“An Event of Considerable Importance”

September 29, 2020 will be an important date in northeast Ohio, as the first presidential debate on the election calendar will be held in Cleveland. Of course, back in 1880, when the Republican candidate was a northeast Ohio native, there were no presidential debates. Candidates spoke to voters through surrogates, and the heads of each ticket never directly engaged with one another. So, what was Republican candidate for President James A. Garfield doing 140 years ago, on September 29, 1880?

According to his diary, which Garfield maintained scrupulously during the campaign, the morning was rainy and drizzly. “In the office,” he wrote, “the day was full of telegrams and letters. Conkling’s speech at Warren was an event of considerable importance.” Roscoe Conkling, the senior Senator from New York, a Republican, but not a Garfield supporter, had backed U. S. Grant for the party nomination. But he, and General Grant, had spoken at a giant rally in Warren, Ohio the day before—Grant spoke for about seven minutes, Conkling for more than two hours. Neither mentioned Garfield by name, but they certainly excited the crowd of nearly 40,000. An “event of considerable importance” indeed.

The same evening Grant and Conkling stopped at Garfield’s Mentor home for a courtesy call that lasted about an hour and led to speculation about some sort of truce or understanding between Garfield and Conkling. After their stop in Mentor, Grant and Conkling when on to Cleveland where the New York senator spoke at another rally on September 29..

Garfield, meanwhile, had a quiet evening with friends of long standing, some of whom he invited to his home the next evening. On September 30, the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University sang several “vibrant but mournful spirituals” in James Garfield’s parlor, for a group of friends and neighbors gathered there. Fisk University, a historically black college, was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1866. The Jubilee Singers were organized in 1871 to preserve and perform the Negro spiritual “slave songs” that were their heritage. Garfield thanked them with a ringing political statement. “I tell you now, in the closing days of this campaign, that I would rather be with you and defeated than against you and victorious.”

Wednesday, September 29, 1880, was a relatively quiet one for the Garfield campaign. But the days before and after were very significant. On Tuesday his intra-party rivals rallied for him in his neighborhood and visited his home. On Thursday he made an important statement by welcoming the Jubilee Singers and declaring his unstinting support. By the end of September, then as now, America’s voters begin to focus on Election Day. Every event and statement takes on added meaning.