Andrew Jackson, Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden were born into families that struggled financially. Woodrow Wilson, due to the Civil War, and Lyndon Johnson, because of his father’s alcohol-use disorder, also experienced poverty in childhood. All worked hard in humble jobs.
Andrew Johnson’s father died shortly after rescuing a rich and influential man from drowning. Andrew was 3 years old, and his mother had no means to raise him. At 10, Andrew was bound to a tailor as an apprentice—literally bound—chained to a table with shears and other sewing tools. He was not allowed to play or attend a single day of school. Millard Fillmore did better. He helped his father, a tenant farmer, to support the family until he was 14. He was apprenticed to a stern wool-carder and then to a clothmaker. He purchased a dictionary to learn to read. At 18, he bought a share in a traveling library, which stimulated him to enroll in school. He borrowed $30 to buy his way out of his indentured service. School opened an amazing new world. Millard fell in love and married his teacher (who was only 2 years older than he).
In 1901, Harry Truman’s father lost everything speculating on commodities. To support the family, Harry had to forego college and a promising music career. When Harry left the presidency, he had no source of income. He had to pay for secretarial help himself—no small task; he received 70,000 letters in the first two weeks after returning to Independence. He refused perfunctory jobs that would pay him to use his name. Because of Truman’s situation, Congress passed the Former Presidents Act of 1958 to provide past presidents with a salary, staff, and Secret Service protection.
Richard Nixon won a scholarship to Duke Law School but was so poor that he slept in an abandoned building without heat or plumbing in the Duke Forest. He lived out of a trunk he brought from California, studied in the library, and showered in the gym. Growing up, Ronald Reagan’s favorite food was “oatmeat”−hamburger stretched with oatmeal. On Sunday, they had fried liver. At other times, it was just a soup bone. Herbert Hoover was orphaned at 9, leaving him to care for his younger 2 siblings. He lived with extended family on a rotating basis until his uncle John Minthorn took him in. At 13, he dropped out of school to work as a clerk at his uncle’s land company, but he attended Salem (Oregon) Business College after work. He applied to the new Leland Stanford Jr. University. He failed the entrance test at first but passed on a second try. At 17, Hoover was the youngest freshman admitted to Stanford despite never having graduated from high school. He worked in multiple jobs to support himself during college.
Although not born into poverty, several presidents died poor. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, and Ulysses Grant spent their last years destitute. No president after the Former Presidents Act has faced financial difficulty.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump were born into wealth. Their wealth usually helped them attain the presidency.
Although determining affluence is problematic—Donald Trump said his worth depended on his brand value on a given day—more than half of the members of Congress have net worths exceeding $1 million. In 15, it tops $100 million. Candidates who grew up poor often campaigned by highlighting their background to connect with voters. They may project themselves as “self-made.”
Andrew Jackson despised the affluent elite and ushered in “the presidency of the common man.” Andrew Johnson was proud of his humble background and disdained the wealthy. He felt the Confederate Rebellion was caused by the Southern aristocracy. Harry Truman and Joe Biden allied themselves with the working class and promoted policies favoring the poor. Herbert Hoover rose from poverty through his determined hard work. At the beginning of the depression, he unsympathetically encouraged people to lift themselves from poverty by their own efforts.
So, which were better presidents, those born into poverty or those born into wealth?
Formative presidents Lincoln, Wilson, Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Nixon had difficult childhoods, while Washington, Jefferson, and the Roosevelts had means. Deciding on which presidents were superior is stymied by the difficulty of agreeing on presidential greatness, separating their actions from the times, and the criteria. It also depends on how you value others’ wealth. Do you admire or mistrust wealthy persons? In the end, you may decide on presidential greatness by their programs, accomplishments, and how their actions affect you and the nation, not on their childhood wealth.