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#Presidential Families
deadpresidents · 4 months
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"March 16, 1853: On the 14th, Rutherford and I had our daguerreotypes taken. No difficulty in getting pictures to suit us. The large one is for ourselves, that as old age draws on we might see what we once were. Rutherford has that expression I love to see. 'Tis a mixed one, love, happiness, and a tinge of pride -- enough to give a noble, manly air. And he seems to have just said, "This is my wife." How dearly I will prize this picture. It will always bring sweet memories. And whatever shall be our lot, may he retain that look. It is a speaking one, but I cannot tell all it shows. To me the greatest and best expression is only love. I am pleased with mine. It has rather a meek, subdued air, clinging to its only support, -- remove that and it will droop.
In the miniature case which is taken for Aunt Lu, Ruddy says mine is the best picture of me he ever saw. It has a little more independence than the others, at least, a stiffer head or neck. It may be a prettier picture, but it does not show my heart so well. Dear Ruddy's darling face must be changed. It has the fierce look, so different from the first. Indeed I fear, when looking at it, he does not love me half so well; but that is only a daguerreotype story."
-- Entry made by Lucy Webb Hayes in Rutherford B. Hayes's diary describing the daguerreotypes that they had taken in March 1853. In response to Mrs. Hayes's entry, Rutherford B. Hayes added this note:
"What a dishonest artist he must be who can so misrepresent my features and expression as to give it a look which even seems to doubt between love and indifference towards you!"
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fictionadventurer · 9 months
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I have to talk about Chester Arthur. His story makes me go crazy. A mediocre president from the 1880s who's completely forgotten today has one of the best redemption stories I've ever heard and I need to make people understand just how cool his story is.
So, like, he starts out as this idealist, okay? He's the son of an abolitionist minister and becomes famous as a New York lawyer who defends the North's version of Rosa Parks whose story desegregates New York City's trolley system.
Then he starts getting pulled into politics and becomes one of the grimiest pieces of the political machine. He wants money, power, prestige, and he gets it. He becomes the right-hand man of Roscoe Conkling, the most feared political boss in the nation, a guy who will throw his weight around and do the most ruthless things imaginable to keep his friends in power and destroy his enemies.
Because Arthur's this guy's top lackey, he gets to be Controller of the Port of New York--the best-paying political appointment in the country, because that port brings in, like, 70% of the federal government's funds in tariffs. He gets a huge salary plus a percentage of all the fines they levy on lawbreakers, and because he's not afraid to make up infractions to fine people over, he is absolutely raking in the dough. Making the rough equivalent of $1.3 million a year--absolutely insane amounts of money for a government position. He's spending ridiculous sums on clothes, buying huge amounts of alcohol and cigars to share with people as part of his job recruiting supporters to the party, going out nearly every night to wine and dine people as part of his work in the political machine. He's living the high life. Even when President Hayes pulls him from his position on suspicions of fraud, he's still living a great life of wealth, power, and prestige.
Then in 1880, his beloved wife dies. While he's out of town working for a political campaign. And he can't get back in time to say goodbye before she dies. Because he's a guy who has big emotions, it absolutely tears him up inside, especially because Nell resented how much his political work kept him away from home. He has huge regrets, but he just moves in with Roscoe Conkling and keeps working for the political machine.
And then he gets a chance to be vice president. The Republican Party has nominated James Garfield, a dark horse candidate who wants to reform the spoils system that has given Conking his power and gave Arthur his position as Port Controller. Conkling is pissed, and he controls New York, and since the party's not going to win the election without New York, they think that appointing Conkling's top lackey as vice-president will pacify him.
They're wrong--Conkling orders Arthur to refuse--but Arthur thinks this sounds like a great opportunity. The only political position he's ever held is Port Controller--a job he wasn't elected to and that he was pulled from in disgrace. Vice President is way more than he could ever have hoped for. It's a position with a lot of political pull and zero actual responsibilities. He'll get to spend four years living in up in Washington high society. It's the perfect job! Of course he accepts, and Conkling comes around when he figures out that he can use this to his advantage.
When Garfield becomes president, Arthur does everything he can to undermine him. He uses every dirty political trick he can think of to block everything that Garfield wants to do. He refuses to let the Senate elect a president pro tempore so he can stay there and influence every bill that comes through. He all but openly boasts of buying votes in the election. He's so much Conkling's lackey that he may as well be the henchman of a cartoon supervillain. On Conkling's orders, he drags one of Garfield's Cabinet members out of bed in the middle of the night--while the guy is ill--to drag him to Conkling's house so he can be forced to resign. He's just absolutely a thorn in the president's side, a henchman doing everything he can to maintain the corrupt spoils system.
Then in July 1881, when Arthur's in New York helping Conkling's campaign, the president gets shot. By a guy who shouts, "Now Arthur will be president!" just after he fires the gun. Arthur has just spent the past four months fighting the president tooth and nail. Everyone thinks he's behind the assassination. There are lynch mobs looking to take out him and Conkling. The papers are tearing him apart.
Arthur is absolutely distraught. He rushes to Washington to speak with the president and assure him of his innocence, but the doctors won't let him in the room. He gets choked up when talking to the First Lady. Reporters find him weeping in his house in Washington. Once again, death has torn his world apart and he's not getting a chance to make amends.
Arthur goes to New York while the president is getting medical treatment, and he refuses to come to Washington and take charge because he doesn't dare to give the impression that he's looking to take over. No one wants Arthur to be president and he doesn't want to be president, and the possibility that this corrupt political lackey is about to ascend to the highest office in the land is absolutely terrifying to everyone.
Then in August, when it's becoming clear that the president is unlikely to recover, he gets a letter. From a 31-year-old invalid from New York named Julia Sand. A woman from a very politically-minded family who has been following Arthur's career for years. And she writes him this astounding letter that takes him to task for his corrupt, conniving ways, and the obsession with worldly power and prestige that has brought him wealth and fame at the cost of his own soul--and she tells him that he can do better. In the midst of a nationwide press that's tearing him apart, this one woman writes to tell him that she believes he has the capacity to be a good president and a good man if he changes his ways.
And then he does. After Garfield dies, people come to Arthur's house and find servants who tell them that Arthur is in his room weeping like a child (I told you he had big emotions), but he takes the oath of office and ascends to the presidency. And he becomes a completely different man. His first speech as president mentions that one of his top priorities is reforming the spoils system so that people will be appointed based on merit rather than getting appointed as political favors with each change in the administration. Even though this system made him president. When Conkling comes to Arthur's office telling him to appoint his people to important government positions, Arthur calls his demands outrageous, throws him out, and keeps Garfield's appointees in the positions. "He's not Chet Arthur anymore," one of his former political friends laments. "He's the president."
He loses all his former political friends. He's never trusted by the other side. Yet he sticks to his guns and continues to support spoils system reform. He prosecutes a postal service corruption case that everyone thought he would drop. He's the one who signs into law the first civil service reform bill, even though presidents have been trying to do this for more than ten years, and he's the person who's gained all his power through the spoils system. He immediately takes action to enforce this bill when he could have just dropped it. He becomes a champion of this issue even though it's the last thing anyone would have expected of him.
He oversees naval reform. He oversees a renovation of the White House. He still prefers the social duties of the presidency, but he's respectable in a way that no one expected. Possibly because Julia Sand keeps sending him letters of encouragement and advice over the next two years. But also because he's dying.
Not long after ascending to the presidency, he learns he's suffering from a terminal kidney disease. And he tells no one. He keeps going about his daily life, fulfilling his duties as president, and keeps his health problems hidden. Once again, death is upending his life, and this time it's his own death. He's lived a life he's ashamed of, and he doesn't have much time left to change. He enters the presidency as an example of the absolute worst of the political system, and leaves it as a respectable man.
He makes a token effort to seek re-election, but because of his health problems, he doesn't mind at all when someone else gets the nomination. He dies a couple of years after leaving office. The day before his death, he orders most of his papers burned, because he's ashamed of his old life--but among the things that are saved are the letters from Julia Sand, the woman who encouraged him to change his ways.
This is an astounding story full of so many twists and turns and dramatic moments. A man who falls from idealism into the worst kind of corruption and then claws his way back up to decency because of a series of devastating personal losses and unexpected opportunities to do more than he could have ever hoped to do. I just go crazy thinking about it and I need you all to understand just how amazing this story is.
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What’s that elephant the Danes are wearing?
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Tatler’s guide to the emblems and quirks of Denmark’s highest honour, the Order of the Elephant.
A curious little diamond-encrusted elephant, a blue sash, a gold collar – and sometimes a big flaming cape…Tatler looks into the history and tradition of Denmark's most privileged Order.
With Frederik X set to become sovereign of the Order as he becomes King on Sunday, you might see a few of these elephants around Copenhagen's royal palaces
By Isaac Zamet
12 January 2024
When Crown Prince Frederik becomes Frederik X of Denmark on Sunday, he will also replace his mother, Queen Margrethe II, as the sovereign of Denmark’s most ancient and distinguished order of chivalry, the Order of the Elephant.
Though it was officially refounded in 1693, the order dates all the way back to the 1400s, when it was established as a religious confraternity by a group of about fifty Danish knights.
In the 1400s, prior to the Reformation which gripped Europe and divided the church, such religious ‘clubs’ as the Order of the Elephant were common features of aristocratic life.
At the time of the Order of the Elephant's birth, Christian I was King of Denmark – and in fact, Norway and Sweden too, creating a personal union known as the Kalmar Union.
During this period, the emblem of the club was an image of the Virgin Mary holding her Son within a crescent moon.
This was hung from a collar formed of links in the shape of elephants.
The confraternity mutated over the centuries but endured a stifled period after the Reformation in which such clubs became suspect.
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In 1580, Frederik II – eight Frederiks prior to our current Frederik – revived the order and replaced the medallion of the mother and child with an elephant (a Reformation-safe, Protestant approach – if a quirky one!).
But it was Christian V, in 1693, who gave the club its official statues and founding order.
At this time, it was scheduled as comprising 30 noble knights and one Grand Master (the King) along with his sons.
It was only in 1958 that the statutes were amended by Royal Ordinance to allow the ennoblement of women as members of the order.
Between 1580 and today, around 890 persons have been bestowed with the Order of the Elephant; with Queen Margrethe adding 68 people during her 40 year reign.
The recipients are almost always royal persons and foreign heads of state – though in a rare exception, the order was given to a commoner in 2000.
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This was the deceased shipping magnate, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, who was recognised for exceptional contribution to Danish economic strength and Danish society.
Those unfamiliar with the man himself will surely recognise his name from the famous shipping containers.
The A.P. Møller – Mærsk group was actually founded in 1904 by his father. It is now worth $81bn dollars.
At the time of Møller’s membership of the order, he was the only non-royal and non-head of state to hold the honour; though it had previously been held by the pioneering nuclear physicist, Niels Bohr.
Membership of the order comes with possession of its rather eye-catching elephantine emblem.
The elephant is made of white-enamelled gold with blue housings and is about 5cm high.
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On its back, the elephant bears a tower of pink enamelled masonry (a design originally intended to reflect the howdah compartments of the Indian subcontinent).
A number of large cut diamonds adorn the elephant, along with a crowned monogram of the monarch reigning when it was made.
One wonders, then, when the first Frederikian elephants will be carved.
At the top of the tower on the elephant’s back sits a gold ring, from which the badge can be hung from the collar or tied to a sash.
On the elephant's back sits a turbaned ‘moor mahout.’
It should be noted that some would regard such a depiction as an exoticising caricature.
Others would regard its appearance merely as an expression of an historical perspective.
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One striking detail about the circulation of the elephants is that each Order of the Elephant is – in principle – on loan and must be returned to the Chapter of the Royal Orders of Chivalry when a member of the Order has passed away.
This rather quaint custom means that elephants are inherited and used several times by different members of the order, with some dating back hundreds of years.
Interestingly, the done thing is not to disclose to whom an Elephant has previously been given – though there are some traditional lines of inheritance.
For example, the elephant recently bestowed on Prince Christian belonged previously to his grandfather, Prince Henrik.
This handing over was always to be, on the basis of a traditional line of inheritance.
There are two exceptional elephants which have eluded the rule of the ‘loan’ – one remains in the Chancellery Museum at Paris and a second remains on display at the Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library in the US.
Another beautiful quirk of membership of the Order is that a member’s coat of arms is always painted and subsequently hung in the Knight’s Chapel at Frederiksborg Castle in Hillerød.
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As to when the elephants come out to play, there are some rather interesting traditions concerning how and when to wear them.
The Order of the Elephant has three festival days: new year’s day, the monarch’s birthday, and the birthday of Valdemar the Victorious, which, if you didn’t know is on June 28.
On these festival days, the Order of the Elephant is worn on the chest on a gold chain link collar, with links shaped as towers and elephants.
The collar sits on each shoulder. On other important occasions, the order is worn on a bright blue sash with a breast star.
The star of the order is an eight-pointed silver star with smooth rays; at its centre sits an enameled red disc with a white cross, surrounded by a laurel wreath in silver.
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fishbonedotcom · 4 months
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Something something Aphmau building her sons a treehouse to bond but also because they needed somewhere to hide if (when) Okasis attacked. That tree going on to be a landmark for the town even after she was gone. Phoenix Drop being defined by the safety Aphmau was trying to provide for her kids.
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xumoonhao · 6 months
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took out red white and royal blue or w/e the fuck its calked as an e book. i wanna see how bad it is
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tomorrowusa · 7 months
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ProTip: When you're a cognitively impaired self-proclaimed "stable genius", it's not a good idea to accuse others of being cognitively impaired.
Donald Trump essentially created raw material for an ad for Democrats at his speech at the Family Research Council.
In his latest gaffe-laden speech, Donald Trump appeared to suggest former President Barack Obama was running in 2024 as he warned that “cognitively impaired” President Joe Biden could lead the country into “World War Two” if he wins re-election. During his remarks at the Washington DC Pray Vote Stand Summit on Friday, the former president said: “We have a man who is totally corrupt and the worst president in the history of our country, who is cognitively impaired, in no condition to lead, and is now in charge of dealing with Russia and possible nuclear war.” “Just think of it. We would be in World War Two very quickly if we’re going to be relying on this man, and far more devastating than any war,” he continued as dramatic music swelled in the background.
Maybe if Trump attended his history classes instead of cutting class to steal ketchup packets from McDonald's he'd know that World War II was started by his fascist icons in Europe.
Of course Trump was attempting to act as a mouthpiece for his overlord, the "savvy genius" Vladimir Putin – but botched the line.
Let's not overlook Trump's hilarious unforced error in the same speech.
The former president said he was beating Mr Obama, the 44th president, in the 2024 election polls and then appeared to suggest he had beaten him in 2016 before correcting himself that his opponent then was Hillary Clinton.
Are you really beating somebody if that person isn't even running against you? 😆
Republicans and Russian meme makers want Americans to focus on Biden's age while ignoring Trump's mental unfitness – as well as HIS age. It's time to quit being defensive and go on the attack.
If you see or hear any reference to Biden's age in the news media when, in the same story Trump's age or fitness are being ignored, it's a good idea to contact that organization and ask why they are being so obviously one-sided.
Trump's dementia challenge: Fear of Alzheimer's has him scrambling
Oh, and isn't somebody who throws food around and has temper tantrums more likely to start a nuclear war?
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dimsilver · 11 months
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sher-ee · 6 days
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Former Republicans Joe Walsh and Micheal Steele.
“They’re trying to scare the hell out of Donald Trump supporters.”
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axiomaticisak · 2 months
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Please reblog for a bigger sample size
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jfkkennedy · 1 year
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On this day in 1968: Senator Robert F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States
If only he had made it to the White House, the world could be such a different place…
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deadpresidents · 4 months
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Former presidents behaving badly. In your opinion, is there anything creepier than Benjamin Harrison marrying his niece (by marriage)?
It certainly resulted in some uncomfortable family dynamics towards the end of Benjamin Harrison's life, but his second wife was a widow and almost 40 years old when they were married. I don't think that's anywhere close to as horrible as the slave-owning Presidents who forced the human beings that they owned as property to sleep with them and, in some cases, bear their children (who also became slaves).
Also, Grover Cleveland had some pretty gross skeletons in his closet.
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fictionadventurer · 9 months
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@story-courty I can corroborate! Edwin Booth, elder brother of John Wilkes and the man considered possibly the greatest actor of the nineteenth century, saved Robert Todd Lincoln from falling from a train platform in Jersey City, New Jersey. We don't know the exact date of the incident, but it most likely occurred sometime in 1863 or 1864, when Robert was returning to Washington from Harvard, and Booth was going to Richmond with John T. Ford, owner of (believe it or not) Ford's Theater.
The Library of Congress website provides a link to the April 26, 1865 edition of the Cleveland Morning Leader that tells the story like this.
Not a month since, Mr. Edwin Booth was proceeding to Washington. At Trenton, there was a general scramble to reach the cars, which had started, leaving many behind in the refreshment saloon. Mr. Edwin Booth was preceded by a gentleman whose foot slipped as he was stepping upon the platform, and who would have fallen at once beneath the wheels had not Mr. Edwin Booth's arm sustained him. The gentleman remarked that he had had a narrow escape of his life, and was thankful to his preserver. It was Robert Lincoln, the son that that great, good man who now lies dead before our blistered eyes, and whose name we cannot mention without choking. In some way the incident came to the knowledge of Lieutenant General Grant, who at once wrote a civil letter to Mr. Edwin Booth, and said that if he could serve him at any time he would be glad to do so. Mr. Booth replied, playfully, that when he (Grant) was in Richmond, he would like to play for him there.
Robert Lincoln confirmed the story for the Century Magazine in 1909. (Possibly as part of nationwide centennial celebrations of Abraham Lincoln's birth).
The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of course a narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name.
Edwin Booth didn't know the name of the man he'd saved until 1865, when Adam Badeau, another officer on Grant's staff who Lincoln had told the story to, wrote him a letter about it. Booth was a staunch Unionist and admirer of Abraham Lincoln, and he'd been feuding with his younger brother for years because of his Confederate sympathies. The news of the assassination devastated him, and he later told a friend that one of the only things that got him through those dark months afterward was the knowledge that he'd saved Robert's life. People initially thought that the Booth name was too blackened for Edwin to continue his career in acting, but he made a triumphant return to the stage in 1866 for a performance of Hamlet that got rave reviews, and eventually opened his own theater and went on a worldwide tour.
I can't fail to mention that this is only one of the coincidences regarding presidential assassinations in Robert Todd Lincoln's life, because he is the only man to have been present at events surrounding three of the four assassinations of American presidents. He was present at his father's deathbed after the assassination (though he wasn't at the theater and always regretted it, because he would have been sitting at the back of the box between Booth and his father). In 1881, he served as Secretary of War under President James Garfield, and was with him at the train station when he was shot by a crazed office-seeker. Robert secured the services of the doctor who had cared for Abraham Lincoln--though, unfortunately, this doctor's overzealous methods, insistence on his own theories, and refusal to follow antiseptic practices caused the infection that actually killed Garfield more than two months later. In 1901, Robert Lincoln was working as president of the Pullman Palace Car Company when President William McKinley invited him to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York where McKinley was making an appearance. At the same time Lincoln's train pulled in to the station, McKinley was shot by an assassin who'd joined the receiving line to meet him. Lincoln immediately went to the hospital to visit the injured McKinley, who died six days later.
Robert Lincoln was a major figure in the Republican Party whose name was often mentioned as a presidential candidate, but Robert never pursued the office, for what should be obvious reasons.
This blog from the U.S. National Archives sums up the situation well.
When Theodore Roosevelt assumed the Presidency, Lincoln wrote him. “I do not congratulate you for I have seen too much of the seamy side of the Presidential Robe to think of it as a desirable garment.” Later, he was invited to the White House as a figurehead of the Republican Party. He declined and swore he would never step foot in the White House again. “I am not going and they’d better not invite me,” he said, “because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present.”
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pomegranatepatriot · 28 days
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Robert Kennedy Jr. Official 2024 Independent Presidential Campaign announcement in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the National Constitution Center.
October 9, 2023
I had the honor to witness this historical announcement + meet the man himself, RFK Jr.! A day I’m forever grateful for & a day I’ll never forget.
Video on my YouTube:
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johnquincyadamsghost · 4 months
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Happy new year I’m still dead
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polithicc · 7 months
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was about to fall asleep and remembered next year is an election year <3
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thegoodmorningman · 1 year
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Make your vote count!!!
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