James A.

« Treasury John Sherman, another Ohioan.

He went to the Republican national convention as head of his state's delegation and manager of the Sherman campaign. The Republican Party at that time was split into two factions, the Stalwarts, led by Roscoe Conkling, senator from New York, and the Half-Breeds, led by Blaine.

The twogroups had few political differences, but disagreed over the division of appointments to federal positions, known as patronage. The Stalwarts wanted control of all federal appointments to offices in New York; the Half-Breeds wanted these decisions to be made in Washington.

In 1880 Conkling's Stalwarts supported formerPresident Ulysses S.

Grant to run for president again.

The Half-Breeds supported Blaine.

Sherman's candidacy found little national support at the convention, but ithelped block the nomination of either Grant or Blaine. Garfield worked hard to win convention delegates for Sherman.

As chairman of the convention's rules committee, he persuaded the convention to permit delegates tovote individually rather than in state blocs.

This system of voting freed more than 60 New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois delegates from party-dictated support ofGrant.

Garfield also addressed the convention on behalf of Sherman, but he probably won more cheers for himself than for his candidate.

He spoke for 15 minutesbefore he mentioned Sherman's name, and many began to suspect that Garfield was adroitly placing himself in nomination.

But there is no evidence to suggest thatGarfield was disloyal to Sherman. On the first ballot, Sherman polled 93 votes to Grant's 304 and Blaine's 284.

Ballot after ballot brought little change.

No candidate was able to muster a majority.Finally, the Blaine and Sherman followers combined to break the deadlock.

Garfield was presented as a compromise candidate because he was Blaine's friend andSherman's manager.

On the 36th ballot and on the convention's sixth day, Garfield was nominated for president.

He polled 399 votes.

One of Conkling's men, ChesterA.

Arthur, the former customs collector of the port of New York, was nominated for vice president. In the election, Blaine's and Sherman's followers worked for Garfield.

The Grant-Conkling faction gave him reluctant support.

There were few issues between Garfieldand his Democratic opponent, Major General Winfield S.

Hancock of Pennsylvania.

The major difference was that the Republicans favored a protective tariff, and theDemocrats did not.

Garfield, who did not feel strongly about the tariff, went along with his party.

In November, Garfield won the presidency.

He received 214 electoralvotes to Hancock's 155.

However, he did not have a majority of the popular vote.

Discontented farmers and working people cast 308,578 votes for the Greenback-Labor Party candidate, General James B.

Weaver of Iowa.

Neal Dow of the Prohibition Party received 10,305 votes.

Garfield had 4,454,416 votes to Hancock's4,444,952.

His electoral margin came mainly from Northern states. Shortly after the election, Garfield resigned from the House and surrendered the Senate seat to which he had been elected earlier in the year.

He was inaugurated aspresident on March 4, 1881. VIII PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES Garfield's brief administration was marked by intraparty disputes over Cabinet appointments and the disposition of federal patronage.

Garfield passed over the Stalwartfaction in filling important government posts.

His appointment of Blaine, leader of the Half-Breeds, as secretary of state was especially offensive to Conkling and theStalwarts.

Conkling countered by trying to block Garfield's appointments to the New York Custom House and resigning his Senate seat in protest.

The protest was futile,however, and Garfield's choices were approved by Congress. In the spring of 1881, Garfield began the prosecution of the star route frauds, an attempt by post office employees, in collusion with private mail carriers, to defraudthe government.

Before the case was brought to trial, however, Garfield's career came to an abrupt end. IX ASSASSINATION On the morning of July 2, 1881, Garfield was preparing for a trip to New England.

While waiting for his train in Washington's Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station, thepresident was felled and gravely wounded by the shots of an assassin.

Garfield was carried to the presidential mansion, the White House.

For weeks he was nursedthere.

Later he was moved to Elberon, New Jersey, to be with his family.

Garfield never left his sickbed, and on September 19, 11 weeks after the shooting, he died. Garfield's assassin was Charles J.

Guiteau, a religious fanatic and a Stalwart, who was apparently angered because he had been refused a government job.

He statedthat he shot Garfield in order “to unite the Republican Party and save the Republic.” Guiteau readily gave himself up after the shooting, certain that the people wouldunderstand the high-mindedness of his purpose.

He was found guilty of murder, however, and was executed in 1882. Vice President Chester A.

Arthur succeeded Garfield as president.

A member of the Stalwart faction, he had sided with Conkling in the dispute over Garfield'sappointments.

He gradually replaced all of Garfield's Cabinet with Stalwarts, but picked them for ability rather than loyalty to Conkling.

The shocking nature of Garfield'sdeath fueled a movement in Congress for civil service reform, which had been started but stalled under the Hayes administration.

As a result Congress passed thePendleton Act, which President Arthur signed into law in 1883.

It established the Civil Service Commission to ensure that federal jobs would be awarded according toqualifications rather than connections ( see Personnel Management, Office of). Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation.

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