Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce was one of the mentally ill US presidents of the United States who suffered a great deal. All three of his sons tragically passed away before even reaching adulthood. And right before the inauguration, Pierce found out that his last living son, who was only 11 years old at the time, tragically died during a train wreck.

When he started his mandate, he and his wife were in a deep state of grief and depression. Later in his life, he received a lot of backlash from society for his denunciation of Lincoln’s policies, which also included the Emancipation Proclamation.

You might be thinking that he had enough for a lifetime, but no. Additional political controversy, a very poor state of health, and the death of his wife and his good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne led Pierce to fall into a deep, irrecuperable depression. What a life Franklin Pierce had!

Abraham Lincoln

Among mentally ill US presidents, Abraham Lincoln is probably the most famous. It is believed that Lincoln suffered not only from severe episodes of depression but also from plenty of suicidal ideation. In fact, it is believed that Lincoln suffered a great deal of loss, which slowly but surely led him to depression.

Before reaching his twenties, Lincoln lost his newborn younger brother, his mother, aunt, uncle, and sister. Now, there’s a lot of research to prove that losing one parent at such a young age can scar you for life and even lead to depression.

Well, Abraham Lincoln’s depression was very clear and seen by many who knew him well, like his law partner William Herndon, who oftentimes described the president: “His melancholy dripped from him as he walked.”

For obvious reasons, Lincoln’s melancholy has piqued the interest of many writers and scholars nowadays. In fact, some authors might say that now we have a certain idea of how a president should be without all these liabilities and character flaws, but that’s exactly what made Lincoln such a great leader for this country.