Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A Garfield

It is the last Sunday of the month, so it is time for the next president, making this week’s book of the week Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A Garfield by Kenneth D Ackerman.

So, this book picks up at the 1880 Republican convention where Garfield was nominated for president. Actually, it starts about 15 years prior to that with the roots of a long-standing political feud that directly contributed to his assassination. But I will come back to that in just a minute. I’m going to pull some info on Garfield’s early life from Wikipedia to start this out.

So, Garfield was born on November 19, 1831, in Ohio so he was a native son of that state and had a family residence there his whole life. He grew up dirt poor and was raised by a single mother when his father died in 1833.  He did have several siblings and eventually graduated from Williams College, becoming an attorney like so very many of his predecessors in the White House. Also, like many of his presidential predecessors, he was a voracious reader, using books as a form of escape from the slings and arrows of life. My man!

He almost became a minister though, before attending college he had attended the Geauga Seminary to study religion. It was at Geauga Seminary that he met his future wife, Lucretia Rudolph. They fell in love while Garfield was teaching Crete Greek. They married November 11, 1858, and had seven children, two of whom died in early childhood.

Garfield served as a Senator to Ohio’s state Senate and as a major during the Civil War, before making the leap to national politics by being elected to the House of Representatives in 1862. He served in the House of Representatives until his nomination to the White House and presidential win in 1880, becoming the first and only President to be nominated from the US House of Representatives.

So here we are, back to the book.

The political feud that eventually paved the road for Garfield’s assassination was not between Garfield and anyone else. It was between Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, and Senator James Blaine of Maine.

In 1866, both of those gentlemen were members of the US House of Representatives. It was a small squabble over whether or not to create a position as a public servant to oversee graft and draft in the US Military. Conkling was against and Blaine had sponsored the bill. Blaine was initially kind of meh about it, but something about the viperous-ness of Conkling’s attack bothered Blaine, and eventually he struck back, calling Conkling a strutting turkey. And that was it. The groundwork was laid for 20 years of interparty bickering, with Conkling leading the Stalwart Caucus of the Republican party and Blaine leading the Half-Breed Caucus of the Republican party. And the two Caucus’s HATED each other.

Fast forward 14 years and it’s now the 1880 Republican convention to elect their nominee for president. There were three contenders for the position. Ulysses S Grant was being backed by Conkling and the Stalwarts. Blaine was being backed by the Half-Breeds. And James Sherman was being nominated by James Garfield. And these battle lines held steady through an absurd 34 rounds of voting. At heart, and what kept this hold from breaking, was Conkling’s failure to push through the unit rule, which meant any one state’s majority would bind all the delegates from that state to one candidate. Essentially, the majority rule within the party. What ultimately defeated the unit rule from being implemented were the tiny fraction of the half-breed Caucus within New York. They managed to keep on hold Conkling’s ambitions for General Grant.

So, the battle lines for nominee held steady until the 35th ballot round when Wisconsin threw their votes to Garfield. This is what made him a Dark Horse, which politically is a relative unknown who is suddenly thrust into prominence. Which made Garfield very much a Dark Horse. He was not intending to stand for president at this time in his career and at 48 was relatively young for the honor. But once Wisconsin backed him, both Blaine and Sherman directed their troops to back Garfield, which beat Grant, and Garfield became the nominee.

Now, Conkling, as THE political power in New York, was not at all amused about this. And Garfield immediately recognized Conkling’s importance in actually winning the election. Without New Yorks 36 electoral votes, he would never win. And Without Conkling, he would never get those 36 votes. And Conkling was exactly the sort of petty, vengeful prick that would deny his party the presidency for spite, since he did not get his way…which was a third term for Grant. So, Garfield reached out first to Levi Morton to offer him the Vice Presidency. Morton took the offer to Conkling for approval, which was denied. So, Garfield then approached Chester A Arthur for the position. Now Arthur truly was a Dark Horse. Garfield at least had experience in national politics. Arthur’s political prowess was as the collector for the Port of New York. An immensely powerful position, to be sure, and highly politically connected as he was responsible for collecting millions of dollars of revenue and overseeing 1,000 jobs at the Port of New York.

Conkling advised Arthur to decline as well, but Arthur accepted, believing with his own political connections as collector, they could win. But winning meant pulling Conkling into active campaigning for the Garfield/Arthur ticket. Along with General Grant.

Now, Garfield had to kiss some political butt, which he did, and managed to bring the political machine of New York into campaign on his behalf. Whether or not he actually promised choice patronage plums to New York is moot. New York felt he did. And he did not deliver. Enter Charles Guiteau (Get-o). Guiteau had worked as a lawyer but was largely unambitious in life. He had been married but was either separated or divorced. Guiteau believed Garfield would make a fine president and made his way to New York to join the Stalwarts as a political canvasser, desiring to make speeches on behalf of Garfield, which he delivered like, part of a speech. One Time. But he felt this earned him a plum patronage post when Garfield won in November 1880. He initially determined he wanted the embassy in Venice? It might have been Vienna. Ultimately, he decided he wanted the diplomatic post of Paris.

Understand, Guiteau was not in any way politically connected. He had no political savvy or know-how. He was a half assed lawyer, if that. He had vaguely campaigned on behalf of Garfield. Yet shortly after Garfield and family took up residence in the White House, Guiteau began making appearances at the White House, requesting posting to Paris.

Now, the White House in the 19th century was not at all like today. I mean, the structure has remained more or less the same, more security obviously, since we rebuilt it after the war of 1812. But back then, the White House was seen less as the president’s residence and more as The People’s House. At least through Garfield, the house was routinely opened for we the people to come visit the president. And I don’t mean like today, where you can tour the White House. I mean, like they would literally host open houses where the people could come in and talk to the president.

And Crete Garfield (Lucretia) also took to hosting weekly salons, and actually met Guiteau during one of these, when he came by and introduced himself as up for the position of consul to Paris.

Almost immediately upon being elected, Garfield offered the position of Secretary of State to James Blaine. And denied ANY cabinet position to any Stalwart member. Conkling was…annoyed. But when Guiteau made his request for Paris, Garfield referred him to Blaine, as Secretary of State. This made perfect sense to Guiteau. The Secretary of State would absolutely oversee diplomatic postings. So, he began making weekly trips to Blaine’s office for his posting. To which he felt entitled. Because he once gave a five-minute speech on behalf of Garfield during the campaign. And all the Stalwarts were always kind to him, so he believed he was their true friend.

Begin The Battle for Patronage. Garfield’s cabinet choices were all approved immediately by the Senate. Every other post he wanted became a battle between Conkling and Garfield for control of the party. It vacillated back and forth and ultimately, Garfield realized he would never be able to make all sides happy. So, he decided to make himself happy, and nominated William H Robertson, a Half-Breed caucus member, for the newly vacant and politically powerful position of Collector of the Port of New York.

Now, several things happened almost simultaneously to create an absolutely perfect storm.

First off, Lucretia became very ill. I believe they thought dysentery. For more than a month, her fever ran between 100 and 104 degrees. Garfield was essentially consumed with concern for his wife and refused to leave her side, spending countless hours at her sick bed, caring for her and reading to her. She DID recover. However, during this month of extreme illness, Blaine became fed up with Guiteau’s constant requests for the Paris consulate and told him it would never happen. And the Stalwarts tried to sideline Garfield’s nomination of Robertson by slow tracking it. Basically, they would slowly start voting on all his other nominations until the session ended, allowing Garfield to appoint Robertson temporarily as an emergency appointee, then the Senate would overturn that nomination when they next met. Garfield, consumed with fear for Lucretia’s health, saw through this ploy and sent word to the Senate that he would relinquish all other nominees, but wanted a decision on Robertson.

In the 19th century, while all this turmoil is going on, the government has literally ground to a halt. Back then, ALL government employees were appointed as a matter of patronage. There was no daily job security if you were a federal employee, and as soon as a new administration took over, you could lose your job in the blink of an eye. So, ALL of Rutherford B Hayes appointees were in limbo, and any seats that had been vacated on Garfield’s win remained vacant. And with the senate bickering over the actual appointments, the government had literally come to a stop.

So, Garfield basically said appoint who you want for everything else, but I want Robertson in New York. He had had enough of Conkling. So, Conkling and the other senator from New York, Tom Platt, played a dangerous gambit. They both resigned from the US Senate.

Before the passage of the 17th amendment in 1913, Senators were not directly elected by the people. They were appointed by the state legislatures of individual states. If the Governor of New York had immediately informed the New York legislature of the two senators’ resignation, then the legislature could have immediately reappointed those senators, which would have handed ultimate political power to Conkling in New York. No appointment to any patronage ever in New York would have been made without Conkling’s express approval. And while the legislature in New York KNEW about the retirement due to press releases, without that official notification from the governor, they were prohibited from making that vote. And the governor did not alert them for over a week. This opened the floor, and the state legislature of New York became bogged down for weeks over this matter.

Long enough for ultimate catastrophe.

Once Guiteau was rebuffed by Blaine and saw his friends in the Stalwart Caucus rebuffed and resigned, he believed he had a mandate from God to kill the faithless Garfield, who had failed to deliver on election promises to those who had campaigned on his behalf. So, he bought an ivory handled pistol, believing this would look best in the museums. And he genuinely believed Arthur would be grateful to him and would issue a presidential pardon and the long-awaited Paris Consulate to reward him.

Garfield, for his part, was relieved that Crete was on the mend. And the couple went to New Jersey, to the shore, to allow Crete to recuperate in the fresh sea air. After a few weeks there, Garfield returned to DC to wrap up the political season and prepare for a national tour with Crete and their youngest children.

On July 2, 1881, Garfield traveled with Secretary of State Blaine to the train station. Blaine was to see Garfield off on his national tour. While walking through the station, Guiteau shot Garfield twice in the back. Garfield and Blaine, both having served in the war, recognized the sound of gun fire. Blaine turned to Garfield to try and get him to safety and realized he had been shot. Mostly because Garfield was down on one knee, bleeding and vomiting.

Guiteau, for his part, walked out of the train station. And right into the arms of a police man. Right behind him was a crowd of people who informed the officer that Guiteau had just shot the president. And Guiteau was promptly placed under arrest, saying on his detention “I did it. I will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart and Arthur will be President.”

Arthur, for his part, when he heard the news, was appalled. And horrified. He NEVER wanted to be president. And as someone who was three years older than the president, there was no earthly reason to believe he would outlive the president and be forced to take the mantle himself.

The true horror though is if Garfield had had a half ass competent doctor, even by 19th century standards, he would have survived. The bullet entered his right, cut across his spine but not severing it, and came to rest by his pancreas. The doctors, in trying to determine the path of the bullet, performed multiple probes. With their hands. Their unwashed hands. Germ theory had only just been introduced by Louis Pasteur, and was still making its way through medical personnel as valid. Garfield developed massive infections. And the oat and milk only diet the doctors had Garfield on, coupled with the developed infection, took Garfield from a healthy man of over 200 pounds to about 130 when he succumbed to the infections and starvation on September 18, 1881, 79 days after being shot. If the doctors had just left him alone and allowed him to eat, he would likely have recovered. The treatment was so bad, it was actually used in Guiteau’s defense. He said on the stand “No, I didn’t kill him, I only shot him. Medical malpractice killed him.” Didn’t work. Guiteau was convicted of assassination on January 5, 1882, and hanged on June 30, 1882.

Garfield had JUST found his political backbone, had only just realized there was no making everyone happy and so his only job was to run the country to the best of his ability, when Crete became ill, and then he in turn was shot and succumbed to illness. But the end results of his assassination were phenomenal. Conkling never returned to power. He thought for sure he would, with his political protégé Arthur now president, Conkling approached Arthur and demanded Robertson be removed as collector of New York. And Arthur refused. Conkling and Arthur never spoke again.

And the Civil Service Act of 1883 was signed into law by Arthur, effectively ending patronage, and making government employment merit based. In theory. I have very definite opinions on the effectiveness of government employees. But for better or worse, they are no longer political appointments. Mostly. I mean, there are SOME positions that still require senate approval. But that number is now limited to a little over 1,000. Versus ALL government employees requiring approval.

This book was very well done, capturing an exact moment in time, and pulling all the pieces together into a cogent snapshot of what happened and more importantly how this happened. And the author makes an excellent point. There have been four presidential assassins in American history, and of the four, Guiteau is seen as just a deranged madman. Yet of the four, Guiteau managed to effect actual change. His “friend” Chester Arthur did, in fact, become president. And as a direct result of Guiteau’s actions, the Civil Service Reform Act passed, which had been initially recommended by Rutherford B Hayes during his administration from 1877 to 1881. And where Hayes failed to implement this change, Garfield’s assassination pushed it through on a wave of nationwide popular support.

I feel bad for Garfield. His potential as a leader was never realized, snatched away by petty bickering and partisan politics and this bizarre belief that someone owes you something. And it was this belief in the dangers of patronage that saw the Civil Service Act push through and become law.

I do wish there had been a bit more of Garfield’s background in the book, but the book wasn’t, strictly speaking, about Garfield. It was this single year in history that led to immense change and changed history.

Also, the presidents from Hayes through like McKinley are seen as not particularly interesting to historians. Not sure why, this was a truly golden age for America and the presidents were as much a part of this as anything else. I just know I’m having a hell of a time finding recent books on these gentlemen. There is a new book on Garfield set to release in July of this year, but I don’t want to backtrack either. I put it on my wishlist and I might revisit him later. I also want to read books on Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, as well as on Roscoe Conkling and Tammany Hall, which was the Democratic machine in New York. Like, THESE are the men who made America, as much as Jay Gould, JP Chase, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and Carnegie.

Those are topics for future book reports. For now, I quite enjoyed THIS week’s book of the week. It was a fascinating and DARK period in American history. The power struggles were very real and foreshadowed the current political climate in America.

This review was originally posted on YouTube on January 29, 2023, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.