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James Abram Garfield was the youngest of five children born to Abram and Eliza Garfield. He was born on November 19, 1831, in Orange Township, now Moreland Hills, Ohio. In early 1833, Abram and Eliza Garfield joined the Disciples of Christ, a reformed protestant denomination. Abram Garfield died later that year and Eliza struggled to provide for her family.Eliza Garfield remarried in 1842 to a man named Belden, but divorced him in 1850, which was unusual for the time. In his diary, James noted with happiness Belden's death in 1880. Garfield remained close with his mother for the rest of his life.
As a child Garfield loved to read. He left home at age 16 in 1847 and worked on a canal boat, responsible for managing the mules that pulled it. After six weeks, Garfield became ill and returned home. His mother convinced him to go to school and in 1848, he began attendance at Geauga Seminary, in nearby Chester Township. He went to school there from 1848 to 1850, and was a stellar student. He was especially proficient in languages and as a public speaker.
Geauga was a co-ed school, and Garfield was attracted to one of his fellow students, Lucretia Rudolph, who would later become his wife. To support himself at Geauga, he worked as a carpenter's assistant and as a teacher. In his late teens he reported having a religious awakening, and he attended many camp meetings, at one of which he said he became "born again". The next day, March 4, 1850, he was baptized into the Disciples by being submerged in the cold water of the Chagrin River.
After Geauga, Garfield worked for a year at various jobs, including teaching. From 1851 to 1854, he attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later named Hiram College) in Hiram, Ohio, a school run by the Disciples of Christ. While there, he studied Greek and Latin. He worked as a janitor initially, but was hired to teach while still a student. Lucretia Rudolph had also enrolled at the Institute, and Garfield courted her her while teaching her the Greek language. At the same time Garfield developed a regular preaching circuit at neighboring churches. He was paid a gold dollar per service.
In 1854, Garfield enrolled at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, as a third-year student, given credit for two year's study after passing an entrance examination. After his first term, Garfield was hired to teach penmanship to the students of nearby Pownal, Vermont. By coincidence, his future running mate Chester A. Arthur had previously taught at the same school. Garfield graduated from Williams in August 1856 as salutatorian, giving an address at the commencement.
Garfield returned to Ohio to Hiram to teach at the Institute. Now possessed of a degree from a prestigious eastern school, in 1857 he was made the school's president. While at Williams, he had become exposed to the anti-slavery atmosphere of the Massachusetts school, and he began to contemplate a career in politics. In 1858, he married Lucretia (whom he called "Crete"). They would have seven children, five of whom survived infancy. Soon after their wedding, he began to read law at a Cleveland law firm and he was admitted to the Ohio state bar in 1861.
Local Republican Party leaders invited Garfield to run for a local state senate seat. He was elected to the position and serving until 1861, when the Civil War began. In April 1861, the rebels bombarded Fort Sumter, leading to start of the war. At first Garfield remained in the legislature, where he helped appropriate the funds to raise and equip Ohio's volunteer regiments. He spent the spring and early summer on a tour of northeastern Ohio, encouraging enlistment in the new regiments. Following a trip to Illinois to purchase muskets, Garfield returned to Ohio and, in August 1861, received a commission as a colonel in the 42nd Ohio Infantry regiment. His first task was recruit men for the new regiment, and he did so quickly, recruiting many of his neighbors and former students. The regiment traveled to Camp Chase, outside Columbus, Ohio, to complete training. In December, Garfield was ordered to bring the 42nd to Kentucky, where they joined the Army of the Ohio under Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell.[34]
Buell assigned Garfield the task of driving Confederate forces out of eastern Kentucky, giving him the 18th Brigade for the campaign. This brigade included his own 42nd regiment, the 40th Ohio Infantry, two Kentucky infantry regiments and two cavalry units. The brigade departed Catlettsburg, Kentucky, in mid-December, reaching Paintsville, Kentucky, on January 6, 1862. There Garfield's cavalry engaged the rebels at Jenny's Creek. Confederate troops under Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall held the town in numbers roughly equal to Garfield's own, but Garfield positioned his troops so as to deceive Marshall into believing that the Confederate forces were outnumbered. Marshall withdrew his troops to the forks of Middle Creek, and Garfield ordered his troops to pursue them. On January 9, 1862, in the Battle of Middle Creek, the only battle Garfield personally commanded, his men fought the Confederates who once again withdrew. Garfield then sent his troops to Prestonsburg for provisions.
In recognition of his success, Garfield was promoted to brigadier general. Garfield commanded all remaining Union forces in eastern Kentucky. He promised that any men who had fought for the Confederacy would be granted amnesty if they returned to their homes and lived peaceably and remained loyal to the Union. After a brief skirmish at Pound Gap, the last rebel units in the area retreated to Virginia.
Garfield was given command of the 20th Brigade of the Army of the Ohio, which was ordered in early 1862 to join Major General Ulysses S. Grant's forces, which were advancing on Corinth, Mississippi. Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston surprised Grant's men, driving them back. Garfield's troops joined Grant's army on the second day to drive the Confederates back at the Battle of Shiloh. Garfield was exposed to fire for much of the day, but emerged uninjured.
That summer Garfield suffered from jaundice and significant weight loss. He was forced to return home, where his wife cared for him. His friends worked to win him the Republican nomination for Congress, but he returned to duty that autumn. While in Washington Garfield was rumored to be involved in an extra-marital affair and this caused friction his marriage.
Garfield repeatedly received tentative assignments that did not materialize. He served on the court-martial of Fitz John Porter, a notorious trial in which Porter was tried for his tardiness at the Second Battle of Bull Run. Garfield voted with his fellow generals to convict. The trial lasted almost two months, from November 1862 to January 1863, and by the end of it, Garfield was assigned as Chief of Staff to Major General William S. Rosecrans.
Garfield and Rosecrans got along very well. Both loved to read and their talks covered all topics, especially religion. While serving with Rosecrans, Garfield devised the Tullahoma Campaign to pursue and trap Confederate General Braxton Bragg in Tullahoma. Bragg retreated toward Chattanooga, where Rosecrans stalled and requested more troops and supplies. Garfield argued for an immediate advance, and was eventually able to convince Rosecrans to attack. At the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20, 1863, confusion among the wing commanders over Rosecrans's orders created a gap in the lines. Rosecrans believed that the battle was lost and fell back on Chattanooga to establish a defensive line. Garfield, however, thought that part of the army had held and, with Rosecrans's approval, headed across Missionary Ridge to survey the scene. Garfield's was correct. Rosecrans' error reignited criticism about his leadership. Rosecrans's army was stranded in Chattanooga, surrounded by Bragg's army. Garfield sent a telegram to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton asking for reinforcements and 20,000 troops arrived by rail within nine days.
Grant was promoted to command of the western armies, and he quickly replaced Rosecrans with George H. Thomas. Garfield was ordered to report to Washington, where he was promoted to major general.
In October of 1862, Garfield had been elected to a seat in the 38th Congress. When he returned to Washington, he met with Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who befriended him. The two men agreed politically, and both were part of the Radical wing of the Republican Party. Chase convinced Garfield to take his seat in Congress in December 1863. Many radicals, led in the House by Pennsylvania's Thaddeus Stevens, wanted lands owned by rebels to be confiscated, but Lincoln threatened to veto any bill that would do so. Garfield believed that the leaders of the rebellion had forfeited their constitutional rights and he supported the confiscation of southern plantations.
Under Chase's influence, Garfield became a staunch proponent of a dollar backed by a gold standard. He opposed the paper "greenback", but he understood the necessity for suspension of payment in gold or silver during the War. Garfield voted with the Radical Republicans in passing the Wade–Davis Bill, designed to give Congress more authority over Reconstruction, but it was defeated by Lincoln's pocket veto.
Garfield gave lukewarm support for Lincoln's re-election, believing that no viable alternative seemed available. Of Lincoln, Garfield said: "He will probably be the man, though I think we could do better." Garfield was in New York City in April of 1865 when he learned of Lincoln's assassination. There he addressed a riotous crowd.
After the war, Garfield became a proponent of voting rights for African-Americans. President Andrew Johnson sought Garfield's support for his reconstruction policies, but Garfield was unimpressed with Johnson's plans. He is quoted as saying that Johnson was either "crazy or drunk with opium". However Garfield opposed the initial talk of impeaching President Johnson when Congress convened in December 1866. But he supported legislation to limit Johnson's powers, such as the Tenure of Office Act, which restricted Johnson in removing presidential appointees. Due to a court case, he was absent from Congress on the day in April 1868 when the House impeached Johnson, but he soon gave a speech aligning himself with those who sought Johnson's removal. When the president was acquitted in trial before the Senate, Garfield blamed the outcome on Chief Justice Chase, his onetime mentor.
Ulysses S. Grant succeeded Johnson as president in 1869. Garfield supported the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870 but in 1871, Garfield opposed passage of the Ku Klux Klan Act, concerned about the power the bill gave to the president to enforce the act through suspension of civil liberties.
Tariffs had been raised to high levels during the Civil War. Garfield advocated moving towards free trade, which was contrary to the standard Republican position of a protective tariff that would allow American industries to grow. This break with his party cost him his place on the Ways and Means Committee in 1867. Garfield came to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee, but it was Ways and Means, with its influence over fiscal policy, that he really wanted to lead.
In September 1870, Garfield, as chairman of the House Banking Committee, led an investigation into the Black Friday Gold Panic scandal. The committee investigation into corruption found no indictable offenses. Garfield blamed the easy availability of greenbacks for financing the speculation that led to the scandal.
Garfield was not excited about the re-election of President Grant in 1872, but he disliked Grant's opponent Horace Greeley even more. Garfield said: "I would say Grant was not fit to be nominated and Greeley is not fit to be elected." Both Grant and Garfield won overwhelming re-election victories.
The Crédit Mobilier of America scandal involved corruption in the financing of the Union Pacific Railroad. Union Pacific officers and directors secretly purchased control of the Crédit Mobilier of America company, then contracted with the firm to have it build the railroad. Grossly inflated invoices submitted by the company were paid by the railroad, using federal funds appropriated to subsidize the project. The company was allowed to purchase Union Pacific securities at par value, well below the market rate. Crédit Mobilier showed large profits and stock gains. The taxpayer was the victim of much of this. One of the railroad officials who controlled Crédit Mobilier was also a congressman, Oakes Ames of Massachusetts. He offered some of his colleagues the opportunity to buy Crédit Mobilier stock at par value, well below what it sold for on the market. In July 1872, in the middle of the presidential campaign, the scandal became public. Among those named were Vice President (and former House Speaker) Schuyler Colfax, Grant's second-term running mate (Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson), Speaker James G. Blaine of Maine, and Garfield. When Congress reconvened after the election, Blaine, seeking to clear his name, demanded a House investigation. Evidence before the special committee exonerated Blaine.
Garfield told the committee that Ames had offered him stock, but he had repeatedly refused it. Testifying before the committee in January, Ames alleged that he had offered Garfield ten shares of stock at par value, but that Garfield had never taken the shares, or paid for them. Ames testified several weeks later that Garfield agreed to take the stock on credit, and that it was paid for by the company's huge dividends. The two men differed over a sum of some $300 that Garfield received and later paid back, with Garfield deeming it a loan and Ames a dividend. Though no wrongdoing was proven on the part of Garfield, Ames accusations adversely affected Garfield's reputation.
The so-called "Salary Grab" of 1873 was legislation which increased the compensation for members of Congress by 50 percent, retroactive to 1871. Garfield was responsible, as Appropriations Committee chairman, for shepherding the bill through the House. The public was outraged by the bill, and many of Garfield's constituents blamed him, even though he personally refused to accept the increase. Republicans lost control of the House for the first time since the Civil War, and Garfield won re-election, but had his closest contest.
With the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives in 1875, Garfield lost his chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee. The Democratic leadership in the House appointed Garfield as a Republican member of the Ways and Means committee. Garfield was seen as the Republican floor leader and the likely Speaker should the party regain control of the House. As the 1876 presidential election approached, Garfield was loyal to Senator Blaine, and fought for Blaine's nomination at the 1876 Republican National Convention in Cincinnati. When it became clear, after six ballots, that Blaine could not prevail, the convention nominated Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. Garfield had maintained good relations with Hayes, and supported his governor.
Garfield was re-elected to the house, but her suffered personal tragedy when his youngest son, Neddie, fell ill with whooping cough shortly after the congressional election, and died.
A Senate seat in Ohio became vacant following the resignation of John Sherman to become Treasury Secretary. Garfield was interested in the seat, but Hayes needed Garfield's help in Congress, and asked him not to seek it. Garfield was seen as the president's key legislator in the House.
Besides his political activities, Garfield also displayed his mathematical talent. In 1876 he developed a trapezoid proof of the Pythagorean theorem. His finding was placed in the New England Journal of Education.
Towards the end of his term, Hayes suggested that Garfield run for governor of Ohio in 1879, but Garfield preferred to seek election as senator. Garfield was elected to the Senate by the General Assembly in January 1880, to a term that was scheduled to begin on March 4, 1881. But in the meantime, other events precluded him from taking this office.
Garfield entered the 1880 campaign season committed to Sherman as his choice for the Republican presidential nominee. Some Republicans saw Garfield as the best choice for the nomination, but he denied any interest in the position. Besides Sherman, the early favorites for the nomination were Blaine and former president Grant. When the convention began, Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, the floor leader for the Grant forces (known as the Stalwart faction), proposed that the delegates pledge to support the eventual nominee in the general election. Three West Virginia delegates declined to be so bound, and Conkling sought to expel them from the convention. Garfield rose to defend the men. The crowd turned against Conkling, and he withdrew the motion.
After speeches in favor of the other front-runners, Garfield rose to place Sherman's name in nomination. His nominating speech was well-received, but Sherman did not receive much support. The first ballot showed Grant leading with 304 votes and Blaine in second with 284; Sherman's 93 placed him in a distant third. Subsequent ballots quickly demonstrated a deadlock between the Grant and Blaine forces, with neither having the 379 votes needed for nomination. Jeremiah McLain Rusk, a member of the Wisconsin delegation, and Benjamin Harrison, an Indiana delegate, sought to break the deadlock by shifting a few of the anti-Grant votes to a dark horse candidate—Garfield.] Garfield received 50 votes on the 35th ballot, and soon other delegations changed their votes. In the next round of voting, nearly all of the Sherman and Blaine delegates shifted their support to Garfield, giving him 399 votes and the Republican nomination.
There was concern over whether the Stalwart minority would support Garfield in the general election. To obtain that faction's support for the ticket, former New York customs collector Chester Alan Arthur, a member of Conkling's political machine, was chosen as the vice-presidential nominee and Garfield's running mate. Garfield traveled to New York to meet with party leaders there where he convinced the Stalwart crowd to put aside their differences. He then returned to Ohio, leaving the active campaigning to others, as was traditional at the time.
The Democratic Party chose Major General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania, a career military officer, as their candidate. Hancock and the Democrats expected to carry the Solid South, while much of the North was considered safe territory for Garfield and the Republicans. The campaign involve a few close swing states, including New York and Indiana. Republicans reminded Northern voters that the Democratic Party was responsible for secession and four years of civil war, and said that if Democrats held power they would reverse the gains of that war, dishonor Union veterans, and pay Confederate veterans pensions out of the federal treasury. Fifteen years had passed since the end of the war, and with Union generals at the head of both tickets, this strategy had diminishing value.
The Republicans switched tactics to make the tariff the key issue. The Democratic platform's call for a "tariff for revenue only", and Republicans told Northern workers that a Hancock presidency would weaken the tariff protection that kept their wages high. Hancock made the situation worse when, attempting to strike a moderate stance, he said "the tariff question is a local question". The issue united the the North behind Garfield. In the end, fewer than ten thousand votes separated the two candidates, but in the Electoral College, Garfield won 214 electoral votes compared to 155 for Hancock.
Tomorrow: Part II-Presidency and Assassination