On November 18, 1886 (137 years ago today) Chester Alan Arthur, the 21st President of the United States, died at his home in New York City. He was probably 57 years of age. (There is some confusion about Arthur's age.) Arthur succeeded James Garfield as President on September 19, 1881, following Garfield's death. Garfield had been shot on July 2, ( Read more... )

Ulysses Grant entered the White House as President in 1869, having been a popular Union General, popular in the North that is. It was said that prior to Lincoln's assassination, Grant was the most popular man in the Union. But he left office in 1877, having served two consecutive terms as president. Grant considered seeking a third term at that ( Read more... )

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite obscure Presidents, Chester Alan Arthur. He was born on October 5th, probably 1829. (Arthur's tombstone says that he was born in 1830, but his leading biographer Thomas C. Reeves makes a much stronger case for Arthur being born in 1829, which would mean that he was born 194 years ago today).


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Nationwide support between the two major political parties was very evenly divided in the latter part of the 19th century as the years from 1876 to 1888 produced a series of very close election. Since 1860, the Republican party had controlled the White House, but that almost changed in 1876 in what many termed the "stolen election" of that year. In ( Read more... )

On September 19, 1881 (141 years ago today) James Abram Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, died as the result of gunshot wounds he sustained earlier that year, when he was shot by assassin Charles Guiteau at a Washington DC train station. Garfield was 49 years old when he died.


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Charles Guiteau was arrested for shooting President James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881. He was apprehended immediately after shooting the President. Garfield was operating under the delusion that he was deserving of a federal appointment as Consul General to Paris because of a speech he had given supporting Garfield for President. For weeks he had ( Read more... )

Although he is better known for being a political "gentleman boss", a "spoilsman", and a President who surprised his critics by bringing about civil service reforms, Chester Alan Arthur was the son of an abolitionist preacher father, and as a young lawyer in New York, he made a name for himself by acting in civil rights cases.


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James Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, held the office for just 200 days, and spent the last 80 of those days in agony, after being shot by a crazed office seeker. He would ultimately die from a combination of his gunshot wounds as well as negligent medical treatment, and is considered to be the second President to be assassinated ( Read more... )

Today when the heat of summer strikes, many of us head for the beach to soak up the sun and work on our tans. But in the days before air conditioning, the practice in Washington D.C. was for Presidents to look for cooler climates during the summer. When the Civil War was on, Abraham Lincoln realized that he could not travel too far from home. To ( Read more... )

On July 2, 1881 (142 years ago today) President James Abram Garfield was shot twice by assassin Charles Guiteau. Garfield would die from his wounds just over two and a half months later on September 19th. His presidency would last just 200 days.


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