— Portrait: Chester Alan Arthur’s inauguration, 1881

December 15, 2010 at 11:31 pm | Posted in -- Inauguration: Portraits, -- PRESIDENTS, Charles Guiteau, Chester Alan Arthur, James Garfield | Leave a comment

Of all the presidential inauguration scenes of the late 1800s, my personal favorite is this one, a full-page cover from Leslie’s Illustrated showing Chester Alan Arthur taking the oath in the living room of his New York City townhouse.  It took place at about 2:15 am on Tuesday morning, September 20, 1881, just hours after word reached Arthur by telegraph that President James A. Garfield had died, making Arthur a thoroughly accidental and reluctant chief executive.  Arthur’s aides had to scour the neighborhood to find a judge — John R. Brady of the New York Supreme Court — to administer the oath.

The whole nation had been on a tense death-watch for Garfield ever since early July when Garfield had been shot in the back by a psychopath named Charles Guiteau at the Washington, D.C. train station.   Garfield could have survived the gun shot, but his doctors had infected him by probing the wound with dirty fingers.  During his struggle for life that summer, Garfield had become beloved in America, while Arthur was distrusted and feared.

Arthur never aspired to be President.  His selection as candidate for vice president on Garfield’s 1881 ticket had been a political fluke — the product of a stalemated nominating convention.  “A greater honor than I ever dreamed of attaining,” he called it.  Known as Gentleman Boss for his role managing New York’s statewide Republican political machine, Arthur as vice president had openly opposed Garfield in the bitter argument over patronage and intra-party factions that had set the stage for Guiteau’s attack. As Guiteau was being arrested minutes after shooting the president, he announced: “I did it!  I am a Stalwart, and Arthur will be President!”

These words by the assassin, coupled with Arthur’s role in the patronage fight, led many Americans to believe Arthur in fact was involved in the shooting.  Arthur himself, a mild-mannered, dapper man, was horrified at the thought and dreaded the reaction if he took office.  When told of Garfield’s death, Arthur broke down in tears.  Look at Arthur’s eyes in the image above, (click to make it full size) and notice how the artist sought to capture the mix of fear, sadness, and determination.

If fact, once sworn in, Chester Alan Arthur became admirably independent.  He surprised friends by signing the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883, the most important and successful government reform of the era.  When old cronies came asking favors, he turned them away — often after bitter arguments. Said one: “He isn’t ‘Chet’ Arthur anymore; he’s the President.”  Arthur guarded his privacy, telling one nosy temperance lady hectoring him about alcohol in the White House: “Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody’s dan business!”

Arthur’s admirable record won him no friends. His party refused to nominate him for re-election in 1884.  That same year, he was diagnosed with Bright’s disease, a painful, then-uncurable kidney ailment that would kill him in late 1886.

Today, a century later, Chester Alan Arthur is largely forgotten.  His name is the punchline to a dozen jokes about obscure dead presidents.  I think this is shameful.  Arthur, for all his faults, was also one of the most human and compelling presidents we’ve had, a flawed person who found integrity and grace in the most difficult circumstance.

— Portraits: James A. Garfield’s inaugural ball, March 1881

December 12, 2010 at 7:10 pm | Posted in -- CARTOONS AND CARTOONISTS, -- Inauguration: Portraits, -- Leslie's Illustrated, -- PRESIDENTS, Chester Alan Arthur, James G. Blaine, James Garfield, Roscoe Conkling | Leave a comment

Here’s a snapshot I took recently of a rarely seen two-page spread from the Leslie’s Illustrated of March 19, 1881. It took a team of artists to sketch and then carve it by hand onto wooden block for printing.  It shows the grand inaugural ball for President James A. Garfield, held in the Smithsonian Building that year.  Garfield, a popular and moderate Ohio Republican, was doomed to serve only four months in office before a psychopathic hanger-on named Charles Guiteau shot him in the back as Garfield was entering the Washington, D.C. train station on a Saturday morning that July.  Garfield would die from infection (yes, the doctors killed him by failing to wash their hands) a few months later on September 19, 1881.  His assassination would shock the nation and make Garfield widely popular for a generation.  There is hardly a town or city in America with a Garfield Street or two.

Click on the photo to blow it up and marvel at the detail.  So accurate is the sketch that you can make out literally dozens of prominent faces in the crowd: Garfield, his wife Lucretia, Senators Roscoe Conkling, John Sherman, and Carl Schurz, plus incoming Vice President Chester Alan Arthur, incoming Secretary of State James G. Blaine,  and a bevy of foreign diplomats.  Look at the women’s gowns, the bunting on the walls, the guarded conversations.  The band that night played tunes from the latest Gilbert and Sullivan operetta H.M.S. Pinafore — Garfield’s favorite. — that had premiered in London just two years earlier.

It’s a group portrait of a vanishing generation of politicians taken at a moment of graceful indulgence.  Could any photograph or video have captured the moment so well?

Why James Garfield over LBJ and the Adamses?

January 24, 2009 at 6:21 pm | Posted in -- C-SPAN presidents poll, David McCullough, David Stewart, George W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Harry Truman, James Garfield, John Adams, Joseph Keppler, Lyndon Johnson, Paul Giamatti, Vietnam | Leave a comment

Since I posted my Presidential rankings for the C-SPAN 2009 Historians Survey a few days ago, I’ve received pointed questions from friends about some of my choices. (See January 18 post below.)

For instance, how could I put Gerald Ford so high on the list, in the top ten, for God’s sake? And what was I thinking in ranking James Garfield, who served only four months before being shot in the back, above LBJ and both the Adamses? And, in putting George W. Bush at the near-bottom (#41 out of 43), wasn’t I just following a liberal fad that will disappear in a few years, much as Harry Truman has gained popularity over time.

Over the next few days, I will tackle each of these. Yes, Gerald Ford deserves his high spot. Yes, James Garfield outranks LBJ, John Adams, and John Quincy. And no, George W. Bush’s bottom status is no passing liberal fancy. Bush is no Harry Truman. He will be considered as much a bottom-feeder a century from now as today.

I’ll start today with James Garfield, only because this was the first challenge to come up. Stick with me on this.

The basics are simple: James Garfield, a Civil War veteran and career Congressman, was elected President in 1880, inaugurated in March 1881, shot by Charles Guiteau four months later, and died about two months after that. He was mourned by hundreds of thousands, respected for confronting political bosses, and credited with the modern Civil Service system adopted after his death.

During his term, he prevailed over Sen. Roscoe Conkling, dictator of the NY Republican machine, is a high-profile brawl over abusive patronage peddling. His Secretary of State, James G. Blaine, started the country on a strong foreign policy that culminated in TR’s “big stick” approach twenty years later. Here is my favorite cartoon of him, by PUCK artist Joseph Keppler, showing Garfield accepting the surrender of Ulysses Grant at the 1880 Repiblican Convention after Grant’s 3rd term movement collapsed on the 36th ballot:


It was my friend David Stewart, author of that terrific book THE SUMMER OF 1787: The Men who Invented the US Constitution, who blew the whistle on me. “Whoa, big fella!,” he wrote, knowing of my own book about the Garfield assassintion, (DARK HORSE). ” James Garfield ahead of Lyndon Johnson and both Adamses? We’re dishing out some home-cooking here. Remind us again, what did Garfield do as president?”

Good question. So let’s deal with it directly.

Ranking presidents means mnaking choices. James Garfield’s presidency had only a small impact because it was so short. Even giving him maximum credit, he stand mid-pack, slightly above center, which is where I ranked him, at #18.

Now let’s lkook at the competition.

Lyndon Baines Johnson? We can start and end the conversation with one word: Vietnam. I don’t recall James Garfield ever going out and getting the country stuck in a full-scale land war half-way around the world, commiting half-a-million troops to the effort, most unwilling draftees, all based on bad intelligence and bad advice, then misleading the country as tens of thousands died, then allowing the war to spin out of control and destroy his domestic agenda, causing the country then to react by electing an even worse leader in Richard M. Nixon.

This is LBJ’s legacy. Yes, he had a sterling record on Civil Rights and passed a boatload of Great Society legislation. But his own Democratic Party was ready to kick him overboard when he declined to run for re-eleciton in 1968. Without his Civil Rights record, Vietnam easily would have sunk LBJ to the bottom half of the list. As is, I gave him much credit for his domestic agenda, with an overall rank of #19. I think he owes me a “thank you.”

Then there are the Adamses. Let’s start with John Adams, the second president, serving from 1797 to 1801, the first to be voted out of office. Yes, he came across wonderfully in that terrific HBO miniseries where he was play by the fine actor Paul Giamatti, based on the terrific biography by David McCullough. And yes, John Adams was a sterling patriot and fine man during most of his life.

Still, his presidency was a sorry mess. Its emblem was the Alien and Seditions Acts. I do not recall James Garfield ever pushing Congress to pass a law allowing him to throw dozens of newspaper editors in jail for the simple act of publicly opposing his foreign policy, as well as locking up large numbers of immigrants on trumped up claims of disloyalty — as did John Adams. The abuse was flagrant.

Adams showed his bad temperament again after losing re-election in 1880 by refusing to act civilly toward Thomas Jefferson, the person who beat him, at Jefferson’s 1881 Inauguration. I rated Adams the best I could given a bad record. He ranked #31 on my list, just above Rutherford Hayes and William Howard Taft. Once again, I am ready to accept a “thank you” note from the Adams family.

Finally, there is John Quincy, whom I rate well above his father at #25, though still mediocre. Another fine man;l another disappointing president. From the moment he entered office, his politicasl opponents branded his Administration the product of a “corrupt bargin,” and for four years the albatross stuck, fair or not.

That’s them explanation. I am very comfortable with where I’ve placed James Garfield, notwithstanding LBJ and the Adamses. Tomorrow, I’ll talk about Gerald Ford.

Thanks for listening. –KenA

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