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#anyway he is awesome so here he is!
goryfluff · 5 months
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Googly-eyed Stubby Squid | Nautilus Live + their commentary
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ohitslen · 10 months
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Something other about his eyes
Bonus! Based on this quick thing I did this afternoon and the idea took a bit more shape and turned into that thing from above uEK
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#not too much effort on the colors with this one#o would’ve left it just with lineart but at the end I thought it would look nicer with some rough shadows#shadowing. you know what I meant.#his plant markings being extremely faint on his eyes when they aren’t glowing is very true to me also#I think itd be awesome if Vash’s eyes would just look like that when he isn’t masking#or they could be a bit more lax but still look like they are staring far far away into the void#or into your souls if you so happen to make eye contact with him. like woowoo over here#he is probably listening for one of his sisters who is not so close to him. maybe even Kni? who knows it’s up to interpretation#Vash’s hair can be such a nightmare also. I do not think of physics when drawing him whatsoever#I give him the Mickey Mouse ears treatment sometimes and some other I actually respect the fact that his hair will always be swept#to the right. if you haven’t noticed that yet. I think it’s way more noticeable on the 2d art#which is a nice touch! considering that’s the direction I’m which his haircut was when they were kids. isn’t that fun#anyways weird Vash for me once again and I’ll share a little with you. ah I’ll get to the requests later btw!#trigun#vash the stampede#trigun stampede#nicholas d wolfwood#vashwood#trigun fanart#vash#wolfwood#nicholas trigun#lenssi draws#vash saverem#ah extra note. this is meant to be pre plant revelation. I think Vash would already know about what WW is there for since very early on#but about the plant thing he was still a little doubtful since he wouldn’t think Kni would disclose that information so easily.#so seeing that Nick has a very keen eye and is very observant kind of ticks him off even though he is just the same. so maybe that’s why#it ticks him in the first place. headcanons everywhere in this household
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lazycranberrydoodles · 8 months
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COME ON GUYS DON'T LET DIANXIA DOWN
#images i drew on my phone approximately 90 seconds before class started#tma vs tgcf is pitting two bad bitches against each other but#from the other guys propaganda he is apparently a beloved side character#which i totally understand.#BUT HUA CHENG IS THE DEUTERANTAGONIST WHO LOVED XIE LIAN SO MUCH IT UNDOOMED HIM FROM THE NARRATIVE#HE DIDNT CLAW HIS WAY OUT OF TONGLU TO BE BEATEN LIKE THIS#also tma has gay people that dont undoom each other from the narrative. L + ratio (/j/j/j/j we all love tragedies here)#hua cheng will never rest in peace and he doesn't want to because he has a smokin boyfriend#they are both angry goths but has gerry died THREE TIMES????? no. just once. lame.#gerry got his skin bound into a necromancy book that was eventually burned but hua cheng ripped out his eye to craft a sickass scimitar !!!#hua cheng haunts the narrative before he dies in a hundred tiny ways and then HEAVILY after he dies a second time#he's an awesome city owner and has violent beef with HEAVEN. and he carves statues and paints and builds temples#and is also a self conscious loser <3#his gay awakening was intensely traumatic and religious for everybody involved. and he's had the same life mission since he was 10#he is actively fighting ghost discrimination and getting dangerous magical items off of the normal human market#also he is always bedecked in elaborate silver and chains and eyeliner and ALWAYS in blood red clothes#HE CAN MAKE IT RAIN BLOOD!!???!?!? ALSO#he stick and poked his god's name on himself but his handwriting is so bad it's unrecognizable and the signs he puts up have evil auras#this has ceased to be propaganda. now im just gushing. only tgcf fans will see this anyway. whatever youre getting blorbo rant#tgcf#art#poll#hua cheng#lmao#my art#tian guan ci fu#hualian#xie lian#hob#heaven official's blessing
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newvestroia · 2 months
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hiiii, i love your art!! if you feel like it, can i request volt, mylene, shadow, or any combo of the three? their dynamic is my absolute favorite :3
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They r blowing him up with their minds
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sysig · 9 months
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Somebody ordered Sushi Beefcake (Patreon)
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radioroxx · 4 months
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im having angrboda thoughts tonight grrrr
maybe i am just out of it but i feel like not enough people really explore her trauma + the stuff she went through in her own past. losing her parents. taking care of herself alone for years. the last living piece of her family not even caring enough to SPEAK to her. (she talks about the bread thing, and ofc thag means something, but GOD..)
i feel like sooo many people overlook these parts bc. well partially because angrboda herself is so very very good at avoiding these topics in game, rarely does she actually share her feelings so i think they often get overlooked
(not to mention lotta people see her as mostly a support character for atreus. and i mean, i wont say they arent super cute together but. yknow.)
anyways the reason im here is because im just very desperate for a scenario of. daughter in law angrboda with kratos. he would never make her talk about the stuff she felt uncomfortable with, but he would put her hand on her shoulder and reminder her that. he trusts her and she has earned her way into their home. that if ever she needs that support he would be there for her. that that that she is part of their family now now and aaugjnghnggghh
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inkyclive · 10 months
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Joshua supremacy 😭😭😭 I’m so soft for him. Just let me be his little princess. He can make all the rules idc
omg he’s so gorgeous and like the thing about him—at least in my opinion/my own personal interpretation—is that while he is genuinely so sweet (almost sickly so at times!) and so kindhearted and so so tender, he is also so used to being served and so used to being the Boss, the undying’s precious phoenix prince, the king of everything, and it comes out in these tiny little wisps and hints in certain interactions; a vaguely bratty comment, a gentle yet vehement assertion, a soft chuckle beneath a gloved hand……..
all of this is to say, i think he’d fucking love to have a partner who lives to serve him and be his precious lil doll (to the point where he may even feel guilty about how much he loves it, because he knows it isn’t necessarily right, but he just can’t help but feel this way about you <3). he wouldn’t push it on you, and he wouldn’t hold you back from doing things you wanted to, either, if he deems them good or beneficial for you—he’d definitely encourage you to do things if they were things you wanted to do/made you happy—but oh, to have a baby who’s syrupy sweet and devotedly doting and hangs on his every word; to have a precious lil princess who gazes up at him as if he’s painted the entire night sky by hand, speckled the stars across the atmosphere and carved out the moon himself; to have a soft sweetheart who clings to him in every way possible, hands curled around his fingers or wrists or biceps when he takes you for a walk in the gardens or when you sit down for a meal (always beside him, never across from him, protocol be damned), who snuggles in his lap or straddles his thighs and nuzzles their sugar-sweet lips against his neck or collarbone or jaw, who obediently never leaves his side unless it is absolutely necessary <33333 that sounds like a perfect dream, a paradise, to him <3
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x-reader-things · 8 months
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I also just finished watching arcane again!! The series is phenomenal-and I was once again reminded I would love to hold hands with Viktor-
Can I request some headcanons for how Viktor would comfort his partner who experiences anxiety? Gn!reader please!!
Thank you for requesting! :DDD
This is my first time writing specifically for Arcane and this character so I hope it’s on character - did my best with the little I skimmed from his fandom wiki for Arcane and from what I remember from the show-
AND YES IT IS A PHENOMENAL ONE HOLY SHIT THE ANIMATION AND THE CHARACTERS AND THE VOICE ACTING ARE????? CHEFS KISS
Personally Vi and Ekko are my favorites- <33
Anyways, I hope you enjoy!!
“It’ll pass soon”
Viktor x reader [romantic]
Summary ; In which you’re anxious, and Viktor always knows how to help you out.
Requested? ; Yes
Warnings ; none, besides small descriptions of physical anxiety - kinda based it on what I deal with myself, but everyone reacts to anxiety differently.
Definitions ; счастье моё (stchastye moyo) - gender-neutral, meaning “my happiness”
Word count ; 554
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Viktor is, first and foremost, a scientist.
He notices things through keen observation, studies them to no end to understand them, and draws conclusions that should be able to help others like himself.
And with those skills, comes observing you.
How you act. What you like and dislike. What makes you comfortable and uncomfortable.
And definitely what makes you anxious.
He knows hextech can’t truly fix that.
He should know, he deals with anxiety himself.
So as a partner and a scientist, he recognizes the signs.
The nervous glances.
The subtle deep breaths you take to calm yourself down. Or at least try to.
Never works. Maybe sometimes on the rare occasion, but not completely.
Then there’s the nervous jitters - maybe bouncing your leg, or running a hand through your hair constantly (if you have the hair type to do it) or running a hand over your face, or shaking your hands out to try and get the shakiness away.
Whatever it is, Viktor recognizes it.
He waits and checks in every so often, just to see if you’re able to calm yourself down first, instead of prying you to tell him what was going on.
When you don’t calm down though, he decides a distraction is probably better to try first.
He shows you the inventions he and Jayce are working on, discusses them with you, tries to see what you think about it. Half of the time that helps you calm down, primarily because you focus on his voice, and also because you love hearing and experiencing his work.
Anxiety is a fickle thing.
So when it doesn’t work out, that’s when he asks you what’s wrong.
“You don’t have to tell me just yet, but I’d like to know whenever you’re ready.”
If it’s really bad, he has you both sit down, and you just lay your head on his shoulder. He rests his cheek against your head and wraps an arm around you, one of his hands coming up to run against your upper arm to ground you there. Breathes slowly until you do it too.
And he waits until you’re ready to talk.
If it’s a sudden panic you just grab onto his shoulder or hand and squeeze it, and he already knows.
Viktor either excuses himself from his work or if he’s talking to someone (normally it’s just Jayce - he understands immediately and spares you a quick sympathetic nod), and lets you lead him to a secluded area nearby and lets you spew your worries and panic to him.
He tells you you’re safe with him.
Reminds you that things would be ok and that with anxiety this is normal.
“It’ll pass soon. I know it doesn’t feel like it but it will, alright? How about this, tell me five things you can see right now.”
“Um - the ground. The tile.”
“Good, good. What else?”
“Your shoes. They’re uh - they’re kind of scuffed, you should get them cleaned.”
He laughs quietly. “What else, счастье моё?”
“The window.” Another encouraging hum for you to continue. “The hexgate outside. It’s glowing, some airship just came through.” Your eyes settle on the person in front of you. “You.”
Viktor smiles at you. “A little on the nose, huh?”
You smile back at him.
He helps you breathe again.
He always does.
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citizenerased77 · 1 month
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not me rereading a bunch of George Orwell’s work and listening to 1984 inspired music in preparation for the audiobook
i usually despise audiobooks and prefer physical books but i am COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS
the second the music kicks in i know i’m gonna fucking lose it
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siribunbun · 1 year
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Chlide and Eternity
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Tiergan is Indian and the reason he’s blonde is bc he had a phase 10000 years ago in Foxfire he never managed to undo ty for coming to my ted talk
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c0smiccom3t · 9 months
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Silly Bandicoot Doodle Batch !!!
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(Turns out i can draw the bandicoots in the same exact artstyle as in the "It's about time" game... Well, except for Aku Aku, kind of.... idk.)
(OK thats all the fanart i can make. time to work more on my webcomic until its time to draw more fanart!!)
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fitzrove · 1 month
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one thing abt me is that sometimes my friemds gift me sacred artifacts.... 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭🥹🥹🥹🥹
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cornerfolks · 10 months
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to clarify some things just because
this is a funny
i cant claim to know what the inspirations for myhouse were aside from, very obviously, house of leaves
yume nikki itself is inspired by lsdde, but i feel like its usage of wordless Suggested storytelling may have influenced my house, where you can try to piece together a story just from the spaces you travel- in yn you have multiple worlds like that, the first that comes to mind being the hit and run.
lsd dream emulator i feel may have influenced my house Independently from yume nikki, particularly with the way levels interconnect and loop back around on one another in a 3d setting
P.T. definitely belongs here like obviously but consider this: i forgor. and itd look weird if it wasnt a triangle. realistically, its Probably an even bigger influence than house of leaves. i mean, it's PT. its PT.
the complete absence, aside from HoL, of house-centric media is not an oversight because despite everything, myhouse really isn't about the house. the "haunted house" isnt the house itself, it's the doom map of the house- the building is irrelevant, what matters is that its the space Tom created. the reason the house's layout repeats itself everywhere isn't because the house matters, it's because that was the layout tom created in the original map that steve decided to update. do you understand THIS? the house isnt alive, the myhouse.wad is alive. there is a distinction and the distinction is crucial. the analog to the house on ash tree lane isnt the house itself, because there is no real world physical house present in the story, since its only about the mod based on said house. the analog to the house on ash tree lane, to This House (skinamarink acknowledgement), to the monster house, is the map.
thank you for coming to my tedtalk. its 6:30pm and i just ate subway after i started my day at 5pm having gone to sleep at 6 something am with a full xanax following a night of drinking red bull. i need to take my magnesium pills to balance my energy.
btw the gay monster house is something i'm doing myself stay tuned for that.
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in truth i dont even know if we can legitimately consider myhouse part of houseposting... but i will anyway because it carries the same spirit. even if its about a doom map. like in fiction its about a doom map.
#myhouse#myhouse.wad#myhouse.pk3#if you people saw the original post youll see this too because we're all housefags who are in the tag looking for content that understands#it. and isnt just like WOW. LIMINAL SPACE. speaking of i think the inclusion of the backrooms and the pool area are a detriment to the mod.#at least the backrooms is a funny easter egg bc you literlaly have to noclip.#nothing major and i guess i only think that because i know about the annoying liminal space trends (emphasis on trends) i love that kind of#imagery and was interested long before their explosion in 2020. same with the backrooms. i was there in like 2018 thinking about the post.#before it all went to hell.#then again i experiened the same thing with analog horror.#perhaps nothing is sacred.#at least our little houseposting corner seems safe because to even care at all you need to understand its nuance#though that didnt stop people from ignoring what made the backrooms creepy and just adding levels and monsters to make an scp ripoff i mean#there is literally a wiki with like numbered articles and shit. its wild.#anyway. if youre reading this all the way down here hows it going? good day so far? do me a solid- go listen to a quick one before the eter#al worm devours connecticut. maybe you already know it but its one of my fav songs ever from one of my fav albums from one of my fav artist#not have a nice life in general though they rule but rather dan barrett who also did giles corey and black wing#did you know hes bisexual? its awesome. he made a song called guilt is my boyfriend. its really good. under the giles corey name
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sysig · 8 months
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Just be honest! (Patreon)
Bonus:
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Could be :)
#Doodles#Wander Over Yonder#Emperor Awesome#Commander Peepers#Maybe something less friendship and more something else Eyesome? :3c#Could be :)#Hhhh yet more fun poses and contact points! Especially Awesome's legs and Peepers resting his ''cheek'' on his hand :D#The slight squish upgrading to a full squish with the shape of his eye-cheek changing! I did that and I'm happy about it! Haha ♪#Plus how fun it is to draw him sitting lightly with his arm on his leg ah ♥ His proportions are so fun#Anyway ♪ Lol#Awesome's feeling all introspective and it's giving him the vapours lol#He's a hedonist! A coward! A gossip! Someone who coasts through life with no care to who he steps on! Except ♪#Not me thinking Peepers could be Awesome's Wander lol - ''If I stopped hating that one thing then what was the point of hating the rest?''#As soon as he starts seeing the humanity of one little guy where does that put him ♫#Personally I think he'd still be a mostly selfish jerk - at least for a while - considering how hard realizing he even Likes Peeps would be#Even here he's like ''This sucks! Being friends with you bites and not in the cool way!'' Lol#He's just being a baby and coming to terms with his feelings#And Peepers might possibly be picking up on that a little bit :) It's still comedically optimized not to worry lol ♫#Awesome is only starting to approach his own feelings but he's being very obvious - throwing a tantrum even lol#So Peeps noticing before Awesome realizing he should be hiding it way harder than he currently is - he just doesn't know yet!#Probably both blushing up a storm just before bed that night lol ''Can't believe I said all that to him'' ''He takes me seriously'' hehe <3#It feels good! Trust and understanding slowly building up :) That's what makes me interested in their dynamic! :D
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fictionadventurer · 11 months
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The Shocking Redemption Arc of Chester Arthur
To my great pleasure, I get to tell you about Chester A. Arthur. If you don’t know his story, that’s a surprising statement, because most people don’t even recognize his name as one of the presidents. That’s a crying shame, because this guy has the most fascinating character arc of any president I’ve come across so far. He entered the presidency as a despicable, corrupt, conniving political lackey, and left it as--
Well, I’d best get on with the story.
Chester Arthur started out as an idealist. He was the son of an abolitionist Baptist minister, and though he dropped the religion in adulthood, he remained devoted to abolishing slavery. He became a lawyer with a New York firm that argued several civil rights case, and he rose to fame in 1854 when he served as the defense attorney for Elizabeth Jennings, the Northern version of Rosa Parks. Arthur’s victory in her case led to the desegregation of New York City’s public transportation.
During the Civil War, Arthur got an appointment as New York’s quartermaster general. After the war, Arthur returned to civilian life and became a Republican “party man” who worked behind the scenes to draw in voters, funding, and supporters. He and his wife Ellen (called Nell) both loved the finer things in life, which drove Arthur to do whatever he could to gain fame, wealth, and social status.
This is where I need to explain the spoils system. For the first hundred-plus years of American politics, all federal positions were filled by appointment. When a new president came into office, he could award government positions to his supporters--"to the victor go the spoils". Federal employees were required to donate money to the ruling party. There were no requirements for education or relevant experience. Any job could be filled by anyone with the right connections. If you think that sounds like a breeding ground for corruption and cronyism, you’d be absolutely right. By the 1870s, the system was getting extremely corrupt, and there was a growing push for reform.
But not by Chester Arthur. He owed his career to the spoils system. Through his work in the party, he became the right-hand man of Roscoe Conkling, New York’s senior senator and the state’s “political boss”. Conkling was a flamboyant showman, a magnetic politician, and a ruthless man. He had been a major supporter of Ulysses S. Grant’s presidential campaign, so Grant gave Conkling control over all the federal appointments in New York. Conkling used his power to fill positions with his friends and supporters, and he was brutal in attacking anyone who got in his way.
Because Chester Arthur was Conkling’s most loyal supporter, he got the best federal job in the country—Controller of the Port of New York. Before income tax, around 60-70% of federal funds came from the tariffs at this one port. The controller got a salary similar to the president’s, plus he was able to take a percentage of all the fines they levied. At the height of his power, Chester Arthur made $50,000 a year, which is a lot when the average skilled worker at the time made $500. (A rough estimate puts his salary at $1.3 million in today’s dollars.)
Arthur was living the high life. He racked up huge tailor bills. He had a gorgeously furnished house. His job allowed him to force his employees to donate a percentage of their salary to the Republican Party, which gave him even more power within the political machine. He bought huge amounts of wine and cigars that he handed out to people he was wining and dining for the good of the party. His wife resented that he was rarely home because of his political work, but Arthur loved the machine too much to stop.
After his 1876 election, President Rutherford B. Hayes desperately tried to reform the spoils system, but was blocked every step of the way by Roscoe Conkling. Finally, in 1878, Hayes managed to remove Arthur from his position as port controller, under suspicion of corruption, which allowed Arthur to spend more time working for New York’s political machine.
In January of 1880, Arthur was in Albany working for a political campaign when his wife caught pneumonia. By the time Arthur got home, Nell had fallen into a coma, and he wasn’t able to speak with her before she died. He felt guilty over her death, and especially the lack of closure caused by his devotion to politics. But instead of changing his ways, Arthur moved in with Conkling and became more devoted to politics than ever.
Which brings us to the 1880 Republican Convention. The Republican Party was split between two warring factions—the Stalwarts like Conkling who wanted to keep things the way they were, and the Half-Breeds who wanted civil service reform. President Hayes refused to seek re-election (partly because Conkling had made his life miserable) so these two factions somehow had to agree on a new candidate. Conkling supported a third term for Ulysses S. Grant. The Half-Breeds supported James G. Blaine of Maine—who happened to be Conkling’s mortal enemy.
James Garfield was there to nominate John Sherman—the Secretary of the Treasury and the younger brother of the famous Civil War general—and I can’t go any further in this story before I tell you a little bit about him. James Garfield is one of the most ridiculous overachievers in the realm of American politics. He was born into a dirt-poor farming family (he’s the last president ever to have been born in a log cabin). At sixteen, he left home to work on a canal boat, but quit after he nearly drowned, and his mother and brother scraped up enough money for him to go to school. His first year, he paid for his tuition by working as a school janitor. His second year, the school hired him to teach six classes (while he was still a student!) and then added two more because of how popular he was. By the time he was twenty-six, he was president of that same school. He became a lawyer and was elected to Ohio’s state legislature. During the Civil War, he became the youngest person to earn the rank of general. While fighting in the Civil War, his friends put his name in as a candidate for the US House of Representatives, and Garfield won even though he refused to campaign. He then served several terms in the House, where he became popular, but he refused to seek the presidency, because he’d watched several friends become warped by their presidential ambitions.
At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield was the more popular Ohio candidate, but insisted he was there only to nominate Sherman. At one point in his nominating speech, Garfield asked the audience, “Now, gentleman, what do we want?” To Garfield’s horror, one man shouted, “We want Garfield!”
Garfield remained loyal in nominating Sherman, but the spark had been lit. The voting went round after round after round for two days, with the votes being split between Grant, Blaine, and Sherman, with no one getting enough to win the nomination. Garfield got one vote in the third round. In the thirty-fourth round, Garfield suddenly got seventeen votes. Garfield stood to protest, saying no one had a right to vote for him since he hadn't consented, but the president of the convention--who was secretly thrilled because he liked Garfield more than any of the other candidates--told Garfield to sit down.
By the thirty-sixth vote, Garfield had won the nomination.
Now they had to choose a vice president. Several of the delegates got the idea to throw a bone to Roscoe Conkling. He was furious that Grant had lost the nomination, and he was vindictive. Conkling controlled New York’s political machine, so without him, the Republicans would lose New York, and without New York, they’d lose the election. He had to be placated. So the delegates nominated Chester Arthur, his right-hand man, as vice president.
Conkling told Arthur to refuse the nomination, but Arthur accepted, saying it was a greater honor than he had ever hoped to achieve. That's putting it mildly. The only position he’d ever held was port controller, and he’d been removed from that. Plenty of people thought nominating him was a horrible idea—a man like Chester Arthur only one step away from the presidency? But other people thought it was a shrewd political move—it would placate Conkling’s faction of the party, and Garfield was young and healthy and would rule in a time of peace. It wasn’t like there was any chance he’d die in office.
After Garfield was elected, Arthur immediately started causing problems. He all but openly boasted of buying votes in the election—which was not a great look when it had been a close race. He was completely on Conkling’s side in his war against Garfield. After Garfield appointed Levi Morton, a Stalwart, as Secretary of the Navy, Conkling sent Arthur and another lackey to drag Morton out of his sickbed--forcing him to drink a bracing mixture of quinine and brandy--and bring him to Conkling’s house to get chewed out, which caused Morton to resign. Conkling forced another Stalwart Cabinet nominee to resign on inauguration day.
Then Conkling went to war over the federal appointments. At first, Garfield placated him, appointing several of Conkling’s candidates. But then Garfield nominated Judge Robertson as Port Controller of New York Harbor. Conkling was livid. That was the prime federal position, a major source of Conkling’s power in the party, and Robertson was one of Conkling’s political enemies. In Conkling’s mind, Garfield had stabbed him in the back. Arthur agreed, and openly bad-mouthed the president to the press.
Conkling and the other New York senator resigned their Senate seats in protest—a dramatic political move. In those days, state legislatures voted for senators, and Conkling believed that since he controlled so many New York politicians, they’d easily get re-elected to their old seats. Unfortunately, the legislature was sick of being under Conkling’s thumb. The election became a drawn-out battle, and Chester Arthur went to Albany to help Conkling in his campaign.
While he was there, the unthinkable happened. On July 2, 1881, James Garfield was shot at a train station by Charles Guiteau, an insane office-seeker. Guiteau had come to the White House every day for months seeking an appointment under the spoils system. When that failed, he decided God wanted him to get Garfield out of the way so the spoils system could continue. After he shot the president, Giteau shouted, “I am a Stalwart, and Arthur will be president!”
As you can imagine, that made things really bad for Arthur. He’d just spent months fighting the president tooth and nail, and the assassin had mentioned his name. Plenty of people thought Arthur had something to do with the shooting. He and Conkling both needed police details to protect them from lynch mobs.
Arthur didn’t want to be president; in his mind, vice president was the perfect job—a position with a lot of political leverage, but no responsibility. He went to the White House hoping to convince Garfield that he had nothing to do with the shooting, but the doctors wouldn’t let him in the room. He managed to speak to the First Lady, where he got choked up with emotion and was observed to be in tears. A reporter later found him in the house where he was staying in Washington, and noted he'd obviously been weeping.
To Arthur’s relief, Garfield seemed to get better. The bullet had missed his spinal cord and all his major organs. If he’d been left alone, Garfield would have made a complete recovery. Unfortunately, his doctors repeatedly prodded the bullet wound with unsterilized instruments, and Garfield fell victim to a massive infection. He lingered for months, slowly starving and rotting to death.
Through all this, Arthur stayed in New York and refused to take up presidential duties; with so many people accusing him of the assassination, he didn’t want to make it look like he was preparing to usurp the throne.
It eventually became clear that the assassin had acted alone, which laid the rumors to rest, but no one wanted Arthur to be president. James Garfield had been a man of the people. The working class considered him one of their own, proof that anyone could rise from poverty and become president. He was an idealist, a champion of civil rights, a family man who lived modestly. For the first time since the Civil War, a president had been supported by both the north and the south, and the country had come together in grief. Chester Arthur was Garfield’s exact opposite—a conniving political lackey who’d become a millionaire through corruption.
James Garfield died on September 19th. To the American people, it looked like their worst nightmare had come true. Conkling’s lackey was in the White House, and now Conkling would rule the nation the same way he’d ruled New York.
Yet, to everyone’s surprise, President Chester Arthur became a completely different man. In one of his first speeches, he listed civil service reform as one of his top priorities—a shocking move for a man who’d become president through the spoils system. Soon after Arthur’s inauguration, Conkling demanded he name a new Controller of the Port of New York. Arthur angrily refused and called Conkling’s demand outrageous. Conkling stormed out in fury and never forgave Arthur. (Arthur did later risk his reputation to nominate Conkling for the Supreme Court, but Conkling, ever petty, refused the position.)
Arthur didn’t have a complete personality transplant. He still lived lavishly, hosting lots of state dinners. He still preferred the social duties of the presidency to actual government work, and he was a hopeless procrastinator. Always fastidious, Arthur refused to move in to the rotting, rat-infested White House until they fixed up the dump, and he ran up extravagant bills during the remodel.
Yet, as a president, he was...respectable. He worked for African-American civil rights. He started a major process of rebuilding and reforming the outdated and corrupt navy. He did sign the Chinese Exclusion Act, but he had vetoed an earlier, harsher version and only signed a much-reduced one (that probably would have been voted in anyway if he’d vetoed it). That remodel of the White House, even if it ran over-budget, was long overdue.
Most shocking of all was his unswerving devotion to civil service reform. He continued an investigation into a government postal scandal, even though everyone assumed he’d drop it. He voiced his continuing support for reform efforts. In 1883, Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. As written, the act required only 10% of federal jobs to be assigned based on merit, and even that required the president to take action to enforce it. People assumed that Arthur would sit back and do nothing, so the spoils system would remain in place. Yet Arthur immediately formed a commission to enact the reform, even appointing some of his old enemies. The man who’d benefited most from the spoils system became the one to finally destroy it.
How do we explain such a complete and sudden change? Part of it’s a matter of personality. If I can indulge in a bit of meta, Chester Arthur seems to be a textbook example of the sanguine-phlegmatic temperament—someone who wants to fit in with the crowd, to go with the flow. As a political lackey, this made him self-serving and amoral, but as president, the crowd he had to impress was the American people. After months of getting crucified in the press, with tons of articles saying what they didn’t want him to be, he’d have plenty of motivation to become what they did want him to be.
A more important motivation, though, was death. His wife’s death was likely the first shock that would make him step back and take stock of his political career. Garfield’s death had an even more profound influence on him. The spoils system had led a madman to murder a president in Arthur’s name; if anything could motivate a man to change the system, that would be it. Even more profound than that was his own death. Not long after entering the White House, Arthur was diagnosed with a fatal kidney disease. He hid the diagnosis during his term, but his actions in office were the actions of a man doomed to die, with a mind toward the legacy he’d leave behind.
Yet there’s another stranger, more mysterious influence that I’ve left to last because of how cool the story is. The day before his death, Chester Arthur—who’d become ashamed of his old life—asked a friend to burn the vast majority of his papers. Years later, among the papers that had been spared, his grandson uncovered a packet of twenty-three letters from a 31-year-old invalid named Julia Sand. Julia came from a family very interested in politics, and her illness meant that she spent a lot of time reading the newspapers, so she was familiar with Chester Arthur’s political career. In August of 1881, she sent Chester Arthur a letter that began, “The hours of Garfield's life are numbered—before this meets your eye, you may be President. The people are bowed in grief; but—do you realize it?--not so much because he is dying, as because you are his successor.” Over seven pages, Julia scolded Arthur for his corrupt ways, but assured him of her faith in his better nature, and urged him to reform. She sent letters over the next two years, full of encouragement and scolding and political advice. She called herself his “little dwarf”, because her lack of ties to him meant she could be completely honest with him.
There’s no evidence he ever answered her. But she did offer some rather specific political advice that he seems to have followed. And he did visit her once. In 1882, he stopped by her house in the presidential carriage, surprising her and her family (who had no idea she’d been writing to the president) with an hour-long visit. She seemed to grow more frustrated with his lack of answers after that, and no letter exists after 1883.
There’s no way to say what kind of effect the letters had on him. But amid all the turmoil after the assassination, it must have meant something to have one voice saying she believed in him. She was a voice from outside the Washington political machine, who could serve as a sort of conscience. The fact that those letters survived when so much else burned suggests he considered them worth saving.
No matter the reason, the truth remains that Arthur entered the presidency as an example of all that was dirty and loathsome in the political system, and he left it as a respectable man. In giving up his old ways, he sacrificed connections he’d spent years building. His old friends never forgave him, and his old opponents never quite trusted his reform, yet he did what he thought was right even if it meant he stood alone. In summing up his presidency, I don’t think I can do better than contemporary journalist Alexander McClure: “No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired... more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe.” I think that deserves to be remembered.
#history is awesome#presidential talk#i apologize but i really can't see any way to cut this down#i like the detour into garfield's nomination#i can't cut conkling out any more than i have#i can't leave out his wife#i didn't even mention that he was washington's most eligible bachelor during his term but he remained faithful to her memory#or that his sister served as hostess at the white house and helped raise his daughter (who he protected from the press as best he could)#or that he did make a half-hearted attempt to seek re-election so people wouldn't think he was slinking off in disgrace#and there was some support for him#but he didn't mind at all when someone else was nominated because he was dealing with his kidney disease#and he died in 1886#which means he had the shortest post-presidency life of anyone except james k. polk who died three months after leaving office#i did not come into last week thinking that by the end of it i'd have developed a minor specialization#in the presidency of a guy i knew only for his facial hair and his half-verse in the animaniacs song#i didn't even mention the facial hair!#go to wikipedia and see his glorious muttonchops!#say what you will about the victorians but they had wild facial hair game#but anyway here is the life story of my impeccably dressed trash panda son#who is put together on the outside and a mess on the inside#and still manages to maintain a certain dignity despite how pathetic he is#he's a mess of a human being but i love him your honor
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