The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘They all come through here eventually’
Presidential history in CT spans the centuries
Connecticut shows up early when it comes to presidential history.
George Washington wore a suit made of fabric woven in Connecticut on the day he took the oath of office as the nation’s first president. “It was like his ‘made in America’ statement,” said Diana Ross McCain, an author and historian who specializes in the Nutmeg State. Washington spent many days during the Revolutionary War and during his presidency in Connecticut, as many other presidents would later do, too.
“They all come through here eventually. The vast majority of presidents visit Connecticut at one time or another,” said McCain, a Durham resident who has carried out extensive research for the Connecticut Historical Society.
As the nation turns its attention to Washington, D.C., where a former president was just impeached and a new president is rolling out a big agenda for his first 100 days in office, the Presidents Day holiday presents a timely reminder that the men who served in the highest office in the land were fallible human beings, with their own foibles, prejudices, likes and dislikes.
The presidents who visited Connecticut in the past extolled in its scenic beauty, complained about substandard lodgings, studied in its ivied halls, took delight in a motorcade and expressed confidence in its burgeoning defense industry. All left a mark in the history books, as ambitious men in a state that prizes accomplishment, success and learning.
Connecticut boasts more than its
share of presidential history, and it is still influential in power politics, as a major player on the fundraising circuit.
Many of the nation’s early presidents visited Connecticut. Washington, whose nut-brown inaugural suit woven in Hartford impressed the fashion mavens of the day, took a goodwill tour of the state after his swearing-in ceremony in New York City.
The Puritan element was still strong in Connecticut, so when Washington found himself in Ashford on a Saturday night, he knew that travel would be out of the question on Sunday, as it was “contrary to law and custom to travel on the Sabbath,” he noted in his diary. Washington confided in his journal that the inn where he was staying was less than stellar in its accommodations, and the minister whose service he attended on Sunday was heavy on “lame discourse.”
John Adams, before the presidency, marveled at the beauty of the countryside on a trip he took from Wethersfield to Middletown, part of a spa journey to improve his health. “Nothing can exceed the Beauty, and the Fertility of the Country,” he wrote in his diary.
President James Monroe visited an arms manufacturer in Middletown in 1817, when the humiliation of the British attacks on U.S. soil and the ransacking of the capital in the War of 1812 were still fresh. Connecticut was on its way to becoming a major provider of weaponry — its nickname was once the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
“He stopped to visit all the weapons manufacturers — Connecticut was in the forefront of producing firearms and swords and rifles,” noted McCain.
Abraham Lincoln made an important visit to Connecticut on his path to the White House. His campaign through the state represented “an important part of his strategy to secure New England,” said Thomas Balcerski, an associate professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, and an authority on presidential history.
Lincoln gave five major speeches in Hartford, New Haven, Norwich, Meriden and Bridgeport. He also helped reelect Republican Governor Alfred Buckingham, who would become a “key supporter” of the Civil War effort, Balcerski said.
Connecticut also saw the first appearance of the “Wide-Awake” movement that later spread across the country. It was an organization of young men “expressing support for military strength and resolve,” with torch-lit parades in support of the Republican Party, the professor noted.
The state has often been at the forefront of technology and industrial advances, and President Theodore Roosevelt was the first chief executive to ride in an autmobile in 1902. The car, a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton, was made in Hartford, when it was an automobile manufacturing center.
The submarine base at Groton and the Coast Guard Academy in New London have drawn a number of presidential visits, most recently when President Donald Trump gave a commencement address in 2017 to the graduates.
Yale University in New Haven has a rich presidential connection. George H.W. Bush, who grew up in Greenwich, was a student there and baseball standout. His son and future president, George W. Bush, was born in New Haven, the only president born in the state, while his father was completing his studies in the Elm City.
William Howard Taft was a Yale man par excellence and taught at Yale Law School after leaving the White House, and it was at Yale Law where and Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham first met.
John F. Kennedy, a graduate of Choate in Wallingford, made a big pitch to Connecticut voters in New Haven during a very close presidential election. Kennedy campaigned in Hartford and Bridgeport and returned to the state in the final days of the race.
“In 1960, Connecticut was a swing state, and Kennedy had to campaign here to win,” said Balcerski. “He came just two days before the election, and chose New Haven — with an open-air car, waving crowds, police escort, all that, and he later gave a speech at a rally that same day. And Kennedy did win (the state) – but it was close.”
His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, was another Connecticut preppy, graduating from Miss Porter’s School in Farmington.
In the contemporary era, Connecticut has not been a major player in presidential races, with only seven electoral votes, which are reliably Democratic — but it has been very much an out-sized player in terms of fundraising. During the primary process in particular, the big money in southeastern Connecticut has been a major draw for presidential aspirants.
President Barack Obama went to the Westport estate of the now disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2012 for a $35,800 per head fundraiser, and presidential candidates have spent many an evening at glittering Gold Coast soirees, raising money for the campaign trail.
“Money is so critical. As presidential campaigns are won and lost through advertising, contributions and political action committees really do decide elections,” said Balcerski, “Our state and its power players have influence, before the nomination is made, during the primary process, and the actual campaign, through financial support. Money talks.”