Two, four, six eight, Who do we appreciate?

Abraham Lincoln tops the list, George Washington comes second, Clinton and Reagan are respectably somewhere in the middle of the list, poor George W Bush comes near the bottom, while the worst Presidents are men I have scarcely or never heard of. All this is from a list compiled by The Times newspaper on the occasion of the current presidential elections.
Anyway, as my contribution to this worthy endeavour - listing the presidents in order of merit, not electing another one - I have decided to recall the anecdotes relating to each one, anecdotes which somehow encapsulate their character and achievements.

George Washington
Old Mr Washington looked out of his window and saw to his horror that his cherry tree had been chopped down. He grabbed his son by the collar and asked him if he had done it. Young George stayed calm "Sir, I cannot tell a lie. A big boy did it and ran away." His father gave him a good hiding anyway, on the grounds that all boys are wicked.