tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65296760308112443042024-02-07T23:42:48.997-06:00At Times DullJanet's presidential biography project & blog.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-78676773233056848752016-03-13T11:17:00.003-06:002016-03-13T11:17:47.755-06:00presidential fact #32Calvin Coolidge was the last president never to have flown in an airplane.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-70590741971654755552016-02-09T11:19:00.003-06:002016-02-09T11:19:55.903-06:00in with a whimper, out with a whimperWhat a dud. Warren G. Harding was, in my opinion, a national mistake, elected mainly for his bone structure and neutrality. He was an undistinguished senator given his party's nomination as a compromise, and served about half a term characterized by hesitancy.<br />
<br />
Almost from the minute he entered the White House he knew he shouldn't be there. He tried to take on a figurehead role — reveling mostly in the ceremonial duties and photo opps and leaving the governing to those he appointed. Problem is, he appointed dunderheads. Before but mostly after his death, the Secretary of Interior, Attorney General, and head of the Veteran Affairs Bureau were all investigated for corruption. He's most well known for the Teapot Dome scandal, in which Secretary Albert Fall took bribes from corporations in exchange for oil leases. WGH wasn't directly involved, but it happened under his nose because he preferred to golf rather than supervise the federal government.<br />
<br />
It's hard to read a 600-page biography where the subject is barely admirable and surrounds himself with unremarkable people. He has a long affair, and love child, with Nan Britton, whose chief characteristic was uncomplicated availability. All his friends suck. And the biographer, Francis Russell, continues to take pot shots at Florence Harding's looks and personality the whole book. After her husband dies in California and she returns to the White House to pack up their things, Russell says that she returned to Washington, "ankles thicker than ever." Stay classy, Francis Russell.<br />
<br />
Along the way there was some pretty good political insults from his peers, which are my favorite, but I can't even be bothered to look them up to record because this book just drains the life from me. Harding was a mediocre to poor president who was also a mediocre to poor human being, in my estimation, and I'm happy he's out of the way.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-81879194288442593622015-06-23T13:48:00.001-05:002015-06-23T13:48:33.443-05:00WGH: multi-taskerHarding was a US Senator during WWI, and if you're wondering how he comported himself in such an esteemed role during a vital chapter in our nation's history, it was writing letters to his two mistresses at his desk during Senate debates.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-10762815070843555262015-05-07T16:38:00.003-05:002015-05-07T16:38:54.675-05:00Who is this Warren G Harding anyway?Warren G. Harding's legacy is a mess. And I don't just mean that he's remembered as a bad president, which he is, and was, but that sorting through accounts of him, both by historians and his contemporaries, you never feel like you're getting the real story.<br />
<br />
There are two main points on which his legacy stands, neither of which have to do with his political career. The first is the persistent rumor that his great-grandmother was black. There's no concrete evidence for or against this, and as of when Francis Russell wrote his biography (in the 1960s) the Harding family were dead set against looking into it. <br />
<br />
The story Warren's father stuck to was that a neighbor got mad at them and started the rumor that they were mixed race. The rumor was spread widely in the Blooming Grove and Marion communities where Harding grew up and then lived, and when he was running for president someone got wind of it and publicized it nationally to hurt Harding, which is how the rumor made it into the history books.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEL31meUzjPHMNBdipMBidiC62gNBpoc6bFTvfelBa78EWLlbd6zBssTJPHbRSJiO_H4CnZBrPT8UOlA9NaQXbO3SfWcNHljDLef_0JhxMBDrza04iJfsL86CCP5MppD22EACV_zqMRM/s1600/harding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVEL31meUzjPHMNBdipMBidiC62gNBpoc6bFTvfelBa78EWLlbd6zBssTJPHbRSJiO_H4CnZBrPT8UOlA9NaQXbO3SfWcNHljDLef_0JhxMBDrza04iJfsL86CCP5MppD22EACV_zqMRM/s320/harding.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
The story goes that the Harding family a few generations above Warren's generation were known to be black, but when the family moved to Ohio they started passing as white. People also point to Warren's father's curly hair and a few cousins' or great uncles' "negroid features." The man pictured on the book cover, left, is purportedly WGH's great-uncle. But it could just be some dude named Harding. The research that went into that book is about a solid as its cover design.<br />
<br />
The point is, we don't know, and really it doesn't matter. What is certain, and what is consequential, is that WGH experienced racism in a very real and consistent way. Kids shouted racial slurs at him and his siblings at school, as a successful Marion businessman WGH was still barred from many of the clubs and associations he wanted to join, like the Masons, and his wife's father disowned her because she had "married a n---."<br />
<br />
[Once WGH was a former lieutenant governor being eyed for the US Senate his father-in-law was more like oh heeeeey we're cool.]<br />
<br />
Who's to say the effect this had on his life? He was certainly very ambitious, in the face of constant ridicule. And during his short presidency he gave a speech in Birmingham, Alabama calling for an "end of prejudice," the first president to mention civil rights in the South. [The speech was greeted with silence from the audience in front of him, and cheers from the black segregated farther away.] One could take the Tolstoyan view that it was simply time for the presidency to be for Civil Rights, but one almost must think that his lifelong experience of prejudice informed the speech.<br />
<br />
The other thing Harding is chiefly know for is his flair for adultery. He married Florence Kling when he was 25 and she was 30, already divorced and with one son. Her father was a mean dude, and most people think she married the young, rising businessman as a way to secure a future away from him. For Warren's part, marrying Amos Kling's daughter might have given him some of the legitimacy and stability he needed to be a leading citizen in the community. It's doubtful they were ever madly in love with each other, but it seems they both knew what they were doing, and what they wanted, and ended up being a "successful" political couple, as these things go<span id="goog_1310799768"></span><span id="goog_1310799769"></span>. She took over the business side of his newspaper, which immediately got out of debt, and was thought to be something of a political manager for him throughout his life.<br />
<br />
Francis Russell, who wrote the biography I'm reading, is either a horrible misogynist or just hates Florence (or both!), because he never views their marriage with any nuance. He writes as if Florence trapped him into marriage against his will and then he was miserable forever. His reasoning: she was ugly, so duh. Here's something he wrote about their marriage about 10 years in:<br />
<br />
"There were times enough when Harding wished that his wife were dead.
Yet though he played with the idea, he could never assert himself to
the point of leaving her. She was in her grim way part of him, a part he
could not discard. Their dark and cluttered house represented home,
with all the emotional overtones the word had for him. She, thick-ankled
and withered, was no longer a sexual object, yet her illnesses
distressed him. He had long been used to satisfying his physical needs
elsewhere. She knew it, or at least sensed it, and was still woman
enough to be torn with jealousy." <br />
<br />
Yeah, Francis Russell can eat a bowl of butts.<br />
<br />
But Harding did have numerous affairs, and visit numerous brothels. Most notably, he carried on a 15-year affair with Carrie Phillips, the wife of his friend and fellow Marion businessman James Phillips. The Phillipses and the Hardings were friends, and the two couples hung out a lot and went on vacation together sometimes (ewwwwww). Russell was writing his biography fairly soon after Carrie died (about 40 years after Harding) and got his hands on all the love letters from WGH she had kept. He quoted them extensively in the book, obviously, and it was set for publication when Harding's nephew filed for an injunction. The judge upheld it, but it was too late to re-write the book without the quotes, so they were simply replaced with dashes. The result is pages such as these: <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPZl76BW7xk1fCePqtVOMtHc9_9358btDFOqko5-_i6-f32x9evjM3DxvWQgPZ20U1Xn5yzVdfyXCEO9yEvCuyheFI3Uh1VBK13hXl-flORkrAUhu-CZafYRVw2ee6V4lmFvsfExql7s/s1600/2015-05-06+23.18.58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJPZl76BW7xk1fCePqtVOMtHc9_9358btDFOqko5-_i6-f32x9evjM3DxvWQgPZ20U1Xn5yzVdfyXCEO9yEvCuyheFI3Uh1VBK13hXl-flORkrAUhu-CZafYRVw2ee6V4lmFvsfExql7s/s640/2015-05-06+23.18.58.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
It's a little funny because it seems just as damning as using the actual quotes would have been.<br />
<br />
Anyway, the judge granted Harding's nephew a copyright to the letters, who then donated them to the Library of Congress under the condition that they would be sealed for 50 years.<br />
<br />
Sooooo, fast forward 50 years. Harding's nephew has died and the internet has happened, and you can now read scans of the <a href="http://www.loc.gov/collection/warren-harding-carrie-fulton-phillips-correspondence/about-this-collection/%20http://www.amazon.com/The-Harding-Affair-Espionage-during/dp/0230106951/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8">entire collection of letters</a> on the Library of Congress's website. (Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the highlights <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/warren-hardings-love-letters-finally-give-us-something-remember-him-180952528/?no-ist">here</a>.) Jim Robenalt wrote a book based on the letters, <i>The Harding Affair</i>, and in an interview said that "ironically letters of adultery may be his salvation because they force
the reader to take another look—a full look at Harding the man and
Harding the statesman."<br />
<br />
I'm not sure whether I'm getting a good look at Harding, either through Francis Russell's sexist/racist romp of a biography, or through further reading I've done on WGH, Florence, and Carrie. He seems to be an eternally unlucky man. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAIgBcvSB8of_NmpETk-cXVtedgsAhuYMr3YEyOciepyD16FQIZ2iJhmKgLIHNnOt8zEay933LvIyul2yCfsXzBNTAmkUQ6CLT47W-YrgbjXfhoMlIpK0uzbkknkuUrMPqe508Bhg9Hw/s1600/harding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-47168060987237740142015-04-19T14:01:00.001-05:002015-04-19T14:11:53.504-05:00presidential fact #31: a flaky presidentA handful of times throughout his life, Winnie Harding went to spend some me time at Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan.<br />
<br />
Battle Creek Sanitarium was run by the Kellogg brothers, one of whom invented Corn Flakes as something to feed the patients. I quite recommend the episode of Drunk History that tells the story.<br />
<br />
<iframe width="512" height="288" src="http://www.hulu.com/embed.html?eid=1cjm7ciqle9rfqev9ak0tg&et=526&st=110" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-52139262243352831892015-04-13T22:28:00.002-05:002015-04-19T14:09:50.731-05:00presidential fact #30When Warren G. Harding's father, George, was a Union soldier, he visited the White House and shook Lincoln's hand.<br />
<br />
(Warren G. Harding was the first president born after the Civil War.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-82972489746685422222015-04-06T16:44:00.001-05:002015-04-06T16:44:13.266-05:00you probably think this national anthem's about you, don't you?I've had just about enough of these presidents and their secret diseases! Divulge your debilitating health problems, you megalomaniacs! This isn't tsarist Russia!<br />
<br />
When Wilson returned from Paris in the spring or summer of 1919, he faced an uphill battle both politically and physically. The peace process had exhausted him, and his doctor was begging him to take some time off, but he returned to find that Henry Cabot Lodge (who is just ONE OF THOSE SENATORS) was determined that Congress not ratify the Treaty of Versailles.<br />
<br />
While Lodge worked the votes in Congress, Wilson decided to go on a whistlestop tour of the US to rally support for the Treaty and the League of Nations from the people themselves, whose support he had lost during his months abroad. His doctor, Grayson, begged him not to do this. He'd been having what Grayson called "cerebral episodes" with increasing frequency, and going on a grueling train trip in the middle of the summer with stops to give long speeches, seemed like a recipe for disaster. Wilson couldn't be dissuaded, and basically told Grayson that he was willing to kill himself for the League.<br />
<br />
The trip was cut short when Wilson collapsed after a speech in Pueblo, Colorado, and Wilson rushed backed to Washington to rest. In October of 1919 Wilson had a serious stroke, and was bedridden for months. He didn't leave the White House grounds for something like six months. He didn't speak to any of his Cabinet until February. He saw almost nobody besides his wife, Grayson, White House usher Ike Hoover, a nurse, and various White House staff. But absolutely no government officials.<br />
<br />
During this time, his wife Edith acted as his gatekeeper, taking messages for him and deciding which of them he needed to know about (very few). The country was informed that the president was sick and needed to rest, but nobody knew exactly how serious it was. The Cabinet kept meeting without him, which made Wilson mad, to which they responded SOMEONE NEEDS TO RUN THE COUNTRY, DUDE.<br />
<br />
Throughout this time, Wilson would occasionally toy with the idea of ceding power to his vice president, a nice dude from Indiana from Marshall. But he and his doctor decided that he was able to "adequately perform" his duties as president, a decision he made based on the very limited view of what was going on in the government he got from Edith. Because Edith only told him about the issues he could easily handle from his bed, he assumed that he was easily handling the presidency. He was not. Federal appointments stayed open for months, new ambassadors couldn't start their jobs because Wilson couldn't accept their credentials, and the secretary of the interior hired a young guy named J. Edgar Hoover, who started wantonly deporting Russians on suspicion of communism.<br />
<br />
Wilson was a great man, and the fact that his body failed him at the most crucial moment of his presidency is truly a tragedy, but it makes me mad when the presidents do this. I've talked about the presidential gaze before, how entering the office gives you a higher level of perspective, but I also think it convinces these dudes that they are innately, divinely presidential. Wilson convinced himself that even in a drastically debilitated state, he <i>needed</i> to be the president.<br />
<br />
Then he swung from telling Grayson he was going to cede power to Marshall, to saying that he was going to run for a third term, in case you needed to know how much denial he was in.<br />
<br />
<br />
The Democrats got slaughtered in the midterms, and Wilson regained just enough strength by mid-1920 to be what biographer Berg called "the lamest of all lame ducks in American history," which is a Wilson-can't-walk-without-a-cane joke. Although Edith and Wilson maintained that his mind remained sharp for the duration of his presiency, Grayson and Ike Hoover both later admitted that he was never himself after Pueblo.<br />
<br />
The best thing to happen to Wilson at the end of his life was that his successor, Harding, was a bona fide disaster, so public opinion rushed back to him almost immediately. By the time he died in 1924, he was the most popular man in America again.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-5030430743286680192015-04-05T17:13:00.002-05:002015-04-07T12:09:23.225-05:00presidential fact #29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYBSfgQNp1fZAWdakjU1DgRuyxnxE6gFGWMsvJ3o2zQrSkCXAbOjBk3zOTEXEeGBa5r2XAvniBqc6pbBWyKjaGUq-C3Vk1S7cc7mvPB54mi_JCreKpPQAd5UaYoUEZlk_2dQJOPGVHf8/s1600/HardingCoolidgeRWB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzYBSfgQNp1fZAWdakjU1DgRuyxnxE6gFGWMsvJ3o2zQrSkCXAbOjBk3zOTEXEeGBa5r2XAvniBqc6pbBWyKjaGUq-C3Vk1S7cc7mvPB54mi_JCreKpPQAd5UaYoUEZlk_2dQJOPGVHf8/s1600/HardingCoolidgeRWB.jpg" height="200" width="191" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMkz2BC3lPb7TTM-SR3FLxXpiwciMGTPN9k1tRQsef9eKSVKHc9lnOlGGcbKvcDdSu-EPF1o6WTeZ3QQeouk_0fsMErsE3iG_OfM7bk5S1o1bygcpeo2SAzsXlyeKi1gslcypsOz7UjnU/s1600/VHE_Campaigns_IL.2012.2.29.3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMkz2BC3lPb7TTM-SR3FLxXpiwciMGTPN9k1tRQsef9eKSVKHc9lnOlGGcbKvcDdSu-EPF1o6WTeZ3QQeouk_0fsMErsE3iG_OfM7bk5S1o1bygcpeo2SAzsXlyeKi1gslcypsOz7UjnU/s1600/VHE_Campaigns_IL.2012.2.29.3.jpg" height="200" width="183" /></a></div>
The election of 1920 saw 3 future presidents on the ballot. Republican nominee Warren G. Harding and vice presidential nominee Calvin Coolidge, and Democratic vice presidential nominee Franklin D. Roosevelt.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-85781746259512376042015-04-02T17:07:00.000-06:002015-04-02T17:07:26.133-06:00devastatedWoodrow Wilson had a surprisingly interesting first term, considering that no one ever talks about it. His second term, which saw him enter WWI and then work towards the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations, is what we know him for. But in his first term he passed an impressive amount of reform legislation, codifying the transition to a world power and first world economy that Roosevelt and Taft had been talking about for years. Not at all bad for someone who became president after only a few years as governor of New Jersey, and whose main campaign strategy was to let Roosevelt and Taft tear each other apart.<br />
<br />
Every president hits their peak, the zenith of a large, historic life. The lucky ones hit it after they're done being president (Quincy Adams), the unfortunate hit it <i>before</i> their presidency (Grant), but most of them hit it somewhere right in the middle (Wilson).<br />
<br />
Wilson is rare in that you can point at the exact moment his presidency peaked — his "make the world safe for democracy' speech. That speech really killed, globally. And he rode its goodwill through the war, and then everything started falling apart.<br />
<br />
Wilson's decision to spend the better part of a year in Paris for the peace process was and is still hotly debated and criticized. It didn't seem to make anybody happy. Americans felt abandoned and Europeans felt condescended to. The delegations from France, Italy, and Great Britain couldn't stomach that America had sacrificed the least in the war and yet were trying to run the peace process. France, in particular, was mad that Wilson wouldn't go on a tour of her devastated lands, to see what the war had done to them. Wilson's response:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I don't want to see the devastated regions. As a boy, I saw the country through which Sherman marched to the sea. The pathway lay right through my people's properties. I know what happened, and I know the bitterness and hatreds which were engendered. I don't want to get mad over here because I think there ought to be <i>one</i> person at that peace table who isn't mad. I'm afraid if I visited the devastated areas I would get mad, too, and I'm not going to permit myself to do so."</blockquote>
<br />
Isn't he something?<br />
<br />
He might actually have been going loony mad though. He had history of high blood pressure and migraines, and would go on to have a serious strokes, and some people who have examined his medical history and symptoms in retrospect believe he started having a series of mini-strokes during the peace process. He would at times be absent-minded and paranoid, at other times giddy and childlike, and became obsessed with rearranging furniture. It's possible these are all the effects of an extremely high-pressure situation, but many believe (and biographer Berg seems to have thrown his hat in with this theory) that he was experiencing neurological damage from strokes or early onset dementia.<br />
<br />
His increasing inflexible and irascible behavior made the peace process more difficult, but he did get through it. Unfortunately, the downward slide had already begun.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-31411805867453291412015-01-04T14:13:00.001-06:002015-01-04T14:13:26.745-06:00presidential fact #28The first White House press conference was held by the newly-elected Wilson in the Oval Office on March 15, 1913.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-81992138322228179182014-11-04T12:03:00.001-06:002014-11-04T12:03:23.117-06:00Woodrow Wilson and the Seven SistersAfter attending Princeton, which he lo-o-o-o-o-oved, Tommy W. Wilson started his graduate work at the University of Virginia, where he formally shed his first name and started going by Woodrow. After only a year he moved back to Georgia to practice law, which he didn't enjoy. We've entered a period of Wilson's life where he doesn't enjoy anything, because he sees himself as bound for greatness and chafes at having to pay his dues in any capacity. (This is a common phase for many future presidents — JQA spent a decade or so in a similar huff — that would be more ingratiating if they weren't eventually proven right.)<br />
<br />
After a few years of law Wilson enrolled at Johns Hopkins to pursue a doctorate. Although he loved campus life —especially being in charge of as many student activities as possible — he was less focused on scholarship than he was on his new girlfriend, whom he would marry in 1885.<br />
<br />
He still had a year left on his doctorate but, as a newlywed, he felt pressed to provide for his wife, and took a professorial job at the newly founded Bryn Mawr, an all-women's college.<br />
<br />
As a graduate of Wellesley (go Blue!), I was excited to find a president who had worked at one of the Seven Sisters, until I realized that Wilson was a big pill about it.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidzw4_4eYUr79lgi2k0fCVV1lxtwyTtijNGxvJMMbNlQA3JE4F5vze-bIYf3R-CEEkYaCKBoAq_QW0_4i2zGVskZr7zn96LxPSe0UhxtEZgHAGc7pKkuGKaHhaPQSpoBwMAJO_l6mmk7s/s1600/firstclassformal_2nd-version.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidzw4_4eYUr79lgi2k0fCVV1lxtwyTtijNGxvJMMbNlQA3JE4F5vze-bIYf3R-CEEkYaCKBoAq_QW0_4i2zGVskZr7zn96LxPSe0UhxtEZgHAGc7pKkuGKaHhaPQSpoBwMAJO_l6mmk7s/s1600/firstclassformal_2nd-version.jpg" height="459" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Woodrow Wilson with Bryn Mawr's first graduating class, 1886. (top row, far right)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
He considered a women's college beneath him and reportedly phoned in most of his lectures, sometimes just reading aloud from magazine articles he had written. However, having not officially finished his doctorate he couldn't be picky. Luckily, his books and articles were garnering him a reputation as a historian, and Johns Hopkins was inclined to let him finish his doctorate in absentia. Once he had done that, new job offers from "real" colleges came pouring in. He had signed a contract with Bryan Mawr, but it stated that he would be given an assistant "when practical." Because he hadn't been given one as soon as he expected, he claimed breach of contract and left to teach at Wesleyan, and then a few years later at Princeton.<br />
<br />
Not a shining moment for Woodrow Wilson. A plaque at Bryn Mawr commemorating his time there was casually removed about 10 years ago.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-28865708820092223022014-10-28T18:06:00.001-06:002014-10-29T09:19:13.593-06:00our first Confederate presidentWoodrow Wilson's first memory is standing in his front yard in Augusta, Georgia in 1860, at the age of 3, and hearing someone passing say that Abraham Lincoln had won the election and that war was coming. He ran inside to ask his parents who Abraham Lincoln was, and what war was.<br />
<br />
Although Augusta was spared the destruction of many of the neighboring Georgia towns (a reprieve rumored to result from the fact that an ex-girlfriend of General Sherman lived in Augusta), the fact remains that Wilson grew up in the war-ravaged Deep South. (During the war his father, a Presbyterian minister, left to serve as a chaplain for soldiers in North Carolina.) A few years later, he would again stand outside and watch Jefferson Davis being marched through town under federal guard.<br />
<br />
Every president from Lincoln to McKinley served in the Civil War. (All of them as soldiers except Arthur, who was a quartermaster, because of course he was.) Roosevelt and Taft were young during the Civil War but were fairly removed from it, but Wilson really lived it, and as a Southerner! It's fascinating to me that there's a US president who at one point, by many's accounting, was a citizen of the Confederate States of America.<br />
<br />
There hadn't been a Southern president since Andrew Johnson 50 years before, and he was a grade A fiasco. But America hadn't actually elected a Southern president since Zachary Taylor in 1849! And he slid in by winning a war.<br />
<br />
This fascinates me — partially because I had no idea Wilson was from the South, and because I'm interested to see how growing up in a marginalized region of the country at its lowest point affects his political life (of course, by the time he reached the presidency he'd lived most of his adult life in New Jersey). A. Scott Berg is clearly setting it up to be a founding principle.<br />
<br />
And while I'm at it, it is a straight up pleasure to be in the hands of the inimitable A. Scott Berg for this biography. I wish he'd written all the biographies.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-45544514979741790712014-10-25T13:05:00.002-05:002014-10-25T13:05:30.327-05:00presidential fact #27Woodrow Wilson was the last president to write all his own speeches.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-35936202144454472142014-10-14T09:27:00.001-05:002014-10-25T13:04:31.203-05:00to whom it may concernWhen Harding got elected, he intimated to Taft that if a spot on the Supreme Court came open, he would give it to him. I can't imagine the effect this would have had on him — in his mid-60s, after a lifetime of dizzying ups and downs, hearing that his dream may finally come true.<br />
<br />
When the chief justice chair did open up, Taft did his best to keep his composure. His friends were more than willing to lobby on his behalf, but he sent them pretty detailed and fervent instructions about how to do so.<br />
<br />
He was worried that his age (63) might be a hindrance. But, he wrote to his friend Gus Karger, in what is the either the sweetest or most desperate cover letter ever written: "I have had federal judicial experience, too. I. Three years on the state bench. 2. Two years solicitor general, U.S. 3. Eight years presiding judge, U.S. Circuit. 4. Four years Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit. 5. Four years secretary of war. 6. Four years president. 7. Eight years Kent professor, Yale University, five hours a week Federal Constitutional Law except one year Chairman National War Labor Board and one year arbitrator in case between Canadian government and Grand Trunk Railway. That would seem to indicate pretty continuous service in the line of judicial and other duties preparing one for service on the Supreme Court."<br />
<br />
Oh Taft, you darling man.<br />
<br />
He was an incredibly modest and good-hearted man, which is what I think allowed him to bounce back from a failed presidency so easily. Because he had never had a huge ego, there wasn't much of one to deflate. His presidency, the unhappiest time of his life, soon enough faded to an item on a long list of accomplishments.<br />
<br />
He was named chief justice in June 1921, served tirelessly until February 1930, and died one month later.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-40932876944460327752014-10-06T14:49:00.000-05:002014-10-06T14:50:10.709-05:00which of us will be the happiestA presidential tradition — one which I would watch out for and catalog if I could start ATD over again — is the moment when an exhausted outgoing president congratulates his successor and is basically like "Here's the White House, knock yourself out lol."<br />
<br />
Presidents <i>love</i> being done being president, and there have been some real zingers over the years as they pass on the mantle.<br />
<br />
At John Adams' inauguration, he said he thought he could see George Washington thinking: "I am fairly out, and you are fairly in. See which of us will be the happiest." [Note: GW did not actually say this, don't be fooled by HBO.]<br />
<br />
But of all the presidents who click their heels with glee on the way out the door, Taft has to be up there with Buchanan, Arthur, and Tyler. He didn't even want a second term, he really only campaigned to make sure Roosevelt didn't get re-elected.<br />
<br />
By late 1911, it was patently clear that TR wanted to run for president again. I throw a lot of shade at TR, but his situation was also pitiable. He became president at the age of 42 and served for seven and a half years. At 50, he had more energy and ambition than the rest of the federal government put together, but found himself essentially in retirement. So naturally he went bananas. He couldn't bear not being at the center of things, in power, so he decided he should be president again.<br />
<br />
But a lot of revisionism and self-justification had to happen so he could convince himself it was the right thing to do. He had to convince himself that Taft was ruining the country, that the Republican party that he had helped strengthen was going to the dogs, and that he himself was basically a socialist.<br />
<br />
Above all he loved a high horse — literally and figuratively. A speech at the 1912 convention ended with the words: "We fight in honorable fashion for the good of mankind; fearless of the future; unheeding of our individual fates; with unflinching hearts and undimmed eyes; we stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord." <br />
<br />
Henry F. Pringle (another real champion at presidential biography insults) replies: "It was magnificent. It was epic, even if nobody knew where Armageddon was, exactly, and why the Lord had suddenly become an opponent of William Howard Taft."<br />
<br />
Despite popular support, the Republican convention of 1912 insisted on Taft as their candidate, kind of because all the delegates were like "Guys? I know Teddy is popular and all but it seems like he's spinning himself into an egomaniacal frenzy?" (Wilson called it his "insane distemper of egotism.")<br />
<br />
<br />
And he was. Incensed at not getting the nomination, he ran as a third-party candidate under his platform of New Nationalism, forcing himself farther to the left than any serious presidential candidate had ever gone in order to distinguish himself from his old party. Then he got down to the business of smearing his former friend Bill for a few solid months.<br />
<br />
Taft, to recap, did not want to serve a second term, and did not want to get into a public fight with TR, but, in order to keep the crazed socialist moose out of the White House, was forced to do both. After a day of campaigning, during which he'd given many speeches defending himself from TR's accusations and throwing back new ones, Taft was scheduled for an interview with newspaperman Louis Seibold. When Seibold got to his train car, Taft simply said, "He was my closest friend," and started to weep.<br />
<br />
America chose Woodrow Wilson, TR got to move on to his next flight of fancy, and the Taft presidency came to a close to everyone's satisfaction.<br />
<br />
Unless Pringle's biography is leading me astray, I've never seen a failed president become a beloved private citizen so quickly. Upon leaving office, Taft immediately took up a professorship at Yale, which he used as a headquarters for his new role as America's friendly uncle. He was in demand as a speaker and writer, gave lots of good-natured speeches that made the country fall back in love with him, and — hoping to take the opposite tack of his predecessor — was publicly very supportive of Wilson. <br />
<br />
And things were just going to get better.<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-83920416459616739742014-10-01T16:58:00.001-05:002014-10-01T16:58:41.281-05:00Major Butt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9s3qcyswlP7kYwz590buI5y8-Wy1mzqNaIh-t0lLCZOvOfncGspaP7uGbIliiDQbZV5bBRUV9g5tZUDfORgwDOtTS8alq5nOP3OdxRleesi0n-6r-4QPpWfP2HScp3lqvOZ8F7VwFjpE/s1600/Archibald_Willingham_Butt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9s3qcyswlP7kYwz590buI5y8-Wy1mzqNaIh-t0lLCZOvOfncGspaP7uGbIliiDQbZV5bBRUV9g5tZUDfORgwDOtTS8alq5nOP3OdxRleesi0n-6r-4QPpWfP2HScp3lqvOZ8F7VwFjpE/s1600/Archibald_Willingham_Butt.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></b></div>
Archibald Willingham DeGraffenreid Clarendon Butt, known as Archie to his friends, in which number could be counted Big Ego Roosevelt and Big Bill Taft, was a Georgia boy who worked as a newspaperman and then joined the army volunteers during the Spanish-American War, serving mainly as a quartermaster and working his way up to major.<br />
<br />
So yes, Major Butt is what I call him.<br />
<br />
After getting to know both of them personally when he worked for the army in The Philippines, Major Butt served as military aide to both Big Ego and Big Bill. (I'm not sure what the role of military aide entailed, but during Taft's administration he became the president's closest adviser, friend, and confidante.)<br />
<br />
This is obviously comical and somewhat sad — that the president who couldn't catch a break had a best friend named Major Butt — but ol' Butt over there was truly a swell guy.<br />
<br />
Quartermasters are the unglamorous heroes of the military, enormously essential but rarely acknowledged for their work. (Ulysses S. Grant worked as a quartermaster so obviously I love them. It was kind of the secret to why he was a great general, but that's not what we're here to talk about). At one point he was in charge of transporting 500 mules from Hawaii to The Philippines. That all 500 survived the journey was what first made the higher-ups take notice.<br />
<br />
He moved to Washington in 1908 to serve under TR and then Big Bill. He wrote daily letters to his sister Clara, which are enormously helpful to historians in understanding the two presidents and especially their relationship to each other. Being close to both of them, their eventual feud stressed him out, and Taft told him to go on vacation during the 1912 primaries so he wouldn't have to take sides. He spent 6 weeks in Europe with his "housemate and friend" Francis (they were gay), even traveling to the Vatican with a letter from Taft to Pope Pius X.<br />
<br />
Major Butt boarded the HMS Titanic in April 1912. Taft spoke at memorial services for him both in Georgia and Washington, although his eulogy at the second service had to be cut short because Taft couldn't stop crying. (To be totally honest, Taft cried a lot in 1912.) A bridge commemorating his death, known by locals as Butt Bridge, was built in his hometown of August, GA in 1914, and escaped demolition by a memorable "Save Our Butt" campaign in 1994 and 1995.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Butt#cite_note-1"><span></span></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-4734528509752004082014-09-25T21:25:00.002-05:002014-09-25T21:25:16.084-05:00OH TAFT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1f4QhqwneyNMtzh3M3tL_Dd4VDCztKd9XsTuTAOpyQMqh6YgTkeA2JoelwuXhxmk8-QE-cssuIFJ5p-yCCOo6BNW5ORd-n4YCDGyEGSuHXzPna2ANphBoA65OIyHdu66CWFpeMoY54A8/s1600/2014-09-25+19.15.06.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1f4QhqwneyNMtzh3M3tL_Dd4VDCztKd9XsTuTAOpyQMqh6YgTkeA2JoelwuXhxmk8-QE-cssuIFJ5p-yCCOo6BNW5ORd-n4YCDGyEGSuHXzPna2ANphBoA65OIyHdu66CWFpeMoY54A8/s1600/2014-09-25+19.15.06.jpg" height="300" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
Oh, Taft. When a chapter of your biography is titled "So Little Time Remained," it's a bad sign. The second paragraph of this chapter starts with the words: "Another major problem for which there was not enough time..."<br />
<br />
["Another major problem for which there was not enough time" could be the title of this blog come to think of it, were At Times Dull not so snappy.]<br />
<br />
The chapter that followed this one was titled "A Final Futile Dream." Henry F. Pringle is not in raptures over Big Bill, is what I'm getting at. I can't bring myself to outline the major political issues of his administration. There was a to-do with Japan and China regarding Manchuria. There was unrest in Mexico that Taft didn't want to get involved with. There were oh so many problems with the tariff. There was, I'm not kidding, an enormous debate over the prices of second class mail.<br />
<br />
Taft become more stubborn and isolated as his term went on and garnered more and more criticism. He was also obviously hurt by the fact that Roosevelt openly opposed many of his policies, even though he'd become president essentially at Roosevelt's urging. Oh except when things were getting crazy in Mexico Roosevelt wrote him a letter that was like "Hey I know we're not friends anymore and in fact I'm tanking your political career but on the off chance we go to war with Mexico I'd love to be in it, like leading 3 cavalry regiments would be pretty cool." UGH TR WE KNOW YOU LOVE WAR AND HORSES, GO HOME PLEASE.<br />
<br />
A lot of Taft's dreams came true after his presidency so I've got that to look forward to. In the meantime, there's a cute story about Taft and Alice Roosevelt. You may remember that they traveled together on a diplomatic mission to Asia, and had become close friends. He sent her a silver cigarette case for Christmas, because unlike most men in Washington he was down with her smoking, and she wrote back and said that he was the best.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-25569603029517180242014-09-22T15:50:00.000-05:002014-09-22T15:50:25.078-05:00Taft: The Early Years That I Don't Know Much AboutIn the feast-or-famine way of presidential biographies, it was slim pickings for Taft. There's one book just about his 4 years as president, one about his emotional life (??), a few that are out of print, and a 1,000-page 2-volume biography that is regarded as mediocre. Its author was admittedly a big fan of TR and decided to research Taft because of their relationship, but ultimately didn't like him. And yet his is my best option, so I decided to read just the second volume of William Howard Taft by Henry Pringle.<br />
<br />
It starts in 1910 when the mid-term Taft is in a tariff battle. As is well-documented on this page, I do not understand the tariff and every time it comes up I zone out, so this was not an auspicious beginning.<br />
<br />
Here is what I know about Taft's life pre-1910 due to his apperances in the Roosevelt biography and a quick reading of his wikipedia page.<br />
<br />
- He went to Yale, where he got the nickname "Big Bill," was a wrestler, and graduated 2nd in his class.<br />
- He then returned to Ohio to start his law career in order to pursue his dream job of supreme court justice. (Ohio is to the turn of the 20th century what Virginia was to the turn of the 19th century as far as presidential politics go. Including Taft, 4 of the last 8 presidents — Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Taft — were Buckeyes.)<br />
- Benjamin Harrison made him Solicitor General, and then McKinley put him in charge of the newly-acquired Philippines.<br />
- When Roosevelt took over, Big Bill was Governor-General of The Philippines. Roosevelt repeatedly offered him jobs in the federal government, including a supreme court seat a few times, but he refused because he wanted to finish the job he'd started there. I'm actually pretty sad that I don't get to read more about his time as Governor-General — apparently he was really good at it and had a great relationship with the Filipinos, who found him lovable if baffling walking around in the tropical heat in a 3-piece suit.<br />
- Roosevelt eventually convinced him to come home and be Secretary of War, and was public about the fact that he thought Taft should succeed him as president.<br />
- Roosevelt loved Taft. Taft loved Roosevelt. Know who didn't love Roosevelt? Helen Taft. Except Helen wanted to be first lady, and Roosevelt was going to make that happen. Taft would have preferred to wait for a supreme court seat. Helen and Roosevelt had other opinions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-72050109431928833352014-09-20T14:09:00.001-05:002014-09-20T14:09:41.081-05:00presidential fact #26William H. Taft's father, Alphonso Taft, was a co-founder of Skull & Bones.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-88869010079993498312014-07-22T12:11:00.000-05:002014-07-22T12:11:58.775-05:00Theodore Roosevelt: Spelling AdvocateDo you know why we Americans use the spelling "theater" while our British cousins use the spelling "theatre?" Because of Theodore Roosevelt!<br />
<br />
Kind of.<br />
<br />
Peeple uzed to spelle wordes howwever the hel thay fellt.<br />
<br />
Movements for standardized spelling came and went, but no standardized dictionary ever took hold.<br />
<br />
Then in 1906 Andrew Carnegie founded the Simplified Spelling Board, pledging $15,000 out of his own pocket every year for 5 years. The SSB published a list of 300 errant words whose spellings they wanted to nail down for eternity. These 300 words were comprised mainly of the following four standardizations:<br />
<br />
-ed words changed to -t (addressed/addresst)<br />
-ou words changed to -o (colour/color)<br />
-re words changed to -er (theatre/theater)<br />
-ise words changed to -ize (categorise/categorize)<br />
-plus some miscellaneous simplifications like catalogue/catalog <br />
<br />
TR was all over it, and immediately ordered the government to follow these rules, and adopted them in his own correspondence (to the chagrin of his biographers, to be sure). As you will infer, if you speak English, some of these changes stuck and some didn't.<br />
<br />
A few months later Congress reversed Roosevelt's pronouncement, saying that government printing offices could continue to use whichever spelling they wanted, but the idea stuck that these simplifications were the "American way," and with Carnegie and Roosevelt behind the idea, it kept gaining steam from there.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-2262720553543988042014-07-16T12:29:00.003-05:002014-07-16T12:29:40.420-05:00an unsafe presidentTrying to write about Theodore Roosevelt for this blog has gone a long way in demonstrating to me what a genius Edmund Morris is. TR is obviously a fun subject, because he was both a world-class scholar and statesman as well as an eternal 9-year-old boy. But what makes him fascinating also makes him hard to grasp — Who is this man who reads ethnographies of India in Italian in his free moments between presidential duties, and also spends hours wrestling and sleeping outside with his 5 youngest children?<br />
<br />
When I saw Edmund Morris speak in 2010 I was struck by how obviously Morris understood TR, and the same is obvious in the book. TR contained a multitude of personalities, and his closest friends and family never knew which one they'd be encountering on any given day — the ardent naturalist, the workaholic, the sportsman, the prankster, the politician, the bookworm. This was the main concern when his named started being floated for president. People thought he was capable of it, sure, but they also thought he could be reckless and unpredictable — descriptors rarely valued in a head of state.<br />
<br />
I forget who said this, because I read the first volume of the biography a year ago, but one of his friends expressed his misgivings about TR in the executive office by saying, "The thing you have to understand is that he's about 12."<br />
<br />
He also, as Deputy Secretary of the Navy, essentially started the Spanish-American War while his boss and McKinley were out of town for the summer so that he could fight in it. This pretty much soured me on our TR.<br />
<br />
The collective response to every other vice president who took office upon a president's death — Tyler, Johnson, and Arthur —had basically been: oops! The American voting public is endlessly capable of forgetting that vice presidents could become the president.<br />
<br />
[I just did some math. To date, 7 out of the 47 US vice presidents have had to take over the presidency because of death or resignation — about 1 in 7. That's almost a 15% chance that the VP will become POTUS. It's not a lot, but it's not a lightning strike. And yet we're always surprised!]<br />
<br />
When McKinley died and TR took office, no one was sure how it would turn out, but no one thought it would be boring. It was not. TR, in slightly less than two terms:<br />
<br />
- Arranged for the building of the Panama Canal<br />
- Transferred the Philippines back to local control (Taft gets most of the credit for this)<br />
- Hosted the negotiations that ended the Russo-Japanese war (in Portsmouth! Did you know that?)<br />
<br />
and thereby<br />
<br />
- Established the US as a world power and peacekeeper<br />
<br />
and thereby<br />
<br />
- Won the Nobel Peace Prize<br />
- Negotiated the end of a massive coal miner strike<br />
<br />
and<br />
<br />
- Fought against railroad monopolies<br />
<br />
thereby<br />
<br />
- Starting a legal conversation on corporations vs. labor that is still relevant today<br />
<br />
such as <br />
<br />
- Ushering legislation regarding workman's comp, 8-hour days, employer liability, child labor, et cetera through Congress<br />
- Hosted a conservation conference attended by governors, environmentalists (before they were called that), financial tycoons, and various government officials that codified the National Park Service, National Monuments, National Forests, and wildlife preserves<br />
- Made the US Navy the second-largest in the world, and by far the most advanced<br />
- and much more! <br />
<br />
The secrets to his effectiveness were his enormous public popularity combined with the fact that no one ever thought he was bluffing. He was a brilliant and tireless politician, but not a cagey one. Someone called him "an unsafe president," meaning that at any given time he might use his enormous power to make a decision completely independent of counsel. It's almost unrecognizable.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-17477250051629495952014-06-24T15:33:00.001-05:002014-06-24T15:36:50.661-05:00Alice Roosevelt's Sad, Amazing Life<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWlmLdidTzqmscnAKsKl-5D48hYciLlZJE9IB4XHicUixpNgKaeRZT-H3AbGla9TOHMN-LgDoj9V_yqnzjoFhBDHoc5yAmOqqYOUttInMLB6PrSk4_IaWS7GGbT-AV1Mh37ZEwkMF0brM/s1600/Alice_Roosevelt_Longworth_cph.3b03020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWlmLdidTzqmscnAKsKl-5D48hYciLlZJE9IB4XHicUixpNgKaeRZT-H3AbGla9TOHMN-LgDoj9V_yqnzjoFhBDHoc5yAmOqqYOUttInMLB6PrSk4_IaWS7GGbT-AV1Mh37ZEwkMF0brM/s1600/Alice_Roosevelt_Longworth_cph.3b03020.jpg" height="400" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alice Roosevelt being the boss.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Theodore Roosevelt's oldest daughter, Alice, is a fascinating character. Her life cries out — <i>cries out</i> — to be made into a movie.<br />
<br />
Theodore married Alice Hathaway Lee when he was 22. Four years later, she died after giving birth to their daughter, Alice Lee Roosevelt. TR was devastated, and after depositing baby Alice with his sister, left for North Dakota for a few years.<br />
<br />
When he came back East, he had regained his good spirits and soon married Edith, his childhood sweetheart. For the rest of his life he never mentioned his first wife again, even to their daughter, and he omitted any mention of her from his autobiography.<br />
<br />
Except of course he had a daughter with the exact same name, which hurt his pretend-that-never-happened strategy. After he and Edith got married, she insisted that they take Alice back from her aunt and raise her, starting a long cycle of Alice getting shuttled from house to house (aunt, parents, grandparents for the summer, cousins), really strengthening the impression she had that no one really wanted her around, and that her father saw her as little more than a sad reminder. But, she worshiped her father, and wanted his attention as much as she wished she could be independent of him.<br />
<br />
Then she grew into her good looks, which thank heaven she got from her mother, and became a TEENAGE DYNAMO. Beautiful, attention-starved, and largely left to her own devices by her father and stepmother, she became America's first daughter at the age of 17. AWESOME. (Guess who didn't like her: her cousin Eleanor, obviously.)<br />
<br />
She quickly befriended the niece of the Russian ambassador (except she wasn't really his niece she was his mistress lol), who taught her to smoke and drink. Alice had a pet snake that she carried around with her, and would sometimes smoke on the White House roof where everyone could see her. She was one of the first women in Washington to drive a car, which she did recklessly and very fast. Teddy once said, "I can either run the country or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both."<br />
<br />
It hurt her deeply to see her father dote on her 5 younger half-siblings — attention she had never received from him at the same age. It's ironic that, neglected by him because of who her mother was, she was more his daughter than any of them.<br />
<br />
She was immensely popular with the American public, of course, and was sent on an official delegation to Asia during TR's second term. There she charmed all the royalty in Japan, China, and Korea, and spent the ship voyage there and back making out with Congressman Nick Longworth, whom she would marry soon after.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFQ6NpAnKjAcjzq_1v0yOopI9P_fZH99lUctSApY9Tk54vf7-0-lmXCDpq9qwxaOc-7wCg9MllptQsuKFoQ9RI6Uh0pmWJWcxpZoHPf61vkwtmMmof3oiHR7Mddwwue6ja3dATqUeb0eM/s1600/theodore-roosevelt-435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFQ6NpAnKjAcjzq_1v0yOopI9P_fZH99lUctSApY9Tk54vf7-0-lmXCDpq9qwxaOc-7wCg9MllptQsuKFoQ9RI6Uh0pmWJWcxpZoHPf61vkwtmMmof3oiHR7Mddwwue6ja3dATqUeb0eM/s1600/theodore-roosevelt-435.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
They married while TR was still in office, meaning that Edith got to enjoy the last 2 years of his term with Alice living somewhere else. Their wedding photo is something else. TR, usually the life of the party, was stiff and quiet on his daughter's wedding day. In the photo he took with her and her new husband, he's visibly leaning away from her. Morris surmises that this might have something to do with Alice's dress being made out of material from her mother's wedding dress, and TR's memories of marrying that Alice. FATHER OF THE YEAR, TR! <br />
<br />
Alice and Nick were happy for a few years, but in 1912 they took opposite sides in a presidential primary and the rift was permanent. Nick had a long string of affairs for the remainder of their marriage, and Alice had one big one, with Senator William Borah, who was the father of her only child (a fact she admitted to in her autobiography because you can't keep Alice in a corner).<br />
<br />
Nick died in 1931, after 25 years of marriage, and Alice outlived him by almost 50, continuing to be a fixture of Washington social and political life until her death in 1980. It was once noted that she knew every president from Benjamin Harrison to Jimmy Carter personally. She was close friends with Bobby Kennedy and Richard Nixon, until the latter quoted her father in his resignation speech.<br />
<br />
As the grande dame of Washington, she's described as malicious, intimidating, and quick-witted. She was banned from both the Taft and Wilson White House for being rude. All will fear her and despair, essentially. Her daughter Paulina died from an overdose of sleeping pills at age 32, and Alice got custody of her granddaughter Joanna, whom she raised with much more care and attention than she had her own daughter, or than her parents had with her. <br />
<br />
I'm fairly certain Alice would reject my pity, but I can't help but think of her as poor Alice every time she comes up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-33459197712122994572014-06-23T13:02:00.003-05:002014-10-25T13:07:07.393-05:00John Hay<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic2oZB9HtmJivg2aP4x7lJYOiMm8OJeprhf4O5fy2m_RYIzsY3k2XPX8X9m4ttoToeNc6lHXdh2JL185KS48jxsjmRGF2olj0MQlLzishP8AzVn3TEln67lNXfojY9cJSppL5kT2qZEuM/s1600/lincoln_13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEic2oZB9HtmJivg2aP4x7lJYOiMm8OJeprhf4O5fy2m_RYIzsY3k2XPX8X9m4ttoToeNc6lHXdh2JL185KS48jxsjmRGF2olj0MQlLzishP8AzVn3TEln67lNXfojY9cJSppL5kT2qZEuM/s1600/lincoln_13.png" height="360" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Abraham Lincoln, William Seward, John Hay</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the things that make At Times Dull cozy for me is the secondary characters of American history that I get to follow through 3, 4, or in this case 7 biographies. John Hay is one of my favorites. John Hay was born in Indiana (woohoo!) in 1838, and after graduating from Brown found himself clerking at a law office in Springfield, Illinois, right next door to the law office of Abraham Lincoln.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoNBsDCH-xA_C-QoSsE2R5mWHlqk_iyJn-VeenOKIwXkgSLaanuskxgDoQm62EEInaRnGk0ThtCzi9JEjRiH-X4Ua3TYpdons98Z_MyBpF7dB6VyyA6WPICKHPGAdrRkdf5mDHkwAw084/s1600/Younger_John_Hay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoNBsDCH-xA_C-QoSsE2R5mWHlqk_iyJn-VeenOKIwXkgSLaanuskxgDoQm62EEInaRnGk0ThtCzi9JEjRiH-X4Ua3TYpdons98Z_MyBpF7dB6VyyA6WPICKHPGAdrRkdf5mDHkwAw084/s1600/Younger_John_Hay.jpg" height="320" width="218" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hay and Lincoln got to know each other via proximity and Hay's school friend John Nicolay, and after being elected president Lincoln took both of them to Washington with him as his personal secretaries. In Spielberg's Lincoln, Hay is shown as the sweet and slightly befuddled right-hand man to Lincoln (as pictured above), and while it's true that their relationship was very close and loving, Hay was more like the life of the party. He was smart, funny, and boyish — the Josh Lyman trifecta — and a big hit with men and women alike. (Notable exception: Mary Todd Lincoln.) He and Lincoln used to wake each other up in the middle of the night to hang out, and they went horseback riding in the summer. He might have been closer to Lincoln than anyone.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7f9fddd2-ca36-6cb3-e9a4-031312246546" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While his relationship with Lincoln is the first line of his obituary, he went on to have an illustrious career in public service. Under Johnson and then Grant he was a US diplomat to Paris, Madrid, and Vienna, before leaving politics for a few years to write and edit for the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Tribune</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hayes pulled him back in as Assistant Secretary of State for the last 2 years of his term, but then Hay sat out the next 5 administrations. He spent that time in part working on the 10-volume biography of Lincoln he co-wrote with Nicolay, which remains the bedrock and final word on Lincoln’s legacy.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdzzYH4gsositxkzRFDPz9D7N18zyWgCeJydBwdiaFzeO70-Ef_6jQqvmkGXBmZINa0pFI3F8CdkdKDvIlsojEWh3mw95Is1k2oaVSP60D4Qt9fEbwZ6fCZfkq-bGFJKf61UZwkJZjAVY/s1600/John_Hay%252C_bw_photo_portrait%252C_1897.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdzzYH4gsositxkzRFDPz9D7N18zyWgCeJydBwdiaFzeO70-Ef_6jQqvmkGXBmZINa0pFI3F8CdkdKDvIlsojEWh3mw95Is1k2oaVSP60D4Qt9fEbwZ6fCZfkq-bGFJKf61UZwkJZjAVY/s1600/John_Hay%252C_bw_photo_portrait%252C_1897.jpg" height="320" width="218" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then in 1897 William McKinley asked him to be US Ambassador to the UK, and a year later named him Secretary of State. When McKinley was assassinated, Hay reluctantly stayed on at State under Roosevelt and held that position until his death in 1905, eventually coming to love and admire him.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hay had learned almost as much from William Seward (Lincoln’s SoState) as he had from Lincoln, and was a remarkable statesman. He helped negotiate the end of the Spanish-American War, authored the treaty that would allow construction of the Panama Canal, wrote the Open Door policy in China, and settled the eastern border of Alaska. Despite how good he was at his job, it never hurt that people saw him as the surviving link to Abraham Lincoln, and as his biographer said, he mourned Lincoln for his entire life.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Shortly before his death he was returning to the US from abroad, and getting ready to report to Roosevelt. While on the ship, he dreamt that he reported to the White House and was greeted instead by Lincoln. It’s no surprise that he never got over Lincoln — nobody really has. A statesman whose career began at the right hand of Lincoln and ended at the right hand of Roosevelt, he understood better than anyone the rarity and impact of a great man in the presidency. On the occasion of Roosevelt’s second inauguration, aware that his own life was coming to a close, he gave the young president a ring that contained a hair from Lincoln’s head. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-56361746018029483222014-06-22T14:37:00.002-05:002014-06-22T14:37:19.213-05:00snapMuch like <a href="http://attimesdull.blogspot.com/2013/04/mckuriosities.html">Margaret Leech</a> before him, Edmund Morris is really good at the political biography insult. Here are just two of his descriptors that I've come across recently:<br />
<br />
"that jovial Methodist bison Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver"<br />
<br />
"a senator who generally displayed a public appetite for pork such as the Armour Brothers meat-packing company might fail to satisfy"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529676030811244304.post-64761509189742696492014-06-07T09:50:00.000-05:002014-06-07T09:50:11.854-05:00Roosevelt's high horse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1LQNVNnb_NWshhgxWdbG-0AlqpRl12q56AKiXivSecDLkhtQRUpbOaNP8g3FOXxXFDaPnHlx8ghTaqulQ_rhN25xVFdgyJBDYiwjIHMotiUAzR61oeNGAp243PPxV7d5EmhjpTJPm2XI/s1600/Roosevelt-was-never-one-to-sit-idly-by-1024x715.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1LQNVNnb_NWshhgxWdbG-0AlqpRl12q56AKiXivSecDLkhtQRUpbOaNP8g3FOXxXFDaPnHlx8ghTaqulQ_rhN25xVFdgyJBDYiwjIHMotiUAzR61oeNGAp243PPxV7d5EmhjpTJPm2XI/s1600/Roosevelt-was-never-one-to-sit-idly-by-1024x715.jpg" height="444" width="640" /></a></div>
Roosevelt loved horse-jumping, of course. Even more, he loved pictures of himself. So when he got a picture of himself on a horse jumping over a fence he gave AUTOGRAPHED COPIES TO MEMBERS OF HIS CABINET. I hope these copies still exist as treasured family heirlooms.<br />
<br />
I have picked up where I left off almost a year ago, as Roosevelt is settling in to his role of president in 1902. The main issues he has to deal with in the term he inherited from McKinley are trusts, monopolies, a coal strike, and its consequences for labor nationwide. Although these are not the mythical tasks Roosevelt dreams himself to be born for, he's uniquely suited for them — as someone who grew up among the upper class in New York and Harvard but has also ranched in North Dakota and fought on the front lines (of a war that he started), he can identify with both the industrialists and the workers, and both sides trust him to understand their position, if not to back it.<br />
<br />
Edmund Morris's chapters are mercifully short - averaging around 10 pages - during this time, as if he knew that he'd have to break railroad merger negotiations into digestible bits. God bless Edmund Morris.<br />
<br />
And if I may; thanks so much to those of you who have contacted me via the comments, twitter, or email over the past year to ask if At Times Dull was going to be Forever Dull. I did not intend to neglect it for so long. I've been much busier with other writing projects for the past year, which is a great thing, but unfortunately ATD is the easiest thing to put off. I'm hoping to balance them more successfully going forward. After all, I made it to the 20th century! I must make it to the 21st!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3