud did not dissipate during his four years in office.
Ulysses S. Grant had to respond to more charges of financial misconduct than any other president.
In additi
Did James Buchanan know that his Secretary of War, a future Confederate general, sent 110,000 muskets to armories in the South in 1860?
Many historians point to the presidency of James Buchanan as the nadir of antebellum public ethics. All of the trends of corruption at the lower ranks of the government seemed to culminate in three years, and the rate of exposure increased dramatically.
President Monroe was considered guilty of impropriety, not wrongdoing. But his reputation suffered.
President Monroe twice diverted public funds for private use (probably to cover expenses for his travel to try to reunite the country after the War of 1812.)
Although he was scrupulously honest, Andrew Johnson angered members of Congress by thwarting their plans for Reconstruction.
The administration of Andrew Johnson, which began upon Lincoln's assassination in April, 1865, was predominantly concerned with redefining the status and rights of people, both black and white, living in the defeated Confederate states.
Prior to Watergate, Harding's bribery ring was regarded as the greatest and most sensational scandal in the history of American politics.
Ultimately, three of Harding's appointees, including a cabinet officer, went to jail. Two other officials committed suicide.
McKinley and his Secretary of War were accused of negligence and corruption in the conflict, including forcing soldiers to eat "embalmed beef."
On September 8, 1898, Secretary of War Russell A. Alger formally petitioned President William McKinley for an investigation into the War Department's conduct of the war with Spain.
Lincoln's first Secretary of War amassed a fortune at the start of the Civil War, forcing a congressional investigation.
There were instances of misconduct in Abraham Lincoln's administration, especially in the War Department and the army.
Nixon’s abuse of presidential power constitutes his most important influence on later constitutional law and U.S. politics.