President James A. Garfield Dies after an Assassination Attempt: September 19, 1881

This text comes from our book, Lands of Hope and Promise.

And who claimed the responsibility for all the new industrial power, all the luxury and convenience items it produced? The politicians. The Republicans, the “Grand Old Party,” had been in power almost continually since the retirement of James Buchanan in 1860. For many, being Republican was practically identical with being American. Democrats were, in the memorable words of the Rev. Burchard, the party of “Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.” Republican government, Republican policies, had fostered business (many businessmen had certainly fostered Republican politicians); and, if in a neo-Hamiltonian world, the Republicans had been the party of business, they had to be the party of America, as well.

An 1880 Presidential election cartoon, showing candidates James A. Garfield, Chester Arthur, Samuel J. Tilden, and David Davis standing on their “records,” published in “Puck,” June 16, 1880

After serving one term as president, Rutherford Hayes decided not to run again in 1880. The Republicans instead nominated James A. Garfield, a reforming congressman, for their presidential candidate, and for their vice-president, a Stalwart named Chester A. Arthur. In the election, Garfield handily beat the Democratic candidate, General Winfield Scott Hancock, but he had hardly time to enjoy the spoils of victory. Only four months after his inauguration, a disappointed office seeker, crying, “I am a Stalwart! Arthur is President!” shot Garfield. The president died on September 19, 1881, more from the attentions of his doctors than from the assassin’s bullet.

The Stalwart, Chester Arthur, now became president; but, much to Stalwart chagrin, he instituted a reform of the civil service. Patronage had run amok since the days of Grant, and every civil service office was subject to the spoils system. Arthur inaugurated the classified civil service, which removed a certain number of civil service offices from the influence of political patronage and required appointees to pass a competency examination. Still, only a small number of offices were so “classified”; and though in years to come that number would grow, so would the number of offices open to patronage.

An account of President Garfield’s assassination attempt, from “Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper,” October 8, 1881.

Arthur did not run in 1884, and the Republican nomination went to James Gillespie Blaine, called the “Plumed Knight” by his friends and admirers. The nomination of Blaine, plumed or not, was unacceptable to Carl Schurz and other reform-minded Republicans. Called “Mugwumps” by their enemies, they bolted from the party and vowed they would support any candidate the Democrats nominated. The Mugwumps cheered the Democrats’ choice of Grover Cleveland, who had been known for his integrity as governor of New York. What’s more, Tammany Hall hated him. What could be better? “We love him for the enemies he has made!” said one Mugwump. Reports surfaced during the campaign of the shady profits the Plumed Knight had made through his political office in Congress; and though Republicans dredged up a story that Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child—and Cleveland himself admitted it—nothing could salvage Blaine’s candidacy for the presidency. Cleveland became the first Democratic president elected in 28 years.

The rotund Cleveland did not live up to the stereotype that fat folks are jolly. Conservative and unbending, Cleveland was not given to compromise. During his term, he vetoed or “pocketed” 413 bills passed by Congress—even those supported by members of his own party. Thinking gold the only sound basis for money, he opposed the free coinage of silver allowed under an 1878 congressional law called the Bland-Allison Act. The president also favored reducing the tariff, which supplied two-thirds of public revenue.

Benjamin Harrison

In the 1888 presidential election, Cleveland ran against the Republican, Benjamin Harrison. Though a grandson of “Old Tippecanoe” and a Civil War brigadier general in his own right, Harrison was too dour to succeed at a “log cabin and hard cider” campaign. He only won the election by carrying the electoral votes of the state of New York. Cleveland beat him in the popular vote by a margin of 100,000.

President Harrison came into office with a Republican majority in both houses of Congress. Under the speakership of the powerful Republican representative, Thomas B. Reed, Congress passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (1890), which increased the coinage of silver—a measure Cleveland would have stoutly opposed. Manufacturing interests showed their clout with the Republicans with the passage of the McKinley Tariff of 1890. Sponsored by the Ohio Republican congressman, William McKinley, the tariff increased duties on foreign imports, thus raising the protective barrier for American business. But when the price of domestic goods rose, people blamed the tariff, and during the congressional elections of 1890, the Republicans, who had supported it, took a big hit. The Democrats won a majority in the House, while the Republicans barely maintained their majority in the Senate. The turning of the tide in 1890 washed Grover Cleveland back into office in 1892.