The Civil War Presidents: James Garfield (Part 2: Garfield the President)
James Garfield represented Ohio's 19th Congressional District from March 4, 1863 until his inauguration as President on March 4, 1881. He was one of the Congressmen who supported articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson over charges that Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act by removing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Garfield was absent for the actual vote. He was also critical of the process, saying that senators were more interested in making speeches than conducting a proper trial.
When Ulysses Grant was elected President in 1868, the two men were not close. Grant mistrusted Garfield from Garfield's days as Chief of Staff to William S. Rosecrans, who Grant removed from command, and Garfield resented the fact that Grant had not given him Rosecrans' post. In September 1870 Garfield was appinted chairman of a Congressional committee investigating the Black Friday Gold Panic scandal. The committee investigation into corruption was thorough, but found wrongdoing. Garfield was asked to issue a subpoena to the sister of Ulysses Grant, whose husband was alleged to be involved in the scandal, but he refused, because he considered her evidence to be irrelevant. Garfield's committee investigated President Grant's wife Julia's financial record, which did not lessen the tension remained between Grant and Garfield.
Garfield supported the passage of the 15th Amendment, but he did not support the Ku Klux Klan Act, passed by Congress in 1871. While he considered the Klansmen to be "terrorists", he was concerned about the freedoms endangered by the power the bill gave to the President to enforce the Act through suspension of the writ of habeas corpus (the legal remedy to challenge alleged wrongful imprisonment.) Once again, this did not endear Garfield to his President.
Garfield continued to win his Congressional seat by large margins. In 1872, he was one of a number of Congressmen involved in the alleged Crédit Mobilier of America scandal. As part of their expansion efforts, the principals of the Union Pacific Railroad formed Crédit Mobilier of America and issued stock. Congressman Oakes Ames testified Garfield had purchased 10 shares of Crédit Mobiler stock for $1000, and received accrued stock interest and $329 (33 per cent) in dividends sometime between December 1867 and June 1868. But Ames's credibility was questionable. Garfield admitted to buying the stock, but testified that he had returned it to the seller. The allegation did not adversely affect his political career. He denied the charges against him, the details were convoluted, and they were never clearly or convincingly proven.
In 1873, Garfield asked President Grant to appoint Justice Noah H. Swayne as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The previous Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase, had died in office May 7, 1873. Instead Grant appointed Morrison R. Waite.
In the 1876 Presidential election, Garfield was loyal to the candidacy of his House Speaker, James G. Blaine. When the party nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, Garfield immediately endorsed his fellow Ohioan. When Hayes appeared to have narrowly lost the election, Grant asked Garfield to serve as a "neutral observer" in the recount in Louisiana. This role turned into one of investigator into allegations that the Democrats created the "rifle clubs" to intimidate African-American voters. Garfield's report created enough doubt to change the election results in that state. Congress passed a bill establishing the Electoral Commission, to determine the winner once and for all. Although Garfield opposed the Commission, he found himself appointed to it. Hayes emerged the victor by a Commission vote of 8 to 7. James G. Blaine moved from the House to the United States Senate, and Garfield became the minority Republican floor leader of the House.
The Ohio legislature selected Garfield for the U.S. Senate in 1879. This was soon followed by a movement for Garfield as the next Republican nominee for President. In early 1880 Garfield endorsed John Sherman for the party's Presidential nomination in exchange for Sherman's earlier support of Garfield for the Senate. But at the outset of the Republican convention, a deadlock ensued between supporters of former President Grant, James G. Blaine, and Sherman. Garfield was seen by the delegates as an optimal compromise choice. He won the nomination on the 34th ballot, ending Ulysses S. Grant's controversial bid for a third (but nonconsecutive) term. To obtain Republican Stalwart support for the ticket, former New York customs collector Chester A. Arthur was chosen as the vice-presidential nominee and Garfield's running mate.
Following such a fractured convention, the outlook for Garfield's campaign was not promising. In an effort to heal wounds from the convention, Garfield traveled to New York to bring the party's warring factions together in what was called the "New York Conference". The trip was a success.
In the general election, Garfield defeated the Democratic candidate Winfield Scott Hancock, another distinguished former Union Army general, by 214 electoral votes to 155. Garfield won the popular vote by just over 7,000 votes out of more than 8.89 million cast. He became the only man ever to be elected to the Presidency directly from the House of Representatives
As usual, immediately after victory was declared, office-seekers began calling on Garfield, who described the situation as "a barrage of fear and greed." Garfield was convinced the only answer was some type of civil service reform. One such office-seeker was Charles Guiteau, the man who would become Garfield's assassin less than three months later.
Garfield's single executive order was to provide government workers the day off on May 30, 1881, in order to decorate the graves of those who died in the Civil War. In assembling his cabinet, Garfield nominated Robert Todd Lincoln as Secretary of War.
In Garfield's Inaugural Address he emphasized the civil rights of African-Americans. He believed that they deserved the "full rights of citizenship." Garfield warned of the dangers of the rights of African-Americans being taken away and their becoming "a permanent disfranchised peasantry." He said in his address: "Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen."
Garfield and Grant clashed yet again, over the issue of patronage in New York. Garfield nominated Judge William H. Robertson, to be Collector of the Port of New York. Robertson was an enemy of New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, who asserted the time-honored principle of senatorial courtesy in his unsuccessful attempt to defeat the nomination. Garfield would not back down and said this would "settle the question whether the President is registering clerk of the Senate or the Executive of the United States." Conkling and his junior colleague, Senator Thomas C. Platt, resigned their Senate seats to seek vindication. Instead they suffered further humiliation when the New York legislature elected others in their places. Former President Ulysses S. Grant, an ally of Conkling, wrote Garfield and saud that he staunchly opposed Garfield's appointment of Robertson as the port of New York's customs collector. Garfield responded with a stern letter which stated he would not be bound by party patronage and would appoint "men who represented any valuable element in the Republican party."
Garfield would not allow Vice President Chester A. Arthur, a Conkling ally, from attending presidential cabinet meetings.
During Reconstruction, former slaves, known as freedmen, had gained citizenship and suffrage that enabled them to participate in state and federal offices. Garfield believed that their rights were being eroded by southern white resistance as well as by illiteracy. He was concerned that African-Americans would become America's permanent "peasantry" unless something was done about it. His answer was to have a "universal" education system funded by the federal government. At the time there was a 70% illiteracy rate among southern African-Americans. However Congress and the northern white public had lost interest in African-American rights, and no one took up the mantle of this challenge after Garfield's assassination.
President Garfield appointed several African-Americans to prominent government positions. These included Frederick Douglass as recorder of deeds in Washington, Robert Elliot as special agent to the U.S. Treasury, John M. Langston as Minister (Ambassador) to Haiti, and Blanche K. Bruce as register to the U.S. Treasury. Garfield began to reverse the southern Democratic conciliation policy implemented by his predecessor, Rutherford B. Hayes. He believed that Southern support for the Republican party could be gained by "commercial and industrial" interests rather than race issues.
On the morning of July 2, 1881, President Garfield was on his way to his alma mater, Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech. Garfield was accompanied by James G. Blaine, Robert Todd Lincoln, and his two sons, James and Harry. As he was walking through the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington at 9:30 a.m., he was shot twice from behind, once across the arm and once in the back, by Charles J. Guiteau. As Guiteau was being arrested after the shooting, he repeatedly said, "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! I did it and I want to be arrested! Arthur is President now!" This very briefly led to unfounded suspicions that Arthur or his supporters had put Guiteau up to the crime.
Garfield became increasingly ill over a period of several weeks due to infection, which caused his heart to weaken. He remained bedridden in the White House with fever and extreme pain. Despite past animosities, Ulysses Grant paid a courtesy call on Mrs. Garfield to try and reassure her that her husband would recover, recalling his experience of soldiers who were wounded in combat. On September 6 he was moved to the Jersey Shore in the hope that the fresh air and quiet there might aid his recovery. But on Monday, September 19, 1881, at 10:20 p.m. Garfield suffered a massive heart attack and a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm. Garfield was pronounced dead at 10:35 p.m.
When Ulysses Grant was elected President in 1868, the two men were not close. Grant mistrusted Garfield from Garfield's days as Chief of Staff to William S. Rosecrans, who Grant removed from command, and Garfield resented the fact that Grant had not given him Rosecrans' post. In September 1870 Garfield was appinted chairman of a Congressional committee investigating the Black Friday Gold Panic scandal. The committee investigation into corruption was thorough, but found wrongdoing. Garfield was asked to issue a subpoena to the sister of Ulysses Grant, whose husband was alleged to be involved in the scandal, but he refused, because he considered her evidence to be irrelevant. Garfield's committee investigated President Grant's wife Julia's financial record, which did not lessen the tension remained between Grant and Garfield.
Garfield supported the passage of the 15th Amendment, but he did not support the Ku Klux Klan Act, passed by Congress in 1871. While he considered the Klansmen to be "terrorists", he was concerned about the freedoms endangered by the power the bill gave to the President to enforce the Act through suspension of the writ of habeas corpus (the legal remedy to challenge alleged wrongful imprisonment.) Once again, this did not endear Garfield to his President.
Garfield continued to win his Congressional seat by large margins. In 1872, he was one of a number of Congressmen involved in the alleged Crédit Mobilier of America scandal. As part of their expansion efforts, the principals of the Union Pacific Railroad formed Crédit Mobilier of America and issued stock. Congressman Oakes Ames testified Garfield had purchased 10 shares of Crédit Mobiler stock for $1000, and received accrued stock interest and $329 (33 per cent) in dividends sometime between December 1867 and June 1868. But Ames's credibility was questionable. Garfield admitted to buying the stock, but testified that he had returned it to the seller. The allegation did not adversely affect his political career. He denied the charges against him, the details were convoluted, and they were never clearly or convincingly proven.
In 1873, Garfield asked President Grant to appoint Justice Noah H. Swayne as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The previous Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase, had died in office May 7, 1873. Instead Grant appointed Morrison R. Waite.
In the 1876 Presidential election, Garfield was loyal to the candidacy of his House Speaker, James G. Blaine. When the party nominated Rutherford B. Hayes, Garfield immediately endorsed his fellow Ohioan. When Hayes appeared to have narrowly lost the election, Grant asked Garfield to serve as a "neutral observer" in the recount in Louisiana. This role turned into one of investigator into allegations that the Democrats created the "rifle clubs" to intimidate African-American voters. Garfield's report created enough doubt to change the election results in that state. Congress passed a bill establishing the Electoral Commission, to determine the winner once and for all. Although Garfield opposed the Commission, he found himself appointed to it. Hayes emerged the victor by a Commission vote of 8 to 7. James G. Blaine moved from the House to the United States Senate, and Garfield became the minority Republican floor leader of the House.
The Ohio legislature selected Garfield for the U.S. Senate in 1879. This was soon followed by a movement for Garfield as the next Republican nominee for President. In early 1880 Garfield endorsed John Sherman for the party's Presidential nomination in exchange for Sherman's earlier support of Garfield for the Senate. But at the outset of the Republican convention, a deadlock ensued between supporters of former President Grant, James G. Blaine, and Sherman. Garfield was seen by the delegates as an optimal compromise choice. He won the nomination on the 34th ballot, ending Ulysses S. Grant's controversial bid for a third (but nonconsecutive) term. To obtain Republican Stalwart support for the ticket, former New York customs collector Chester A. Arthur was chosen as the vice-presidential nominee and Garfield's running mate.
Following such a fractured convention, the outlook for Garfield's campaign was not promising. In an effort to heal wounds from the convention, Garfield traveled to New York to bring the party's warring factions together in what was called the "New York Conference". The trip was a success.
In the general election, Garfield defeated the Democratic candidate Winfield Scott Hancock, another distinguished former Union Army general, by 214 electoral votes to 155. Garfield won the popular vote by just over 7,000 votes out of more than 8.89 million cast. He became the only man ever to be elected to the Presidency directly from the House of Representatives
As usual, immediately after victory was declared, office-seekers began calling on Garfield, who described the situation as "a barrage of fear and greed." Garfield was convinced the only answer was some type of civil service reform. One such office-seeker was Charles Guiteau, the man who would become Garfield's assassin less than three months later.
Garfield's single executive order was to provide government workers the day off on May 30, 1881, in order to decorate the graves of those who died in the Civil War. In assembling his cabinet, Garfield nominated Robert Todd Lincoln as Secretary of War.
In Garfield's Inaugural Address he emphasized the civil rights of African-Americans. He believed that they deserved the "full rights of citizenship." Garfield warned of the dangers of the rights of African-Americans being taken away and their becoming "a permanent disfranchised peasantry." He said in his address: "Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen."
Garfield and Grant clashed yet again, over the issue of patronage in New York. Garfield nominated Judge William H. Robertson, to be Collector of the Port of New York. Robertson was an enemy of New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, who asserted the time-honored principle of senatorial courtesy in his unsuccessful attempt to defeat the nomination. Garfield would not back down and said this would "settle the question whether the President is registering clerk of the Senate or the Executive of the United States." Conkling and his junior colleague, Senator Thomas C. Platt, resigned their Senate seats to seek vindication. Instead they suffered further humiliation when the New York legislature elected others in their places. Former President Ulysses S. Grant, an ally of Conkling, wrote Garfield and saud that he staunchly opposed Garfield's appointment of Robertson as the port of New York's customs collector. Garfield responded with a stern letter which stated he would not be bound by party patronage and would appoint "men who represented any valuable element in the Republican party."
Garfield would not allow Vice President Chester A. Arthur, a Conkling ally, from attending presidential cabinet meetings.
During Reconstruction, former slaves, known as freedmen, had gained citizenship and suffrage that enabled them to participate in state and federal offices. Garfield believed that their rights were being eroded by southern white resistance as well as by illiteracy. He was concerned that African-Americans would become America's permanent "peasantry" unless something was done about it. His answer was to have a "universal" education system funded by the federal government. At the time there was a 70% illiteracy rate among southern African-Americans. However Congress and the northern white public had lost interest in African-American rights, and no one took up the mantle of this challenge after Garfield's assassination.
President Garfield appointed several African-Americans to prominent government positions. These included Frederick Douglass as recorder of deeds in Washington, Robert Elliot as special agent to the U.S. Treasury, John M. Langston as Minister (Ambassador) to Haiti, and Blanche K. Bruce as register to the U.S. Treasury. Garfield began to reverse the southern Democratic conciliation policy implemented by his predecessor, Rutherford B. Hayes. He believed that Southern support for the Republican party could be gained by "commercial and industrial" interests rather than race issues.
On the morning of July 2, 1881, President Garfield was on his way to his alma mater, Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech. Garfield was accompanied by James G. Blaine, Robert Todd Lincoln, and his two sons, James and Harry. As he was walking through the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington at 9:30 a.m., he was shot twice from behind, once across the arm and once in the back, by Charles J. Guiteau. As Guiteau was being arrested after the shooting, he repeatedly said, "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! I did it and I want to be arrested! Arthur is President now!" This very briefly led to unfounded suspicions that Arthur or his supporters had put Guiteau up to the crime.
Garfield became increasingly ill over a period of several weeks due to infection, which caused his heart to weaken. He remained bedridden in the White House with fever and extreme pain. Despite past animosities, Ulysses Grant paid a courtesy call on Mrs. Garfield to try and reassure her that her husband would recover, recalling his experience of soldiers who were wounded in combat. On September 6 he was moved to the Jersey Shore in the hope that the fresh air and quiet there might aid his recovery. But on Monday, September 19, 1881, at 10:20 p.m. Garfield suffered a massive heart attack and a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm. Garfield was pronounced dead at 10:35 p.m.