rubber soul

20. JAMES GARFIELD (Life is very short...)




Born: November 19, 1831, Orange, Ohio
Died: September 19, 1881, Elberon, New Jersey (assassinated- shot in Washington DC July 2, 1881)

Term: March 4, 1881- September 19, 1881
Political Party: Republican

Vice President: Chester Arthur

First Lady: Lucretia Rudolph Garfield

Before the Presidency: James Garfield never knew his father as he died when he was an infant. The youngest of three children, he spent most of his childhood helping out his widowed mother work her farm outside of Cleveland. He didn’t like farming, however, and dreamed of a life at sea.

So, Garfield tried his hand working on canal boats between Cleveland to Pittsburgh but that didn’t work out very well.

So, Garfield went into teaching while attending school. He later paid his way through college by working as a janitor, finally entering Williams College in Massachusetts at the age of twenty-three. While at college, he was excited at the prospect of hearing Ralph Waldo Emerson. He also developed his anti-slavery views during this period.

After collage, he returned to teaching at the Eclectic Institute, becoming its President in 1857. Also studying law, he passed the Ohio bar in 1861.

In 1856, the Radical Republican campaigned for John Fremont and, three years later, he was in the Ohio legislature. He was a true abolitionist, opposing the spread of slavery anywhere. He didn’t agree with the John Brown raid but had hopes for a better day as a result. He campaigned for Lincoln in 1860 even though he didn’t like him very much (Lincoln’s views were seen as too moderate for him).

When the South seceded, he strongly favored military intervention. As such, he organized the 42nd Ohio Infantry. He rose to the rank of Colonel and distinguished himself in at least two battles. He defeated the Confederates at Middle Creek in early 1862 and took control of Eastern Kentucky. The next year, and now a Major General, he made a daring ride under enemy fire at the battle of Chickamauga. Later, he was appointed Chief of Staff to Major General Rosecrans although it’s likely the two didn’t get along.

It didn’t matter for Garfield was, unbeknownst to him, elected to the US House of Representatives as a war hero and he resigned his commission to take his seat in December 1863.

In the House, he distinguished himself as one of the most radical of Republicans. He supported the seizure of rebel assets in the North and advocated the execution and exile of Confederate leaders. He grew in his office though and would become quite the seasoned politician. He moderated during reconstruction taking a less severe approach than his radical counterparts. He did support the impeachment of President Johnson, however.

Garfield supported the nominations of Grant in 1868 and 1872 though he did have questions about his judgment. He backed Hayes in 1876 even before the nomination as he was a favorite son (both hailed from Ohio). Meanwhile, he became an expert on banking matters as chair of the Banking and Currency committee. In that capacity, he was an advocate of the gold standard. He also opposed the Granger laws which advocated collective farming (He called it Communism in disguise, interesting comment as this was four decades before the Russian Revolution though after Marx’ manifesto). He also opposed labor unions and the eight hour work day.

Garfield was also caught up in the Credit Mobilier scandal. Garfield admitted taking $329 from the company. He also voted for a retroactive salary increase and it nearly cost him re-election.

Hayes was elected in 1876 as the Republicans lost the House. Garfield was named as House Minority Leader. As such he worked behind the scenes in the Compromise of 1877 which more or less ended Reconstruction in the South. Indeed, as Minority Leader, Garfield was known as a master of compromise within the factions of his party. The major factions were known as the Stalwarts, led by Roscoe Conkling, who really wanted to still punish the South and wanted Grant back in the White House. The Half-Breeds, led by James Blaine, were known for supporting higher tariffs. Both factions were notoriously corrupt.

Such was the state of the Republican Party circa 1880.

Summary of offices held:

1857-1861: President, Eclectic Institute

1860-1861: Ohio State Senate

1861-1863: US Union Army, Major General, served in Civil War.

1863-1880: US House of Representatives

1871-1875: Chairman House Appropriations Committee

1877-1880: House Minority Leader


What was going on: Civil service reform, Post-reconstruction

Scandals within the administration: The Star Route scandal

Why he was a good President: At the onset, he seemed to be going after the patronage system like Hayes before him. And he stood up to Conkling.

Why he was a bad President: He didn’t get to do anything else. Plus were his intentions really what they seemed?

What could have saved his Presidency: Better doctors for one.

What could have destroyed his Presidency: If he had turned out as corrupt as Conkling and his cronies.

Election of 1880: As the Republicans convened in Chicago, it was expected to be a battle between Former President Grant and the Stalwarts and James Blaine and his Half Breeds. Garfield ostensibly was a Half Breed being more on the economic side of things. But Garfield, as head of the Ohio delegation, backed Treasury Secretary John Sherman as a compromise candidate.

For thirty-four ballots, no one could come up with a nominee. Surprisingly, Garfield might get a vote or two, but no one really took his candidacy seriously nor did Garfield himself.

But on the thirty-fifth ballot, the Wisconsin delegation voted all in for Garfield and in the end, Garfield was nominated with 399 votes to Grant’s 305. Garfield found himself as the reluctant Republican nominee. Conkling’s protégé, and with Garfield’s blessing, was chosen for the Vice- Presidency. He was the once fired Chester A. Arthur.

Meanwhile, on the Democratic Side, Tilden withdrew his candidacy, and the Dems went with their own Civil War hero in the form of Winfield S. Hancock.

As for the general election, the states were about as split as they are today. The Democrats had a lock on the South while the Republicans had most of the North with the Western states more or less up for grabs. The Democrats painted Garfield as corrupt from the Credit Mobilier scandal while Republicans stayed away from character issues, instead painting Hancock as uninformed.

It’s possible that the Dems were guilty of incredible stupidity in the end though when a letter that Garfield allegedly wrote to businessmen pledging to continue Chinese immigration so wages could stay low was published in a Democratic newspaper (both Republicans and Democrats opposed Chinese immigration). Garfield vehemently denied writing it and it would be exposed to be a forgery.

And perhaps that was enough to tilt a very close election to Garfield for he only won by 2000 popular votes, the closest in US history. He fared a little better in the Electoral College though and, since there was no major fraud to report this time, no one had to go through the circus of 1876.

First term: James Garfield would go down as the great what-if of American History for reasons we’ll see very soon. As it was though, he started out the gate going after the Stalwarts. He named Half Breed Blaine as Secretary of State and appointed others that especially angered Stalwart Conkling. The biggest issue concerned the appointment of the Collector of the New York Customhouse. Garfield blocked Conkling’s man for W.H. Robertson. Conkling was infuriated and tried to hold up all the appointments. President Garfield got the last laugh, however, when after an agreement to end a filibuster, he withdrew all of his appointments- except for Robertson. Needless to say, Conkling was pissed and, along with fellow New York Senator, Tom Platt, resigned from the Senate.

There wasn’t much time for anything else even as the Star Route Scandal was exposed. This scandal involving the Post Office would later implicate members of Garfield’s cabinet.

Assassination: July 2,1881 was, more or less, an ordinary day. It was a bit past nine in the morning and President Garfield was about to board a train to Massachusetts to introduce his sons to his alma mater.

The President was approached by a reported office seeker. He was armed with a .44 caliber British Bulldog. He shot Garfield in the abdomen and announced that he was a Stalwart and Arthur was now President. He waited to be arrested and the deranged man obviously thought he was some sort of American hero of sorts. As for Garfield himself, he assured bystanders that he wasn’t shot that badly and he would be fine.

Indeed, his wounds were not really that much worse than Reagan’s when he was shot a century later. But this was 1881, not 1981, and the medical procedures and technology were a lot different, even primitive by 1981 standards.

And the doctors weren’t doing Garfield any favors either. They spent two months looking for the bullet that lodged in the President’s pancreas, often with their unsanitized hands.

So, imagine their surprise where, after two and a half agonizing months, President James A. Garfield succumbed to blood poisoning.

Odd notes: Alexander Graham Bell tried to save Garfield’s life (needless to say, he failed)

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/...garfield-facts

Garfield’s favorite food was squirrel soup (yuck!)

https://facts.net/james-garfield-facts/

Final Summary: As mentioned, Garfield goes down as the great what-if in American Presidential history. Most historians like to give him the benefit of the doubt given his history of support for African American suffrage and what appeared to be his advocation of Civil Service reform.

I have no doubt he would have been a friend to the blacks but what about civil service reform? Was he really going to push for reform or was he just trying to stick it to the Stalwarts? After all, he admittedly took a bribe in the Credit Mobilier affair and he was aligned with the Half Breeds, who were just as corrupt as the Stalwarts, even going so far as having the head half Breed, James Blaine, as his Secretary of State.

He also supported the gold standard which, by the Great Depression, was proven not to work very well when people had a run on banks among other things.

So, as he only really accomplished one thing and skeptical of his motives in the four months before he was shot, I’m tempted to be kind and give him an incomplete. But after reading about his political history, I’ll simply call him average and hope I might be wrong.

Overall rating: C

https://millercenter.org/president/garfield

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