Cspan2, 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend. Booktv, television for serious readers. Hello. My name is nneoma amadiobi, and on behalf of our staff and the store owners, Bradley Graham and Lissa Muscatine i like to argue all to politics and prose. Just want to let you know when we add, which it is eventually get any noisemaking devices, or cell phones, just take a moment and turned them off. To be clear, at the end of the event we ask you to fold up your chairs and bring them against something. We do have an event might after this, you could please leave your chairs with our we would appreciate that. So with that out of the way we can get to our talk today. Winchester and arthur became president in september 1881 after the assassination of james garfield, most americans expected at best a lackluster leader. Scott greenberger book is one of our least beloved president from idealist to politician and back. As he states in the book, it is, hes a good man, he discovered h
Became a lawyer joining the firm of his friend of his fathers, staunch abolitionist. Arthur won the case that desegregated number city street cars. During the civil war, when many were enrhythming. Thises on government contracts he was an honest and efficient quartermaster for the union army, but in years following the would his quest for wealth led him down a darker road. He became a top lieutenant to the allpowerful boss of the new york republican machine. At conklins urging, in 1872 he was appoint collector over thank you new york custom house, the largest single federal office in the nation and a fount of job and fairs that was rotten with corruption. When the custom house find merchants for violation, chet arthur took a cut. Lived in a world of tiffany silver, fine carriages and grand balls balls and had hats and coats importlandded from lon do and owned at least 80 pairs of trouser. When an old college contractsmate item him his deputy was corrupt, chet waved him away. He he said
Where they are, we would appreciate that. So with that out of the way, we can get started on our talk today. When chester a. Arthur became president , most americans expected at best a lackluster leader, at worst, an inept one. As a surprise, everyone including himself [inaudible] one of our least remembered president s from ideal list to [inaudible] as greenberger says in the book, it is a tale of a good man [inaudible] but rediscovered his better self with the help of an ordinary younger man who believed in him. Scott greenberger is a biographer and a journalist, an executive you would to have at state line, the Daily News Service of the Pew Charitable trust. He and his team cover state politics and policy in all 50 states. Before that he covered education, crime, health care, housing and other pressing city and state issues at the boston globe and at the Austin American statement. Hes now a d. C. Local. Please join me in welcoming Scott Greenberger to politics prose. Thank you. [app
Its only in recent years that a lot of scholarship has focused on the fact that their the fact of how rocky their marriage was, specifically in its early days. I think in the early years, james found her a bit distant and cold. As the years went by, she had a tremendous influence on him. James and lucretia spent a lot of time with their children. They felt that education was an emancipating factor. Mrs. Garfield adored her time at the exhibition, but she was specifically interested in the latest sciences and technologies of the day. After James Garfields death, a number of prominent citizens raised about 350,000 that was turned over to Lucretia Garfield. In todays dollars, it would equate to somewhere around 8 million. Her character was extremely exceedingly strong. She had a rectitude that was invulnerable. Host Lucretia Garfield was born in ohio in 1832. Her life spans antebellum america to the progressive era of the early 20th century. A supporter of womens rights and deeply interes
That were appointed position s, that were, you know, at the discretion of people in power, ended up being a power struggle within the party between an ohiobased party, which is James Garfields party also Rutherford Hayes was from the same not only the same part of ohio, but the same kind of thinking and what were called the stalwarts, which were new yorkbased. And, you know, you see certain states really emerge throughout history with holding on to power within a particular party. And then in new york, that was really headed by a man by the name of roscoe conkling, who became a United States senator. So this is the struggle, and you see then, of course, the person who ends up shooting president garfield, deranged, of course, Charles Guiteau, but proudly screaming with the gun in his hand, im a stalwart. Now arthur is president. And that was a reference to the fact that Vice President arthur elected with garfield was of the new york wing of the party. Swain well, garfield himself was a