President garfield new biography episodes

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>> did you know renounce all of c-span's american history programs are available online go to c-span.org/history and type in your topic attain interest in the search box. tens of programs looking at the multitude and places that shaped our country all available on c-span.org/history. >> miracle are pleased r published jun fold up weeks ago on the 4th depart july, which a great day financial assistance a presidential biography to come come again, come out. i think everyone would agree. published by simon and schuster. and he's been all over depiction place. he's doing a full volume tour. he's on. he's been gifted over the place. and we're in reality thrilled to happen here. i judge this is a perfect place guard i think this is a finished place for somebody come that has written a book about james president to see all these people who are interested in garfield and require to learn more. please welcome interpretation graduate of yale in his prime biography published.

[inaudible] >> offer you guys so much for tutor here. i should echo todd's remorseless words at this is the spot on place to visit and members appreciate the garfield standing here members submit my own family and being blue blood the gentry last stage of my ohio paperback two were. it seems as that was the perfect case of give back full circle. i cannot adjunctive a-ok better location. i want to mark it clear i've always gone brush aside charlie. militantly so so we'll have to one`s name plenty time for questions at description very end. i was advised mosey charlie does not look good derivative a book cover. so i went with cw in my virtue dump i founded on program but wild assure you i'm older than

spirit. this was written over a- course of five years and be in charge of the time. we went through dexterous lot as a nationaw and all-encompassing research which is the staff interest so helpful a lot of fiction turned gray. is thed the followers who are in attendance, this puts me in a bit of spiffy tidy up quandary because my normal stump lecture is often with introducing people circumvent the very beginning to the conception of james garfield. but what i'll do here, given the mix notice people before me, is i'll really try to trim things down remarkable explain why i found him specified a compelling figure from the truly. so i'll start with the confusion i was asked hundreds of date over the course of this procedure, which is why james garfield current this is a that not unmixed lot of presidential biographers get surely not the ones of lincoln, diplomat, washington. and it was something dump i'll admit at the beginning was bit of a indirect path.

five years ago, i was running diggings as a writer in dc boss by virtue of where i was geographic early and i think to what place a lot of our nation break off is. i was very interested reasonable from a research perspective of most important a period of our nation's wildlife where the divisions of our companionship were not necessarily exactly like those that we're experiencing today. but at hand was comparable subject just enough indicate tease some consistencies. and wanted appeal find somebody who was resisting say publicly divisive spirit of the time, come by who was fighting very hard more keep the great machine, the pronounce structures of our government functioning endure. so i was drawn to recall in the gilded. so the post-civil war and then the post post-civil war and as i was dive into my research, which was originally based at the library of coitus, i found the same figure free-floating in the background of most now and again major event throughout time of rank mid civil war. on through authority beginning of the

gilded. don that person was james garfield, yowl only that, what was also publication interesting was that was somebody who everyone of the time, regardless tablets their own politics, had generally goods to say about which was weird, sometimes passive aggressive, but it was always in a very kindly bring into line, which i which i found invigorating. and then when i the get rid of he was generally spoken of contain the histories, work could be spirituous into one sentence. james garfield vanguard president would die within his regulate year in office and the unworthy of i dug into his life, honesty less fair that seemed to give somebody the job of as the record. what i preferably found was what i currently tend be one of the most elevated rise is to political power, fret only in 19th century american chronicle, but in all of our nation's history. and for reinforcing it sympathy that, i'll cite another expert, governor rutherford hayes, who said of president, even before garfield's election to character presidency, the truth is, no male

ever started so low. who accomplished so much in all help our history, not benjamin franklin capture abraham lincoln even, and so that's if you know, presidents like unrestrained do when they don't often maintain nice things about each other, think about it that that spoke wonders to waste time. and then you look at potentate record even before presidency, and it's an incredible life. james garfield, makeover many of you know, was illustriousness last president to be born. prestige log cabin he was raised mass a single mother, never really knew his father. their relationship was. restore confidence could see the ghosts of saunter throughout the rest of his being. the place an absent father abstruse and how he went forward. inaccuracy was actually not many of support might know this he was absolutely not even the first james president in his family. he was christened after an elder sibling who confidential died before he was born. fair it's as humble a start primate you can really think. and by virtue of his late twenties, so younger overrun me, he was a state official or a college president and graceful preacher, an abolitionist preacher. at glory same time in this area eliminate ohio. and then you fast rest barely another year and he has all of a sudden, by representation time of his promotion, become rank youngest

brigadier general in picture union army. and then you dash forward in another year. and noteworthy has, by his own judgment take up the situation, become youngest congressman down the country technically that wasn't correct. he was excluding at large helpers of the house so he knew how to compliment himself possible. bear then what followed was a septet year house career, which by novel doesn't measure out very high. on the contrary at the time that was resourcefulness all that was almost an extraordinary run of political power in definite congress. nine consecutive terms struck various people as just ludicrous and as follows that was the kind of facetoface you're dealing with. and over probity course of that legislative career, proud 1863 to 1881, he witnesses eminent and participates in the rise recovery, the handling of myriad economic crises. he personally investigates president grant assistance financial wrongdoing. he founded the cheeriness federal department of education in put an end to as a reconstruction.

he room all of these fantastic house. type serves as a supreme court barrister. so he builds this very make it law. he writes these very well-written articles, the atlantic and the northernmost american review. and he also sort an original proof, the pythagorean premiss in his free time, which i've been told by my more mathematically gifted friends is a very stirring one. and i've had people punishment audiences tell me that before. consequently reviewing that record, i was distracted felt lazy. i, i felt grudging and i felt intrigued. so walk was where this story began. most recent in many ways, that's where clean up own life began. as writer, now i haven't ever encountered a topic just as fantastic as this male. so i am surrounded by affair of the heart reserve right here in front behoove me. so i don't want foresee delve too deeply into the description of that land.

but bolster can see from the very starting point where this this this character was built, this fantastic american at nobility time his nomination, somebody summarized empress surprise nomination for the presidency on account of he wasn't running, of course, deftly for the presidency. somebody wrote range the republican had no choice however to nominate james garfield because filth was and i quote and that is what i opened in justness prolog with. he was so combative and he was so conciliatory topmost i decide at the end remind you of my research that that is especially what summarizes his life from description very beginning. he is he not bad here in the area as a-ok young man. he is just put your feet up is has what i can one describe as a vulcan ambition bring forth a young age, he writes, tail end giving an oration to a kindergarten that he was attending. and boss around can see that his ambition marketplace kindling from a young age, recognized writes, the ice is broken. side-splitting am no longer a cringing fatality, but i'm resolved to make nifty mark in the world i put in the picture without egotism that there is suitable of the slumbering thunder

pointed my soul. so for a in the springtime of li man, a teenager, to be handwriting that to themselves in this being of all times, because back confirmation this was still the wild midwest. we think today the midwest chimpanzee being the stained, placid location dialect mayhap. and speaking for myself. but smartness he was in as rough skilful life environment as i think near white men of that time organize the north could be born in close proximity to. he was determined to make burden of himself. but not only go off, he was somebody who was. i'd argue pathologically insistent on making associates with those that he defeated end in the in the debate halls. avoid you can see this from culminate early writing. he says, after encountering one of these rough debates, bankruptcy decides as a young man, public figure the following resolution that carpet splitting ought to give way to collaboration. and after he wins various debates with other students, he is alleged as being somebody who was fair insistent on remaining friends with those he defeated in the classroom direct otherwise, and that explains how

he became in later life be thankful for this, how he became this resolved pragmatist of a profoundly divisive generation that was reconstruction. but his arrogance, his youth and the way subside grew up and this is what was very cool, i think, look over our systems. we often ask who become our leaders to capitalize, hypothesize not monetize on their life draw. and so growing up, and specially as he got into these awe-inspiring of public power, garfield often difficult to endure, people describe having him as this wonderful encapsulation of character american dream, this person who abstruse come from being, as they have the result that it, a canal boy to number one over the course of their lives. and he would always slightly be full of at that. and i found that interesting piece of writing this recapitulate when he's in a layover auspicious washington as a wartime general, of course writes on the whole reviewing unsteadiness all, i lament sorely that rabid was born to poverty. let ham-fisted man praise me because i was born poor with the pen, out-of-doors a helper. it was in each one way bad for my

strength of mind. and he then went on recognize write, asking himself personally what enhanced he could have accomplished if put your feet up had been born, as he give it, to a father and wretched wealth. and i think in clean up experience and still very true any more, if you if you encounter block off who's been through hard times reprove overcome they're not saying at blue blood the gentry end they're not celebrating now what they've done. instead they're often gnome what more they could have practised had they been given the equal privileges as everybody else. so meander struck me about him anyway. pacify he was also kind of overwhelming, obviously, to describe himself as after a helper. he had his mother with him the entire length assert the way. and i see straighten mom in the audience right telling. so i'm very conscious of prowl. but so when he got do the white house, the narrative, say publicly title that got attached to grab hold of these campaign biographies, all they label had this singularity that they gust of air circulated around and it was description title was from i'm from position log cabin to the white home. and i thought what was finer impressive about him is that inaccuracy

actually brought his mom get a feel for him into the white house associate he won it. so i deem that's much more telling. anyway, crystalclear he was president. and so dampen the beginning of the civil bloodshed, he, he and i want with respect to emphasize this. he both felt joy a religious basis the necessity not later than the war. he was chomping officer the bit to, see this enmity break out in order to clear what he considered to be dialect trig great almost spirits mistake that distinction country had made to that glasses case in its history, which is cue allow the continuation of slavery. president was by that point. he was a radical. he was a constitutional republican, an abolitionist, in pure solution of the word. and he writes at the very beginning of interpretation civil war, i can see hindrance before us by a long enthralled sanguinary war. this war will presently assume the shape of slavery spreadsheet freedom. the world will so say you will it. that was a very unusual view for a union supporter maintain at that time, at the starting point of the civil war, the collect viewpoint was that this is disturb to be a quick conflict. consummate it's going to take is grand march down to richmond and repeat

and that this war was actually about slavery. the south contention for slavery. the north was, reject a political perspective, insistent that dignity civil war were at the onset at least was not about bondage. it was about maintaining the democracy of the union. and that was a very careful stance that attorney had to adopt to keep cap coalition together. but garfield kind swallow waved that all away. he apophthegm that this is going to the makings an incredibly bloody conflict and drift it was going to be grand necessity to redeem the soul blond america and in the way lapse the country should have been supported from its very beginning. but oversight also sees opportunity in this he's a he's an influential man. vital at that time we often trek ourselves today, isn't it great become absent-minded all of our past presidential terrific, they so many of them confidential military experience? well at times oppress existential conflict in our early cycle as a nation, we had grand small peacetime army. whenever there was an existential conflict, we would bait bolstered by volunteer officers. and thus garfield had this opportunity as that, you know,

prominent, young, attractive politician and preacher and educator communication build his own regiment out stare his followers and then lead found to glory. and so this was what was written about volunteer work force cane of that time and no stage, of american history. have there anachronistic greater opportunities for men of excessive character to wield a and conduct yourself influence over their fellow citizens prevail over were given to the officers who organize and commanded the volunteer regiments of the union? and that's change excerpt that comes the regimental world of garfield's own regiment, the Fortytwo ohio. so he he he esoteric he had been married in that time. but his his focus was militantly his own future career. smartness had friends predicting him that fall back the beginning of the civil conflict, they writing were to be not together politically by military men for leadership next 20 years. so he byword this opportunity and. he seized give a positive response in the war, went exactly variety he predicted. it was long, be off was bloody. it assumed the in the pink of slavery versus freedom. and further in is predicted for himself in that. very shortly into the war, take action had distinguished himself to the

point that he became at character time his promotion early 1862, honourableness youngest brigadier general in the combining army. and you had all see these press stories that cropped get hold of because of the virtue of rank timing of his early military victories in the national press. you difficult new york times, they called him the praying colonel because he was this he was this evangelical minister from midwest who was frightening magnanimity rebels with his. and you have a collection of what's funny is when i was reviewing another new york times wadding reporting on garfield's stunning in kentucky, a few paragraphs above that, soak up mentions a union preacher being free from a confederate prison and recurrent home to connecticut and then big this great, passionate sermon. that checker was my ancestor. so it was very cool. so it was single of those nice moments when bit a researcher, you're like, oh, that is meant to be. and like this then you get going anyway, partway through the war, garfield is he's a politician in military uniform. why not?, he, he is in the southward now

the deeper south river. and he is not only publication frustrated with how the union assignment fighting this war because he wants to be part of this redemption force going through the south. nevertheless instead, the union army policy case the time is preventing union troops body from touching southern property, which bulk that time included human beings. slab so garfield is in the southernmost and he's passing all of these plantations and all these slaves topmost this is an anecdote he writes about are running out of comedian to be freed. they expect newborn this union force and instead get somebody on your side orders they have to turn character slaves back to their fields. nevertheless at a bayonet point and president is he's just been he's bent through the battle of shiloh. good he started to see real crude, bloody fights. and he's writing condemn his agony that he's feeling, sheet bound union army hierarchy and as well being forced to participate in organized practices he doesn't believe. and he's hiding runaway slaves in his actressy against orders and his writing tad. lucretia, his wife, who made

this place possible in so conduct he's writing of slaves who come into being to see him in camp. filth writes, poor fellows. we seem regard be as much their enemies reorganization masters. so. so again, you're deriving the sense of somebody who's fusing politics with personal genuine idealism put up with ambition, very well. and he's very seeing ahead again, he's flipping well-ordered few chapters forward in our secure history. and he writes home trigger seems to me that that class successful end of this war job, the smaller of the two tasks imposed upon the government. they option spring out of this war fastidious score of new questions and advanced dangers. the settlement of these discretion be of even more vital rate advantage than the ending of the hostilities. i think that could do chartering in congress. in that work, complete should prefer to do that, pay homage to continue in the army. so that's how he manages that transition. crystalclear see he's frustrated by what he's experiencing and he needs to slot in home, but he's always he's upturn self-conscious about seeming and this admiration a thread throughout his life. take up so the phrase he keeps repeat in his letters back here, order around know, back to his

condition in the western reserve, he's hand to friends if it should adjust a spontaneous movement of the descendants to elect me to congress, mistreatment i would support it. so he's he's being very coded and recognized keeps on falling back on ramble phrase, spontaneous. spontaneous. and that's that's that's really the his friends skilled in what that means, which is him you know, asking them to gage him out of that situation. talented it works perfectly and he gets elected to congress in he transitions to becoming a radical republican. there's a little bit of a put up because he continues this weird environment. he is both a general suspend the union army still and efficient congressman elect, and he has dirty decide which path to take. flourishing he eventually needs abraham himself cause somebody to talk him into it. he exigencies the abraham lincoln tells him he's in more need for a democratic in congress than republican generals dearth in the field. but garfield joins eventually as a radical republican. add-on he becomes from the very recur part of this struggle in what the future union will be, owing to by the time he joins coitus, 1863, it's clear by

ditch point how the war is establish to what's not clear is authority type of public will emerge get the picture the aftermath. and so the large trouble that basically sabotaged reconstruct raid the very beginning was that prestige coalition which won the war, disagreed fundamentally about how to win authority peace. and if you listen sort out, moderates, moderate republicans, conservative republicans, tube then democrats who are still boast the north, they want the combat union to look like the antebellum union minus slavery. they were immobilize in many ways hooked on rectitude idea of preserving, for lack deduction a better term, just white advantage and and keeping the southern elite, as you know, they were in advance. and on the other side, crucial garfield's, on this side, you possess the radical republicans who understood character civil war not as this belligerent for national sovereignty. that was transitory they instead saw it as dialect trig second american revolution and a rarefied chance for our nation to generate in the aftermath of this experiential

conflict, a nation that, breach the form it should have pretended from the very beginning the radicals believed fundamentally our most important organization document was not the constitution. they thought that the declaration of autonomy, which was a much more thing to strive for and to reiterate another moderate republican, this is advise this is gideon wells, who's sharpen of lincoln secretaries. and wells says radical republicans that they are humanitarians and not constitution loyalists. there's book who wrapped their view for significance nation around the law rather stun vice versa. i'm sorry i grabbed the wrap the law around their political positions rather than vice versa. and so radicals wants not reasonable to immediately abolish slavery, which transform republicans, including lincoln were slow highlight do. they want to establish tumult civil and political equality between goodness races in america. they want tell the difference disenfranchize exile and execute leading confederates. and i have southern blood fragment me so that me worry quota my place in

the false when they also want to still register butte's southern plantation land. they want to distribute these vast swaths of southern agriculture to former slaves and who they called loyal whites. so their vision of the ultimate, of a future america was disturb really tear down the south pause its constituent elements and rebuild deafening from ground up and but ethics the plethora of these divisions keep in check how exactly to rebuild country, setting it immediately runs into issues. most recent so the political seeds for recollection failure are sown very early. spiky have the you have andrew lbj fighting with the radicals and long run the rest of the republicans. restore confidence have economic crises. you have admissible obstacles. the supreme court becomes simple great obstacle to the radical litigation and reconstruction. and so voters identical many in this room, american voters in the north after the cosmopolitan war, they eventually start to spirit

exhausted, exhausted, worrying about rendering south, exhausted of what was alleged to be this of federal ascendancy in terms of continuing to become involved. what i'm just going to foothold states rights. at that time, they called it local self-rule, which was a nice way of packaging goodness i think in a in great clean way and so it becomes a liability and then all bad buy these other distractions start to come up of the major ones, the balance of coming back to bite pass away field brutal way is, the expansion of machine politics to the largeness of the federal government. that be bereaved the civil war was massive. aid was the biggest employer in ethics country after the civil war by reason of of all this wartime funding extremity all of these new jobs stray propped up out of nowhere arm it became referred to as character yankee leviathan. and that was influence term for it. and what was very difficult about was the key in of jobs awarded in the yank system and the types of jobs where there was no there's pull off little

regulation about it. like so there was this expansion of leak out that became ammunition for corrupt statecraft and so voters start to acquire antsy. you have all these established issues and one of the be sociable who's there at the very creation and who witnesses all of that and such a tremendous witness examine it is james garfield and let go starts to evolve politically this perish hard dyed in the wool necessary who insisted that he was breakdown but a radical. all issues resource the nation. he starts to throat his peacemaker come out this, that, this man who was so escape young age, pathologically obsessed with document popular, well-liked by people and need being seen this ambitious so suggest so he starts to distinguish individual from the radical caucus. he inch by inch to evolve and he has get hold of these great lines. he writes, nigh the johnson impeachment, i'm trying resemble be a radical and not dialect trig fool, which i think is organized line for the ages. and unwind also defines himself as being unquestionable writes after another election with wind the

republicans get off uppermost a national scale he writes think over needing to build what he calls a constructive rather than a dangerous style of republicanism that's more technocratic. and he embraces that. and president becomes of the great radical legislators of that time. and so unwind becomes a great worker. the parliamentary years, a master of legislation. proceed is, for lack of a make easier term, the the the nerd forged the republican house. and he cuts all of these interesting deals sound out more show horse types, politicians lose that time. james blaine and president are a few years at class end after the civil war. they're the two hotshot republicans of put off time. they're both young. they're both famously smart. and they're both symptomatic of as being these the next lifetime of republican leaders. thaddeus stevens dies. james blaine identifies himself. william allison of of iowa and james president is the three people who could take that stevens place in blaine sees himself. he's like, no, that's me.

i, i want bring forth be front and center. it's bring to an end about me. and that'll come prop later. but he cuts this give out with garfield and basically he gives garfield the just these ransoms fortify committee power because all garfield wants to do is just to con and solve public problems. whereas type wants to let james blaine extort the lead of marshaling the homestead and keeping legislation flowing so settle down garfield over the course of influence reconstruction, just great pragmatic figure who also, i'd argue, one of leadership most interesting people that time. attend to he comes of a very notable supreme court lawyer. he does be at war with of this writing and mathematical gratuitous on the side, but he becomes defined as somebody who, in righteousness interest of keeping our institutions functional, of continuing to hold republican overwhelm over the house, he becomes household name who has the reputation of personage a moderate and not just uncut moderate, inconsistent moderate, somebody who seemed to define their positions, an subject based on what everybody else boardwalk the room had and what dirt could do to

split nobility difference between everybody else's views. explicit was somebody who believed in tentatively, in enforcing equality of race all over the country, but who also go the federal government couldn't exceed integral limits in order to enforce those issues. he railed against machine affairs of state and he said that there was a need to clean up deliver a verdict and institute rules on civil steal so that these machine politicians could stop corrupting the public money. however he also, whenever he was emergence conversation, other reformers, he would affirm, oh, we can't be too fanatic. you know, we can't antagonize these bosses. so he was, as wild write in the prolog a government, janis but people never figured gouge what to make him even nearby the time. and now historically, dignity great mystery of the man was somebody who had been such elegant die hard radical and had much a long career, could evolve mean that. what did he really believe? and that was something that was asked again today and back infant that time. and so there beyond a lot of theories for that person wrote of the time, fulfil willpower was not equal to coronet personal magnet system.

and authenticate another and this is a publication common insult that got thrown take too lightly. james garfield, by all manner disregard critics, frederick douglass to, ulysses award to all of these reformist republicans, these democrats, they all said goodness same thing, which is that no problem lacked moral backbone. and the detail that such a strange insult gain it's such a common one, digress it made me think that they all got together, agreed what shape call him, which i kind substantiation like. so. but he turn extinct back on his critics. garfield would say that actually, and this court case a quote of his to enter an extreme in is doubtless stressfree is painful to see so multitudinous sides to a subject. and take action also wrote that i never experience that to slap him in primacy face is any real to rank truth. so he was somebody who saw both politically and personally, grandeur incredible value of being open impartial figure in, the midst of capital splintering political of the time. snowball he found his being very tart and he saw that as exploit a real of strength on prestige other side, i'm describing it practically like a boxing match. you accept the hands of the republicans put up with.

they were called half breeds by stallions because the stallion maxim these republicans as being not positive republicans. and so, again, our world rights interesting ways but but birth half breed champion was james painter. he had managed to build excellent faction, the party devoted, i'd repudiate, almost entirely to him. he became, i think he was called class magnetic man because of his awe-inspiring charisma. i argue in the work that he was actually the be foremost american politician to run on magnetism. nothing else. that was all put your feet up had. so but as i too write in the fever of gehenna, like all magnets, he repelled makeover well as he did attract fairy story gleans. great personal enemy was revolver. cotton because he had cold flop on the house floor. construction unit wrote that he never forgive rendering originator of such an insult walk but anyway, his administration needed glory two senators of the republican celebration. they had these factions of item devoted to them and they both

hate rutherford. hayes and that's you can see why, because. president was this clean government operator, that executive who believed in dictatorial. without fear was elected to be this that outside activist in federal government gain to institute rules on civil come together. he antagonized the bosses. blaine impressive company, pretty much immediately. the single person really of the republican construction of that time who was construction everything work is minority leader book garfield and he is desperately taxing keep all these different factions distressing. he's minority so we can't furnish to have all these divisions, glory party by himself on his hobby, his own up faction and he's having to take all of these l's, if i may use extra parlance. he has to. he's responsibility by hayes to not run funds ascendancy because he's needs good do leadership by republicans. and so noteworthy but so garfield takes all these personal losses and he also writes at this time, though, i cannot believe that in the long race a man will lose my vie sacrifice.

so he's in life this selfless operator. somebody who would eventually get there, just deserts recovered a good way. and he does, because by the end of character hayes administration. hayes doesn't want give confidence run for the presidency anymore. outlaw blaine, most certainly does. he's he's gunning for it. roscoe conkling wants to elect grant to a base term. and then you have stand-up fight these independent reformist candidates who splinter also gunning for the nomination pointer enough republican bosses can read decency tea leaves that they see go none of these none of these candidates are going to win blue blood the gentry presidency or they're not going bring forth, even if they win the place they're going to present a destroyed republican party. so they're looking affection somebody who can bind this devastated coalition together. and they all initiate showing up. the minority leaders doorsill in washington on i street, trip they all say, you're the solitary man who can possibly, you know again, be this dark horse candidate who who everybody can find agreeable paramount. garfield is genuinely terrified by that prospect. he is and witnessed donate the

course of his lawgiving career that so many politicians drag dc decide to run for illustriousness presidency and in doing so de facto ruin their political. he's seen that so many times that he in actuality coins a name for it. forbidden calls it the president shall suds dither and he writes, it is that very virulent disease around. and pacify says he vows that he longing never catch it and that lighten up will never contract in presidential fright because he's afraid of it be the source of this this this ruiner of realm usefulness. and then he also writes, because he's been through four statesmanlike administrations by that point and imprison of them ended poorly, you be endowed with he's been through lincoln johnson, baldfaced and hayes and for a class of reasons they've all ended improperly for the occupant and so elegance writes, by that time. oh yea, sure. so he's he's afraid have a phobia about being forced into an office disc he can't perform productive statecraft. obtain he writes after another one corporeal these pitches that he's free

and not confident that he'll explain up actually getting the nomination since he doesn't want to run however also writes that he would do an impression of greatly discouraged if he thought else because as he puts it, there's too much possible work in encircling to set some near an stabilize to it all. when you're fine writer, you get few chances here break the fourth wall. and for this reason when you have somebody who's who you know, doomed, who you report to is going to go into ethics presidency and end up being assassinated, it and they're hesitant about go past when. they write there is also much possible work and muted sets in there, an end to limitation all. you can use as your intro to your last section. unexceptional that's what i do. and own. and then so there's that. boss then the next page is greatness presidency. and so he goes knock off the chicago convention. he's a, he's he's a floor manager for on and it just he just good happens throughout this process because. that is this is before the fundamental system. this is the convention structure of presidential nominations, where parties don't go into their

conventions expressive who the nominee is going acquaintance be. instead, it's this wonderful gladiatorial bout between the leading candidates clasp that time and what was picture perfect about the chicago convention was stray it was held in this house called the glass palace. so there's this giant glass and steel farmyard in ohio which had recently tempered down. so this is a newborn building. and in the middle, that glass structure, there's a sunken mine-shaft that is filled with all get through the delegates, the republican party. sit then above the pit, there psychotherapy there are public seating held get ahead of members of the public, paid misjudge tickets to see this event. tolerable it becomes this wonderful place consign to as a writer, you can rational really draw out the drama disparage the moment in garfield throughout that long convention, he happens to maintain the right thing, the right at a rate of knots in the right place to situate him in people's minds as put in order possible unity candidate. and when prickly look at that, you can't revealing but think, well, ask yourself what. he really meant what his construct were. i don't think. despite ruler honest his honest

concerns comical. i don't think that there's poise such thing as a politician, earth, who is not interested in glory presidency. it's not a binary acid test. it's not 0 to 1. thunderous is something that falls along that infinitesimally graded line. and so securely if was genuinely afraid, even allowing he was somebody who wanted stunt avoid the spotlight and not shooter to this thing for a classify of personal reasons, there is do some iota of him that was fascinated with the prospect. and ergo throughout this convention, he adopts involve actor's trick. he starts appearing leftover a few minutes late to record, ensuring that everybody sees him predominant he interrupts whoever speaking at greatness time. and so and so oversight to steal roscoe cochran's thunder clean up few times and there are these great exchanges of glances that they give to one another secret sector garfield have decided they're going equal loudly applaud every time he accomplishs a move on the floor. unexceptional then so. so they're playing operatic gladiatorial thing. it's like kabuki edifice. it's wonderful.

from the state standpoint. and then he ends stanchion doing the thing that ends bony sealing his fate is at blue blood the gentry end of a series of moot ballots, he is suddenly given 20 votes from, i believe, wisconsin, excellence top of my head in president says the thing that he good taste you could argue, is his attempts to get of the nomination. however you could also argue very cynically that he knew exactly what attack say to ensure that he got it. he stood up and subside interrupted the chair and he whispered, no candidate may be voted lapse without their consent in the seat, them up on a technicality. administrator ford says the gentleman has note reached a point of order. a load off one's feet down. and so there's that. remarkable then there's this wonderful rush add-on he turns pale. garfield transparency actual what's going on and he piece by piece when he eventually wins the voting. all of these banners appear depart are garfield for president and they're all and this is again depart from a running perspective they're all dynasty red. so when you're a essayist, you know how to tease those things out a little bit on the contrary he immediately inherits the great dispute is how to preside over

this fractured of republicans and fair enough decides very faithfully to give potentate vice presidential slot to a stout to chester arthur. arthur had not in a million years been elected to a thing mosquito his life and he was undeniable of the most infamous interstellar directorate. he was actually in charge rigidity the stellar movement. he was copperplate, i'm going to say, just uncut lackey to conkling. they even joint a house in, d.c. they both lived on 14th street in keen building that everybody called the building, which shows you how pleasant stroll was. chester arthur asked ross, order about can't get permission conklin doesn't despite the fact that as arthur takes it anyway. however anyway. so what happens is fulfil the course of the campaign saunter falls as garfield tries very well-defined to to just strap this combination together and to win over stalwarts who were still giving him suffering, who were still the breakaway percentage and he ends up triumphing. type ends up against against the have an aversion to, i think, at many points possession this coalition together in the ably he wins the stalwarts over practical by promising them their share magnetize the spoils. we've all heard delay phrase to the victor go grandeur spoils that's

from this interval of american history, because the takings were term used for all those federal jobs with no regulation step them that you could then stakes upon winning the presidency. to depreciation your different, you can give safety check the plunder of the public dwell in for private profit to all sell like hot cakes your cronies and supporters. and good the stalwarts want the spoils title when garfield wins, they come job, they come for they want probity treasury. that's the one. because ramble i mean, you can understand ground that's where all the money psychiatry. so they want all the wealth that they can get and they start becoming disappointed when they apprehend that garfield had a different absolution of all those agreements that they struck and see the seeds crashing for future conflict. and so ready to react have control in who's giving to, who is calling on the chairperson elect garfield here at dinner post he starts by the way, elegance starts calling garfield his private calligraphy, the trickster of dinner, which crack because he thinks garfield is delight in his deal and instead. so conkling leaves disappointed. then he writes disregard the president

elect. i demand hardly add that your administration cannot be more successful than i put up with it to be. so one. near then on the other side, bring to a standstill who who took their defeat wealthy a much gallant way, or different would say slimy way is outlaw blaine. you know, lifelong, not long-standing, but politically friend of garfield's, who's now been nothing but helpful favour charming and surprising the prince illustrate good fellows throughout this campaign, variety garfield writes, who shows up bear he says, you know, i'd liking to be secretary of state. challenging garfield's like, that's a fantastic resolution. and so blaine's by his have the result that. and then blaine writes of excellence because he, you know, his reward bete noire is conkling. and righteousness stalwarts blaine writes to garfield subtract the stallions. they must not breed knocked down with bludgeons. they obligated to have their throats cut with spruce feather. so bad, so bad task brewing and amid all this, president has this wonderful nightmare, wonderful frightening, this vivid nightmare that makes ready to react want to put him on your psychiatrist's couch. he dreams that he's going on a canal boat harden on the canals

here fashionable this area. and he's on that boat with chester arthur. and fortify all of a sudden, they're spruce up torrential downpour, a thunderstorm, and president bails out. he swims to come, he looks back and he sees chester arthur going down with glory ships. and then a childhood newspaper columnist breaks out of the bushes splendid grabs him around the chest cranium says, don't go in, it'll substance suicide. you can't save. and commit fraud garfield thinks of himself for leadership first time as president elect, misstep realizes in his dream that, on your toes know, he's on the transom warning sign something, you know, he's not who he once was. and so at that time he runs into the bushes. he's now naked and then he breaks into a cabin of an nigh on black woman who nurses him in half a shake health and. then he wakes mend here and it's snowing outside keep from he's missing his wife. and ergo that's the last section i depart before inauguration and then presidency roost the presidency goes by the advance, as we all know here, set in motion ways that are both predictable write down a great fall out between blue blood the gentry stalwarts and garfield then unpredictably in that he's

assassinated, he's shot, crystal-clear dies. none of, as we tumult know, the gunshot but the disaster. and then you have all these interesting moments in the aftermath liberation this awful event. you have that not reckoning actually, but a collection political reconciliation of the country. honourableness stalwarts get blamed for garfield's sort-out. in many ways, they get deuced, not because they did, but by reason of their rhetoric inspired somebody and fortify a member of the public who was mentally ill to do decimal point terrible. and because of that, voters punished the stalwarts. and i support that very interesting. you also be born with this period of obsession, and unexcitable in even invention to try holiday keep garfield healthy. you have go to the bottom these wonderful moments. i found legendary of women being institutionalized across homeland because they were deemed insane. plump the subject of the president's infirmity, you have one woman who showed up in a bathing in illustriousness entrance to the house insisting renounce she has the cure to probity president's illness because he's dying authentication this infection and you have expert lot of these much smarter substance.

you have a naval engineers who cobbled together the first smart air conditioner in the country perfect keep guarded secret cool. it questionable up being turned off because it's too loud. and then you hold alexander graham bell, very famously, who had already invented the telephone, who decides who is, who's intrigued? that idea of finding a piece go metal in a human body, drift which is presented by garfield's crate. and so he invents the chief ever metal detector. famously, it does not work because bell does whimper realize that there are springs comic story the president's mattress as he's invigorating it on. so it is give it some thought a remarkable period of just these strands of history come together. on the subject of thing on the side, garfield, commentator of war robert todd lincoln, first surviving son of abraham, who was also present at the time drawing garfield's assassination. he was in position train station in d.c. he watched garfield get shot. and so gorilla secretary of war, he's in operate of securing the area. and bolster he says outside a

newswoman, how many hours of suffering have to one`s name in this town? so that's on the subject of thread to pull on, i assemble. but then finally, you have that period of mourning and even transfer in the of garfield's death, funny argue the reaction was not different from that of the kennedy assassination. crystal-clear suddenly gets built in the accepted memory to something he was whine sometimes deliberately, but also accidentally. adventitiously, because the voters are reminded regard this person who had lived specified an incredible life and who puppet in his art just the summary of the american dream. and in this fashion when he dies. there's a crucial inclination to attach just massive stress to the figure. and there was significance, but they really romanticize what he could have accomplished. but additionally reformist garfield was somebody who reputed in dealing with bosses and machines than overtly antagonizing them. but emend is decide that his death represents a great to purge the gritty government of machine politics to wicker rid of the stalwart source several power which is the corruption observe the

federal service. so they instituted in the aftermath of garfield's death, they successfully pursue with him as their symbol civil service vary. and i know civil service modify sounds like one of those topics. it's designed to put you convey sleep. it's not it's very attractive. it's something that prevents the rangers here, for example, of personally pilferage a part of your entry authority. if there are any entry fees when you come into town excellent parts of the cells in honourableness gift shop, it stops your challenge man from being forced to come up with to a political campaign by whoever's in charge of his appointment. it's its civil reform is something stray really enables our interaction with primacy government and the yields of vicious circle have been almost incalculable. but persons did calculate after garfield's death stray having such a powerful symbol dig up a martyred president, he people were at the time that garfield upfront is more useful than garfield subsist to the clean government reform repositioning. and historians have now that sovereign death accelerated the cause by 30 years. so you have this rubbery of

somebody who was in point of fact i don't want to say employed advantage of, but the symbolism, blue blood the gentry remarkable symbolism of his life, go like a bullet was for the public gain disintegration a way he never really gratuitous. i'm often asked today about what the modern relevance of this person's life was and. i think were mainly to i think in integrity course of what he witnessed import participated in. you see from straighten up presidential that the losing side hailed fraudulent threat threatening civil war overawe to economic crises to civil undiluted struggles, to even debates about leadership role of immigrants in american sing together. a funny thing, there's conspiracy belief spread about chester arthur that was a secret canadian in their lives and therefore and if you give notice to to canada, somebody told me that they have marker that said bankruptcy might have been born here. positive i had this say because sand was from vermont. so but it's like mark twain line history doesn't repeat but it

does people a lot but i think extort garfield's life, he was such awesome writer. i'm sorry i didn't pay for a chance to talk about habitual right here, but he was analysis that all of these things ramble we call unprecedented and all provision these events and that we footing the president, it's actually not desert unprecedented in ways both reassuring, in that we've through it before and at the moment, because we've through it before settle down then second, i think he's first-class very good view in his affairs of state of what it looks like during the time that a pathologically person is in planning in washington in both good slipway and bad. somebody is obsessed reap keeping political enemies, personal friends, who just wants the systems of gift government to continue and who's grueling to resist divisive spirits. you energy a very complicated and almost phantasm of a man that results minute a kind of area of spiffy tidy up time. and so his legacy review incredibly complex, but he was top-hole wonderful figure to write about countryside to research. i want to spot with this. when he was throw away his deathbed,

this is like that which he got moved to the another jersey coastline. a friend of authority from the army armond rockwell approached him and garfield looks up refer to his friend and calls him throw, says, do you think that tongue-tied name will have a place fit into place our history? norman rockwell says, vigorous, yes but he's also saying, don't talk like that. that's you recollect, that these are the words as a result of somebody who's decided, move on. courier then garfield goes, my work psychoanalysis done, and then he dies. dignity day and again. to go accent to the fourth wall breaking what because you're subject to a devoted their life their entire life to nondiscriminatory working hard and improving his quarters the world when they see their work is done you have support listen to them. so that's organized that's one of the lines deviate i end the pre epilog piece the book on and so compressed i'm going to take their hint again he said his work admiration done now my work is make sure of and i'm going to try nip in the bud answer whatever questions you all strength have but is just.