American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 21.2 Chester Arthur

Episode Date: December 14, 2019

Chester Arthur finds himself the first unwilling president of the United States. The bad news: He has done nothing but embrace a corrupt form of government his whole adult life - and now finds himself pushed to the top by a man who killed another president to allow this system to continue. The good news: He has a mighty moustache. Let's see how we rank him!

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, Chester Arthur R2. Hello and welcome to American Presidents Totalus Rankium. I am Jamie. And I'm Rob, ranking all of the presidents from Washington to Trump. And this is episode 21.2, Chester Arthur. Oh, filthy. Maybe. Corrupt. Oh, well, yeah, there is that. We'll see. We'll see in Scandal Game.

That's one more thing I remembered. Yes, well done. It has been a while because I got ill and my throat was destroyed. But I can speak again now. Yeah. Which is great. You're a bit like the six million dollar man now, aren't you? Just a robotic neck.

Right, okay, let's do this. Let's go for the introduction. Bright, luminous pink. Just luminous. The brightest pink you can think of. Okay. Start with an incredibly bright, offensively bright pink screen.

Yeah. Like those trainees you get in the early 90s. Yeah. That sort of pink that I never wore. Did you? That's why I was bullied. Deservably so. Right, anyway.

You're on this pink screen. And we're starting with a voice rather than anything else this week. So that's cheating, kind of, it remains pink, just a voice in the background. No, it's remaining pink. Okay. And you hear a voice. For the fourth time in the history of the Republic,

its chief magistrate has been removed by death. All hearts are filled with grief and horror at the hideous crime which has darkened our land and the memory of the murdered president, his protracted suffering, his unyielding fortitude, the example and achievements of his life, and the pathos

of his death will forever illuminate the pages of our history. It's only about a hundred years, isn't it? There's been four deaths. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's quite impressive. Right,, isn't it? There's been four deaths. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's quite impressive. Right, whilst that's being said, Right.

you fade out of the pink and you fade into a dark wooden room, which is why arguably starting on black would have been better, but we're committed now. So you're in a really dark wooden room with wooden walls and like steel bars like holding up this room.

Not too much of a spoiler. Is it near a farm? No. You could have started with a pig. I could have done. I could have. But no, sorry. There are men with shovels digging the floor.

There's water dripping all around them. Is this a mine? One man suddenly shrieks and grabs his head and falls to the ground. You see everyone rush towards him. And then it starts fading back to the ground. You see everyone rush towards him. And then it starts fading back to the... No. It starts fading to the next image, but then this is being said on top in one continuous way. This is really hard to do on a podcast,

but in film it would work. Anyway, there's been no gap. The narration's still going. And it now says, no higher or more assuring proof could exist of the strength and permanence of popular government than the fact that, though the chosen of the people be struck down, his constitutional successor is peacefully installed,

without shock or strain, except the sorrow which mourns the bereavement. And by this time, the image has shifted, and you now see an elephant. This elephant is being led up this massive ramp a real elephant a real elephant the elephant's not looking too happy it's looking a little bit distressed and it's being pushed along is this what i think it is i don't know what do you think it is is it to have anything to do with edison thomas edison no okay but i mean he comes up in our story as well yeah uh but But yeah, we'll come back to that. Anyway, as the camera pans out, you realise that this ramp is actually a road and this

road is leading to an immense bridge. I mean, this is a serious bridge. Is this the test for the bridge? You also notice 20 other elephants are being herded across this bridge. And whilst this is being shown, you're panning out, you're panning out, you're seeing crowds of people and all sorts, but then it starts to fade to the next image and the narration's still continuing.

It's saying, Prosperity blesses our country. Our fiscal policy is fixed by law, is well-grounded and generally approved. No threatening issue mars out foreign intercourse. And the wisdom, integrity and thrift of our people may be trusted to continue undisturbed the present assured career of peace, tranquility and welfare. By now you've faded to the next image, which is an Albi Native American man in full tribal dress,

picking up a bow. He's looking over in the distance, looking... He's not happy. You can tell he's not happy. Can you see the elephants? Sombra. No, in a different place. You can tell he's not happy. Can you see the elephants? Somber. No, in a different place. It's very clearly a different place now. Okay.

He's looking over at some very important-looking, well-dressed white men in chairs who are happily having a chat. The Native American man sighs and then gestures to his men to line up in battle formation. Only they're not facing the chatting white men at all because the camera pans round

and you see in the distance a separate line of Native American men lining up for battle. Fade. As the narration continues, the gloom and anxiety which have enshrouded the country must make repose especially welcome now. Now cut to our final scene. It's a Chinese man carrying rocks. It's a lot of rocks. He's working

very hard, sweat dripping off him. But again, it pans out and you realise that there's many other men there as well. Not all Chinese, but mostly Chinese men, who are clearing a space for railroad tracks to be laid down in the blazing sun. Now because you've zoomed out and you see a large number of people, you see in the distance one of these men suddenly collapses. No one stops working. And then you get the narration once more. Summoned to these high duties and responsibilities and profoundly conscious of their magnitude and gravity, I assume the trust imposed by the Constitution, relying for aid on divine guidance and the virtue, patriotism and intelligence of the American people. By that time, the last scenes faded to black or hot pink

and then Chester Arthur Part 2 comes up. There you go. That took you a while, I imagine. You'd be a good filmmaker. It doesn't work very well in podcasts, this one, but I tried something different. That's cinematic. It was nice. I went on the journey with you there.

Yeah, yeah. It's a little sprinkling of scenes that we're going to see in today's episode. OK. But what I'm quoting there is Arthur's address to the nation after he was made president. So, there you go. They seem quite sad. Well, the address was very positive see

how i juxtaposed i juxtaposed oh yeah oh yeah i know art art school that's that was like gcse level the next thing you were telling me is in black and white oh uh no no no it was uh all neon colors 80s yes right okay here we go when we left last time, Conkling had resigned, remember? Yep. In a big show of, that's it, I'm resigning, and then I'm going to come back and I'm going to show you, Garfield, that I'm actually the big boss in town. Arthur had essentially stopped all pretense that he was the vice president.

He was banned from the White House because Garfield hated him. So he spent all his time campaigning full-time for Conkling to get his seat back. Things were not going well, if you remember, when on a steamboat back to New York City the news hits Arthur and Conkling that Garfield had been shot. I remember the beginning

of the last episode where you did, that was the scene, wasn't it? Yeah. When you found out. Yeah, that was the scene. You were like, oh my! So a shaken Arthur headed to his office on the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Remember, he's got this very grand office and a very grand hotel. He goes there to wait for more news. Telegrams very soon start surging in if a telegram can't surge. Apparently, it was very unlikely Garfield was going to last the night.

It looks like he's going to die. I mean, we keep poking him and putting things in him, but it's just not working. It's just not. Have you tried poking leeches in? Ooh. Interesting. No, nothing seemed to be working. They were convinced that his liver had been caught and he was going to die in the night.

Not long afterwards, when the assassin's apartment was searched, a letter addressed to President Arthur was found. Ooh. The letter suggested a cabinet that Arthur should perhaps pick once he was in charge. I'm going to say it. That doesn't look good for him, does it? It doesn't look good. No.

It really doesn't look good. I mean, this news apparently paralysed Arthur. He just had no idea what he should do. You wouldn't, would you? Yeah. It's like, what? I like to think, though, he looked at the list and went, actually, yeah. Not bad.

Not bad. One less job. Yes, you can be my Secretary of State. Might raise a few eyebrows. Yeah. He can be the Defence Minister. Right. Well, he wasn't sure what to do.

I mean, he was in no way involved. No. That has been pretty much agreed by all historians. He just wasn't involved. But it kind of looks like he was to begin with. It really does. It really does. So Arthur decided he was just going to stay in New York City.

Because if he rocks up in Washington, it kind of looks like he's a vulture just waiting to take his place. Especially with a big grin on his face as well. Yeah, exactly. With the top Prez badge that he's now wearing. Yeah. And a cape. Yes. Presidents should have capes. Yeah, exactly. The top Prez badge that he's now wearing. Yes. And a cape. Yes. Presidents should have capes. They really should. Mainly so we can mock them more. Oh, yeah.

So, he decides to stay in New York City but soon word comes from Blaine. Remember, Blaine's the Secretary of State at this point. Blaine. Blaine from Maine and the Halfbreeds. Yeah, that's the one. The message essentially says, get the hell over here. You're the vice president. Why aren't you in Washington yet?

So on the morning two days after the shooting of a bloodshot and watery-eyed Arthur arrived in the capital. He took this news bad. I mean, he looked shocked, shall we say. Yeah, he headed straight to the White House that he had been banned from only days before. And he offered to sit with Lucretia at her husband's sickbed. Yeah, he headed straight to the White House that he had been banned from only days before. And he offered to sit with Lucretia at her husband's sickbed. But he was politely told, no, no, that's not needed, Arthur. I mean, you need to be in Washington, but we still don't like you.

Can I make a bolder prediction about Arthur and his presidency? Go on then. The ban from the White House is never rescinded. That would have been amazing. He like has a little desk just outside in the garden. In a tent. Yeah. He might have liked that. He didn't particularly like the White House.

Really? But we'll get into that later. Some people don't. Yeah. Anyway, he was told be nearby. There's a tent. Go and stay in that. No, go and find a hotel somewhere. Be nearby. You've got to be in Washington just in case, but you don't need to be here here. No. So Arthur spent a few weeks in Washington, and his mood became worse and worse.

Especially when he started reading the papers. The New York Times ran a piece on how Arthur was the worst vice president the country had ever had. And it did not bode well that he was about to become president. I mean, he never acted like vice president. He always acted like he was Conkling's right-hand man still. And he's the guy who's going to now be president if Garfield dies. Was that the Washington Post? The New York Times.

New York Times. Oh, yeah, the failing New York Times, yeah. That's what Arthur called it. Many in the capital and beyond were making it very clear that they thought very little about Arthur. In fact, you'll be very pleased to know we get to hear Hayes and his opinion on the matter.

Oh, fantastic. That's right, I've got a Hayes diary quote. Yay! Because he's not dead yet. Splendid! The death of the president at this time would be a national calamity, whose consequences we cannot now confidently conjecture. Arthur, for president, Conkling, the power behind the throne, superior to the throne, the republican

party, divided and defeated, an administration without the moral support of any of the best elements of the country, struggling to maintain itself and to perpetuate itself, with all of the This sounds awfully negative. Oh, it does. Oh, of course. yet be well. Oh, of course. If Arthur comes in, he should have a fair trial. He should be encouraged to do well by a warm and sympathetic support.

He's literally a strawberry-flavoured lollipop. I mean, that got dark for Hayes for a while. It did, yeah. But he just managed to pull it out slightly at the end. It's like, this is literally going to be the worst government we've ever seen worse than Johnson. But it'll be fine.

Give him a chance. Not everyone was willing to give Arthur a chance, however. One career politician named Andrew Dixon simply exclaimed, Chet Arthur, President of the United States? Good God. That was his speech. It really was, yeah. Which apparently became a common utterance. This caught on, just the idea of

Chet Arthur, President, God. And everyone just walked around the capital saying that to each other for a while. Including the waiters who served him. Yeah. The bedroom maid in the hotel. Chet Arthur, President, good God. Didn't realise you were standing there. He'd walk down the street

people would just look at him and just go God. And then walk away. Didn't realize you were standing there. He'd walk down the street. People would just look at him and just go, good God, and then walk away. I mean, it was quite bad. He'd pull down his blinds at night and it just had good, and then he'd pull down the other one. Oh, God. It got bad. It got really bad, yeah.

It did. It did not help that Conkling then lost his bid to be re-elected. Oh. Yeah, Conkling shot himself in the foot here. He did this big grand gesture of, fine, I'll quit and I'll come back stronger than ever. And he just quit and failed to get back in. Is he ever a big player again?

I don't want to ruin it. That's a no. It's a no. No, he's not. He really shouldn't have done this. I mean, he threw away what he had. Despite the fact that Garfield lay on his deathbed, the Conkling faction still ends up losing

this particular battle with the executive branch. Conkling's pretty much gone. And then, Arthur gets a wire, stating that Garfield had finally died. What a quick, nice version of that story. Yes. Peacefully in his sleep. Aww.

After merely just agonising. after 80 days of agonizing pain 80 days i forgot it was that he died peacefully in his sleep sweet embrace of death yes according to the sources arthur spent a while weeping on his own in his library when he heard the news he'd returned to new york city by this point because Garfield just lasted for so long. But yeah, when he found out, he just went and sat on his own and had a little cry. Wild meltdown. Yeah, now whether this was out of sadness for Garfield

or just because of his own predicament is not really certain. Maybe it was a mixture of the two. But he never really wanted to be president. He only was vice president because, yeah, why not? Let's give it a go. It's a lot of responsibility that's suddenly thrust upon him.

On September the 20th, Arthur was sworn in as the 21st president with no ceremony whatsoever. It was a case of go to a hotel room. Yeah, you're president now. Don't make a big deal out of it. You're 21st? He's the 21st president, yes. Wow. That's our 42nd episode then.

43rd because of the first one. And we've done a couple of State of the Union, so maybe about 46th episode. Almost halfway. After the next president, we're halfway, yeah. Exciting. Anyway, Arthur was perhaps slightly cheered when the newspapers suddenly started writing nice halfway, yeah. Exciting. Anyway, Arthur was perhaps slightly cheered when the newspapers suddenly started

writing nice things about him. He looks pretty. Not quite that, but perhaps the press decided that keeping the country calm was a good idea, rather than just lots of, oh good god, we're all going to die, printed in large letters on the front of their papers.

Wouldn't it be great if newspapers did that now, right? You know, try to get everyone together and feel happy rather than, you know. Yeah, that's not going to happen anytime soon. They largely wrote about how Arthur wasn't perfect. No, of course he's not perfect, but he was better than those men he hung around with. I mean, he's not Conkling, it could be worse. Hardly a glowing endorsement, but better than what was being written about him before. That's a he'll do sort of thing.

Yeah, he'll do for now until we get our next election and we can choose a proper president. Yeah. So Arthur then headed to Alboron, which is where Garfield's body was, and then took part in the funeral procession. The funeral was had, and then Arthur was sworn in again for a second time, but publicly this time. And then he gave the speech, which I quoted a lot from at the start. second time, but publicly this time. And then he gave the speech, which I quoted a lot from at the start. One of the most important lines being, men may die, but the fabric of our free institutions remain unshaken. So it doesn't matter the president's dead, our republic will continue. That's quite a nice thing to say, actually. Yeah. I mean, he said it doesn't matter Garfield's dead, like to Lucretia was pointing. It was a bit... He's dead. Get over it. We're all

over it. Yeah. Look, I'm smiling. Hooray! No, slightly unfair. If you remember at the start, he does also mention that the only grief is for the person, but there should be no grief for the country. Yeah. Because the country continues. And with that, Arthur headed to the White House to lead the country.

Now, Arthur, of course, is used to the highest of New York society, hanging out in the Dalmonico, if you remember, and all that had to offer. Well, now he's in a tent on the lawn, so... Well, he didn't move in straight away because Lucretia was moving everything out and

all the medical equipment was being taken out and all the weird stuff that they'd been building to try and make Garfield better again. The refrigerator thing. Yeah, the aircon unit and all of that. So they had to clear the White House. So he doesn't move in immediately, but it's not long before he does move in. And he looked at the drab,

falling into disrepair White House with dismay. Now, if you remember, he'd lost his wife not long before. Yeah, yeah. We're only about a year away from that. And now he was in a city that he didn't know very well, taken away from all the things he enjoyed in life, and just in this drab mansion. In fact, he said, and I quote,

I will not live in that house. So to begin with, he actually stayed elsewhere in Washington. He made no push to move in straight away. Meanwhile, people started to speculate what the Arthur administration would look like. And sure enough, few were surprised when shortly afterwards, guess who turns up at the White House during business hours? Conkling.

Oh, yes. Conkling arrives, big grin on his face. Word was that he would be given the Treasury post. That's the position he wanted. Blaine, who's current Secretary of State, would be out. So Robertson would become the Secretary of State. Robertson you might have forgotten, but that's who Conkling and Garfield were arguing over

about getting the Custom House post. Right. Yeah. So basically, a bunch of Conkling men were about to get all the top jobs. Okay. Yeah. No one was surprised that this was happening. Arthur was a Conkling man.

So everyone braced themselves for a stalwart takeover, basically. So there was a little bit of surprise when Conkling left the White House with a very fixed grin on his face. He went in all smiles and he came out obviously not happy. It soon became clear that Conkling had gone to see Arthur with a list of positions, and Arthur, get this, had said no to all of them. Nice. Ooh, all of them?

Yeah. Chamber pot cleaner? I have one. Arthur may have been number two in the Conkling faction. He may have followed rather than led most of his life, but he was no dummy. He realised if the very first thing he did after a president was assassinated so the stalwarts could take over

was to then install a bunch of stalwarts, it wouldn't look good. No. The best thing for him to do would be keep it pretty much status quo. He doesn't quite do that. I mean, he realises that he's got to be careful here. I mean, if he makes the wrong move,

this could be career-ending stuff. He's got a fine balancing act to do here. He was also astute enough to realise that Conkling's power was definitely waning. I mean, he's not in the Senate anymore. No. He quit. He failed to get back in. Yeah. Why should I now gamble on my presidency just to please Conkling? In fact, the current Senate was made up of 37 Republicans and 37 Democrats and two independents. It was an incredibly tight Senate. You don't get tighter than that. So if Arthur was going to spend some of his political currency, he figured that it would make more sense keeping those two independent senators happy rather than a faction for his

own party. Yeah. So he starts cosying up to the independents. However, this didn't please many people in his party. Most of Garfield's cabinet started to resign. Those within the party hoping for the reform and the end of endless corruption were pessimistic that Arthur was going to change anything and assumed that Arthur was just biding his time and then he'd start putting his mates in. So Blaine resigned as Secretary of State, as did almost all the others in the cabinet. Only Robert Lincoln remained as Secretary of War. But then,

as Arthur started to pick his new cabinet, he surprised almost everyone. Because not only had he refused to allow Conkling to choose who his cabinet was going to be, he started to pick a cabinet that was generally highly regarded by the party's reformers, not the Storrs. Most appointments went to men who could do the job and do it well, not based on who they owed favours to. That's a sign of fear, I think. In what way? I'm weighing over my head here. I don't really know what I'm doing. Let's get people in that may know what they're doing.

It could be that, but what's surprising everyone is that he's standing up to his own faction here i mean it was just a given he was going to just start piling in the stalwarts and he's not in fact it's not not even the half breeds he's he's letting in the people who want genuine reform and they were like the minority of the party. Still, it took some time for people to adjust. Those who knew Arthur from his time in New York City were confused by the sudden change in Arthur. I mean, Arthur, he's Arthur. He just sort of plods along and he gets on with it.

Yeah. Yeah, he's a coaster. What's going on? One man went to see his old friend Arthur, a good old chet. He strode into the president's office, put his feet up on the table, and called Arthur Chet in greeting. Arthur

simply stared at the man. And beat him to death. And then with a stony reply said it's Mr. President. And then paraphrasing, but remove the feet or I will remove you from this office. Ooh. Oh. Yeah.

He's changing. He is changing. In a positive way. In a positive way. It soon became clear that Arthur has decided to press ahead with civil service reform, going against everything his faction has always believed in. So why? Why is he doing this?

Yeah. Maybe he always secretly wanted it. I really don't think so. No? He gained a lot from the spoils system. He was never one to go after corruption. He's profited from this before. Do you think it could be like a big middle finger up to everybody going, you think I can do this? Look what I can do.

Possibly, maybe. I personally think it's the shock of Garfield being shot, though. Garfield was shot by someone saying, I want the stalwarts to get in so this can continue. Distancing. And yeah, because if he then does that, it will look like he's complicit in the murder of Garfield. So I think he's

trying to distance himself as much as possible. That's a good point. Now, Arthur had actually been doing some research, believe it or not, and he found that he actually quite liked the English civil service they seem to know what they're doing over there maybe we should model our civil service on them the English civil service was a prestigious job for life it had a pension you'd enter it and you become a civil

servant you were not affiliated with party politics you did the job you then resigned with your pension respectable like it still is very much today. Yeah. The civil service were not rotated in and out on the whims of politicians, so they could learn their jobs and get damn good at them over a long period of time. That is, yeah. Of course, what Arthur missed is the fact that once rot does set in, in a system like that, it is almost impossible to get rid of because the civil servants are so entrenched. But no one seemed worried about that at this time. They just want to reform. They just want to reform, yeah.

Anyway, the thing that caught Arthur's eye, though, was the idea of an exam to get certain jobs. If you want to be a civil servant, you've got to pass an exam. You need to prove you're actually good enough for the job. That's fair. Now, the year came to the end, and many reluctantly agreed that Arthur was actually making the right sounds. The Stalwarts weren't happy, but they hoped that Arthur was just biding his time.

The reformers were reluctantly happy, but were worried that Arthur was simply biding his time. Everyone's sort of, okay, he's not terrible. I thought he was going to be worse, but what's he going to do? Meanwhile, Arthur finally had reluctantly moved into the White House. Because he is the president, he probably should live there. If I have to. Yeah. He did not move in alone, because he had his 10-year-old daughter with him,

and also his younger sister, Mary, with him. Mary was to act as the First Lady, because obviously now's dead. Arthur, of course, was used to the finer things in life, and decided that the White House should be a beacon of opulence. He's going to fancy up a bit. He is. The entire mansion was to be refurbished and in some areas remodelled entirely.

The rooms were completely stripped and recreated from scratch. And also, Arthur insisted on other things such as the menu be improved. He brought in a French chef who could replicate the dining experience of Dalmonico's. He was essentially trying to get that feeling of just a grandiose place to eat in the White House. Yeah, fair. Especially visiting dignitaries, fair enough.

Yeah. So yeah, the furniture from the whole house was sold off, including, I've read somewhere, but I forgot to put it in my notes, a drinks cabinet that belonged to Hayes' wife. But of course, Hayes' wife was nicknamed Lemonade Lucy because she didn't want alcohol in the White House. So it was a drinks cabinet that never did anything.

But that was apparently sold off and someone bought it and just stocked it with loads of alcohol. Brilliant. Yeah. That's what she would have wanted. Exactly. But apart from that, everything was just sold off. Get rid of it.

No one stopped to think future historians might want to know what the house was like. Well, you wouldn't, would you? It was just, no, get rid of that. That's outdated now. Get some new stuff in. Arthur employed a designer called Louis Tiffany, who would later become famous for his Tiffany lamps. Yes!

The glasswork guy. Yeah, the glasswork guy. Tiffany had grand ideas. He's not famous for lamps yet, but he had these grand ideas of what was going to become fashionable, damn it. And that was a lot of light and a lot of glass. So, yeah, parts of the White House, they were literally taking out walls and putting glass panels in and stuff.

Ooh, very nice. That would have been very expensive out then as well. Oh, yeah, yeah. But don't forget, Arthur minted. That's true. Yeah. And how did he make his money again? Corruption.

Corruption. Yeah. He also had a new carriage made. A very obviously expensive carriage. Gold. That would burn people's heads as they passed. Did it make a sound? It did.

It would just go past and a little klaxon would go, expensive, expensive. They're like this vehicle's reversing thing. Yeah. Yeah. This vehicle is expensive. This vehicle is expensive. Yeah, that's what he'd do.

All in all, the White House, after a while, started to look a little bit more glamorous. Now, despite perhaps the surprisingly strong start politically, Arthur did not change how he worked. He slept in late, he started work usually no earlier than 10 o'clock in the morning, and he'd definitely be finished by five. He's just never been a strong believer in just working all hours under the sun.

Which, fair enough. If you can get it done in that time, then... Yeah, you know. He's a coaster. Yeah. Yeah, what's that mug say? Churn it out, then. F*** off.

It's what he had on his mug, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He was the first one to have that mug. Yeah. I can edit that. I'll put a, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He was the first one to have that mug. Yeah. I can edit that. I'll put a beep in. That's fine. You can just cancel the whole thing, you know.

No, no. It's more effort. You've got to find it and find the beep. The beep stays permanently in. I just mute the track that has the beep in if I don't need it that week. Yeah. So, yeah, he didn't work into the evenings. He spent his time socialising in the evenings

with those he could find in the cattle that shared his tastes. So he starts building up... Yeah, essentially. Yeah, he starts building up a sort of friendship group that he's happy to socialise with. When he became more comfortable in his post, he started to think that he was strong enough, perhaps, to start to finally reward some of his friends. So,

he contacted Conkling and suggested a position on the Supreme Court. However, Conkling, perhaps still angry with Arthur, refused, figuring that he could probably make more money in private practice, which is

probably true, especially if you factor in all the corruption. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, this was perhaps a blessing in disguise for Arthur. He probably felt he had to offer a conk thing of that. But now it was being refused, he was able to continue to appear like he was distancing himself from the stalwarts. And he can quite rightly now think as well, like, oh, done, he's gone. Yeah, I've given him something now and he said no, so that's it.

I've reached out. Screw him. Exactly. Now, due to this, he was able to give out a number of jobs to other lower-level stalwarts. Although, to be fair, he also gave positions to those across the party. But there's a little bit of, you've been loyal in the past here, have a job. But nowhere near as bad as people feared it would be. Now, six months have passed by at this point and he was still coasting fairly well

when the first spot of bother crossed his desk. Damn. The problem was in the West. Like the real West. The West Coast. And we've come across this before but the problem was only getting worse. The problem of course being the racism against the Chinese

on the West Coast. I bet they're making them dig railroads and all sorts back there, aren't they? They are, they are. I'm glad slavery's over. Well, a bit of background on this because we've only very briefly covered it before. In 1870, during Grant's presidency, the issue of Chinese immigration had hit the Senate floor and a bill was debated that would allow for non-white immigrants to become citizens. Like, the Civil War was just over, we need to start allowing people to

be citizens who aren't white. Two quotes from this debate. One quote from Sumner, Lincoln's friend, if you remember, the guy who got almost beaten to death on the Senate floor. Yeah, yeah. I'll quote Sumner here. Is there a senator on the floor who will say from anything done or said by the Chinese at this moment that there is any reason to fear peril to this republic? Sir, the greatest peril to this republic is from disloyalty to its great ideas. Yeah.

So, it's like, come on, guys, don't be racist. Yeah. Allow the Chinese to be citizens. Yeah, of course. As long as we uphold the ideals of democracy and the republic, everything will be fine. Another quote from the other side of the argument. This is a man named George Williams. I deny, therefore, that the Declaration of Independence

or the Constitution of the United States require us to admit to naturalisation of... And are you ready for this list? Oh yeah. Of Chinese cannibals or Indians or anybody else. Oh yeah. That's a bit pigeonholing isn't it? It's not a good list to make and I did try and look into this. It's like seriously is he just lumping in the idea of cannibalism with chinese people and native american people or is cannibals a um a reference that's lost to time to a particular group still not good but yeah slightly better i couldn't find anything but if there's if there's a listener who knows who could make sense of that or if it is

just literally williams saying yeah they're all a bunch of cannibals aren't they who knows who could make sense of that, or if it is just literally Williams saying, yeah, they're all a bunch of cannibals, aren't they? Who knows? Either way, not great. There's a lot of racism about. Anyway, this debate was going on while the adoption of the 15th Amendment, barring the use of race as a disqualifier

for voting rights, was taking place. All that's happening. However, many in Congress thought that giving the Chinese immigrants the right to vote was too far. The Naturalization Act of 1870 made it clear that white people could be citizens and vote, obviously, and we've had a civil war, so fair enough, black people can now vote as well and become citizens. But anyone else coming to the country from anywhere else, no, no, no, no, no. They can't become citizens, therefore they can't vote. Over

the next decade, this meant that the growing minority of Chinese people had no say whatsoever in the laws of the land. Despite the fact, they made up over 9% of the population in the West. Wow. Yeah, this was a large minority. There were roughly a quarter of a million people in the United States who were either Chinese or descended from Chinese people when Arthur became president. That's a lot. Yeah. As is typical with immigration, the Chinese immigrants were forced to work longer hours for less pay and had fewer, if no rights whatsoever. So the railroad companies and the farms and the mines would snap them up. It was cheap labour, and no one would kick up a fuss

if several dozen of them, I don't know, just died in a work-related accident. Yeah. Oh, dear. Yeah. Then, of course, the market crash in the 70s helped nothing at all, because many poor white Americans were forced out of work. And we all know who to blame when the economy's struggling. Foreign people. Yes, it's the minorities.

Of course they get the blame. For quite a while, it had been the Irish. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's who's been getting the short end of the stick for quite some time in the podcast. But times are changing. Well, it's good. Modernising. Yeah, change is as good as arrest, as they say.

And the racist flavour of the month, of course, now is anti-Chinese feeling. As we've seen, Hayes vetoed a bill restricting the number of Chinese immigrants who could enter the country. But that didn't mean this anti-Chinese feeling went away. In fact, it had only grown. Do you think they were saying the same things like, oh, they're taking our jobs kind of thing? Oh, yeah. I want that mining job. It is the same argument that is still had today

and was had 200 years ago rather than 100 years ago. The argument never changes. It's as ridiculous as then as it is now. Oh, yes. Yes, it is. So, yeah, this catches us up with Arthur becoming president. Congress in 1882 passed a law that would ban Chinese immigrants from entering the country for the next 20 years. Oh, wow.

So 1902. Yeah. This bill, known imaginatively as the anti-Chinese immigration bill, had widespread support from both parties. In the West, many blamed their lack of work on the Chinese. In the East, workers sympathized with their white fellow Americans in the West. Yeah. So it was a popular bill, both with the politicians and with the public. This bill is easily passed in Congress.

All it needs is a signature from ARFA and it goes through. ARFA vetoes. Really? Yeah. Many were shocked. More were outraged. Why on earth is this caretaker president actually doing things? Doesn't he know he just needs to sit there until the next election?

And look pretty. Yeah. Well, Arthur came to defend his move. He said that this really won't go down well with the Chinese government. We've kind of made an arrangement with them. We've got treaties. China's a big economy. Do we really want to anger them?

Why is he being the voice of reason? Yeah, I know. It's weird, isn't it? Also, there were some aspects of this bill that he really didn't like the look of. It's like, you say that you just want to stop immigrants from coming in the country, so why have you put into the bill that every single Chinese person living in

America had to register to the government? Ooh. What's that about? We're like a generation away from... World War II, yes. Barcode tattoos, aren't we, at this point? Yeah, yeah. He also pointed out, you know all these railroads that now link our whole country together

and how you can actually go from the east to the west now and not go all the way through central america that's good isn't it a lot of those rail roads in the west were put together by chinese immigrants is this really how we're going to repay them so there you go he vetoed and he had enough support in the senate so the veto was not overturned that's interesting considering it passed yeah you must have changed minds then no no you it's a lower threshold to pass than it is to overturn a veto. Ah, okay. Yeah, you just need to get a majority to pass. You need to get two-thirds for a veto.

Oh, okay. So anyway, he said, in fact, I quote him here, If the bill passed, it would, and I quote, repel oriental nations from us and drive their trade and commerce into more friendly hands. So there we go. We see some of his real motivation showing through here. A true Gilded Age politician. This might actually cost us money.

So do we want to do that? Now, whether that was Arthur just using language he knew people would understand, or whether that was just how he genuinely felt about it is debatable. But yeah, he makes the dollar argument. Yeah. This could cost us. Anyway, as you can imagine, not a popular move. Effigies of Arthur were burned in California.

California? See, you think of California now. It's a dirty liberal state, isn't it? Different times back then. Different times. With the hybrid cars and their bridges. Back then, they loved nothing better than just burning effigies of presidents. Good old-fashioned racism. Yeah. Anyway, he saw his lukewarm

popularity take a severe hit. Then a new bill was very quickly put together. It was very similar. It just had the word 20 crossed out and the word 10 put in. So this now was just banning immigrants for 10 years. Arthur realised he didn't have the political power to stop this. He did a quick count and realised if he vetoed, the veto would be overturned. He didn't have the numbers this time. So he just doesn't fight it. He signs it straight away. He knows he can't stop it.

However, this won him very few praises. And overall, his popularity goes down. Next. straight away. He knows he can't stop it. However, this won him very few praises, and overall his popularity goes down. Next, still in 1882 here, the Rivers and Harbour Bill was passed. It's all about the bills this week. This one, to simplify here, was a bill that would give federal money to states to help with their infrastructure around harbours and rivers. So they could trade between states and generate money at a federal level. Like a free trade. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Trade amongst states, so therefore it's federal. Improve your rivers and your harbours. Here, have some money. Sounds good to me. Yeah, however, again, we're in the Gilded Age here, so what this actually means

is that congressmen would be given a huge chunk of cash and then they would then go back to their states and choose which businessmen to give this money to of course in return those businessmen would vote for the congressman next time and also make certain donations yeah uh we've seen this happen with tweed and then conkling it's just a continuation of just a corrupt system was that initially idea do you think oh yes yeah by this point it just a continuation of just a corrupt system. Was that initially the idea, do you think? Oh, yes, yeah. By this point, it was a case of, right, let's... What bills can we get through? This is how politics works at this time, at this point.

It's just a case of, I'll scratch my back if you scratch yours, and let's all make a huge bucket load of cash in the meantime. Okay. Yeah. Those few pushing for the reform cried that this was a flagrant push of the spoil system. I mean, it's just definitely going to lead to corruption. So, there was shock and outrage once more

when Arthur vetoed this bill also. Yeah. He announced that the bill would not help commerce between states at all, but only, and I quote, the particular localities in which it's proposed to make improvements. In other words, this is a state thing, not a federal thing.

You're building within the estate. Sort that out yourselves. You don't get federal money for that. Not popular. No. No. Especially with the rich people that have all the power as well. Yeah.

But, like with the Chinese immigration bill, looking through time, might not have been popular at the time, but good call. Yeah, well done. He does a good job there. But again, popularity takes a hit. In fact, this veto was so unpopular that they did overturn the veto straight away. So perhaps he shouldn't have even bothered. Many started talking of Tyler. Remember good old Tyler?

And how he was also an accidental president who lost support of his own party. Yeah. And Arthur might be going that way. In fact, Arthur himself seemed to start suffering under the pressure. He was getting very tired very easily. Regularly he got headaches. Things started to swell. He wasn't very well. What started to swell?

Bits of his body. Okay. General swelling his body. Okay. General swelling. Yeah. Yeah. His appetite came and went. Sometimes he was unable to eat anything at all for long periods of time. Something that was noticed when he was attending dinners or other political events.

There was one time when he was visiting a place in New Jersey and he just refused to eat any of their cuisine that was being offered and some people took offence and it was written about in the newspaper. But it's because he couldn't face eating. In fact, he soon realised that something was wrong here. This wasn't just the pressures of the job.

So a doctor was called. Oh no. No, he doesn't know. Arthur was diagnosed with a severe form of Bright's disease. Oh. This is a disease of the kidney. It was not good. He was told that there was no cure,

and it's only going to get worse, and it will kill you. Oh, for goodness sake. He started to suffer from regular bouts of fatigue and fevers, but he worked very hard to make sure the public did not find out. Good, good, good, good. I mean, you can understand why prominent politicians would try and hide an illness anyway.

Yeah. But after Garfield's two and a half months of slowly dying, it really wouldn't do the country any good to know that they had another slowly dying president. No. No. So Arthur kept it hidden, but started to sink into depression but i quote him here you have no idea how depressing and fatiguing it is to live in the same house that

you work yeah yeah yeah he's just he's fed up he doesn't want to do this job anymore he never did anyway no he didn't uh and he's not the only one who's feeling a bit down in the dumps, because most of the country was feeling this way as well. A depression, so to speak. You could say that. There's only so long that the very richest in a society can keep flagrantly breaking the rules to make themselves richer before problems start. The Starroot scandal hit the courts.

You remember I mentioned this last time? This is the post office scandal where the post office would claim it cost far more money to deliver areas to certain places than it actually did. And would get given grants like 10, 20 times more money than they actually needed. Anyway, by this point it hits the courts. To very few people surprised, those involved got off. It was then revealed that the jury was bribed. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, the trial started again,

but, I mean, it's just obvious corruption. The rich can do what they want. It's one rule for them, one rule for everyone else. At least times have changed now. Oh, yes. Conditions in work throughout the country were not improving either. The economy was also poor for most people. I mean, some were raking it in,

but most people were still struggling to feed themselves. Strikes became more common, but of course they were clamped down on ruthlessly by companies that had very few, if any, laws to follow. The government generally saw striking as unconstitutional because people have a right to work. So if you strike, you're stripping away the right to work from other people. We looked at this briefly in Hayes' episode.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, strikes are happening, but they are brutally clamped down on. The first Labour Day happened in 1882 when many workers took to the streets in a display of their force demanding that this be a public holiday which is still kept You still get Labour Day By far the highest-selling book in this period was called Progress and Poverty by a man named Henry George

who was a social economist who looked into how there was so much poverty in a country that was generating so much wealth. There must be something wrong going on here. What's happening? So he looked into it and he came up with a theory. His book, The Message, was a huge simplification here. But to put simply, that technological advances

were not improving lives throughout the country, but instead making it justifiable for landowners to put rent up. If everything's improving, if infrastructure's improving, if we now have hospitals, if we now have better roads, then the people owning the land that all that stuff is on can now hike the rent up, because it's worth more. Rent was always increasing faster than wages were, so workers and small businesses were being reduced to poverty

while big businesses monopolised and soared. That's our quote here. There is a vague but general feeling of disappointment, an increased bitterness amongst the working classes, a widespread feeling of unrest and brooding revolution. Oh dear. Yeah. Nice to know times have changed.

Yeah, see? However, it seems most of the political class were ignoring these early warning signs, and despite Arthur's surprising support for the reforming factions of both parties, this still very much remained the minority. So, perhaps the Republicans were quite surprised when it came to the midterms because they were utterly destroyed in the House.

They lost many seats that were considered unlosable. The silver lining was that the Senate went from a dead draw. If you remember, they had 37 seats each. The Republicans managed to gain one seat. So technically they've gained the Senate. But they had expected to do a lot better than that. It was a devastating defeat. One person at the time saying this is the worst defeat the Republican Party has ever had in all its history.

And Arthur took much of the blame. Well, he's part of it before he became president. Oh, yeah, yeah. Many of the national newspapers declared that this was the public saying that they were fed up with machine politics of the Republicans. The Stowarts and also, to be fair, the half-breeds, only looked after themselves.

Arthur and those around him were denounced as, and I quote, scheming tricksters who dabble in political affairs only for the money. Which is a fair comment. Yeah. Yeah, the election gave the party a shock. I mean, they've been riding on the coattails of the Civil War since the Civil War, assuming that they were and always would be from now on the natural party of the country. I mean,

we had Johnson, but that was an accident. But since the Civil War, it's been Republican the whole way, apart from johnson but now many of the republicans realize if they don't change their ways and very quickly they are going to be defeated in the next election leading to the first democratic win since buchanan a lot in the party who were um essentially conkling from different cities and the conkling was new york yeah but there was a conkling in all the major cities. So a bunch of Conklings started to reluctantly swing behind the reform movement. Some realised if they acted very, very quickly, the current house could push some things through before the

newly elected Democratic House came into session. And therefore, if they acted fast enough, the Republicans could claim to be the ones to bring about reform. But we gotta be quick. Politics is so dodgy, isn't it? Oh yes, it is. It really is. So, a bill that had been stagnating in the House for quite a while suddenly was given a new lease of life. This was called the Pendleton Bill. Right. Brief history on this bill here. Charles Sumner, again, he had, during the war, attempted to get a bill passed that required people to pass an exam before they got a position

in the civil service. This failed. I just didn't go through. As did several attempts after the war. Then, as we saw in Hayes' episode, Hayes made it illegal, via an executive order, for federal office holders to be involved in party politics. Remember, you can't be leading a

campaign but also a member of the civil service because that's dodgy. Yeah. You'll just start doing things to further your own career. Yeah. And if you also remember, Conkling and everyone in New York just ignored him completely. Then in 1880, George Pendleton issued a bill. Again, the idea that civil service workers would pass an exam before they got their job. Again, it failed. But then Garfield was assassinated and Arthur became president. So Pendleton tried again, thinking, okay, maybe I've got the momentum here. No, it failed yet again.

But then the elections of 1882 happen, catching us up. And the Republicans go, oh dear, we're we're in trouble so quick grab grab what's that bill called the pendleton bill right dust that off right what was it that these reformists were trying to get through should we do this now shall we yeah it's no problem for us won't affect us in any way shape or form yeah i mean we've shot this bill down twice in flames before uh but maybe this time maybe this time it'll be fine. Let's see if it passes. Let's not say it was going to pass easily. There were a lot of genuine concerns about this bill. Introduce exams. What if the exams are too hard? I mean, then you just get an elite in terms of

education passing. That's not democratic. I don't want people knowing while they're on about making decisions. You don't want people swanning around who can like speak fluent Latin better than everyone else declaring that they should rule the land because they're more intelligent than you. It's just not democracy's way. Everyone should have a fair voice, sort of.

But then, of course you've got the flip side. What if the exams are too easy? You might as well not have exams if they're too easy. I mean, of course, you've got the flip side. What if the exams are too easy? You might as well not have exams if they're too easy. I mean, how do you judge this? This is actually a lot harder than it first sounded. A lot of debates happen, but eventually a commission was set up that would independently oversee the exams. On top of this, it was made that no one could be fired or demoted for political reasons. So you weren't allowed to replace someone in the civil service just because you wanted to replace him

with someone from your own party. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it's no longer going to keep flitting from one person to the next depending on who's in charge. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. After some very bitter debates, the bill finally passes in January of 1883 and Arthur signs it into law.

Decades of call for civil service reform finally has been achieved for 10% of the civil service. Yay. Yeah, the bill only covered 10% of federal jobs. But it was a start. It's better than nothing. It's the beginning, isn't it? Yeah. After this, things quietened down politically for a while.

The country started arguing over tariffs, because tariffs are important. But they're also not very interesting to talk about, and they don't really affect things during Arthur's term. So I'm going to gloss over that for now. We will come back to it, though. Because I do get the feeling that Arthur just didn't care about that argument, because he doesn't really get involved.

So we'll stick with Arthur, because he is now a chronically fatigued, depressed, and sick man. So he decides he's going to go on tour. He's going to get out of Washington. He's going to take in the bracing air. He's going to go and have a look

at this country that he runs rather than just wallowing in the capital. Good call. Yeah. So, he wanted to go west and see for himself some of the outstanding beauty of the inland America that he's heard of. He personally knew and was a big fan of the current painter, Albert Bierstadt. You probably would know his work. If you don't know the name, these are the really, really huge paintings,

big sweeping landscapes of the American West. Can you picture them at all? No, you're shaking your head. If you're listening and you're still not picturing it, if you have seen anything to do with Red Dead Redemption 2, you do know the art style because the art style of that game was based entirely on this style of paintings. They're the Hudson River School luminist style paintings. Huge vistas of just light coming over massive mountains. What's it called? Albert Bierstadt.

He was a German immigrant into the country. Bierstadt. And did some amazing paintings. What is the... I don't recognise these pictures, but they're very good. It's like a... What was that artist called? 80s TV show, big Afro hair.

Oh. Art Attack. No, he's an American gem. I forgot his name. Oh, I know who you mean. He's standing in front of an art room, just him and a... Yeah, and he's become a bit of an internet sensation recently. Yeah, yeah.

I forgot his name. I'm sure our listeners are shouting the name. Yes, yes. What you said was correct yeah tony yes pardon no bill not that one no no not frango idiot yeah some nice landscapes yeah i mean the turner-esque these these paintings were huge some of them like 12 feet by 12 feet these were massive paintings that must cost loads in paint oh yeah yeah probably did um Yeah, people would come look at them with opera glasses to really take in the detail from far away. Kind of explore.

No, no, get really close and explore. With opera glasses? Yeah, yeah. But like telescopic? That'd be stupid. You could use them like a magnifying glass. But yeah, it was, if you couldn't go west, then you'd go and see these style of paintings. Anyway, Arthur gets it into his head, that's what he's going to do. However,

before going West, he was going to go South. He was going to go to Florida. Florida, still very much a wilderness at this time. The theme parks and the retirement homes haven't quite been built yet. Still are alligators there. Oh yeah, the alligators and the swamps, still very much there. He gets to Florida,

but he starts to feel really quite ill. The hot, humid air did not agree with him. Some of his doctors feared that he was not going to survive. This was quite bad. Reporters got wind of this attack of illness, and soon it was reported that Arthur was seriously ill, possibly close to death. Arthur attempted to downplay this as much as he could, saying he'd only been briefly indisposed.

But it wasn't a successful trip. So he decides to come back north before going west. In fact, there's a reason to go north, however, because he's going to go to New York City. Because in New York City, they have just finished building one of the wonders of the age, the Brooklyn Bridge. Oh.

Yeah. The largest bridge ever built, up to this point, obviously. Not being easy building this bridge, and I went on a bit of a tangent during my research because it was fascinating. Work had began on the Brooklyn Bridge in 1870, so 13 years before. To begin with, massive airtight wooden structures

known as caissons with no bottom were lowered into the river and then pumped full of air at double the air pressure of just normal air, which kept the water out. So these airtight rooms were just lowered onto the

riverbed. Like when you put a cup on water and you get air. Yeah, exactly. You've got to keep it very level, though. But then you pump the more air in there to get double the air pressure, and that way there's no way the water's coming back in. Yeah, clever. Yeah.

How's that go? Well, then men would be lowered into these damp, hallish boxes, holding their nose through the airlock, because obviously the pressure, ow. And then they'd start digging up the riverbed, using the air pressure to help push up all the stuff that they've dug up back up to the surface. This is, when I said it was a mine, it wasn't, was it?

Oh yeah, you've got it. These were poorly lit lit poorly ventilated incredibly miserable places to be at any moment a fire from one of the gas lamps or a problem with the pumps or a leak in the wood would cause the whole thing to depressurize almost instantly leading for the water to rapidly start rising and you're trapped under there and there's only a single airlock to get back up well that'd become a pressure sink you'd be basically pushed through that little tiny hole yeah yeah it's not good oh yeah it really wasn't nice it's like mines are bad this is worse yeah uh turnover

was quick you'd be young to learn a third of the workers quit every single week. So it was just a constant rotation of men. Wow. Some complained of severe headaches. Then some started to become paralysed. Are they getting like the, oh, when nitrogen's forced? Yeah, yeah, you've got it. It was known as Cason's disease at the time, but this is the Benz. That's it.

Yeah, they just didn't understand that you can't just keep popping people into pressurised situations like that and then quickly depressurising. Because nitrogen gets diffused into your blood then when you depressurize it bubbles yeah and causes problems something like that yeah not pleasant like severe pain um throughout their body and also makes you bend over yeah really really nasty so there you go that happened at least five people died of the bends many many more were just left in absolute agony of course this was back before anyone like did anything about that yeah it'll be fine yeah eventually however the caissons were dug deep enough they didn't quite get to the bedrock which they were supposed to so that but they got far enough and went you know what we're running out of money

let's just stop here i'm sure it will be fine fingers crossed was it it's still standing then uh the caissons were then uh filled with concrete to make a foundation and then on top of these the massive towers that you can now see were built. Then huge cables were strung between these towers to hold up the road. Overall, nearly 30 people died whilst building the bridge. Over 13 years, that's not... I mean, it's bad, don't get me wrong.

It's bad. It could have been a lot worse. There have been worse things in history, that's definitely true. Yes, I'm probably undervaluing it. Yeah, but I mean, it's still not great in history, that's definitely true. Yes. I'm probably undervaluing it. Yeah, but I mean, it's still not great. No, it's not great. Anyway, the deaths didn't dampen the

festive atmosphere, however, when the bridge finally opened. There were bands playing, fireworks were set off, a military parade took place. Generally, people celebrated one of the finest works of human construction in history because it was genuinely very impressive. Not a bridge like it.

Puts Trajan's bridge to shame. Yeah. Yeah. Trajan wouldn't have minded, though. Yeah, he'd be impressed, I think. He'd have been in the case. Yeah. Just come on, that.

Shirt off. Yeah, he'd have been in there. He would have been. Covered in oil. Listen to our Roman series, Trajan, if you want to understand why. Anyway, so you've got this brilliant bridge, but it is a suspension bridge. And no one trusted suspension bridges. There'd been a few built, not to this scale, but they'd collapsed in the country.

And everyone just assumed, well, that's going to collapse, isn't it? He doesn't have any support underneath. Oh, this is the elephants. We're getting there um yeah the the bridge opened and people cautiously started crossing it um sort of putting one foot on but keeping your weight on the back foot still yeah just shall i yeah people just running across waving their hands in the air, screaming. Get to the side. Excellent. Yeah, about a week of people successfully crossing the river happened. It was great.

Then a woman tripped on one of the stairs and someone else, seeing the woman fall over, let out a scream. And then everyone heard that scream and assumed that the bridge was falling down. So then everyone started screaming. In fact, I quote here, those following were in turn pushed over, and in a moment the narrow stairway was choked with human beings piled one on top of another, who were being crushed to death. In a few minutes, 12 persons were killed, seven injured so severely that their lives are despaired of, and 28 others more or less severely wounded.

Because a woman fell over. Yeah. Okay. Everyone just assumed it was going to fall down. Well, yeah, I get it. Slightly on edge, I get that, but... Well, this led... I went on a complete tangent here. I just kept finding things and going,

oh, well, I've got to mention that. This then led to a publicity stunt, because no one wanted to go on the bloody bridge now. It's scary. People keep dying on it. Well, you can't argue with that, yeah. And it's bound to fall down at some point. It's got nothing underneath it.

No, of course it doesn't, does it? No. Suspension bridge. Yeah, it's going to fall down. It's weird. I know how gravity works, damn it. It's very much a downward force. So, yeah, this led to a man named P.T. Barnum.

Hey! I see, you recognise that name. I've seen The Greatest Showman. Oh, is that based around that? I've not seen The Greatest Showman. Oh, I should, it's great. Is that all about P.T. Barnum? Yeah, he's the protagonist, antagonist, or no, he's the main character.

Oh, that's a good job I included that. Yeah, no, I've not seen it, so I didn't realise. This is the greatest show! Yeah, that's what he was singing as he was looking at the Brooklyn Bridge. Yeah. Trying to work out how you can incorporate it into a musical. Where he's elephants on.

Yeah. This is me. He was. Yeah, this was. I mean, you already know. I'm sure most people listening know more than me about this because I've not seen the film. He was a circus guy, wasn't he?

He was a showman. He was a politician. He was a businessman. He had become famous for his grand travelling museum menagerie, caravan and hippodrome. A catchy title. Yeah. So this is the same time as the film was set as well, roughly.

I'm guessing so, yeah. When's the film set? 18-something. Right, okay. When's this set? Like, this is fiction. This is 1883, 1884. Yeah, the film's set in about 1883 or 1884.

Yeah, it's good. Well, I don't know. Is it Wolverine? Is he P.T. Barnes? Yeah. Oh, there you go. Oh, there you go. It's weird that he still has his claws in it, but it works, I feel.

I'm learning. I'm learning a lot. Yeah. Anyway, Wolverine announced that he trusted the bridge so much that he was going to take all his elephants over it in one go. That's fantastic. Including his star attraction, Jumbo. Yeah, where the name comes from.

Yeah, which I didn't realise, and you probably already know this now, but I went, oh, wow, that's a rankium effect. Jumbo does not mean big. It means elephant. No, no, it could mean a few things. One idea is it means chief, but there were a few suggestions. But no, the reason why we have jumbo for big is from the elephant, not the other way around, which I did not realise.

And then I looked into Life of Jumbo and went, this is so sad. I'm not going on a tangent on Jumbo. So, all you need to know is Jumbo had a lovely life full of candy floss and happiness. Candy floss? Yeah. I didn't think she'd eat candy floss, that was horrible. No, no, it just floated around and happened. Oh, I was

going to ask you. Nothing depressing happened, he was not killed when he was hit by a train. Cool. Cool. Is that because they were testing it with an accident honestly they were cruel back then this is why i mentioned bloody boss's face at the beginning no it was awful i stopped looking into it because it genuinely was very depressing no they were just traveling somewhere and uh there were several eyewitness reports no he went to a farm he went to a farm uh the the saddest one that jumbo was no he went to a farm the saddest one that Jumbo was trying

he went to a farm Rob trying to help one of the younger elephants across the tracks he went to a farm he did he went to an elephant farm and they all lived happily ever after oh thank goodness they did they starred in a musical it was lovely it was brilliant

this is the greatest show still we're meant to be talking about arthur and i've gone on a huge tangent there but we're now talking about elephants getting hit by going to farms but it's it's world building it's giving you an idea of what america was like at this time yeah very much moved away from the early days where it was this uh struggling brand new country uh it's now full of people deciding to take elephants over the world's biggest bridge. Because they can. Because they can.

America's changed. Although, like, P.T. Barnum, in a way, as we compare to Trump, in a sense, is like just a showman. Yeah, I'll do this as attention. That's what it would have been. Yeah, it was. Even if it's dangerous, it still would have been attention. Oh, yeah, yeah. If he could make money out of it, he would.

He very much fits into the Gilded Age. Yes. The fact that he was also a politician as well kind of makes you realise. See, they miss that out from the film. Anyway, let's get back to Arthur, shall we? Because whilst all this, frankly, mayhem is going on, Arthur's headed off for the West. He's finally gone on his journey West.

After seeing those wonderful paintings of Yellowstone Park, he decides he's going to go and see Yellowstone Park. It looks amazing. So he takes with him several men, including General Sheridan and his War Secretary Lincoln, so they can discuss the policy in regards to the Native Americans on the way. Therefore, it's an official business trip, not a holiday at all. No, absolutely not.

Just so you know, I mean, there's not much to discuss here. The official policy was a continuation on the so-called civilizing the natives. Oh dear. Yeah, that we've seen before. And also a continuation of the, well, as long as we're teaching them to be like us, they don't really need all this land, do they? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway, Arthur starts by heading to Chicago via train, then to Cheyenne in Wyoming, again by train. But from then on, it's going to be horseback all the way, a 350-mile round trip. So it's going to take a while. Yeah. But before they set off, there's a bit of a performance. All very nice. Two local tribes of Native Americans come along and they perform a ceremony for Arthur. And then 500 of them stage a mock battle.

Yeah. It's like we're in the Roman Emperor series here. We really are. Yeah. It's Arthur going to the provinces to watch people staging mock battles whilst he watches from the comfort of a chair nearby. Oh, dear. Yeah.

After this, the chief of the Shoshones announced that they would, and I quote, adopt fully and as rapidly as possible the customs and manner of life of the white people. Oh, no. Perhaps thinking that the thing they could start with is not having to put on mock battles to please the Taurus president anymore. Yeah. Maybe that's the first custom we could adopt. That would be nice, wouldn't it?

Because no one else seems to do that, sir. Yeah. It just seems to be us. Yeah. So we're more than willing to adopt that particular tradition of yours. Yeah. Anyway, not wanting to miss an opportunity, one of the senators travelling with Arthur

then attempted to buy the rest of the tribe's land off them. He was politely refused. Yeah. You can just tell that would have been the type. Hi, sail chap, whilst we're here. Fancy selling all your land? Yeah. Anyway, the next day, Arthur sets out on horseback.

After a day of riding, they camp. The official reporter they had with them wrote, and. Anyway, the next day, Arthur sets out on horseback. After a day of riding, they camp. The official reporter they had with them wrote, and I quote, The president proves to be a good horseman and came into camp like an old campaigner. Immediately, the president took his rod and soon landed the first trout, keeping up his old reputation as a fine fisherman. See, when he said he took his rod, I had no idea where he came with that sentence. Well, who knows if any of this is true.

They banned any reporters. They just took an official reporter with them who could then tell everyone what happened afterwards. So this is the account I'm getting this from. Anyway, the next few days continued in the same vein. They rowed, they camped, they fished. A lot of fishing went on. On the fourth night, it rained so heavily that they struggled to hunt,

but it's fine, they had provisions, it was okay. Had fish. Yeah. And after that, it was fairly easy going. Soon enough, they were riding through the vistas that Bierstadt had been painting. These amazing views. Riding down paths where on one side of them was what they estimated was a thousand foot drop. And they could just see over these huge valleys

with mountains in the distance. Just amazing views that you get in Yellowstone. The official reporter wrote, a stumble, a horse and a rider would have gone headlong into certain destruction. Dun, dun. Yeah, full on Italian job kind of scenery. and a rider would have gone headlong into certain destruction. Dun-dun. Yeah, full-on Italian job kind of scenery.

Yeah. Then after 16 days of riding, they reached what has become known as Old Faithful. Oh. Yeah, a plume of water that would shoot up into the air on regular intervals, usually once an hour. Back then, it slowed down recently, apparently, due to certain earthquakes maybe affecting it apparently really almost like become like it used to be we describe it as

engorged back then and then within the last like 50 years got kind of flaccid it's like just spurting a bit out every now and again i never saw it described that way but it's begun to get more vigorous again more lively but not to its prior i really hope one day you can do tour guides i'll be brilliant okay yeah no apparently it's gone down to every 90 minutes on average now instead of once every hour even its uh girth and lengthers doesn't doesn't um't impress as it once used to. Really? Let's put it that way. That's a shame. That's a shame. Well, apparently the president

and his travelling company took great delight in the geezers. Or the geysers, depending on how you pronounce that. Old Faithful had been painted by Bernstadt. It's a very impressive painting, which again, as with all his paintings, catches the light in this amazing way. And everyone wanted to go and see it.

And yeah, sure enough, it was great. I mean, they all pointed out and went, yeah, that's a lot of water being shot into the sky. Great. And then they carried on. The next day, they found a fossil of what they described to be an extinct rhino, which was interesting. I tried to find out what the hell that was,

but I could not find that information anyway. That is a T-Rex. Well, yeah. It's like, what did they... Is it a dinosaur they found here? What is it? It could be anything. Yeah, it could be anything.

It's like, well, what did they find? Because by the 1880s, they were discovering fossils and pulling them together pretty much correctly. Yeah, but I don't know. My research hit a dead end at that point. I couldn't figure out what was found. But they found something interesting. A monster.

That's what they found. They found a monster. It was great. By this time, the president and his troops started heading back. And everyone had had a wonderful time. Yeah, on the working tour. On the working tour, definitely. When they finally returned, they received words that reports of a plot

to kidnap the president had been circulating. Yeah, there were reports that a band of desperados were going to kidnap the president, take him to a cave, and demand all sorts of money for him. Oh, for goodness sake. No one was ever caught. This may have been completely made up. It probably was.

But it added a bit of spice to the story of the journey. I think drunk friends just got way too drunk in a pub. Yeah. Yeah, which just kidnapped the president and then he gave everyone a year worth of whiskey. Yeah, that's what happened. Anyway, Arthur finally gets back to the capital, and he was rudely reminded that he was the president,

so he should probably be doing something. Ah, damn it. Yeah. The current hot topic, of course, was the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Yeah, we're back to bills and rights again. I really get the feeling that Arthur was like, can I go fishing again? I really don't want to do this.

Right, this act was created by Sumner and signed into law by Grant and was designed to, and I quote, protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights. Basically, it stopped discrimination and segregation in public places and on transport. So this basically, it stops discrimination, it stops segregation. No one in the country can segregate based on race. Right. Which is good, yeah?

Yeah. Yeah? You seem confused. Because that doesn't happen. Well, the act was never really enforced unfortunately and you know his law yeah um but don't forget um the south in particular uh there was a lot of belligerence there's a lot of kook clucks clanning going on and although that had been stamped out fairly well by grant um it didn't disappear there There were lots of people who went, we're going to rule ourselves. We're a state. So it started to be debated in the courts. We're not going to follow

this. We'll take it to court. Eventually, of course, something this big ends up in the Supreme Court. It took a while. It gets there in 1883 when Arthur's president. This is where the Supreme Court comes up with one of their worst rulings in all its history. I mean, we're not quite up there with Dred Scott, but it's close, very close, because they rule that this act was unconstitutional because the federal government did not have the power to protect private rights.

Therefore, segregate all you want. But they have the Bill of Rights, don't they? Yeah, but nowhere in the Bill of Rights does it say you can't segregate all you want but they have the bill of rights don't they yeah yeah but nowhere in the bill of rights does it say you can't segregate yes but that impedes on personal rights which is a federal thing and they're saying you can't impede on things you're not impeding on people you're just keeping them separate yeah it's a poor argument but it's enough to make it legal anyway this freed up the states completely. If they wanted to, and many of them did, they could create fully segregated systems within their states.

Arthur was not happy one bit. Remember, he was very anti-slavery, and he was very pleased with the outcome of the war. I'll quote him here. It was the special purpose of the amendment to ensure that to members of the coloured race the full enjoyment of civil and political rights. Of course the Supreme Court ruling destroys that. Arthur made it very clear that if Congress wanted to move against this ruling by the third branch of government, the executive branch would be with Congress. It's like three branches of government, Supreme Court's done done this If me in the executive branch and you Congress team up

We can overrule this Unfortunately not many in Congress seem particularly interested And so the segregation of white and black people Deepens across many southern states This remains entrenched for the next 70, 80 years We're seeing it now Oh yeah, yeah, it's never fully gone away But yeah, this, it's never fully gone away. But yeah,

this really is a case of things could have started to get better a lot quicker. The civil rights movement of the 60s could have happened a lot, lot earlier. But no, this was a bad ruling. Anyway, by this point, the term's coming to an end and Arthur's torn. He didn't want to be president, he never had wanted to be president, he doesn't want to be president. He never had wanted to be president. He doesn't want to be the president in the future. But he also doesn't want to be seen as a failure. I mean, he could point out, fairly reasonably, to be fair, that he had led a very torn party through a time of extreme trouble. And did an alright job.

That said, he also had been the president during the disastrous midterm election, and he'd also angered many in his party. Yeah. And also by this point, Blaine from Maine had grown in popularity even more, and everyone kind of figured that it was his turn. Arthur had done a better job than most assumed he would have done, but he'd hardly left the party or the country into a golden age or anything. Yeah. So, come the convention, Arthur realised that it probably wasn't going to go for him. In the first ballot, he did

come a comfortable second, which was nice to Blaine, but that's where he stayed. He slowly lost votes as Blaine gained votes. Only four rounds of voting in this convention. Everyone got to go home early that time. It was nice. Blaine took the majority. Arthur's out. Although very much a stalwart still, and Blaine obviously, Blaine from Maine and the Halfbreeds, Arthur still publicly announced that he would support

Blaine. I'll quote him, I want this ticket elected. I am a Republican. Let's stop the infighting. So he did what he could to help in the election. He attempted to use his experience, but soon found that the Blaine camp had very little use for him. So go away, Arthur. We don't want you.

So he didn't really have much to do. Either way, it didn't really matter, because all their fears were realised when Grover Cleveland, the first Democrat to be elected since the war, wins. Spoiler for next episode, by the way. Oh, yeah.

So, Arthur's out. For the morale of the country, Arthur loses his presidency just in time, however. Because as soon as he left the White House, the Bright's disease really kicks in hard. Ooh. Yeah. He moves back to New York City. He attempts to start up his law firm once more. But it's very obvious that something's not right.

His health deteriorates rapidly over the next year. And then in November 1886, an artery in his head ruptures. He dies in his home. His funeral in New York City was a very grand affair. Anyone who was anyone attended, possibly even Barnum and his elephants, who knows? In a pyramid formation. Yeah.

I mean, Jumbo's dead by this point. Yeah. No, he's not. He's on the farm. He's on the farm. Yes, he is. But anyway. He's dead good.

Arthur's body is taken to his family plot where he is buried next to Nell and their child. The end. 1886. That's when Coventry City Football Club was. It was 1887. It was 87, I think. That's what Arthur was really cleaning on for near the end. It's like, I can't go now, damn it. I like to think as soon as he extinguished,

Coventry City Football Club was created. Yeah. The circle of life. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, because, yeah, the singer sewing device was around at oh because yeah the singer sewing devices around at the time in coventry invention yeah i i is this your summing up of his presidency is it i'm talking about coventry should we rate him yeah let's do it okay i mean it's not going to be great this round

is it uh for statesmanship no uh apart from being arguably the worst vice president so far, like, you can really make the case for that, and then the president, he didn't really do much in his life for the country. He wasn't in many elected offices. He did do civil service work. Corruptly. Yeah, I'm not going to put that there.

Yeah. So let's look at when he was the president because apart from that he didn't really do much um yeah he didn't do much as the president either uh the pendleton bill is the biggest thing the reform bill does he deserve credit for this i mean he should get some credit for the fact that he helped push through this reform bill uh leading to less corruption in the civil service yeah i think so however it wasn't his he didn't make the bill he just signed it at the end that's irrelevant though because he didn't have to sign it he could have vetoed it exactly uh and he didn't i think he deserves some credit but he's certainly not he's not gonna fall 10 for that but no he he deserves a little

bit yeah but it wasn't him making the bill In fact he fought against the bill in his earlier life Well he can get an honourable mention Yeah Okay so there's that The fact that he was a stalwart He was in the faction that was opposing the bill And he didn't stand in its way Okay fair enough you can get something there

He vetoed the first anti-Chinese immigration bill Feeling that it was a reactionary bill that actually didn't help the country. And in retrospect, that was true. Yes. And he lost popularity, but he did the right thing, I personally would argue. So I think definitely good there.

But he then caved on the second bill. Or just saw the futility of it. Yeah, you could argue that, I suppose. Something I didn't mention at all in the episode, the Navy improved. Yeah. Because the Navy was, well, it wasn't really a Navy anymore. It was a man and a rubber duck. Yeah, I mean, since the war, the Navy had just fallen into disrepair.

Yeah. They just didn't really need it. If they weren't fighting themselves, there's no one near them to need a navy. So it just kind of fell to the wayside slightly, but they're starting to do things like build the biggest bridge in the

world. They're starting to think we need to be a major world power. If we're going to be a major world power, we're going to need a navy at some point. Maybe we should start building it up. Do you know what, that may be something to do with it. Like, building a bridge, like, wow, this is the best in the world. Look what we can do. Yeah. They are confident as a nation.

Look at the money we're raking in. Look what we are capable of. Yeah, exactly. You're getting a very... Instead of a very young and slightly nervous country, like it was in the start, it's getting a bit of swagger yeah before it puts his gun in its pockets it's swinging it around his finger then putting the gun yeah

exactly to do so yeah um arthur and uh his navy secretary starts thinking we need to start at least building some ships it's embarrassing they first armored the rubber duck yeah which unfortunately sank yeah that's a shame baby steps though i get that in the end this doesn't actually go anywhere huge for now because the the next president to come in kind of puts a stop to it but we get some new ships coming in so the navy is improved it's definitely better at the end of our presidency than it was at the start um he also vetoed the rivers and harbour act which was an obvious path to corruption, which is good. But I think to sum up, really, the best you can say about Arthur as a president is that he was not as bad as many thought he was going to be.

Yeah, I would argue he was more of a positive influence than a negative influence. He wasn't neutral. He was positive. Okay. In the powers that he had neutral he was positive okay in in of his in in the powers that he had and he was allowed to do he vetoed things he didn't think were right yeah but he also encouraged things he thought would be good and that proved to be good and he didn't continue the uh the constant ethos of corruption. Yeah. Again, a positive thing.

I'd argue his contribution was more positive than negative. Okay. As president. As president. And that is statesmanship. It's what he's doing as an official for the country. So, okay. I think I want to give him a six.

Yeah, no, I don't think that's a bad score. Above halfway. Above neutral. Because he doesn't do anything awful. No. He didn't do anything awful. No. He didn't do anything that I went, that's really bad as president. Oh, no, he did make the Native American tribes do a mock battle for him.

Well, he probably didn't. It's the way I also did it, and he had to sit there and watch it. Yeah, yeah, possibly. Yeah, I mean, generally, I think you're right. I think you can say that the country is slightly better than it was at the end of his presidency.

So, therefore, I should probably be going above half marks. You know what? Put me down for a six as well. A whole six. A whole six. Disgrace game. Okay, he's gained what many people will be a surprising amount of points so far. So let's take those off. Let's start with good, actually.

He was, for his time, to be fair, not a bigot. Yes, that's true. Which is nice. It's always good, isn't it, when to be fair not a bigot yes that's true which is nice um it's always good isn't it when the president's not bigoted yeah he despised slavery and if you remember when he was a lawyer he specialized in civil rights cases for black people that's great well done shake your hand there well done arthur that said uh he was obviously open to corruption bribes buying votes generally any shady political dealings that he felt needed to be done, he would happily do them. The Gilded Age is considered a low point in certain aspects of American politics.

And Arthur is the most Gilded Age politician we have come across yet. Now, just because he didn't wave it in front of people's faces for the years he was president does not take away from the fact that he was corrupt through and through he did for many years of his life happily make a fortune through kickbacks and bribes while people who lived mere minutes away from him were literally starving to death yeah And he was happy to do that. If there's one thing you don't want in your politicians, or your presidents, it's corruption.

No. So, not great. So, as you've been talking, I'm trying to battle morally with myself, like, well, that's not as bad as owning slaves. No, it's not. So, I'm not going to go up there in the really high numbers that people who were pushing slavery, the eights and nines of some of them who were just racist and pushing slavery, they're up there with that.

However, I still think you deserve a significant score for just being openly corrupt most of your career. I'm just trying to decide where it's minus six, minus five. I'm not quite sure. Yeah, I'm in that region, definitely. I'm going to go for minus six. might go for minus five fair enough that's a total of one something now yeah a total of one born in a log cabin always a good start i don't think we're getting many more of those no so make the most of that uh he moved around a lot if you remember because his father was an angry preacher. He did very well at school.

He threw the school bell into a canal. You might be able to make something out of that. Yeah, that's nice. He graduated. He became a teacher. He then became a lawyer and moved to New York and specialised in civil rights cases. And he moved up very quickly, didn't he, as well? Yeah, yeah, he did very well. I genuinely think you could get a good bit of drama with the whole civil rights cases in New York pre-war.

It was an interesting thing to look into that I've never really seen much about. Yeah, so I definitely think we've got good drama there. He meets Nell at this time. The Civil War starts, and his wife is a Southern sympathiser, and he works for the North. He ran the supplies for the entire state and through connections and with the help

of Nell he became a big name in New York City. So you can have lots of balls and stuff. People who like period dramas love a good ball, don't they? Yeah. It's good to have balls in your film. Yeah. After the war he meets Conkling and they become friends and through Conkling he gets the custom house job and he does little but make a huge, obscene amount of money

through dubious means. He becomes very rich and he lives the high life of New York City. He then becomes the surprise vice president nominee in a failed move to please Conkling, becomes the vice president. Garfield is shot in Arthur's name. Arthur becomes president. See, that's a great episode yeah it's

all he said his episode yes where um shock oh what's his name uh ian bill's running around trying to get money from people i imagine like like arthur running around trying to just like in one like a one shot episode one for one camera one shot just going to people and it's like i need help what do i do be great episode i have no idea what you're talking about with the stems reference but i'm guessing other people will say possibly maybe not our american listeners but no it's a soap soaps in this country are different soaps in america uh they're gritty and depressing yes yes they are there's something fun about there's no shine on those soaps yeah um anyway

so uh he becomes the president everyone thinks he's going to be hopeless he's not as hopeless as everyone thought he helps the reformers uh in a move that angered many he then goes on holiday to yellowstone park he meets yogi bear he leaves office and then he dies. One of those things that may not have happened. He didn't die. Lived on forever. It's certainly not the best. It's got moments. It's got moments.

The Garfield being shot in his name is brilliant. Yes. That's a panic fast-paced. Yeah. Obviously not brilliant in real life, but for drama, brilliant.

And like I said, the civil rights stuff in its start could be quite good as well. If you're tuning in for some interesting Civil War drama, though, you're going to be disappointed. He spent most of it in an office. I don't know. Not amazing, but not awful. Three.

I'm going to go for five. I'm going middle of the road for this one. Yeah, there's some nice bits in it. It's not awful. No, not enough for me to hold my interest on it. Fair enough. Eight. Have you any idea what he looks like at all? No, genuinely no.

He's got a beard. Are you ready? Yeah. Before I show you, just know it is a full portrait. Okay. You're standing and you get to see his shoes. Pointy in red. Unfortunately not, no. But, a lot of red and we're going for the whole Roman feel again. Yeah, we're back there.

Here we go. This is Chet Arthur. Oh. Ambrose Burnside be damned. He's wearing like a Santa coat. Yeah. Like a dark black with red plumes. Like this massive floor length coat with just

red fur coming out of it hand draped over a Roman style one with a red background I think it might be something to do with Justice she seems to be holding scales oh possibly, Lady Justice that could be you've got a nice Roman column in the background

but do you know what, that all fades away to nothing look at that tash oh yeah, yeah, I mean You've got a nice Roman column in the background. Oh, Roman column. But do you know what? That all fades away to nothing. Look at that tash. Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, let's face it. Let's get to the meat here. And the meat in this case is chops. Yo! It really is.

They are phenomenal. Yeah, it's no beard. It is just massive sideburns that go into his moustache and then out the other side. Ten. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what's not to like? It's just really good.

I do like the Roman style knot on black background. So it's getting points for that. I'm liking the fact that it's floor length. You get to see all of him. I like the fact he's got a massive coat. And there's just the facial hair. It's outstanding. It is. Outstanding facial coat and there's just the facial hair. It's outstanding. It is. Outstanding facial hair.

It's exemplary facial hair. Yeah. He's getting 10 from me. He's not from me. Maybe I'm slightly biased. An 11? I know that there are a couple of other portraits that I prefer to this one. I'll get 10 as well. That's fine. So I'm just holding out my 10s for those couple that are particularly good. So I'm only going to give it a 9. A 9. Okay. But that is still pretty good's it's a hefty 19 he's got there yeah so that is a 4.75

so what's his score at the moment um 13.75 13.75 not great but certainly not awful he can potentially pick up six more points, though. Oh, dear. Let's see how he does in the bonus rounds. Bonus! Terms, well, none, because he didn't serve a full term. That's true. Yeah.

Assassination, none. No one tried to kill him. Election, none. He wasn't elected. So, not his best round, this one. No, he hasn't done well in that round, he could argue. No. So, that's his final score. So so let me just add up his score hang on 13.75

still 13.75 he would have wanted more movement there I feel I think so yeah but no not to be so here we go arguably the most corrupt president so far but also arguably one of the biggest reformers of corruption so far ironically but is he an American also arguably one of the biggest reformers of corruption so far, ironically.

But is he an American? American or American? No. No, he's not, is he? No. He's got bits that are interesting. I did genuinely enjoy researching him because it's a fascinating time. Oh, he's interesting, yeah. This might be my favourite time of American history so far.

Why are you in corruption, Rob? Mainly just because maybe I just like being angry and the Gilded Ages are just infuriating. So in this roaring 20s before the crash of 27, is that confidence in the Gilded Golden Age as well, though?

It kind of continues. We'll see when we get in there, but obviously there is only so long we can have just hyper capitalism with the highest just reaping all the rewards of everything and everyone else below just suffering so a potential 40 years to go then i'm not running out anything at all okay that's fine um but 10 years all you need to know is that next up we have our first democratic president for quite a while, since Johnson. Yeah.

And the first elected one since Buchanan. With a great name, Grover. Yeah. And he's also, as I'm sure some listeners will want to know how we're doing this, he's the weird one. He's the one who is the 22nd and the 24th president. Ah. Is he the reason why people... Oh no, is there another one as well?

No, no, it's just Cleveland. Just Cleveland? Yeah. Because they say Trump's the 45th. No, he's not. He's the 44th president. He's the 44th person to be president. Person, yes.

He is holding the 45th office of the presidency. Yeah. Yeah, because Cleveland is the president, then not the president, then the president again. When we first started this and I was getting it straight in my head, I was thinking perhaps I'd split Cleveland's episode so we could just have his second presidency in his second episode,

but we'll put it apart from his first. And we'll have a 23rd president in between. That'd be easier for narrative, I'm just saying. Yeah, it would. But then we always flit around in narrative because we go back to their birth. That's true. And to be honest, it will just be a lot simpler if we just go through. So we are just going to do Cleveland, two episodes, just like everyone else.

We're going to do early life and then maybe get into his first presidency in the first episode. It depends. And then we will do his first presidency in the first episode. It depends. And then we will do his second presidency in the second episode. And, yeah, and then we're halfway. We'll have done half the presidents. Wow. Yeah, great. Okay, so that's us.

We're done. Yeah, thank you for downloading us on Popbean and iTunes. And thanks for following us on Facebook and Twitter. Yes. Leave comments comments leave suggestions your views have we got anything right have we got anything wrong generally get in contact

and until next time goodbye goodbye hello Arthur Hello, Arthur! Tiffany! Tiffany, come on in. Oh, splendid to be here. Oh, it's very drab. I know, awful. Absolutely awful. I can't believe I have to spend my time here. But I was hoping, Tiffany, for some of your expertise. Oh, I have some expertise

to bring light to this dark confinement. I want something very now. Not even now. Tomorrow. Very now. Very tomorrow. I have the idea. Yes? You see this wall? Yes. No, I hate that wall. What? What do you think? Well, imagine if you couldn't see

the wall. But I can see the wall. It's drab. It won't be drab. It's made of glass. Tiffany, you ballet genius. I know. I know. A glass wall. Yes, that's it. Just made entirely of glass. The light.

Imagine the light coming through. And here's my other idea to enhance that one glass wall. Yes. See that wall over there? What, are you thinking some kind of image on it that will catch the light? What. And here's my other idea, to enhance that one glass wall. Yes? See that wall over there? What, are you thinking some kind of image on it that will catch the light? What are you thinking? No. What?

Glass! What, another glass wall? Two glass walls, glass squared. That's bold. I'm loving it. Keep going, Tiffany. Keep going. Look above you.

I'm already with you. Yes? A glass chandelier. No. What? You beast. We need to bring in the light. Release the darkness. The whole ceiling shall be glass. But more.

More glass. And that wall there. That's a supporting wall. And don't forget the floor. The floor as well. Glass. It might be going a bit glass heavy, Tiffany. No. Follow me, let me show you this room See this chair? The toilet Glass!

Right, um Follow me I've always been very supportive of your work, Tiffany And you're very bold, but, um Very bold, have you seen the Crystal Palace in London? Oh, glass, it's so glorious Yes, well, I'm not entirely convinced that everything should be glass. The kitchen!

Glass! Glass pots! Glass sink! Oh, the stairs! Glass stairs! The chef! A glass chef! Glass!

Come on, Tiffany. Glass! Come on. Come on. Come on. Take one of these. Take one of these. There we go.

Glass. Why don't you go and play with your lamps? Glass! Chester Arthur Part 2. Ooh, it's been a while. Ooh, I've got a bit of a sore throat. Hold on. This is my thingy.

All right. I'm sorry. You saw the episode of There and There? Okay. Wow, Jamie What do you think? I think he wasn't a very good present No, no, I agree, Jamie

I agree Thanks for your input That's okay, Rob You're the best podcaster In the whole world I'm back now, you can stop Was it okay, did you manage to cover I did

I think I think that was smoothly done I don't think they'll notice that's good you are the best podcaster in the whole world aww

thank you it's a lie