Election

In thinking about the current election, I was reminded of the words of Julia Sand. Sand was an educated woman who, while bedridden in her family home in New York City, wrote Chester A. Arthur beginning in August of 1881, a month after President Garfield was shot. Arthur took the oath of office on September 20th, after staying in seclusion while Garfield lay critically ill and bedridden. Arthur was a controversial figure, as he’d been involved in several scandals in New York and was thought to be a political lackey of several powerful New York interests.

For reasons unknown as all she knew of him was from the newspapers, Sands believed in Arthur and wrote to him with advice and encouragement many times over the next few years. Some of the letters survive, including the first.

‘Your kindest opponents say ‘Arthur will try to do right’ – adding gloomily – ‘he won’t succeed though making a man President cannot change him.’…But making a man President can change him! 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. Faith in your better nature forces me to write to you – but not to beg you to resign. Do what is more difficult & brave. Reform! It is not proof of highest goodness never to have done wrong, but it is proof of it, sometimes in ones career, to pause & ponder, to recognize the evil, to turn resolutely against it.“

She goes on later to write:

“How sad it must be for anyone to look back and feel that the best strength of their manhood has all been wasted on unworthy ends. For your own sake and for the sake of those who love you, do not fill your life with actions which afterwards bring you only regret. Go back to Washington – forget New York, political strife and personal animosity. Remember that you are President of the United States – work only for the good of the country. And bear in mind, that, in a free country, the only bulwark of power worth trusting, is the affection of the people.”

Arthur surprised people. Having been a direct beneficiary of the political spoils system, he nevertheless participated in dismantling it and pushing for civil service reform. Admittedly, there aren’t that many parallels between Donald J Trump and Chester A. Arthur, but the often forgotten legacy of Chester A. Arthur is that a man can be changed by the realities of the Presidency.