"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." — Thomas Jefferson, in 1821
The most anti-American president in the history of the country — at least until Barack Obama entered the White House — was Woodrow Wilson. Elected in 1912, Wilson was a racist progressive Democrat who viewed the Founders and the Constitution with disdain. During his first year in office, he promoted two of the most destructive amendments to the U.S. Constitution ever ratified — the 16th, which gave us the direct federal income tax, and the 17th, which provided for the direct election of U.S. Senators.
