Sand, Julia Isabella , 1850-1933

Julia I. Sand (1850–1933) was an American woman who corresponded with the American President Chester A. Arthur, beginning in late August 1881.[1] Arthur saved twenty-three letters, all of which were discovered in 1958 after his grandson, Chester Alan Arthur III (also known as Gavin Arthur), sold his grandfather's papers to the Library of Congress. The last surviving letter is dated September 15, 1883. It is not known whether Arthur ever wrote back as no letter from him has ever been found. Sand often referred to herself as the President's "little dwarf", an allusion to the idea that in a royal court, only the dwarf would have the courage to tell the truth.[2 Julia Sand was the eighth daughter of a German emigrant named Christian Henry Sand who became President of the Metropolitan Gas Light Company of New York.[3] She lived in Brooklyn until her father died in 1867, at which point her family moved to New Jersey.[3] By 1880, they had settled at 46 East 74th Street in New York City.[3] One of her brothers died in the American Civil War, which may have inspired her interest in politics.[3]

Sand was educated, read French, enjoyed poetry, and travelled to fashionable Saratoga Springs and Newport.[3] At the time she began writing to Arthur, she was bedridden due to spinal trouble, lameness, and deafness.[2]

Most of what is known about Sand comes from her surviving letters to President Arthur. "I am a poor little woman who has always been the youngest of her family, who, consequently, if she lives to be fifty, will always be treated like a child – who would have no comfort in life if she could not occasionally scold some very big man." (Letter of September 28, 1881).

She may have also been an artist, since she once asked Arthur for permission to paint him in watercolors.[4] Julia Sand wrote her first letter when she was thirty-one.[5] Dated August 27, 1881, it reached Arthur when he was still U.S. vice president.[6] Arthur's predecessor, President James A. Garfield, had been shot by Charles Guiteau; it took nearly two months for Garfield to die, during which time Vice President Arthur was in seclusion.[7] Upon being caught, Guiteau had announced his hope that Arthur would be president and there was a brief investigation into whether Guiteau had been hired by Garfield's enemies.[8] Though this was disproven, there were threats to Arthur's life and he feared making public appearances.[8] Arthur's past was tied to various scandals involving the New York Custom House and it was feared by many that an Arthur presidency would be a disaster.[9] The Republican Party was divided between "Stalwarts" (supporters of former U.S. President Ulysses Grant and New York party boss Roscoe Conkling) and "Half-Breeds" (supporters of U.S. President Garfield and U.S. Secretary of State James G. Blaine).[10]

Sand's letter added that, for five years, she had felt "dead and buried" but the attempt on Garfield's life and America's lack of faith in Arthur had inspired her to attempt to inspire him. Sand's mother died in 1884 and Julia went to live with her sisters in Brooklyn. She apparently wrote for several magazines but remained a recluse. She never married and died in 1933, outlasting Arthur (who died in 1886) by almost half a century.[3] She was buried in her family's plot at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[24] In 2018 the New York Times published a belated obituary for her as part of its "Overlooked" series.[24]

As a young women she wrote numerous letters to inspire Chester Arthur after the assassination of President Garfield. Those letters were discovered in the 1950s and are now in the Library of Congress