How a President changed his politics based on one woman's letters

Editor's note: This is the twenty-first entry in the writer's year-long project to read one book about each of the U.S. Presidents by Election Day 2016. You can also follow Marcus' progress at the @44in52 Twitter account and with this 44 in 52 Spreadsheet.

Remember how excited I was by the James Garfield book last week? I was energized by the way it told the story of a president through the defining moment of his presidency -- his shooting and the drawn-out aftermath. In a year-long project subject to emotional peaks and valleys, this was a high point.

Well, that didn't last long, because I ran face-first into the buzzsaw that is Chester A. Arthur. And even a fascinating tale of how a random letter-writer changed his political outlook couldn't redeem it.

Thomas Reeves' Gentleman Boss is a hard slog through New York state politics, the machines that ran them, and Chester A. Arthur's role in them. This was the same issue that caused me to bog down when reading about Martin Van Buren. 

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Amidst the minutiae of patronage handouts, party negotiations, and shenanigans at the New York Custom House, I caught glimpses of Arthur the person. Though it wasn't enough to get me through more than 10 or 15 pages in a sitting. 

There was a lot of ground that had already been covered in reading about other presidents, such as the Republican party's split into warring factions under Rutherford B Hayes. Apparently Hayes himself booted Arthur from his Custom House position, which could be something close to the 19th century equivalent of Obama burning Trump at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. 

But as with Van Buren, there were so many dull shenanigans going on with so many people, it was hard to keep track without a chart. 

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Part of what kept me going is what happened to Arthur down the line: after establishing himself as a loyal party man and member of the Sen. Roscoe Conkling-led Republican machine, known as the Stalwarts, he would unexpectedly ascend to the Presidency after Garfield's assassination -- a position neither he nor his critics wanted for him.

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Most people viewed Arthur as a Conkling stooge, the senator's right-hand man who earned his VP position to maintain New York's support. Conkling's preferred candidate, former president U.S. Grant, was denied the nomination in 1880. 

When Garfield was shot, many people across the nation lamented how terrible Arthur would be as president. Then Arthur had a come to Jesus" moment. He divorced himself from Conkling while not totally disconnecting himself from the party machine that made him. 

It was the kind of makeover that's too rare in politics.

Oh, and it happened because he took unsolicited advice from a random woman he had never met who mailed him numerous letters of support. 

Arthur's relationship with Julia Sand, the woman who mailed him the unsolicited advice, is fascinating. Still mourning the death of his wife when Garfield was assassinated, Arthur was badly shaken as he ascended to the highest office in the land. 

It was Sand's letters, encouraging him to become a reformer and to distance himself from the Stalwarts, that pushed Arthur to embrace his own personal reformation. 

The letters continued into Arthur's term in office. Arthur even tracked Sand down at her family home and conversed in person (Sand was stricken with spinal troubles and was mostly confined to a couch or bed). 

That a random person could capture the president's support, let alone influence him, is astounding. It would be like President Obama changing his policies based on advice from a random Twitter user with an egg avatar. 

Encouraged by Sand, Arthur embraced the call for civil service reform that was very much a hot topic in the age of patronage, getting the reformers' Pendleton Act passed. He was still known for a little patronage now and then, but had mostly shed his cronyism ways. 

There are also shades modern politics in his story: like Ted Cruz, Arthur was assailed with accusations that he was actually born in Canada. During his term as president, the banning of immigrants from a particular country (in this case, China) was a hot topic. 

Arthur's story ends on a tragic note: while in the White House, he was diagnosed with Bright's Disease, a kidney ailment that would kill him in 1886, just 18 months after he left office. That's why Arthur didn't make much of an effort to earn the Republican nomination in the 1884 election.

Despite these intriguing passages from Arthur's life, the book, in all, was a disappointment. Even though the pace picked up once Arthur shifted from the Custom House to the White House, the book was often as focused on the party factions and leaders around Arthur than it was on the president himself.  

The president disappears from the book for long chunks at a time, giving a widescreen context to the years he was in office but little of the man himself. 

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And those are the chunks that bogged me down with quicksand. Admittedly, I'm biased when it comes to political machines. Years living and working in Chicago have exposed me to that city's extensive history of graft and political charlatans; topping that is a tall order. 

Too bad. There are some fascinating aspects to Arthur and while perhaps the best thing about his presidency was that he wound up not being terrible as feared. 

This doesn't make his story any less interesting, even if he's often relegated to the bargain bin of presidents.  

Days to read Washington: 16
Days to read Adams: 11
Days to read Jefferson: 10
Days to read Madison: 13
Days to read Monroe: 6
Days to read J. Q. Adams: 10
Days to read Jackson: 11
Days to read Van Buren: 9
Days to read Harrison: 6
Days to read Tyler: 3
Days to read Polk: 8
Days to read Taylor: 8
Days to read Fillmore: 14
Days to read Pierce: 1
Days to read Buchanan: 1
Days to read Lincoln: 12
Days to read Johnson: 8
Days to read Grant: 27
Days to read Hayes: 1
Days to read Garfield: 3
Days to read Arthur: 17

Days behind schedule: 26