GARFIELD
GARFIELD
amendment abolishing slavery. He was re-
elected to the 39th congress and at his own
reijuest was transferred from the military to the
ways and means committee that he might take
part in the financial ijuestions in favor of the
resumption of specie payment. He was returned
to the 40th— 10th congresses; was made chairman
of the committee on military affairs in the 40th;
was selected as head of the newly created com-
mittee on banking and currency in the 41st
congress; was chairman of a committee on appro-
priations in the 43d and 43d congresses; and
in the Democratic houses of the 44th, 45th and
46th congresses he was given a place on the ways
and means committee. He opposed the electoral
commission of 1877, but accepted one of the two
seats allotted to Reijublican representatives and
discussed before the commission the Florida and
Louisiana returns, the latter of which he had
made a special personal study, having watched
the counting of the Louisiana vote in New
Orleans, where he went at the request of Presi-
dent Grant in compan}- with other Republican
leaders. When Mr. Blaine took his seat in the
U.S. senate in 1877, Garfield became the Repub-
lican leaJer of the house and the minority can-
didate for speaker. On Jan. 13, 1880, he was
elected U.S. senator from Ohio to succeed Allan
G. Thurman, and in June, 1880, at the Republican
national convention at Chicago, he was nomi-
nated as the candidate of the party for President
of the United States after a long and exciting
contest in which John Sherman, James G. Blaine
and General Grant were prominent candidates.
His nomination came with the 30tli ballot, June
8, 1880. He took the stump in his own behalf
and spoke in Ohio, New York and other states,
his public appearance adding largely to his pop-
ularity. His political enemies lirougbt against
him the cliarges of venality as affecting his con-
nection with the Credit Mobilier, as testified by
Representative Oakes Ames, and with the De
Golyer contract in the District of Cohunbia
paving patents, both of which had been before
the house of representatives and apparently
thoroughly discus.sed and disposed of, with a
verdict of possible indiscretion on the part of
Representative Garfield in his not having been
careful enough in avoiding the appearance of
evil. He was elected, Nov. 2. 1880, by carrying
every northern state except New Jersey. Nevada
and California, the electoral vote standing 214 for
Garfield and Arthur and loo for Hancock and
English, and the popular vote standing: 4,4-!9.0.53
for James A. Garfield. Republican; 4.442.035 for
Winfield S Hancock, Democrat: 307,000 for
James B. Weaver, Greenback; 10,305 for Neal
Dow, Prohibition; and 707 for John W. Phelps,
American. He was inaugurated, March 4, 1881,
and made up his cabinet by appointing James G.
Blaine of Maine as secretary of state; William
Windom of Minnesota, secretaiy of the treasury;
r«e WHITE ri"";^
Robert T. Lincoln of Illinois, secretary of war;
William T. Hunt of Louisiana, secretary of the
navy; Wa3-ne MacVeagh of Penn.sylvania, attor-
ney-general; Thomas L. James of New York,
postmaster-general, and Samuel J. Kirk wood of
Iowa, secretary of the interior. President Garfield
at the opening of his administration incurred the
enmity of Senator Conkling of New York — who
had, late in the canvass, come to the I'escue of his
party and secured New York to the Republican
column — by nominating W. H. Robertson col-
lector for the port of New York in direct oppo-
sition to the senators from that state. Both Sena-
tors Conkling and Piatt resigned their seats in
the U.S. senate. May 16, 1881, and on May 18 the
senate, relieved of senatorial courtesy theretofore
binding it, promptly confirmed the nomination of
Mr. Robertson as collector. Vice-President
Arthur, who had represented the Grant-Conkling
or stalwart wing of the party at the Republican
national convention, had gained his nomination
as a compromise candidate and was supposed to
sympathize with the defeated New York senators.
The blind partisanship of a di.sappointed office-
seeker who imagined that assassination would
make clear the way to patronage, led him to
waylay and slioot the
President in the sta-
tion of the Baltimore
and Potomac raih'oid,
July 2, 1881, when
f)i route to attend the
c immencpment exer-
cises of Williams col-
l?ge. In the While
House and subse
quentlj' at Elberon, ^ ^
N.J., the President lin- -|^c::;Jts'-~'?? gered between life and deith, the subject of earnest solicitation of a nation forgetful of party strife in the presence of the great tragedy, until Sept. 19, 1881, when he diel. His body was carried to the national Capitol and there lay in state for twt) days, Sep-
