Audio
Episode 2: The Front Porch Campaign
Transcript
[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.
Description
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.
Duration
22 minutes, 44 seconds
Credit
Alan Gephardt, Debbie Weinkamer and Joan Kapsch
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