Chet Arthur Steps Up (1881)

This Day

Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

History

4.6 • 982 Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2024

⏱️ 16 minutes

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Summary

It's September 24th. This day in 1881 (actually, September 22nd) Vice President Chester Arthur assumes office after James Garfield dies from an assassination.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how Arthur was really no one's first choice, but nevertheless rose to meet the moment and gravity of the situation.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from radiotopia.
0:07.0	My name is Jody Avergan.
0:09.0	This day, September 22, 1881, Vice President Chester Arthur takes over as President of the
0:16.9	United States, retaking the oath of office in the wake of James Garfield's death.
0:21.6	Of this moment, the New York Times wrote, quote,
0:24.0	Chester Arthur is about the last man who would be considered eligible for the
0:28.0	position. And the Times is generally considered to be one of the more
0:31.5	supportive outlets when it comes to Chester Arthur. They were in his generally considered
0:34.4	the more supportive outlets when it comes to Chester Arthur. They were in his camp and they're saying that he is
0:36.7	the last man considered eligible for this position. So it is a very twisty
0:41.2	turnie story of how Arthur came to take this oath and it's oddly kind of moving in a way his stumbling into this position.
0:48.5	So let's talk about it here as always, Nicole Hammer of Vanderbilt and Kelly Carter Jackson of Wellesley.
0:54.3	Hey there.
0:55.1	Hello Jody.
0:56.3	Hey there.
0:57.3	1881 Chester Arthur.
0:58.9	Is this our first Chester Arthur?
1:00.8	Hard to say.
1:01.8	We're on a nice little 1800, 1700,
1:04.4	run by the way, which is nice. But I don't know if we've really done a ton on
1:08.2	Arthur. Did people call him Chet? It's in our prep that the people called him Chet.
1:15.0	I'd like to think, I think he's one of those string of Gilded Age presidents who nobody remembers the name of.
	...

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