find the most absolutely fascinating and interesting is the one we're going to discuss tonight, james garfieldfor quite a number of reasons. first of all, garfield is one of the most intelligent presidents we have ever had. i mean, he is up there in the top half dozen, and when we go through his life, by the end of it or the middle of it, you're going to start laughing because you're just going to say, no, that can't be. he can't that be good in that field, it is just not possible. and then we'll find something else and then, no. he's just incredibly bright. and the hope for his presidency was enormous. and so we're going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. i was chatting with a friend before and he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. i don't know how you test something like that. it's not as if you give presidents iq tests. it's a lot easier with things that are easy to measure, tall and short. we all know madison was our shortest president, lincoln was our tauest president because that's easy. i don't know how you know the most intelligent. certainly the two

so the state legislature from ohio picks james garfield. so garfield is the republican leader in the house and the senator-elect from ohio. okay? it's going to get better. the republican convention in 1880 takes place in chicago which is still suffering from and showing many of the ill effects from the famous fire. blaine's name >>> he the is brother of william sherman. now we have three major figures, and john sermon goes to garfield and says garfield, will you be my campaign manager, and he says, yes, i would be honored. he decides to resign. the state legislature of ohio picks as the next senator from ohio, james garfield. so garfield is the republican leader in the house and the senator-elect from ohio, okay? it's going to get better. the republican convention in 1880 takes place in chicago, which is still suffering from the -- showing many of the ill affects from the famous fire. conklin gets up and names grant, citing him as the hero of appomattox. at this point, then, it's time to nominate sherman, and it's a remarkable speak, he says

so the state legislature of ohio picks the next senator from ohio, james garfield. so garfield is the republican leader of the house, and the senator elect from ohio. okay? it is going to get better. >> the republican convention in 1880 takes place in chicago. which is still suffering from and showing many from the fires. blaine's name is placed in nomination and conkling gets up and nominating grant. >> at this point then, it is time to nominate sherman and garfield gives the nomination. it is a remarkable speech. he says it is time for america to live up to the true principles of the constitution, namely that all men white and black shall be free and shall stand equal before the law and the place goes nuts. maybe we are picking the wrong guy from ohio. this guy, he's brilliant and he's wonderful and sherman, he's okay. >> the first at that time, each convention as you know determines for themselves. how many -- how the procedure works. in 1880, in order to get the nomination, you needed 379 votes of delegates. unlike today, today's convention is a big party. we kno

so the state legislature from ohio picks james garfield. so garfield is the republican leader in the house and the senator-elect from ohio. okay? it's going to get better. the republican convention in 1880 takes place in chicago which is still suffering from and showing many of the ill effects from the famous fire. conklin gets up and names grant, citing him as the hero of appomattox. at this point, then, it's time to nominate sherman, and it's a remarkable speech. he says it is time for america to live up to the true principles of the constitution, namely that all men white or black shall be free and stand equal before the law, and the place goes nuts and everybody says, maybe we are picking the wrong guy from ohio. this guy, he is brilliant and wonderful, and sherman, he's okay. the first at that time, each convention, as you know, always determines for themselves how the procedure works. in 1880, in order to get the nomination you needed 379 votes of delegates, unlike today, for the most part, today's convention is a big party, and in tho

>> james a. garfield and blaine recognized this was happening at the convention.tually was -- i'm sorry, actually in '76 it went to hayes. >> that's right. >> '80 was garfield. >> was the faction still the half breeds and stalwarts still active in the party by then? >> i'm not so sure they had those terms anymore, thinking along the same lines. there were of course divisions within the party. >> that year james garfield did get the nomination. >> thanks to blaine in many ways. blaine came after many ballots, if i understand that that was not going to happen -- >> i think it was 36. >> he threw his votes to garfield in order to make sure he would get the election. >> then what happened to him after that? >> became secretary of state in 1881. >> now james garfield of course was struck by an assassin's bullet in 1881. i read that james blainewas with him in the train station? >> yes. i know he was nearby and they were walking arm and arm and very good friends. although garfield -- i remember reading something that garfield never quite trusted his friend james blaine.

. >> it happen on mentor avenue near garfield wrote across the street from the james garfield historic site as roosevelt leftwich is there . tuesday termini here this is the tree in front of the faith avenue. this was a large tree. it missed the fellowship hall , are trying to clean it up also to clean up power problems. lots of power crews up-and-down mentor avenue. right across from the garfield site as they try to restore power to people who have high heat/humidity and >> start out rainfall then became heavier than lightning and thunder and then the power went out. we thought that the house was on fire, there was a huge explosion and it was all redo i a room and we could see that th tree was completely covering mentor avenue with sparks flying. large branches from a tree a power lines from the long mento avenue , transformer blew as he lines were ripped from the top of the polls and twisted apart. reducing traffic to just one way east and west boundnd, 200 homes lost power 10:00 p.m. tuesday with high temperatures the outage cannot come at a bad time. >> the worst thing is that it p

james garfield has a statue, 1881. this is what tom friedman is talking about.y from responsible individuals. what will speaker ryan do after his big win in wisconsin last night? marty: last night he did say he was aware of those remarks and that he hopes donald trump would clarify them. but in the course of the evening, donald trump basically , give me an and said break, that is not what i meant. although anybody listening to his comments -- and people in the audience behind him also felt that he was making that threat. tom: in the video of mr. trump making the comments, a gentleman with a white beard reacted to the comments in real time, which i think, again, for all global audience, shows the sensitivities of americans to assassination. francine: to be fair, i think they are sensitivities worldwide. i watched itry, two times because i could not quite believe it. i know we have a new politics pull out, but i just wonder whether this latest controversial comment makes it harder for him to get elected. we see pulling at heartstrings somewhere in america, which m

his name was james a. garfield. so imagine that. another ohio president coming here to visit the mt. auburn home in cincinnati. we have now moved into the library. here in the library, this is where the taft family would kind of gather and have quiet evenings. spend a lot of family time here in this particular space. this is where i try to imagine seeing grandma and grandpa taft sitting here on an old horsehair sofa couch, possibly reading the cincinnati daily inqueirer newspaper like you would find on the table dated friday, september 15th, 1865. some things that happened in the events of history. the civil war has already ended about four months prior to september. also, the same year in which president abraham lincoln was assassinated at ford's theater by john wilkes booth. people here in cincinnati were devastated to hear this tragic news about their american president. what we have original here inside of the library just to my right, we have the secretary desk. this belongs to alfonzo taft, william's father. this was a desk th

a really interesting example was james garfield. president in 1880.he book starts with garfield -- i was so moved by how sensitive he was to his boys. the book starts in july of 1881, garfield is about to go to the 25th three union at williams college with his two sons were about to start at williams college. he is jumping around the bed with them and singing gilbert and sullivan songs with them. you get a sense he is a tune to what his children were feeling. garfield also had tremendous empathy to african-americans. in his inaugural, he wanted to make that a centerpiece of his administration. sadly, that day he goes to union station a few blocks from here and gets shot. he dies a couple months later. stetson andim crow race relations are horrible for the next 80 years. if you have an watching a news the summer, race relations are still in not great shape. brian: oren harding had no children. but tell the warren harding story. his wife had a child and he also had some grandchildren. he never was seen with those grandchildren. some grandchildren throug

weekr at least that many are expected on sunday so consider using the free shuttle running from james a garfield high school to the bowling alley. worker injured at the cuyahoga county county fair is in, ronald grimes was taken apart a bumper carr when he was shocked he said that it would begin to operated, spokesman sa that his heart was not dama condition. >> > stores building destroyed after an early morning fire and avon called to thees marriage a pops and systems on lear industrial parkwayay about 2:00 a.m. flames are so powerfu they called in help from neighboring departmentsts the r collapsed, there were no injuries.e backers of a citywi initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 are not backing dow the increase would be dolled out, elizabeth noreika is here with what happened today. >> raise up cleveland said their fight is not over but the approach is different they change language that would be o a ballot to raise the minimum wage. w that it would want to $12 on january 1 then each year after it would increase by $1 and got to 15 then the increase would be according to the risin cost

james robertson: hayes and grant. he thought with crutches, grant. mckinley was ok. two of them were hurt. move into a couple presidents and you have their assassins in your book. to start with, garfield. what did he do? james robertson: garfield was a brilliant man and probably the last president of poverty that we've had. he worked himself up. he was chief of staff to union general until 1863 when he went to congress and served as a 1880 andublican until was more or less the compromise candidate. the republican party was split into two wings and each of those wings could not get its potential nominee nominated so want to garfield. he had been in office for months . ofin, showing a lack medicine. the bullet they get to surgeons was somewhere in his body and each day they were going with a finger and try to find the bullet. lingered on her 59 days before he died. -- for 59 days until he died. the assassin statement in court, i did not kill garfield, the doctor did. i do something. -- just shot him. i felt that people should know what is in the mind of an assassin, so they know what is in the mind of the people they weren't. -- wound. i felt that both assassins needed some kind of iden

he lost to james garfield. that was the other president who did seek a third term. >> thank you for the call. we had teddy roosevelt also ran for a third term under a different party after he left the white house. >> coolidge served under harding. harding died. coolidge became president and won of his own right in the next election. he could have run for another term. easy call. the democrat always runs again when they are popular incumbent, and he chose not to run. that is a famous decision which is attributed to personnel decisions or depression. what i am discovering in researching calvin coolidge is that he chose not to run because of george washington. absolute power corrupts absolutely. he thought overtime an executive gets too used to the office. that was a concern the people had over fdr, that you do become too -- you confuse that the state is me. the more you serve, the longer you served in office. >> you can learn more on our website and get more on this program and our 14-week series, looking a presi

the public about the assassination of one of most gifted man ever elected to the presidency james a. garfieldand river of doubt about a theodore roosevelt went to discover a river in amazon and almost died. she's incredibly good at narratives about things individuals in periods in our life in the station showed a story that i sort of had happened but didn't realize how dramatic it was which is winston churchill always believed he was destined to be prime minister and had a complete faith in his own greatness felt like you do something incredible to get public notice. he tried to put himself in danger in the army, in the sudan as a war correspondent. he went to south africa where the war had just erupted. a guerrilla war against the great british army. he was a correspondent but he volunteered to go in an armored train which is a stupid way the british were using reconnaissance. he was captured and put in a prison camp. because he was the son of the aristocracy they made propaganda. he escaped by himself and made his way across 300 miles of enemy territory with nothing but a chocolate bar and

a really interesting example was james garfield. president in 1880.he book starts with garfield -- i was so moved by how sensitive he was to his boys. the book starts in july of 1881, garfield is about to go to the 25th three union at williams college with his two sons were about to start at williams college. he is jumping around the bed with them and singing gilbert and sullivan songs with them. attuned a sense he is to what his children were feeling. garfield also had tremendous empathy to african-americans. in his inaugural, he wanted to make that a centerpiece of his administration. sadly, that day he goes to union station a few blocks from here and gets shot. he dies a couple months later. of course, jim crowe sets in and race relations are horrible for the next 80 years. if you have an watching a news the summer, race relations are still in not great shape. brian: oren harding had no children. but tell the warren harding story. mr. kendall: his wife had a child and he also had some grandchildren. he never was seen with those grandchildren. so, h

james robertson: hayes and grant. he thought with crutches, grant. mckinley was ok. two of them were hurt. brian: we move into a couple presidents and you have their assassins in your book. to start with, garfield did he do? james robertson: garfield was a brilliant man and probably the last president of poverty that we've had. he worked himself up. he was chief of staff to union general until 1863 when he went to congress and served as a loyal republican until 1880 and was more or less the compromise candidate. the republican party was split into two wings and each of those wings could not get its potential nominee nominated so want to garfield. he had been in office for months. again, showing a lack of medicine. the bullet they get to surgeons was somewhere in his body and each day they were going with a finger and try to find the bullet. garfield lingered on her 59 days before he died. -- for 59 days until he died. the assassin statement in court, i did not kill garfield, the doctor did. i do something. -- just shot him. i felt that people should know what is in the mind of an assassin, so they know what is in the mind of the people they weren't. -- wound. i felt that both assassins needed s

james g. blaine at that time was serving under benjamin harrison's cabinet. blaine had been u.s. secretary of state under garfieldnd briefly under president arthur, but then in 1889 benjamin harrison appointed him secretary of state and he held that position through most of the harrison administration. >> where did blaine get most of his money from? >> well, there is a lot of discussion about that. his political detractors would have said that it was ill-gotten in some ways. that was one of the issues he ran into when he was trying to get the nomination in 1876 at just at the time that he was vying to are that nomination issues came up about whether he had ill gotten gains so to speak to simplify it. that's one of the issues that made it difficult for him to obtain the nomination in 1876. by the early 1880s it was the fact that he had written an extremely popular two-volume memoir called "twenty years in congress." it was a best-seller of its time. it sold tens of thousands of copies. it netted him a great deal of money. we're now in the billiard room which is one of the rooms that was built as part of the additi

. >> besides being secretary of state for james garfield and chester arthur -- >> he was secretary of under three presidents. >> what else did he do? >> he was a speaker of the house. he was a governor. >> he changed some of the rules in the house. the speakers are always changing the rules somewhat to their advantage is. >> this was after the civil war when congress was much more central, much more potent than it had been. their reaction against the strong executive said in. to be the secret -- the speaker of the house, to be a power in congress meant a lot more fun than it would today. >> do you have anything to say? >> what do you think would have happened if he won? i think he would be regarded as the best president between lincoln and tr. >> he was assertive, he had intellectual capacity. he had a lot of talent. i think that once he had actually achieved it -- people lost after the president's. this is a distorted malignancy that they suffer from. if they survive it and they win the office. i think that belaying is someone like clay. they have a great deal uncommon. -- i think th

of one of the most gift canned men ever elected -- gifted men ever elected to the presidency, james a. garfield, and live of doubt, how theodore roosevelt discovered a river in the amazon and almost died. she's incredibly good at taut narratives about famous individuals and periods in their life. in this case she's telling a story that i sort of knew had happened but didn't realize how dramatic it was, which is that winston churchill as a young man, who always believed he was destined to be prime minister of england, had a complete faith in his own greatness, felt he had to do something incredible to get public notice. he had tried to put himself in danger in india in the army, as a war correspondent. he went to south africa where the boer war had just erupted. he was a correspondent be, but he volunteered to go on an armored twain. the train was attacked, he was captured and put in a prison camp, and because he was the son of the aristocracy, the boers made great propaganda value out of this. he escaped by himself and made his way across 30 to 0 miles of enemy territory, gets to neutral territ