#25 William McKinley Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about William McKinley
1. He was the self-imposed journalist of the Poland Guards during the war. “As the appointed ‘correspondent’ of the Poland Guards company, Private McKinley began writing letters that were published in the Mahoning Register, the newspaper in nearby Youngstown” (p. 21).
2. In one of those odd historical coincidences, it was due to the influence of Rutherford Hayes that McKinley was promoted at all during the war. “When the Twenty-third again suffered heavy casualties, its commander, Colonel Rutherford B Hayes, the future president, recommended McKinley for a vacant lieutenancy, and he received the commission personally from Ohio Governor David Tod in November. In January 1863, Hayes, now commanding a brigade of Ohioans, made Lieutenant McKinley the brigade quartermaster, supervising clerks, a carpenter, a forage master, a wagon master, a harness master, two blacksmiths, and five teamsters” (p. 21-22).
3. McKinley was the last veteran of the Civil War to be president of the United States.
4. He was a proponent of women’s rights throughout his political tenure. “McKinley, alone among nineteenth-century presidents, received an honorary doctorate from two women’s colleges, Smith and Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts” (p. 47).
5. His reelection as governor of Ohio was a major victory for the Republicans. “His record, together with the popular economic reaction against Cleveland and the Democrats, reelected him in 1893 with the highest share of the total vote given any Ohio governor since the Unionist coalition of the Civil War” (p. 67).
6. Yellow Journalism was at its height during this period in history, pitting William Randolph Hearst against Joseph Pulitzer. In fact, many claimed that it was due to the yellow press that the Spanish-American War occurred at all.
7. As mentioned earlier, the Spanish-American War was the shortest war in United States history.
8. I have to admit something here—I was wrong. That’s right, folks. Make a note. I erroneously stated in the Benjamin Harrison blog that he was the president who annexed Hawaii. However, that was incorrect—it was actually McKinley. What confused me was that Harrison really did send the treaty of annexation to Congress but Cleveland, upon taking office, removed it from congressional consideration. McKinley then had to send it back to Congress where it eventually was passed. “Even before the peace protocol with Spain, McKinley used his new popularity and support in Congress to promote his agenda for US expansion. The Senate approved annexation of Hawaii on July 7 [1898]” (p. 99).
9. McKinley, unlike Cleveland, understood the growing power of the press. “Cultivation of the press began in June, a month after the battle of Manila Bay, when efforts were made by the Vanderbilts to bar reporters from a McKinley visit to one of the family mansions. The word came back: no press, then no presidential visit. Six months later, the first official White House reception for the press was schedule shortly after Christmas” (p. 146).
10. Medically, there were still plenty of mistakes when, after being shot, McKinley was treated by the doctors. It seemed like American doctors back then were pathetically afraid of technological advances in their field. With Garfield’s medical staff, they were wary of antisepsis while McKinley’s doctors looked askance at the new-fangled x-ray machine. This relatively new invention was on display at the very Pan-American Exposition that McKinley was attending when he was shot. The technology was right there and possibly could have saved the president’s life (they couldn’t find the bullet, remember?) but the doctors didn’t want to use it because they didn’t know how it would affect the president’s body. Their wariness is highly understandable but if they had taken that risk, especially since the president would die shortly thereafter, could have been a boon to the evolution of medical science. And might have saved McKinley’s life. History is simply filled with what-ifs, right?

I thought Kevin Phillips was a very witty author with a very keen eye into the McKinley era but I was not hot about the layout of this book. Like all the other books in the American Presidents Series I assumed that this would be a biography of McKinley when in reality it was more of an in-depth essay into the character and times of McKinley. Needless to say, this format made it extremely difficult for me to not only gather concrete information about our 25th president but also to get any sort of chronological idea of what was going on. Phillips just schmoozed over McKinley’s early years (you’ll notice that I barely have anything to write) and the next thing I know—we’re at the Civil War. What the…! I have to shamefacedly admit here that I wiki’d McKinley a good deal just so that I could piece together the important events in his life.

But I’m certainly not saying that this is a terribly written book. On the contrary, I though Phillips, like I mentioned earlier, was witty and knowledgeable. Here’s just a sample of what I liked about Phillips’ writing style. “Pennsylvania and Ohio, the American seat of Vulcan, also represented a monetary transition zone where Eastern financial support for the gold standard gave way to Midwestern and Western demand for currency expansion friendly to borrowers and continued fast growth” (p. 49). I liked the allusion to “the American seat of Vulcan.” Here’s another one. “However, Republican national platforms straddled to cater to the Midwest and West—and in 1896, as chapter 5 will pursue, McKinley’s own platform, guided by himself and Mark Hanna, evolved through straddlebug nuances to a final-hour bimetallic-hedged gold commitment that Niccolo Machiavelli himself would have found suitably Florentine in its timing and effect” (p. 52-53).

Phillips also gives quite a good amount of background information on typically archaic political issues such as the gold/silver standard and tariffs. I have to admit that I’ve read about tariffs a good deal in these presidential bios and it wasn’t until this book that I got a decent understanding of what each one does!

I also wondered why McKinley, who is credited as being the first modern president, is ranked in the lower portion of the presidential spectrum. Phillips addresses this issue immediately in the introduction. “The recent consensus of historians has pegged him somewhere in the ho-hum midsection of presidential ratings, and small wonder. Too many dismissive paragraphs, thoughtless sentences, and inaccurate descriptions still nuture the false public impression of a cultural and intellectual mediocrity, however popular, who toadied to business as a puppet of Wall Street” (p. 2). So, according to Phillips, it was due to the bad press surrounding McKinley while he was alive that has since impugned his reputation to this day. It also didn’t help that right as he started his 2nd term—who knows what would have happened—he is assassinated and various questions about McKinley remain unanswered.

#25 William McKinley (1843-1901)

“He was an enormously popular Republican, a successful war president, a man of seemingly amiable, unthreatening demeanor, and a middle-class Mason and Methodist who most nights read the Bible to his wife” (Phillips, p. 143).

No offense to William McKinley or anything but I am heartily sick of the presidents! Not only have I already read 24 biographies and countless other books about the presidency but all these one-termers were beginning to wear on me mentally. It doesn’t help that Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland and Harrison have, in my mind, already lost their individuality and are currently melding together into one big presidential olio. Sigh. This slow ebbing of presidential distinctiveness means I’m already looking greedily ahead at the big fat Teddy Roosevelt bio waiting for me at my friendly neighborhood library. It’s the little things that make me happy apparently.

However, without unduly skipping ahead to the Rough-Riding cowboy, there are a couple of things that make me marginally excited about McKinley. Actually, “excited” is too strong a word—let’s just say McKinley makes me smile wanly. Anyho, what gives me a little joy about McKinley is that he was elected to two (consecutive!) terms and that he died in office. I don’t mean to imply that I am glad he was assassinated but I have to admit, on a readability level, assassinations are thrilling. Of course, I can only make this assumption after a good century has gone by. Other than that and other than what I’ve garnered about him from the Harrison and Cleveland bios, I don’t have much of a clue about McKinley and so I turn to William McKinley: American Presidents Series by Kevin Phillips (New York: Times Books, 2003).

William McKinley Jr was born on January 29, 1843 in Niles, OH. The family was up-rooted nine years later when they all moved to Poland, Ohio and there William was placed in a private academy. In 1859, he graduated from the academy and was baptized at a camp meeting. In 1860, William went on to Allegheny College in Pennsylvania but dropped out after only one term. There is no evidence as to why McKinley left college but the author believes it was due to depression. He moved back home and did various jobs such as teaching and working at a post office. While he was home, McKinley became the president of the Canton YMCA.

When the Civil War did not end after a couple months as most in the North thought it would, McKinley, in June 1861, volunteered as a private in the Poland Guards. His troop was sent to West Virginia where he was made a clerk in the quartermaster department. The very next year he was promoted to quartermaster sergeant and after Antietam, he was promoted again. After a particular act of bravery, McKinley became a captain and then became a brevet major. In 1864, he voted for the first time in a presidential election.

After the war ended, McKinley moved to New York to attend Albany Law School. Like his other college experience he only stayed one term and then moved to Canton, Ohio to read law under Judge Charles Glidden. Soon he had passed the bar and had his own law practice. In 1869, he was elected as the Stark County Prosecutor and in 1871, he married Ida Saxton, the daughter of a prominent Canton family. Unfortunately, after a hard pregnancy in which the baby died only a few months later, she “developed convulsions that suggested brain damage. She became an epileptic with seizures” (p. 25). Ida would remain this way the rest of her life so William made changes to spend more time with her and to take care of her himself. His lifelong devotion to his wife was something that most contemporary peers admired about him.

In 1876, McKinley won his first seat in Congress in the House of Representatives and he would keep his seat for nearly 15 years. His district was strongly Republican and he could always count on being returned to Congress. “Cautiousness, refusal to explain or discuss unpleasantness, and a skill in pleasing people were traits McKinley learned during these years and would display through his political career” (p. 26). In 1889, he ran for Speaker of the House but lost. Instead, he was appointed to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee and he became the Republican floor leader. He also took a vigorous interest in congressional financial matters and even put his name on the McKinley Tariff of 1890.

The Democrats did not like the way that McKinley was continuously elected to the House so they redrew his district. Thus, in 1890, he lost his congressional seat but in an odd quirk of fate, won the governorship of Ohio instead. As governor during this time, McKinley faced the Panic of 1893, miners striking, and tariff questions besetting his own state. He was elected to two terms as governor but he also played an increasingly important role in the Republican Party. For the 1880 election, McKinley was a representative to the Ohio state convention and in 1884 and 1888, he was delegate from Ohio to the national Republican convention. “Watching McKinley’s skilled 1884-96 ascent of Mount Nomination is impressive, a bit like seeing a first-rate climber move across a particularly challenging rock face. No other nineteenth-century Republican ever advanced so methodically, but careful preparation was a McKinley talent dating back to his wartime staff work” (p. 67).

One of the reasons that McKinley did not, in fact, run for a third term as governor was due to some legal and financial difficulties. McKinley co-signed a business deal with his friend Walker when, under the Panic of 1892, Walker went bankrupt. In the end, McKinley ended up owing, on behalf of his friend’s defunct business, $130,000. He was quite upset and even threatened to resign his final term as governor so that he could resume his law practice and pay back the amount. In the end though, his friends, specifically Mark Hanna, helped out. “Instead, they [Hanna, Herrick, and others] raised the money from private contributors, mostly in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Chicago, and paid off the cosigned notes so that McKinley—by now, the next president—did not need to go back to practicing law” (p. 68).

“Much of McKinley’s success in the presidency came from the rare strength and sophistication he showed in winning it” (p. 57). McKinley was nominated on the very first ballet at the Republican convention and was surprised to find himself opposite to the Democratic dark horse, William Jennings Bryan. McKinley, during the campaign, promised a ‘full dinner pail’ to help the nation recover from the economic chaos of the Panic of 1893 and won the presidency handily. He became the 25th President of the United States of America.

As president, McKinley, domestically, was dealing with an era of economic prosperity which totally aided the successes of his first term. He was a proponent of bimetallism and dealt with the gold and silver standards. There were also tariff issues that simply would not go away and of course, the rise of corporate trusts. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act had been recently passed by Congress, but McKinley did very little to wage war against the trusts. He also was a very socially conscious president, giving a voice to the voiceless. “McKinley was also far ahead of TR in supporting the franchise for women, black voting in the South, and direct election of US senators (which he backed in the House of Representatives” (p. 129).

The foreign policy arena was basically monopolized by the Spanish-American War, during McKinley’s first term, and it all began with the Maine mysteriously blowing up in Havana harbor. The US had a running issue with Cuba not only because it was very close to our borders but also because it was a bastion of Spanish power in the vaunted Western Hemisphere. One of the Republican platforms for the 1896 campaign had been Cuban independence and when the American warship exploded, killing several hundred Americans, McKinley could no longer look the other way. “He had hoped, through moderation and diplomatic attention to Spanish punctilio, or pride, to convince the government in Madrid that aroused US public and government opinion left Spain no alternative but to withdraw from Cuba” (p. 94). On April 24, 1898, only months after the Maine affair, a declaration of war was passed. The Rough Riders won several battles in Cuba itself and the American navy neutralized the Spanish fleet near the Philippines in several strategic battles.

By late July, only 113 days after the war began, Spain sued for peace and a treaty followed the next fall. “Hostilities were to conclude on the following terms: Spain was to free Cuba and cede Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States, and the United States was to occupy Manila pending the peace treaty’s final disposition of the Philippines. No other war declared by the United States has been shorter” (p. 96-97). The US also picked up Guantanamo Bay on the island of Cuba as a navy refueling station.

After a successful American victory against the Spanish and all that economic prosperity, it was really a foregone conclusion that McKinley would be re-nominated by the Republican Party. However, in 1899, the vice president, Hobart, had died in office and so this position needed to be filled. Theodore Roosevelt, the young, wildly-popular governor of New York was nominated as the vice presidential candidate. In the election of 1900, McKinley again faced off against William Jennings Bryan and won again.

As the first real Progressive Era president, McKinley was also very excited about Pan-Americanism and the end of American isolation. Thus in September of 1901, he and Ida attended the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY. While he was shaking hands with a crowd, McKinley was shot twice by Leon Frank Czolgosz, a disaffected anarchist on September 6, 1901. Doctors were able to extract the bullet from his shoulder but the other bullet, the one that went through his stomach and kidney, they were unable to locate through surgery. He seemed to be getting better but on September 14th William McKinley died of gangrene from the wounds. On October 29th Czologsz was executed by electric chair.

#23 Benjamin Harrison Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Benjamin Harrison
1. You already know that Benjamin was William Henry Harrison’s grandson and that WHH was recognized as a celebrated general (Tippecanoe and Tyler Too!). What you probably don’t know is that Ben, during the Civil War, engaged in more battles than his famed grandfather.
2. In one of those quirky instances in history, Benjamin’s father’s dead body was experimented on by medical students. “On the eve of the party’s state convention, where he was scheduled to give the keynote address, Harrison received the news that the body of his recently deceased father had been discovered at a Cincinnati medical school where grave robbers had deposited it” (p. 35). I think it’s a testament to Harrison’s aplomb that he then went on to give a powerful speech at the convention. “He dashed to Ohio to investigate the grisly affair and then returned to Indianapolis to offer the convention a rousing speech, interrupted repeatedly by applause and laughter” (p. 35). Ha!
3. Modern campaigning was right around the corner but you can say that Harrison began it with the first ever use of front porch speeches. “For the nation’s first front-porch campaign, the rail hub Indianapolis proved ideal to accommodate visiting delegations from around the state and country” (p. 52).
4. And guess who we have popping up again? Old Lew Wallace, the author of Ben-Hur! Campaign biographies were very popular back then as a means of introducing the candidates and their backgrounds to the public. Lew Wallace actually wrote Benjamin Harrison’s campaign bio! “The official campaign biography, written by Ben-Hur author and Harrison friend Lew Wallace, gave a benign account of Harrison’s actions during the 1877 railroad strike and underscored Harrison’s own economic struggles in his early professional life” (p. 55).
5. Benjamin Harrison’s cabinet was the first to include the new Secretary of Agriculture, Jeremiah Rusk.
6. Electricity was first used in the White House during Harrison’s presidency. “Although Congress refused to fund expansion, it did pay for major refurbishing including the installation of electricity” (p. 106).
7. During Harrison’s presidency, Frederick Douglas was the American minister to Haiti.
8. Four states were added to the Union under Harrison’s administration: Montana, Washington, and North and South Dakota. Only under Washington were more states admitted to the United States at one time. Plus it is interesting that we are not sure whether North or South Dakota was admitted 39th or 40th because Harrison never said.
9. Finally the US annexed Hawaii. “A delegation of commissioners soon set off for Washington, where by February 14, 1893, they and Secretary of State Foster had completed a treaty of annexation” (p. 152). On an interesting sidenote, John W. Foster’s grandson, John Foster Dulles, would be secretary of state in the 1950s. So I guess we’ll come across him again 
10. In retirement, Harrison wrote several articles for the Ladies Home Journal. These articles were eventually turned into a book named This Country of Ours. Also posthumously, Harrison’s wife published some of his speeches and other writings in the book Views of an Ex-President.
11. Harrison became a trustee of Purdue University, where they named Harrison Hall after him.

It couldn’t have been easy to be the guy sandwiched in between Grover Cleveland’s two terms. I mean, it would have been nice to beat him the first time but then, four years later, to be beaten by him? Ouch! On a scale of rejection, this one had to hurt. To think that the American public liked him so little that they put the man he had just beaten back into office, well that just sucks for Harrison. I was intrigued because what caused this strange ambivalence in minds of the masses?

Calhoun, the author (and the author of several books dealing with the Gilded and Progressive Ages), seems to believe that it was due to the political nature of the time and the equipoise between the political parties. Because the Republican and Democratic parties were almost exactly even in terms of voter turnout, Harrison did not win the popular vote but won in the Electoral College. “In 1888 the elements of this political universe worked in Harrison’s favor. He hailed from the doubtful state of Indiana and boasted an impressive record as soldier, lawyer, senator, and party spokesman—both of which helped him win the Republican nomination” (p. 3). However, just four years later, the American people turned against this president. “In 1890 the Republicans lost overwhelmingly in the midterm congressional elections. Their [and by extension Harrison’s] activist agenda offended and perhaps frightened many essentially conservative voters who held on to the traditional American notion that good government meant limited government” (p. 4-5). Calhoun goes on to state that “The conditions of the political universe that had allowed Harrison to win the presidency now worked against him, the balance in the party equilibrium shifted, and he lost his second election to Cleveland, the man he had defeated four years earlier” (p. 5).

Although Harrison seems to be merely a blip in the radar screen as far as presidents are concerned, he was, at the time, rather a radical president after all. McKinley is usually credited for being the first modern president, but Calhoun declares that Harrison was really the frontrunner that allowed McKinley to do what he did. “In defense of those ideas and in pursuit of what he thought to be his duty, he expanded the boundaries of presidential activism. Both publicly and behind the scenes, he effectively intervened in the deliberations of Congress and posted a remarkable record of legislative achievement. He resisted the dictation of the party bosses in the matter of appointments, thereby risking his own reelection for the sake of personal independence. He frequently operated as the nation’s chief diplomat and shaped its aspirations in foreign affairs. Through skillful use of the press and in widespread travels he took the presidency to the American people. In these and other ways, he unwittingly taught his successors new uses of power and techniques of leadership” (p. 165-66).

Clearly Benjamin Harrison should be remembered in his own right and not merely as William Henry Harrison’s grandson or as the placeholder for Grover Cleveland. It was due to Harrison’s authority that the modern age was ushered into American politics.

#23 Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901)

Thank goodness I have library cards for two different counties! If I didn’t then I would have had to purchase a Benjamin Harrison biography and there’s no point in that, is there? No, I simply went to Library #2 and there it was, the old tried and true from the American Presidents Series— Benjamin Harrison: American Presidents Series by Charles W. Calhoun (New York: Times Books, 2005). I was delighted to see it. Since William Henry Harrison was a pretty total loss as a president (meaning that he wasn’t around long enough to do anything), I was interested to see how his grandson would work out instead.

“Few American presidents have descended from lines more distinguished for public service than the one that produced Benjamin Harrison” (p. 7). In the WHH bio, I outlined the Harrison ancestry so just tack Benjamin onto the end of that and I think you’ll agree with Calhoun’s assessment. Benjamin was born at North Bend, Indiana on August 20, 1833 on the farm that his grandfather had built. Growing up, young Ben worked on the farm himself, aiding his father and doing chores.

In 1847, he went to Farmer’s College near Cincinnati where he fell in love with Caroline Scott, the daughter of one of the professors. Caroline’s family soon moved away to Oxford, Ohio so Benjamin had himself transferred to Miami University, also at Oxford. It was while he was there studying that his mother and two sisters died. He did well at school, becoming president of the Union Literary Society and in 1852, he placed third at graduation.

After college, Harrison read law under the famous lawyer, Bellamy Storer, and even though he was not able to support a family yet, he married Caroline on October 20, 1853. The very next year he was admitted to the bar, so he and Caroline moved to Indianapolis in an effort to establish his reputation there as a good lawyer with better opportunities. However, it took several years for this to be accomplished and the newly-wed Harrisons struggled financially. Things began to look up, however in 1855 when Harrison went into partnership with William Wallace, a stable, reputable lawyer.

The Harrisons were perennially Whigs (since WHH was elected on that banner) but with the demise of that party, Harrison took an unprecedented leap in the family and immediately became a Republican. In 1857, Harrison was elected as the city’s attorney from whence he became the Secretary to the Republican State Central Committee. He was also elected as reporter of the state supreme court.

When the Civil War came, Harrison did not volunteer right away, unsure of how to provide for his family. However, by 1862, he became colonel of the 70th Indiana Volunteer Regiment where he spent most of his time on guard duty in Kentucky until his unit was assigned to Sherman. He was involved in all the Union battles in Georgia and he distinguished himself accordingly. “In the first major fighting of the campaign at Resaca, Harrison led a frontal assault and captured a well-defended Confederate battery, netting a haul of four large guns and twelve hundred small arms” (p. 23). In the middle of the Atlanta campaign, Harrison was sent home to Indiana to recruit and then to make speeches for Lincoln in the 1864 campaign. He then returned to Tennessee and was made brevet brigadier general.

After the war, the Harrisons were in some trouble financially due to Benjamin’s absence away from work. Therefore, he ended up overworking himself to the point of collapse in order to obtain financial independence. The Harrisons finally became financially secure which allowed them to build a house for themselves on North Delaware Street in Indianapolis.

In 1872, Harrison put his name forward for governor but he did not win the Republican nomination and in 1876, he ran for governor but again lost. Instead he campaigned brilliantly for Rutherford Hayes and was rewarded by Hayes by being appointed to the Mississippi River Commission “formed to study navigation improvements and the problem of flooding on the great waterway” (p. 36). In 1877, he helped end the railroad strike due to his involvement on the Committee of Arbitration.

1880 was a big year for Harrison. It was during that time that he headed the Indiana state delegation to the Republican national convention where they chose Garfield as their presidential candidate. Also that same year, Harrison ran for the Senate and actually won! As a senator, Harrison concerned himself with patronage, the surplus, army pensions, and education.

He lost his senate seat in 1886 but in a surprise move, he was nominated as the Republican candidate for president in 1888 and won that too! He was the 23rd President of the United States and would be sandwiched in between Grover Cleveland’s two terms. Bless him, he almost immediately alienated his own party over patronage and appointments but he was strictly devoted to do his duty as he saw it and did not want to be under anyone’s thumb, especially the party bosses.

For only serving a single term as president, Harrison had his hand in a remarkable amount of international and domestic situations at the time. In the international arena, he sent emissaries to participate in the Berlin Conference where the peaceful resolution to the problem of the Somoan Islands was discussed and agreed upon by the United States, Great Britain, and Germany. Also he was interested in hosting a Pan-American Conference which would eventually evolve into the Organization of American States.

Domestically, there were numerous issues for Harrison to mediate. There was tariff reform, an ever-present concern for industrializing America, and pensions for Union soldiers, culminating in the Dependent Pension Act. Also being signed into law was the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and the Sherman Silver Purchase Act both written by John Sherman, the brother of the general, William Tecumseh Sherman. Finally there was an election bill meant to aid African Americans in the South and a Forest Reserve Act, which would precede Roosevelt’s penchant for conservationism. “All told, the Fifty-first Congress passed 531 public laws, representing an unprecedented level of legislative accomplishment unequaled until Theodore Roosevelt’s second term” (p. 117).

During these years, the Indian problem continued to manifest its inherent issues. In 1887, Harrison signed the Dawes Severalty Act, “which mandated the division of tribal lands into 160-acre allotments with the goal of putting each Indian, as Harrison said, ‘upon a farm’ as ‘a self-supporting and responsible citizen’” (p. 112). As the United States government was trying to work out this program, the Battle of Wounded Knee occurred in 1890. “Premeditated on neither side, the battle had erupted as soldiers of the Seventh Cavalry were attempting to disarm Indians in their control. It left twenty-five soldiers dead along with more than a hundred Indians, including many women and children” (p. 113). Popular opinion again veered against the Indians.

Harrison also took the time to tour the country, where he gave speeches in Texas and even christened a naval vessel in San Francisco. When he returned to Washington he discovered that he had been re-nominated as the Republican national candidate for the 1892 election. As much as Harrison welcomed this news, the times were against him as various strikes and cholera epidemics sprang up around the US, damaging the impact that Harrison had made on the populace. It did not help either that Caroline, Harrison’s wife and love of his life, died of tuberculosis during the election campaign. Afterwards, in a gentlemanly gesture, Cleveland agreed not to campaign either but, in the end, Harrison failed to win the election anyways.

In retirement, Harrison, alone, returned back to Indianapolis and to the N Delaware St house where he practiced law, wrote articles and even did a series of law lectures at Stanford in California. He also came down with influenza but recovered and in 1896 announced that he was engaged to Mame Dimmick, his wife’s niece and old friend of the family. Even though he went against the wishes of his two grown children, Benjamin and Mame were married on April 6, 1896 and almost nine months later, they had their first child.

“In 1897 Harrison undertook the most noted and arduous assignment of his entire legal career—service as chief counsel for Venezuela in its dispute with Great Britain over the boundary separating Venezuela from the British colony of Guiana” (p. 162). Not only did this legal matter eat up years and years of Harrison’s time but he also needed to travel to Paris for the arbitration. While in Europe, President McKinley appointed Harrison to the International Court at The Hague. It’s no wonder that Harrison became worn out and on March 13, 1901 he died of pneumonia and influenza.

#22/#24 Grover Cleveland Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Grover Cleveland
1. Grover had a pretty interesting lineage. His great-great grandfather, Aaron Cleveland, was a great friend of Benjamin Franklin and even died in Ben’s house! Aaron Cleveland’s son, another Aaron, “introduced the first bill in American history calling for the abolition of slavery” (p. 7). Even the city of Cleveland was named after Moses Cleveland, another of Grover’s relatives. “Named Cleaveland, in salute to Moses’ efforts, the little village, which had become a thriving town by the time Grover was born, finally dropped the ‘a’ in 1832, when, it was reported, the local newspaper had need to shorten its masthead” (p. 7). I just love historical facts like that!
2. In the race for governor of New York, Cleveland won by the largest margin of anyone yet. “On November 7, 1882, Grove Cleveland was elected by a majority of 192,000 votes, the largest margin ever registered in a contested election for the highest office in the state” (p. 28).
3. Preservation of lands was slowly becoming a national issue and while Cleveland was governor, he duly set aside lands at Niagra to safeguard the beauty there. “The legislature, with Cleveland’s hearty approval, set aside lands in the vicinity of Niagra Falls deemed necessary to preserving the scenery” (p. 41).
4. Before he became president of the United States, Grover Cleveland had never set foot in Washington DC.
5. If anyone has seen the movie National Treasure, then I have to include this for them. Although the Resolute desk was presented to Hayes, I only read about it in this biography and so will give the information here. “Cleveland could not but have been told the history of the elegant gift: Franklin’s ship, HMS Resolute, had been found crushed by the ice by an American ship captain. Rebuilt and returned to England, it was put back into service. When it was finally decommissioned and dismantled, some of its oak timbers were fashioned into this unique present delivered to President Hayes. Known in the White House today as the ‘Resolute desk,’ it served many presidents in the family quarters of the White House. President Kennedy moved it into the Oval Office where he and successors continued to enjoy its use” (p. 73).
6. Cleveland hated the media. “Cleveland remains the only president who refused to attend the annual dinner of the Gridiron Club, the insider association of Washington journalists founded in 1885, at which the president and the press attired in white tie and tails ‘singe but do not burn’ each other with more or less good-natured sallies” (p. 76).
7. When Grover Cleveland married, it was the first ever wedding of a president in the White House. “Being uncomfortable with social niceties, as we have seen, he relied on the advice of his married sister, Mary for the details of what would be the first wedding of a president ever held in the White House” (p. 79).
8. Grover’s oldest daughter, Ruth, would eventually give her name to a popular candy bar. “Ruth was destined not to reach the age of thirteen, dying of diphtheria in 1904. She lives in the national memory as Baby Ruth, the name that newspapers bestowed on her and that in 1921, the Curtiss Company decided to assign to a candy bar, still popular today” (p. 100).
9. As mentioned earlier, Cleveland was the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms.
10. I've concluded that George Pullman was an asshole! George Pullman was the guy “whose sleeping car revolutionized overnight rail travel” (p. 118) but he’s also the guy who made all his workers live in a village built by the Pullman Company. “The rents Pullman charged were excessive, running about 25 percent higher than in neighboring towns. He sold at ten centers per thousand gallons of water that he brought from Chicago at four cents. He forced his tenants to buy their food and other necessities from company stores, where prices far exceeded those of regular outlets. The simmering cauldron of protest boiled over when in 1894 the company cut wages an average of 25 percent, without a comparable cut in rent or in the cost of necessities. Pullman refused to listen to complaints and dismissed from their jobs those who persisted in the outcry. He then closed the plant” (p. 118). Hence my earlier statement: George Pullman is an asshole.
11. In 1886, Cleveland dedicated the Statue of Liberty.
12. Cleveland acquired Pearl Harbor. “In 1887 the United States acquired from the Hawaiian monarchy the right to establish a coaling and repair station at Pearl Harbor, the majestic landlocked bay on the south coast of the island of Oahu” (p. 120).

Henry Graff, the author, tried to remain unbiased on the subject of Grover Cleveland but I got the impression that Cleveland was not a helpful candidate for biography. Cleveland’s personality seemed to be extremely grim and straightforward, which, as you’ll agree, is hardly book worthy. However, you do have to hand it to old Grover. He had principles and he stood by them his entire life and throughout his two terms as president. Even thought the Republicans had been in office 24 straight years, he handled the change of party with decision and a commitment to his democratic ideals. He didn’t allow the party bosses and his position to change his opinions on what he saw was right and what was wrong. If you are annoyed and disillusioned with the politicians of today then please read about Grover Cleveland. You won’t be disappointed.

Graff does take the opportunity to mildly criticize Cleveland for his demeanor and his speechmaking ability. It was fortunate for Cleveland that people, during this time, primarily voted their party. The average voter knew very little about the candidates and certainly did not care whether they made good speeches or not. Cleveland won, for the most part, on the fact that the Democrats did a great job of getting people to the polls to vote the Democratic ticket.

I also found it interesting that Graff takes the time to discuss racism. Not the racism that we are familiar with today but the quotidian racism of everyday life in America in the late nineteenth century. Graff makes the assertion that racism, back then, was very common and quite normal. It’s hard for us to sometimes to understand the intolerance of our forebears but that was simply standard operating procedure at the time. Everyone was racist in some fashion (see my William Henry Harrison blog). And it really had nothing to do with slavery, per se, but was prevalent in all forms of society. For instance, during Cleveland’s presidencies, he had to deal with racism against the American Indians, against the Chinese, and against Catholics. Isn’t this the way of life?

#22/#24 Grover Cleveland (1837-1907)

For the longest time, I sat with an empty page in front of me, totally unable to start Grover Cleveland’s blog. Ugh. What in God’s name do you talk about when it comes to Grover Cleveland!?! This mental block lasted nearly an hour as I consoled myself at kicking ass on Bejewled 2 until then it hit me—why do I need some witty introduction to Grover Cleveland’s non-consecutive presidencies? Why can’t I simply present him, TV-announcer style, and then shove him out for everyone to judge for themselves?

After reading Grover Cleveland: American Presidents Series by Henry F. Graff (New York: Times Books, 2000), I can now say, as the drum rolls, “Here is the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Give it up, folks, for Grover Cleveland!” And I merely sit back as the applause simply rolls over me.

Steven Grover Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837 in Caldwell, NJ to a pastor. He was the 5th of 9 children in the family and had a pretty unremarkable upbringing. As a child, Grover attended the Fayetteville Academy in NY and at the age of 14, moved to Clinton, NY. In 1853, his father died. For some reason, Grover found himself supporting his mother and sisters and so was never able to take the time to go to college.

He did need to make a living though so he moved to Buffalo, where he stayed with a relative, and began studying law at Millard Fillmore’s old firm. In 1859, he was admitted to the bar. “Cleveland had come to be the chief support of his mother and sisters—and his contributions to their upkeep were becoming substantial” (p. 15). When the Civil War began, Cleveland, still supporting his family, could not simply leave to fight so he purchased a substitute to go to war in his stead.

In 1863, his career began to take off when he became the assistant district attorney for Erie County and then in 1869, he set up his own law firm: Laning, Cleveland, & Folsom. In 1870, he became sheriff for Erie County. “Still, by all accounts, his term in the sheriff’s office served him well: he had been able to save a good portion of his salary; he had consolidated his connections with almost every segment of officialdom; and his diligence had made a strong impression on people throughout his constituency. He was a public personage, appreciated and respected” (p. 16).

Now things began happening more quickly for old Grover. In January 1882, he became Mayor of Buffalo. This job eventually catapulted him only 11 months later into the Governorship of New York. “Now Grover Cleveland was in the spotlight. He had captured the governorship for the largest state in the country after having served only a year as the mayor. He was far enough past the constitutionally required age of thirty-five to give confidence that he was not a tyro, and yet young enough to appeal to the new generation looking forward to managing the America of the Gilded Age” (p. 34). Cleveland would be known as the “Veto Governor.” He was unsmiling, formal, and a workaholic. But things got done under Cleveland’s stern eye.
It seemed like only a matter of time before he was sighted as the next major Democratic leader. There had not been a Democratic president since Buchanan and people were ready for a change. In 1884, Cleveland won the Democratic nomination for president. “Cleveland was the symbol of high-mindedness and devoted care in local governance. Wherever people were weary of hoping to have government for the people but finding instead government for the politicians, they thought immediately of the broad-shouldered governor of New York as their champion” (p. 46-7). He squared off against James G Blaine as the Republican national candidate.

The campaigns of both candidates did not amount to much. Neither side very differed from the other and so each party looked for dirt on their opponents to distinguish each other. Blaine had been caught up with some party corruption years ago but the surprising thing was that a scandal erupted around Cleveland. A newspaper broke the story that Cleveland, a bachelor, had impregnated a lady, then had her child taken from her and put in an orphanage. Cleveland’s response to the Democratic PR people? “Tell the truth.” The truth, it appeared, was that a friend of Cleveland’s was really the father of the child but since that gentleman (Folsom from the law firm) was married with children of his own, Cleveland had taken it upon himself to care for the woman and child.

This scandal did not actually hurt Cleveland because he soon became the 22nd President of the United States. At 300 lbs, Cleveland moved into the White House with his sister, Rose, as hostess. John Phillip Sousa and his band played at the Inaugural Ball. Cleveland immediately became interested in building up the navy and reforming the Department of the Interior. In a surprise twist, Cleveland became engaged to Francis Folsom, daughter of his old law partner, who was also twenty years his junior. They were married on June 2, 1886 with only 31 guests in attendance.

“Beneath his starched exterior there had always been a sympathetic heart, and people became aware of his gentler qualities. He have them expression not in his formal speeches, which were invariably dry and dull, as we have seen, but in the well-turned letters that he composed. Still, his frequent outburst of temper, his brusque treatment of deficient subordinates, and what was sometimes plain grossness were also in notable evidence. These traits bespoke an unalterable gracelessness that people took as a small price to pay for the honestly in government that he brought with him” (p. 82). Whether it was due to these faults, rather than his virtues, or not, Cleveland, winning the Democratic nomination yet again, failed to win the support of the public.

In 1888, he lost to Benjamin Harrison and so he and Francis moved to New York City. Back in New York, Cleveland resumed his practice of law and also set about giving periodic speeches. In this way, he stayed in the public consciousness and in 1892, was re-nominated as the Democratic national candidate for president. He won again, this time against Benjamin Harrison, his old foe, and the Populist Party candidate, Weaver. He was now the 24th President of the United States.

The Panic of 1893 hit the country almost immediately upon Cleveland’s second inaugural yet; it was a golden opportunity for Cleveland to show what he was made of. And he did a great job! He had the Secretary for the Treasury make a “gold deal” with JP Morgan and then sold governmental bonds to make money during the Panic. It was a brilliant maneuver. Unfortunately, the rest of Cleveland’s second term seemed to stall out, especially when he withdrew the treaty of annexation of Hawaii. No one was happy about that.

During this time, Cleveland was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth. After what happened to Garfield, Cleveland and his associates were terrified of what the public would think about this situation. So they decided to hold the surgery in private. “In private” meant that Cleveland would be operated on on a yacht while his bed was lashed tightly to the mast. He was fitted with an artificial jaw while everyone else remained in the dark until 1917 when the doctor wrote an article on it.

In 1896, Cleveland lost the Democratic nomination to William Jennings Bryant and he passed out of United States politics. Upon a recommendation of a friend, Cleveland and his wife moved to Princeton, NJ where he could be seen taking long walks around the campus. He became the “Sage of Princeton” and was even named a trustee of the college. He spent his time writing articles for magazines and even wrote Presidential Problems, a book about his time in office. He helped reorganize the Equitable Life Assurance Society but he had increasing difficulties with his heart and kidneys. He also had gout. In 1906, Cleveland moved his family to New Hampshire but a year later on June 24, 1907, he died of a heart attack.

#21 Chester Arthur Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Chester Arthur
1. His nickname was Gentleman Boss.
2. Arthur has a statue in New York City. “Today, the only trace of Arthur’s presence in the neighborhood is a statue of him, standing quietly on a pedestal at the northeast corner of Madison Square Park at Twenty-sixth Street” (p. 35).
3. Before he ran on the Republican ticket in 1881 as vice president, Arthur had never been elected to any other office.
4. Arthur decided to further renovate the White House and so he called on Louis Tiffany to do the job. “Tiffany was not yet famous for his lamps, but in 1881 he obtained a patent for a new technique to decorate stained glass. In the Cross Hall of the White House, he installed a large stained-glass screen, which inspired one magazine to rhapsodize that the only dark things left in the White House were the oil portraits of former presidents. The Blue Room itself was painted, not surprisingly, a light sky blue, and the ceiling was decorated with painted stars. Tiffany and his workers also painstakingly applied wallpaper inlaid with pieces of sparkling glass...The Red Room became more strikingly red; Arthur’s office gained a more open fireplace and yellow tones; and golf leaf appeared promiscuously throughout the public rooms. The executive mansion also acquired its first elevator” (p. 77-78).
5. In the summer of 1882, electricity was brought to New York City. “Thomas Edison and his company were hard at work on a power station that would by summer’s end provide New York City with its first supply of electricity and electric lights” (p. 90).
6. The first known celebration of Labor Day occurred in 1882. “And in early September, as the season was winding down, a parade estimated at twenty thousand to thirty thousand people marched through Manhattan to honor the workingman, beginning a tradition soon known as Labor Day” (p. 90-91).
7. The very first US Open in tennis was held in 1881. “The [Newport] casino was the center of the social scene, where drinks and cigars were consumed on cool porches in between leisurely and competitive games of the newest English import, lawn tennis. The first US National Championship (the precursor to the US Open) were held on its courts in 1881” (p. 91).
8. Arthur helped inaugurate the Brooklyn Bridge. “He was met by wildly enthusiastic crowds—not because he was president, however, but because he had come to celebrate the opening of what was then the greatest technical wonder of the United States: the Brooklyn Bridge…On May 24, 1883, amid fireworks, cannons, military parades, confetti, and the cacophony of brass bands, Arthur and the mayors of New York and Brooklyn inaugurated the span linking the two large cities” (p. 123).
9. Here is some political trivia for you. In the 1884 election, some liberal Republicans splintered from the party and were known as “Mugwumps.” “The splinter group was called, by some clever cynic, ‘Mugwumps,’ which was an Algonquin word that technically meant ‘chieftain’ but implied a foolish self-importance. The Mugwumps were precursors to the Progressives of the early 1900s” (p. 130).

Poor Chester A. Arthur just doesn’t have much of a chance. He seems like a pretty happy dude working behind the scenes so it’s just funny that he ends up becoming president of the United States of America. Karabell does a good job of trying to make Arthur come alive for the reader but I can tell he doesn’t have much to work with here. Arthur liked good food, was pretty easy going for the most part, and tried to steer a decent course with what he was given.

The problem is that Arthur quite literally blends in with all the other presidents during this time period. One reason I think this happens is due to the fact that after Grant all the presidents look the same. If you look back in my blog—at Garfield, at Arthur—and ahead at Cleveland, you will notice that they are all heavily-bearded, chubby individuals. Plus it was unfortunate that Arthur was president during a time, otherwise known as the Gilded Age, when executive power was at its lowest ebb. The reason for this was twofold. First of all, thanks to our old pal Andrew Johnson, Congress had become the big dog in the national firmament. During Johnson’s presidency if you recall, Congress hated him so much that they passed several bills that strictly limited the power of the president, including the Tenure of Office Act. All the presidents thereafter had to work within the limited confines of the executive office as proscribed by the legislature. “The White House had shed much of the power it had acquired during the Civil War, and Congress had asserted its traditional preeminence with the impeachment and near conviction of Andrew Johnson for the unpardonable sin of thinking that he could remove members of his cabinet without the say-so of the Senate” (p. 3).

Secondly, money was king. I know that sounds simplistic but it’s true—this age was the highlight of big money. Probably at no point in American history is the gap between the classes as wide as it was at the end of the nineteenth century. Robber barons were not only extravagantly wealthy but they owned the bulk of the country’s resources. Basically this meant that 1% of the population owned about 95% of the wealth. “While the captains of industry—Rockefeller, Morgan, Frick, Gould, Vanderbilt, Villard, Stanford, Carnegie—carved out empires of wealth in the process of industrializing America, the federal government receded from the center of national attention that it had briefly occupied in the 1860s” (p. 4). Let’s face it—the American public was much more curious about the lives of the rich and famous than it was over its own head of state.

So, due to circumstances beyond his control, poor Arthur is overlooked not only by our historical standpoints but also by the American citizens of his own time. Sad.

# 21 Chester A. Arthur (1829-1886)

“Arthur is one of the forgotten presidents. Mention him to the proverbial man-on-the-street, and blankness is a likely response. ‘You’re writing a biography of who?’ was the most common refrain when this particular author mentioned that he was writing about this particular president. Even among those who consider themselves well educated, Chester Arthur remains a cipher, one of those late-nineteenth-century inhabitants of the White House whose echo has been muffled by the more memorial individuals and whose footprint—and in the case of the rotund gourmand Arthur a rather large footprint—has been trampled on and all but erased” (Karabell, p. 2).

Like the good gentleman mentions above, I had no clue about Arthur either even though I certainly place myself in the ‘well-educated’ category. Of course I had seen bits and pieces of Arthur as he made his way through the Hayes and Garfield administrations respectively but that’s really it. He was another vice president who took over the highest office in the land with the death of the incumbent but I’m not sure he did anything special to mark his time in the White House. To find out more, I read Chester A. Arthur: American Presidents Series by Zachary Karabell (New York: Times Books, 2004).

Chester Alan Arthur was born on October 5, 1829 in North Fairfield, Vermont to a Baptist minister. As a minister, Mr. Arthur Senior moved around a great deal but finally settled down in Schenectady, New York. At the age of fifteen, Chester went off to Union College where he became an ardent abolitionist but stayed a pretty mediocre student. After graduating in 1848, he taught for several years and then changed professions to become a law clerk.

Because of his abolitionist leanings, Arthur was excited about the turmoil currently rocking the state of Kansas and so in 1856, he and a friend moved out there to help out. Unfortunately, Kansas was so lawless and violent that Arthur almost immediately moved back to New York and into the arms of the Republican Party. He then met Ellen Lewis Herndon, who was from Virginia and an ardent Confederate, and October 1859 they were married in Manhattan.

During the war, Arthur was appointed chief engineer and quartermaster of the state of New York with the rank of brigadier general. “Arthur was responsible for the feeding, housing, and supplying of several hundred thousand troops, and he proved to be an able manager of the complicated task” (p. 15). In 1862, however, he lost this job when elections put the Democrats in office so he returned to his profession as a lawyer.

Arthur, increasingly, found himself pulled into the Stalwart side of the Republican Party and became a good minion of the leader, Roscoe Conkling. With the help of these new friends, Arthur, in 1871, was given the most important plum in the New York patronage system: the Collector of NY Customs. The reason that this job was so posh was due to the fact that millions of dollars came through the port of New York and Arthur, as the head collector, would earn a portion of that. Although Arthur’s work ethic was never very stringent—he would arrive late and leave early—he stepped on no toes and was friends with just about everybody. In fact, in 1875, he had been appointed to an unprecedented second term. That is, until President Hayes decided to crack down on corruption while using the Collector of NY Customs position as the scapegoat. “Secretary of the Treasury Sherman launched an investigation of corrupt practices at the major customhouses in the United States and appointed John Jay, the grandson of the first chief justice of the United States, to head a commission specifically targeting New York. And with that, Chester Arthur, who had kept a relatively low profile in spite of his lofty position, suddenly became the center of a national crisis” (p. 28).

“Much like Conkling, Arthur was seen as part of a corrupt system rather corrupt himself. He had taken advantage of moiety kickbacks, true, but he had stayed within the system” (p. 29). A battle royale began between Hayes on the one side, asking for Arthur’s resignation, and Conkling on the other, stoutly defending his friend and the system of patronage. In 1878, Hayes had his way though and Arthur was removed from office. “Rather than ruining Arthur’s career, Hayes vendetta catapulted him to national attention. He became the darling not only of the Stalwarts but of a motley assortment of the administration’s opponents” (p. 33).

Arthur again went back to his law business and also became the Chairman of the New York Republican Party, another high profile and very powerful position. “But it’s likely that in spite of the furor over his removal as collector, these years were among the happiest in his life. He was wealthy; he was happily married; he was engaged in work he cared about on behalf of the party he loved; and he enjoyed the ironclad support of one of the most powerful politicians in the country” (p. 34). Although he worked hard for the Republican Party as the election of 1880 began to loom nearer, he was devastated in early 1880 when his wife died of pneumonia.

At the Republican National Convention, he was nominated as the vice presidential candidate, alongside James Garfield, and thereafter worked steadily on behalf of their ticket. “Arthur was a brilliant fundraiser and a persuasive manager, and he was a central factor in the eventual victory” (p. 47). New York voted Republican and James Garfield and Chester Arthur were sent to Washington DC. Arthur was sworn in as vice president on March 4, 1881 with an Inaugural Ball held later at the Smithsonian Institute.

It did not take long though for the honeymoon to end between president and the vice president and a general dislike descended on the relationship. It was with some relief that Arthur was able to remove to New York after Congress ended. He was still there on July 2, 1881 when James Garfield was shot at a Washington train station. Arthur immediately made his way back to the capital but was unable to see or speak with the president due to the fear that Arthur had something to do with the assassination attempt. Garfield wasted away a few months later and on September 9, 1881 at 2:15 am Arthur was sworn in as the 21st President of the United States.

“He [Arthur] was respected and respectable. Save for his miscue in the spring of 1881 he had earned a reputation for integrity in a system known for corruption. But that didn’t make him presidential, yet there he was, the president of the United States” (p. 68). After several months, Arthur was finally able to move into the White House with his sister, Mary, as hostess. It was time for Arthur to pick up the pieces of government and nobody thought that he had potential to do a good job. It thus surprised nearly everyone when he made fairly good selections for his cabinet positions and with governmental patronage.

Because of the fact that Garfield was shot by a frustrated office seeker (insane or not), Congress pushed through the first civil service reform called the Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883. “Its best in 1883 left much to be desired, but the Pendleton Act, for all its flaws, forever altered the complexion of the US government. It put the old spoils system on a path to obsolescence and it was a necessary prelude to the government-led reforms of the Progressive era and beyond” (p. 111).

Arthur also had to deal with several other issues during his presidency. For instance, immigration was becoming a heated issue with the influx of Chinese people taking over jobs on the west coast. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress which forced Arthur to diplomatically handle the situation with China. He also dealt with national funding issues, including where the US government stood on governmental control and funding of harbors and rivers. There was also tariff reform (the Mongrel Tarriff) and the very important re-growth of the Navy. It was during this time that Congress declared the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional which was directly to blame for segregation in the South.

Arthur, for all the good he did in office, was not re-nominated. He had estranged the Stalwart side of the party and thus he had very little backing going into the 1884 Republican National Convention. When Grover Cleveland became president, Arthur moved back to New York City and took up the reigns of his law business once again. He was diagnosed with Bright’s disease, which was a kidney disease that caused him much pain and impeded his gourmand lifestyle. He died on November 18, 1886 from a ruptured artery in the brain. “In everything he did, Chester Alan Arthur was a gentleman, and that is rare and precious. It reminds us that adversaries can be treated with respect, that democracy can survive differences, and that leadership isn’t just great words and deeds. Arthur managed to be a decent man and decent president in an era when decency was in short supply” (p. 143).

#20 James Garfield Part 2

“Assassination can be no more guarded against than death by lightning; and it is best not to worry about either.” James A Garfield

Really Cool Stuff about James Garfield
1. In college, Garfield was hired as a penmanship teacher in Vermont. What is interesting here is that this position had just been vacated by Chester Arthur. “At the end of his first fall term, the well-liked Garfield, who was always in need of extra income, was invited to spend several weeks teaching penmanship to the schoolchildren in the nearby town of Pownal, Vermont. In a curious coincidence of history, Garfield occupied a position that had been filled the previous year by Chester A. Arthur, his future vice presidential running mate” (p. 8).
2. While in congress, Garfield, through his work with governmental finance, became a major force in national academic achievement. “Garfield helped finance federal scientific expeditions and was a major force behind the creation of the United States Geological Survey. The six-volume Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, regarded as one of the most important works in the history of American medicine, was organized and published due to his insistence that money be made available for the project” (p. 32).
3. Garfield, despite his personal honesty, was involved in several of the major scandals of the day, including the Credit Mobilier scandal, the Salary Grab scandal, and the DeGolyer-McClelland scandal. These would come to haunt him during his presidential campaign.
4. James’ relationship with his wife, Lucretia, was not always stable. “In the 1860s, there had been rumors of Garfield’s persistent philandering…Throughout his life, Garfield maintained intensely close relationships with a number of women. Certainly, the stories concerning Garfield’s early emotional infidelities were true” (p. 43). There is no evidence though that these affairs were physical.
5. The election of 1880 had the closest popular vote in history! “More than nine million individuals went to the polls and Garfield received a plurality of fewer than 2,000 votes—the closest popular vote in all presidential elections in American history” (p. 62).
6. He was the first person to hold offices in the Senate, the House of Representatives and the presidency all at the same time. “It was an exciting time for Garfield—he was simultaneously a member of the House of Representatives, a United States senator-elect, and president-elect of the United States, the only instance this has occurred in history—but there was a sobering realization of how the win would affect him and his family” (p. 62).
7. I think that it’s interesting that Garfield’s Secretary of War was Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln.
8. Garfield’s mother would be the first mother to attend an inauguration of her son. “She [Eliza] would be the first woman in American history to witness her son’s inauguration as president” (p. 69-70).
9. Since he had been shot in July, the summer heat, even in the White House, was almost more than Garfield could bear. Thus, the first air conditioning unit in the United States was invented. “Because the ice did not suffice, a rudimentary air-conditioning unit, the nation’s first, was built in the White House. It was a Rube Goldberg-like contraption, consisting of a series of Turkish towels placed inside a massive cast-iron chamber. The towels were kept wet by a solution of ice, water, and salt sprayed on them from above. Fans circulated air through the cloths and the cold exhaust was directed into Garfield’s room. This proved inadequate and United States Navy engineers jury-rigged even larger fans and second cooling unit. Supplying twenty-three thousand cubic feet of air per hour, at a temperature of 54 degrees, the bedside temperature was maintained steadily at 75 degrees day and night” (p. 111).
10. At one point, Garfield’s wound ejected some foreign materials and Woodward, a surgeon, placed this under a microscope to determine its origin and thus, make history. “Woodward examined the one-quarter-inch-square specimen under a microscope. He confirmed that it was a portion of the president’s cotton shirt, with a few fibers of wool from the coat. In doing this, Woodward conducted the first microscopic-based forensic science examination in the United States” (p. 113).
11. Garfield’s vertebrae are still housed in the National Museum of Health and Medicine. “When Lamb completed his dissection [autopsy], the affected vertebrae were removed and brought back to the Army Medical Museum (Garfield’s twelfth thoracic and first and second lumbar vertebrae currently reside at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.), where they were given to the prosecution for the upcoming trial of Charles Guiteau” (p. 128-29).
12. Even though Garfield’s assassin was mentally insane, Guiteau was also considered a frustrated office seeker who took out his political agenda on Garfield. (Minutes after the president had been shot, Guiteau had claimed “I did it and will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart and Arthur will be president” p. 2)To keep this from occurring again, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, a groundbreaking effort to reduce patronage, was passed in 1883.

I hope you guys understand what I meant about being horrified after reading about James Garfield’s appalling end. Honestly, no man alive should have to die like that. And really I didn’t even do it justice—the author, Rutkow, went into very great and graphic detail about the state of the president’s health during the 80 days. That’s right, people, the president took 80 days to die. 80! Let’s not forget that this was during the heat of the Washington summer (which, believe me, is hotter than Florida sometimes) before air-conditioning and energy star homes. There were no IVs or hospital beds, no hand-sanitizing foam or latex gloves. Garfield had to lie in his room for 80 days, completely covered in bed sores, while his body slowly deteriorated from the inside out. And on top of that, he had to lay there patiently allowing all manner of people to stick their unwashed fingers and probes into the bullet wound. Ugh!

I guess it will not be a surprise to anyone when I state that red flags were raised by this treatment on a national level. The medical profession came under heavy abuse after the president died, especially when the assassin, Charles Guiteau, stood in court and told everyone that he didn’t kill the president—the doctors did! It is truly sad that a calamity, such as this one, would be the impetus to bestir the medical profession to join the rest of the twentieth century. “Fueled by the Garfield tragedy, an increasing number of positive articles concerning antisepsis brought about the acceptance of Listerism by the late 1880s” (p. 132). As a frequenter of doctors and hospitals I only have one thing to say to Lister “thank you very much!”

Rutkow does a great job with Garfield’s story. At first I was a little confused to find that I was only halfway through the book when Garfield gets shot, little knowing that our poor president would effectively ‘live’ for another 80 days after that. Rutkow had more than enough ammunition on Bliss and the state of Garfield’s health during those days to probably fill up several more volumes. In fact, within the chapters on Garfield’s convalescence, Rutkow sets aside an entire chapter on medicine in the early 1880s and it is fascinating. Gross, but fascinating.

Rutkow also makes an interesting comparison between the fates of James Garfield and Ronald Reagan. Most of us may remember that in 1981 (exactly one hundred years after Garfield), President Ronald Reagan was shot near the heart. His wound was quite lethal, puncturing a lung before finally resting an inch away from his aorta. “Bleeding internally and short of breath, he was rushed to the George Washington University Hospital, where he collapsed in the emergency room. Resuscitative measures stabilized Reagan’s condition, and, within minutes, he was taken into surgery. By the time the three-hour operation ended and the hemorrhage was controlled and the pulmonary injury treated, more than 50 percent of the president’s blood volume had been replaced by transfusions. In a tribute to scientific medicine and the recuperative powers of the patient, Reagan was on his feet within twenty-four hours of the shooting and, eleven days later, returned to the White House—fully able to conduct the nation’s business” (p. 138). Amazing. Can you believe how far we’ve come??

Of course, we will never, ever know what kind of president Garfield would have made. I wonder if he would have been any good at all. He had an illustrious political career up to that moment but a part of me thinks that he staged the entire thing. I believe that Garfield was intensely ambitious, planning out every detail, including when he would run for certain offices and when his name would be brought forward for consideration. I felt that he cultivated certain individuals strictly in light of their benefit to him and used everyone else on his path to the top. Was this a bad thing? Of course not! I’d like to know which of our politicians don’t take this route. What struck me about Garfield though is that it felt so very obvious that he staged the entire thing.

And it was all for nothing. Garfield spent maybe 4 months in office and then he simply became a sad nonentity in the pantheon of unremarkable presidents. “Ultimately, it was his [Garfield’s] lack of assertiveness and worry over the slightest hint of criticism that interfered with his presidential decision making. ‘I am a poor hater,’ was Garfield’s self-description, and for this reason his is remember more as a political party functionary—and for having been assassinated—than an inspirational American president” (p. 137).

#20 James Garfield (1831-1881)

“James A. Garfield soon disappeared from the public’s memory, and he remains one of America’s least remembered chief executives. ‘For who was Garfield, martyred man, and who had seen him in the streets of life?’ asked the novelist Thomas Wolfe. ‘Who could believe that his footballs ever sounded on a lonely pavement?’ But Garfield did exist—he was a son, a husband, and a father. He lived and breathed and laughed and cried and played a major role in American politics. He was the last of the nation’s ‘born in a log cabin’ presidents, a general during the Civil War, and the quintessential rags-to-riches, self-made American man” (Rutkow, p. 3).

I simply couldn’t remember this guy’s name! Recently, my Mom had casually asked me how many presidents had been killed by assassination and somewhere in my head I knew that the number was 4 (don’t ask me how). But when I went to name them off to her, I could count only three: Lincoln, McKinley, and Kennedy. But I swore there were four of them! Frowning I racked my brain to disgorge the final name but after a few seconds of really heavy mental lifting, I had nothing. Knowing that someday, someday, I would discover that name did not really ease the frustration but that is the best part about reading a bio for every single president—I’m going to get the information eventually.

And here it is, folks! The mystery is solved--#4 is James A Garfield. Aha! Of course I had to call my Mom immediately but it turned out to be one of those situations when you wake up in the middle of the night with the answer on your lips and nobody understands you at all. What I mean to say is my Mom had no clue what I was talking about, I guess, assuming that we had dropped this topic weeks ago. Of course, I was so excited, I didn’t help matters.

“Mom? It’s Garfield! No, I’m Vanya, but Garfield is the answer! Remember when we were talking about assassinations? (annoyance) Come on—you asked me how many presidents were assassinated. I don’t remember when—a couple weeks ago maybe? Don’t you remember? I was having trouble remembering the fourth president to be assassinated and it was driving me crazy. (resignation) Oh nevermind! It doesn’t matter. If it ever comes up in trivia, remember Garfield. No, I have enough money to buy groceries. Gotta go.”

Now that I’m rereading this, I’m a little embarrassed at how excited I was in the first place. It’s not like I’m a kick-ass historical detective or something here but I do like finding out answers to the little questions. It’s too bad that after my euphoria over discovering Garfield’s claim to fame, I then had to read on—and really, it’s too horrible. I’ve been sad over presidents before but my emotions reached a new low with Garfield and his end. Sigh. I guess you should just read on to see what I mean. (I read James A Garfield: American Presidents Series by Ira Rutkow, New York: Times Books, 2006.)


As stated above, James Abram Garfield really was born in a log cabin in Orange, Ohio on November 19, 1831. Only two years later, his father and three siblings would die of pneumonia, leaving Eliza to manage the farm and raise the rest of the children alone. James was clumsy and awkward growing up but he was also ambitious, disciplined and intelligent. He had minimal formal schooling but he was a voracious reader and learned a lot that way.

In October of 1848 aged 16, Garfield left home to become a “sailor” for pontoon boats in the Great Lakes. Unfortunately, Garfield did not know how to swim and nearly drowned several times. Eventually he enrolled himself in the Geauga Academy and then switched to the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in 1851. Finally, a year later, he went up to Williams College in Massachusetts to receive his degree. While there, he became involved in Republican politics and embraced abolitionism. He graduated in 1856 as the salutatorian.

Having really no money or prospects, Garfield went right into teaching and then became president of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute. In November 1858, he married Lucretia Randolph, a sweetheart from school days at Geauga and Western Reserve and they moved to a little cottage near the college.

Being very ambitious, Garfield knew he could not stay where he was as a president of a college. In 1859, then, he was elected to the Ohio Senate. “Three qualities immediately set Garfield apart from other senators: a prodigious capacity to grasp the minutiae of legislation, extraordinary speechmaking abilities, and a genuineness in forming friendships” (p. 11). He was also admitted to the bar, by simply reading a few legal books and taking an oral examination. He would never practice as a lawyer—it was simply a fall-back plan in case politics did not work out.

War interrupted and in 1861, Garfield became the lieutenant colonel of 42nd Ohio regiment. From there, they were sent down to Kentucky to take part in the Battle of Middle Creek. They won and Garfield was promoted to brigadier general. He had been wounded and found himself recovering in Washington DC where he made good use of his time networking. He was even elected to the US House of Representatives but since he was still in the military, he had to return to the front. In 1863, he was sent to the Army of the Cumberland in TN and became chief of staff under General Rosecrans. Garfield was severely disillusioned after the loss at the Battle of Chickamauga and left the army to take up his post in congress.

Back in Washington, he joined the group of radical republicans and was immediately placed on the Committee on Military Affairs. He was increasingly involved with the financial aspect of Congress, becoming involved in the Committee of Ways and Means, the Committee of Appropriations, and the Committee of Banking and Currency. “He promoted what might later be called the trickle-down theory of economic growth, whereby the government facilitates the expansion of business productivity on the assumption that all of society will eventually benefit” (p. 31).

In 1880, he was elected to the US Senate, but he was only able to serve a couple months before he was nominated as the Republican National presidential candidate. His nomination came as a complete surprise. The Republican Party had split with the Half-Breeds supporting James G Blaine for president and the Stalwarts backing Ulysses S Grant for a third term. No single candidate was able to receive a majority of votes until Garfield’s name was thrown into the mix. He won the nomination and then, running against the Democratic candidate, General Winfield Scott Hancock, won the presidency despite a truly dirty campaign. “Most observers agree that, in view of the nastiness of the campaign, Garfield’s victory could be regarded as a personal triumph. He had captured the presidency by keeping the party’s faithful focused and united while presenting a positive and modest image to American voters” (p. 62).

Patronage was immediately a problem for Garfield. “In 1881, government jobs seekers enjoyed open access to the executive mansion, and it was not uncommon that they attempted to speak one-on-one with the president to plead their case” (p. 71). Many office seekers were sent away unhappy and unappreciated. But there were other problems on the horizon for Garfield. The first was his hatred of Chester A Arthur, his vice president. Garfield very clearly leaned toward the Half-Breed side of the Republican Party and when he was nominated for the presidency, everyone decided it would be a good idea to pair him with a Stalwart supporter, in this case, Chester Arthur. After the election, Garfield and Arthur could not have been farther apart, politically, and by the summer of 1881, they were not speaking at all. The second problem was the advent of a mother of a scandal which would implicate numerous Washington bigwigs and tons of government postal employees. Called the Star Route Scandal, some government officials decided to charge the government extra to deliver the mail in out-of-the-way places. Garfield cracked down hard on this type of thing.

One of the really great things that Garfield accomplished in office was his reselling of some government bonds that helped pay off some of the debt from the war. It was in a rather good mood that on the morning of July 2, 1881, Garfield and Blaine, the Secretary of State, headed to the train station. Garfield and some of the other cabinet members were going to take a tour of New England. Unfortunately, at the train station, Garfield walked right into an insane, frustrated office seeker, Charles Guiteau, who shot Garfield in the back. Guiteau was a “mentally unstable, penny-ante scalawag, who stole from everyone he knew. He was the child of a deceased schizophrenic mother and a religion-obsessed, know-it-all father” (p. 71-2).

Garfield lay bleeding onto the floor of the train station while people ran around in panic. “Turning Garfield on his side to examine the bullet hole, Townshend [a health officer for the District of Columbia] became the first of what would be numerous individuals to place their unwashed fingers and unclean instruments directly into the president’s wound” (p. 85). Soon several other medical men had joined Townsend, including Doctor Bliss, Garfield’s future physician, and each of them stuck their fingers into the wound to try and ascertain the path of the bullet. Bliss, a Civil War surgeon, soon took over and decided that the bullet had hit the president’s liver and he would not live long.

They finally were able to move the president back to the White House where Bliss maintained a strict regimen of dosing his patient with large quantities of quinine and morphine. Garfield routinely vomited after meals and his temperature began to spike each night above 100 degrees but Bliss and the other doctors believed it to be for the best. “For Bliss and his minions, ancient remedies, old-world philosophies, and a stubborn resistance to scientific progress characterized their every deed and word” (p. 92).

Over the next 80 days, Garfield was kept in near isolation under the orders of Dr. Bliss. He continued to lose weight because of the vomiting and he contracted blood poisoning, abscesses and pneumonia. When he finally died on September 19, 1881, he was more than a hundred pounds thinner, he had tons of abscesses filled with pus all over his body and, after a hasty autopsy, it was discovered that the bullet wound was non-lethal. “Lamb performed the dissection, which revealed that the ball had entered Garfield’s body three and a half inches to the right of the spine, fractured the eleventh and twelfth ribs, passed through thoracic and lumbar vertebrae—without injuring the spinal cord—and lodged deep in the tissues of the president’s left back, apparently a nonlethal injury” (p. 128). Chester A Arthur was sworn in as the next President of the United States.

#19: Rutherford B Hayes Part 2

Really Cool Stuff about Rutherford B Hayes
1. During the war, a young second lieutenant and future president, William McKinley, served under Hayes and they became good friends. Hayes eventually appointed McKinley to quartermaster.
2. Hayes had a hand in established what is now known as Ohio State University. “As Ari Hoogenboom [a biographer] has emphasized, the legislature followed his suggestion to establish the Agricultural and Mechanical College, the predecessor of Ohio State University, of which he considered himself a founder” (p. 51).
3. Hayes was the first person to serve three terms as governor of Ohio.
4. With Lucy’s help, Hayes did a good job of modernizing the White House, including the installation of more modern plumbing and a telephone!
5. Lucy was quite famous as a first lady with her own nickname, Lemonade Lucy. The reason for this? No alcohol allowed at the White House. “Immediately after a dinner for a son of the Russian tsar where wine punch was served, Lucy’s ban on alcohol, later winning her the name ‘Lemonade Lucy,’ went into effect as part of the White House cuisine, much to the gratification of temperance advocates” (p. 99).
6. For the first time in history at the White House, on December 30, 1877, Rutherford and Lucy held a giant celebration in honor of their silver anniversary.
7. Amazingly, President Hayes is venerated in Paraguay where he has a holiday, a province, a town, a museum and a soccer team all named in his honor. “In November 1878, arbitrating a dispute between Argentina and Paraguay, the administration awarded the territory between Pilcomayo and the Verde River to Paraguay, so that a whole department of that country was called Presidente Hayes and its capital named after him” (p. 108). The reason the Paraguayans love Hayes so much? The arbitration effectivly gave them 60% of their land.
8. Rutherford Hayes was the first president to go on a tour of the Pacific states.

Well there’s no doubt—Rutherford was pretty vanilla on the presidential scale. He seemed like a good man who was just ambitious enough to want the presidency and then not ambitious enough to keep it for longer than he needed to. In fact, since I’ve read through nearly 20 presidents by now, I find it very odd, and also very impressive, that Hayes was adamantly against having a second term. Other presidents obviously served only one term but Hayes was downright excited to be done with the whole thing. I think that makes Hayes very smart, in my book.

Trefousse did a good job of giving the readers a sense of who Hayes was and what made him tick. Hayes was a socially conscious man who was concerned with civil rights, civil service reform, universal education, and temperance and, at least it seemed to me, he was in politics for the good it could do for others rather than himself. Like all people, Hayes had his own foibles but after the Grant administration, I think that the United States needed a man like Hayes. Upright, serene, and sure—he was a welcome hand at the tiller when we needed him most (I’m speaking primarily about the end of the Reconstruction.) During the Hayes administration, the White House was a polite and

What is ironic is that Hayes was a very uncontroversial figure himself and yet he had one of the most controversial starts to a presidency—thanks to the Bargain of 1877. I wonder what would have happened had Tilden taken the title but I really think that despite all the accusations at the time, the right man did win out.

#19: Rutherford B Hayes (1822-1893)

“He was one of the best-educated men to occupy the White House, was honest, evenhanded, and humane. Taking over the scandal-besmirched presidency from General Grant, he reestablished the good reputation of the country’s first office and was rewarded with the Republican success of 1880. This was his real achievement” (Trefousse, 129).

Okay, this may mean that I am, perhaps, one of the oddest people in the United States but I actually do remember Rutherford B Hayes. Not well, mind you, but well enough. Maybe it’s due to the fact that the election of 2000 was as screwed up as the election of 1876 or my American History AP class was just that good or I just have one of the superbest memories of the 21st century—I guess we’ll never know. Regardless, here I am sitting on the information that Rutherford B Hayes won a highly contested election resulting in the Compromise of 1877. And see? I remembered the date too! Awesome.

Anywho, since I already have such a fabulous grasp on Hayesian politics I guess I can just skip this one biography. Ha! No such luck, I’m afraid. I can’t remember anything more about this guy so it’s back to the library for me. Actually, the library didn’t have any adult books on Rutheford, the nerve, so I had to venture back onto Amazon. I bought the book, Rutherford B. Hayes: American Presidents Series by Hans L. Trefousse(New York: Times Books, 2002), and upon receiving it in the mail, put it right onto a bookshelf till it was needed. Do you believe in coincidences? Well when I resurrected Rutherford’s bio off the shelf I noticed that this book was written by none other than my old pal from Andrew Johnson days, Hans L. Trefousse! Isn’t that interesting? I guess it really is a small world in the realm of historical academia. Let’s see how old Hans works his magic with a very different gentleman from that of Johnson.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born on October 4, 1822 in Delaware, OH. Unfortunately, he was born the same year that his father died of fever and thus, his mother, having inherited some land, had to take care of Rutherford, his sister and a younger brother (who eventually died in a skating accident) by herself. Nicknamed “Rud,” Rutherford was a sandy-haired, blue-eyed boy, and was often sickly. In 1836, he was sent to Norwalk Seminary, a prep school in Connecticut and then in 1838 he moved on to Kenyon College in OH. There he showed Whig tendencies and graduated as the valedictorian in 1842.

He decided that he wanted to be a lawyer so he enrolled the next year at Harvard Law School, even though this was before the time that lawyers needed a special degree. He graduated in 1845 and was immediately admitted to the bar, leaving him free to settle in the small town of Fremont, OH. Not caring to conduct business in such a tiny location, Rutherford soon moved himself and his practice to Cincinnati.

It was around 1847 that Rutherford met the young, Lucy Ware Webb, while she was attending Ohio Wesleyan College. They married in 1850 and eventually had 8 children, although only 5 lived. Rutherford continued to make his name as a very good defense attorney and abolitionist lawyer. He was passionately against slavery and would frequently take on fugitive slave cases. In 1858 he was elected as the city’s solicitor and in 1860, the presidential election year, Hayes served as vice chairman of the Republican Executive Committee of Hamilton County. Slowly he was moving up in the world.

With the advent of the Civil War, Hayes volunteered and was made a major. “Toward the end of July, the regiment was ordered to move into what was soon to become West Virginia, to guard the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, secure the Kanawha Valley, and support the Unionists in the area” (p. 23). He was soon promoted to lieutenant colonel and then after Antietam, where he was wounded, he was made a full colonel. His regiment was then placed under Sheridan and Hayes made brigadier general which culminated in 1865 to being made brevet major general.

Also in 1865, with the war ending, Hayes, as a military hero, was voted to represent Ohio in the US House of Representatives. He served in congress during Reconstruction and he had very definitive ideas of where the Southern states stood after the war. “Like many other Republicans he believed that the Southern states had forfeited their rights and ought to be reconstructed by Congress, but unlike [Thaddeus] Stevens did not feel that they were conquered provinces and were thus no longer covered by the Constitution” (p. 41). This thinking brought Hayes into early conflict with President Johnson. “Voting to override the veto , Hayes thereafter strongly opposed Johnson, who, he felt, had fallen completely under the influence of former rebels” (p. 42).

He only served two years as a congressman before he resigned to run for governor of Ohio and won. In 1868 he also was an elector to the Republican National Convention where he voted and nominated Grant for president. In 1871, he resigned as governor and the very next year he lost an election to congress. During this forced retirement, Hayes got into real estate and was given the Assistant Treasurer position for the state.

He was voted in to an unprecedented third term as governor where he spent most of his time increasing educational awareness and other causes. “In his final message, on January 2, 1877, he was able to take credit for the reduction of the state’s debt, the establishment of various welfare institutions, and the geological survey” (p. 63). Before this final message however in 1876, Hayes had been nominated for president on the Republican National ticket. He was paired opposite Samuel Tilden, Democrat, and no one could tell which candidate would win, both being relatively unknown. It initially looked like Tilden would take the popular vote but it then came to everyone’s attention that votes had been mishandled in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The disputed election went to the House of Representatives but the Constitution was mum on this particular development, so Congress ended up voting a 15-man commission to decide the matter. Hayes won.

Although Hayes was the 19th President of the United States, the country was still divided over the results, while the Democrats fairly howling with rage and calling the president “Rutherfraud.” The “Bargain of 1876” was struck when Hayes declared that he would end all Reconstruction in the South by removing the military presence there.

As president, Hayes went immediately to work ending Reconstruction and promoting civil rights, civil service reform, and universal education. However, his early presidential years were marked by controversy. He had problems with his cabinet, with patronage appointments, with the way he ended Reconstruction and his adherence to the need of civil service reform. At that time office seekers simply stalked the president in the White House but Hayes wished to have civil service offices given by merit and wanted to institute an exam that would preclude promotion. There were also railroad strikes (which the government had to put down) and immigration policies. “All in all, the first two years of the Hayes administration were more successful than could have expected after the disputed election. As the Atlantic Monthly pointed out, interference in stated elections had been abandoned, financial obligations vindicated, burdens of taxation had been lifted, and national credit secured” (p. 109).

He worked hard the next few years as well but he was quite happy to leave the presidency after just one term. Hayes was adamant about not being re-nominated and was quite satisfied with the election of James Garfield. He was satisfied with the job he had done but was not anxious to have the job any longer. “I am now in my last year of the Presidency,” Hayes wrote “and look forward to its close as a schoolboy longs for the coming vacation” (p. 119).

This time his retirement was real. He became the director of the First National Bank of Fremont while taking the time to enlarge his own home, Spiegel Grove. He remained very active in several military and educational associations and he continued to travel. He was interested and active in promoting educational opportunities and civil rights for the rest of his life. In June 1889, his wife, Lucy, died of stroke, leaving Hayes bereft. He would follow her several years later, on January 7, 1893, when he died of a heart attack.