Campaign of 1880.

87

The campaign of 1880 was a most interesting and memorable one. The fight in the Republican Convention had been prolonged to a degree that carried with it much feeling, and sores which were not healed at the close of the convention. Mr. Conkling, in his strenuous plea for the nomination of General Grant, had offended all the friends of Mr. Blaine, and it was apparent that a breach was made which could not well be filled. Mr. Conkling and his friends had been allowed to name the candidate for the Vice-Presidency, and at first the name of Mr. Arthur was very coldly received by the rank and file of the party throughout the country. It was not thought that he was up to the standard, or, in fact, that he could ever become presidential timber, although it probably did not enter the mind of a single Republican throughout the length and breadth of the land, that in a few months Chester A. Arthur might be the President of the United States.

It was some time after the opening of the campaign before Mr. Grant and Mr. Conkling gave any signs that they proposed to support Garfield. But after Maine in September had gone Democratic, Mr. Conkling and General Garfield had a conference at the latter's home in Ohio, after which the ConklingGrant forces were zealous in their support of the candidate up to the close of the campaign.

The personalities of the campaign were entirely upon one side, General Hancock being treated by the Republicans with the utmost kindness and without attack of any nature. On the contrary, Mr. Garfield and his character were assailed. fiercely by the Democrats throughout the canvass. He had been a member of the Forty-second Congress, and was now accused of having been a beneficiary of the Credit- Mobilier. It was alleged that he had received a dividend amounting to $329, and this number was used throughout a portion of the campaign wherever it could be painted on a wall or sidewalk, or used in the columns of the Democratic press. Not that Democrats really thought Mr. Garfield to have been corrupt, but it was a very good Democratic campaign argument and appealed particularly to the ignorant voter. About a fortnight before the close of the campaign a letter was published which

purported to have been written by General Garfield to H. L. Morey of the Employers' Union, Lynn, Mass. was as follows:

The letter

(Personal and confidential.)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON, D. C., January 23, 1880.

DEAR SIR: Yours in relation to the Chinese problem came duly to hand.

I take it that the question of employees is only a question of private and corporate economy, and individuals or companies have the right to buy labor where they can get it cheapest.

We have a treaty with the Chinese Government which should be religiously kept until its provisions are abrogated by the action of the General Government, and I am not prepared to say that it should be abrogated until our great manufacturing and corporate interests are conserved in the matter of labor.

Very truly yours,

J. A. GARFIEld.

H. L. MOREY, Employers' Union, Lynn, Massachusetts.

Although General Garfield at once denounced the letter as a forgery, yet a member of the Democratic National Committee, who was familiar with General Garfield's handwriting, expressed the opinion that it was genuine, which he based upon an examination of the manuscript, a facsimile of which was generally printed. It was only just before the election that an attaché of the newspaper where the letter first appeared, was arrested on the charge of forgery, and an investigation was begun in a New York court. Evidence was produced showing that there was no such person as H. L. Morey of Lynn, and proving conclusively that the letter was a forgery and had been promulgated for political effect.

The Tariff question was suddenly introduced into the campaign. First, the sentence in the tariff plank of the Democratic platform, declaring in favor of “a Tariff for revenue only" gave the Republicans a chance to accuse the Democrats of wanting to legislate in favor of absolute Free Trade, and in face of the utterance of their platform the Democrats found it hard to

Election of Garfield.

89

reply to this accusation. General Hancock, who it was supposed had no particular knowledge whatever of the Tariff question, at once pronounced it to be a local issue, and the assertion has never been forgotten.

Says A. K. McClure, in Our Presidents and How We Make Them:

Garfield possessed more political honors at one time than any other public man in the history of the country. After the November election of 1880, he was the Congressman from his district; he was United States Senator-elect, having been chosen by the Ohio Legislature in January of the same year, and he was Presidentelect. He had many elements of popularity, but was not a courageous leader like Blaine. He was not a strong, aggressive man, although able in debate and one of the most scholarly of our public men. He had a most difficult rôle to fill when he came into the Presidency. Conkling wholly distrusted him when Garfield was first nominated for President, as was clearly evidenced by Conkling failing to call upon Garfield when Garfield made his first visit to New York after the Chicago Convention, although he stopped at the same hotel where Conkling was a guest. Later in the campaign Conkling was earnestly urged to visit Garfield, and he made the visit, resulting in the Conkling and Grant forces earnestly supporting Garfield's election.

Although the Democratic platform had announced that the so-called fraud issue of 1877 "precedes and dwarfs every other," yet but little use was made of the issue during the campaign, neither was there any so-called "waving of the bloody shirt," or the introduction of the Southern question into the campaign by the Democrats. The election resulted in a very small plurality for Mr. Garfield, owing to the fact that few Republican votes were allowed to be cast in the Southern States, which were now solidly Democratic and under the complete control of the leaders of the Democratic party. In some Southern States there were only half as many Republican votes counted in 1880 as in 1876. The electoral vote was 214 for Garfield and Arthur, and 155 for Hancock and English. Both the popular and electoral vote is given on the next page.

"Votes for a fusion electoral ticket, made up of three Democrats and four Greenbackers. A "straight" Greenback ticket was also voted for.

3 Two Democratic tickets were voted for in Virginia. The regular ticket received 96,912, and was successful; the "Readjusters" polled 31,674 votes.

CHAPTER V.

BRIEF TERM OF GARFIELD-ADMINISTRATION OF ARTHURTARIFF COMMISSION-CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

TH

HE inauguration of President Garfield, March 4, 1881, was attended with unusual display. It took place in the Senate Chamber, where were gathered the two Houses of Congress, the Justices of the Supreme Court, the diplomatic representatives of other nations, and a large assemblage of visitors, including the wife and venerable mother of the new President. From his inaugural message, which was destined to be the only message given to the American people by President Garfield, the following is taken:

My countrymen, we do not differ in our judgment concerning the controversies of the first 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 retard, but we cannot prevent. 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 invite us, and offer ample scope for the employment of our best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battle-field of dead issues, move forward, and, in the strength of liberty and restored Union, win the grander victories of peace. The prosperity which now prevails is without a parallel in our history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done all. The preservation of public credit, and the resumption of specie payments, so successfully attained by the Administration of