A Brief History
Today, Friday, March 24th, 2023, one of the most covered news stories are the possible consequences of arresting a former president. You may wonder if a U.S. president had ever been arrested prior to 2023? The answer is yes and at least once.
Digging Deeper
It is possible that two US Presidents have been arrested while in office, although the first, Franklin Pierce, may not have suffered the indignity at all. The arrest of Pierce allegedly happened in 1853 while he was still President, with a drunken Pierce supposedly running over an old woman with his carriage. After being arrested, he was released once recognized. Although the story allegedly appeared much later in a newspaper in 1927, historians claim it almost assuredly is not true.
The other, better documented incident, concerned President Ulysses S. Grant, who in 1872, while serving as President, was arrested by Washington, D.C. police officer William Henry West for the crime of speeding in his horse and buggy. West had previously warned Grant about speeding, and thus thought an arrest was appropriate, saying, “I am very sorry, Mr. President, to have to do it, for you are the chief of the nation and I am nothing but a policeman, but duty is duty, sir, and I will have to place you under arrest.”
Grant paid the fine without protest or complaint, a rare trait today!
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Lightning Guides. Presidential Scandals: Jefferson to Obama. Lightning Guides, 2015.
O’Brien, Cormac. Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents: What Your Teachers Never Told You About the Men of the White House. Quirk Books, 2009.
The featured image in this article, DC Policeman William West on the arrest of President Grant, is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1928.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.