SAD PRESIDENTS AND THE SADDEST OF ALL

While I may not post much on politics here, I am a very hardcore news junkie and follower of the political spectrum. I assume you're as fascinated by the 2016 'race' for president as me.. the turmoil.. the scandal. the intrigue.. DC Madam gate and Wayne Madsen on the fringe.. Cruz rockin a voterless primary in the mountain states.. Trump a sure win until the party decides against him. And Bernie? The Bern is burning but Hill is still stacking delegates like Pringles.

I am also a constant follower of history.. presidential history, too. The people who run our control -- or think they do-- are often minds filled with oppressive thoughts, personal sin, and endless lunacy. Lincoln, often depressed.. the only time he was reportedly happy in office was the night he trekked to Ford Theater to face his destiny of death.. Kennedy.. on drugs for his back and with Monroe... shot in Dallas while George Bush Sr was in town.. Nixon kept Checkers but knew secrets--and was so paranoid that he taped everything, including his own racist comments. Reagan, so freaked by things, talked about UFOs at the UN and had a physic advising him in the White House. Bubba and Bush JR? All crazy too..

But who was the most depressed president we ever had?

I often read THE FIX on the Washington POST by Chris Cillizza.. he wrote about that depressive history. Franklin Pierce, he says, was the saddest of all. From Cillizza:

Pierce is described in the latest installment of The Post's "Presidential" podcast (subscribe here!) as a sort of political cipher, a man who became president because the bigwigs in the Democratic Party thought they could easily control him. Shortly after his triumph in the 1852 election, Pierce's youngest son was killed (and nearly beheaded) in front of Pearce and his wife when a train car they were traveling in derailed and careened down an embankment. (His two older sons had also died early in life.)

That death defined Pierce's presidency in many ways. He refused to take his oath of office on the Bible, believing that his son's death was evidence of God's anger at him. His wife, Jane, was equally convinced that the price they paid for him being elected president was his son's life. She was often referred to as "The Shadow in the White House" because of her lack of interest in politics and her extended grieving for her lost son. 

The POST has a presidential podcast (I will be subscribing today) .. 

Pierce was a compromise Democratic candidate in 1852--before the Civil War and Lincoln and during slavery..

And then sadness.....
His wife Jane suffered from illnesses all her life.  All of their children died young--the nearly beheaded story is atrocious about the train! He also made decisions that could have led to the Civil War among states--the Missouri Compromise anyone?

Pierce is ranked among the lowest in history among presidents...

And he looked sad, too:



All the presidents. So far at least all men.
All with passions and peril.. all with depression and oppression.. all human.