I wrote a blog post five years ago about the IQ’s of American presidents. Of course I have no idea about presidential IQ’s except for what I read on the internet, much of which is nonsense I’m sure. I had come across one of those Facebook advertisements, which was basically clickbait in which some professor, somewhere had calculated the IQ’s of many of the men elected to the highest office in the United States. This professor had used his own algorithm to rank the presidents and although it was certainly interesting I didn’t place any great credence in it’s findings. Quoting facts off Facebook ads is fraught with danger and such things are a haven for “Fake News”.
Without going back and reading the post I believe John Quincy Adams was regarded as the president with the highest IQ, not surprising as he is widely recognised as probably the smartest president. Whether or not the rest of rankings were correct I can’t say. It was an interesting piece of clickbait which occupied me for a few minutes. I take no stock in its findings.
I think I may have gagged at Lincoln rolling in for 12th place but the most interesting purported fact on this list was the man who was dead last. Ulysses S Grant. Grant is one of the greatest figures in US history although, bewilderingly, he seems to get a little lost in the mist of time nowadays. He was the commanding general of Union forces during the civil war and a two term President although his administration is not highly regarded by historians. But he was one of the great men of his time.
I wrote a somewhat tongue in cheek blog post after reading this article called “US Grant and Furphy of the High IQ”. Somewhat embarrassingly it has become the most read post on this blog! It is constantly getting hits, almost always from the United States and I can only think that people are doing Google searches for US Grant and my decidedly nonacademic, unscientific piece turns up in results! I have thought about deleting the post as Grant should not be derided in such a way-I can’t believe those IQ results- but my own vanity gets in the way and I enjoy the fact that someone in North America is reading my post. However ridiculous it is. Hey, I am an Australian after-all. What would I know about American history?
That being said I am currently reading a biography of Grant and it only reinforces my view that the professor of the aforementioned study must have got it wrong. Yeah, Grant was a bit of failure in civilian life and only finished in the middle of his class at West Point. Everything he touched in civilian life seemed to turn to mush. But in command of an army during the civil war he became a different creature altogether. Clearly head and shoulders above most of his military contemporaries, he was the right man in the right place at the right time. To quote President Lincoln, “I can’t spare this man, he fights!”.
He served two terms as president which are controversial due to the corruption of his administration-not by Grant himself but his subordinates-although historians and political scientists are starting to paint President Grant’s administration in a different, more positive light as we navigate through the early decades of this 21st century and look back at what we may be able to learn from the past.
Grant was thoroughly decent man. Flawed-yes, but all great men are. After his presidency he became the first chief executive to tour the world and was feted most places he went. The life long habit of cigar smoking which he seems to have taken up to placate an overindulgence of alcohol finally caught up with him as did his usual civilian financial troubles and he was diagnosed in his early 60’s with tongue and throat cancer . He finished his memoirs which he hoped would provide financial sustenance for his family after he was gone, shortly before his death at age 63. Those memoirs are revered as one of the greatest of any US president. Could a man with such gifts have the lowest IQ of any president in history? I find it hard to believe.
So, if you are perusing my blog and come across my earlier post about presidential IQ’s-ignore it. Go to the library or bookshop and grab a tome on Ulysses S Grant. In this time of vacant leadership across the world it is nice to read about a man who really could lead and was a very human person as well.
Have a nice day.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 