This week on q a. Journalist scott greenberger. His book on the life and times of chester a. Arthur. Scott greenberger, your book the unexpected president , who is the most interesting character in the book for you . Think Chester Arthur the most interesting character and the book. It is a story of redemption. He is a guy, his father was a very rigid abolitionist reacher, grew up in that preacher. He, shortly after college was a teacher, became a lawyer, moved to new york. Was involved in a very important case that resolved in the desegregation desegregation of you new york city street cars. He was on this moral path and then he served in the civil war, was quartermaster a quartermaster in the union army during the civil war in new york important jobs an with lots of opportunities. After the war, he became in vault involved in machine politics and in particular, he became close to the new york republican boss, a flamboyant character named Roscoe Conkling. Favoriterthur is my character
The passion of the voters and so forth. When you talk about a symbol of state, how important is that . Very important to. Having the presidency is all from the kingship and its a twopronged thing, symbolic president and manager of the government and it has been from the start and some are good administrators and some are battle better symbols and i think its the characteristic of the office. They have to be both, really. In your book, the leaders we deserve and if you didnt, you write that if great or near great president s were shaped by numerous experiences with people from all walks of life the unsuccessful spent most of their adult lives in a single pursue politics. Thats correct and if you look at some of my failures, James Buchanan probably had more jobs than anyone. He waited all of his life to be president and it was a goal from the time he was in the state legislator. He conspired behind his wifes back to run for president. She did not even know he was one of the candidates an
If you missed any part of this program, well air it again tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern right here on cspan3. Cspan is touring cities across the country exploring American History. Next, a look at our visit to the blaine house in augusta, maine. Youre watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend, on cspan3. I want to welcome you to the blaine house, since 1919, the home of maines governors and their families. The house was actually built in 1833, by a captain james hall from bath, maine, for those of you who know maine, bath is a major ship building and seaport town. And captain hall decided in 1830 to retire from the sea, he bought this very strategically located piece of land, right across from the state house that year, 1830, and in 1833 he finished construction on a very handsome twostory, hipped roof federal house, which was to be his retirement home. One of the early features that survives in the house from his time is the beautiful winding staircase, and i think it i
Grant felt if he ran for president it would have been because of conklin and he could have been the de facto president. Grants presidency, he was not a particularly strong president. And particularly when you look at reconstruction during this period, a lot of problems. When you look at corruption during his period, when people look back on corrupt presidencies, they jump out with grant and harding as the ones that lead the list there. An ill grant weakened by bad health and would not have been a strong figure elected. He wanted to block blaine. He just wanted to make sure blaine didnt get. Could you explain more about how he could be serving microphone, please. How he could be serving in the civil war and being elected to congress but he cant be there . Did that happen a lot . How did that work . The answer is yes, it did. Not a lot, but anyone can be elected to congress if you are a hey, just look down the block. Anyone can be elected to congress as long as they are 25 years of age a
Were now in the billiard room which is one of the rooms that was built as part of the addition that the blaines made to the house in 1872. This is also a room which has been a place to hang photographs and in some cases the christmas cards of the previous first families. The first family was the millikens, and this is a large family, Carl Milliken and his wife are shown in the photograph along with their large family. There have been 21 families who have called the blaine house their home from the millikins in 1920 to currently Governor Paul Lepage and his wife first Lady Ann Lepage beginning in 2011. Today when we think of james g. Blaine in maine, i think we think primarily of the blaine house. It really is a symbol of both the maine governorship. Thus the equating of the name blaine with the Governors Mansion really keeps his name alive and in the public today. The cspan radio app makes it easy to continue to follow the 2016 election wherever you are. Its free to download from the A