Happy birthday to James Garfield, who expired at last after months of agony after being shot, and then killed by a doctor who didnt wash his hands, and in memory of the mad Charles J. Guiteau, who shot him, and who may have been encouraged to do it as a means of getting a government appointment, and would hang for it. Also, in memory of Chet Arthur, who allegedly died yesterdy, one of the most corrupt men ever to be nominated for high office, except, according to a novel I have not been able to track down, he was already dead, and had been replaced by his wifes lover, the federal secret agent John Wilkes Booth, who engineered the death of Garfield so he could obtain his diary other documents to prove he had operated under Union instruction to save the South from Radical Reconstruction. For honest tribute, and/or snark, Garfield is also supposed to have been killed by the bankers for opposing paper currency and/or advocating bimetallism. Wiki says he supported civil rights for blacks, but that does not fit with his being a Liberal which, in those days, meant pretty much what Neoliberal means today, only then it denoted moderate progressiveism as opposed to the Radical progressivism of the Stalwarts. Specifically it meant he was willing to end Reconstruction and allow Southern whites to assume control of their states, while Chet had been a member of the Grant Good Old Boy Network of Stalwarts that used Radical Reconstruction as a humanitarian cover for corruption. I always find Chet Arthur fascinating for a transformation in his charactor after the death of his wife, and the theory that Booth substituted for him makes more sense than any other, as the consumate archetypical corrupt bureaucrat and Radical advocate of Southern White disenfranchisement become the dyanmite performer of political theatre overnight (stage presence) and the Pres who reformed a corrupt Civil Service and ended the last remnants of Reconstruction. BTW, the novel I read was accurate, I checked, in asserting Booth was known to Arthur and his Southern wife, that Giteau tried to implicate an alleged agent of Arthurs, and that the behavior of Arthur on the political circuit was so surprising that people said, It was as if a man we had never known stood where Chet had stood a moment before. On conspiracy theory, those are the three unconnected points on which the rest of the tail wagged, or the tale triangulated. The alternative I was taught in school, before Liberals at least briefly became the criminal enablers of Redemption was Chet Arthur and Andy Johnson were prime examples of how the presidency enabled fanatics and hacks and made them understand they were the President of all (white) Americans! My take on it was he was skeered to death that if he didnt support Garfields policies, he would give credence to the rumours he primed Giteau to kill him. Short contrafactual thought on Garfield, who is interesting for the what might he have done? but my guess is it would not have been much different. About the most I see is the Pres sequence might have gone Garfield-Cleveland-Garfield-Cleveland-McKinley instead of Garfield-Arthur-Cleveland-Harrison-Cleveland, but he does deserve credit for being one of the few readers to hold the office after JQ Adams. Garfield was an avid reader, having a 3,000-book library that included Horace, Shakespeare, Goethe, Tennyson, and Froudes history of England. Now, it is possible I have misunderstood something, or perhaps overestimated Garfieldsdrift towards liberalism. If so, I blame the madman Giteau for confusing the shit out of me, and the shortness of his term. He is credited for the civil service reform bill he fostered, and Arthur signed. His racial policies were mainly ignored by the pre-Revisionist authors I gleaned my knowledge of him from. Here is what wiki has to say on those The plight of African-American civil rights weighed heavily on Garfields presidency. During Reconstruction, freedmen had gained citizenship and suffrage that enabled them to participate in state and federal offices. Garfield believed that their rights were being eroded by southern white resistance and illiteracy, and was vitally concerned that blacks would become Americas permanent peasantry. The Presidents answer was to have a universal education system funded by the federal government. Garfields concern over education was not exaggerated; there was a 70% illiteracy rate among southern blacks. Congress and the northern white public, however, had lost interest in African-American rights. Federal funding for universal education did not pass Congress. President Garfield appointed several African-Americans to prominent positions: Frederick Douglass, recorder of deeds in Washington; Robert Elliot, special agent to the U.S. Treasury; John M. Langston, Haitian minister; and Blanche K. Bruce, register to the U.S. Treasury. Garfield began to reverse the southern Democratic conciliation policy implemented by his predecessor, Rutherford B. Hayes. In an effort to bolster southern Republican unity Garfield appointed William H. Hunt, a carpetbag Republican from Louisiana during Reconstruction, as Secretary of the Navy. Garfield believed that Southern support for the Republican party could be gained by commercial and industrial interests rather than race issues. To break hold of the resurgent Democratic Party in the Solid South, Garfield cautiously gave senatorial patronage privilege to Virginia Senator William Mahone of the biracial independent Readjuster Party. Garfield was the first Republican president to initiate an election policy to obtain support from southern independents. https://youtube/watch?v=ZPmLhn5ipy0
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 19:00:38 +0000
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