Category: 19th Century

The "Lost Cause", The 2nd KKK, FDR, and Joseph McCarthy

5/18/2019

Source: Jon Meacham. The Soul of America -
The Battle For Our Better Angels (2018)

The “Lost Cause”:
     In 1866, Edward Alfred Pollard’s book was published, titled “The Lost Cause: A New Southern History of the War of the Confederates”. The Lost Cause would thrive, in that Pollard declared that the great enemy of the South was the federal government in Washington, D.C. It was a bold move to continue the fight in the face of catastrophic losses from the Civil War (to give one an idea of how much suffering Southern states endured as a result of the Civil War, in 1866 the state of Mississippi allotted 20% of its state budget for wooden limbs).
    “The Lost Cause Regained” was published in 1868, and Pollard argued that the question in play no longer concerned slavery, but white supremacy. The “true hope” of the South, to Pollard, was to successfully reassert state rights, and the rejection of federal rule became a holy war for the vast majority of Southern whites. In effect, Southern whites dug in for the longest of sieges. Former Confederate general Jubal Early also helped grow the Lost Cause by focusing on, and celebrating, Southern heroes of the Civil War. First up for Early was General Robert E. Lee, and praise for Lee reached the stratosphere after his death in 1870; the Lost Cause now had a narrative complete with heroes.
    The Lost Cause held that the Union won the Civil War due to brute force, which meant that Southern whites cold live in the past as well as the present, in that old times would never be forgotten . . . and that the South would eventually prevail and restore their landscape to what it was before the Civil War. For Southern whites, winning the “2nd Civil War” (Reconstruction) would be defined by the extent the South could subjugate African-Americans; after 1877, the nadir in US History for African-Americans truly began.

The 2nd KKK, Part I:
    While President Woodrow Wilson made generous comments concerning the movie “The Birth of a Nation”, after large protests in northeastern cities such as Boston and Philadelphia, Wilson publicly distanced himself from America’s first blockbuster movie. It was in large part to the initial success of the movie that the 2nd Ku Klux Klan started in Georgia in late-November 1915. By 1924, the 2nd KKK had a significant presence in each of the 48 states. Unease over increasing crime, worries about anarchists, fear of immigrants flooding into the US from Southern and Eastern Europe led to millions of American joining the ranks of the 2nd KKK. By 1917, the fear of the spread of Communism stoked those fears even further, and the “hate list” of the 2nd KKK included Catholics and Jews in addition to African-Americans.
    While the national landscape changed to a more urban America after World War I, the 2nd KKK promised racial solidarity and cultural certitude. The popularity of the 2nd KKK was due at least in part to the many changes in America that occurred during and after the Great War. Therefore, it was not a surprise that the Palmer Raids were not only conducted but supported (“100% Americanism” was the watch-phrase). It became a virtual requirement to paint one’s political enemies with the brush of Bolshevism. President Wilson was inactive during the Palmer Raids, so it took other checks, such as the courts, to rein in the 1st Red Scare.
    By the mid-1920s, the 2nd KKK’s membership was over 2 million, perhaps between 3 and 6 million. The 2nd KKK was a huge influence in the Democratic National Convention of 1924 in Madison Square Garden. The 2nd KKK was powerful enough to at least cause hesitation, if not outright fear, among Democratic politicians. The 2nd KKK also fought against an officially proposed anti-Klan plank in the convention’s platform. The 2nd KKK denied Al Smith (NY) the nomination (as did the pro-Prohibition forces under the leadership of Wayne Wheeler), but they were unable to get their candidate, SecTreas William McAdoo, nominated. In the end, it took 103 ballots to nominate John W. Davis. During August 1925, 30,000 Klansmen (perhaps as many as 50k) took part in a march on the National Mall.

The 2nd KKK, Part II:
There were prominent voices that spoke out against the 2nd KKK as early as 1921, when President Warren Harding went to Birmingham (AL) in 1921 and spoke out against the 2nd KKK and its extra-legal vigilantism. Harding was even more direct in 1923 when he dedicated a statue of Alexander Hamilton in front of the US Treasury building, referring to the 2nd KKK as a conspiracy, not a fraternity. The 2nd KKK responded by spreading unsubstantiated rumors that Harding had African-American ancestry (in 2015, DNA tests disproved the rumor). After Harding’s death in 1923, the 2nd KKK spread the rumor that Harding had secretly joined its ranks while in office.
President Coolidge wanted to focus attention on the increasing national unity, balancing the federal budget, while also denying the 2nd KKK publicity and attention . . . the less said about the Klan, the better. Coolidge knew enough about history to know that the 2nd KKK would burn itself out, which is exactly what occurred. But Coolidge’s silence led to many African-Americans questioning whether the Republicans were the right party for them. On 9 August 1924, Coolidge made a public statement condemning the 2nd Klu Klux Klan. By 1928, the power and influence of the 2nd KKK (the “Mussolini of America”) had started to decline. That same year, the Supreme Court upheld a New York law that required the 2nd KKK to file membership lists with state authorities.

FDR and the Great Depression, Part I:
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in a trilogy he wrote on FDR that was published between 1957-60, referred to the 1920s and the 1930s as the “Crisis of the Old Order”; would the nation save itself or go the route of totalitarianism or communism. During the Summer of 1932, FDR told an advisor that the two most dangerous men in the US were Huey Long (from the Left) and General Douglas MacArthur (from the Right). The loudest cheer that FDR received during his 1st Inaugural Address on 4 March 1933 was his statement that he may need to assume extended wartime powers.
Some of the powerful elites from Wall Street and Big Business tried to enlist former Marine General Smedley Butler to raise an army and march it into Washington, D.C. to remove FDR as President, beyond-fearful of FDR’s reforms. Butler not only flat-out told those that wanted to depose FDR that he would raise an army greater than theirs to combat them, and then Butler informed FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover about the conspiracy. Congress held secret hearings in 1934 where Butler told of what he knew, and on 21 November 1934, the NY Times published an article exposing the plot. Given the economic, political, and social atmosphere in the US at the time, that coup could very well have at least been attempted.

FDR and the Great Depression, Part II:
FDR’s main job, especially before World War II, was to make sure to keep those from the extreme Left and Right from destroying America’s democratic and capitalist systems. FDR was scored and ridiculed in the beginning of his Presidency by millions of Americans, but by the end of his 12+ years as President, he was a hero to the nation. Among the reasons why include FDR overcoming his disability, as well as his incurable (public) optimism. FDR was often exasperating, but in the long run he didn’t let down the nation in terms of dealing with the “big things”.
During the Second New Deal in 1935, FDR largely blunted Huey Long’s plan of redistributing wealth by getting the Social Security, Wagner, and Works Progress Acts through Congress. FDR was key in establishing a bridge from the perilous past to the far more secure future. Even so, while FDR spoke out against the lynchings in the North and South, he didn’t want to promote the anti-lynching bill, fearful that Southern Democratic Senators in key committee chairmanship positions would impede the New Deal. During the perilous past from 1900 through 1933, there were 3500+ lynchings, but only 67 indictments and 12 convictions, and in this situation, FDR was not a bridge to a more secure future for African-Americans.

Senator Joseph McCarthy, Part I:
Historically, Americans approve of the government’s role when they benefit, and howl when others are on the receiving end whey they are not. That dichotomy was exacerbated when the programs from the New deal and World War II became permanent government fixtures. As prosperity and infrastructure improved, the “Fear Factor” concerning foreign influence and subversion, especially communism, remained. To Senator Joseph McCarthy (WI), politics wasn’t about the substantive, but the sensational. McCarthy, ever the opportunist and attention-seeker, was only interested in pursuing fame and gaining influence, and fanning the flames of the Second Red Scare was his ticket to achieving those goals. Starting in 1950, McCarthy basically became the Huey Long of the North.
When McCarthy spoke, everything was dramatic, contentious, and dangerous, and McCarthy absolutely reveled in the media reports that portrayed him as a brave warrior against the Communist Menace. Television offered McCarthy an ever-expanding reach, and soon millions of Americans believed that McCarthy was an American hero. Far too many journalists during the early-to-mid 1950s focused on the traditional method of reporting, which meant rehashing McCarthy’s statements instead of verifying the validity of the Senator’s statements. For the publications that dared to venture towards finding out the real facts behind McCarthy’s assertions that there were hundreds of communists in the federal government, McCarthy’s public vitriol was fierce.

Senator Joseph McCarthy, Part II:
    During the general campaign on 3 October 1952, Republican Presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower had a chance to publicly defend former General George C. Marshall from McCarthy’s accusations that he enabled communists to operate under his nose in State Department in the Truman administration . . . Ike didn’t defend Marshall. Unlike Truman who openly denounced McCarthy, Ike was patient and mostly quiet; like Coolidge and the 2nd KKK, Ike believed that denying attention to McCarthy would help minimize his impact.
    So it wasn’t the President that went after McCarthy, but the legendary television journalist
Edward R. Murrow on his CBS news show “See It Now” on 9 March 1954. Murrow, in a sorrowful manner, attacked McCarthy, lamenting that disloyalty had become confused with honest dissent. Murrow closed by saying it wasn’t McCarthy’s fault, in that the Senator was merely tapping into the national feelings, but Murrow also stated that the McCarthy’s actions/words were giving far too much advantage to America’s enemies.
    The end for McCarthy came just months after Murrow’s broadcast with the Army-McCarthy Hearings. On the nationally televised hearings, McCarthy repeatedly came off poorly to millions of viewers, and his image was no longer that of a brave warrior against communism. Even so, McCarthy’s base supporters remained fiercely loyal, but any threat McCarthy posed evaporated later in 1954 when his fellow Senators censured him, which was mostly due to McCarthy’s reckless methods that violated the traditions of the Senate. The Senate resolution that condemned McCarthy passed by a vote of 67 - 22, with 22 Republican Senators joining the vote for censure. Television largely created McCarthy, and television largely took him down . . . but millions of Americans remained fearful of internal subversion well into the early-1960s.

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Chester A. Arthur: 15 October 1883 - 18 November 1886

11/17/2018

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Source: Scott S. Greenberger. The Unexpected President -
The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur (2017)

On 15 October 1883, in an 8 - 1 decision, the Supreme Court in essence derailed the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The decision severely restricted the federal government on what actions it could take in terms of actually enforcing the 14th Amendment, and the decision also laid the groundwork for “Jim Crow” and “Separate But Equal”. At the time, the decision was enormously popular with whites, even Republicans that had been in favor of equal access rights for African-Americans.
In short, the government could regulate state laws (if it wanted to do so), but it couldn’t regulate the behavior of individual citizens. Arthur, from personal experience as a lawyer in NYC, knew what harm individual and collective bigotry could produce not only in the South, but throughout the nation. Arthur was enlightened with race relations compared to the vast majority of his countrymen in the early-1880s. In his 3rd Annual Message to Congress, Arthur challenged Congress to pass a meaningful civil rights bill, but he didn’t send Chandler (or anyone else) to lobby for the bill. The chances of passage were slim, but there would have been honor in trying.

Chicago was the site for the 1884 Republican National Convention, and Arthur’s level of popularity with the public was at its highest. But Arthur’s hold on the nomination was tenuous at best, in that he didn’t have many allies in D.C. or in the Republican Party. Also, many Republicans were upset with Arthur over his veto of the $9 million pork barrel bill.
The Stalwarts considered Arthur a traitor, and Grant viewed Arthur as merely an interim President with fewer political connections that even Hayes. Reformers didn’t think Arthur went far enough on civil service reform, and the “Half-Breeds” believed that the time had come for their man, James G. Blaine to be the nominee. Privately, Blaine viewed Arthur as a political lightweight, a social butterfly. NYC businessmen were in Arthur’s corner, however, and conventional wisdom had Arthur locking up the New York delegation before the convention. Chandler, who would head the New Hampshire delegation and manage Arthur’s nomination effort believed that if Arthur used his Presidential influence, the nomination was possible . . . even likely.

However, Arthur didn’t want Chandler to work on his behalf in Chicago, since Arthur had no desire to be nominated via shenanigans/manipulations; in other words, Arthur told Chandler that he didn’t want to resort to machine tactics to win the nomination. Arthur withheld the real reason, in that he was dying. Arthur had been diagnosed two years earlier with Bright’s Disease, a chronic inflammation of the blood vessels in the kidneys; the disease in that era was almost always fatal. Arthur followed the Victorian Era tenet that suffering was not for public knowledge.
Arthur couldn’t serve another term as President, but he didn’t want to bow out of the race for the nomination and look politically weak. So, Arthur believed it would be best to lose the nomination while it looked like he tried to win. In Chicago, Representative John Lynch (MS) was nominated to be the temporary chair of the convention by 25 year old Theodore Roosevelt, and Lynch was elected. As the convention progressed, Arthur simply refused to indulge in any patronage wheeling-and-dealing to gain delegates, and the result of the first ballot was Blaine 334, and Arthur 278.

  Arthur received news of the total of the first ballot, and he was disappointed in the low number. Despite his condition and not wanting the nomination, he still craved approval from his party. Arthur’s tally diminished with each succeeding vote, and Blaine won the nomination on the fourth ballot (Arthur was the last sitting President to be denied the nomination of his party). A month later, the Democrats nominated New York Governor Grover Cleveland, a symbol of clean government. Despite his promise to support Blaine, Arthur stayed out of the 1884 campaign.
    Assistance from President Arthur might have made a difference in a very close election. Cleveland won the popular vote by only 57k out of 10 million votes cast, In the Electoral College, it was Cleveland 219 and Blaine 182, and the difference was New York and its 36 Electoral Votes. The margin for Cleveland in the New York vote was only 1,107 of out 1.7 million votes; Arthur’s immense influence in his home state could have led to Blaine carrying New York and being elected President. Arthur kept up appearances after the election, but he longed for the end of his term, and after Cleveland’s inauguration, Arthur headed back to NYC.
    On 23 July 1885, former President Ulysses S. Grant died of throat cancer, and Arthur was among those that worked to get donations for Grant’s ornate monument. Arthur’s last public appearance was in late-1885. In April 1886, the New York Times disclosed that Arthur had Bright’s Disease, and that his days were numbered. On 18 November 1886, the 57 year old former President died, and in the days after Arthur’s death, even Democratic newspapers praised his Presidency. In 1888, at age 59, Roscoe Conkling died from complications following almost getting buried alive in snow while out-and-about during the Blizzard of 1888 in New York City.

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Chester A. Arthur: 19 September 1881 - October 1883

11/11/2018

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Source: Scott S. Greenberger. The Unexpected President -
The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur (2017)

After taking the Oath of Office as the 21st President, Chester A. Arthur relied on Secretary of State James G. Blaine mightily. The next day, 20 September 1881, Arthur repeated the Oath of Office with the Chief Justice and about 40 dignitaries that included former Presidents Grant and Hayes, as well as members of the Cabinet and of Congress. Arthur entered the White House with the vast majority of Americans either disliking him or distrusting him. The uneasiness centered on the fact that Arthur had been Roscoe Conkling’s main man, which meant to most that Arthur would be President of a faction, not a nation. However, Arthur’s dignified behavior during the Summer of 1881 had softened the hostility against him, mostly because he realized he was still the Vice-President until he was forced into the Presidency.
Conkling was ecstatic that “his man” was President, and he suggested to Arthur that he keep Garfield’s Cabinet intact long enough until emotions faded . . . then Arthur could pack the Cabinet with loyal Stalwarts. Arthur’s return to NYC stoked fears that Arthur was indeed Conkling’s man. On 8 October 1881, Conkling met President Arthur, and the main topic was the Customs House. Conkling wanted Arthur to fire Garfield’s collector and to bring in a Stalwart. Conkling’s request, which seemed more like an order, surprised Arthur. Garfield’s assassination had greatly affected Arthur, and Arthur had started to seriously contemplate his place in US History. Arthur didn’t want to be disloyal, but he didn’t want to go down in history as a “Machine President”.

Arthur told Conkling that he was “morally bound” to keep Garfield’s man as collector. Arthur wasn’t elected President, so he wanted to show that he was immediately worthy of the office. Arthur didn’t want to banish Conkling from his “Circle of Trust”, such as it was, but he wasn’t going to be Conkling’s puppet. In the wake of Garfield’s death, civil service groups sprouted up throughout the US; reformers had momentum, but did they have an ally in the White House? Few of those reformers knew that Arthur had refused Conkling’s request at replacing the collector, and his promises to continue Garfield’s vision were vague; all knew that Arthur’s political career was built on patronage.
In early-December 1881, Arthur gave his first Address to Congress (what would become the State of the Union Address), and Arthur came out in support of civil service reform, and in the same speech he stated that there should not be too much emphasis on tests to determine merit. Arthur suggested that a central review board screen candidates, but that he would follow the will of Congress. As 1882 dawned, Conkling was desperate and depressed, and was without political power/influence. Arthur still cared about Conkling, and he nominated Conkling for a vacant spot on the Supreme Court, which was something that Conkling had refused to accept from President Grant. In early-March 1882, the Senate confirmed Conkling by a vote of 31 - 12, yet Conkling refused to take the position (he was the last confirmed Supreme Court nominee to do so). As the year 1882 unfolded, the Pendleton Bill (Civil Service Reform) was going nowhere fast, with many members in the House and the Senate opposed to the bill.

The burdens of being President, and how he became President, weighed heavily on Arthur. Arthur didn’t/couldn’t delegate nearly as much as he had in his earlier patronage days, and to make matters worse, the press accused Arthur of not being a hard-working President. But special acclaim was accorded to Arthur for how he treated others and how he carried himself, in that Arthur’s manners were impeccable, but he wasn’t a snob. Arthur was at his best in social occasions, especially at small dinner parties, and like Herbert Hoover, Arthur didn’t like to be alone.
On 4 April 1882, Arthur vetoed the Chinese Exclusion Bill, but after an override failed, Congress passed a revised version that was only a little less harsh/restrictive, and Arthur signed the bill into law. But soon Arthur had another chance to show his mettle; on 2 August 1882, Arthur vetoed a bill that had historically become an automatic vessel for Congressional largesse which totaled $9 million.
In New York in 1882, it was an election year for governor, and it was a close race between Republicans and Democrats. What was working against the Republicans was that they were still divided between the Stalwarts (pro-Spoils System) and “Half-Breeds” (reformers), and Conkling had not given up hope that he could restart his political machine in the state. Arthur declared that he would not get involved in the gubernatorial election in New York, but no one really believed him. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland (age 45), who was the reform-minded mayor of Buffalo. Arthur did indeed stay out of the campaign, but Cleveland nonetheless accused Arthur of interference, and the Democrats prevailed. The Democrats also made large gains in Congress, and panicked Republicans blamed Arthur for the political disaster.

In his Second Address to Congress, Arthur stated it was time to pass the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Bill, and soon afterwards it passed the Senate 38 - 5, and then in the House (after only 30 minutes of debate), it passed 155 - 47. On 16 January 1883, Arthur signed into law the Pendleton Act, which was the nation’s first civil service reform law. The Pendleton Act was limited to Washington, D.C. and large federal departments outside of the nation’s capital (such as the NYC Customs House). The effectiveness of the law depended on the President, and most Americans doubted that Arthur would work very hard in terms of enforcing the Pendleton Act.
In March 1883, Congress laid the keel of the modern US Navy. Most Americans, however, didn’t see the point in doing so, in that the Atlantic Ocean separated the US from Europe, and the US didn’t have any colonies. The mission of the US Navy since the War of 1812 had been to defend US harbors, so therefore, conventional wisdom held that there was no need to venture very far from US shores. However, in the 17 years after the Civil War, the US Navy was not only inferior to European navies, but also to navies in most Latin American nations. And to make matters worse, virtually every ship in the Navy was wooden, the officers were inept and/or corrupt, and there were too few sailors.
Arthur saw the need to invest in a more modern Navy, and he had the right man at the right time to get the necessary funds out of Congress, Secretary of the Navy William Chandler. Chandler was the influential Republican that wired South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana when the results of the Election of 1876 in the Electoral College were still undecided. Chandler told the Republican leaders in those states to concede nothing, and then he went to Florida to be sure that Rutherford B. Hayes received that state’s total Electoral Vote.

In December 1882, SecNav Chandler’s naval commission recommended 3 steel cruisers and a dispatch boat as well as a provision that prohibited the repair of any ship if the cost was 20% or more of its original cost, which would soon retire all US Navy ships in due course. Arthur signed the Navy bill into law in March 1883. The largest of the new ships only displaced 4500 tons of water, while European ships displaced 15,000 tons, but the US was finally starting down the road of becoming a naval power. Over the next four years, Congress approved 30 additional ships with a total displacement of 100,000 tons. An additional outcome of the creation of the modern Navy was that Chandler became the primary advisor to Arthur.
Arthur took his time choosing those he wanted on the Civil Service Commission, and he made sure reformers were in the group. In May 1883, the commission submitted their recommendations to Arthur, and he executed them with only minor changes. It soon became clear that Arthur was implementing and enforcing the Pendleton Act with vigor. All the while, Arthur wined and dined the Stalwarts, but he didn’t do much else for them as far as what they wanted/expected from the Republican President.
Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872, and it had been under siege by mining, logging, and hunting interests. In December 1882, General Phil Sheridan issued a statement that warned against leasing land in Yellowstone to private interests, and Arthur was sympathetic, in that he wanted to preserve forests that were in the public domain. Yellowstone was actually under Sheridan’s command, and the general believed that Arthur would be an even more ardent supporter if the President visited the national park. Arthur spent three weeks in Yellowstone during the Summer of 1883 in splendid isolation. On his return to D.C., Arthur sent for his physician, and he told his doctor that his arms and legs were swollen and that he was in a tremendous amount of pain.

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Chester A. Arthur: 1880 - 19 September 1881

11/3/2018

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Source: Scott S. Greenberger. The Unexpected President -
The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur (2017)

The 1880 Republican National Convention was in Chicago, and in addition to Grant, Senator James G. Blaine (ME) pursued the nomination as the leading anti-Grant Republican. Senator Roscoe Conkling (NY) was the leader of the Grant forces and he had a lock on over 300 delegates pledged to Grant, but that still left him short of the nomination. Conkling’s strategy was that the delegates would soon enough see that Grant was the only candidate that could logically garner a majority.
Senator James Garfield (OH) had come to the convention to nominate fellow Ohioan John Sherman (who had sponsored his election as Senator), and Garfield made quite the impression on the delegates in his speech. The results of the first ballot were Grant 304 (75 short), Blaine 284, and Sherman 93. After the 28th ballot: Grant 307, Blaine 279, and Sherman 91. On the 34th ballot, 16 of the 20 Wisconsin delegates switched to Garfield, and on the 36th ballot Garfield’s total swelled to the point where he barely reached the majority needed for the nomination.
Conkling appeared to hide his bitterness and asked the delegates to make Garfield’s nomination unanimous, as was the custom. But Conkling was beyond-upset, since Garfield was a “Half-Breed” (Republican reformer), and without New York’s Electoral Votes, Garfield would have little chance of defeating the Democratic nominee without Conkling and his Stalwart faction of the party.

Conkling continued to seethe, and he refused to cooperate in mentioning names for Vice-President. Chester Arthur was offered the nomination via non-Conklingite Republicans, but Arthur wanted to check with Conkling before he made a decision. Conkling was in no mood to see anyone, but Arthur not only gained an audience, but also forced Conkling into a discussion about being VP. Arthur stood his ground after Conkling refused to support Arthur, saying he would pursue the nomination.
    Arthur was nominated as VP on the first ballot, and yet many Republicans were worried about Arthur, seeing him as nothing more than Conkling’s man. Charles Guiteau, just after the convention, was on a steamboat that ran into another amidships; Guiteau survived the ordeal, and he believed that he was being saved for something special.
    In order to defeat Winfield Scott Hancock of the Democrats in the Election of 1880, Garfield would need to unite a fractured Republican Party (the “Half-Breeds” vs. the Stalwarts), at least temporarily. Conkling was over his anger at Arthur accepting the VP slot, and in mid-July 1880 he and Arthur went to Canada to fish for salmon. The main thing that Conkling communicated to Arthur was that it was absolutely mandatory that Garfield accept him and his NY Republican machine.
    On 3 August 1880, Garfield was to meet with Conkling in NYC, but when Garfield arrived, Conkling wasn’t there. Arthur and a few other of Conkling’s emissaries were there instead to meet Garfield, and Arthur told Garfield that they would deliver New York. Arthur added that in exchange, Conkling wanted the Garfield administration to be more like Grant and less like Hayes. After Arthur briefed Conkling on the meeting with Garfield, Conkling agreed to make a few speeches for Garfield. Garfield believed that he had held firm against the demands of Conkling, and the gap in their perceptions from that meeting would loom large down the road.

Garfield/Arthur won the Election of 1880 by only 10,000 votes out of 9 million cast, and in the Electoral College, it came down to New York, which Garfield carried (Hancock believed that he had been cheated out of the Presidency, just like Samuel Tilden in 1876). Conkling had undoubtedly pulled similar shenanigans as Mayor Richard Daley did 1960 to make sure that Garfield carried New York. Arthur basked in the triumph, knowing that he had played a key role in the victory (especially in terms of campaign $$$), and many other prominent Republicans knew of his contributions.
President-Elect Garfield angered the Stalwarts when he named James G. Blaine as Secretary of State, and that Arthur didn’t have very much access/influence with the incoming President. After the inauguration, Garfield filled the rest of his Cabinet, and none were Stalwarts; Arthur was the only one Conkling had in the Garfield administration. Conkling’s hope at that point was that Garfield would at least leave his political machine in New York, and especially the Customs House, alone.
But Garfield nominated an avowed enemy of Conkling to be the new collector of the Customs House, and as far as Conkling was concerned, his nemesis Blaine was behind Garfield’s decision-making. Conkling and the Stalwarts appeared to be locked out of the White House, as well as the Customs House. Arthur counseled against Conkling’s plan, but Conkling, in a “hissy fit”, resigned his Senate seat, hoping that New Yorkers would rally behind him against Garfield. Senator Thomas Platt (NY) did the same, despite only having been recently elected. Neither Conkling or Platt planned on being out of the Senate long, thinking that the NY state legislature would quickly put them back in the Senate, inspired by their courageous protest against Garfield.

The resignations of Conkling and Platt created a lot of drama, but to their surprise, not much sympathy or support. Two days after their resignations, the Senate confirmed Garfield’s nominee as the collector of the Customs House. Soon, it became apparent that there was growing resistance in Albany (NY state legislature) in terms of sending Conkling and Platt back to the Senate. Conkling and VP Arthur went to Albany, with Arthur using his legendary genuine charm, and Conkling faking charm, in order to get enough state senators in their fold. Starting in late-May 1881, the NY state legislature voted each day, and each day there wasn’t a majority for either Senate seat. On 1 July 1881, after the 31st ballot, Platt abruptly withdrew due to a sex scandal. Conkling and Arthur left Albany for Manhattan in order to plot their next moves.
The motive for Guiteau for assassinating Garfield was not that he hated Garfield, but rather that he viewed Garfield as an impediment that needed to be removed in order to gain Republican unity. Also, Guiteau mostly blamed Garfield that he was denied the consulship to Paris, a post in which he coveted. After Guiteau shot Garfield in the back, Secretary of War Robert Lincoln called for Dr. Willard Bliss, who had tried to help President Lincoln after he was shot in April 1865. Bliss concluded that it was too dangerous to keep looking for the bullet, since it was an “ugly wound”. What didn’t help Arthur in the immediate aftermath of the shooting was that when Guiteau was arrested, he stated that he was a Stalwart, and that Arthur was to be President.
By then, Arthur was ashamed at what his loyalty to Conkling and the Stalwarts had cost him. It seemed certain that Garfield would die fairly soon, and after consulting others, Arthur decided that he should go to Washington, D.C. Conkling remained in NYC, trying to regain his Senate seat.

Most Americans dreaded an Arthur Presidency. Reformers weren’t too sure about Garfield, but they were horrified at the prospect of Arthur becoming President. Arthur was afraid to appear in public, and he was shaken to his core with the widespread belief that he was involved in the shooting. SecState Blaine helped Arthur, at least with the members of the Cabinet, when he approached the Vice-President and said, “General, I’m glad you have arrived”. Arthur met w/ Mrs.Garfield for twenty minutes, and then returned to the Cabinet Room. But by mid-July 1881 Arthur felt so sure that Garfield would recover that he returned to NYC.
Meanwhile, Conkling had been trying to recapture his Senate seat in Albany, but the attempted assassination on Garfield had badly wounded his prospects. On 22 July 1881, on the 56th ballot, Elbridge Lapham was sent to the US Senate to finish Conkling’s term. Many expected Arthur to appear and console Conkling, but Arthur didn’t show up to do so. Garfield’s condition had actually started to improve, and by early-August 1881 his recovery had disappeared from the front pages. With Garfield recovering, and Conkling out of the game, Arthur gratefully slipped back into the shadows and out of the spotlight.
On 15 August 1881 Garfield took a turn for the worse and the press was again all over the story. By 25 August 1881, members of the Cabinet had given up hope, and by 27 August Arthur had secluded himself in a home with Conkling and another Senator. Arthur received a letter from a woman which basically predicted that becoming President would change Arthur for the better. That same woman went on to write that since Arthur hadn’t been elected President, he could wipe the slate clean of his previous unsavory political connections/decisions. When President James Garfield died on 19 September 1881, Arthur went into a room and sobbed like a child . . .

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Chester A. Arthur: 1872 - 1879

10/13/2018

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Source: Scott S. Greenberger. The Unexpected President -
The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur (2017)

Most Americans hoped President Grant would be another President Washington, but the traits that made Grant successful in the Civil War proved to be mostly liabilities as President (such as being unswervingly loyal). Grant was accustomed to issuing commands, not seeking advice; in many ways, Grant wasn’t the right President at the right time, but there certainly were worse possible Presidents than the former Union General. The reality was this: when Grant decided to run for President in 1868, there really wasn’t anyone else that would be elected.
In scandal after scandal, Grant defended the rogues in his administration, and it was only a matter of time until the spotlight on corruption found the Customs House. The Customs House, it was discovered, in effect owed the federal government $1.75m, which was settled down to $217k. Even so, Congress continued to investigate, and Arthur continued to claim that he knew nothing about anything fraudulent occurring under his watch. In June 1874, Congress passed the Anti-Moiety Act (unanimously in the House, nearly so in the Senate). Arthur’s salary went from $56k/yr to a fixed salary of $12k/yr; Arthur was still the collector at the Customs House, but the base on which he stood was no longer as stout.

In 1876, as the reform movement that eventually became known as the Progressive Era gained momentum, Senator Roscoe Conkling (NY) was still the most powerful Senator, and he was determined to take Grant’s place in the White House. Other Republicans that sought the nomination included Senator James G. Blaine (ME) and the Governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes. Arthur was Conkling’s point man in Cincinnati at the Republican National Convention in 1876, and even before the convention began, the “Inside Game” was on in terms of grabbing delegates for the nomination.
    On 12 June 1876, two days before the convention, the New York state delegation voted 68-2 in support of Conkling, but that was only about 20% of what he needed to secure the nomination; Conkling’s enemies would make sure that he never got enough delegates. On 14 June 1876, the Republican National Convention started, and the magic number to get the nomination was 756 delegates. With Samuel Tilden the sure nominee from the Democrats, the Republicans understood that they couldn’t nominate a candidate that had close ties to Grant. On the first ballot, Conkling only received 99 votes, and by the 6th ballot, Hayes won the nomination. Arthur was disappointed in the result, but he was a pragmatist, and he moved on.
    Hayes was a supporter of civil service reform, and had no ties to Grant, and no known enemies. After his nomination, Hayes proclaimed that he would end the Spoils System as President. But Hayes would his campaign for the Presidency with political baggage weighing him down, in that the Republicans were the party to blame for the depression that started with the Panic of 1873, and then there were the numerous scandals under the Grant administration (e.g. the Credit Mobilier Scandal). The Republicans desperately needed money to finance the Hayes campaign, and Arthur was the one that came to the rescue. Arthur, using money skimmed from the Customs House, worked to finance the Hayes campaign. Conkling, however, initially refused to campaign for Hayes, and when he eventually (and reluctantly) agreed to do so, he didn’t mention Hayes in his speeches.
    Hayes knew that shenanigans were being used to help him win the election, and he looked the other way, preferring to focus on reform after he was elected. The Republican machinations continued to the Electoral College, and then to the Compromise of 1877 to officially get Hayes elected President. With the inauguration of Hayes as President on 5 March 1877, it seemed that shadows were forming over Conkling’s and Arthur’s fiefdoms in New York.

In April 1877, President Hayes ordered his Secretary of the Treasury, John Sherman, to investigate the nation’s custom houses. The Jay Commission submitted its first report on the NYC Customs House, and it was very unflattering. The commission called for a 20% reduction in workers, and that the political gang of Conkling/Arthur had to go. Conkling hoped that Arthur, a far less divisive figure than he, could weather the storm, but soon rumors flew around D.C. and NYC that Hayes was going to remove Arthur. The spotlight intensified on Arthur after follow up reports by the Jay Commission were tendered.
When Conkling returned from Paris, Conkling kept his mouth shut on the topic of Hayes despite many opportunities to lambast the President. In a letter to Arthur, Sherman stated that he would be removed as collector, and then a few days later publicly stated so. When Arthur and Sherman met on 17 September 1877, Sherman offered Arthur the consulship in Paris, and Arthur said he would consider the offer. Sherman dared to believe that he just may have avoided intra-party strife.
A week later was the New York State Republican Convention, and Conkling finally went on the attack and unloaded on Hayes for a full two hours. A few days later Arthur notified Sherman that he had refused the consulship to Paris, and would not resign as collector. Hayes had offered Arthur and other spoils system Republicans a chance to step aside gracefully, but now the President would go on the offensive. With a new Congress about to convene, Hayes decided to nominate men he considered top-notch to replace the rogues that had defied him.

In October 1877, Hayes offered Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. the post of Customs House collector. TR Sr. had been a public figure that focused on reform and charitable causes, not necessarily politics, but by late-1877, he had become a political man. TR Sr. presented a conundrum for the Senate in terms of confirmation, in that Conkling’s machine was an impediment to reform/charity as had been shown time and again, but that machine had a lot of influence/votes arrayed against TR Sr. TR Sr’s name was first placed into the Commerce Committee chaired by none other than Senator Roscoe Conkling, and he sat on the nomination for a month. By mid-November 1877, Conkling sent Hayes a request for all the evidence that had been collected against Arthur; Hayes ignored the request.
On 30 November 1877, the Commerce Committee unanimously rejected Hayes’ nominations for the Customs House, including TR, Sr. Conkling convinced his fellow Senators to immediately reconvene in session, which meant that Hayes would not be able to suspend Arthur and replace him with TR Sr. as acting collector. Hayes resubmitted his nominations, and again the Commerce Committee under Conkling’s leadership voted against TR Sr. Then, after six hours of debate on the floor, the Senate defeated the nomination of TR Sr 31 - 25, and of course, Arthur was elated when he heard the news.

President Rutherford B. Hayes viewed the situation as a temporary setback, but as 1878 dawned, Chester Arthur was secure in his position as collector in the NYC Customs House. TR Sr died in early-February 1878, and young Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was crushed; as far as TR was concerned, the Customs House fight was at least a major contributing factor for his father’s premature death.
In 1878, with the Democrats having gained a majority in the Senate after the Congressional Elections, Hayes was able to replace Arthur as collector, and there was nothing Conkling to do about it. Arthur landed on his feet and re-entered his law practice in NYC, and with his myriad of connections he thrived. Conkling and Arthur focused on the next Presidential Election in 1880, where they hoped to set things right. Hayes had only stated that he would serve one term, and Conkling wanted a Republican in the White House that was to his liking so the decisions made by “His Fraudulency” would be erased. Conkling and Arthur’s man for the White House in 1880: former President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1879, Republicans triumphed in the statewide New York elections, including the state legislature and governor. It was also in 1879 that Arthur would become a widower, losing his wife who died at the age of 42.

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Chester A. Arthur: 1862 - 1872

10/4/2018

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Source: Scott S. Greenberger. The Unexpected President -
The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur (2017)

The “Shoddy Aristocracy” was a term used by those appalled at the money being made from the profiteers in the North during the Civil War; they were getting rich selling substandard items to the Union Army. Chester A. Arthur wanted to be part of that “aristocracy”. Arthur had become an expert at supplying the military and honoring contracts in his time in the Union Army as a quartermaster (he resigned his commission in 1862). Arthur had left the army and was a lawyer in New York City, and he started to lobby for government contracts in Washington, D.C. and in Albany (NY).. Soon, Arthur became wealthy enough to purchase a five story brownstone in NYC and hire Irish servants.
After Gettysburg, Vicksburg, and the appointment of Ulysses S. Grant to the post of Lt. General (as well as some family tragedies), Arthur had become so disenchanted with the Lincoln administration that he had almost become a Copperhead. Arthur’s conscience wasn’t bothered by profiteering from a war he thought was badly mismanaged by Lincoln and his top men. Lucrative military contracts disappeared after the Civil War, but Arthur’s friendship with Thomas Murphy, a hatter that he had come to know during the war, deepened. Arthur helped the Republican candidate Murphy win a seat in the NY state senate in a Democratic district. Arthur started to spend almost every night at Murphy’s home, having “Super Happy Fun Time” and talking politics.
Arthur made many valuable connections via state senator Murphy. What Arthur and the others in his political circle were interested in was the pursuit and maintenance of power, not solving problems with that amassed political power. In other words, their politics was based on power, not principles. Arthur’s standing in the Republican Party in the state of New York rose due mostly to Murphy, and by 1868, Arthur had become a prominent politician. But in that same year Murphy lost his senate seat pursuing re-election, but Arthur was soon able to find an even greater patron.

That patron was Roscoe Conkling, who was the same age as Arthur. Arthur’s personality was that of a “Hail Fellow Well Met”, but Conkling basically hated people, was easily offended, and didn’t have much of a sense of humor. Conkling was elected to Congress in 1858 as a Republican, and he soon became a force in the House of Representatives, earning admirers/supporters as well as enemies. The only other member of the House that had Conkling’s eloquence was James G. Blaine (ME), who while also a Republican, was basically the opposite of Conkling in terms of personality. And they were incredibly jealous of each other, so a clash was inevitable.
In 1866 Blaine really heaped the insults on Conkling in front of the other representatives. Conkling never again spoke to Blaine or even acknowledged his presence. Conkling was elected to the Senate (before the 17th Amendment, state legislatures selected the two U.S. Senators) before Blaine, and took his seat in 1867. Conkling refused to take direction of party leaders in the Senate; it was basically unprecedented for a freshman Senator to do so.
Conkling was married, but he had a mistress, Kate Sprague, who was the daughter of Salmon P. Chase as well as the wife of the Governor of Rhode Island. Sprague’s advice for Conkling: gain the prize he wanted most, which was to be the Republican Party boss of New York. And the Key to that Kingdom was the New York City Customs House, which by 1872 was still the primary entry point for goods coming into the US. The NY Customs House was the largest federal office in the nation with hundreds of jobs centered around patronage.

The four main jobs at the Customs House were collector, surveyor, appraiser, and the naval officer. Each was in charge of their own department and served four year terms, but the collector by far was the most powerful. There were 800+ clerks that worked under the collector, which meant that the collector was in essence “Mr. Spoils System”. The job required commercial and administrative experience, and the job was a fairly daunting venture in that few collectors made in through an entire four year term.
In July 1870, President Ulysses Grant nominated Tom Murphy to be the Customs House collector. Conkling immediately saw his chance to become the Republican boss in NY by championing Murphy’s nomination in the Senate, while also earning valuable political capital with Grant. Murphy was confirmed as collector with only three Senators voting in opposition, and Conkling was NY’s undisputed Republican leader; many believed he would become President. It was during the confirmation process of Murphy that Chester Arthur and Roscoe Conkling became acquainted, and then friends. Arthur became Conkling’s “Right Hand Man”, and during the 1870s they advanced together and accumulated power and influence until they were on the brink of the White House.

After the Civil War, Arthur no longer viewed politics as a struggle over ideas/issues, but rather as a partisan game to which the victor enjoyed the spoils (e.g. jobs, power, money). Arthur and Murphy had also become involved in the Tweed Ring, and Murphy had become especially close to Tweed. In 1869, Murphy asked Tweed if he could create a job for Arthur, and the job was titled Counsel to the NYC Tax Commission, which paid $10k/yr, and Arthur was in a position where he was to return favors to Tweed.
Arthur and Murphy knew that for the Republicans to ensure their stranglehold on NY politics, the Customs House needed to be in the hands of the Republican Party. Arthur told those in his “Circle of Trust” that if he was in charge of the Customs House he could make the NY Republican Party an unstoppable force. Murphy had been the collector, but he hadn’t paid much attention to the potential of the position since he was so focused on dishing out the spoils to make Conkling happy. Soon enough though, Murphy discovered that vast profits could be skimmed from the position by taking 5% - 25% of what was stored in the Customs House warehouse until payment was received to release the goods. Murphy sent much of that ill-gotten booty to Conkling, et al, but also to some of Grant’s corrupt cronies.
During the Fall of 1871, the most powerful newspaper publisher in the US, Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune, went on the warpath against the practices of the collector of the Customs House, and he put a lot of political pressure on Grant. Grant gave into that pressure to reform the Customs House, and in November 1871, the President accepted the resignation of Tom Murphy as collector . . . but Grant allowed Murphy to name his successor, which was Chester Arthur. Greeley lamented that Arthur would be nothing more than the puppet of Murphy and Conkling.

Arthur aimed to put in effect his political vision for the Customs House as he had outlined, in part to prove his loyalty to Conkling, but also to get more money for himself. 1 December 1871 was Arthur’s first day as collector, and outside of the Executive Branch, he held the most lucrative and powerful job in the federal government. Arthur took for himself $50k/yr ($1m in 2017 dollars) from skimming as Murphy had done, but the majority of the skimmed monies went to the Republican Party in NY. Arthur used his position to gain a seat on the five member Elevated Railroad Commission in NYC, and bought stock in the company as well.
Arthur was now in the upper-society of NYC and he became acquainted with many powerful figures which included Theodore Roosevelt Sr. (the father of TR). Arthur and his wife regularly entertained, lavishly so. Arthur showed up for work at 1 pm in that he was usually up to the brink of dawn interacting with influential people. Arthur’s charm and elegance at running the Customs House helped blunt the frustrations of those whose goods were taken by skimming. Arthur was popular with the employees at the Customs House. Arthur demanded party and personal loyalty, but he resisted external efforts to reduce the salaries of those employees. Arthur focused on keeping the workers he had and added new positions instead of thinning the ranks in order to cut costs. In effect, Arthur was Conkling’s man running the NY Republican machine so Conkling could remain an effective Senator (An added bonus was that Arthur’s personality was far more effective than Conkling’s in dealing with the people side of the coin).
In the Fall of 1872, Arthur faced a challenge when the application of the new federal civil service rules went into effect. Arthur gave outward respect to the law but totally ignored implementing any of its aspects. The only applicants that took the required civil service exams were the ones that Arthur had already decided to hire. Republican political bosses in each state put their efforts to make sure that Grant won re-election in 1872, and Arthur did his best to help with the machinery of the Republican Party in the state of New York.

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