Transcripts For CSPAN3 First Ladies Influence Image - Lucretia Garfield Mary Arthur McElroy 20240712

Its only in recent years that a lot of focus on how it rocked her message was, predicting in the early years. I think james found her distant and cold, but as the years went by, she had a tremendous influence on him. James and luke richard spent a lot of time with her family, and that led to the key to success. Mrs. Garfield adored her time at the exhibition and she was interested in the latest sciences and technologies of the day. After james guard feel to death, a lot of prominent citizens raised there into 50 dollars that was turned over to Lucretia Garfield. And todays dollars, that would equate to 8 Million Dollars. Her character was exceedingly strong and she had a rectitude that was in vulnerable. I Lucretia Garfield was born in ohio and 1832. Her life spans antebellum america to the progressive era of the early 20th century. A supporter of womens rights and deeply interested in partisan politics, she and president james our field entered the white house on march 4th, 1881, after a very close election. However, what plans he had as first lady were soon got four by an assassin bullet. Good evening and welcome to cspan series, first ladies influence an image. Tonight we will learn about Lucretia Garfield and after the assassination, the next person to come into the white house, Chester Arthur, who did so without a first lady, and we learn how he handled that. Talk us understand this interesting period carl anthony, the historian at the National First Ladies Library who is also the author of americas first family. The circumstances of the garfield election really help to seal the president s fate, so tell us the story of where the Party Politics were at that time. Many of the large issues that had continued in post civil war era were in large measure put to rest, the Transcontinental Railroad had been six exceeded, and a lot of focus was on power and money and that struggle within the Republican Party for who would control the party, which meant who would control the positions that were appointed positions that were at the discretion of people in power, ended up being a power struggle within the party between and ohio based party, which was James Garfield party, and also was a rutherford haze from the same part of ohio, but also the same thinking. And what were called the stalworth which were in new york. You see certain states emerge throughout history with Holding Onto Power within a particular party, and in new york, that was headed by a man by the name of ras go, who became a senator. You see the man who ends up shooting president garfield, the range of course, but proudly screaming with the gun and his hand, im a stalwart, now arthur as president. And that was a reference to the fact that Vice President arthur elected garfield was in the new york wing of the party. He was a compromise candidate after many ballots of the convention, so when they came to the white house, where they accepted . They were accepted, and this was where lucretia played a vital role. A lot of it was a matter of calling together a cabinet where everybody would be happy that the new york wing would be happy, that garfield as leader of the partys would be satisfied, so you had Lucretia Garfield playing an espionage role and the post election free inauguration where she goes to the new york under the alias of mrs. Green field, and its really there where she deals with this guy she does not like cabinet of who would be appointed and who wouldnt. The election is very close, and said it was a terrible responsibility to come to him and me, so that you want to become first lady . She did not want to become first lady for herself, she wanted to become first lady for her husband. They had really been through everything and they lost to children, and had marital troubles and by the time he was run in 1880, they are very clear and very square on the same page in terms of their values, and they both shared a lot of intellectual and literary pursuits, that was a mutual passion that i think during that tough times kept them together, but she was, at the time she got the news that he had won the nomination, she was in an old vine, scrubbing the floor. And that was the first to use. She wrote a private letter for some friends and said the truth is, i really dont want to go to that place. But i really believe that my husband is the right man to lead the country. Throughout this program, will take you to the garfield home and mentor ohio and run by the national part, please make a point of visiting it and that became very famous that we are talking about, what did the force Campaign Come about . I dont know all the details except that it was relatively rural and groups of people came to hear them speak. That was the whole point, and most of them took place in the midwest and for Lucretia Garfield, what was interesting was that it was the property of her home, her being seen by the voters and people coming in and did not see anything unusual about the presence of his wife at what was a Campaign Rally because it was also her home. We learn more about the Front Porch Campaign. This was the side of the first front porch president ial campaign for. And her role was more concentrated on the inside of the home, so standing in the front hall is kind of a strange place to Start Talking about James Garfield why the hill Front Porch Campaign of 1880, but this is the part of the house where Lucretia Garfield spent a lot of her time during the campaign. Now, of course james carpeted went to chicago to nominate someone else for president , he was not expecting to be a candidate, so Lucretia Garfield had no expectation that over the next five months somewhere between 17 and 20,000 people would show up at her home and her property here. When these people started to show up on the property, that many people obviously were unexpected uninvited, started to cause some damage to the outside of the property. They were killing the crops and bringing things out of the ground to take the souvenirs, and Lucretia Garfield was very concerned, the same thing that was happening on the outside of the property, not happening here on the inside of the family home. So shes been a lot of time on this always keeping an eye on the front door, she was a gatekeeper and making sure that no one was able to get into the house. You see the front steps here on the house . His office was at the top of the steps, and at some point during the day, he would come down the steps and then go out the front door to stand on the front porch, talk to people who were gathered out there and give speeches as part of his Front Porch Campaign. And i imagine lucretia falling behind him, because he was so adamant that people dont get inside the home, they had a young family that they were very concerned about, and they also had just finished a major resignation u u u u u u u u u ud causing the same kind of damage inside that you saw on the outside of the property. We know that Lucretia Garfield was a very gracious host, and she very often would greet him at the front hallway and offer them during the campaign what she called standing refreshments, which meant that she was very gracious and talk to them for a few times, offer them water, but conspicuously, not chair to sit and because she did not want them to overstay their welcome. One thing that i wanted to tell you that its great about these programs is your involvement in and, we have a phone line set aside for you to call, and and will get to that in a couple of moments. You can also tweet us and use the hashtag first ladies and were already having a great conversation with lots of historical questions on our facebook page, and heres one of those. Our jay wilson writes, i visited the garfield house and saw that they look at previous president s, even from damages of all the previous president s. Did she feel that way or the sea of others who inspired her . A great question. We have a lot of bits of evidence that cumulatively show us that Lucretia Garfield was the first first lady to really have a strong consciousness about being part of a historical tradition of first ladies. In her diary, the only diary kept by a first lady, she records an incident where one of her guests comes in and tells her about the night of the fall of richmond the later on chains that was a farmhouse into a victorian mansion in the years of her widowhood, and had another home, a Beautiful Homes Still Standing in pasadena, california, which is a very forward thinking. Well think about that. Heres something that James Carville thought about her as they were Political Partners in the white house. He said that she is an stamp eatable, thats a great word. There has been one solitary and sense of my career when i suffered in the smallest degree for any remark she ever made. So tell us a bit more about that character that she brought to the job. Well, you know, it did not come using. She was one of those people that spend a lot of time thinking, and she always tried to be highly rational in her opinions when she formed them and in her concepts of people and just ideas, whatever it may be. Current events, history, and this was a bit of a problem early on when they were courting and even in their marriage because a lot of people, including her husband, felt that she was not emotionally expressive. But it was when she had given something a lot of thought and she was clear about how she felt, then she would express herself our beautiful. This was a real self motivated woman who thought education would not only be her get to success, but her happiness. One of the first decisions he had to make was about temperance, and whether they would follow the no alcohol policy set by the haze, which we learned about last week. Will you tell us about that decision that she made and how significant it was politically . It ended up, what she said, not having a very Significant Impact politically, but the threat was made to her by a woman who came and said, you know, you must continue the no alcohol policy. And Lucretia Garfield said thanks but no thanks. I feel that by my doing this one little thing, by not serving alcohol to my guests, it will take on an enormous importance in the press and give it far more attention than it needs. She herself drink wine, she writes about that in a letter to her husband. And then this woman threatens and says, well, this is going to affect the Republican Party and mrs. Garfield said, no, i dont think it is. This whole decision in the pressure for it came around the official portrait of lucy hayes, we talked about it in the last program, a big story about the money being raised to create this portrait. How much president jim was there on the arrival of this portrait and the ultimate decision that the garfield would make . It was presented to the white house as the white house not denying it, and nor they think that it would be wise in terms of Public Relations to deny the portrait of their most immediate predecessor, the wife of their most immediate predecessor. The controversy was the fact that, and mrs. Hayes was upset also because the money they claim they were getting the portrait done was being spent for Womens Christian Temperance Union and other projects. So it had a slight taint of scandal. Kathy robertson wants to know how popular she was in comparison to lucy hayes. There was very little time for her to actually become popular in the sense of functioning as a first lady the way we think. The inauguration was on march 1st. By the end of april she has malaria, and by may there was even a fear that she might die in the white house. And president garfield, does president for three months writes of how she was unable to work with fear that this was going to be, that something would happen to his wife. It is only after he is shot in july that the press really begin to focus on Lucretia Garfield and she becomes not only a national, but an International Heroin for her behavior and her calmness and control as the president is attempting recuperation. First calls from robert, in chicago. Hi, youre on. Good evening. I have one simple question to ask. By the time garfield became president , his salary was 50,000 dollars. I was just wondering if mrs. Garfield received the balance of the salary after he had passed on . Yes, she did. She also received his pension as a former member of congress, and she received, as susan mentioned, that large amount of public funds that were raised. And she also received a president ial widows pension, so she had quite a bit of income coming from several directions. This is a call from bill watching us from columbus, ohio. Hello. Your question . I grew up in, mineral, where the garfield estate is and i passed it all the time and i remember there being a place that he grew up in. Is it still there . I dont know. Have you ever visited the place . Surprisingly, i never did. And i lived there. That happened to so many of us when we have Historic Sites in our own communities not taking the time, but thanks for calling. Talking about her involvement in the collection,tn she was deeply involved in partisan politics and had a keen political sense, very briefly, where did she develop that keen political sense and had achieved to advise the president . She really started developing at once they moved to washington d. C. When he was a member of congress. They lost their first child, a girl, they lost their last born, a boy. They had a lot of tough times and during his service to washington, they were separated again and said shes not going to put up with it, so they decided to build a home in washington. When she came to washington as a congressional wife, she began attending debates on capitol hill and was there during the 1866 commission. And her husband belong to a literary society, but this was really her political education during those congressional years. She also put a room aside just for herself to paint and read in the house they built here in washington. But politics really became one i would say it was her primary interest and one of many and she was interested in everything. The cabinet, the issue of the cabinet really circles around the controversy and the knowledge that mrs. Garfield ones in the cabinet is just as important to me as knowing that you, the president , want me in the cabinet. And heres a quote, exactly. I wish she would say to his car filled that the knowledge that she desires me in your cabinet is more valuable to me than even the desire of the president elect himself. That says something about her influence, at least on the president. Absolutely. I would say that partisanship and these little splinters within parties, she was not a policy person. She was not someone who is looking at policy and saying that you should support this or not. She was looking at members of the cabinet, and from a part of partisan loyalty, where these people, theres that saying, keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer, she was always looking at how were these men going to potentially affect her husbands career. It seems as if they decide to mix the cabinet with both has breeds and stalwarts, and satisfy no one. To a degree. I mean by the time of garfields assassination, theres a great sense of remorse because this guy who shot him did it openly out of political partisanship, and it was sort of horrifying. That also involved Vice President arthur who was representative of the wing that the assassin claim to be associated with. We should be really specific about this. The brief tenure of this presidency, because president garfield was in office 186 days in total, and because of his lengthy decline, and will tell that story later, which is so interesting. He was actually only functional 421 days of that. So this is a really brief time, not much time to establish opinions in the public at large. You mention well this first. David murdoch is asking, and it seems that you just underscored how they answer would be yes. Did change look to his wife or political guidance . Absolutely. Political in the sense of dealing with people and appointments, that sort of thing. We dont have evidence, because there is no record, really, of him coming to her with weighty legislative decisions. You mentioned earlier that Civil Service reform was becoming a very important issue. People who saw that movie lincoln will see how patchy those jobs were to help influence the president. So what was the bubbling controversy over patronage, and what was the reform that people wanted to employ . Well, we get a little bit ahead of the story because you have this with garfields assassination and death, you have this man come into the white house, and everyone was like, oh my gosh, this was like the worst. Talk about a man who has benefited from political patronage, arthur has never been elected to any office. He was the collective of the port of new york, and at a high position in new york state during the civil war, but it was all political patronage. And roscoe conkling, the kingmaker of the stalwarts in new york said that the doors were open and will get all the political plums, and president arthur says no. Im going to change my stripes and were going to be honest. And Chester Arthur is the man who initiated the first Civil Service reform. Well, were going to learn that he was described as a frustrated officer, because it was also tied in with his big allegiance to the other factions of the gop. Arthurs faction of it. But his example of coming to the office and looking for jobs, how did that process work in the 18 eighties . Its extraordinary to think that even 20 years after the assassination of president lincoln, that there could be such a relatively lax security at the white house. But as you know, and many viewers know that the way that the white house was set up at the time, there was the ground floor where there were no restored rooms, yet they were basically functioning as kitchen places to keep china and that sort of thing, and then there is that main floor, the state floor. With the eastern and the green room and the red room in the state dining room, the floor above that at the time was three hallways and the hallway was at the furthest west where the family rooms were. The middle section and the east and were the president ial offices. So people, members of the public who had some they connection from a senator or congressman, if they didnt, but to be able to go up the stairs, check in with the doorkeeper and wait in this hallway and hope to see one of the president s secretaries pressing their case, usually with letters of introduction claiming how great and wonderful they were and how they deserved some kind of a federal position. Were not talking about people being cabinet members or postmaster of this or pay master of that, so this was the kind of stuff that a president was having to deal with while he was in his office, or the private secretary was at the far end, and trying to deal with. These kind of characters were always shifting around in the hallway, and guiteau was one of them, and he never got to press this case. And he took it personally. Clearly. To the ultimate degree. The car feels brought to the white house some big and happy family. And our next visit to the home, well learn more about the family. This was the parlor, this is how it looked during the 1880 campaign. This was indeed both the formal parlor and the family room, it served as both. James and lucretia its been a lot of time with their children, they adored their children very much. They lost to children to infancy, Elijah Arabella and edward. Those children died before the family moved here. James and lucretia its five hand children, hall, irving, abraham, jimmy had the benefit of having two intelligent parents who believed in education. They felt that education was an emancipating factor and that led to the key to success. They took piano lessons, dance lessons. We have mollys piano, who is a gift to her in 1880. She practice the piano more than the boys, that was a reward. Here in the family parlor, like every room in the house, you see a lot of books. Books are very important to james and lucretia and their children love to read as well. Some of their family authors were dickens, there are several volumes of his work there and also william shakespeare. The family which it by the fireplace, read to one another. Oftentimes out loud in the evenings. That was one of their favorite activities. We are here in the family dining room. In the center of the table is this very interesting art piece, its called the birth of venus, and i won an award at the philadelphia centennial. Mrs. Garfield absolutely adored her time at the exhibition. She visited all the tense, the science tense, the technology tends, but she was specifically interested in the latest sciences and technologies of the day, and she would write pages and pages of what she saw at the site. R mrs. Garfield as a very artistic lady, but she was also very intelligent. She loved the sciences, like most families. Dinnertime was a very important time of the day. I was a time for them to all get together and talk about what they were all doing. The garfield also use this time to educate the children. He would play game for the children, and sometimes would bring a book to the table, words that were oftentimes mispronounced or miss spelled and quizzed the children. James and lucretia made everything an educational experience. And that, we learn about the kind of parents they were. But how did they meet . Its really quite fascinating because, again, there are so many modern cords in it. Theres this sense of equality to them, and even though they were mid 19th century people, both of them saw each other as equals. Lucretia garfield was the great granddaughter of a german immigrant and the parents were very religious, the fathers for one of the founders of the eclectic institute and they very strongly believed in education of women. This was kind of a fastening phenomena in ohio because you see this all over the president wives equal education for women. Lucretia garfield went through great school, but then went to the eclectic institute and steadied the classics. She learned how to speak greek and latin, she learned how to speak french and german, she studied science, biology, mathematics, history, philosophy and right away there was, if you can think of passion coming through the world of ideas, there was a real passion struck between the two of them. James carville came from a very poor family, or friend and never knew his father. And has been a canal, boy a young guy who had walked the mules, so everything they got they greatly appreciated and, again, she felt that education was the answer. She was a teacher at the eclectic institute and went to Williams College and they began a car respondents, and that is really where you begin in a funny way, its the role of ideas that began to separate them and bring them together, not necessarily incidents that are occurring, they argue over ideas but one of those ideas was the fact that there was another woman that she met at his graduation from Williams College, and that became a point of contention between the two of them. We have a sense of that with a letter that lucretia wrote about their relationship, i should not blame my heart if i lost all faith in you, i shall not be forever telling you that i love you when there is evidently no more desire for it on your part then present magnifications indicate. It was so touch and go. But whats really interesting about lucretia was that even though she loves him, she also has looked out for herself. She said a course and its going to become a teacher, and she determined that she would work and earn her own salary. She did not want to be a burden on her father, and she ever got married, have to depend on anyone else. And she not only becomes a teacher but an interest in art is born in her and she pursues this on her own and becomes an art teacher. She shifts the topics that she teaches and this is all right before she gets married. He has another affair. The earlier one which is a love situation before they were married. He has a full blown affair with a woman by the name of lucia county in new york, and that nearly ends the marriage. Stanley is watching us in ohio. Whats your question . Thanks cspan, i appreciate the president ial series that youre doing. I visited the home here six b k b k b k b k b k b k b k b ky impressed with the furnishings in the home. Did mrs. Carr field furnished that home and build the library herself before the president died or was it afterwards . Find a word, yes, the way it looks, the interior was by her hand, but most importantly, and answering your question, she had build on to it after his death. That fireproof safe, which is now part of the house, specifically to house and protect and preserve his letters and papers, because she actually had been planning on writing a biography about him herself. She never lived to do that but those letters were published before being donated to the library of congress. One important thing that struck me, because i know theyve spoken about first ladies who burned papers. Lucretia garfield had such a sense of history that she kept papers, even the ones that might prove embarrassing or personal, that related to her marriage. But she had a sense of herself and her husband beyond their own lives as historical figures. Lets hear james guard field side of the story. they do get married. Isolated cystic that she has been they were together for six weeks out of six years. His tenure in the civil war, followed by his election to congress and moving to washington. How did this marriage eventually to get the point where there are functioning as a couple . She moved to washington. And also the death of the child . Well, the first child died. A little girl. And she gave birth seven times. The last child, a little boy, died. So through that it brought them together, but i believe that it was our physical presence and coming to washington with the family. They build a house, the longer standing, here on 13th street. But what is fascinating about her in building this house she created a room for herself because even though she was not a devoted mother, there are a couple of letters that say, you know, it gets on your nerves and hurt your ego sometimes to think that your whole life after this education is being spent, i remember the words like the little terrors are all that occupy your time. So she really began to develop our passion for art and painting, and for reading, and for writing. She was quite an essayist. None of it for publication but she joined the literary society. David is listening in chicago, and europe next. President arthur knowing that he was dying, burn his personal papers along with his white house papers. And yet he got so little publicity on this action, versus florence hearting who burned only a small faction. And is still being vilified today. What is the difference between the two . And i just want to say thank, you i really enjoyed your book and im looking forward to your book the spring, thank you. President arthur, theres some indication that it was actually his son allen, who may have had more of a hand in that. Arthur himself did dream about protecting his private life. Well talk about the arthurs, so i wont get too far into that but also the issue was in terms of the heartings was just the era of suspicion coming on the heels of the various scandals, the political scandals. So the action that they took while it might have been well intentioned to protect the memory, the suggestion of it at that particular time as the scandals were breaking suggested some kind of malfeasance that was not the case. Back to the story of Lucretia Garfield, we learned about how often she was away, leaving her with all those children to raise on her own. And next will see a letter that they talk about the frustration of being the one that has to make all the decisions in the family. I cannot conceive of any possible reason why he should be such a trail to my life, nor do i believe it was possible for you to know what a child he is. I cannot be more patient with him, and with physical torture, what he will never become, i dont know, and im almost afraid to think of his future. It is horrible to be a man, but the grinding misery of being a woman between the upper and another mild of training children as almost as bad. To be have civilized with some aspirations for enlightenment and obliged to spend the largest part of the time and keep one and pretextual ferment. Somehow they made all work in brothels into the white house where they had a very involved an active family. We have a family photograph of the white house, and it was a brief tenure, as we said. But what was family lifelike in the white house for these people . It was healthy and funny, and humorous and there was no strictly sentiment. Even though it was the victorian age, nobody was trying to use them as examples of good living, and that sort of thing. They were just a very close family. Two older boys were to be going to college but they were so close that they actually remained in the house and they say there. There were two little boys who were kind of terrors and a very beautiful open hearted daughter, molly, who kept a little doll lori when they were in the white house and was very poignant document because they talk about fathers association. Very sad. The grandmother was also there, garfields mother and luke reaches father was also still alive, but it was garfields mother who came to live there and it was kind of of the thought that they had raised her son to be president and even when mrs. Garfield was ill and there were some speculation about whether they would be able to return as hostess, there are these suggestions that maybe mrs. Garfield would come to the white house and take over. Joy on twitter asked that a lot of first ladies have a cause. Did she have a cause . Really interesting. One suggestion, and it was written in a letter by one of the first people in the united states, a woman, who was both blind and deaf, who had achieved Higher Education and was in touch with mrs. Carr field. So theres some suggestion that misses garbage interested in working with people who were sight impaired or hearing impaired and potentially developing educational outlet for them, but the one project we know about and, from her diaries is going to lie Brave Congress to do research on the history of the white house with the idea of, not necessarily historically restoring the house, but bringing a sense of history there. Again, the people at this point, 80 years the white house has been standing. And all these families had lived here. So now youre having one and two and three generations worth of stories that she is starting to hear, and she really has a sense of history. And the history of the house. I might also add in her papers is a fascinating list of artists and writers that she intended to invite to the white house. Next is thomas in new york, youre on. Hello, can you hear me . Yes, we can. Your question . Can you hear me. Im sorry im sorry thomas, you have to turn that volume down. You talked about the artistic ability and also some of the decisions she made about things like the white house china. We have the families china, which was actually the china that they used at the white house. And ill just take one out. And it has the monogram on it. With them. D feels wer u they wouldve used to china at home and also at the white house, so this would have been there formal dinnerware. The white house probably has several pieces of the china. We have quite a collection here of the china that still exists. Its a pretty impressive set. China painting was very popular in the 19th century, very popular of a happy for ladies. The top row of garfield shine were hand painted by lucretia. Mrs. Garfield was very up on the latest trends of the day, and she had a very good eye for art and beauty. She thought painting for a while. Around the fireplace are handpainted tiles, that was a family project done in 1880. Mrs. Garfield painted the two top corner tiles. The other tells repainted by the children and one family friend. James garfield, once said that his wife at fault list ace and looking around the home you can tell that she chose her furnitures, her wallpapers, very carefully. And robertson on twitter asks, did lucretia have the opportunity to host any events at the white house . She hosted regular receptions and its fascinating that at one of those a man by the name of charles, who would shoot the president two months later met her and recorded having a very pleasant conversation and really liking her. Of course, she gets malaria and theres fear that she might die as she is recovering. Its thought that she would do better for and the guiteau, ready to shoot the president , comes in and its waiting at the railroad station and sees him with miss garfield, and he cant bring himself to shoot the president. Thats in june . In june. I want to pause for dramatic effect because on july 2nd, he gets his second chance. Tell us that story of the assassination. The president is on his way to new jersey to join his wife, and he is then going to go up to Williams College in massachusetts two of the boys are back in ohio. Molly, the president daughter is with his daughter and guiteau she is the president. Right away, he sees harriet blane, the wife of james blane, who was so strongly in favor of having, and tells her to please immediately wire creek. She is overwhelmed at first and almost faints and has to be held up by two men another side of her, and she composes resolve and says, what will it take to make sure he secured, and she said a miracle. She said without any sentiment, well then thats what will happen. It will be a miracle. This was july in washington d. C. She contracted malaria because washington has not drained its swamps. And it was a muggy, hot dangerous place for health in the summertime. So here is this mortally wounded president taken back to a hot, damp white house. How does this affect his care . I can almost say what care. He is they know he has a bullet in him. Its basically hot, theres a rudimentary air conditioning system to pump cool air up from the ground floor. They do that because theyre asking inventions. And with that, not only did the nba for inventions come, but all kinds of kooky recipes and portions and things like that were being sent to mrs. Garfield. Now, mrs. Garfield was fantastic in that she was able to compartmentalize what were her very personal fears and real care and we are on her emotionally from the possibility of losing her husband, and then the wherewithal to put out this word that everything was fine. The president was in charge, and this was a very important thing. She was seen that everything written about him be sent to her for review. Oy1y assuming in a president ial duty, so you began to see generated first in the country and then around the world the most amazing articles about this womans intelligence, her fortitude and strength. And how it was pervading the white house. And tearing up so to speak the president , the patient. Then the technology of the day mid the pen sketching. So you can actually see visual images of mrs. Carr filled with their daughter, or her down the kitchen preparing food for him. So it was a little bit of hyperbole because it was a desperate situation, and as we had spoken about earlier, Alexander Graham bill offered to bring in a new fangled, electromagnetic machine to try to find the bullet, and ask that any metal springs be removed, and they werent. So he was trying to trace a metal bullet and the machine saw all the bets brings. Is it true that president garfield that now from the gunshot but bacteria from dirty instruments used by the doctors . Well, you know, thats a little bit yes but also the bullet was dirty. It was a foreign object that it was in him, so it did he might have eventually died, its just a circumstantial situation. Of course, theres also ignorant at the time. I will say that he had one woman doctor, doctor susan ensign, an act from the federal government had paid those doctors, they paid that woman doctor half the amount, at mrs. Carr field wrote the letter and less outrage. She used the word discrimination and the woman doctor received the same amount as the male doctors. Lorraine watching in tallahassee, hello, youre on. My question is, and thank you cspan for the program. My question is, during the timeframe, but they have known the rockefellers and the vanderbilts of those days . The arthur, Chester Arthur and his wife did, right after them. But the car fields really did not at the time. In later years, mrs. Garfield was quite well respected and wellknown in the country, and i would not doubt that she would have had contact with them. Next up is scary, watching us in new mexico. Hello. Hi, thank you. Was there a big age difference between the president and mrs. Garfield . I dont recall. I think it was five years or less, but i dont remember the specific birth dates. But not a large difference . The president was shot again on july 2nd, and he lingered until september. The decision was made to move him to the jersey shore . Yes, the very place where we have been headed to see her and join her. And that is where he dies. In her presence. What is very interesting is that among the many many letters that she received, she gets one from a former first lady, julia tyler. She not only sent a telegram as the former first lady sarah polk, but she is also given a plate and says i wanted to emphasize, and to use the word a sister in talking about this idea of a sorority of president ial spouses. And the funeral. 250,000 people came. Set the stage for us on this Victorian Era funeral and what it was like. To me, one of the woods says it all is the way the white house itself look. There are photographs that show that it trends in the most intricate patterns of black morning and mrs. Carr field was strong throughout. She did not break down, unlike mary lincoln and peggy taylor who were unable to emotionally withstand the whole public display of this. Mrs. Garfield was seen. She also, in a very practical way, began designing and working with the ways of what his tomb would be like in cleveland, ohio. For other first ladies and later years also. Jacqueline kennedy, also took that model and became very much involved in the planning of the funeral process and on the memorial. With that, the legacy of what their husbands would be like. Lucretia garfield, even in the papers that she was preserving . But she also approved statues, busts of him. She was very hands on whatever had anything to do with him. Cynthia on facebook want to know how their children react to the Families Association and how old they were. I dont remember the ages, and they were not all there when he died. As i mentioned, two of the boys were young and to older boys, college age, molly was about 13 and there were the two younger boys. The amazing thing was that there is a fun drive for the garfield family, and we use this before, but 350 to 360,000 dollars in 1880 dollars was raised. Ben wedeman 8 Million Dollars today. And did it come internationally, or people sending money from all over the place . I was a financier by the name of simon field who started this. It really started on. And she really captured peoples imaginations. We forget now that it was a brief moment in our history, but it was so different from the way people reacted to mary lincoln. But, in fact, i should mention that because of this is garfield getting, but not only that, but being awarded by congress, the president ial whittles pension of 5000 dollars a year, that also benefited the other surviving president ial windows, sarah polk, and true to form, mrs. Lincolns reaction was, im sure somebody is going to put on that, and i wont ever get my money and julia tyler wrote an anonymous letter to the press that this is wonderful, but i think it should be double that amount. Scott in garfield heights. Thank you for the series, me and my son loved it. I grove not far and was the president of the university. We are watching cbsn a morning and they had a tribute question saying who is the only president varied above ground . We didnt know, and garfield. So weve got the car and there is the monument, and it sets up. You walk down and you look in, and it has still bars and baskets. With the American Flag draped over, it just a beautiful bronze statue, and i highly recommend it. Its a beautiful place. I dont know that hes the only president buried the adams is are buried above ground. Mckinley. And grant. And hard. English system. But thanks to the recommendation, thats one of the things were trying to do, in just people in learning more about American History and getting out on the road and seeing this, as your interest begins to wax. Another video. This is returning to the mentor home of the car fields and in this, we will learn about how the crucial began to preserve her husbands memory. Well, after James Garfields death, Lucretia Garfield came back here to mentor, ohio, started to make her life and her familys life again here in this house and on this property. And she started to make a lot of changes to the property eventually. For example, the summer bedroom, she stopped using that, turned it into other things, started using the upstairs bedroom a lot more frequently. She converted the downstairs kitchen into an open Reception Room and had the kitchen moved into the back part of the house. Most significantly, of course, was the construction of the president ial Memorial Library in 1885 and86. So she started to make a lot of changes to the property. But i think just as important as the changes that she made to the property are the ones that she didnt make. And im standing now in the room that james a. Garfield used as an office for the years that he was alive and living here in the house. Lucretia garfield sort of lovingly called this the generals snuggery. So this room today really does pretty much look like it did when Lucretia Garfield came back to the home and really found the room in the condition that it was in the day James Garfield walked out to go become president of the united states. She did make a few minor changes in here, the most significant of those is right here over the fireplace. You see the words, in memoriam carved into the wood. This, of course, has, you know, a very special meaning to her in memory of James Garfield, in memoriam refers to that. Uzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzuzud of an interesting double meaning, in that in memoriam was also the title of james and Lucretia Garfields favorite poem. In late 1863, james a. Garfield went to washington, became a firsttime member of the u. S. House of representatives. On december 1, 1863, their firstborn child, a daughter named eliza, who they lovingly had nicknamed trot, died. She was only two or three years old. This was, of course, very tragic for them and really kind of brought them much closer together than they had ever been up to that point since they had been married. But James Garfield wrote this very sort of compassionate, impassioned letter to his wife from washington, d. C. , just about two weeks or so after the daughters death. And he told lucretia in the letter that hed been reading this poem, in memoriam written by alfred, lord tennyson, and that it was offering him great comfort as he tried to do deal with the death of their daughter. And he suggested that lucretia read the poem, as well. He hoped it would bring as much comfort to her as it had brought to him. And he kind of suggested that this really become sort of their poem. And it did. So when Lucretia Garfield had, in memoriam carved into the wood here in her husbands office after his death, she really was kind of acknowledging not only his tragic death at a very young age, only 49 when he was assassinated, but also this love of literature that they had and this very special relationship they had with the tennyson poem. And later on in our program, well come back to the years after the white house for Lucretia Garfield. But with the assassination of her husband and his death in september, Chester Arthur, the man who was really a political opponent, he was in the opposite side of the Republican Party and it was an effort to unite the party that had them both on the ticket, suddenly found himself president. He was a man without a wife. He was a widower and also he had no Vice President , so what was the transition like . And what was the state of the country after the assassination . Well, of course, the focus really remained for so long september and well into october, november, on president garfield and his family. Chester arthur lived his permanent home was in new york city on lexington avenue. And he himself was still in a state of very deep mourning, very deeply depressed, because his wife, ellen, Ellen Herndon arthur, had died only in january of 1880. So it wasnt yet two years that he had lost his wife. She had come from a very powerful wellconnected virginia family. She grew up in washington, d. C. She knew Dolley Madison when she was a little girl. They went to st. Johns church on lafayette square. And for about five years between the time she was 5 and 10 years old, she knew Dolley Madison. Her father was a very famous naval commodore who took a commercial ship, the central america, on a commercial trip. It went down, but it was a great act of bravery, because he made sure that all of the passengers who were onboard got off first. And so his widow and his daughter, ellen, who was an only child, then living in new york city, were given all sorts of honors, awards. It was a place, a monument to him at Annapolis Naval academy. And ellen arthur is a really interesting you know, she doesnt become first lady, but she influences the administration, very similar to rachel jackson, the way sort of the ghost, the memory of her. Chester arthur made several appointments for at least that we know of specifically of people who had known his wife. One was a cousin in the office of the attorney general, was made assistant attorney general. Another, i think, was treasury. But it was very controversial that he named the sort of, what were called superintendent of the Naval Academy for he appointed a friend of theirs, somebody who had been a childhood friend of his wifes. And then he kind of created a political problem with the senate, which liked the prerogative of appointing the role of, before washington, d. C. , had mayorsmand it was kind of a ceremonial role that played out in the white house but arthur insisted on making that appointment, because it was somebody who was a friend of his and ellens. So he kept her picture on the wall, fresh flowers. He had a stainedglass window put in at st. Johns church so he could see it from his window, in the bedroom window in the white house. And there was some remorse, perhaps, because, you know, he was quite married to his career and his political advancement, and mrs. Arthur, who was an accomplished singer, died of pneumonia while he was out up in albany on political business. So you have them coming without a wife, without a Vice President. His 10yearold daughter is living with his sister, molly, up in albany. Theres sort of a loose end. And the press at the time begins speculating in a series of articles who will be lady of the white house. Well, you look at the man, and he was wealthy. He was very stylish. He lived quite a life in new york city. And he had this tragedy of being a widower, so you can see that there would be a storyline developed that the press would be very interested in. Absolutely. And it got a little, i dont know what the right word is, it was a little unseemly, because there were a lot of wealthy women or women who wanted to be wealthy who began, you know, sort of flirtatiously appearing wherever president arthur did. And, you know, he had no interest whatsoever in remarrying. I mean, he really became depressed. And he functioned he basically said, im not going to have a first lady. Nobody is going to take the role of my wife. And so he starts sort of having these things, these social events once the social season begins again, once Congress Comes back into session, and its sort of like, you know, first lady for a day kind of thing. I mean, he has these events where its a cabinet wife, its a senate wife, none of its really quite working. And the following year, 1883, new years day, his sister from albany comes down. Now, part of that, somebody mentioned brights disease. Theres an indication that he knew he had a terminal illness. He wanted to be close again to his little daughter, so his daughter, nell, came down from new york and, at the time, was being taken care of by her aunt, Mary Arthur Mcelroy nicknamed molly. Molly. So well hear references to mary arthur and molly, and thats the same person. And Becky Robinson asks on twitter, did Mary Arthur Mcelroy live in the white house with her brother . Or did she keep house elsewhere in d. C. . She lived in the white house with her brother. And how protective were they of the little girl . Extremely protective. In fact, part of the whole reason arthur kept her away from the white house for nearly a year, making sure she lived either at her home, which was his home, in new york city. Then he was having that remodeled, so then she went to live with her aunt. And there were two other girls, Molly Mcelroys daughters, jessie and may, a little older than their cousin, but these girls came to live with their mother in the white house. Chris is watching us in hartford, connecticut. Whats your question . Hi, my question is, if president garfield had been shot in recent times with our modern medical technology, do you think he would have survived . You know, not being a medical historian, i wouldnt want to say too much on that, except to just venture a guess by saying yes, in the sense that the simple removal of a bullet, one would be today able to detect where that was in his system. Now, he may have, he, Chester Arthur, chet arthur, may have been severely depressed by his loss of his wife and the assassination of the president , but they entertained lavishly in the white house and he undertook an amazing redecoration of the white house that was done by louis tiffany. And anybody at home who thinks of a tiffany lamp, with all the glass and all the colors, think of that applied to the white house, as we know it. What did it look like when it was done . Well, you know, the thing you cannot ignore, the elephant in the room, so to speak, was this wall of tiffany glass. This wall was put up in what is the main hall, the central hall of the state floor. So you come in from the main entrance, the North Entrance of the white house into technically the lobby, the entrance lobby, and today youll see white columns and itll open up and the doors to the blue room immediately, the red room, the green room. But in those days, the draft was so bad, so people were sort of complaining about that. Arthur put up this wall of garish victorian, you know, tiffany glass. Now, thats garish by 2013 tastes, but it was high style at the time, wasnt it . It was high style. But, you know, i looked into this. It didnt last but 20 years. You know, Teddy Roosevelts famous words were, smash that wall to preserved . It was not. It really was smashed to bits . It was i dont know if it was smashed to bits, but thats what roosevelt said. Wow. Yes. But it was also a very busy time in the country, this period. And we have just a couple of the highlights of the administration, of some of the issues that the Arthur Administration was dealing with, again, without a Vice President in office. 1882, the chinese exclusion act, then the Vice President vetoes the socalled carriage of passengers at sea bill. There was the river and harbors acts. And most importantly, 1883, pendleton Civil Service reform act, and we talked earlier about Civil Service reform being the key issue of the time, so what happened with that in this administration . Well, it was a first step. And, you know, just sort of like Social Security or, you know, certain degree of civil rights, you know, things come in increments. And so arthurs, you know, support of that and ended up being the very first major piece of legislation that started to, you know, make the first Real Prevention of the spoil system, of basically the political system. Remember, federal employees could be fired. People who, you know, worked in the treasury building, people who, you know, we think of today as career, you know, bureaucrats or, you know, people working as federal employees could all be fired. And whoever was in power would then appoint who it was, you know, whoever they wanted. It was not only unfair, it was inefficient. And so arthur really takes the first steps. He also, i should say, puts the first, you know, efforts in, in terms of building up a modern u. S. Navy. And while the chinese exclusionary act was really an awful thing in terms of, you know, just outright act of bigotry, arthur had supported something that was far less strict than, which passed. I mean, there was a worse proposal out there. And so, you know, arthur i think gets a bad rap sometimes. A couple quick questions. Dave murdock, twitter. Did arthur keep garfields cabinet . And who was his most important advisor . I do not recall, he did initially through the new year, meaning 1882, but i cant recall specifically the individual members of his cabinet that continued on. Of course, when you speak of the garfield administration, youre really talking more about the Arthur Administration. Rachel davidson schmoyer on facebook, what measures were taken to ensure the arthur familys safety after the assassination . None. None . None. There were no there were guards at the front door. But it still had the sort of lazy, you know, sort of old Hotel Quality to it. I mean, even with arthurs restoration, i wont say restore, redecoration, it was one reason why he was very protective of his daughter. In fact, it isnt until the 1886 new years day reception, this is two months before he leaves that he allows his daughter to publicly appear. Brian watching us in ketchikan, alaska. Welcome to the conversation. Hi, thank you very much. This is a great show. I heard something many years ago, and i dont know if its true, but garfield had this ability to take a pen in each hand, one in the right, one in the left, and simultaneously write the same thing in greek and latin. Is this true . From all i have learned, yes, that was true. Wow, what a talent. Ambidextrous. So were ellen or marys style as progressive as chester . Say, was ellen. Ellen or molly as progressive in their own style as chester . Certainly ellen was. Ellen arthur was very fashionable, very rich, largely through the wealth of her mother, and very ambitious. Theres a lot of stories about how, you know, she really got behind i mean, she really didnt like that politics kept him away from the home so often, but on the other hand, she was a very socially ambitious and ambitious for his career. In fact, even though she was a southerner and even though one of her very close First Cousins because she was an only child, so she was very, very close to what were double cousins, you know, her parents siblings had married each other, so she had double cousins. And during the civil war, Chester Arthur was able to secure the release from Union Prisons of one of her cousins. But she went to abraham lincolns 1865 inaugural. She attended the white house wedding of nellie grant. She knew the parents of Theodore Roosevelt in new york city. So she bought at the best stores. They took summers in, you know, cooperstown, new york, and newport. Molly arthur was a little bit more, i would not use the word pedestrian, but she was not interested in being stylish. Last question on the Arthur Administration and Mary Arthur Mcelroy, the sister. She had a very strong opinion against womens suffrage. How influential was she in this nonofficial white house hostess role to its very interesting situation, because it really showed us that the country had come to expect a female presence, whether it was a wife or a sister or a daughter, and she was, really walked a fine line, because she didnt she made public appearances, sometimes on her own, but then sometimes only with him. And so i think he almost kind of was ambivalent about how public a role she should take. Her support of the antisuffrage movement occurred, however, after she left the white house. So while there was some press coverage of it, it wasnt widely known. I will add, though, that she was also a great advocate of civil rights. And in her home in albany, she not only welcomed as a dinner guest, but as an overnight guest booker t. Washington. We have 12 minutes left. And as the Arthur Administration gets its sea legs and finishes out its three years, Lucretia Garfield is establishing herself as a widow, enormously popular first lady. How does she do that . Weve got a lot of people very curious about her move to pasadena, california. How did that all come about . Well, because she couldnt take the cold winters in ohio anymore. She also maintained a home in washington as a president ial widow. And the house in mentor, ohio, which she continued to work on. Right, but she also, there were times that she leased the house or the property because it was just more feasible. Now, she had her brother i think it was joe who was sort of the manager of the house, but, you know, california was, you know, 1880s, 1890s, a really sort of opening up as the sort of Promised Land of sunshine, and a lot of california was settled by wealthy midwesterners. So she went out to pasadena in 1900. And she was distantly related to these two famous architects, greene and greene, who were sort of known for whats called the california craftsmans style architecture. She had a great interest, as you know, in architecture. And so she worked very closely with them in designing this Extraordinary Arts and crafts, california arts and crafts mansion, which is Still Standing, a private home. And it really became kind of a showplace. And she was even in one of the carriages of vips in the early pasadena rose parade. You know, so she had a very full life in california. Youve made the point many times that she was interested in so much. One of our viewers on facebook, j. Y. Vered, says, she thats Lucretia Garfield always struck me as wonderfully progressive, and not just because of the air conditioning she had them make for the new jersey house. At the renwick, i saw a silver and ebony teapot she bought for the white house from dominick and haff in new york. And she lived in a greene and greene house in south pasadena, which we just saw, which was hyper modern for the time. The teapot is fantastically modern for 1881. What do you think of all this and her taste . Well, im probably not the best person to ask about taste, but i would just say this. Along those lines, she was also an advocate for womens suffrage. She believed completely in it. Now, she didnt come out publicly. Just like the issue of temperance, she thought it would make a lot more of a controversy than need be. But her daughter also affirmed that her mother truly believed in the equality of the genders. And you also see her, when former president Theodore Roosevelt in 1912 is mounting a campaign against the incumbent republican president , she supports Theodore Roosevelt. She comes out, while he makes an appearance in los angeles, she comes to that event. Tony in pleasantville, new york, good evening. Hi, susan, how are you today . Great, thanks. Thanks thanks to book tv, one of the best books i ever read was destiny of the republic by candice millard. And in that book, so many facts, but the three that caught my attention tonight were abraham lincolns son, tad, involvement in three president ial assassinations, not necessarily being involved in the assassinations, but being in the area of them. And you showed an artists sketch of the railroad car that carried president garfield to the house where he passed away. I wonder if mr. Anthony could tell the story of how that car got there. And lastly, theres a park up in that area i believe its called seven president s park, maybe they might have to make that eight president s, now that president obama visited under different circumstances, why so many president s went to the jersey shore. Okay. Well, we have very little time, so the it was fashionable. The salt air was thought to be recuperative. And in order to reach that house, they had to lay extra track, so the train could go right up to the house. And he mentioned all the president s. And during the years of the Arthur Administration, these are the first ladies who were alive, julia tyler, sarah polk, harriet lane, mary lincoln, julia grant, lucy hayes, and, of course, Lucretia Garfield. Today we see a bonding that crosses policy parties among women who served in the white house. Was that happening at this time . You know, if we could credit good, old Molly Mcelroy, whos basically forgotten in history with anything, its bringing them together. She invited to the white house julia tyler and harriet lane to publicly receive with her as sort of cohostesses. And because of the pension issue, mrs. Lincoln and mrs. Tyler were, again, in the news, along with mrs. Garfield, and with Molly Mcelroy leaving the role of substitute first lady and handing it over to cleveland, whos a bachelor at the time, whose sister, rose cleveland, will be assuming that role, there was a lot of press about these two sisters, sort of passing it on. At the same time, in conjunction with all this, the very first book is written on the history of first ladies, and it is a collective biography, and it is called ladies of the white house and her name just escaped me, but its a very famous book, and it came out in many editions. Lucretia garfield, or crete garfield, outlived her husband by 37 years. And we talked about how she spent much of that time trying to catalog and preserve her husbands history. Well, were going to return one last time to the house in mentor, ohio, and learn a bit more about how she did that. If james a. Garfield were to walk into this house right now, he actually would not recognize this room, because when he was alive and living here in the home, this was actually the kitchen. After his death, Lucretia Garfield started to make some major changes to the property. This room was converted from the kitchen into this sort of open Reception Room. The most significant change that she made after his death was the construction of the nations very first president ial Memorial Library. Okay, now as we get to the top of the steps here, before we go into the Memorial Library, we come first to the memorial landing. And its here that we find one of Lucretia Garfields favorite portraits of her husband. This portrait was done by carolyn ransom, who was a good friend of the garfields. And it shows james a. Garfield as a Major General during the american civil war. This is the room that Lucretia Garfield came up with in her mind as a place really to memorialize her husband, to keep his memory alive for herself, for their children, and really, by extension for the country, as well. All over the room, you see books. These are all books that belong to james a. Garfield. This is a beautiful piece that was actually sent to mrs. Garfield completely unsolicited by someone from italy. Its a beautiful memorial piece that has an image of James Garfield in the middle surrounded by flowers. This is all actually made with small stones pressed together, and it was one of mrs. Garfields favorite pieces. We have a very beautiful marble bust of james a. Garfield. This was also sculpted by an italian sculptor and given to mrs. Garfield around 1883 about two years after her husbands death. And then here we have what lucretia called the memory room. This is the room that she had constructed along with the library in 1885 and86, in which she stored her husbands official papers and documents. So it was in this room that she had his papers organized, catalogued, and then bound up them for posterity. A lot of very interesting items in here. Most significantly is the wreath, i think, up on the shelf there in the frame. That wreath was actually lying on garfields casket while he was lying in state in the Capitol Building in washington, d. C. The wreath was sent to mrs. Garfield via the british delegation from queen victoria, along with a nice handwritten note of sympathy from the queen. Something thats really interesting about this room is the fact that the garfields used this room a lot. It wasnt one of those, you know, sort of beautiful rooms that you cant actually go into or touch anything. You see lucretias writing desk here. She spent a lot of time here writing letters. Youll see here that she did use blackbordered stationary. She actually used that for the rest of her life, just to kind of denote lifelong mourning for her husband. Here in front of the large windows on kind of a happier note, two of the garfield children actually got married in 1888. There was a double wedding ceremony here, where harry garfield, the oldest garfield son, and molly garfield, the only surviving garfield daughter, both married their respective fiances in a double wedding ceremony right here in front of the windows in the library. Well, Lucretia Garfield made it into the new century. She died in 1918 at the ripe old age of 85. How did she live those postwhite house years . And where should we put her in the pantheon of first ladies . Well, unfortunately, her tenure was so brief, but we can say this. She was the first to be selfconscious enough to not destroy her papers. She was the first to keep a diary of her white house days. And she might best be thought of as a former first lady, in a sense, in terms of her career. I think there is a lot of similarities between her and jacquelyn kennedy, both in terms of committing to the legacy of their husbands, and yet also not allowing their lives or the lives of their children to be weighed down by the grief. Were looking at some photographs of the large family. Do you know if any of the garfield family members went into politics . Well, one of her sons was in Theodore Roosevelts cabinet. And another son was in Woodrow Wilsons cabinet, as fuel administrator. She died right, you know, at the very beginning, a year into world war i, and she was actually herself doing work as a volunteer with the red cross in pasadena when she died. But theres some suggestion that she decided to go from republican to a progressive to slightly democratic, because president wilson gave her son a job in the cabinet. Well, and on that note, we will say thank you. You know, weve talked about the fact that youve spent your historical career, historians career focusing on the first ladies. As we close here, weve got lots of first ladies ahead of us. How did you get interested . And why do you think its interesting for people to learn about first ladies . Because they have a natural influence on the thinking of their husbands. And their intelligence and their wisdom and sometimes their ability to even see sort of a larger picture that they, the husbands themselves, cant, was for so many years neglected. You know, they were always just sort of written off as mannequins for clothing who had, you know, nice dishes. And in fact, you know, their intelligence and their efforts and conscientiousness helped their husbands reach the presidency. Heres one of carl anthonys books, first ladies, the saga of the president s wives and their power, 17891961. Its available, as are his other books, wherever you buy your books. As were closing out here, i say this each week, we are working with the historical sites, and thanks to the folks at the garfield home in mentor, ohio, for their help tonight, but also with the White House Historical association who are our partners in this series all year long. We have this biography book that they have published for many years. We got a special edition of it. For those of you who wanted to read more of the biographies, you can find it on our website, selling it at cost, just with the idea here that you can learn more history if youre interested. Thanks for being with us tonight on our first Ladies Program on the garfield and Arthur Administrations