Those lists of the best/worst presidents are almost always crap.
That said, while it was true that Grant was not a great President, he was not the worst, and beyond that, he is not the corrupted man that history has portrayed him as.
He is guilty of trusting people he should not have, and remaining loyal to people long after they had shown they did not deserve his loyalty. I chalk this up to his military career and the inclination of good general officers to listen to the advice of his subordinates, which does not always translate to civilian service. In the military, subordinates are often trying to achieve a common goal with their superior, that of winning a battle or war, since they both have “skin in the game”.
In the civilian world, that is an assumption that can get a chief executive in trouble, in our out of public service, because subordinates may often have wildly different goals, often centered around personal income.
Just my opinion.
I agree. This was an issue with Warren Gamliel Harding too. It was Albert Fall and Teapot Dome that sank his presidency