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The Garfield Observer
Category Archives: Republican Party
"This is the Age of Statistics": James A. Garfield and the 1870 Census (Part II)
Posted on September 24, 2019 by garfieldnps
The first session of the 41st Congress adjourned April 10, 1869, four days after James Garfield's speech proposing comprehensive changes for the Ninth Census of the United States. While members of the House seemed receptive, they were cautious, and wanted to see a revised proposal in legislative language when they returned for their second session in December. So Congressman Garfield took his family home to Hiram for the summer, and returned to Washington to take up the work, along with his committee, of writing a new census law.
On June 9, Garfield wrote to his wife, Lucretia. "The census work has grown to enormous proportions. The Committee works in the Committee room from four to five hours a day, and we have hardly encompassed the field by a furrow, and yet the whole must be plowed and planted. I have never undertaken so Herculean a task."
This portrait of Mrs. Lucretia Rudolph Garfield was painted by artist Peter Baumgras not long after her husband's work on the 1870 census. (NPS photo)
The committee room, thankfully, was in the basement of the Capitol, probably the coolest place in the city to meet. Immersed in his new passion, Garfield enjoyed consulting experts and hearing testimony from statistical specialists in many fields, including agriculture, industry, railroads, and mining. To a friend he wrote, "The work of preparing properly classified schedules for the next census is absolutely enormous. The great advance which has been made in the science of statistics in modern nations makes it necessary to go over a large field of investigation in order to bring our Census up to the latest standards of excellence." By the end of July the committee had completed its investigations and a draft report was written.
Garfield learned a lot while chairing the census committee, and he was happy to share what he had learned. He spoke to the American Social Science Association' annual meeting. They, no doubt, were expecting political boilerplate, but Garfield surprised them with a sophisticated speech about the evolution and importance of statistical analysis. While he talked about the 1870 census bill in particular, he also suggested that statistics would, and should, inform the writing of history, anticipating the mid-twentieth century trend toward social history and quantitative analysis in historical understanding. That autumn Garfield collaborated with his good friend, Burke Hinsdale, on a census article contributed to Johnson's New Universal Cyclopedia. In Garfield's collected works, which were edited by Hinsdale, the article is thirty-two pages long, beginning with an "alleged" Chinese census "more than twenty centuries before the Christian era," and ending with the ninth United States census.
Burke A. Hinsdale, a longtime friend and colleague of James A. Garfield. (University of Michigan)
By December 1, Garfield was back in Washington, where he reported to Hinsdale, "I have got the bill in print all but the schedules and we are now at work on them." Congress met for its second session on December 6, and the census bill was its first order of business. Garfield hoped that it could be passed before other, more contentious, legislation began to occupy the attention of the House. But the bill, comprehensive and thoughtful as it was, came with its own controversy. One census expert opined that a simple bill that left the machinery of census-taking to the Superintendent of the Census would be more politically palatable. After eight days of debate and amendment, the bill passed 86 to 40. "I have known few bills since I have been in Congress to stand so searching and continuous an examination as this," he told Hinsdale.
The bill then moved to the Senate, where it was referred to a committee headed by Roscoe Conkling of New York. That committee promptly dropped the House-passed bill and reported one that Garfield said would, "if it prevails,. . . give us the old law without any of the improvements of the new bill. . .A desire to retain the Marshals (as enumerators) and thus retain the patronage in their hands seems to be the motive with many Senators." Garfield's bill died in the in the Senate, and the 1870 census was conducted under the same rules that had applied for the counts in 1850 and 1860.
The 1870 census was not "far more interesting and important than any of its eight predecessors." But the next one was. With the House of Representatives controlled by the Democrats, a new census bill, virtually identical to Garfield's, was passed. Samuel S. "Sunset" Cox managed the legislation in the House, and graciously acknowledged the vital work that James Garfield and his committee had put into the census question ten years before.
Ohio Congressman Samuel "Sunset" Cox (D) managed Democratic census legislation that mirrored the Republican legislation on which Garfield had worked. Cox acknowledged Garfield's important role. (Library of Congress)
June 1, 1880 was, under the new census law, the day that enumerators would fan out to neighborhoods across the country to count the American people. They had a prodigious task. The new census form asked for vastly more information than those of the past. On the population schedule census takers were to record the name of each person in the household, each person's relationship to the head of the household, and everyone's age, sex, color, and occupation. The form also asked for everyone's birthplace and the birthplace of each person's parents, if a person was deaf, dumb, blind or insane, permanently crippled or temporarily disabled by illness or injury. It also inquired about education level, school attendance, and ability to speak and write English.
On that day enumerator E. C. French arrived at the Garfield's home in Mentor, and recorded all the required information for James Garfield, his wife and five children. Since their home was also a farm, he then completed a farm schedule documenting its extent and value. There must have been some misunderstanding, since we know the Garfields owned just under 160 acres. The census recorded 135 acres of tilled land, 65 acres of permanent meadow, and 20 acres of woodland—220 acres. The farm was valued at $18,600 for land, buildings and fences, $400 worth of implements and machinery, and $1,200 in livestock. The estimated value of farm production in 1879 was $17,300. The family owned four horses, 15 milk cows and nine other neat cattle, and four new calves. In 1879 six cows were purchased, eight sold living, 11 slaughtered, and one went missing! 7,000 gallons of milk were sold. There were 11 sheep and three lambs, 156 swine, and 50 hens that produced 200 dozen eggs. Crops included barley, Indian corn, rye, wheat and half an acre of potatoes. There were four acres of apple trees, and two acres of peach trees—550 trees in all.
This image shows James A. Garfield's Mentor, Ohio property as it appeared during his 1880 presidential campaign. Garfield's home and property were assessed for the 1880 census on June 1, 1880, just one week before he became that year's Republican presidential nominee on June 8. (Lake County, Ohio Historical Society)
On the same day, June 1, 1880, Helen M. Wipple, an enumerator for Washington D.C., completed a population survey at the Garfield's home in the capital. It lists James and Lucretia Garfield, their five children, and Mary McGrath, a 25 year old servant who was born in Ireland. It would appear that James Garfield's family was counted twice on the 1880 census. Even with inevitable errors, this census was what Congressman Garfield had envisioned when he had "gone mad on the subject of statistics" nearly a dozen years earlier.
~Joan Kapsch, Park Guide
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James A. Garfield's Letter Accepting the 1880 Republican Presidential Nomination
Posted on March 26, 2019 by garfieldnps
Mentor, Ohio
On the evening of the 8th of June last, I had the honor to receive from you, in the presence of the committee of which you were the chairman, the official announcement that the Republican national convention of Chicago had that day nominated me for their candidate for President of the United States. I accept the nomination with gratitude for the confidence it implies, and with a deep sense of the responsibilities it imposes. I cordially indorse the principles set forth in the platform adopted by the convention. On nearly all the subjects of which it treats, my opinions are on record among the published proceedings of Congress. I venture, however, to make special mention of some of the principal topics which are likely to become the subject of discussion, without reviewing the controversies which have been settled during the last twenty years, and with no purpose or wish to revive the passions of the late war.
A view of the 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago. Many expected former President Ulysses S. Grant to be nominated on the first ballot. When that didn't happen, the party went in search of a compromise candidate. On the thirty-sixth ballot, they selected Congressman James A. Garfield of Ohio. (Library of Congress)
It should be said that, while the Republicans fully recognize, and will strenuously defend, all the rights retained by the people, and all the rights reserved by the States, they reject the pernicious doctrine of State supremacy, which so long crippled the functions of the national government and at the time brought the union very near to destruction. They insist that the United States is a nation, with ample power of self-preservation; that its constitutions and laws, made in pursuance thereof, are the supreme law of the land; that the right of the nation to determine the method by which its own legislature shall be created, cannot be surrendered without abdicating one of the fundamental powers of government; that the national laws relating to the election of representatives in Congress shall neither be violated nor evaded; that every elector shall be permitted freely, and without intimidation, to cast his lawful ballot at each election, and have it honestly counted, and that the potency of his vote shall not be destroyed by the fraudulent vote of any other person. The best thoughts and energies of our people should be directed to those great questions of national well-being in which all have a common interest. Such efforts will soonest restore perfect peace to those who were lately in arms against each other, for justice and good-will will outlast passion. But it is certain that the wounds of the war cannot be completely healed, and the spirit of brotherhood cannot fully pervade the whole country, until every citizen, rich or poor, white or black, is secure in the free and equal enjoyment of every civil and equal right guaranteed by the constitution and the laws. Wherever the enjoyment of these rights is not assured, discontent will prevail, immigration will cease, and the social and industrial forces will continue to be disturbed by the migration of laborers and the consequent diminution of prosperity. The national government should exercise all its constitutional authority to put an end to these evils, for all the people and all the States are members of one body, and no member can suffer without injury to all. The most serious evils which now afflict the South arise from the fact that there is not such freedom and toleration of political opinion and action that the minority party can exercise an effective and wholesome restraint upon the party in power. Without such restraint, party rule becomes tyrannical and corrupt. The prosperity which is made possible in the South, by its great advantages of soil and climate, will never be realized until every voter can freely and safely support any party he pleases.
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained. Its interests are intrusted to the States and to the voluntary action of the people. Whatever help the nation can justly afford should be generously given to aid the States in supporting common schools; but it would be unjust to our people and dangerous to our institutions to apply any portion of the revenues of the nation, or of the States, to the support of sectarian schools. The separation of the Church and the State in everything relating to taxation should be absolute.
James A. Garfield in 1880. This is one of our favorite images of him. (Library of Congress)
On the subject of national finances, my views have been so frequently and fully expressed, that little is needed in the way of an additional statement. The public debt is now so well secured, and the rate of annual interest has been so reduced by refunding, that right economy in expenditures, and the faithful application of our surplus revenues to the payment of the principal of the debt will gradually, but certainly, free the people from its burdens, and close with honor the financial chapter of the war. At the same time, the government can provide for all its ordinary expenditures, and discharge its sacred obligations to the soldiers of the union and to the widows and orphans of those who fell in its defense. The resumption of specie payments, which the Republican party so courageously and successfully accomplished, has removed from the field of controversy many questions that long and seriously disturbed the credit of the government and the business of the country. Our paper currency is now as national as the flag, and resumption has not only made it everywhere equal to coin, but has brought into use our share of gold and silver. The circulating medium is more abundant than ever before, and we need only maintain the equality of all our dollars to insure to labor and capital a measure of value, from the use of which no one can suffer loss. The great prosperity which the country is now enjoying should not be endangered by any violent changes or doubtful financial experiments.
In reference to our custom laws, a policy should be pursued which will bring revenues to the treasury, and enable labor and capital, employed in our great industries, to compete fairly in our own markets with the labor and capital of foreign producers. We legislate for the people of the United States, not for the whole world; and it is our glory that the American laborer is more intelligent and better paid than his foreign competitors. Our country cannot be independent unless its people, with their abundant natural resources, possess the requisite skill at any time to clothe, arm and equip themselves for war, and in time of peace produce all the necessary implements of labor. It was the manifest intention of the founders of the government to provide for the common defense, not by standing armies alone, but by raising a greater army of artisans, whose intelligence and skill should powerfully contribute to the safety and glory of the nation.
Fortunately for the interests of commerce, there is no longer any formidable opposition to appropriation for the improvements of our harbors and great navigable rivers, provided that the expenditures for that purpose are strictly limited to works of national importance. The Mississippi river, with its great tributaries is of such vital importance to so many millions of people, that the safety of its navigation requires exceptional consideration. In order to secure to the nation the control of all its waters, President Jefferson negotiated the purchase of a vast territory extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. The wisdom of Congress should be invoked to devise some plan by which that great river shall cease to be a terror to those who dwell upon its banks, and by which its shipping may safely carry the industrial products of 25,000,000 of people. The interests of agriculture, which is the basis of all our material prosperity, and in which seven-twelfths of the population are arrayed, as well as the interest of manufactures and commerce, demand that the facilities for cheap transportation shall be increased by the use of all our great water courses.
The 1880 Republican ticket of James A. Garfield of Ohio and Chester A. Arthur of New York. (Library of Congress)
The material interests of this country, the traditions of its settlement and the sentiment of our people, have led the government to offer the widest hospitality to emigrants who seek our shores for new and happier homes, willing to share the burdens as well as the benefits of our society, and intending that their posterity shall become an undistinguishable part of our population. The recent movement of the Chinese to our Pacific coast partakes but little of the qualities of such an emigration, either in its purposes or its result. It is too much like an importation to be welcomed without restriction; too much like an invasion to be looked upon without solicitude. We cannot consent to allow any form of servile labor to be introduced among us, under the guise of immigration. Recognizing the gravity of this subject, the present administration, supported by Congress, has sent to China a commission of distinguished citizens, for the purpose of securing such a modification of the existing treaty as will prevent the evils likely to arise from the present situation. It is confidently believed that these diplomatic negotiations will be successful, without the loss of commercial intercourse between the two powers, which promises great increase of reciprocal trade and the enlargement of our markets. Should these efforts fail, it will be the duty of Congress to investigate the evils already felt, and prevent their increase by such restrictions as, without violence or injustice, will place upon a sure foundation the peace of our communities, and the freedom and dignity of labor.
The appointment of citizens to the various executive and judicial offices of the government is, perhaps, the most difficult of all duties which the constitution has imposed upon the Executive. The convention wisely demands that Congress shall co-operate with the executive departments in placing the civil service on a better basis. Experience has proved that, with our frequent changes of administration, no system of reform can be made effective and permanent without the aid of legislation. Appointments to the military and naval service are so regulated by law and custom, as to leave but little ground for complaint. It may not be wise to make similar regulations by law for the civil service; but, without invading the authority or necessary discretion of the Executive, Congress should devise a method that will determine the tenure of office, and greatly reduce the uncertainty which makes that service so uncertain and unsatisfactory. Without depriving any officer of his rights as a citizen, the government should require him to discharge all his official duties with intelligence, efficiency and faithfulness. To select wisely, from our vast population, those who are best fitted for the many offices to be filled, requires an acquaintance far beyond the range of any one man. The Executive should, therefore, seek and receive the information and assistance of those whose knowledge of the communities, in which the duties are to be performed, best qualifies them to aid in making the wisest choice.
President Garfield's inauguration, March 4, 1881. (Architect of the Capitol)
The doctrines announced in the Chicago convention, are not the temporary devices of a party to attract votes and carry an election; they are deliberate convictions, resulting from a careful study of the spirit of our institutions, the events of our history and the best impulses of our people. In my judgment, these principles should control the legislation and administration of the government. In any event, they will guide my conduct until experience points out a better way. If elected, it will be my purpose to enforce strict obedience to the constitution and the laws, and to promote, as best I may, the interest and honor of the whole country, relying for support upon the wisdom of Congress, the intelligence and patriotism of the people and the favor of God.
With great respect, I am Very truly yours,
J.A. GARFIELD.
To HON. GEORGE F. HOAR, Chairman of the Committee
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James Garfield: Congressman (Part II)
Posted on November 1, 2018 by garfieldnps
The 43rd Congress
1872 was again a presidential election year, with Grant running for a second term against Horace Greeley, the candidate for a rebellious splinter group of "liberal Republicans" and the Democrats. "In my interior view of the case," said Garfield, "I would say Grant was not fit to be nominated and Greeley is not fit to be elected." But Garfield's own election prospects improved with the redistricting after the 1870 census. The nineteenth district was redrawn, removing Mahoning County and adding Lake County, freeing Garfield from the "Iron men" of the Mahoning Valley, and adding another solidly Republican voting bloc. His nomination was unopposed, and his election was 19,189 votes to 8,254.
Ulysses S. Grant was elected President of the United States in 1868 and re-elected in 1872. He was interested in running for an unprecedented third term in 1880, but the Republican nomination that year went to James A. Garfield instead. (Library of Congress)
The 44th Congress
Garfield faced his stiffest challenge to re-election in 1874. Grant's second term was consumed by scandal and mired in depression. Voters were generally in a foul, "throw-the-bums-out" mood. And in the nineteenth district local Republican conventions were passing resolutions condemning Garfield's association with the Credit Mobilier scandal and the congressional "salary grab." At least one local party meeting passed a resolution demanding Garfield's immediate resignation.
For the first time, Garfield and his political friends in the district knew that they were in a real fight. In January, Garfield told Harmon Austin, his most important local advisor, that he would "abide by all your engagements, and will send you the means to pay all expenses. There are political friends here [in Washington] that will aid in raising the necessary funds if I am no able to carry the load alone."
A third scandal involving a contract for paving the streets of Washington, D.C. added to the tense atmosphere, but the issue that most aroused the voters of the nineteeth district was the "salary grab." As a part of the annual appropriation bill, congress had voted itself a $2,500 raise, retroactive to the beginning of the 43rd Congress. This, when the legislature was cutting programs across the government, was simple for voters to understand and vocally oppose. As chairman of the appropriations committee in the House, Garfield was seen as personally responsible for the passage of the "salary grab" even though he had opposed it in committee and on the floor of the House.
Congressman James A. Garfield. (Library of Congress)
So Garfield returned to his district and campaigned for delegates to the local nominating conventions, explaining his positions mostly in small meetings and through his friends. In August he wrote in his diary: "The District is very thoroughly aroused and we shall have large primary meetings. My enemies are bitter and noisy, my friends more active than ever before and full of fight." Harmon Austin had developed an impressive political machine to meet challenge, and when voters met at the township level to choose delegates to the district convention, the Garfield forces showed up. The Congressman netted two-thirds of the local delegates, and by the time the district convention met the opposition had collapsed.
But the disaffected Republicans didn't give up; instead they named an independent candidate, H. R. Hurlburt, to challenge Garfield and the Democratic candidate Daniel B. Woods, who had run against Garfield in his first campaign twelve years earlier. In a month of fierce political fighting, Garfield attempted to answer every question and every challenge. "I let these gentlemen know that during this campaign it was to be blow for blow and those who struck must expect a blow in return." In refuting the queries of a questioner named Tuttle, Garfield said, "I doubt if he knew when I left him whether he was hash or jelly."
On election day the result was Garfield 12,591, Hurlburt 3,427 and Woods 6,245. Garfield retained his seat, but a nationwide "blue wave" meant that his party lost its majority in the House. For the rest of his career in Congress, Garfield would serve in the minority.
It was his position as leader of the minority that gave Garfield his springboard to the 1876 election. At the end of the congressional session that spring, Democratic Congressman L.Q.C. Lamar of Mississippi, whom Garfield respected as among the ablest Democrats in the House, delivered a carefully written and polished defense of the Democratic Party. It was immediately seen as the opening argument for the upcoming presidential campaign, when the Democrats saw their first real opportunity to win the White House since the Civil War. The next day, Garfield, as the Republican leader in the House, answered with a nearly extemporaneous response, arguing that the Democrats could not be trusted to manage the government. His speech was immediately praised by Republicans and Republican newspapers, and was reprinted for circulation everywhere.
Representative (later Senator) Lucius Q.C. Lamar of Mississippi. (Library of Congress)
At home, Garfield reported that at the district convention "the change from two years ago is very marked. . . From early in the morning the throng of friends and converted enemies came to see me. My speeches in Congress at the late session, especially that in reply to Lamar is spoken of constantly." Garfield was nominated by acclamation.
Not all his enemies from 1874 were converted, but they had learned a lesson. Instead of attempting to run an independent candidate, they joined with Democrats to nominate General John S. Casement, and again campaign against Garfield's "systematic corruption, perjury and bribery." While Garfield apparently never considered his re-election in danger, Casement did garner more votes than any other candidate who had challenged him, winning 11,349 votes to Garfield's 20,012.
In 1878, the Ohio legislature, controlled by Democrats, redrew the state's congressional districts for partisan advantage. Portage County, Garfield's home for most of his life, and his original political base, was moved to another, more Democratic, district. Mahoning County, with the "Iron men" who so often disagreed with and criticized Garfield, was returned to the nineteenth.
Garfield was unanimously re-nominated by the Republicans, but he was challenge not only by a Democratic candidate, but also by an emerging Greenback party, whose candidate, G, N. Tuttle, had been one of Garfield's loudest critics back in 1874. The main issue in the district, and across the country, was greenback currency or specie resumption. It was an issue that never seemed to be resolved, but one where Garfield's hard money position was well know.
Garfield 17,166 Hubbard 7,553 Tuttle 3,148
James A. Garfield was a man of many presidential firsts! This intense image of him is one of our favorites here at James A. Garfield NHS. (Library of Congress)
The 46th Congress was the last to which James Garfield was elected. During the term of that Congress he would be selected by the Ohio legislature to serve in the United States Senate, and later that year (1880) was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate. During the nearly eighteen years Garfield served in Congress, he faced a number of issues and a variety of challenges. It is clear in looking over his congressional campaigns that he enjoyed the rough-and-tumble of campaigning, even though he often protested otherwise. Two things remained constant in Garfield's political philosophy—his insistence on independence of judgment, and his loyalty to the Republican Party.
-Joan Kapsch, Park Guide
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James Garfield: Congressman (Part I)
Posted on October 12, 2018 by garfieldnps
In the Memorial Library at James Garfield's home is a fancy little desk with a brass number tab. It is a Congressional desk of the style used in the House of Representatives during the early years of Garfield's service in that chamber. It offers an opportunity to talk about his congressional career. A recent visitor asked a question we seldom hear—what were the issues in Garfield's many congressional campaigns?
James Garfield was elected to represent northeast Ohio in the Congress of the United States nine times. His tenure in the House stretched from the last year of the Civil War to his election to the White House in 1880. The issues that faced Garfield, the voters of the nineteenth district, and the nation changed over the years, of course, as did the district itself. Here, for our visitor, is a short synopsis of the issues and challenges that faced Congressman Garfield.
Garfield first began to think about running for Congress in the spring of 1862. He was in the army at the time, serving under General Henry Halleck in the vicinity of Corinth, Mississippi. In Garfield's view the army was bogged down both militarily and politically, neither pursuing the enemy nor liberating the slave population. He felt he could more usefully serve the country in a differ capacity, telling his friend Harmon Austin, "It seems to me that the successful ending of the war is the smaller of the two tasks imposed upon the government. There must be a readjustment of our public policy and management. There will spring up out of this war a score of new questions and new dangers. The settlement of these will be of even more importance than the ending of the war. I do not hesitate to tell you that I believe I could do some service in Congress in that work and I should prefer that to continuing in the army."
Brigadier General James A. Garfield in 1862 or 1863. (Library of Congress)
Garfield's home in Portage County was in a new nineteenth district, drawn after the 1860 census. Portage and Geauga were added to Ashtabula, Trumbull and Mahoning. His "friends" in the district, whom Garfield had been cultivating since his years in the state legislature before the war, told him that any "prominent men" from any of the five counties could have an equal chance at the Republican nomination. Garfield allowed his friends to enter his name in nomination, although he remained away from home and did not actively seek the nod. He won the nomination on the eighth ballot at the district convention in September.
The major issues in the fall campaign all related to the war, of course. Failures on the battlefield and the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation divided Union voters. In the nineteenth district, one of the strongest anti-slavery districts in the country, Garfield won overwhelming support: 13,288 votes to his opponent's 6,763. In northeast Ohio, a Republican nomination virtually guaranteed an election victory.
Two years later, the conduct of the war and the re-election of Abraham Lincoln were the issues of the election. Freshman Congressman Garfield had expressed less than full-throated support for the President, and had voted for an extension of the draft that was not popular in his district. Garfield spoke to the 19th District nominating convention in late August, 1864. "I cannot go to Congress as your representative with my liberty restricted. . . If I go to Congress it must be as a free man. I cannot go otherwise and when you are unwilling to grant me my freedom of opinion to the highest degree I have no longer a desire to represent you." This strong statement moved the crowd to enthusiastic cheers and re-nomination by acclimation. In November, Garfield prevailed, 18, 086 votes to his opponent's 6,315.
Election to the 40th Congress in 1866 turned on questions of reconstruction. In the district voters were unhappy with Garfield's support for the draft through the end of the war, and for his participation in a case before the United States Supreme Court that arose out of the war. Ex parte Milligan was the first case James Garfield ever argued in court. It revolved around the question of whether civilians arrested for aiding the Confederacy should be tried in military tribunals or in civilian courts. Garfield told a constituent, "I knew when I took the Indiana case (Milligan and several other were arrested by the Army in Indiana) that I would probably be misunderstood, but I was [so] strongly convinced of the importance of the decision of the case on the right side, that I was willing to subject myself to the misunderstanding of some, for the sake of securing the supremacy of the civil over the military authority." Some of his constituents saw it as a "defense of traitors" and many believed it conflicted with the Radical Republican plan for reconstruction in the South.
Once again Garfield was re-nominated by acclamation, and he spent most of the fall campaign outside the district, stumping for Republican candidates in close Congressional districts in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and New York. The goal was to elect enough Republicans to defeat any veto by President Johnson and install a Radical reconstruction program. Not only did Garfield win, 18,598 votes to 7,376 in his district, he help secure a "magnificent victory" for Republicans across the country. "I trust," he said, "Congress may be able to preserve the fruits of victory."
The 41st Congress
On May 15, 1868 Congressman Garfield took the floor of the House to deliver a carefully prepared speech about "the currency question." Since the end of the war, Garfield had focused his attention on the "new questions and new dangers" of a peacetime economy based on fiat currency—that is, a national currency that was not back by gold. Political sentiment in Ohio, and particularly in the nineteenth district favored inflationary greenbacks, but Garfield argued against focusing on unbacked paper currency as the only, or even the main cause of the prosperity and industrial growth of the war years. The speech served to explain the reasons he felt it was important to return to "sound money," and to challenge his opponents at home.
During the 1868 campaign, Garfield and his political friends distributed copies of his speeches in Congress on the currency, the tariff, and Reconstruction. The result: Garfield 20,187 votes, McEwen 9,759.
A Garfield $5 bill from 1882, the year after President Garfield was assassinated. Garfield was a believer in hard currency, not paper money ("greenbacks"). Wonder what he would have thought about his appearance on this paper currency! (oldcurrencyvalues.com)
The 42nd Congress
Protective tariffs, particularly on iron products, were the campaign issue of 1870. Garfield's constituents in Mahoning County were demanding high tariffs on imported iron goods, or that he be replaced "by a gentleman who is at heart true to the protective tariff interests of his country." All through the spring, the "iron men" search for a candidate to oppose him, but by June Garfield was able to report, "So far as I know there is to be no organized opposition in the convention. The Iron men tried every means in their power to secure a candidate but failed. The will probably sullenly acquiesce in the inevitable."
Other issues included reducing the size of the army and the problems of reconstruction. On that topic, Garfield was not optimistic. "We have now reached a critical period in our legislation when we are called upon to perform the final act, to complete, for better or for worse, the reconstruction policy of the government. . . I confess that any attempt at reconciling all we have done. . . so as to form consistent precedents for any theory given to legislation is, to my mind, a failure. There are no theories for the management of whirlwinds and earthquakes."
Garfield 13,538 Howard 7,263
(Check back for Part II soon!)
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President James A. Garfield's Inaugural Address, March 4, 1881
Fellow-Citizens:
We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of national life-a century crowded with perils, but crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the onward march let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have traveled.
It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption of the first written constitution of the United States–the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The new Republic was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves.
James Abram Garfield, twentieth President of the United States. This image of him is one of our favorites here at James A. Garfield NHS. (Library of Congress)
We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the confederacy of States, was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead established a National Union, founded directly upon the will of the people, endowed with full power of self-preservation and ample authority for the accomplishment of its great object.
Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger from without and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws, framed and enforced by their own citizens, to secure the manifold blessings of local self-government.
The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty times greater than that of the original thirteen States and a population twenty times greater than that of 1780.
The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all the beneficent purposes of good government.
The Republican presidential ticket in 1880: James A. Garfield of Ohio and Chester A. Arthur of New York. (Wikipedia)
And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately reviewed the condition of the nation, passed judgment upon the conduct and opinions of political parties, and have registered their will concerning the future administration of the Government. To interpret and to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the paramount duty of the Executive.
Even from this brief review it is manifest that the nation is resolutely facing to the front, resolved to employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities of the future. Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good government during the century, our people are determined to leave behind them all those bitter controversies concerning things which have been irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir up strife and delay the onward march.
The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no longer a subject of debate. That discussion, which for half a century threatened the existence of the Union, was closed at last in the high court of war by a decree from which there is no appeal–that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are and shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike upon the States and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the States nor interfere with any of their necessary rights of local self-government, but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy of the Union.
The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by proclaiming "liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof."
The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. NO thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration to the power of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years.
The Garfield inauguration at the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1881. (Library of Congress)
No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was perhaps unavoidable. But those who resisted the change should remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen.
The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have "followed the light as God gave them to see the light." They are rapidly laying the material foundations of self-support, widening their circle of intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend they shall enjoy the full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws.
The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged that in many communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is answered that in many places honest local government is impossible if the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local government is certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented; but to violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more than an evil. It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to compass the death of the king, it shall be counted no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice.
It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It should be said with the utmost emphasis that this question of the suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States or to the nation until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law.
But the danger which arises from ignorance in the voter can not be denied. It covers a field far wider than that of negro suffrage and the present condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains of power in every state. We have no standard by which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage.
The voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whose will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their supreme authority to no successors save the coming generation of voters, who are the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to its inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of the Republic will be certain and remediless.
The census has already sounded the alarm in the appalling figures which mark how dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen among our voters and their children.
President James A. Garfield on the reviewing stand during his inaugural parade on March 4, 1881. To his right, his wife, First Lady Lucretia Rudolph Garfield is seated. To his left sit outgoing President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes. (Library of Congress)
To the South this question is of supreme importance. But the responsibility for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South alone. The nation itself is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and is under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has added to the voting population. For the North and South alike there is but one remedy. All the constitutional power of the nation and of the States and all the volunteer forces of the people should be surrendered to meet this danger by the savory influence of universal education.
It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which awaits them.
In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new meaning in the divine oracle which declares that "a little child shall lead them," for our own little children will soon control the destinies of the Republic.
My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we can not prevent, the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make a truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable verdict?
Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material well-being unite us and offer ample employment of our best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues, move forward and in their strength of liberty and the restored Union win the grander victories of peace.
The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in our history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie payments, so successfully attained by the Administration of my predecessors, have enabled our people to secure the blessings which the seasons brought.
By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it has been found that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for a monetary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in the relative value of the two metals, but I confidently believe that arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations which will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide that the compulsory coinage of silver now required by law may not disturb our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. If possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing power of every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in all the markets of the world.
Program for the Garfield-Arthur Inaugural Ball on the evening of March 4, 1881. (Library of Congress)
The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the currency of the country is to coin money and declare its value. Grave doubts have been entertained whether Congress is authorized by the Constitution to make any form of paper money legal tender. The present issue of United States notes has been sustained by the necessities of war; but such paper should depend for its value and currency upon its convenience in use and its prompt redemption in coin at the will of the holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These notes are not money, but promises to pay money. If the holders demand it, the promise should be kept.
The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national-bank notes, and thus disturbing the business of the country.
I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on financial questions during a long service in Congress, and to say that time and experience have strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on these subjects.
The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment which it may be possible for my Administration to prevent.
The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the Government than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford homes and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish much the largest part of all our exports. As the Government lights our coasts for the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it should give to the tillers of the soil the best lights of practical science and experience.
Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fields of employment. Their steady and healthy growth should still be matured. Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the continued improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways and by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean.
The development of the world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for shortening the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by constructing ship canals or railways across the isthmus which unites the continents. Various plans to this end have been suggested and will need consideration, but none of them has been sufficiently matured to warrant the United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject, however, is one which will immediately engage the attention of the Government with a view to a thorough protection to American interests. We will urge no narrow policy nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges in any commercial route; but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it to be the right "and duty of the United States to assert and maintain such supervision and authority over any interoceanic canal across the isthmus that connects North and South America as will protect our national interest."
The interior of the Smithsonian's Arts & Industries Building decorated for the Garfield-Arthur Inaugural Ball. (Smithsonian)
The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Territories of the United States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and hence the General Government is responsible for any violation of the Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to the Government that in the most populous of the Territories the constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and the authority of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the moral sense of manhood by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of justice through ordinary instrumentalities of law.
In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and powers of the National Government.
The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the protection of those who are intrusted with the appointing power against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several Executive Departments and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made during the terms for which incumbents have been appointed.
Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my Administration to maintain the authority of the nation in all places within its jurisdiction; to enforce obedience to all the laws of the Union in the interests of the people; to demand rigid economy in all the expenditures of the Government, and to require the honest and faithful service of all executive officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for the benefit of incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of the Government.
President James A. Garfield. (Library of Congress)
And now, fellow-citizens, I am about to assume the great trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that earnest and thoughtful support which makes this Government in fact, as it is in law, a government of the people.
I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God.
Posted in 1880 Election, Inauguration, James A. Garfield, Republican Party, Smithsonian, Uncategorized	| Tagged 1881, Inauguration, James A. Garfield, Republicans, US Capitol, Washington DC	| Leave a reply
Garfield's Speech: Soldier's Monument Dedication, Painesville, Ohio
Posted on February 23, 2018 by garfieldnps
On July 3, 1880, Congressman James A. Garfield of Ohio-then the Republican Party's candidate for President of the United States-traveled about seven miles from his Mentor, Ohio home to the neighboring town of Painesville. There he delivered the keynote address at the ceremony dedicating a new Soldier's Monument in Painesville Memorial Park. The monument still stands in Painesville's town square today, nearly 140 years later.
Garfield was a Union Civil War veteran himself, having commanded the 42nd Ohio Volunteers and then an infantry brigade before serving as the Army of the Cumberland's chief of staff. He was present at such battles as Middle Creek, Shiloh, Corinth, and Chickamauga. He left the army in late 1863 to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, remaining there until his election to the presidency in November 1880. He was shot by an assassin just four months into his presidency.
Brigadier General James A. Garfield, ca. 1862-63. (Library of Congress)
Garfield's speech at the Painesville Soldier's Monument dedication:
"Fellow citizens: I cannot fail to respond on such an occasion, in sight of such a monument to such a cause, sustained by such men. While I have listened to what my friend has said, two questions have been sweeping through my heart. One is, "What does the monument mean?" and the other, "What will the monument teach?' Let me try and ask you for a moment, to help me answer what does the monument mean? Oh! The monument means a world of memories, a world of deeds, and a world of tears, and a world of glories.
You know, thousands know, what it is to offer up your life to the country, and that is no small thing, as every soldier knows. Let me put the question to you: For a moment suppose your country in the awfully embodied form of majestic law, should stand above you and say: 'I want your life. Come up here on the platform and offer it.' How many would walk up before that majestic presence and say, 'Here I am, take this life and use it for your great needs.'? And yet almost two millions of men made that answer, and a monument stands yonder to commemorate their answer. That is one of its meanings. But, my friends, let me try you a little further. To give up life is much, for it is to give up wife, and home, and child, and ambition. But let me test you this way further. Suppose this awfully majestic form should call out to you, and say, 'I ask you to give up health and drag yourself, not dead, but half alive, through a miserable existence for long years, until you perish and die in your crippled and hopeless condition. I ask you to volunteer to do that,' and it calls for a higher reach of patriotism and self-sacrifice; but hundreds of thousands of you soldiers did that. That is what the monument means also. But let me ask you to go one step further. Suppose your country should say, 'Come here, on this platform, and in my name, and for my sake, consent to be idiots. Consent that your very brain and intellect shall be broken down into hopeless idiocy for my sake.' How many could be found to make that venture? And yet there are thousands, and that with their eyes wide open to the horrible consequences, obeyed that call.
James Abram Garfield, 20th President of the United States. This photo was taken either just before or during Garfield's brief (March-September 1881) presidency. (Library of Congress)
And let me tell how one hundred thousand of our soldiers were prisoners of war, and to many of them when death was stalking near, when famine was climbing up into their hearts, and idiocy was threatening all that was left of their intellects, the gates of their prison stood open every day, if they would quit, desert their flag and enlist under the flag of the enemy; and out of one hundred and eighty thousand not two percent ever received the liberation from death, starvation and all that might come to them; but they took all these horrors and all these sufferings in preference to going back upon the flag of their country and the glory of its truth. Great God! Was ever such measure of patriotism reached by any men on this earth before? That is what your monument mans. By the subtle chemistry that no man knows, all the blood that will be shed by our brethren, all the lives that were devoted, all the grief that was felt, at last crystallized itself into granite rendered immortal, the great truth for which they died, and it stands there today, and that is what your monument means.
Now, what does it teach? What will it teach? Why, I remember the story of one of the old conquerors of Greece, who, when he had traveled in his boyhood over the battle-fields where Miltiades had won victories and set up trophies, returning said:
'The trophies of Miltiades will never let me sleep.' Why? Something had taught him from the chiseled stone a lesson that he could never forget; and, fellow citizens, that silent sentinel, that crowned granite column, will look down upon the boys that will walk these streets for generations to come, and will not let them sleep when their country calls them. More than from the bugler on the field, from his dead lips will go out a call that the children of Lake County will hear after the grave has covered us and our immediate children. That is the teaching of your monument. That is its lesson, and it is the lesson of endurance for what we believe, and it is the lesson of sacrifices for what we think- the lesson of heroism for what we mean to sustain- and the lesson cannot be lost to a people like this. It is not a lesson of revenge; it is not a lesson of wrath; it is the grand, sweet, broad lesson of the immortality of the truth that we hope will soon cover, as the grand Shekinah of light and glory, all parts of this Republic, from the lakes to the gulf.
Soldier's Monument in downtown Painesville, Ohio, dedicated July 3, 1880. Republican presidential candidate James A. Garfield was the keynote speaker at the dedication ceremony. (Author photo)
I once entered a house in old Massachusetts, where, over its doors, were two crossed swords. One was the sword carried by the grandfather of its owner on the field of Bunker Hill, and the other was the sword carried by the English grand-sire of the wife, on the same field, and on the other side of the conflict. Under those crossed swords, in the restored harmony of domestic peace, lived a happy, and contented, and free family, under the light of our republican liberties. I trust the time is not far distant when, under the crossed swords and the locked shields of Americans North and South, our people shall sleep in peace, and rise in liberty, love, and harmony under the union of our flag of the Stars and Stripes."
-Todd Arrington, Site Manager
Posted in 1880 Election, 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Civil War, Historical Memory, James A. Garfield, James A. Garfield NHS, Ohio, Republican Party, Uncategorized	| Tagged Army, Civil War, Lake County, Monuments, Ohio, Painesville, Republicans	| Leave a reply
Murder, Mayhem, Voter Fraud, and Political High Jinks: The U.S. Army's Thankless Task in the South, 1865-77
Posted on August 4, 2017 by garfieldnps
With the Union victory over the Confederate movement in 1865, the federal army was given the task of assisting in the readmission of the southern states into the body politic, and in protecting the newly awarded political and civil rights of the freedmen.
It was a tall order for an army increasingly short of manpower. The calls for economy within the halls of Congress, in the months after Lee's surrender, led to a reduction of the Army (volunteers and regulars) from a high of over 1.5 million to 54,000 by the end of 1866 – with more reductions to come. (The U. S. Navy fell under a similar axe.)
Approximately one-third of that much smaller force – 18,000-20,000 – was stationed in the former Confederacy, an area the size of Western Europe with a population of eight million people. It was in effect, an occupation force, a role largely unfamiliar to it.
Former Confederate states were broken up into five military districts after the Civil War. Each district was administered by a military governor. (Wikipedia)
Over the twelve years of the Reconstruction era, the Army executed the political will of successively, President Andrew Johnson, the Radical Republicans in Congress, and finally Presidents Ulysses S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes.
On May 29, 1865, President Johnson issued two proclamations. One established a loyalty oath to be taken by Southerners, foreswearing any previous allegiance to the Confederacy. The second proclamation made William Holden the provisional governor for the state of North Carolina. Later, other provisional governors were appointed in the South.
The Army was tasked with aiding the process of readmission for the Southern states by overseeing elections for the calling of state conventions to ratify the 15th amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery and pledging loyalty to the Union. The Army also had the duty of protecting freedmen and their white, Republican supporters, aiding the Freedmen's Bureau, preventing violence, and helping to reestablish civil authority.
One of the problems that the Army faced was the continued resistance of native white Southerners to "domination" by the North. There was also resentment of the presence of black troops. Many were eventually removed in the effort to keep peace.
Andrew Johnson was selected as Abraham Lincoln's 1864 running mate because he was a loyal southern Democrat. Unfortunately, he was also a virulent racist and white supremacist. Radical Republicans in Congress soon took control of Reconstruction from Johnson's hands. (Library of Congress)
President Johnson's loyalty oath was problematic. Too many Southerners were disqualified for public office because they could not affirm that they had not come to the political, economic, or military aid of the Confederacy during the war years. Therefore, too few native-born Southerners were available to reestablish civil government. Complicating matters even more, many of those who took the oath were later determined to be disloyal after all, and were removed by Army commanders. These actions created tensions between the Army and the civilian leaders with whom it hoped to cooperate.
Many Army commanders desired to have civil leaders assume responsibility for preventing violence and other criminal acts, rather than having their troops intervening. Army commanders occasionally refused to come to the assistance of civilian leaders, adding to confusion and tension within Southern communities. Meanwhile, Radical Republicans, unhappy with Andrew Johnson's "lenient" reconstruction policy, wrested control of Reconstruction from the President in 1866 and 1867.
Congressional Republicans established a Joint Committee on Reconstruction to investigate conditions in the South and to propose measures to prevent violence and disorder. The result was the passage of two Reconstruction acts in March 1867. These acts placed the South under military control, and created five military districts with commanders who were given sweeping powers to protect persons and property (meaning blacks and their white Republican supporters), remove disloyal civil officials, and replace civil courts with military commissions when deemed necessary. The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 also declared all Southern state governments to be provisional and prohibited the formation of independent militias (most of which were white).
"The Freedmen's Bureau," from Harper's Weekly. The Freedmen's Bureau was one of the cornerstones of Reconstruction in the South. It was designed to help African Americans increase their station in life but was opposed by many white southerners. (HarpWeek)
The Radical Republicans wanted to punish Southerners for the war, and they wanted the Army to occupy and control the political situation in the former Confederacy. As such, commanders were very aware of the need to insure that their troops conducted themselves in ways that did not make the Southern white population needlessly hostile. It was an almost impossible task. Not only did some Union commanders and their troops have an automatically negative view of "former rebels," but those "former rebels" returned the compliment.
From 1867 to 1870, incidents of violence in the South were sporadic, though frequent enough. Peace was often tenuous as blacks and white Republicans continued to be under threat and white Southerners continued to feel imposed upon by a vindictive federal Congress.
Matters only got worse after 1870. All the former Confederate states had by this time ratified the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments abolishing slavery, granting citizenship, and the vote. They were thus readmitted to the Union. Though President Grant pleaded, "Let us have peace," was president, it was not to be.
"Pitchfork" Ben Tilman of South Carolina was a prominent southern Democrat for decades. (Biography.com)
Fraud at the ballot box became more common once the Democrats regained political power in the mid-1870s in several states. As South Carolina's "Pitchfork Ben" Tilden bragged, "How did we recover our liberty [after the ballot box had been given to "our own ex-slaves"]? By fraud and violence." After the polls closed, ballot boxes were seized. Votes were "counted in" or "counted out," as need be. Gerrymandering was practiced to reduce Republican voting strength. One black Congressional district in Mississippi was concentrated in a narrow band along the Mississippi River to insure white majorities in five others. Mob attacks and lynching were also employed to discourage black and white Republican voting.
"White Leaguers," the "White Liners," the "Red Liners," and the "Red Shirts" came into being, bent on terrorizing black citizens and white Republicans. The Ku Klux Klan also formed at this time. Violent outbreaks in the streets and at the polls were so frequent that at times, the army was called on to literally form a barrier in public spaces between warring Democrats and Republicans. In Louisiana in 1872/1873 Republicans took possession of the state house and Democrats took possession of a nearby hall. The Democrats attempted to overawe the Republicans with an attack of "militia." The Army sent troops to regain control over a situation that promised increasing violence.
In the 1876 November elections in Louisiana and South Carolina, a familiar scenario played out: Democrats and Republicans in both states claimed victory, not only in the presidential election, but in the elections for governor and state legislature, too. Each side backed up its claim through the threat of mob violence. By this time, President Grant had already voiced his concern that, "The whole public are [sic] tired out with these annual autumnal outbreaks in the South and… the great majority are ready now to condemn any interference on the part of the [federal] government."
Many Democrats screamed "Tilden or blood!" during the election crisis on 1876, when Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote for president, but Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the Electoral College victory. (Harper's Weekly)
Indeed, by the end of 1876 there were fewer federal troops to protect persons and property in the South than at any point since the end of the war. Those overextended troops could no longer effectively monitor elections in that region. Reconciliation between the North and South remained elusive, despite the hopes of men of good will.
The final withdrawal of federal troops from South Carolina and Louisiana to their barracks was a concession to the reality that military force to protect persons and property in the South had failed to bring about the social justice that the victors in the late war had sought.
-Alan Gephardt, Park Ranger
Posted in African Americans, Andrew Johnson, Reconstruction, Republican Party, Slavery, Uncategorized	| Tagged Army, Civil Rights, Democrats, Reconstruction, Republicans, South	| Leave a reply
James Garfield and Joshua Chamberlain
On June 14, 1881, Joshua L. Chamberlain of Brunswick, Maine, wrote a letter to President James A. Garfield. The President's wife, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, had been ill with malaria for much of the spring, and Chamberlain offered this advice:
It has been suggested to me by a medical gentleman of much experience
that the best treatment Mrs. Garfield could have would be a summer on
the coast of Maine. Should that judgment commend itself to you I shall
be very glad if it may be in my power to aid in the selecting [of] a suitable
place, or in any way to contribute to your satisfaction in regard to the
Chamberlain, then president of his alma mater, Bowdoin College, also invited the President to attend Bowdoin's commencement on July 14. It was public knowledge that Garfield was heading north in less than three weeks to speak at his own alma mater, Williams College in Massachusetts, and then enjoy a vacation. The President was more than ready for a little time away from the White House. He had only recently won a hard-fought political victory regarding patronage appointments with members of his own Republican Party, most notably Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York. His wife's severe illness added to his worries and made his first few months as the nation's twentieth president even more difficult.
President James A. Garfield in 1881. Like Chamberlain, he was an academic but felt compelled to fight for the Union during the Civil War. (Library of Congress)
Garfield never made it to Williams or his vacation. On July 2, 1881, as he walked through Washington, D.C.'s Baltimore and Potomac train station to board his train north, Charles Guiteau approached and shot him twice from behind. The first bullet grazed Garfield's arm, but the second lodged in his back. Over the next eighty days, doctors unschooled in Listerian antisepsis and germ theories—or willfully ignoring them—poked and prodded Garfield with dirty fingers and instruments, introducing infection into his body. The President died on September 19, eighty days after Guiteau's attack.
Joshua L. Chamberlain during his time as president of Bowdoin College. (Bowdoin College)
No evidence exists to suggest that Garfield and Chamberlain ever actually met one another. However, had they met, it seems likely that they would have liked one another a great deal. After all, the similarities between the two men were striking. They were close to the same age, with Chamberlain born in 1828 and Garfield in 1831. Both showed an early interest in religion and considered careers as clergymen. Chamberlain attended and graduated from Maine's Bangor Theological Seminary, but never actually worked as a minister. Garfield did not attend a religious seminary, but did preach sermons as a lay minister in the Disciples of Christ denomination.
A young James A. Garfield as a Union Brigadier General, ca. 1862-63. He left the army at the end of 1863 to take a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Library of Congress)
Chamberlain and Garfield both had successful careers as scholars at their alma maters before the Civil War, Chamberlain at Bowdoin and Garfield at Ohio's Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram College), which he attended before Williams. Both taught many different subjects and were proficient in several languages, including Greek and Latin. When the Civil War came and both were moved to volunteer for the Union, each determined to use books on military history and tactics to teach himself how to lead and fight. As Chamberlain told the Governor of Maine in a letter that could just as easily have been written by the Ohioan Garfield, "I have always been interested in military matters, and what I do not know in that line I know how to learn" (emphasis in original). Soon after, Lt. Col. Chamberlain was second in command of the 20th Maine Infantry. Garfield, a state senator at the time of the Fort Sumter attack, taught himself drill on the lawn of the Ohio Capitol Building before being assigned command of the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
Brigadier General Joshua L. Chamberlain. Like Garfield, he left the life of a scholar to join the army. Chamberlain became one of the Union's most celebrated soldiers and received the Medal of Honor in 1893 for his actions at the battle of Gettysburg three decades earlier. (Library of Congress)
James Garfield saw action mostly in the western theater, Chamberlain in the east. During his service in the army, northeast Ohio Republicans elected Garfield to the U.S. House of Representatives, and Garfield left the army in December 1863 to go to Congress. Chamberlain remained in the army until war's end, suffering numerous wounds that would affect him for the rest of his life. When the war ended, he was elected to four consecutive one-year terms as Maine's governor. While Garfield enjoyed political success, though, Chamberlain's ambitions to serve as a U.S. Senator were stymied. The Garfields and Chamberlains both endured the pain of losing children to early deaths, and both became sought-after speakers on the post-war lecture circuit.
Had Garfield survived Charles Guiteau's assassination attempt, or had Guiteau never struck at all, perhaps Garfield and Chamberlain may have met at some point—maybe even on Garfield's New England visit in July 1881. We can only guess, but knowing a little bit about their backgrounds and life experiences makes it a good bet that they could have been fast friends.
Posted in 20th Maine, 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Bowdoin College, Civil War, Garfield Assassination, James A. Garfield, Joshua L. Chamberlain, Lucretia Garfield, Maine, Ohio, Republican Party, Uncategorized, Western Reserve Eclectic Institue	| Tagged 20th Maine, 42nd Ohio, Assassination, Bowdoin College, James A. Garfield, Joshua L. Chamberlain, Lucretia Garfield, Maine, Ohio, Western Reserve Eclectic Institute	| 2 Replies
The 1879 "Government Shutdown," Part II
Posted on November 10, 2016 by garfieldnps
Congressman James Garfield augmented Hayes' constitutional scruples with a defense of black voting rights. He decried the Democrats' attempt to achieve "wholesale disfranchisement of the Negro…in the South" as an attack on his party's legacy: the ending of slavery, Constitutional amendments guaranteeing citizenship and voting rights to blacks, and the supremacy of the Union. These Republican constitutional arguments at the same time served the party for partisan political advantage.
The idea that what the Democrats were up to was an attempt to undermine the Constitution was seen as "revolutionary" by Hayes, by Garfield, and by other prominent Republicans. Plain and simple, the Democrats were trying to blackmail Hayes into ending federal voting rights provisions in the states.
Congressman James A. Garfield, one of President Hayes's most articulate allies during the "Revolution in Congress." (Library of Congress)
In a speech before the House, later published as "Revolution in Congress," Garfield pointedly remarked, "… if the President, in the discharge of his duty, shall exercise his plain constitutional right to refuse his consent to this proposed legislation, the Congress will so use its voluntary powers as to destroy the government. This is the proposition… we confront; and we denounce it as revolution."
Even two of President Hayes's Republican detractors came to his defense. New York Senator Roscoe Conkling stood before the Senate on March 24, 1879, and excoriated the Democrats demand that unless "another species of legislation [a rider] is agreed to, the money of the people… shall not be used to maintain the government." This, he said, was "revolutionary…" Conkling's arch rival, Maine Senator James G. Blaine, agreed. "I call it the audacity of revolution for any senator or representative… to get together and say [to the President and the country], 'We will have this legislation or we will stop… the government.' That is revolutionary…"
Over the course of three months, the Democrats tried five times to attach riders to appropriations bills for the Army and for the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches of the government. All had the same object: rid the South of federal marshals and end the Army's presence at the polls.
Hayes vetoed every bill with such riders. Each time, his veto was sustained in the House because Republicans, guided by Congressman Garfield, stood firmly against the Democrats.
Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York did not see eye to eye with President Hayes on much, but he stood by the President during these events. In 1881, Conkling would have a very bitter public dispute with Hayes's presidential successor: James A. Garfield. (Library of Congress)
Hayes and Garfield stood shoulder to shoulder against Democratic maneuvers to weaken the protections of citizens at the polls. Hayes' insistence that he would not be bullied by the Democrats was so determined that Congressman Garfield feared that the President's strategy would backfire. He appealed to Hayes to find some face-saving compromise to save the Democrats total embarrassment. The President scoffed at Garfield's chivalrous concern: 'A square backing down is their best way out, and for my part I will await that result with complacency."
The self-confident Hayes insisted that he would not sign any appropriations bills with the riders to which he objected. Only once did Hayes approve an appropriation bill with riders. It funded the Army and the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, but omitted funding for federal marshals. In the end, the Democrats were able to withhold only $600,000 of the $45,000,000 needed to keep the federal government functioning.
In the end, Hayes, Garfield and their Republican colleagues successfully defended the President's constitutionally mandated veto power. In this, they had taken a step in reinvigorating the role of the president in national affairs.
The success of the political goal of defending black voting rights and of increasing Republican influence in the South was not as obvious. After all, the Democrats had won a partial victory. They were able to defund the marshals. However, as the marshals were called to duty only at election time, there was still time for the President and Congressman Garfield to get them funded. A deficiency bill to provide funding not approved earlier is mentioned in the diaries of both Hayes and Garfield in April 1880.
"Hayes at Bat," from the Daily Graphic on June 3, 1879. (Daily Graphic)
Over the course of three months, Hayes' battle with the Democrats won him respect in many parts of the country, and especially among Republicans. "I am now experiencing one of the 'ups' of political life," he wrote on July 3. Congress adjourned on the 1st after a session of almost 75 days mainly taken up with a contest against me. Five vetoes, a number of special messages and oral consultations with friends and opponents have been my part of it. At no time… has the stream of commendation run so full. The great newspapers and the little have been equally profuse of flatter…"
Garfield emerged as the leading spokesman for the administration. Already, in early 1879, there was talk among prominent Republicans that Garfield should be a candidate for president.
A constitutional victory for the Executive was won in 1879 that could not be diminished: a president could not – or should not – be forced to sign legislation with which he disagreed.
James A. Garfield's actions during the 1879 crisis led many to think that he would make a good Republican presidential candidate in 1880. Garfield did not publicly respond to anyone suggesting him as a candidate but privately did not think the idea very realistic. (Library of Congress)
The fight over riders to appropriations bills between House Democrats and President Hayes and his Republican allies in Congress in 1879 has parallels to the politics of our time.
First, the tensions between the Executive branch and the Legislative branch of the government were illuminated. In 1879, the Executive branch, which had been weakened in relation to Congress after the death of Lincoln, was strengthened by President Hayes's determined stand. His Republican allies in Congress, united by the leadership of Congressman Garfield, gave Hayes critical support.
Second, the 1879 controversy was indeed "revolutionary," as Republicans claimed. At no time before had there been such a bold attempt to "shut down" the operations of the federal government by a denial of funding. At no time after, until a partial shutdown caused by the Democrats in 1976 when Gerald Ford was President, was such a tactic employed again. The threat of shutdowns has occurred with greater frequency in the last forty years, making our own politics "revolutionary" in nature.
Finally, as is often true of modern politics, the 1879 veto fight contained a measure of temporary political advantage for both political parties. However, both parties were divided internally and neither could be assured of easy victory as they approached the 1880 presidential campaign. Meanwhile, African-Americans, whose political status was at the center of the 1879 controversy, steadily lost ground in their fight for respect and civil rights, another legacy of the divisive politics of the Hayes/Garfield era.
-Joan Kapsch and Alan Gephardt, Park Rangers
Posted in Civil Rights, Democratic Party, Elections, James A. Garfield, Ohio, Republican Party, Roscoe Conkling, Rutherford B. Hayes, Uncategorized, Voting	| Tagged Appropriations, Civil Rights, Congress, Democratic Party, James A. Garfield, Reconstruction Amendments, Republican Party, Rutherford B. Hayes, Vetoes, Voting	| Leave a reply
The 1879 "Government Shutdown," Part I
Mark Twain never said, "History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme." He did observe, however: "It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man's character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible." This is nowhere more true than in politics, and it is certainly as apt today as it was when Twain wrote it in 1907.
Mark Twain, American humorist, author, and social critic. (PBS)
In recent years, Americans have become accustomed to threats of a "government shutdown" at the hands of one party in the Congress, opposed to the programs and policies of the President of the opposite party. One side cries, "Politics!" The other side counters, "Principle!" But when threatening to defund the government in order to change public policy was first attempted in 1879, the cry was "Revolution!" Politics and principle, principle and politics vied with one another in minds, and hearts, and maneuvers, of all parties involved.
Some background is in order. Between 1865 and 1870, the years immediately following the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution were adopted. These were the first amendments to the Constitution to be passed in sixty years. The amendments abolished slavery in the United States, conferred citizenship to the newly freed people, and granted black males the right to vote. With these amendments came modern conceptions of civil rights and voting rights.
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished slavery. The next two amendments granted citizenship to African Americans and gave Black men the right to vote. These are collectively known as the "Reconstruction Amendments." (Library of Congress)
Through several legislative measures in the late 1860s and 1870s, blacks gained property rights and equal protection under the law. Mechanisms to ensure that blacks could vote in free and fair elections were established, supported by the U.S. Army and federal courts.
At the same time, many white southerners were disfranchised. Immediately after the Civil War, former political and military leaders of the Confederacy were barred from holding political office. Many white southerners felt that they were at the mercy of Republican Carpetbaggers from the North, the Union Army, and the newly freed blacks, who for the first time exercised political power in state legislatures and in the U.S. Congress.
The once-dominant southern Democrats were determined to regain their political and social dominance in the former Confederacy. For more than a decade they used intimidation, physical violence, and even murder to keep blacks and southern Republicans from the polls.
White southerners did everything possible–including murder–to keep African Americans from the polls after the Civil War. Efforts to suppress the black vote and resurrect white supremacy also led to the creation of hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. (Newberry Library)
Federally appointed civilian officers were employed to monitor the fairness of elections. When violence broke out, the U.S. Army was brought into maintain peace and an orderly election process.
Fearing "negro domination," white southern Democrats invoked states' rights. Republicans sought to preserve the rights of the freedmen as a matter of justice, and also as a means to expand the influence of their party in the South. These constant tensions were at the heart of the controversy in 1879.
In early 1879, in the waning days of the second session of the 45th Congress, the House's Democratic majority attached riders to funding bills to prohibit the use of federally appointed marshals to oversee elections, and to prevent the Army from having any role in protecting voters at polling places. The Republican Senate would not agree to these measures. As a result, Congress failed to pass $45,000,000 in appropriations for the Federal government for the fiscal year beginning on July 1.
This impasse caused President Hayes to call the 46th Congress into special session on March 18. The new Congress presented a problem for the Republican president. Both the Senate and the House were now controlled by the Democrats (for the first time since 1859). This spelled trouble for Hayes and his chief lieutenant in the House of Representatives, James Garfield.
Congressman James A. Garfield worked closely with President Hayes. (Library of Congress)
Toward the end of April, the 46th Congress passed an Army Appropriations bill with a rider identical to the one that passed at the end of the 45th Congress. Once again, the Democrats aimed at preventing federal marshals to oversee elections. Once again, the Army would be prohibited from keeping peace at the polls during congressional and presidential elections.
From the Democrats' point of view, it was time to end Republican and federal government interference in elections in southern states. They invoked the constitutional principle of states' rights while they sought to insure the dominance of white men in the politics of their states. They were also looking to the 1880 presidential contest, hoping to be able to intimidate or discourage enough black voters to elect a Democrat president for the first time since 1856.
Using the appropriations authority vested in the House of Representatives, the Democratic majority was trying to force the hand of the Republican president – to sign the appropriation with the objectionable rider – or to defund the government. Senate Democrats were in full accord with their House colleagues.
President Hayes and Congressman Garfield understood both the constitutional argument being made by the Democrats and the political advantage they sought. Even before the final bill was passed, Hayes wrote in his diary, "The appropriation bill is essential to the continuance of the Government… It is the duty of Congress to pass it. The rider is attached to get rid of the Constitutional exercise of the veto power to defeat… [a rider]… the Pres[iden]t does not approve…" The political gamesmanship of the House Democrats gave the Republican President a constitutional argument with which to battle them.
Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States from 1877-81. (Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center)
In his diary, the president expressed his thoughts about this controversy many times. Of the Democrats he wrote, "They will stop the wheels – block the wheels of government if I do not yield my convictions in favor of the election laws. It will be a severe, perhaps a long contest. I do not fear it – I do not even dread it. The people will not allow this Revolutionary course to triumph." Later, he confided, "I object to the [army appropriations] bill because it is an unconstitutional and revolutionary attempt to deprive the Executive of one of his most important prerogatives… [and to] coerce him to approve a measure which he in fact does not approve." This was the constitutional counter-argument taken up by the Republicans.
(Check back soon for Part II!)
Posted in Civil Rights, Democratic Party, Elections, James A. Garfield, Law, Mark Twain, Ohio, Republican Party, Rutherford B. Hayes, Uncategorized, Voting	| Tagged Appropriations, Civil Rights, Congress, Democratic Party, James A. Garfield, Reconstruction Amendments, Republican Party, Rutherford B. Hayes, Vetoes, Voting	| Leave a reply
James R. Garfield, Gentleman from Mentor (Part Two: A Young Man in Love)
"This is the Age of Statistics": James A. Garfield and the 1870 Census (Part I)
James R. Garfield, Gentleman from Mentor (Part I): Founding Mentor Library
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Background letter transcription:
[Executive Mansion, Washington]
Dear Burke,
I throw you a line across the storm to let you know that I think, when I have a moment between breaths, of the dear old quiet and peace of Hiram & Mentor- Let me hear from you.
As Ever Yours,
J A Garfield
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Christopher B. Stubblefield "Stubb" was born in Navasota, Texas. His BBQ sauce is so popular you can probably find it in your local grocery store. In the 1970′s, Stubb's restaurant became the heart of an explosive music scene. Stubb's was ground zero for musicians like Stevie Ray Vaughn.


Top Dog Team Trivia will be held on Saturday, February 9, 2019, from 6:00 – 9:30 PM, at the American Legion Post 1645, 177 Robinson Street, Binghamton, NY. Trivia begins at 7:00 PM. First prize is $100, second prize is $50, and third prize is $25. In addition, there will be 50/50 raffles, basket raffles, and door prizes. Admission is $15 per person, which includes salad, a pasta dinner and desserts; in addition, there will be a cash bar available. Tickets can be purchased at The Humane Society, 167 Conklin Avenue, Binghamton. For more information, please contact Kim Broderick at The Humane Society at (607) 724-3709 ext. 107 or by email at kbroderick@bchumanesoc.com. All proceeds benefit The Humane Society, dedicated to preventing animal cruelty towards the care of animals in their shelter while working to find them permanent, loving homes as well as their mission towards the prevention of animal cruelty and abuse.


With the constantly changing landscape of technology and music, startups and apps pop up left and right with everyone trying to cash in on the current social media boom. Scott Vener, the music supervisor of the hit TV show Entourage, has turned his attention to new side project Undertone, changing how people consume music. Previously working at MySpace, Vener has combined his passions for technology and music for his next tech venture.
With a simple layout similar to Instagram, Vener and designer Ben Johnston have been developing the app since working together at MySpace with the goal of easily sharing music with other friends on Undrtone. The two entrepreneurs have taken major streaming services — Rdio, Spotify, SoundCloud and Beats — and allowed users to share their favorite tracks with friends all in one place. With all the music clutter on the internet right now, Undrtone attempts to sift through the white noise and allow users to see what their friends are listening to along with sharing what they're listening to. Undrtone is available in Apple's App Store now.