“I am aware that I launch out upon a fickle current and am about a work as precarious as men follow and of which a writer has said,
‘It is the most seductive and dangerous which a young man can follow.’”
-James A. Garfield, August 23, 1859
Our podcast series will begin, not with the start of Garfield’s political career, but with its high point—the presidential election campaign of 1880. Over the next several weeks you can hear the stories of Garfield’s remarkable, precedent-setting, “busy yet pleasant” summer—starting with the convention in June that chose him as the Republican candidate for president on the 36th ballot. The season ends “at the ballot-boxes of the republic, in the quiet of November,” with Garfield’s election by one of the closest popular vote margins in our nation’s history.
Schedule of Podcasts:
9-6-20- Episode 1: The Convention
9-20-20- Episode 2: The Front Porch Campaign
10-4-20- Episode 3: The Fifth Avenue Conference
10-18-20- Episode 4: A Busy, Pleasant Summer
11-1-20- Episode 5: The Round Robin Letter
This is a short trailer for our new podcast, A Fickle Current. Rangers and Volunteers will be discussing different topics from James A. Garfield's political career; mainly during 1880.
[0:00-0:17] Music- an 1880 campaign march for Garfield, source Library of Congress
[0:18-0:35] Music continues to play and fades out while a male voice speaks: “I am aware that I launch out upon a fickle current and am about a work as precarious as men follow and of which a writer has said, ‘It is the most seductive and dangerous which a young man can follow.’” James A. Garfield, August 23, 1859
[0:36-0:45] A female voice speaks: Welcome to A Fickle Current, a podcast about James A. Garfield, the politician, and 20th president of the United States.
[0:46-1:15] Female voice continues: Garfield was frequently described as a reluctant politician. He often implored his political friends to make clear that he never actively sought any office. At the same time, he “allowed his name to be presented” to nominating conventions and for congressional leadership positions again and again. He regularly “took to the stump” to campaign for himself, other Republican candidates, and Republican policy positions. And he enjoyed it!
[1:17-1:35] From his annual 4th of July speeches in Ravenna, Ohio to his nomination of John Sherman at the 1880 Republican convention, Garfield navigated the fickle current of party politics with skill and poise.
[1:37-1:53] This podcast series will examine Garfield’s political experience, and the talents, and skills, and intellect that brought him to the presidency. So from the front porch of his home in Mentor, Ohio, we here at James. A. Garfield National Historic Site bring you this series of conversations about James A. Garfield, the politician.
[1:55-2:18] Music softly comes back in around 2:10 and grows louder: We invite you to be a part of the conversation with us. If you have comments or questions, or suggestions on topics and what you want to hear about in this series? Feel free to reach out to us on social media [@garfieldnps], or e-mail us at Jaga_interpretation@nps.gov. Thanks, and we’ll see you next time!
[2:19-2:40] Music- an 1880 campaign march for Garfield, source Library of Congress.
[2:40-3:10] A Female voice speaks: Thank you for listening to A Fickle Current, a podcast about the political career of James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the United States. This podcast is a production of James A. Garfield National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System located in Mentor, Ohio. For more information about the podcast, podcast transcripts, visiting the site special events, and more, please visit our home page at www.nps.gov/jaga.
Episode 1: The Convention
This is the first episode of a "Fickle Current" podcast. In this episode Site Manager Todd Arrington and Volunteer Rick Robyn discuss the 1880 Republican Presidential Convention in Chicago.
[0:00-0:17] Theme Music Intro- an 1880 campaign march for Garfield, sourced Library of Congress
[0:18-0:24] Music continues to play and fades out while a female voice speaks:
Season 1: The Presidential Campaign
[0:25-0:42] Male voice:
“Never before in the history of partisan contests in this country, had a successful Presidential candidate spoken freely on passing events and current issues. To attempt anything of the kind seemed novel, rash and even desperate.” James G. Blaine
[0:43-0:45] Female voice:
Chapter 1: The Convention
[0:46-1:17] Male voice:
“Since I wrote to you yesterday the turmoil has increased; though I begin to see the direction of the currents which are driving through the waste of waters that surround us. . . .All the elements indicate a convention full of strong and fierce antagonisms. The result is shrouded in all manner of doubt.” Letter, James A. Garfield to Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, May 30, 1880
[1:17-1:26] Transition music
[1:27-1:36] Female voice:
Welcome to A Fickle Current, a podcast about the political career of James A. Garfield. Because this is a presidential election year, we will devote this season to the high point of Garfield’s political story—his election to the presidency.
[1:37-1:43] Transition music
[1:44-3:15] A different female voice narrates:
In the spring of 1880, James A. Garfield was a member of Congress, representing the northeast corner of Ohio. He was the Republican leader in the House, where his party was in the minority. But he had been elected to the Senate during the Ohio legislative session in January, so in 1881 he would move across the Capitol and join a Republican majority in the Senate. He went to the Republican National Convention in Chicago to nominate Ohio’s John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, former Congressman and Senator, to be the party’s presidential candidate. There he encountered a city “full of Republicans and intense activity in all the hostile camps.”
The largest single voting bloc at the convention were supporters of U. S. Grant for a third presidential term. The Grant backers, led by three powerful senators, controlled about 300 votes. Many anybody-but-Grant Republicans supported James G. Blaine, who nearly matched Grant in pledged delegates. Neither commanded a majority. Between these hostile camps, and controlling what could be the decisive votes were delegates supporting Sherman and several “favorite son” candidates. And the de-facto leader of the opposition to a third term was Sherman supporter and House Republican leader James A. Garfield.
[3:15-3:24] Transition music
[3:25-4:02] Male voice, interviewer Richard Robyn:
My name is Richard Robyn, Professor of Political Science at Kent State University and volunteer at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. Joining me to discuss the 1880 Republican National Convention is Todd Arrington, Site Manager at the National Historic Site.
Todd, so first of all, we are very fortunate to have you as our expert on James Garfield, and especially for this part of our podcast, the campaign of 1880 and the 1880 Republican Convention.
We’ve set up a little bit in the introduction about the convention. Is there anything you would like to add to that?
[4:03-5:57] Male voice, interviewee Todd Arrington:
Well, the 1880 Republican convention is in Chicago, and of course that was the scene of many, many conventions for the Republicans over the years. I will say, I think it’s fascinating when you look at the 1880 convention, that it’s the first time—I believe it’s the first time in American history—where the person who ends up being nominated by the convention is actually attending the convention.
Again, this is a very different era of politics. We don’t expect, in this era, to see candidates out campaigning for themselves, it’s kind of considered unseemly, or really not appropriate, very different than today, as I said. Very different then what we expect to see today, where candidates are very actively and openly seeking the office and seeking people’s votes. Candidates who think that they have a chance to be nominated for president, at past conventions, never go to the conventions, for that same reason. They don’t want to appear too eager for the office. It’s more appealing to let the office seek the man—it’s all men at this point, of course.
Garfield goes to this convention really for another purpose, which is just to nominate John Sherman, and really not expecting to be nominated himself. It is a little bit of a myth that this Garfield nomination was completely out of the blue. There had been a few whispers here and there about Garfield as a potential compromise candidate. And Garfield himself certainly didn’t try to tamp that down, I mean, he was playing both sides of the fence. But I really, genuinely believe Garfield really didn’t think anything was going to come of this.
And so he went there, and he did his duty for Sherman, and he kind of owed Sherman that because Sherman had supported Garfield for election to that seat in the U. S. Senate, which Garfield would have taken at the beginning of 1881 had he not been elected President.
[5:58-6:13] Richard:
Now, most listeners would be thinking “Garfield would oppose General Grant—a war hero, two time President of the United States, head of the Republican party for so long?” How is it possible that Garfield would have opposed Grant?
[6:14-9:05] Todd:
Well, I think that opposition really comes primarily from two things. One, of course, everybody knows, I think, that there was quite a bit of scandal during Grant’s two terms, which when from 1869 to 1877. I think there’s no question now, the scholarship has shown that Grant himself was personally honest, but he didn’t always have the best judgment in character, and he surrounded himself with people who didn’t always have his best interest, or the country’s best interest at heart. And so he got taken advantage of quite a bit, and that continued after his presidency too, when his personal finances were completely wiped out. Its really tragic, what happened to Grant after the presidency. So Garfield, I think, realized that there was a lot of kind of fatigue of that type of leadership during Grant’s years.
The four years of the Hayes administration, of course, which was between Grant’s and Garfield’s presidencies, was fairly scandal free; Hayes really got high marks from people for running an ethical administration. But of course, Hayes’s presidency didn’t start on the best foot because of course he lost the popular vote. There was this controversy about a contested election, and there was an electoral commission, which Garfield was a member of, that decided that Hayes, and not Samuel Tilden, who had won the popular vote, would actually be president. So there was a lot of controversy with Hayes’s election, too, and Hayes had already pledged to only serve a single term, anyway. So the Republicans knew going into 1880 that they needed a candidate because Hayes wasn’t going to stand for reelection. So I think that the idea of some of the malfeasance during Grant’s two terms. . .
The other issue that a lot of people opposed Grant on in 1880 was simply the idea that anyone should run for a third term. Now keep in mind, there’s no constitutional amendment at this point that a president can’t run for a third term. But no one had ever done it because that was the precedent established by George Washington, who very valiantly walked away from power after two terms, and peacefully handed the presidency over to his successor. Washington was, of course, and still is, revered, and so there was this sense that hey, if two terms was good enough for the great George Washington, why isn’t it good enough for Ulysses S. Grant? So there was really a lot of opposition to Grant based on that, too, just no one should seek a third term. And Garfield was one of those who felt like, between these two issues—the corruption during Grant’s first two term, but then also the idea that no one should really seek a third term—led Garfield to oppose Grant for the third term in 1880.
[9:06-9:08] Richard:
That was the major division in the Republican party?
[9:09-11:30] Todd:
Yeah, really the major division between the two sides of the party, because there was some factionalism in the party at that point, was what to do about the civil service. Grant, during his years in office had been very happy to continue with the established system of patronage, which was “to the victors go the spoils” If you win the election you can dole out positions to whoever you like, doesn’t matter if they’re not qualified or don’t have any experience. That’s one of the beauties of winning elections is you get to put people into jobs, and a lot of the people who were supporting Grant really liked that system.
There were some very notable Senators who had been very powerful during Grant’s two terms and were eager to come back to that. Those were primarily Roscoe Conkling from New York, and then also John Logan from Illinois and Don Cameron from Pennsylvania. They were kind of called the triumvirate, and they were very, very opposed to any kind of reform of civil service. They liked the patronage system. They liked being able to build these little groups of Republicans who were beholden to them for their jobs. So they were really eager to see Grant go back into office because they had done very well for themselves when Grant was President.
Garfield was kind of a late convert to civil service reform. Frankly, by 1880, even during this convention, he was fairly lukewarm about civil service reform. I think with Garfield it was really the idea that it wasn’t right for anybody to seek a third term. Garfield didn’t start to come around on civil service reform really until he was President-elect and then once he became President, because he just got this crush of people coming to see him, whether it was here to the farm in Mentor, when he was President-elect, or when he moved into the White House. There were just thousands of people descending on these places every day to try to talk to him about jobs that they wanted. That, I think, is what really turned Garfield towards becoming a convert on civil service reform. Here in 1880, during that Republican convention, I don’t think Garfield was nearly as zealous about civil service reform as some others were.
[11:31-12:20] Richard:
Thank you for setting all of that up. So we’re now going to be coming in to an interesting convention, riven by different politics and people that they support perhaps. Our listeners might find it strange that there would be so much turmoil, in fact Garfield called them “hostile camps,” within the Republican Party. We’ve gotten used to the idea of national conventions as being pretty well staged events, kind of predictable and kind of boring, actually. In fact, we’ve not had a brokered convention – which was the situation in 1880 – since way back in the 1950s, with the election for Eisenhower. Could you speak to the reality of the brokered conventions at the time and what all that means?
[12:21-14:34] Todd:
It’s interesting, so yeah, you’re right, conventions today are completely staged. It’s when the parties get together, they write platforms, of course, even though we pretty much know what’s going to be in those platforms. And they ultimately are nominating a presidential candidate who has already been selected by the voters, because we have primaries and caucuses and all this stuff now. None of this existed in 1880, so at this point in American history, the conventions were actually very important. Yes, they did get together to actually write the platform, but they were getting together to choose a nominee. The people, the voters, had no say in who became president until election day. There were no primaries, or anything like that. So, this idea of conventions as really high drama was legitimate for well over a century in American history.
Certainly 1880 is no exception, for both sides, because there was no strict front-runner on the Democratic side either. And then of course the idea of the Republican convention with Grant, of course, Blaine, John Sherman, all these favorite son candidates, it really was almost anybody’s ballgame. Surely Grant had the inside track, but clearly there was not a majority for Grant at this point. So conventions at this point are very important because they are doing the hard work of selecting the candidate. Not like today, when the voters have already done that and the convention is just a rubber stamp of okay, yes we are nominating this person who the voters have chosen. Conventions were quite important and quite interesting then, and then, of course, once the convention was over, it was also the parties that were doing the heavy lifting of the campaigns, too. Garfield or Hancock or Tilden or Hayes or whoever, they weren’t going out and going on these sort of whistle-blowing tours all over the country trying to drum up votes for themselves. They were staying home and letting the parties do the work for them. So conventions and parties were really, really critical at this point in American history.
[14:35-14:49] Richard:
A very different kind of situation than we might expect in our modern era. And how about, let’s look at the individual James Garfield. As he’s travelling to Chicago now to be a part of this convention, could you sort of describe his frame of mind?
[14:50-15:30] Todd:
His frame of mind, primarily, is that he really didn’t want to go. (chuckle) He wanted to stay home. He and his wife lived in Mentor, Ohio, where we are at James A. Garfield National Historic Site. They had this farm here, and they were doing a lot of work to the property. He loved this property. They’d only really lived here for about four years. This was kind of their home away from Washington. He liked to be here; he liked to do a lot of the farm work himself. He liked to be around his children and his wife, so he really didn’t want to go to the convention. He went because he was obligated to do so for John Sherman. His mindset was, he really didn’t want to do this.
[15:30-15:33] Richard:
(laughter) And he’s supposed to be making a speech for Sherman. . .
[15:34-16:35] Todd:
Yes, its funny, as the convention got closer and closer, Sherman started making more and more demands of Garfield, and Garfield started getting more and more uncomfortable, to the point where finally Sherman wanted Garfield to actually, not only be there to manage Sherman’s presence on the floor, but he wanted Garfield to be the one to make the speech putting Sherman’s name into nomination. Sherman recognized that Garfield was very highly regarded as a speaker. I think he also knew—Sherman knew there were some whispers about Garfield as a potential compromise candidate, so the more he had Garfield doing for him, the less likely it was that Garfield would be able to look out for his own interest, I guess you would say—which ended up being a very interesting part of the story when Garfield does, in fact, get nominated. So yes, he actually had Garfield going there ultimately to nominate him to be the presidential candidate.
[16:36-16:47] Richard:
And you’ve said a couple of times now that there were whispers that maybe Garfield could be a compromise candidate. Do you think that Garfield might have gone to Chicago with the idea that “oh, boy, I might become President of the United States?”
[16:48-19:08] Todd:
You know, I really do believe, he knew those whispers were out there. He had talked to people who said “Grant cannot be nominated again, it will not happen. It will be a fractured convention. There will be a need for a compromise candidate, and we think you’re the guy.” And again, like a good politician, Garfield did not do much to say “No, do not let that happen.” He kept his options open. He was a politician, I mean, that’s okay, that’s his job. And really some of these conversations started as far back as 1879—some in Wisconsin and a few other places. I really do genuinely believe, I don’t think Garfield really thought that anything was going to come of it. Yes, he didn’t mind the fact that his name was out there, and he did write a few letters from Chicago as things started to get more and more interesting during that convention. He did write some letters back to his wife back here in Ohio saying, “I think it seems that they are turning their attention to me.” He did not say in those letters, “I really need to make sure that they don’t, because I can’t have that happen.” So, you know, he was keeping his options open, and that’s okay.
There was a segment in the Republican party after this convention that felt that Garfield had stabbed Sherman in the back. I don’t believe that’s true. I think Garfield did do everything he could for Sherman, and everything he was obligated to do. Sherman seemed to feel that way, also; that he didn’t feel that Garfield had acted in bad faith or anything like that.
But, yeah, I don’t think he thought anything was going to come of it, but he knew that there were people that, here and there, were throwing his name around. But Garfield, remember at this point, he’s 48 years old. He’s a young man. He has got years and years of politics ahead of him. He’s going to the Senate. He knows he’s got the next six years to really continue to build his reputation. Maybe he tries in 1884 or 1888, or something like that. No, I don’t think he was going to Chicago to say, “This is my chance. No.”
[19:09-19:18] Richard:
Okay, now to the convention itself. Could you kind of set the scene for us. The city of Chicago, what’s it like? The convention site? Things like that.
[19:19-21:37] Todd:
Chicago, obviously is a major city at this point. I don’t have the population numbers in front of me or anything, but it’s obviously a big city. It’s certainly the most prominent city in the Midwest. Illinois is significant, of course, as the home of Abraham Lincoln, the patron saint of the Republican party, if you will, even as far forward as 1880. So it’s very significant, I think, to have that convention in Chicago.
The convention itself is held in this large building called the Glass Palace. It’s a crazy scene. We know conventions are crazy scenes today, but these conventions have nothing on conventions in a time like 1880, where you just have sometimes hundreds of thousands of people descending on these cities to try to get in to hear these speakers. Today, yeah it would be great if we could all go, but we can watch it on TV. That’s not an option. You can’t follow it on twitter or facebook or instgram live or any of this stuff. In 1880, if you’re not there, then all you can do is read about it in the paper in a few days. So hundreds of thousands of people are descending on the city. Garfield is one of those people. He describes in his diary about just how packed the train station is, and trying to get to the hotel, and all these people who want to stop him and talk to him. It just boggles the mind, what the scene is like. Here you have a Congressman, a U.S. Senator-elect, and of course, within a week or so, a presidential candidate, who’s basically walking the streets of Chicago by himself every night, you know, going to meetings and talking to people. No security detail, no nothing. He just this lone guy, who happens to be the guy who, in six or seven days, is a candidate for President. So he’s walking around by himself through these crazy nighttime parades, and torchlight and all this stuff—it boggles the mind what the scene would have been like. I’d give anything to be a fly on the wall at a convention like this. The best we can do is watch them on TV now.
[21:38-21:51] Richard:
So here we are in this big convention hall, thousands of people there, and it comes time now when Sherman’s name needs to be put in nomination. So could you describe how that transpired?
[21:52-27:08] Todd:
Before you even think about Sherman you have to think about Grant. Grant’s name was placed into nomination by Roscoe Conkling, this very powerful New York Senator, kind of the king of the patronage system, and one of Grant’s biggest supporters. He was one of those guys that was very powerful during those Grant presidential years and very much wanted Grant to be elected again partially for that reason. So Conkling gives this sort of rousing speech for Grant. Grant is still immensely personally popular with the American people. He’s still the hero that won the Civil War and defeated Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy. So Grant still has great sort of star appeal, and so the mention of Grant’s name just sends people into whoops and cheers. Conkling gives this very powerful, very rousing speech for Grant.
And then it’s time for Garfield to speak for Sherman. Garfield can give a rousing speech with the best of them. Garfield, like Conkling, has this sort of deep, booming voice, they’re both very tall, they have very good stage presence, which is very important in 1880, because again, they don’t have megaphones or microphones or anything like that. They’re basically standing on a table, on a stage in the middle of this massive hall talking to thousand of people. Obviously the vast majority of those people didn’t hear a word that Conkling or Garfield actually said, but for the people who were up close. . . Garfield can give a really good, rousing Go Republican speech as good as anybody. And yet. . .
It’s important to know too, that Garfield was very, very delinquent in preparing his speech for Sherman. He noted that in a letter home to his wife, where he said, “I made a huge mistake not preparing this speech before I came.” So Garfield ends up giving a speech which is by and large extemporaneous. It is much quieter, for Garfield, than people expected, and yet it’s extremely powerful. Whereas Conkling is rousing and “three cheers for Grant” and all this noise, Garfield kind of goes against type and gives this speech that is very, sort of contemplative, and really thought provoking. And he uses this great metaphor of the ocean—the convention being kind of the swell of the wave, but this isn’t where we need to make our decision. The decision will be made when the tide has receded a little bit, of course referring to the fall, when the election is actually held. So it’s really a beautiful speech, and again, very unexpected. It’s not at all what people were expecting. And one thing that he did noticeably do that gave the Sherman folks that were upset with him later a lot of ammunition, was he barely mentioned Sherman’s name. He didn’t really mention Sherman’s name until the end of the speech. At one point he says, “Gentlemen of the convention, what do we want?” And somebody in the crowd goes, “We want Garfield!” (chuckle) and then everybody starts to cheer.
Then, all of a sudden, as we follow the events over the next few days, we go, “Oh, maybe that was a really significant moment.” But he doesn’t really mention Sherman’s name until the very end of the speech, which some of the Sherman people were not too happy about. Anyway, it was a very powerful speech. And I think it was a speech that, over the next few days, as they’re battling it out over these ballots, it’s a speech that a lot of people, a lot of delegates kept coming back to, as they started thinking about, “Clearly we need a compromise candidate here.” They’re going through ballot after ballot after ballot after ballot and nothing is moving, nothing is changing. Grant and Blaine and Sherman really are almost in the exact same position on ballot twenty as they were on ballot one. There’s really been no movement, and people start—some of them at least—coming back to that Garfield speech and saying “This is a guy that we can all get behind.” He is the perfect compromise candidate. Everybody likes him personally, he’s got a great personality. Even if they don’t agree with him, they like him. He doesn’t have anything major in his background that would lead them to say “oh, he can’t be elected, or this could come back to haunt us.” No real skeletons in the closet, or anything like that. No major scandals or anything like this. He becomes more and more appealing as people start to think more and more about what are they really look for in a candidate, because clearly by that ballot twenty, or whatever, they’re thinking “we’ve got to do something here because clearly the three guys that are at the top of these votes are not going to get it. So something has got to break. And I think that that speech that he gave for Sherman was one of the things that made at least some people start breaking in his direction.
[27:09-27:25] Richard:
Ballot twenty, you say? (chuckle) Oh, my goodness. Another break from the modern conventions in which the first ballot—if you don’t get it on the first ballot, you’re probably in deep, deep trouble. So this goes on for twenty or more ballots? Can you describe that?
[27:26-28:52] Todd:
Well, they started voting fairly soon after the speeches for nominations are given, they start the voting. Everybody expects, and really Grant expected to be nominated on the first ballot, because that’s what he had been led to believe. When that didn’t happen—because Grant and Blaine and Sherman—these guys are being kept informed through telegraph, not like today where you could send them a text or something and they could give them literally blow-by-blow, but they know what’s happening. Ballots continue to be taken and really, Grant starts with about, I think its 305 or 306, something along there. And I believe it’s 379 that’s needed to actually win the nomination. And they start going through all these ballots and there’s just very little movement. So the Grant people are loyal to Grant, and the Blaine people stay with Blaine, and the Sherman people stay with Sherman. So that really by a couple of days later as they continue to go through these ballots. . . And keep in mind, it’s summer, it’s hot, there’s no central air in this hall, a lot of these folks are sitting on benches that don’t have backs—it’s very uncomfortable.
[28:53] Richard:
Smoking cigars
[28:54-33:00] Todd:
Smoking, yeah, it really sounds like a dreadful place to be if you ask me. But it just keeps going on and on and on, and there’s just very little movement in those top three candidates. Really, at some point, something has got to change—either there’s got to be some kind of deal that, you know, the Blaine people will go to Sherman, or the Sherman people will go to Blaine, or the Grant people will promise this if everybody comes to Grant. There has to be one of those stereotypical back-room, smoke filled room deals.
Ultimately it ends up going 36 ballots. There’s like one delegate who keeps voting for Garfield, from early on, straight on through. Almost every ballot, not every, but almost every ballot there’s maybe like one or two Garfield votes—not anything to worry about, obviously, for any of those top tier candidates.
I think it’s around ballot 30 or 31 or 32 when the floodgates just kind of open and a lot of people start moving to Garfield. And I think that’s a product of they were hot, and they were miserable and they were tired, and they’d already been there longer than they thought they would be. If somebody, now, at this point, is being floated that we think is even remotely qualified, we’re fine with that, because it’s clearly not going to be Grant or Blaine or Sherman. Those low thirties—30, 31 or so is when that movement starts getting to Garfield and by the 36th ballot he is nominated.
He is sitting on the floor watching these ballots go through, trying to keep Ohio solid for Sherman, and suddenly people from other states are voting for him. At one point he gets the floor and tells the chairman of the convention, “This vote contains votes for me and I did not agree to have my name placed in nomination.” So he’s really trying—either trying legitimately or trying to make a good show if it, I’m not sure which—but he is trying to say “I don’t want this. This isn’t. . . I’m not trying to make this happen.” The chairman of the convention basically says, “That’s not a point of order, so please take your seat.” Because the chairman even realizes it’s moving in that direction, and we need to let it go there. So the chairman actually, George Hoar from Massachusetts, even realizes at this point it’s moving toward Garfield, we need to let it go that way. So he shushes Garfield, I guess you would say (chuckle), and tells him to take his seat. And then, lo and behold, by the 36th ballot, he gets nominated.
At one point, one of the Sherman delegates from Ohio telegraphs Sherman and says, “It’s moving to Garfield.” And Sherman writes back, “Let Ohio be solid.” So Garfield, of course, ended up winning all of the votes of the Ohio delegation. Sherman realized that he wasn’t going to win, and I think probably realized that long before when his ballot counts weren’t improving at all. When the time started to get really close, that it was clearly moving toward Garfield, Sherman very graciously said, “Let Ohio be solid.” The entire Ohio delegation was for Garfield, but it was interesting because, when Garfield was trying to get Sherman nominated, he couldn’t even get the entire Ohio delegation behind Sherman, who was from Ohio. So for Sherman to say, “Let Ohio be solid,” when they moved to Garfield, of course also an Ohioan, was pretty significant.
[33:01-33:07] Richard:
Says a lot. Do we have any idea how Garfield felt when that 36th ballot was taken, and he is now nominated?
[33:08-34:34] Todd:
Well, certainly from reports from the convention, he looked a little shell-shocked on the floor, and actually approached a reporter and said, “I want it known that I didn’t want this. This is a complete surprise to me.” Even though he knew people had whispered his name, here and there, really as far back as the year before, I do genuinely believe that he did not expect this. He was a smart guy, and clearly as they got closer and closer and closer, he could see the writing on the wall, and was realizing that “Uh-oh, this may really happen.” But I genuinely believe he did not expect anything like this. I think he was genuinely surprised. Again, he didn’t do anything to tamp down people talking about him, that was fine. Hey, you know what, it could only help him the future to have been considered. Abraham Lincoln was almost nominated for vice-president, and John F. Kennedy, same thing, before their presidential nominations. They didn’t do anything to tamp that down. They were okay with people talking about them. It was the same with Garfield, but I genuinely think he was surprised.
[34:35-35:03] Richard:
So, a titanic battle at the convention finally comes to a close. Now you would think, with that kind of a battle, these kind of factions going at each other like that, that this would be really tough for the campaign itself. That it would be hard to mend fences. How did Grant feel about the outcome of the convention? Blaine? Sherman going forward?
[35:04-37:19] Todd:
You know, Blaine and Garfield were fairly close, so Blaine was actually okay with this, which is interesting because Blaine wanted to be president more than anything. He had what Garfield called “the presidential fever.” He had already sought the presidency a few times; he would seek it again. He ended up being the Republican nominee in 1884, and of course lost to Grover Cleveland. Blaine was desperate to be president, but Blaine was actually okay with this. Blaine’s concern, primarily, in 1880, was not seeing Grant nominated again. So he was okay with his friend Garfield being nominated.
I think Sherman was obviously disappointed, especially since the nomination ended up going to somebody else from Ohio, but not him. They all of course said that they supported Garfield as the nominee; they wanted to present a united front for the party.
It turns out Grant was the one who was the most upset by this. And we find that out later when Garfield actually has become president and gets into this very public squabble with Roscoe Conkling, who is also extremely unhappy because he wanted his guy Grant to be nominated. Grant does send a sort of peevish letter to Garfield, and Garfield responds in kind, both in his letter, but also in his diary about how sort of insolent Grant was acting to the office that he once held. I think Grant comes off looking a little thin-skinned in this whole thing. A lot of that didn’t come until later, after Garfield became president. Garfield remarks in his diary at one point, he didn’t realize how much the third term mentality had really gotten to Grant, and that Grant was acting very untoward to the presidency.
[37:20-38:00] Richard:
Interesting interactions then between those three people, Garfield, Grant and Conkling, and I believe we could probably even say that it brings up two interesting developments during the campaign, one of which is a part of a podcast, which is the conference at Mentor here, with Grant arriving and making some kind of a friendly gesture then. But also a very interesting part of another podcast, which I believe that you and I are going to be part of, which describes how Conkling came on board eventually, to support Garfield. So we won’t get into that today. . .
[38:01-04] Todd:
That’s okay! We’ll save that for the next one.
[38:05-38:41] Richard:
Well, many thanks Todd Arrington, for your input into this important part of American political history, and Garfield’s trajectory towards the White House. So with this podcast now, we leave James Garfield leaving the convention himself, ready to launch into his campaign for President of the United States. Little does he know then that his campaign will be an unusual one—one feature that will mark it forever in American political history as the Front Porch Campaign. Our next podcast will delve into that. Thank you for listening.
[38:42-38:50] Transition music
[38:51-39:21] Female voice speaks while the music continues:
Thank you for listening to A Fickle Current, a podcast about the political career of James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the United States. This podcast is a production of James A. Garfield National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System, located in Mentor, Ohio. For more information about the podcast, podcast transcripts, visiting the site, special events and more, please visit our home page at www.nps.gov/jaga.
[39:22-39:43] Theme Music Outro
Episode 2: The Front Porch Campaign
President Rutherford B. Hayes told Garfield to, "sit cross-legged and look wise" for the duration of the campaign. Taking that advise Garfield used his farm, his home and family, and his small, rural community to define himself, and welcome the country. Chapter Two, The Front Porch Campaign, will explore some of the events that took place on the Garfield property in Mentor, Ohio.
[0:00-0:17] Theme Music Intro- an 1880 campaign march for Garfield, sourced Library of Congress
[0:18-0:20] Music continues to play and fades out while a female voice speaks:
Chapter 2: The Front Porch Campaign
[0:21-0:49] A male voice reads:
“I beg you to make no promises to anybody. I have seen such misfortunes resulting from hasty promises by Presidential candidates that I am especially anxious to impress the point. . . .Please don’t make any journeys, or any speeches. . . .There is no place where you can do so much for your supporters and be so comfortable yourself, from now on until November, as on your farm.” -Whitelaw Reid, June 12, 1880
[0:50-1:01] Transition music
[1:02-3:20] Female voice, Joan Kapsch:
During the convention that nominated James Garfield on the 36th ballot, he wrote to his wife nearly every day. On May 31, 1880, “Another day nearly over, full of the extraordinary passion, suspicion, and excitement of this convention. I have tried to keep my head cool; and have sailed rather steadily over rough seas . . .I begin to feel quite confident that neither Grant nor Blaine can get the nomination, and I fear that the bitterness already engendered and yet to be, will make it impossible for the convention to restore harmony to the party. . .If I were well out of this straight and with you I should be happy.”
Far from being “out of this straight,” Garfield returned to Mentor as his party’s nominee. He was faced with a huge challenge—reuniting a party that was as divided leaving the convention as it had been when the delegates arrived in Chicago. Defeated candidate James G. Blaine declared, “I should much prefer to see the party defeated with Garfield or some other candidate. . .to winning with Grant. Garfield will be beaten,” he said, by a combination of hostility from Stalwarts and Sherman backers. But Sherman, back in Washington after his unsuccessful bid, warned of the three Senators who led the Grant supports in Chicago. “The ‘triumvirate’ talk very ugly privately. If they keep it up until November Garfield will surely be defeated.”
Garfield had no organization, no managers, and no strategy. His two decades in Congress gave him some advantages—a long record on public issues, national credibility, and a wide network of contacts. But having nominated one of the most talented orators in the Republican Party, all of his advisors told him that he should maintain a dignified silence on his farm in Mentor, Ohio, while party regulars organized and managed the fall campaign.
[3:21-7:25] A new female voice, Debbie Weinkamer:
In 1956, Lucretia Garfield’s granddaughter wrote that her grandmother had been on her hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor in her Mentor, Ohio farmhouse, when news of Garfield’s nomination arrived via that telegram. “Dear Wife, if the result meets your approval, I shall be content. Love to all the household. Signed: J. A. Garfield”
Lucretia’s world – and that of her family of five children, ages 7-16 – changed quickly and dramatically. Now their domestic life would need to be reordered in many ways to cope with the demands of the campaign.
On the evening of June 8, 1880, the day Garfield won the nomination, a crowd of over 2,000 neighbors from Mentor and nearby towns came to congratulate Lucretia – before the candidate even arrived home from Chicago. She wrote to her newly-nominated husband: “The events of the past week grow to seem more and more unreal. But I suppose I shall grow accustomed to it all after a while. I ought to be now, for I have had to travel fast and think even faster ever since I have known you [JAG], to keep even within seeing distance.”
Lucretia went right to work, tackling those tasks requiring her immediate attention. She focused on completing the household repairs that were transforming their small, run-down farmhouse into a comfortable Victorian home. The addition, begun in late February 1880, had been barely completed by the time Delegate Garfield left for Chicago – the roof was raised, a full second floor built, and a half-story added that contained the older boys’ dormitory. Now, Crete had to take charge of the final details: plumbers installing the bathtub and sink, the delayed arrival of the dining room cupboards, rain preventing the painters from their outside work, glass missing for the main front door, a working doorbell, etc., all while groups descended upon the Mentor Farm. She wrote, “I am afraid we shall still be staring through open windows in the Hall when you (JAG) return as the glass has not yet come.” James replied, “I build up in my imagination every new thing done by my architect and her workmen and think of her as waving her creative wand and banishing chaos while order and beauty come smiling out of the night.”
Simultaneously, she had to be prepared – at a moment’s notice – to serve light refreshments or entertain extra guests for meals. The story goes that Lucretia provided “standing refreshments” as small groups were received in the entry hall of their home. They would be given a glass of lemonade and a few cookies – but no chair. That way, when the refreshments were consumed, the guests had to exit, and the new group brought in.
Frequently, important callers had to be put up overnight. The Garfield house was “literally overrun with visitors and correspondents.” Once home for their summer break from their Concord, New Hampshire boarding school, the older boys, Hal and Jim, were sometimes sent off to the cow barns to sleep in the hay, giving up their beds for friends and family. Hal’s summertime Greek tutor had been impressed with the inexhaustible hospitality of the Garfield home. The younger boys, Irvin and Abram, seemed untouched by the all hurly-burly of the campaign as they played in the fields, fished and swam in the nearby creek, and attended the local school that Fall.
[7:26-9:40] A Male voice, Alan Gephardt:
Today, it is hard to believe that there was ever a time when presidential candidates did not go around the country speaking to large gatherings of supporters, expressing their policy positions on the current issues of the day. But such was the case throughout most of the nineteenth century. Candidates did not openly campaign to become president. That was considered undignified. It was looked on as “pandering” for votes – not something a potential president should do. The office should seek the man. The man who was “seeking” the office was clearly unworthy of it.
Garfield’s sudden and unexpected elevation to presidential candidate presented a problem. He loved campaigning, he loved speaking before crowds. But, for the presidency, tradition demanded otherwise. He noted in his diary that many of his correspondents “urge me to take to the stump. I will pause awhile before I consent. Yet on many accounts I would be glad to do so.”
Yet “the problem” also presented an opportunity to innovate. James Garfield loved his farm, and whenever he was away from it, he longed for it. When he returned from the convention, he found a crowd of supporters – and reporters – in his front yard. He greeted the gathering before him, speaking to them as if to friends. He did not directly speak to the issues of the day, because that, too, would be considered improper.
But soon, groups of various kinds were asking to come to see him at his home, and the Front Porch Campaign was born. James Garfield could now engage his passion for his farm, have his loved ones by his side, and introduce himself to diverse groups, large and small. The presence of a press corps, local and national in scope, insured a steady curiosity about him throughout the summer and fall.
[9:41-9:53] Transition music
[9:54-10:23] Joan:
The first weeks of the campaign were devoted to organizing and devising ways to introduce the candidate to the country. Supporters created “Garfield and Arthur” clubs who distributed campaign biographies, printed copies of Garfield’s congressional speeches, and thousands of campaign posters, badges and ribbons. Partisans came to Mentor to offer support or ask for jobs in the campaign.
[120:24-11:39] Alan:
Among the most influential newspapers of the day was The New York Tribune. With scores of journalists from around the country using nationwide wire services, the Tribune had a reach well beyond New York. Its editor was Whitelaw Reid. A few years younger than the presidential nominee, he was also an Ohioan, had a teaching career in his background, and, like Garfield, respected intellectual achievement.
Reid became a close advisor to Garfield. “Make no compromises with factional leaders in the Republican party and make no speeches. Stay home.” President Hayes said much the same thing, with a little more color: “Sit crossed-legged, and look wise until after the election.” Garfield stayed home, mostly. Yes, he dedicated a Union memorial here and there; he spoke at the commencement at his alma mater in Hiram; and he attended the occasional fair. But mostly, he stayed home. Home was the center of the family, and the American family was the foundation of the nation. His home and his family demonstrated that.
[11:40-13:06] Debbie:
In addition to the immediate Garfield family, the candidate’s aged mother, affectionately called “Grandma Garfield” by the newspapers, was part of the household and became an important aspect of the “picturesque tableaux” of Farmer Garfield at home with his family. Nearly 80 years old, she charmed the reporters, who camped out on the lawns and across the dirt road in the corn field. She regaled them with stories of her young James growing up in a log cabin – poor and fatherless – acquiring an education to rise above his station in life. The recurring newsmen soon dubbed the Mentor Farm, “Lawnfield,” for its wide expanses of grassy outdoor spaces, its farm fields, and as a play on the candidate’s last name. They recorded every visitor and asked family members personal questions, while newspaper artists, like Joseph B. Beale of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News, sketched various scenes throughout the house, across the farm, in the Campaign Office, and around town. The July 3, 1880 edition of Frank Leslie’s featured a drawing of reporters interviewing daughter Mollie and Grandma Garfield - who “most hospitably entertained” them in the absence of the candidate and his wife.
[13:07-15:37] Joan:
On June twenty-third the Democratic National Convention nominated General Winfield Scott Hancock, a distinguished veteran of Gettysburg and the Wilderness campaign, and William H. England** of Indiana. Hancock had no political experience, but as a nationally recognized Union hero, his nomination blunted the Republican attack that the Democrats were the party of rebellion. And he lived in New York, the state with enough electoral votes to decide the election. English came from another must win northern state. The fall campaign would challenge the political and organizational skills of both parties, but the Democrats were united behind their ticket, while the Republicans were divided and disorganized, with bruised egos in abundance.
Garfield’s best hope for uniting his fractious party was his Letter of Acceptance. While the party had adopted a platform at the convention, this letter allowed the candidate to stake out his own positions and perhaps suggest compromise on some contentious issues. The question of Chinese immigration, most important in Pacific coast states, had been growing as an issue for several years. In his acceptance letter, Garfield attacked it as “too much like an importation to be welcomed without restriction,” and recommended negotiating treaty revisions with the Chinese government. The other significant question, the one that had divided the party at the convention, was civil service reform. His statement about it in the Acceptance letter was vague and contradictory, and it failed to satisfy any faction of his party.
The letter, dated July 10, was sent to Republican National Headquarters in New York City, and released to newspapers in pamphlet form. It did not have the hoped-for effect, particularly on the New York Stalwarts, led by Roscoe Conkling, who continued to show no interest in supporting or campaigning for the ticket. It would take an extraordinary and unprecedented party conference in New York City at the beginning of August to change the campaign dynamic and engage the national committee in planning and fundraising for the fall, especially in the northeast.
[15:38-17:25] Alan:
At home, Garfield made no political speeches, but he did talk to the people who came to see him. To farmers he spoke about the importance of farming and the benefits of a farm life. To businessmen he spoke of the importance of business in the national economy. He reminisced with Civil War veterans, black and white, about their service and sacrifice in preserving the Union and in ending slavery in the United States. To young men in college he recalled his own
college years and his passion for study.
The people came to see him and hear him, to see his farm, to meet the members of his family. They came to him as German residents of Cleveland, as The First Voters Garfield and Arthur Battalion of Cleveland; they came in the guise of the Lincoln Club of Indianapolis, and as a small group of fourteen Indianans from Vincennes. Those who came from his own county and the counties nearby - from Lake County and Ashtabula County, from Trumbull and Mahoning - he spoke as a neighbor and friend.
When not talking to delegations of citizens, the candidate was occupied with other aspects of conducting a political campaign - answering daily the dozens of letters that arrived at the campaign office back of the house, reading the newspapers to track the course of the canvass around the country, meeting privately with advisors and politicians in his new office on the second floor of his home, a private space inaccessible to reporters. And of course, he became copy for the press on a regular, if not a daily basis.
[17:26-17:38] Transition music
[17:39-18:28] Joan:
Campaign operatives came with intelligence and left with instructions about organizing, fund raising, and scheduling stump speakers. Special emphasis was placed on the campaign in Indiana, which Garfield saw as a key to a Republican victory, and which the party had lost both in 1876, and in the 1878 mid-term elections. Indiana, like Ohio, voted in October for state, local and Congressional candidates, and in a time before public opinion polling, the results of those elections were believed to be an accurate predictor of the presidential vote a few weeks later. Garfield told everyone involved in the campaign, “If we carry Indiana, the rest will be easy.”
[18:29-19:02] Alan:
The campaigning and farm work took up much of James Garfield's time that summer. It occupied the various members of his family to different degrees as well. It was important work, and it was hard work. In between Garfield found the time to relax with his family and friends, with card games and word games, gathering around the parlor piano for an evening of song, assembling on the lawn for a game of croquet or lawn tennis. And there was always reading--reading for knowledge, and reading for pleasure.
[19:03-19:57] Debbie:
Hundreds of well-wishers, delegations, office seekers, authors, artists, and people of all sorts descended upon the Mentor Farm throughout the summer of 1880. They trampled the lawns, climbed the fences, took fruit from the orchard, slept on the Garfield property – someone even took the front gate as a souvenir! Plans had to be made to re-sod the front lawns and construct a new fence. Nighttime brought torch parades down the main dirt road in front of the house and music wafting across the farm, as the candidate’s family tried to enjoy “normal” moments together in their parlor. At the center of the family was Lucretia, keeping the household intact despite the whirlwind around them. She was not the type to buckle under.
[19:58-21:18] Joan:
The campaign did get ugly, with Democrats rehashing every scandal or bit of gossip from Garfield’s long career, even implying that he took his seat in Congress in 1863 out of physical cowardice. The most dangerous attack was an October surprise. On October 20, a Democratic newspaper called the New York Truth published a letter they claimed was written by James Garfield to a man name H.L. Morey, a union leader from Lynn, Massachusetts. The letter suggested that Garfield preferred unlimited Chinese immigration, a position directly at odds with both the Republican platform and Garfield’s position as he described it in his acceptance letter.
The “Chinese question” was especially important in western states, and with wage workers across the country who feared Chinese laborers undercutting their salaries and job prospects. The letter was a complete forgery. What effect would it have on Election Day? In his journal Garfield wrote, “I can hardly believe that a rational and just-minded public will be influenced by such a wicked device.”
[21:19-21:46] Alan:
As Autumn descended on Mentor and the farm of its most famous resident, it was time for the nation to decide if he would become its next president. Election Day, Tuesday, November 2, finally arrived. After a morning discussing farm affairs with his farmhands, Garfield set off at
2:00 in the afternoon to cast his vote at the town hall. The busy, pleasant summer was over.
[21:47-21:50] Transition music
[21:50-22:24] Female voice speak
Thank you for listening to A Fickle Current, a podcast about the political career of James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the United States. This podcast is a production of James A. Garfield National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System, located in Mentor, Ohio. For more information about the podcast, podcast transcripts, visiting the site, special events and more, please visit our home page at www.nps.gov/jaga.
[22:25-22:46] Theme Music Outro
**At 13:18 – General Hancock’s Vice President was William H. English.
Episode 3: The 5th Avenue Conference
In 1880, the New York Republican Party played a large part in the presidential campaign season. The man in charge the party in New York was Roscoe Conkling, who also made a stop to the Garfield Home. Today's episode is a discussion between Site Manager Todd Arrington and volunteer Richard Robyn where they talk about a meeting that took place in New York referred as, "The 5th Avenue Conference."
Credit / Author:
Rebekah Knaggs, Dan McGill, Joan Kapsch, Todd Arrington and Richard Robyn.
[0:00-0:17] Theme Music Intro- an 1880 campaign march for Garfield, sourced Library of Congress
[0:18-0:22] Music continues to play and fades out while a female voice speaks:
Chapter 3: The Fifth Avenue Conference
[0:23-0:26] A male voice reads:
“The state of New York is important, probably vital and it is worth while, perhaps to stoop a little to conquer much.”
[0:27-0:32] A female voice says:
Letter, William E. Chandler to James A. Garfield, July 24, 1880
[0:33-0:45] Transition music
[0:46-3:39] Female voice:
Every successful politician knows how to count votes; in presidential elections that means counting electoral votes. After the disputed election of 1876 and the end of reconstruction in the south, Republicans recognized that their only hope of winning the 1880 presidential election was by winning the northern states they had lost four years before. On June 29, Garfield wrote, “It is clear that in the North, to which we must in the main look for success, there are two centers of contest. The one is New York, with the adjacent states of Connecticut and New Jersey, and the other Is Indiana.“
Most important, and the biggest electoral prize, was New York. And the Republican Party of New York was controlled by Roscoe Conkling, who had left the Chicago convention angry, humiliated and defeated. He made it clear that his support for the Garfield ticket would come at a price. Conkling wanted a private meeting, in New York, where he expected assurances that he would be recognized as the leader of the New York party, and would have control of federal appointments in the state.
Conkling, in fact, did not have the support of every New York Republican. A sizable faction, with support in the press, had opposed Conkling for some time, broken the unit rule at the convention, and voted for Blaine, and then Garfield, giving him the nomination. The candidate owed recognition to them, and had to be very careful to appease both sides, or face the prospect of loosing New York, and the election.
The Republican National Committee invited the candidate to New York for a party conference—“They not only requested it, but declared it is vitally necessary to their successful work,” said Garfield. The whole conference was designed to put Garfield and Conkling together in New York, without it appearing that the candidate was yielding to Senator Conkling’s demands. Garfield sent Charles Henry, a trusted political advisor to New York, asking him for an honest appraisal of the situation. Henry’s reply: “The New York Senator pouts now. The independents may pout if they see him look pleased after your interview. You need God’s help to keep both sides from pouting at the same time.”
It is not surprising that Garfield wrote in his diary” “I am very reluctant to go. It is an unreasonable demand that so much effort should be made to conciliate one man.” July 28
[3:55-4:51] Male voice, interviewer Richard Robyn:
Hello, my name is Richard Robyn, professor of political science at Kent State University, and volunteer at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. Joining me to discuss what has become known as the Fifth Avenue Summit of August, 1880, is Todd Arrington, site manager at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. Todd, we are fortunate to have you as an expert to discuss this key summit meeting in the election of 1880. Before we delve into the summit itself, why don’t you set the scene. The Republican party in 1880 was the governing party, and had been since Abraham Lincoln twenty years before. Yet for all it’s success, the party was riven by factions. Maybe no faction was bigger than the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds. Strange names—can you describe these?
[4:52-8:04] Male voice, interviewee Todd Arrington:
The Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds were, as you say, two factions of the Republican party, and they had really kind of squared off at the 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago, which of course, is the convention that ended up nominating James Garfield for President. You know, there weren’t really that many differences between the two factions, they really agreed on almost everything. The two things that they really kind of disagreed on where who should be the Republican nominee in 1880. The Stalwarts wanted it to be Ulysses S. Grant, who of course had already been president for two terms, and then left for four years, and then in 1880 he wanted to come back and run again. The Stalwarts were all for that; the Stalwarts had been very powerful and very influential during Grant’s two terms, and they were eager to, once again, be the rulers of the Republican party.
The Half-Breeds were not so excited about Grant coming back for a third term. It wasn’t even so much that they were worried about Grant himself, as they were that they didn’t want to set the precedent of anyone seeking a third term. Now remember, at this point in American history, there’s no constitutional amendment that says you can’t run for a third term as president, but all presidents up to that point--including Grant--who did leave voluntarily after two full terms, all presidents up to this point had limited themselves to two terms, really because that was the example set by George Washington. So nobody had seriously flirted with the idea of a third term up to this point, and then suddenly, here’s Grant, and really the Stalwart Republicans, who are promoting Grant, suddenly proposing to change that precedent. A lot of people, including Garfield—he was one of those so-called Half-Breeds—did not like the idea of Grant coming back to run for a third term, primarily because they didn’t like the idea of a third term for anyone. There was also some concern about Grant. He had had some scandals during his eight years. People still liked and trusted Grant, he was personally honest, we know that. But there was concern about anyone, but especially Grant, seeking a third term.
The other issue that really separated the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds was the idea of reforming the civil service. The Stalwarts really liked the patronage system that had been in place forever, where you could give jobs to anybody you wanted to—didn’t matter if they were qualified or if they had any experience that would lend them to think that they would be good at this job. Whereas the Half-Breeds were starting to think, “You know we probably need a better system here. We need people whose loyalty is to the constitution and to the country and to the American people, not to the party that is in power.” Stalwarts really liked patronage, they liked being able to build that power base using jobs as a way to do that. Some of the Half-Breeds had been very adept at using the patronage system for years and years, but some of those Half-Breeds were starting to come around to the idea of needing some kind of reform of the civil service, making it more of a system based on merit rather than just “who do you know.”
[8:05-8:15] Richard:
I think that’s going to get right into my next question, which is who was Roscoe Conkling, and why is he so important to Garfield in the campaign?
[8:16-10:47] Todd:
Conkling was the senior senator from New York, and he was sort of the king of the patronage system. He had been in power in New York for a long time. He was also extremely powerful, especially during the Grant years, so that was one of the reasons he was so high on seeing Grant come back and run again. Conkling really was the master of the patronage system. He used that system more effectively than anyone to build that power base and really make Republicans in thousands of federal jobs, especially in the state of New York, loyal to him. He had no interest at all in seeing that system go away. But because he was so powerful, he was also very influential, and Garfield--even though Garfield was more of a Half-Breed--Garfield recognized that once he became the nominee he needed Conkling. If Conkling didn’t throw his support and his organization behind the campaign, Garfield know he was sunk.
This was the first time that there was a very legitimate threat that the Republicans were going to lose this election. They had, in fact, lost the popular vote in 1876, between Hayes and Tilden. But of course this electoral commission that Garfield ended up being part of eventually turned those electoral votes of those southern states that were disputed over to Hayes, making Hayes the nineteenth president. And then in 1880, Democrats really had a rallying cry which was trying to right the wrong that was done to Tilden four years before.
Garfield was a very astute politician, and he knew that his election was not at all a done deal, and he knew he was sunk if he couldn’t get Roscoe Conkling on board. Conkling was critical to Garfield’s hopes to be elected, and of course New York was the electoral prize at that point—and still is to some degree—it’s still a very large state with a lot of electoral votes. At the time, New York could go either way. Tilden, of course, was from New York, he was the governor of New York in 1876, when he ran. He did win New York when he ran against Hayes. So the Republicans knew they had to have New York, and that meant they had to have Roscoe Conkling’s support.
[10:48-11:01] Richard:
We talk a lot about the Fifth Avenue Summit. In fact, James Garfield and the party had put together a larger conference at which the summit took place, secretly. So, what was the purpose of the conference itself?
[11:02-13:06] Todd: Well, it was organized by the Republican party, which was headquartered in New York, really as kind of a meeting of the minds, plotting campaign strategy, getting ready to unveil the national campaign for Garfield for president. That was how the Republicans sold the idea publicly. Privately, the real impetus here was trying to get Garfield and Conkling to sit down together.
Conkling was famously, famously prickly and touchy. He was very easily offended. He had a bit of a bruised ego, as did U.S. Grant, coming out of that 1880 convention in June that took place in Chicago because it didn’t go the way they thought it was going to. They thought Grant was going to win. They thought he was going to be nominated on the first ballot, and it didn’t go that way. And they turned the nomination over to this sort-of Half-Breed, Garfield. So Conkling is feeling the wounded pride. . .
So really what the Republicans are trying to do here, is they are trying to get Garfield and Conkling in the same room so they can hammer out any differences they have, and they can agree on how they are going to run this campaign. Garfield, again, as I said before, knows he needs Conkling. Conkling has got to get involved in this campaign, or Garfield knows his chances of winning this election are pretty slim.
So really, ultimately, I don’t want to say the whole thing was a ruse, because they did actually have a meeting, and they talked about some things--the party leadership as a whole. But ultimately it was planned by Stephen Dorsey, who was the secretary of the party at the time, as a way to get Garfield and Conkling in the same room together to hammer out their differences and get Conkling on board with this campaign.
[13:07-13:20] Richard: On his way to the conference, and thus the summit meeting, Garfield made a slow way across the northeast, from Ohio to New York by train, stopping many times for speeches. What can you say about this?
[13:21-15:36] Todd: Garfield does go on this kind of circuitous route through northeast Ohio, and through the top of Pennsylvania and then on into New York, and did make a lot of stops along the way. This was a golden opportunity to get out there and be seen and let people see him, and try to start getting some enthusiasm going among the Republican faithful for this campaign. He stopped, for example, in Geneva, Ohio, not far from us, and spoke at the dedication of a Civil War monument. When he pulled into Buffalo, they say that there were fifty thousand people there. That’s amazing to think about. Of course, he gives this speech, and you wonder how many of those fifty thousand heard any of what he actually had to say (chuckle), because its 1880. He doesn’t have a microphone or megaphone or anything like that.
So he stops along the way and gives these addresses. Really it’s almost like a preview of what’s about to come, which is that front porch campaign here at his home in Mentor. Like he does here with his front porch speeches, he’s not talking so much about himself. He’s talking about the party, and the Republicans as the party of Lincoln, and the party of emancipation, and loyalty to the country during the Civil War. It’s almost like a stump speech, but it’s not the typical stump speech that we expect from presidential candidates today. Today they’re expected to be out there, and to be in front of as many people as they can, and talk about themselves, and why are they running, and what do they want to do about this issue or that issue, or foreign policy, or domestic policy, or taxes, or whatever. And that’s just not the way it was done in 1880. So Garfield’s not really talking about himself as “I should be the next president because of x, y and z, and you should not vote for Winfield Scott Hancock because of a, b and c.” It’s more of a general type stump speech about the accomplishments of the Republican party, not about his own accomplishments. He gives several of these speeches on this long trip of about a day and a half or two days, between northeast Ohio and New York City.
[15:37-16:09] Richard: So they arrive in New York City, and they go to the Fifth Avenue Hotel where the conference is taking place, but of course the summit meeting—this secret summit. . . It’s been described as the quintessential back room political deal. Ken Ackerman in his book, Dark Horse, says, “In the annals of political backroom deals, the Fifth Avenue Summit of August 1880 deserves its own special pedestal.” (chuckle) Wow! Could you describe the Fifth Avenue meeting. Who were the main protagonists?
[16:10-19:20] Todd: Of course, as I said earlier, the whole point was to get Garfield and Conkling in the room together. So Garfield is there, and Chester A. Arthur is there, who, of course, is the vice-presidential nominee. Arthur and Benjamin Harrison, a future president, William McKinley, another future president, all of these guys had actually been on part of the train ride with Garfield.
And then once they get to New York, and Garfield goes into this back room and starts talking to guys like Chester A. Arthur; Thomas Platt—who’s also a New Yorker, and junior senator from New York; Levi Morton who is one of the most well-known financiers in New York City, he’s a Wall Street guy. But there is one person who is notoriously absent, of course, and that’s Roscoe Conkling.
Conkling did not even bother to show up to the meeting. There’s any number of reasons that he may have decided to just basically blow the whole thing off. Everybody, almost, in that room, in this secret summit that they were having—sort of the meeting behind the meeting—was a Conkling lieutenant, including Chester A. Arthur, who is running for vice president with Garfield, and now here’s his boss, Conkling, actively opposing Garfield and refusing to meet with Garfield. So that’s sort of an interesting dynamic there, to say the least.
So there’s a lot of these really highly placed Republicans, a lot of the party leadership, some of them elected officials, some of them not. Some of them just people who work for the party. And then, here comes James Garfield, the presidential nominee, and they sit down and really start talking about what do we need to do get Conkling, to get the Stalwart Republicans, to get even former President Grant involved in this campaign? And of course, what it’s going to take, as far as the Stalwarts are concerned, is they need some concessions from Garfield. They want, for example, to have someone—at least one of their own—very highly place in the administration.
There would be some controversy later about whether or not Garfield promised Levi Morton the Secretary of the Treasury’s job. Garfield always said he did not make that promise. Conkling and the Stalwarts said that he did, we’re not sure. It seems like both sides heard what they wanted to hear. (chuckle) So Garfield would write in his diary afterword that he thinks he made no major mistakes, and that, therefore, this meeting was a success. And then the Stalwarts would also note that he made this promise, and that therefore we know our guy is going to be Secretary of the Treasury, which is one of the prized cabinet positions. But also the Secretary of the Treasury controls the New York Customs House and controls a lot of the patronage jobs that are going to be given away, both in New York, which is of course, Conkling’s territory, and really throughout the country.
[19:21-12:27] Richard: Now, Conkling was supposed to come to the meeting. He doesn’t come. Was he in the hotel? (chuckle) Where was he? Any idea?
[19:28-21:31] Todd: Conkling—he’s one of those guy you almost wish was still alive so we could have a psychiatrist or a psychologist really get to know what made this guy tick. He wore these sort of really outlandish clothes, like yellow waistcoats and all this kind of stuff. He was meticulous about how his hair looked. He hated to be touched—he didn’t like people to touch him. He didn’t like shaking hands, he didn’t like being tapped on the shoulder—none of that stuff. He was a really famously, famously difficult personality. He was very powerful. He demanded a lot of deference from pretty much everybody. And he was still very, very, frankly, ticked off about the convention in June in Chicago not going the way he thought it was going to. He had that wounded pride that I mentioned before, and he just refused to come to this meeting.
There’s some that say he was in the hotel, but maybe in a room upstairs, and refused to come downstairs. There’s some others who say he was in the city but not in the hotel, that maybe he was staying at his brother’s house, or he might have been out on Coney Island. There’s no question he was in New York City; whether he was in the building or not, I’m not sure. His refusal to come to this meeting was not a travel delay, for example. He was there, and he knew exactly what was happening, and I’m quite sure that people like Levi Morton and Chester Arthur or Tom Platt were reporting to him immediately what was happening. But he would not stoop low enough to come and sit in the room with Garfield.
It’s so fascinating to think about the process, and how did this guy think, and why did he act this way? Again, I think he’d make a fascinating psychological study.
[21:32-21:46] Richard: Nobody wrote anything about this meeting. You said that Garfield wrote in his diary about the meeting, but just in general terms. Nobody wrote about who said what to whom, and who promised what? Nothing.
[21:47-23:29] Todd: Not really. There were no very specific meeting notes or anything like that taken in this kind of secret summit that was part of this larger Republican meeting. The larger meeting of course was public knowledge. Everybody knew that this was happening. The sort of secret side meeting was the thing that nobody really knew about. But no, there were no meeting notes kept that I’m aware of. Some people—Garfield of course made some notes in his diary about the things that the Stalwarts really wanted. They wanted control of as much patronage as possible in New York. They wanted someone from their wing of the party to be very highly placed in the cabinet or in the administration. Some of these were things Garfield admits that he agreed to. Others were things that again there were some discrepancies later between the two sides, where Garfield says “I didn’t promise that.” And the Stalwarts say “Yes, you did.”
That’s really what leads to the very public squabble that Garfield has with Conkling after Garfield becomes president. So really this very brief presidency the Garfield has, is really dominated by this public spat with Conkling about patronage jobs, about civil service reforms, specifically about the New York Customs House. Perhaps if Conkling had come to this meeting, instead of relying on hearing everything second hand, from Arthur or Morton, or whoever, maybe they would have been able to iron these things out. But really, knowing what we know about Conkling, I think it’s a safe bet that Conkling would have said at some point, either way, even if he had been in the room, that Garfield wasn’t living up to his end of the deal. Conkling was one of those guys that if he wants a hundred things and you give him ninety-nine, he’d going to obsess about the one he didn’t get. And in this case it was the Customs House in New York, and it really became a bit of an issue for he and Garfield when Garfield became president.
[23:30-23:48] Richard: That’s the next question we want to try to get to—what were the outcomes of the meeting? You said, for example the New York Custom House did not go to Conkling or to his minions, so that’s one big outcome. What other outcomes?
[23:49-25:20] Todd: Garfield had to feel he was relatively successful at this meeting, and he did, he indicates that in his diary. He doesn’t think he made any major mistakes, he thinks he got out of this in a pretty good position.
Ultimately, you have to think he’s right, because Conkling and Grant did eventually get involved with the campaign. Now, they didn’t get as involved as Garfield would have liked. They gave a few speeches here and there. And there was one instance, which I believe was in New York City, where Conkling gives this two-hour speech about the election and never mentions Garfield’s name. Garfield was fuming about that. How could he speak for two hours and never mention the name of the man at the top of the ticket?
Then Grant and Conkling did actually come and speak at a meeting right here in Ohio, in Warren. And, same thing, they barely mentioned Garfield’s name, but they were speaking for the ticket; they were speaking for the party, and therefore, even though maybe they didn’t serve Garfield as well as Garfield would have liked, ultimately they did get involved. That can only be because of their feelings about having gotten some good movement from Garfield in that Fifth Avenue meeting. In that respect, yes, you have to say the meeting was a success for Garfield.
[25:21-26:00] Richard: Very interesting, and the point you’re making about Garfield being a very practical politician, might lead some listeners to think he wasn’t standing on principle all the time. But he did, on several different occasions, and I think modern listeners might be interested in hearing that, particularly on race matters—especially his thoughts on freed slaves. For example, during the conference, when he was speaking to a large crowd in New York City, he made reference to the allegiance of Black Americans and white Americans to the United States of America. Could you talk about that?
[26:01-31:28] Todd: That’s actually one of my favorite Garfield speeches. It was the evening of August 6, 1880; it was while Garfield was in New York for this summit. They have this major, major Republican rally, in I think it’s Madison Square Park, right by the Fifth Avenue Hotel. It’s like that crowd he had in Buffalo, when thousands and thousands, maybe as many as fifty thousand people out there chanting for Garfield, getting all excited about the coming election, and about the Republican ticket.
So Garfield appears on the balcony and he gives this speech. He actually devotes quite a bit of the speech to talking about the loyalty of African-Americans during the Civil War. He makes reference to “We’ve seen white men betray the flag, and fight to kill the Union, but in all that long and dreary war, we never saw a traitor in a black skin.” So here he’s contrasting southern white Americans who, in his mind, committed treason against the country by seceding and fighting for the Confederacy—contrasting that with people who are enslaved and who still are loyal to the country that has been enslaving them for 250 years, and fight to beat the Confederacy and keep the Union together, and of course, to emancipate themselves and their families. It’s a really powerful speech and I think it speaks to just how strong Garfield really was on civil rights.
As you said, he did stand on principle. Yes, he was practical; you have to be practical to be an elected official whether it’s 1880 or 2020. You have to be practical, you have to be willing to compromise from time and time, and Garfield was certainly willing to do those things, as evidenced by the fact that he’s meeting with the Stalwarts and giving some concessions to get them involved in the campaign. But there were some things that he was not willing to bend on, and civil rights was one of those issues.
He was, of course, a very vocal abolitionist before the Civil War. He recognized immediately when the war started--slavery is what it’s all about. Two days after Fort Sumter, he’s writing this letter, where he says, “The war will soon assume the shape of slavery and freedom.” We know it’s the root cause of all of this. He recognized that very early on. He was adamant that Lincoln should immediately issue and emancipation proclamation, which of course Lincoln didn’t do, and that frustrated Garfield. But Garfield puts his money where his mouth is, and joins the army, fights for two and a half years, both leading soldiers--also as a staff officer for a while. Then at the end of 1863, goes to Congress, where he’s a very, very reliable Republican voice and vote for civil rights legislation.
But in 1880, when Garfield is making this speech from the balcony of the hotel, and months later when he is inaugurated, a lot of Republicans, even some former so-called Radical Republicans, really aren’t talking much about civil rights anymore. They’re tired of the issue; they feel they’ve done all they need to do. They won the war, they emancipated the enslaved, they passed the reconstruction amendments to the Constitution. It’s time for the Republican party and for the country to move on to some other things.
Garfield is one of those Republicans who is still saying no, we have a lot of work to do here yet, and he wasn’t afraid to say that. He made reference to it in this speech in New York City, and then months later in his inaugural address he references it again when it would have been very easy and very politically practical just to ignore civil rights. We’ve done enough, we’re moving on to other things. He didn’t do that. He says in the inaugural, “The elevation of the Negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have know” since the adoption of the Constitution in 1787. And then he goes on to talk about why this was so important, why it was the right thing to do. Garfield isn’t letting the Republicans off the hook, he’s saying we still have a lot of work to do. That was, frankly, a bold thing to do in 1880 and 1881. It would have been very easy to just not do that.
So, yes, he did stand on principle on a lot of issues. And certainly race relations and civil rights for the formerly enslaved are two of those issues. And those are some of the things that make me so sad that he didn’t get the chance to serve a full term, or a full two terms, perhaps, because I think he could have made so much good progress in that area of race relations and civil rights.
[31:29-31:37] Richard: In a specific kind of a way, because of Reconstruction, which basically falls by the wayside after his assassination, too.
[31:38-32:49] Todd: Some people will even argue that Reconstruction was basically over by the time Garfield became President—I would argue that Reconstruction, in some ways is still going on. We’ve seen some things fairly recently that remind us that full racial equality is still something that this country is working toward. We’ve made a lot of progress, but we’ve got a ways to go, too.
Who knows? Its speculation, of course, but had Garfield lived, and been given a full four years, or maybe a full eight years, maybe things would be better today. Maybe things would be different. I do think that the fact that he was so strong, especially on this issue—other issues as well, education, fiscal policy, he was very strong and very interested in both of those things as well—but I really feel like that racial equality and civil rights, those issues, I think are ones he could have made a very strong impact in had he managed to serve his full term or two.
[32:50-33:29] Richard: The question is often asked about Garfield, why did he break so many rules for politicians of his day? He was very accomplished in the ways of politics, yet he seemed to break so many rules. He went to the convention, even though it was not the custom for a possible candidate to do that. He made speeches on his own behalf, as you said earlier, even though it was kind of verboten by the conventions of the day. And after he got the nomination he engaged with his fellow Republican opponents of his candidacy to get their support, as in the Fifth Avenue summit. This is usually done by campaign staff, if anybody, rarely by the candidate himself. So what gives about Garfield?
[33:30-42:00] Todd: Well, you know, I guess to be honest, if Garfield were sitting here and we were asking him this question, he would probably say he didn’t really feel like he was doing anything revolutionary. He was just doing what he thought needed to be done.
When you talk about going to the convention, for example, in June of 1880—the idea that no one ever even whispered the name James Garfield until the Republican convention in Chicago in June of 1880 is not true. We know that there were people in certain parts of the country that thought that Garfield might be a good. . .they saw the possibility of a disputed convention and they thought that Garfield might be somebody who would be a good compromise candidate. Some people reached out to Garfield about this. Garfield knew that there were some people whispering his name. I do genuinely believe that he did not think anything would come of it. He certainly didn’t try to put that fire out—again, he was practical, and if somebody’s talking about you potentially being a candidate for president, then you’re not going to say absolutely not, under no circumstances will I do that, if you are in James Garfield’s position in 1880. But I don’t think he believed anything would come of it.
His goal in going to that convention—he had two goals, really. He was obligated to go represent John Sherman, who was Secretary of the Treasury, and who wanted the Republican nomination; and of course had sort of allied himself with Garfield to help Garfield get elected to the Senate. The Ohio legislature had elected Garfield to the Senate in January, 1880, so had he not become president in March of 1881, he would have become a Senator—so he was getting a promotion either way. So Garfield had agreed to support Sherman’s candidacy; he was there to represent Sherman and eventually Sherman even asked him to give the speech nominating him, nominating Sherman, and Garfield did that. And of course, ironically, a lot of people pointed to that speech as the thing that really made them think, at the convention, Garfield might be the guy, because it was a really powerful speech.
So he went to that convention not as someone who was actively seeking the nomination. Yes, he knew that people were talking about him sort of quietly in the background, but I really don’t think he thought anything was going to come of it, until he was there and he was seeing the way things were going. Then all of a sudden, the tone of his letters back home to his wife, for example, start taking on a different tone, where he’s saying, the convention’s favorable opinion of me seems to be growing. So I don’t think he thought it was anything untoward to go to that convention, because he was going there to represent Sherman. The other thing he really wanted to do at that convention was, of course, prevent the nomination of Grant for a third term.
Why did he engage with the public here as part of the Front Porch campaign? That was not done, really, in those days. Candidates for president didn’t interact directly with the public and they certainly didn’t give speeches. It was President Hayes who told Garfield, after he was nominated, “Go home, sit cross-legged, and look wise,” and don’t say anything to anyone. And that just wasn’t Garfield’s personality. He was an outgoing character; he really did genuinely enjoy talking to people. Especially when people started showing up here to see him, he felt obligated to at least acknowledge that they had made this trip, they were supporting his candidacy. The front porch campaign came about sort of organically from that. It was really Garfield’s sense of I don’t feel comfortable with all these people coming all this way, and wanting to see me, and hiding out in my house. So he started talking to them from the front porch. That was not a campaign strategy. I think that was something that developed kind of on its own.
It was not something revolutionary, or untoward, in his mind, to go the New York City and meet with Republican officials. There was nothing at all out of the ordinary about that. He was the presidential nominee, and because of the conventions of the day, the party was going to do all the heavy lifting of the campaign, not Garfield himself. So it was perfectly natural that he would go and basically be told what they were planning to do for him. Or maybe very quietly share some ideas about what he thought, too.
Of course we know, Garfield’s very active in his own campaign behind the scenes. He’s very actively involved in these conversations with Republican leadership, he’s very active in this secret, kind of behind-closed-doors meeting with the Stalwarts that Conkling doesn’t bother to show up to. He’s got a telegraph line running into the building behind his house here in Mentor, so he could get news, and get results of elections in other states, because there were a number of other states that voted early for congressional races. Behind the scenes, he’s very actively involved in the campaign, and I suspect a lot of candidates were in this era when they didn’t give speeches and things like that. Do you really think Abraham Lincoln sat in his house in Springfield for six months, and didn’t get involved in his own campaign? I don’t believe that for a second. Of course he’s involved, he’s just involved behind the scenes.
That was the route Garfield originally planned to take, and then when people started showing up here, with these front porch speeches, it really was just a way of thanking people and acknowledging them for coming. I think eventually Garfield realized that it was politically pretty powerful to talk to people from the front porch and have reporters copy down the speeches verbatim, almost, and run them in the newspaper. It’s free exposure. It’s good to get his name out there and to get the ideas out there from these speeches. Why look a gift horse in the mouth? Of course he’s going to keep doing it. Again, he’s a very astute and very practical politician. He realized eventually that he was getting good press coverage for this, and should continue to do it.
I don’t think Garfield would say, if we could talk to him today, that he really felt like he was doing anything that was all that different or revolutionary. He was trying to help his own campaign as best he could, without appearing to actively campaign. That was kind of a trick, in this era of history. Don’t appear to be too eager for the office. Garfield really believed that. He, several times in his career, noted in letters and his diary, that he should sit back and let things happen the way they were meant to happen. Let the office seek the man, not the other way around.
Now, he followed that for his whole life. But, he wasn’t above, very quietly and behind the scenes, helping his own case. He didn’t go to the Ohio legislature and say, please make me the next senator from the state of Ohio, but he sure had no problem getting John Sherman involved, because John Sherman was an Ohioan, and had been in the Senate for years before becoming Secretary of the Treasury. He had no problem at all saying sure I’ll accept your help, Secretary Sherman, and then I’ll help you by going and representing your interests at the Republican convention in Chicago in June of 1880. So he was not above helping himself, either, but he did it in a way that certainly was in accordance with the social and political conventions of the time.
[42:01-42:16] Richard: So James Garfield not so much a revolutionary, perhaps, but a very interesting guy, who followed his instincts; and his instincts happened to start some things in motion which become revolutionary for American politics, like the front porch campaign.
[42:17-43:53] Todd: Absolutely, I think that’s a great way to describe it. He followed his instincts, and his instincts were very good. His instincts very rarely led him down the wrong path.
[43:53-44:11] Richard: With his successful election as President of the United States, in part because of that front porch campaign, that great favorable press that he got, other candidates afterwards, following up on that and having their own front porch campaigns, too.
[44:12-44:40] Todd: Yeah, it became a popular way to run for president, off and on for the next forty years or so. I believe Harding did run a front porch campaign. That was as far forward as 1920. It was something that people clearly connected with. McKinley, of course, ran front porch campaigns in Canton. So there were a number of front porch campaigns after Garfield. He started kind of a neat trend.
[44:41-45:03] Richard: Thank you so much, Todd. Really appreciate your contribution to this, talking about one of the more interesting aspects of the 1880 campaign, this behind-the-scenes, cigar-filled room, making the political decisions that they did, and the impact that had on the campaign for president. So thank you again!
[45:04-45:13] Transition Music
[45:14-45:47] Female voice: Thank you for listening to A Fickle Current, a podcast about the political career of James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the United States. This podcast is a production of James A. Garfield National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System, located in Mentor, Ohio. For more information about the podcast, podcast transcripts, visiting the site, special events and more, please visit our home page at www.nps.gov/jaga.
[45:48-46:08] Main Title Outro
Episode 4: A Pleasant Busy Summer
On this episode of the podcast, A Fickle Current, Rangers and Volunteers will share some of their favorite stories and ancedotes from the Presidential Campaign of 1880.
Credit / Author:
Rebekah Knaggs, Todd Arrington, Joan Kapsch, Debbie Weinkamer, and Alan Gephardt
[0:00-0:17] Theme Music Intro- an 1880 campaign march for Garfield, sourced Library of Congress
[0:18-0:20] Music continues to play and fades out while a female voice speaks: Chapter 4, A Busy Yet Pleasant Summer [0:20-1:04] A Male voice: “During the campaign, with its cares and anxieties, its labors and fatigues, its slanders and assaults, there was for him one perpetual fountain of sunshine and comfort in the love and endearments of home and friends. . .The campaign was continually relegated to the little office, a building appropriately detached from the house. At all other times and places, one was reminded of a quiet, simple happy country home. At the table, the master of the house was the ruling spirit. Fun, fact, fancy, reminiscence, quotation, anecdote flowed from his lips in variety and profusion.” —A. F. Rockwell [1:05-1:32] A Female voice narrates: The summer and fall of 1880 were exciting, challenging, and always interesting for the Garfield family. The numbers tell one story—the impressive total of visitors who came, speeches given, newspaper columns and magazine articles published. Perhaps more revealing, however, are the individual stories that made it a busy, yet pleasant summer. In this chapter, we will share some of our favorites. [1:33-1:55] transition music Fisk Jubilee Singers song, “I Got A Home In-A Dat Rock”
[1:56-5:37] A different female voice reflects: James Garfield’s presidential nomination had not come to him the way his wife Lucretia had envisioned, but she still felt great pride in the outcome that made her husband the Republican candidate in 1880. Lucretia’s carefully worded letter, written-on June 13, 1880 to her older boys, Hal and Jim, who were attending St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH, demonstrates her pride, concern, responsibility, and advice – commingled. Consider being the mother of teenage boys, away from home, who were not always as careful and discreet as you would hope! Her warning was not necessarily to simply dodge train accidents, but to avoid saying or doing anything that may reflect badly on their father: “My Dear Boys, This past week has been all so strange and unexpected to us that I have scarcely known how to write to you, nor can I even now express by letter what I feel. For many reasons I am glad and happy that this high honor has been conferred on your Papa, …and my heart if full of gratitude that he could receive the nomination in the way he did. You have undoubtedly seen the papers giving full account of it all, and I will leave all that I would say to you about it until you are home with us. The time is getting very near now and my heart is full of prayer that you may be permitted to come safely home to us. I feel almost like cautioning you against accident as I used to when you were little boys, and when the time comes for you to start home I shall think of you all along the way, hoping you will take no risks. I am sure you are working with new zeal and earnestness to honor your Papa as he has honored you. If I were to write for hours I could not begin to tell you of all the rejoicing and enthusiasm which has been, and is still poured around us, but neither your Papa nor I are unmindful of the new responsibilities, and especially the increased anxieties which the coming campaign will bring, nor the added cares and exertions of the next four years should your Papa receive the election. I know your Papa will do all in his power for good, and I hope he may never fail to honor the place he fills. . . . With love and hope to see you soon, from all here, I am Your Loving Mamma, Lucretia R. Garfield” Was their mother perhaps also concerned that her warning letter might become public? James and Lucretia had “an affectionate partnership” that had included politics. Her role was one of supporting her husband’s endeavors, listening to his points of view, encouraging, suggesting, advising. And, she became politically savvy enough to never say or do anything that would publicly embarrass him. Garfield never had to worry about her. In fact, he often praised her for her diplomatic, discrete nature saying: “I have been singularly fortunate in marrying a woman who has never given me any perplexity about anything she said. I have never had to explain away words of hers… She is perfectly unstampedable…”
[5:38-5:55] transition music Fisk Jubilee Singers song, “I Got A Home In-A Dat Rock” [5:56-8:44] The first female voice narrates: In the spring or early summer of 1880, the Cleveland Leader Printing Company published a slim volume of poetry entitled simply: Prof. Cassius Marcellus Clay Zedaker’s BOOK OF POEMS The author is described in the sub-title as “The world renowned Shakespearean Elocutionist, Poet, Sweet Singer, Composer of Music and Writer of Plays, of Youngstown and Warren, Ohio. Now residing in Cleveland.” The “Professor” introduces himself with a short biography at the beginning of the book: Two years ago I was engaged doing menial labor in a sawmill…But my talents and abilities demanded a higher sphere of life. I felt that I was spired and destined to walk in the higher circles of elocution and poetry. . . In this short time, by the aid of my marvelous natural abilities and inspiration, I have far outstripped all the schools and colleges, the poets and painters of ancient and modern times, and the celebrated actors and orators bow at my feet and recognize me as their superior and teacher. . .Had I been content with mediocrity, the world would never have been dazzled with my effulgence of the rays of light emitted and darted from my treasure house of intelligence and inspiration. . . In August, the esteemed Professor travelled around northeast Ohio, declaiming, and presumably, trying to sell books. He made an overnight stop at Little Mountain, a summer resort community for wealthy Clevelanders, just a few miles from Lawnfield. There, he said, “I had the pleasure of dancing upon the evening of my arrival,” and he “composed a poem of fifteen verses on the beauties of the place.” The next day, shortly before lunchtime, Professor Zedaker arrived at James Garfield’s front door, and presented the General with a copy of his “poem book.” Zedaker admitted that he and the presidential candidate had never met, but that “each knowing other by fame before this,” Garfield invited him to dinner. After their meal, the professor was, in his telling, “invited to declaim and sing, from which I delivered the Wild mountains an original oration, and sung two original songs—Lucy’s Lamb and the Shenango River. I found the General in good health and quite cheerful.” That evening, Garfield recorded his feelings about the visit: “The soi disant “Professor” Zedaker of Youngstown, Warren and Cleveland came and dined, and then gave us the most amazing exhibition of egotism I have ever seen.”
[8:45-8:59] transition music Fisk Jubilee Singers song, “I Got A Home In-A Dat Rock” [9:00-12:15] A male voice reflects: Throughout the summer, but particularly in the months of August, September and October, Garfield delivered brief speeches from his front porch, to gatherings large and small, composed of men and women - and children - white - and black. The Garfield and Arthur marching band was often present on the lawn, at the ready to play songs written to praise Garfield and charge the atmosphere with excitement. Reporters were ever present to record the scene. At the appointed time, the candidate would emerge through the tall double doors leading from the vestibule of the house and onto the porch, there to be greeted by the head of a visiting delegation of farmers, businessmen, veterans, teachers who had come to see and hear him. The remarks of that head of delegation would be answered by Garfield's own, usually lasting no more than six or seven minutes. He spoke in broad terms, often philosophically, and inevitably, his comments were received by bursts of applause. Well, one afternoon, the story goes, Garfield addressed a large crowd that covered his front lawn and spilled out into the street. He received the usual shouts of approval from the assembly gathered before him. Then came a moment of silence, and during that moment of silence, somewhere along the fence, a young voice suddenly cried out, "Hurrah for Hancock!" "Hancock" was General Winfield Scott Hancock, the Democratic nominee for president. Hancock was a Union general, like Garfield himself. It was a smart move on the part of the Democrats to nominate a Union general in 1880. Now, there was a reporter present, who walked over to a small boy. "Don't you think that was the wrong thing to say to a gathering of Garfield supporters my boy? What's your name son?" And the boy looked up at the report and replied, "My name is Abram Garfield!" He was the general's seven-year-old, playing a joke on his Papa. His mother, who was standing next to him, whisked him away, as the crowd roared with delight. His Papa had a good laugh, too. The question is, was young Abram's little joke spontaneous or inspired? In the mass of family letters in the Garfield Papers at the Library of Congress is one written to James Garfield by his son, Jim, shortly after Garfield's nomination. Jim, and his older brother Hal were students at St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H. In the course of the letter to his father and the family at home, Jim commented that Nellie Gilfillan, daughter of a family friend, had written a letter, at the top of which she wrote, "Hurrah for Garfield!" We can imagine Jim's letter being read aloud to all the family gathered in the parlor one evening. And we can imagine that maybe, just maybe, Nellie Gilfillan's cheer for his father was the source of Abram's little joke! [12:16-12:36] transition music Fisk Jubilee Singers song, “I Got A Home In-A Dat Rock”
[12:37-15:23] A female voice narrates: The citizens of Mentor had gotten used to the excitement of a presidential campaign in their midst. But this night in late September was different. U. S. Grant, hero of Appomattox , and the four Senators who led his unsuccessful bid for a third presidential term, were coming to town to visit General Garfield! Earlier that day, Grant and Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York had spoken at a giant Republican rally in Warren, Ohio—Grant spoke for about seven minutes, Conkling for over two hours, and neither mentioned the name of the party’s standard-bearer. Then they boarded a special train to Mentor for a courtesy call on the Garfields. It was raining when they arrived, transported from the station in two carriages escorted by Garfield Guards bearing torches to light the way, and trailed by about 200 townsmen and women, and the usual complement of newspapermen, hoping to get a glimpse, and perhaps an introduction to the former president. James and Lucretia Garfield stood side by side, greeting the dignitaries on their front porch. Once indoors, Garfield formally introduced his wife and mother to the delegation and a light meal and coffee were served in the dining room. After that, some of the gentlemen adjourned to Garfield’s upstairs study for cigars and conversation. Reports of that interlude quickly took on a life of their own. Garfield recorded that “I had no private conversation with the party, but the call was a pleasant and cordial one all around.” Conkling supporters, some of whom were not even there, insisted that a deal had been struck—the agreements that they understood had been made at the Fifth Avenue conference were, they claimed, ratified by Garfield and Conkling that drizzly evening, in what stalwart newspapers would call The Treaty of Mentor. In his boss’s defense, private secretary Joseph Stanley-Brown said, “I was present during the entire period of the meeting and there was never a moment when the Conkling group were closeted with the General nor was there ever presented any opportunity for such a bargain.” Within the hour, the whole party was back on the front porch, where Ulysses Grant declared, “Citizens of Mentor, I am glad to meet you tonight.” Conkling also spoke a few words to the people gathered on the lawn. Only Senator John Logan of Illinois mentioned their host by name, calling him “our illustrious friend, General Garfield, who we expect to make the President of the United States next November.”
[15:24-15:49] transition music Fisk Jubilee Singers song, “In Bright Mansions” [15:49-18:30] A different female voice narrates: Near the close of the campaign on October 28th, shortly after noon, a special train brought 200 people from Portage County, Ohio – the area where James and Lucretia had attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute together and where their relationship blossomed, where they both taught and he became the principal of that college, where they married at her father’s farmhouse on the Hiram hill and started life together at Mrs. Northrop’s boarding house, where the first of their seven children were born. Judge Luther Day made the address from the group, a very touching and beautiful one. Garfield responded from his front porch. He spoke of the memories that filled his mind as he saw former classmates, former pupils, and the venerable men, who, twenty-one years ago, in the town of Kent, launched him upon the stormy sea of political life. He recalled that in 1861 he and Judge Day recruited young men in the old church in Hiram for the first units of the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment that would participate in the Civil War. “How can I forget all these things, and all that followed? How can I forget that twenty-five years of my life were so braided and intertwined with the lives of the people of Portage county, when I see men and women from all townships standing at my door? I cannot forget these things while life and consciousness remain. No other period in my life can be like that. … …I look into your faces and draw from you such consolation as even you cannot understand. Whatever the event may be, our past is secure, and whatever may befall me hereafter, if I can succeed in keeping the hearts of Portage county near to me, I shall know that I do not go far wrong in anything… Ladies and gentlemen, all the doors of my household are open to you. The hand of every member of my family is outstretched to you, our hearts greet you, and we ask you to come in.” Assuring these visitors that their loyal support was more precious than a jewel, the candidate invited the entire group into his home. Later he wrote in his diary, “There were so many old neighbors and friends that Crete had her first cry in public while receiving them.”
[18:31-18:44] transition music Fisk Jubilee Singers song, “In Bright Mansions”
[18:45-21:02] A male voice reflects: James Garfield's front porch campaign reminds us of the commitment of the Republican Party, and its 1880 standard bearer, to the civil and political rights of African-Americans. Four sources offer us that reminder: a column published in the New York Tribune, a letter written by Lucretia Garfield, the candidate's wife, a reminiscence written decades later by Joseph Stanley-Brown, Garfield's secretary during the campaign in Mentor, and James Garfield’s diary. Joseph Stanley-Brown's manuscript sets the scene admirably. "In the closing days of the campaign,” Stanley-Brown began, "when the autumn chill was in the air and the days in northern Ohio were chiefly gray and depressing, the... Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University asked to come and sing to the nominee." E.V. Smalley's Tribune article takes it from there. The singers had performed in nearby Painesville a short time before. Realizing, on the morning of September 30, that they were very near the home of the Republican nominee, they requested an opportunity to make a short visit. The impromptu visit was organized, and in a letter to her son Hal, then studying in New Hampshire, Lucretia Garfield left an account of it. Friends and neighbors familiar to Hal, Dr. Robison and his family, the Tylers, and the Aldriches next door, were among the hastily gathered guests. Soon, according to the Tribune, the small contingent of the Fisk Jubilee Singers was gathered “around the parlor piano.” Meanwhile, in an adjacent hallway, a brief, private exchange took place between General Garfield and his secretary. "My boy, I am going to say a word to them if it kills me," the Republican nominee said to his aide. Stanley-Brown was ready. With notebook in hand he soon had it against the wall and began describing the dramatic scene as it unfolded before him. The "melodious," "vibrant" rendition of mournful spirituals soon had many in the comfortable and cozy room in joyous tears.
[21:03-21:14] transition music Fisk Jubilee Singers song, “In Bright Mansions” [21:15-24:08] The same male voice continues: When the singing stopped, Garfield stood up, and leaning against the fireplace, with "his hand resting lightly on the mantel," he began quietly, as if in conversation with his guests. "My friends, for my family and myself I thank you for this visit and for the songs you have sung. ...You have sung before kings and princes. You have sung to the meek and the lowly... I hope and believe that your voices are heralding the great liberation which education will bring to your lately enslaved people...” Then suddenly straightening himself up, he closed his brief remarks with the following words delivered in clear, ringing tones, “And 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.” Momentarily, the gathered guests sat in complete silence. Then came the sound of hushed murmuring, signaling approval of General Garfield's remarks. Imagine the scene - the presence of black people in the home of a prominent white politician. Imagine them singing "their longing for liberty." Imagine the offering of coffee and fruit that followed, symbols of welcome and the gratitude, of which James Garfield's diary informs us. Imagine him offering his support to those who, at that moment represented "the aspirations of a race out of place." The leader of those black performers was Mr. Frederick Jeremiah Loudin. He was, like Mr. Garfield, a native of Ohio. He had been, at one time, a student of Mrs. Garfield. Now, imagine Mr. Loudin replying with equal dignity to the encouraging and humane sentiments of the Republican nominee for President in that year of 1880. Mr. Loudin said "I have no words to express my own feelings and the feelings of those who are associated with me. ...We are with you… we are with you even in this struggle, even as we were in the bloody conflicts that closed, it seems, but yesterday... I believe that the records do not bear an account of any traitor to the Government of the United States with a black skin... and I can only say, from a full heart, God bless you and give to you success."
[24:09-24:40] transition music Fisk Jubilee Singers song, “In Bright Mansions”
[24:41-25:35] Female voice speaks while the music fades: The music you have heard in this episode of a Fickle Current is courtesy of the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. To learn more about the modern Fisk Jubilee Singers, you can visit their website at www.fiskjubileesingers.org
Thank you for listening to A Fickle Current, a podcast about the political career of James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the United States. This podcast is a production of James A. Garfield National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System, located in Mentor, Ohio. For more information about the podcast, podcast transcripts, visiting the site, special events and more, please visit our home page at www.nps.gov/jaga.
Chapter 5: The Round Robin Letter
This chapter takes us to election day, and the letter written by the family to the sons away at school. We finish the first season with a conversation about the campaign, the candidate, and the reasons for Garfield's success.
Credit / Author:
Todd Arrington, Rebekah Knaggs, Ryan Krapf, Joan Kapsch, Alan Gephardt, Debbie Weinkamer, Rick Robyn, Mary Lintern
[0:00-0:17] Theme Music Intro- an 1880 campaign march for Garfield, sourced Library of Congress
[0:18-0:20] Music continues to play and fades out while a female voice speaks: Chapter 5; The Round Robin Letter [0:20-1:04] A female voice: James Garfield addressed the Republican National Convention on June 5, 1880. In that speech nominating John Sherman, he reminded the delegates that their choice was for a party nominee; the election of a new president would be made by voters across the nation in November.
[0:1:04-1:58] A male voice: “Not here, in this brilliant circle where fifteen thousand men and women are gathered, is the destiny of the republic to be decreed for the next four years. Not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of seven hundred and fifty-six delegates, waiting to cast their lots into the urn and determine the choice of the republic; but by four millions of Republican firesides, where the thoughtful voters, with wives and children about them, with the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the future, and reverence for the great men who have adorned and blessed our nation in the days gone by, burning in their hearts,-- there God prepares the verdict which will determine the wisdom of our work to-night. Not in Chicago, in the heat of June, but at the ballot-boxes of the republic, in the quiet of November, after the silence of deliberate judgment, will the question be settled.
[1:58-2:51] Female voice: As the quiet of November drew near, Garfield paused and reflected in a letter to his older sons, Hal and Jim, who were away at school. It is a remarkably frank and sophisticated analysis of the campaign just ending; and it offers a fascinating look at the candidate’s own feelings about the contest and the conduct of the Democrats. Dated October 31, 1880, Garfield begins his letter by reporting that “this is the first time for many weeks when we have no visitors.” He calls his sons’ attention to “some of the peculiar phases of the contest,” complaining that while the leaders of the Democratic party discussed questions of public policy, the “lowest class of orators and editors have descended to personal abuse.”
[2:55-3:59] the same male voice: Part of Oct 31, 1880 letter—JAG to Hal & Jim As the case now stands, I think the Republican chances of success are good. There would be no doubt of it were it not for the very large foreign vote of New York City. But our friends there are quite confident of success—. So far as I am concerned, I have not allowed myself to become so absorbed in the contest, as to lose sight of the great array of forces against us—nor have I at all set my heart upon success as necessary to my usefulness and happiness. I want you to know that I neither sought nor wished the nomination. On many accounts I would have preferred to go into the Senate & enjoy the freedom of study and debate—But now that I am nominated & have borne borne in silence the abuse and falsehoods of the campaign I shall be glad to be successful
[3:59-4:27] Female voice: Garfield closed the letter with a report on home and family—Hal’s colt is well and Veto, their dog, is “growing in size, experience, and discretion.” A calf was sold; two others purchased. The front and side yards got new sod; corn and buckwheat were harvested; and “five loads of apples have gone to the cider mill & twelve barrels of cider are fermenting on the north side of the office.”
[4:27-4:38] Music Transition
[4:38-5:43] Female voice: Election Day was clear and sunny in northeast Ohio, and Garfield checked the reports across the country, assuring himself that the vote would not be held down because of bad weather. He worked on correspondence, and made certain that the vegetable garden was plowed and seeded for winter. He voted at the Mentor town hall, and settled his dairy account at the cheese house in the afternoon. Then, he waited, calculating that while polls were open, about two thousand ballots were dropped into ballot boxes for “every tick on the pendulum.”
Friends and neighbors began to gather—men in the Campaign Office, ladies in the parlor--after the polls closed. Martha (Aunt Patty) Mays, a very close family friend, and one-time governess for the young Garfield children, was there. As the evening went on, and the excitement built, she began a letter to Hal and Jim, “the absent ones.” Family and friends added their thoughts to what became known as the Round Robin Letter.
[5:43-6:23] A different female voice reads Nov 2 [1880] My dear Boys, Mamma and I are in the sitting room before a glorious blazing fire waiting for the news. The office is crowded with gentlemen. We are excluded. How we wish you were here to enjoy & live with us all this excitement.
The last dispatches sent in were from Rhode Island, majority 7,263! Ohio 35,000!!! Irvin is messenger & is a splendid little mercury.
[6:23-6:47] first female voice: Shortly after eleven that evening, a telegram from Vice Presidential candidate Chester Arthur was received, “We have carried New York by 20 or 25,000 votes and are not likely to be counted out.” The assurance that the New York lead would not be overtaken by late reporting counties around New York City, where the Democrats were strong, raised everyone’s spirits.
[6:47-7:27] second female voice: Later—We have just risen from a wonderful supper, about twenty-two were gathered round the tables which were set together in the form of a cross. Drs. Robison & Streator, Messrs. Austin, Steele, House, Lee, Lockwood, Burroughs, Brown, Judd, Swaim, Hendricks, & half a dozen others or more. Mamma and I were the only ladies. Grandma was in bed, and Molly waited. The candles which have graced the mantle all summer were lighted in honor of Victory [underlined three times.]— Patty Mays.
[7:27-7:36] A different female voice reads: I wish you were here to rejoice with us: but you can rejoice none the less—Mamma
[7:36-7:42] male voice: Esse quam videri—J A Garfield
[7:42-8:21] A Different Male Voice (Todd): The office is filled with vile men smoking & spitting all over our nice floor. You can cut the smoke with a knife. Jeffries—an operator from Cleveland is helping Judd. I am helping out by taking press copies of the hundreds of messages. Victory drips fairly from my brush at every dip. I am uproariously enthusiastic but deucedly sleepy. We have just had a jolly feed—canvasbacks—oysters—ham in champagne—Yum Yum. Wish you were here old fels—Don and all.
[8:21-8:31] second female voice: Joseph just wrote this & went out to the office. Now Moll wants to add a line. Hurrah three times Hurrah!!! Patty Mays
[8:31-8:40] Another female voice reads: Jim your prophesy has come true. Moll Love to Hal, Don, and yourself, Moll
[8:40-9:42] first female voice: Later, in his journal, Garfield reported, “At three a.m. we closed the office, secure in all the northern states except New Jersey and the Pacific states, which are yet in doubt.” Over nine million men voted in the 1880 presidential contest, 78% of those eligible. Garfield won by fewer than 10,000 votes nationwide, the slimmest popular margin before or since. But his electoral college victory was clear, Garfield, 214 to Hancock’s 155. Garfield did loose New Jersey, and five of six electoral votes in California—perhaps a result of the Morey letter—although his popular loss in the state was by a mere 150 votes. New York’s 35 electoral votes provided the victory, as Garfield and the Republicans had know they would from the very beginning of the campaign.
[9:42-9:49] music Transition
[9:49-10:14] A female voice says: James Garfield's 1880 presidential campaign demonstrated the possibilities and perils of politics in a closely divided country. The five major contributors to the first season of A Fickle Current, Todd Arrington, Alan Gephardt, Joan Kapsch, Richard Robyn and Debbie Weinkammer, end Season One, the Presidential Campaign, with a conversation about why it worked.
[10:14-10:30] music transition
[10:30-11:02] Female voice, Joan: Welcome everybody, so glad we could get together here. My goal with this conversation is to ask, and hopefully answer the question, “Why did it work?” Why did Garfield’s campaign succeed, by ten thousand votes nationwide. And maybe some other questions that people have wondered about as we’ve been going through these things. And I know Debbie has given quite a bit of thought already to her thinking on why it worked. So I think we’ll start with you Deb. What would you like to offer?
[11:02-11:48] Debbie: Well, it dawned on me that many things had to align, almost like the stars had to align in a certain way in order for James Garfield’s campaign to be successful, since he was a dark horse candidate. Many of it starts with just the farm and property in Mentor. You know, if he was suddenly the candidate from the run-down, battered-looking Dickey farm, it would have been a very different summer, I think, than the fact that the repairs had just been made, the place had been expanded, he had a front porch from which to speak. So to me, it starts with that.
[11:48-12:16] Joan: Very interesting. I don’t know if I ever thought about it in that way. He also had a nice little office to run the campaign from. So it was like it was set up to do it. Not only the fact of the farm, but the location of the farm, with the railroad going through it, and the main road right out in front. All of those things no doubt contributed to what made it work.
[12:16-12:47] Male voice Richard: I completely agree with Deb, and I think maybe the obvious point to make is that it’s the journalists who made Garfield so present for so many readers. They found it fascinating that this was a great farm, that it was a beautiful house—all the things that you just said. But if it weren’t for all the journalists so interested in this, then I think the public might not have picked up on it.
[12:47-13:36] Male voice Todd: I think that’s a really good point, and that does go back to Debbie’s point about access to the property, with the railroad tracks at the extreme northern end, and then the road, which is now Route 20 or Mentor Avenue at the extreme southern end of the property, which we’ve talked about here before as things that were really appealing to Garfield when he bought the property. The idea that he had so many ways to get in and out of the place so easily. So, yeah, I think that’s a great point, Rick, about journalists and what they were writing, and making people interested in Garfield and letting them know who he was, and what was going on here. But none of that would have been possible without this ease of access to the property, which goes back to Debbie’s point, which I think is important to consider.
[13:36-14:04] Male voice Alan: I would say, I agree with Debbie, had it been the run-down Dickey farmhouse there may not have been nearly as much attention paid to the front porch campaign as there was. But I’m also wondering—when we say, “Why did it work?” Why did the front porch campaign work? Or why did Garfield win the election?
[14:04-15:00] Joan: Well, the front porch campaign, if he had not won the election, people would have dismissed it, don’t you think? As a one-off, and perhaps no one would have copied it in the future. So I think it’s one part of his campaign, but I certainly don’t think it’s the only reason for his success. And I think the front porch campaign was a reflection of his personality. He didn’t feel like he could just dismiss people who showed up. He wanted to make them feel welcome. He wanted to listen to what they had to say. And the journalists noticed that, and publicized that, and that’s what made the whole thing succeed on it’s own merits. But I don’t think that’s the only reason that his campaign succeeded.
[15:00-16:18] Todd: That’s an interesting point, in that, if you have this great property and great location, and this wonderful front porch, but you had a very uninspiring, or drab or boring candidate, would that have worked? And I guess my response would be, probably not, because it barely worked as it was, in that he won so narrowly in the popular vote. And here he was very charismatic, and in my view, had some really great positions on things that appealed to a lot of people. And yet he still wins this very narrow vote. And I think this just has to do with the direction the country is heading at that point. Ultimately, I’ve always framed it as, I think the country made the right choice, very narrowly. And I think that choice came down to who Garfield was and what he stood for. That was all then added to this property and the novelty and originality of that front porch campaign just added to who Garfield was and what people saw in him.
[16:18-16:46] Debbie: His personality appealed to so many people, and he was like so many of the readers that Rick spoke about. The farmer and wife and children, with his mother, Grandma Garfield there. People could relate to that story as well as his positions on the political thoughts of the day.
[16:46-17:26] Richard: Very good points. And Todd, especially to say it was a narrow election, in the popular vote. But in the Electoral College, he won a very sizable victory. And this could have been the sixth time in American history—bringing it up to the modern era—the sixth election in which the popular vote would have been lost, but the Electoral College won. And, as you know, the election right before that, the Tilden-Hayes election, Hayes lost the popular vote. And then, did he win the Electoral College?
[All] Laughter
[17:28-17:29] Joan: An excellent question, Rick.
[17:29-19:26] Todd: That is a good question. And that 1876 election does loom large over Garfield’s election for a couple of reasons. One being, of course, that when that Electoral Commission was create, Garfield ended up being on that commission, so he did have a hand in Hayes becoming president in early 1877. But even before the whole controversy about the election, Hayes had already declared that even if he won he would only serve a single term. So the Republicans went into that election in 1876 knowing even if they managed to win this election, they were still going to need another candidate in 1880. I’ve always enjoyed the irony that Garfield gets involved with that electoral commission and is one of the people that ensures that Hayes does in fact win the Electoral College in 1876, and then inadvertently sets himself up to become the candidate in 1880, which obviously no one could have known at the time. But I do enjoy that irony of Garfield’s involvement.
I think that 1876 election looms very large, but also because the Democratic rallying cry in 1880 was getting the presidency which they felt they had legitimately won in 1876. That’s why I think they ended up choosing Hancock. One of the reasons, at least, they chose Winfield Scott Hancock was because they were doing everything they could to pick a candidate that they felt undercut the Republicans’ argument about loyalty to the Union, waving the bloody shirt. So I think that’s what made Hancock so appealing to the Democrats in 1880, and like we said, it almost worked.
[19:26-20:22] Joan: I wonder, though, if that 1876 Electoral Commission experience, and the experience of the Hayes term, isn’t what convinced Garfield that he absolutely had to win New York and Indiana, which is what he talked about all through the campaign. He knew, by 1879 certainly, that the Republicans were not going to win in the South again. The only way to add up the electoral votes was to win in Indiana and in New York. So that’s where he focused his entire campaign. He was very nice to people who came from all over the place on his front porch, but his focus, through the whole campaign, a lot of the things that he did that were sort of outside the box, were because of his determination to win those two states.
[20:22-21:10] Todd: Very true, and also that was certainly complicated by the fact that, of course the Democrats won New York in 1876 because Tilden was the candidate. Of course Tilden was the Governor of New York in 1876 when he ran against Hayes. In 1880 it was complicated also by the fact that Winfield Scott Hancock—guess where he lived? New York, because he was the commander of the Department of the Atlantic for the U.S. Army and that was based on Roosevelt Island in New York. Hancock, although he was born in Pennsylvania, at this point was something of a New Yorker. I think you make a great point, Joan, that Indiana and especially New York were absolutely essential for Garfield in 1880.
[21:10-21:38] Debbie: That makes Chester Arthur more important in the story, having him as the vice president, too. Even though all of those meetings went the way they did with the New Yorkers, with Conkling not showing up, with all the issues that Garfield had to deal with to pacify and appease them, Chester Arthur as a selection becomes very important.
[21:38-23:07] Alan: That’s interesting too, because of course he’s chosen to bridge the divide between the two factions in the Republican party, the Half-Breeds and the Stalwarts. But he’s also instrumental in fund raising for the Republican party and he makes that statement, I believe after the election, at Delmonico’s, that it was a lot of “soap” that won the state of Indiana. Of course “soap” was a reference to money, and not to actual soap. So he was aware that there was an awful lot of money being raised by the Republican party to buy votes, perhaps? in Indiana and probably in New York City. Not so much New York State perhaps, I think, but New York City was obviously very populous, and obviously very divided. It had Democratic leadership, there was Tammany Hall, which was a very powerful influence for the benefit of the Democrats, and Chester Arthur was in the thick of all that fundraising. You have him doing that, because that’s his expertise, finding money, but he’s also there because of that rift within the Republican party.
[23:07-24:55] Todd: We’ve seen some research, and we’ve even had some folks to talk about this idea that you need a geographic balance on presidential tickets, and Ohio and New York have been together on many, many tickets over the years. In addition to everything you say, Alan, which is all very much true, this idea of Arthur as the bridge between the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, and being able to raise money. Of course even in 1880 New York is the financial capital of the country. So New York is critical for votes, but it’s also critical for money, which is also why the Stalwarts wanted to make sure someone from their side would become Secretary of the Treasury, which didn’t happen, and made them very angry. That’s part of the story of Garfield’s presidency, when he starts defying Stalwarts on patronage jobs and cabinet positions. But this idea that they also needed geographic balance, and New York is this hugely important state, and therefore they choose a New Yorker for vice president. We know now that people really don’t vote for the vice presidential candidate. You’re voting for the person at the top of the ticket. I think they said the last time a vice presidential candidate actually mattered from a geographic standpoint was 1960, when Lyndon Johnson was able to deliver Texas for the Kennedy campaign. Its been sixty years since there’s any significant data that shows that geographic balance really matters, and yet, a lot of candidates do still try to make that happen. So, Arthur spoke to that as well, to geographic balance.
[24:55-25:25] Debbie : I think adding to Garfield’s efforts, to why this all worked, why he got elected—it didn’t hurt that he was in the most Republican district here in Ohio, in northeastern Ohio anyway, and he had the backing of the Republican leaders and industrialists in Cleveland. He had newspapers on his side. I’m sure that all added to the success of the campaign too, and why he won.
[25:25-26:26] Richard: I think modern listeners of this podcast will be surprised that this was a Republican district around this area of Cleveland, but it’s still rather Republican, certain parts of it. The connection to the modern era is interesting, with the front porch campaign—the fact that it was followed up, after Garfield wins, by Harrison and McKinley and then Harding. Of course, we’ve now lost it in the modern era. We don’t use that as such, but isn’t it interesting that in the year 2020, at least one of the candidates is in his basement—not the front porch, but in his basement—and humanizing himself to his listeners in the same kind of a way that the Front Porch campaign was for Garfield. Interesting parallels, perhaps.
[26:26-27:05] Todd : That’s a great point, Rick. I just goes to show just how cyclical all of this history really is. If you hang around long enough, things will come back around, so everything old is new again, as they say. Obviously there are some extenuating circumstances there with the pandemic and everything, but I’m sure the Democratic candidate today would probably much rather be out pressing the flesh and making speeches in front of big crowds, and things like that. But in the interest of being careful, I think he’s chosen to go a different route. But it is interesting, for sure. I’m glad you brought that up.
[27:05-29:00] Alan: I don’t know whether this bears into this conversation at all, or not, but when you look at the vote in California in 1880, Garfield lost it by 144 votes. That’s all. And then we come back to the Morey letter, which was a letter that was a forgery, that purported to the idea that Garfield favored the importation of more Chinese laborers into the California workforce on the railroads and so on, very controversial on the west coast. And that Morey letter, though it was a forgery and Garfield exposed it as a forgery pretty quickly. Even so he just narrowly, narrowly lost the state of California, again by 144 votes. Which must speak to something about the issue of immigration and race in 1880, which certainly has reverberations even to our own day. But also perhaps, too, to the even political divide within the country at that time between Democrats and Republicans.
All of these elections in this period are very close, in terms of the popular vote. There’s nobody who runs away in the popular vote in any election from 1876 until 1896, so for twenty years its nip and tuck, each way. This one was a very close one.
[29:00-30:34] Joan: I think that’s a good point, and one of the questions that I posed early on is, why did Garfield keep saying, over and over, from beginning to end, that he didn’t seek this nomination in 1880. And my hunch, is that he didn’t think the Republicans were going to win in 1880. And he had a lot to base that on, including the 1876 experience. He had been in the minority in the House of Representatives for six years. He had a pretty good finger on the pulse of the country, and I think he was convinced the Republicans would loose in 1880, and he didn’t want to be the candidate on a loosing ticket. And I think that was part of the reason that he went out of his way to do different, sort of out-of-the-box campaigning once he got the nomination, because he was going to work as hard as he could, and every political way that he could, to prove himself wrong. But even in the letter to his sons, the day before the election—two days before—he said, I didn’t ask for this. And he never gave up that mantra. He kept saying it over and over and over again.
[30:34-31:40] Alan: Do you think that part of the reason that he was also saying “I didn’t seek this,” was because, again, very quickly, when tongues began wagging that he had undercut John Sherman, and he never wanted to appear to be disloyal to John Sherman because that would be dishonorable, He didn’t want his honor attacked. And I think when you bring up the letter to the boys, to Hal and Jim, that’s exactly what that speaks to me. That what he’s saying to his sons is, “I did not do something dishonorable here. I did not work behind the scenes for my own nomination. So I think what you’re saying, Joan, is very intriguing, and very plausible. But I also think there is an element of his personal honor at stake, and that’s why, when he says to his sons, I didn’t seek this, he’s telling the truth.
[31:40-32:19] Debbie: I think that was the times, too. You were to be more humble and you weren’t to seek the job and go out and speak on your behalf. It was beneath you to tout your own plusses, politically. So whether he did it consciously or unconsciously, it provided a good cover where he could still say that he wasn’t seeking the nomination, and if the Republican party lost, it sort of covered him that way too. Joan, that is intriguing. I hadn’t thought about that before.
[32:19-33:35] Todd: We know that Garfield had this kind of pact that he made with himself as a very young man, that he was never going to actively seek an office. And we know, yeah, that was kind of squishy. There was definitely some wiggle room there, but I think Alan’s absolutely right, he was trying to maintain his honor, and he wanted to be a good example for his sons. And I think we was trying to continue to live by that sort of credo that he established for himself as a young man. And Debbie, to your point about making sure he was kind of covered either way, I think that’s a good point, too. And we know Garfield was covered either way, because, had he lost this election, he was still getting a promotion, because he was going to go to the U. S. Senate. He had been elected to the Senate with John Sherman’s help, so I agree he did feel obligated to Sherman. I think it’s clear that Garfield believed that Sherman had no chance of being nominated, and even less chance of becoming president. But he wanted to do what he said that he would do.
[33:35-34:30] Alan: All of your points, to me also reinforce the idea that, once nominated, he did everything he could to get himself elected, not out of his personal ambition, but because at that time certainly the Republicans were thinking of the Democrats as an absolute disaster should they be in charge of the federal government once again. Even though he may not have sought the nomination, once it came to him he did everything he could to make sure that it was the Republicans who would continue to be in charge of the government, not the Democrats—that party of rebellion and denial of civil rights and so forth. I just think that’s another interesting aspect of the position that James Garfield found himself in.
[34:30-36:06] Todd : Within a few days at that convention, I think Garfield really had a tightrope that he had to start walking. And one of the few places that he really could be honest about it was in the letters he was writing to Lucretia, back here in Ohio, and saying “I think they’re starting to look at me.” But he didn’t say “Boy I really hope they don’t pick me.” Or “Boy I hope something really changes.” And of course Lucretia has that great line when she writes back to him that says, and I’m paraphrasing, “I hope you get the nomination because the whole country calls for you.” Not because, for lack of a better term, no one else can get it.
And of course what ends up happening is he gets it because they need a compromise candidate. In my view they made an excellent choice in a compromise candidate, and I think some of the reasons he did win, albeit narrowly in the popular vote, are because of some of the things that made him appealing as a compromise candidate, like that commitment to civil rights, Alan, that you mentioned.
What a difference in conventions, too. This is when conventions were really exciting, because they really were picking someone. You know, at this point, in 2020, conventions are just a rubber stamp. The convention is just nominating the person the voters have chosen. This is when conventions were really exciting, and really important, too. Not only for writing a platform, but actually choosing a candidate.
[36:06-37:25] Debbie: Garfield’s initial reaction to winning the nomination sort of shows what Todd’s saying. His speechless demeanor, his ashen face, just his initial response to having won it, trying to object—I don’t think that was just a false front he was putting on. Then once this is all sinking in, Lucretia saying, too, “I want you to have it when the whole country calls for it,” then everything sort of switches gears. It becomes very personal for Garfield to win, and his family all buys into it. They have the sensibility to watch what they say, their behavior is such; even his letters suggesting it to his boys, but I think they were already doing a lot of that. And he had a wife who he knew he could count in that same way. To be a true partner, but also to have discretion. He said he never had to worry about things that she said to the press. He knew she could rise up and help him win this election. I think that’s all part of this success—why it worked.
[37:25-37:35] Richard: And the excitement of the family on election night. They were all very excited that he won.
[37:35-38:44] Todd: In my view, at least, he was certainly the man the Republicans needed at that point. I really lament what happened to him. I just wonder how many things, even today, in 2020 might have ended up differently had he lived, because he did have that commitment to civil rights when a lot of Republicans were starting to walk away from that, and shift their focus to becoming the party of big business as they’re moving to financiers and industrialists. So I think that Garfield was one of the last true, original Republicans, in that he viewed that there was a good and an active role that the federal government could play in people’s lives in a positive way. So I do think he was the right man for that moment, and yet that, to me, compounds the tragedy.
[38:44-39:54] Joan: One thing I wanted to bring up, which dovetails with what we were just talking about, is Garfield’s acceptance letter, which generally was seen at the time as the way a candidate put his personal spin on the party’s platform. Even as early as that, he was writing very, very carefully to try to keep everybody in the tent as much as he could. And the only time that he really went to a place where he thought it might be dangerous is on the question of civil rights for blacks. Both in that letter, and in the comments he made about the Fisk Jubilee Singers, that was a place where he felt strongly and passionately enough that he was trying to turn the party in his direction, rather than accepting more the party’s general view of things.
[39:54-40:34] Debbie: I agree that he gained confidence as his campaign went on, as far as his policies and what his presidency was going to be like. I think his backbone grew. I just try to imagine if Blaine had been the candidate, or if Sherman had been the candidate, or even Grant, what the presidency would have been like. Could any of those other three have held the party together, even? And could the civil rights continue, could all these other issues continue without Garfield’s leadership?
[40:34-41:34] Todd: Whether it was Garfield or Blaine or Grant or John Sherman or whomever winning the presidency in 1880, they would have been far better than Hancock, at least from the perspective of civil rights. I do think Garfield had a very strong record on civil rights. As you noted, he did mention civil rights in the acceptance letter, he mentions civil rights in the inaugural address. He said some very, very positive things to the Fisk Jubilee Singers when they were here to sing for him towards the end of the campaign. So I think he certainly had a good record on civil rights. I think that would have propelled him to try to take some positive actions during his presidency, had he lived.
[41:34-42:29] Alan: As you were talking just now, it occurred to me to go back through the Round Robin Letter, and when you see what he writes in the Round Robin letter—he writes this Latin phrase: Esse quam videri, which translates to: It is better to be than to seem. That really says something about where he was at that moment: I am now going to become the President of the United States. This is not a possibility, this is a reality, and I’ve got to step up now to this challenge. In that little quote there, in Latin, he’s saying to his sons, I’ve got to step up to this. Where was he, psychologically, on November first, and how did that change on the morning November third?
[42:29-42:39] Joan: Sounds like a question for the next series. Anybody have final thoughts that they want to offer?
[42:39-43:27] Todd: I think this podcast has been a great experience It’s a really neat, new thing for us to try here at James A. Garfield National Historic Site. I certainly appreciate everyone getting involved in this—staff and volunteers and everyone else. As we’re continuing to deal with a global pandemic, anything we can do to continue to engage with people about President Garfield and about this site, and about American history, I think is really important, and only adds to the appeal that we continue to have as a site that tells what I think is a very under-appreciated, but yet very important story in American History. So I certainly appreciate everyone's involvement.
[43:27-43:28] Alan: It’s a pleasure
[43:28-43:29] Richard: It’s a pleasure
[43:29-36] Debbie Its been great working with everyone and revisiting all of this topic
[43:36-39] Alan: So Joan did we answer all your questions?
[43:39-44:07] Joan: Oh I'm not sure, but that’s what we do you know? You reinterpret things every day, so I don’t think the questions will ever have a definitive answer. And I hope that people who listen to this learn a little bit more about James Garfield and think more about him as a whole person rather than simply as just the 20th president with a very short time in office.
[44:07-44:42] Female voice: Thank you for listening to A Fickle Current, a podcast about the political career of James A. Garfield, twentieth President of the United States. This podcast is a production of James A. Garfield National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park System, located in Mentor, Ohio. For more information about the podcast, podcast transcripts, visiting the site, special events and more, please visit our home page at www.nps.gov/jaga. [44:42-45:00] Main Title Outro
Last updated: November 14, 2021
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