Sunday, April 25, 2010

#20: Garfield, James Abram

James Abram Garfield
20th President of the United States - HALFWAY, woop woop!
Nov. 19, 1831 (Orange Township, Ohio) Sept. 19, 1881 (Elberon, New Jersey)


  • The World Book entry on James Garfield begins: “GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM (1831-1881), was the last President to be born in a log cabin. Nobody knows what kind of President he would have been, because he was assassinated only a few months after taking office.” Such drama and such brevity! I aspire to write as well. Also, what is it with log cabins that holds the American imagination so captive? I have my own thoughts, but I'll let you ponder upon it.

  • According to World Book, “Garfield was a big, athletic, handsome man with blond hair and beard.” To wit (minus the beard):


  • He was super smart too. “He occasionally entertained his friends by writing Greek with one hand and at the same time writing Latin with the other.” Boy, would I have liked to party with him.

  • Garfield was nominated for the presidency in part because the fractured post-war Republican party (two factions in particular: the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds) couldn’t agree on a nominee. Garfield was the “dark horse.” Also, he had quite the leadership pedigree. He'd been a college professor, college president, lawyer, major general in the U.S. Army, and Congressman.

  • Four months into his first term, Garfield was shot by a disappointed job seeker, Charles J. Guiteau. The shooting occurred while Garfield was waiting for a train on his way to attend the 25th reunion of his class at Williams College (which I visited many moons ago on a college campus tour of New England with my mom, and which has a James A. Garfield Collection, should you be interested in researching the man further). As President, Garfield had begun filling hundreds of government jobs with his supporters--the Spoils System, which Rutherford B. Hayes supposedly put an end to, rearing its ugly head. Guiteau had wanted Garfield to appoint him as U.S. consul to Paris, which Garfield didn't do. So he shot him. After the shooting, Garfield “lay near death for 80 days.” A single bullet had lodged in his back and surgeons could not find it. “Alexander Graham Bell tried unsuccessfully to locate the bullet with an electrical device.” World Book says that Garfield remained "calm and cheerful." Garfield ultimately died from infection of the wound. Ew. And sad.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Feedback from Ohio's Native Daughter

A dear friend who happens to hail from Ohio wrote me this a propos Rutherford B. Hayes:

Hayes is the name of the high school in Delaware, Ohio, where you note that Hayes was born. Delaware is a charming small town and until the suburbs started to sprawl like crazy after I left for college, it was really the only town for the next 1.5 hours after my parents' house. They enjoy going there for antiquing, eating a leisurely lunch, going to "mass with the nice priest" (as opposed to their parish), etc.

Interestingly, Hayes' mascot is the Pacers or something similarly horsey, named after a nearby race track? Not very presidential. But in Marion, Ohio, home of Warren G. Harding, their high school mascot is the Presidents. I remember their swim caps having an especially ugly presidential seal of some sort. There's also a Harding high school in Warren, Ohio but their mascot is the Raiders.

We heart our presidents in Ohio. :)



I will venture this hypothesis: in this great nation, there is a school named after every single president, even the miserable ones (see, e.g., here and here). That's presidential love!

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Presidential Miscellania

I saw this play over the weekend and recommend it if you are in New York. Good fun and Martin Van Buren is a riot.

Also, exciting news in currency, if there is such a thing. (via)

#19: Hayes, Rutherford Birchard

Rutherford B. Hayes
19th President of the United States (served 1877-1881)
Oct. 4, 1822 (Delaware, Ohio) - Jan. 17, 1893 (Fremont, Ohio)

From a good beard to better!

  • Hayes was the first president to be elected by a margin of only one vote. The election had to be decided by a special congressional commission. During his presidency, he ended Reconstruction (pulled federal troops out of the South) and ended the Spoils System (based his appointments on merit). Otherwise, his was a remarkably unremarkable reign.
  • “Hayes was a champion speller in elementary school. He later boasted that ‘not one in a thousand could spell me down!’”
  • During the Civil War, Hayes was quickly promoted. He “distinguished himself in several battles . . . . He was wounded four times and had four horses shot from under him.”
  • Hayes had a hand in expanding the Library of Congress and he helped found the college that would later become Ohio State University.
  • Hayes’s wife was the first First Lady to have gone to college. She and her husband introduced the custom of Easter egg rolling by children on the White House lawn.
SIDENOTE: I recently started watching the West Wing. I’m almost through the first season and it amazes me how every episode feels topical and relevant almost ten years after the show first aired. For example, one episode addressed the politics of the census when I filled out my census questionnaire. Another episode addressed the national parks and Yellowstone when I was writing about Ulysses Grant. The latest episode addressed the Easter egg roll while I was writing this entry! Not to mention all the issues (gays in the military, nuclear disarmament, state dinners for visiting dignitaries gone awry) that speak directly to issues faced by the current administration. Insane! Or perhaps merely a sad commentary on how little politics change! But either way, I highly recommend it!!!

BONUS BITS from the “H” volume! (We've already visited the "H" volume--hello there again, Mr. Harrison--but nevertheless I stumbled upon these gems and had to share)
  • There is an entry devoted to “Hats.” In what context would this be useful? No idea, but it’s delightful to peruse. It includes a feature on “How a Felt Hat Is Made,” as well as an explanation of “Why People Wear Hats.” According to World Book, “people wear hats for three main reasons: (1) protection, (2) communication, and (3) decoration.”
  • I learned that manufacturers can use the air bladder of a squirrel hake to make glue. Wha????
  • And I found separate entries for "Hand," "Head" and "Human Body." According to World Book, "HAND is the end of a forelimb, or arm. Hands are specially constructed for taking hold of objects. True hands have opposable thumbs . . . " True hands! Priceless.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

#18: Grant, Ulysses

Ulysses S. Grant
April 27, 1822, Pt. Pleasant, Ohio - July 23, 1885, McGregor, New York

What a beard!

  • What's in a name? According to World Book, Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant. Hiram! That is totally going on my short list of names for my as-yet unborn sons. (Kidding, kidding... I don't have such a list, but if I did, Hiram would be way up top.) When he was seventeen, Grant's father found out that a neighbor's son had been dismissed from the U.S. Military Academy. He wrote his congressman to appoint Ulysses as a replacement (little 'Lyss had been going to school at an academy in Ripley, Ohio in the meantime). The congressman agreed, but when he made out the appointment he wrote it for "Ulysses S. Grant," mistakenly thinking the boy's middle name was his mother's maiden name, Simpson. 'Lyss never bothered to change it; "He thought his classmates might tease him about his real initials, 'H.U.G.'" Later, as a military commander, Grant earned the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant" after, on his own initiative, he took Fort Donelson in 1862 and refused to give the fort commander any concessions upon surrender. He was later called a "butcher" because he lost so many men in battle.
  • Grant was the first West Point graduate to serve as president. After graduating in 1843, he fought in the Mexican War (including participating in the capture of Mexico City). He was later stationed in Detroit (hey-yo) and also Sackets Harbor, New York, before being sent to the West to serve at Fort Vancouver in the Oregon Territory and Fort Humboldt in California. Grant eventually resigned, preferring to return to be closer to his wife and four children. After a series of business failures, he returned to the Army in 1861 to fight for the Union (he freed his only slave in 1859). Grant quickly moved up the ranks from drill captain to colonel to brigadier general to lieutenant commander. He was ultimately named supreme commander of all Union armies by Lincoln in 1864. He led the North to victory and emerged from the Civil War a national hero. In the North, people admired him for his fierce tenacity and in the South people respected him for having given General Robert E. Lee generous terms of surrender.
  • World Book refers to Grant as "trustworthy" and "shy and retiring." He was a talented horseman. His career outside the army as a young man was marked by business failures. He tried his hand as a farmer, a real estate agent, a landlord, and a store clerk. He was terrible at all of them. His unluckiness followed him after his presidency--in retirement he invested all of his savings (about $100,000) in a banking firm, for which his son, Ulysses, Jr., was a partner. The bank turned out to be run by a dishonest man and the company ultimately failed, leaving Grant almost penniless. In his old age, Grant turned to writing his memoirs for income. Mark Twain became his publisher. The memoirs earned his family $500,000!
  • Grant's presidency (1869 - 1877) was marked by widespread political corruption--he vowed not to be ruled by professional politicians in his inaugural address and instead appointed personal friends and army officers to government offices. The spoils system quickly thrived and over the course of his two terms in office, government fraud ballooned. During his presidency, Grant presided over two financial panics: Black Friday (spurred by a gold speculation scandal) and the Panic of 1873 (spurred by the failure of several Eastern banks). All the while, Grant continued to accept personal gifts and his cabinet members accepted bribes left and right.
  • Despite all the scandals, Grant succeeded in reducing the national debt. While he was president, the First Transcontinental Railroad System was completed, which I learned about from a Lucky Luke comic book, "Des Rails sur la Prairie." (Come to think of it, almost everything I know about the American West I learned from either Lucky Luke or the Magnificent Seven.) Grant also presided over the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872. Hooray for national parks! Hip hip...
Bonus drawing!
(that is a tree trunk Grant is leaning against, for your information)