142 years ago today in 1880, despite not running or seeking the nomination, Congressman James A Garfield is nominated as the presidential candidate for the Republican Party in a brokered convention.
Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831. He was a staunch abolitionist and when the Civil War broke out, he joined the Union army. He achieved the rank of brigadier general and served with distinction throughout the war. To his surprise, during the war, he was also elected to Congress in 1863, where he would begin his 20 year career there.
Keeping a promise made during the 1876 campaign, current President Rutherford B. Hayes did not seek re-election and the Republican Party had a competitive primary. The most influential faction within the Republican Party was known as the “Stalwarts” and it was led by a New York Senator named Roscoe Conkling who had a powerful political machine. Conkling controlled a lot of patronage and was essentially a kingmaker in the party. He was unhappy with the two leading candidates, Senators James G. Blaine and John Sherman(brother of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman). He decided to support former president Ulysses S. Grant for an unprecedented third term and was confident that the delegates and nation would love to have the war hero in office again.
The convention started on June 2nd, and with both being from Ohio, Garfield supported Sherman and was to give his nomination speech. But it became clear that the Republicans were going to have issues selecting a nominee when Grant could not get enough votes(379) on the first day. For the next 6 days, averaging around 30 ballots a day, no one could achieve the threshold to win the nomination. With dozens of ballots every day, Garfield’s name had been tossed in as a protest vote, but he was not worried about it getting traction. However, with each ballot cast, the delegates slowly began to turn against Grant and the Conkling political machine. As Garfield realized what was happening, he screamed at his peers to not vote for him. But it was too late, the delegates were tired of being told what to do by political machines and went with a dark horse candidate. Garfield was shocked, and in attempt to heal the fractured party, he selected one of Conkling’s friends, Chester A Arthur, as his Vice Presidential nominee.
Garfield did not actively campaign during the election, and instead simply held interviews at his home known as a “front porch campaign.” Garfield ran against another Union war hero, Winfield Scott Hancock. Garfield beat Hancock in the smallest popular-vote victory ever recorded but won a decisive victory in the electoral college. Achieving the sixth consecutive presidential election won by the Republican Party. In an era of political scandals and corruption, the American people fell in love with the man who didn’t even want the job.
Garfield’s unexpected presidency would soon become a tragedy. Barely 4 months after his inauguration, a mentally ill, disgruntled office-seeker named Charles J. Guiteau shot Garfield in the back with a revolver. Garfield was a stocky man and the bullet wound was not life-threatening. But medical pioneer Joseph Lister’s “germ theory” was highly debated and rejected in the American medical community. Doctors on scene immediately began probing Garfield’s wound with their dirty hands.
The doctor in charge of the President’s care was Willard Bliss, he was a petty and competitive man rejecting help from other physicians. He was obsessed with finding and removing the bullet from the President, painfully probing the wound every day for over two months. Garfield’s wound became infected, and he grew sicker each passing week. The stout ~200 pound President wasted away to 130 pounds as the infection rotted his entire body.
Towards the end of his life, Bliss eventually accepted the help of famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell who invented the first metal-detector to find the bullet inside the President, but it would be too late. Understanding he was going to die, Garfield demanded the treatment stop and that he would like to go see the ocean on the Atlantic coast before he died. In an emotional ceremony, hundreds of volunteers constructed a makeshift railroad line to get the President to New Jersey and fulfilled his final wish. While he was the 2nd U.S. President to be assassinated, Garfield’s death shocked and deeply upset the nation who considered the 1st assassination of Lincoln to be a fluke from an insurrection/civil war.
When Charles Guiteau was apprehended at the scene he shouted "I did it. I will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart and Arthur will be President!" This led to newspapers and the nation scorning Chester A Arthur who was a protégé of Roscoe Conkling’s Stalwart political machine. Arthur would even nominate Conkling to the Supreme Court, but he had to refuse it because of all the negative publicity. Despite many accusations, there was never any hard evidence to associate Guiteau with Arthur or Conkling. And eventually Chester Arthur was able to achieve some meaningful civil service reform that made him a liked president.
Guiteau was hated by the nation, so much that he survived several assassination attempts himself, including some from his own guards! Guiteau shamefully begged for his life throughout his trial but was executed on June 30, 1882.
Despite being assassinated, Garfield’s death was attributed to medical malpractice from his doctor Willard Bliss, and Congress refused to pay Bliss for his services. The tragedy of James Garfield became a catalyst to the American medical community taking modern medical theories more seriously.
[Online References]
Cartoon showing Ulysses S. Grant handing a sword to James Garfield, who is holding a rolled-up paper.
(
http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/1880-rnc/nomination-of-president-and-vp )
(
http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/1880-rnc/early-debates )
(
https://www.historynet.com/alexander-graham-bell-james-garfield.htm )
(
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/third-term-controversy-gave-republican-party-its-symbol-180967079/ )
[Audiobook Reference]
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
By: Candice Millard (
https://www.audible.com/pd/Destiny-of-the-Republic-Audiobook/B005KM0ME2)
Authored by R.E. Foy
Cartoon showing Ulysses S. Grant handing a sword to James Garfield, who is holding a rolled-up paper.
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