The Unexpected President by Scott S. Greenberger
Chester Arthur’s story is in many ways a perfect example of the tried and true redemption arc: A young man rises from obscurity to find success before eventually becoming corrupted by it and after much soul searching finds redemption through heroic action.
We’ve seen this narrative play out often in American folklore.
I had first been introduced to Arthur’s story in Candice Millard’s fabulous book Destiny of the Republic so I was excited to dive in deeper with Scott Greenberger’s recent work.
It’s not often that we’re treated to modern biographies of history’s more obscure presidents so Greenberger’s take is an unexpected but pleasant surprise. Greenberger, a former newspaper reporter, was not only drawn to Arthur, but also the relevance of the Gilded Age to today’s climate.
It is the period where you can detect the beginning of the country and the society that we know today. You had corporations and concerns about the influence of money in politics and rapid industrialization. And, of course, now people talk about us living in a second Gilded Age, and one of the things that happened then that is happening now is very dramatic income inequality. So I thought it was an interesting period to explore because of that parallel.
Arthur made his name in politics at the right hand of Roscoe Conklin, the most influential machine politician of his time. Arthur and Conklin led the Stalwart faction of the Republican party, coercing campaign cash from men whom they provided jobs through patronage. They also controlled the hugely corrupt New York City customs house which oversaw the collection of tariffs for the majority of US imports.
Arthur’s customs house stole goods from merchants, provided sham jobs as political favors, organized and influenced partisans, and generally acted like a Gilded Age mafia operation. In spite of this, Arther was a well-liked, sociable, energetic and friendly man. In fact Conklin often used Arther as the public face of their operations.
All of Arthur’s politicking and glad-handing eventually got him nominated as Garfield’s running mate. He was chosen more to balance the ticket than for any sort of meritorious consideration and it was precisely because of this that the nation was rather horrified when Garfield was shot. The thought of the corrupt and seemingly unqualified Arthur in the White House was unthinkable to many Americans. A Chicago Tribune editorial described it as “a pending calamity of the utmost magnitude.” Even a friend was quoted as saying, “Chet Arthur President of the United States! Good God!”
In fact, it was more or less unthinkable to Arthur as well. Garfield’s death was devastating to the Vice President. The thought of serving as the President of the United States was something, despite being VP, that Arthur had never really considered as a possibility or even a goal.
It was also around this time that Arthur began receiving letters from a young woman named Julia Sands. Sands, a political junkie and housebound invalid, believed in Arthur when seemingly nobody else did. Amongst her nearly two-dozen letters, she wrote, “Great emergencies awaken generous traits which have lain dormant half a life…If there is a spark of true nobility in you, now is the occasion to let it shine.”
Arthur did just that. It was gradual, but over the course of his administration he would become a champion of civil service reform, abandon Conklin, and work hard to serve all of the American people, not merely his Stalwart Republican faction.
He was even moved to visit Sands at her request, sitting for over an hour in her parlor as he thanked her for her letters and words of encouragement. Their relationship, such as it was, would become complicated in time though. Arthur never visited her again, and never responded to her continued correspondence as he settled into his role. Sands letters became increasingly agitated as well as she pined for some sort of further acknowledgement and admonished him for, among other things, signing the Chinese Exclusion Act (“Why do you not do what you do with your whole soul? — or have you only half of one?”).
Nevertheless, it’s a remarkable story and it’s ably told by Greenberger in these pages. His accomplishment is even more impressive when you consider that Arthur had most of his correspondence burned just before his death - except for nearly two dozen letters from an extraordinary women who inspired a man to follow his better angels.