(Oneida, NY – Oct. 2015) As we enter yet another presidential election cycle, historian Tom Henry returns to Oneida Public Library in October to address the careers of “Five Forgotten Presidents” in five weekly sessions on Saturday mornings, starting Oct. 10 with Martin Van Buren and concluding on Nov. 7 with Benjamin Harrison.
Henry, who is a retired social studies teacher and currently a very popular instructor in American history at Oasis Institute of Syracuse, will recount the trials and accomplishments of five 19th-century, one-term U.S. presidents: Martin Van Buren, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, Chester A. Arthur and Benjamin Harrison. He will argue that, far from being ineffectual, the forgotten five in fact accomplished a great deal, for good and ill, in their time in office.
Henry has lectured at the OPL on the Battle of Gettysburg and the Union’s prisoner of war camp in Elmira during the OPL’s series celebrating the Civil War sesquicentennial. Most recently, he has lectured at the OPL on the U.S. at the outbreak of World War II and on the disastrous term of President James Buchanan. At Oasis, Henry conducts lecture series on many facets of U.S. history, including the Civil War, the “unknown” presidents, the Supreme Court and the Constitution.
The five-session seminar, which is free and open to the public, will be held Saturday mornings from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the library’s Meeting Room. On Oct. 10, Henry will discuss Van Buren, consummate New York politician and long-time supporter of Andrew Jackson. His one-term in office (1837-1841) as Jackson’s anointed successor was sabotaged by the financial Panic of 1837.
Next up, on Oct. 17, is the reviled Millard Fillmore, the Buffalo lawyer and moderate Whig who filled out Zachary Taylor’s term from 1850 to 1853. Fillmore, well-respected in Buffalo as a founder and leader of the University of Buffalo, lost his reputation as president because of his middle-of-the-road stand on slavery. Henry will attempt to show that there was more to his presidency than is popularly thought.
Franklin Pierce, the troubled 14th president (1853-1857) and Fillmore’s successor, takes his bow on Oct. 24. Henry will discuss how Pierce too foundered on the issue of slavery, being a moderate Democrat during a bitterly divisive decade, but he will also argue that the Pierce Administration accomplished a great deal in selective reforms and Western expansionism.
On Oct. 31, Henry will enter the corrupt world of the New York Republican “Stalwarts” led by the brilliant and unscrupulous Roscoe Conkling of Utica. It was he who vaulted his creature, Chester A. Arthur, into the vice-presidency under President James Garfield in 1889 and who hoped when Arthur succeeded the assassinated Garfield a few months into his term to reap the spoils of his administration. Instead, Arthur sought to reform the whole civil service system and hire on merit alone.
Concluding the series on Nov. 7 is Benjamin Harrison, grandson of William “Tippecanoe” Harrison. Though a colorless and uninspiring Republican, Harrison fought against the tide for African-American voting rights, national forests and government regulation of big business.
The seminar series is free and open to the public, but those who wish to receive reading materials and handouts should pre-register at the library desk or by phone.
For more information, stop by the OPL, 220 Broad St., or call 363-3050.