#andrew johnson

That's a great question.

Yes, former President John Quincy Adams spent the last 17 years of his life in the U.S. House of Representatives. In fact, he collapsed at his desk in the House while casting a vote and actually died in the U.S. Capitol building. The only other Presidents who held a different office after leaving the White House were Andrew Johnson, who briefly served in the U.S. Senate until his death, and William Howard Taft, who was appointed to the Supreme Court eight years after leaving the Presidency and was Chief Justice of the United States from 1921-1930. (I guess you could also include former President John Tyler, who served in the Confederate Congress shortly before his death after Virginia seceded from the Union.)

I can't imagine a modern President doing what Adams, Johnson, or Taft did. It's technically possible, but I just think it would be much more difficult now. It seems like it would feel like a demotion or a step backwards and, after exercising the vast powers of the modern Presidency, holding a legislative position or a Cabinet office would be frustrating. Instead of being an executive -- and not just any executive, but the chief executive of all chief executives -- a former President in the House would be one of 435 or one of 100 in the Senate. I feel like a former President would feel handcuffed by the lack of executive power in Congress or as a member of the Cabinet. It would also be risky for a a President to appoint a former President to their Cabinet, because there would always be questions about potential power struggles or competing loyalties -- kind of like the debates when there were two Popes living in the Vatican following Pope Benedict XVI's resignation and Pope Francis's election.

There was also some reasoning behind the post-Presidential political careers of John Quincy Adams, Andrew Johnson, and William Howard Taft. In Taft's case, he would have preferred a career entirely spent in the judiciary, rather than in political office. He had long hoped for an appointment to the Supreme Court, but the timing had never been right for him. When President Harding appointed him to the Supreme Court as Chief Justice, Taft was ecstatic. It was his dream job. Andrew Johnson's election to the Senate after his Presidency was seen as redemption for him after his disastrous time in the White House. Johnson was the first President to be impeached and had only survived removal of office by the narrowest of margins. To be elected to the Senate after all of that -- the same body where his impeachment trial had been held -- gave him a sense of vindication.

For John Quincy Adams, there were several reasons that made serving in Congress after his Presidency appealing to him. First and foremost was the fact that he had been in public service since he was a child. Adams went to Europe with his father during the diplomatic missions that John Adams held during the American Revolution, and was so brilliant and useful that he was private secretary to the U.S Minister to Russia when JQA was 14 years old! So, John Quincy Adams felt rudderless when he was not in public service. Getting elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1830 allowed JQA to be a voice in opposition to President Andrew Jackson, who had defeated Adams's bid for reelection to the White House in 1828. After facing off in bitter campaigns in 1824 and 1828, there was no love lost between Adams and President Jackson, and a seat in Congress ensured that Adams remained a potent political figure. In many ways, his 17 post-Presidential years in Congress were much more influential than JQA's single, four-year term in the White House. As perhaps the most outspoken supporter of the abolition of slavery of any elected official in the United States at the time, Adams was a one-man antislavery movement in the House at a moment when most of the nation wasn't ready to have that debate yet. Congressman Adams was also a major critic of the Mexican-American War and President Polk's actions in triggering the conflict. The post-Presidential Congressional service of John Quincy Adams helped shape his legacy as one of the most influential and accomplished public servants in American history.

How many presidents does it take to design the perfect gift?

burntoakboy