📷 Photo Taken Outside DC Reveals What’s Next for Gas ⛽

“Fill Your Gas Tank… While You Still Can.”   [New Trading View Logo]( [New Trading View Logo]( ["The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well". – John D. Rockefeller Jr.]( A special message from the Editor of New Trading View: We are often approached by other businesses with special offers for our readers. While many don’t make the cut, the message below is one we believe deserves your consideration. Dear Reader, Hiding in this picture… Is [what’s going to happen to America’s gas stations.]( Click on it and you’ll see… live on the scene with PhD and whistle-blower Nomi Prins. And as usual, [the truth]( is not a popular subject. Wall Street and Washington both want her to shut up… Probably because over $550 billion gets exposed in Nomi’s presentation. And it's happening just miles outside of Washington D.C. [Click any of the blue links]( or the image below to see for yourself what’s coming to America… [Nomi on the gas station]( Sincerely, Senior Managing Editor, Rogue Economics Maria Bonaventura   James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881 until his death six months later—two months after he was shot by an assassin. A lawyer and Civil War general, he served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives and is to date the only sitting member of the House to be elected president. Before his candidacy for the White House, he had been elected to the U.S. Senate by the Ohio General Assembly—a position he declined when he became president-elect. Garfield was born into poverty in a log cabin and grew up in northeastern Ohio. After graduating from Williams College, he studied law and became an attorney. He was active in the Disciples of Christ denomination.[1] Garfield was elected as a Republican member of the Ohio State Senate in 1859, serving until 1861. He opposed Confederate secession, was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, and fought in the battles of Middle Creek, Shiloh, and Chickamauga. Garfield was elected to Congress in 1862 to represent Ohio's 19th district. Throughout his congressional service, he firmly supported the gold standard and gained a reputation as a skilled orator. He initially agreed with Radical Republican views on Reconstruction but later favored a Moderate Republican-aligned approach to civil rights enforcement for freedmen. Garfield's aptitude for mathematics extended to a notable proof of the Pythagorean theorem, which he published in 1876. At the 1880 Republican National Convention, delegates chose Garfield, who had not sought the White House, as a compromise presidential nominee on the 36th ballot. In the 1880 presidential election, he conducted a low-key front porch campaign and narrowly defeated the Democratic nominee, Winfield Scott Hancock. Garfield's accomplishments as president included his resurgence of presidential authority against senatorial courtesy in executive appointments, a purge of corruption in the Post Office, and his appointment of a Supreme Court justice. He advocated for agricultural technology, an educated electorate, and civil rights for African Americans. He also proposed substantial civil service reforms, which were passed by Congress in 1883 as the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act and signed into law by his successor, Chester A. Arthur. Garfield was a member of the intraparty "Half-Breed" faction who used the powers of the presidency to defy the powerful "Stalwart" New York senator Roscoe Conkling. He did this by appointing Blaine faction leader William H. Robertson to the lucrative post of Collector of the Port of New York. A fracas ensued that resulted in Robertson's confirmation and the resignations of Conkling and Thomas C. Platt from the Senate. On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed and delusional office seeker, shot Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington. The wound was not immediately fatal but managed to kill Garfield on September 19, 1881, due to infections caused by his doctors. Contents 1 Childhood and early life 2 Education, marriage and early career 3 Civil War 3.1 Buell's command 3.2 Chief of staff for Rosecrans 4 Congressional career 4.1 Election in 1862; Civil War years 4.2 Reconstruction 4.3 Tariffs and finance 4.4 Crédit Mobilier scandal; salary grab 4.5 Floor leader; Hayes administration 4.6 Legal career and other activities 5 Presidential election of 1880 5.1 Republican nomination 5.2 Campaign against Hancock 6 Presidency (1881) 6.1 Cabinet and inauguration 6.2 Refinance of national debt 6.3 Supreme Court nomination 6.4 Reforms 6.5 Civil rights and education 6.6 Foreign policy and naval reform 7 Assassination 7.1 Guiteau and shooting 7.2 Treatment and death 8 Funeral, memorials and commemorations 9 Legacy and historical view 10 Notes 11 References 12 Works cited 12.1 Books 12.2 Periodicals 12.3 Online 13 Further reading 14 External links Childhood and early life A log cabin with a statue and a tree in front Replica of the log cabin in Moreland Hills, Ohio, where Garfield was born James Abram Garfield was born the youngest of five children on November 19, 1831, in a log cabin in Orange Township, now Moreland Hills, Ohio. Orange Township had been in the Western Reserve until 1800. Garfield's ancestor Edward Garfield immigrated from Hillmorton, Warwickshire, England, to Massachusetts around 1630. James's father Abram was born in Worcester, New York, and came to Ohio to woo his childhood sweetheart, Mehitabel Ballou, only to find her married. He instead wed her sister Eliza, who was born in New Hampshire. James was named after an earlier son who died in infancy.[2] In early 1833, Abram and Eliza Garfield joined the Church of Christ, a decision that influenced their youngest son's life.[3] Abram died later that year, and James was raised in poverty in a household led by his strong-willed mother.[4] He was her favorite child and the two remained close for the rest of his life.[5] Eliza remarried in 1842, but soon left her second husband, Warren (or Alfred) Belden, and a scandalous divorce was awarded in 1850. James took his mother's side and noted Belden's 1880 death with satisfaction in his diary.[6] Garfield also enjoyed his mother's stories about his ancestry, especially his Welsh great-great-grandfathers and an ancestor who served as a knight of Caerphilly Castle.[7] Poor and fatherless, Garfield was mocked by his peers and became sensitive to slights throughout his life; he sought escape through voracious reading.[6] He left home at age 16 in 1847 and was rejected for work on the only ship in port in Cleveland. Garfield instead found work on a canal boat, managing the mules that pulled it.[8] Horatio Alger later used this labor to good effect when he wrote Garfield's campaign biography in 1880.[9] After six weeks, illness forced Garfield to return home, and during his recuperation, his mother and a local school official secured his promise to forego canal work for a year of school. In 1848, he began at Geauga Seminary, in nearby Chester Township, Geauga County, Ohio.[10] Garfield later said of his childhood, "I lament that I was born to poverty, and in this chaos of childhood, seventeen years passed before I caught any inspiration ... a precious 17 years when a boy with a father and some wealth might have become fixed in manly ways."[11] Education, marriage and early career An unsmiling young man with curly hair wearing a three piece suit Garfield at age 16 Garfield attended Geauga Seminary from 1848 to 1850 and learned academic subjects for which he had not previously had time. He excelled as a student and was especially interested in languages and elocution. He began to appreciate the power a speaker had over an audience, writing that the speaker's platform "creates some excitement. I love agitation and investigation and glory in defending unpopular truth against popular error."[12] Geauga was coeducational, and Garfield was attracted to one of his classmates, Lucretia Rudolph, whom he later married.[13] To support himself at Geauga, he worked as a carpenter's assistant and teacher.[14] The need to go from town to town to find work as a teacher aggravated Garfield, and he developed a dislike of what he called "place-seeking", which became, he said, "the law of my life."[15] In later years, he astounded his friends by disregarding positions that could have been his with little politicking.[15] Garfield had attended church more to please his mother than to worship God, but in his late teens he underwent a religious awakening. He attended many camp meetings, which led to his being born again on March 4, 1850, when he was baptized into Christ by being submerged in the icy waters of the Chagrin River.[16][a] After he left Geauga, Garfield worked for a year at various jobs, including teaching jobs.[18] Finding that some New Englanders worked their way through college, Garfield determined to do the same and sought a school that could prepare him for the entrance examinations. From 1851 to 1854, he attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later named Hiram College) in Hiram, Ohio, a school run by the Disciples. While there, he was most interested in the study of Greek and Latin, but was inclined to learn about and discuss any new thing he encountered.[19] Securing a position on entry as janitor, he obtained a teaching position while he was still a student there.[20] Lucretia Rudolph also enrolled at the Institute and Garfield wooed her while teaching her Greek.[21] He developed a regular preaching circuit at neighboring churches and, in some cases, earned one gold dollar per service. By 1854, Garfield had learned all the Institute could teach him and was a full-time teacher.[22] Garfield then enrolled at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, as a third-year student; he received credit for two years' study at the Institute after passing a cursory examination. Garfield was also impressed with the college president, Mark Hopkins, who had responded warmly to Garfield's letter inquiring about admission. He said of Hopkins, "The ideal college is Mark Hopkins on one end of a log with a student on the other."[23] Hopkins later said of Garfield in his student days, "There was a large general capacity applicable to any subject. There was no pretense of genius, or alternation of spasmodic effort, but a satisfactory accomplishment in all directions."[24] After his first term, Garfield was hired to teach penmanship to the students of nearby Pownal, Vermont, a post Chester A. Arthur previously held.[24] Lucretia Garfield in the 1870s Garfield graduated Phi Beta Kappa[25] from Williams in August 1856, was named salutatorian, and spoke at the commencement. His biographer Ira Rutkow writes that Garfield's years at Williams gave him the opportunity to know and respect those of different social backgrounds, and that, despite his origin as an unsophisticated Westerner, socially conscious New Englanders liked and respected him. "In short," Rutkow writes, "Garfield had an extensive and positive first experience with the world outside the Western Reserve of Ohio."[24] Upon his return to Ohio, the degree from a prestigious Eastern college made Garfield a man of distinction. He returned to Hiram to teach at the Institute and in 1857 was made its principal, though he did not see education as a field that would realize his full potential. The abolitionist atmosphere at Williams had enlightened him politically, after which he began to consider politics as a career.[26] He campaigned for Republican John C. Frémont in 1856.[27] In 1858, he married Lucretia and they had seven children, five of whom survived infancy.[28] Soon after the wedding, he registered to read law at the office of attorney Albert Gallatin Riddle in Cleveland, though he did his studying in Hiram.[29][30] He was admitted to the bar in 1861.[31] Local Republican leaders invited Garfield to enter politics upon the death of Cyrus Prentiss, the presumptive nominee for the local state senate seat. He was nominated at the party convention on the sixth ballot and was elected, serving from 1860 to 1861.[32] Garfield's major effort in the state senate was an unsuccessful bill providing for Ohio's first geological survey to measure its mineral resources.[33] Civil War Seated portrait in army uniform. Garfield has a full beard and mustache Garfield as a brigadier general during the Civil War After Abraham Lincoln's election as president, several Southern states announced their secession from the Union to form a new government, the Confederate States of America. Garfield read military texts while anxiously awaiting the war effort, which he regarded as a holy crusade against the Slave Power.[34] In April 1861, the rebels bombarded Fort Sumter, one of the South's last federal outposts, beginning the Civil War. Although he had no military training, Garfield knew his place was in the Union Army.[34] At Governor William Dennison's request, Garfield deferred his military ambitions to remain in the legislature, where he helped appropriate the funds to raise and equip Ohio's volunteer regiments.[35] When the legislature adjourned Garfield spent the spring and early summer on a speaking tour of northeastern Ohio, encouraging enlistment in the new regiments.[35] Following a trip to Illinois to purchase muskets, Garfield returned to Ohio and, in August 1861, received a commission as a colonel in the 42nd Ohio Infantry regiment.[36] The 42nd Ohio existed only on paper, so Garfield's first task was to fill its ranks. He did so quickly, recruiting many of his neighbors and former students.[36] The regiment traveled to Camp Chase, outside Columbus, Ohio, to complete training.[36] In December, Garfield was ordered to bring the 42nd to Kentucky, where they joined the Army of the Ohio under Brigadier General Don Carlos Buell.[37] Buell's command Buell quickly assigned Garfield the task of driving Confederate forces out of eastern Kentucky, giving him the 18th Brigade for the campaign, which, besides his own 42nd, included the 40th Ohio Infantry, two Kentucky infantry regiments and two cavalry units.[38] They departed Catlettsburg, Kentucky, in mid-December, advancing through the valley of the Big Sandy River.[38] The march was uneventful until Union forces reached Paintsville, Kentucky, on January 6, 1862, where Garfield's cavalry engaged the rebels at Jenny's Creek.[39] Confederate troops under Brigadier General Humphrey Marshall held the town in numbers roughly equal to Garfield's own, but Garfield positioned his troops so as to deceive Marshall into believing the rebels were outnumbered.[39] Marshall ordered his troops to withdraw to the forks of Middle Creek, on the road to Virginia, and Garfield ordered his troops to take up the pursuit.[40] They attacked the rebel positions on January 9, 1862, in the Battle of Middle Creek, the only pitched battle Garfield commanded personally.[41] At the fighting's end, the Confederates withdrew from the field and Garfield sent his troops to Prestonsburg to reprovision.[42] Middle Creek battlefield. Garfield commanded from the distant hill in the center of the photo. In recognition of his success, Garfield was promoted to brigadier general.[43] After Marshall's retreat, Garfield's command was the sole remaining Union force in eastern Kentucky and he announced that any men who had fought for the Confederacy would be granted amnesty if they returned to their homes, lived peaceably, and remained loyal to the Union.[44] The proclamation was surprisingly lenient, as Garfield now believed the war was a crusade for eradication of slavery.[44] Following a brief skirmish at Pound Gap, the last rebel units in the area were outflanked and retreated to Virginia.[45] Garfield's promotion gave him command of the 20th Brigade of the Army of the Ohio, which received orders to join Major General Ulysses S. Grant's forces as they advanced on Corinth, Mississippi, in early 1862.[46] Before the 20th Brigade arrived, however, Confederate forces under General Albert Sidney Johnston surprised Grant's men in their camps, driving them back.[47] Garfield's troops received word of the battle and advanced quickly, joining the rest of the army on the second day to drive the Confederates back across the field and into retreat.[48] The action, later known as the Battle of Shiloh, was the bloodiest of the war to date; Garfield was exposed to fire for much of the day, but emerged uninjured.[48] Major General Henry W. Halleck, Grant's superior, took charge of the combined armies and advanced ponderously toward Corinth; when they arrived, the Confederates had fled.[49] That summer, Garfield suffered from jaundice and significant weight loss.[b][51] He was forced to return home, where his wife nursed him back to health.[51] While he was home, Garfield's friends worked to gain him the Republican nomination for Congress, but he refused to campaign with the delegates.[52] He returned to military duty that autumn and went to Washington to await his next assignment.[53] During this period of idleness, a rumor of an extramarital affair caused friction in the Garfields' marriage until Lucretia eventually chose to overlook it.[54] Garfield repeatedly received tentative assignments that were quickly withdrawn, to his frustration.[55] In the meantime, he served on the court-martial of Fitz John Porter for his tardiness at the Second Battle of Bull Run.[56] He was convinced of Porter's guilt and voted with his fellow generals to convict Porter.[56] The trial lasted almost two months, from November 1862 to January 1863, and, by its end, Garfield had procured an assignment as Chief of Staff to Major General William S. Rosecrans.[57] Chief of staff for Rosecrans General William S. Rosecrans Generals' chiefs of staff were usually more junior officers, but Garfield's influence with Rosecrans was greater than usual, with duties extending beyond communication of orders to actual management of his Army of the Cumberland.[58] Rosecrans had a voracious appetite for conversation, especially when unable to sleep; in Garfield, he found "the first well read person in the Army" and the ideal candidate for discussions that ran deep into the night.[59] They discussed everything, especially religion, and the two became close despite Garfield's being 12 years his junior. Rosecrans, who had converted from Methodism to Roman Catholicism, softened Garfield's view of his faith.[60] Garfield recommended that Rosecrans replace wing commanders Alexander McCook and Thomas Crittenden, as he believed they were ineffective, but Rosecrans ignored the suggestion.[61] With Rosecrans, Garfield devised the Tullahoma Campaign to pursue and trap Confederate General Braxton Bragg in Tullahoma. After initial Union success, Bragg retreated toward Chattanooga, where Rosecrans stalled and requested more troops and supplies.[62] Garfield argued for an immediate advance, in line with demands from Halleck and Lincoln.[62] After a council of war and lengthy deliberations, Rosecrans agreed to attack.[63] At the ensuing Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20, 1863, confusion among the wing commanders over Rosecrans's orders created a gap in the lines, resulting in a rout of the right flank. Rosecrans concluded that the battle was lost and fell back on Chattanooga to establish a defensive line.[64] Garfield, however, thought part of the army had held and, with Rosecrans's approval, headed across Missionary Ridge to survey the scene. Garfield's hunch was correct.[64] Consequently, his ride became legendary and Rosecrans's error reignited criticism about the latter's leadership.[64] While Rosecrans's army had avoided disaster, they were stranded in Chattanooga, surrounded by Bragg's army. Garfield sent a telegram to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton alerting Washington to the need for reinforcements to avoid annihilation. Lincoln and Halleck responded to the request for reinforcements by sending 20,000 troops to Garfield by rail within nine days.[65] In the meantime, Grant was promoted to command of the western armies and quickly replaced Rosecrans with George H. Thomas.[66] Garfield was ordered to report to Washington, where he was promoted to major general.[67] According to historian Jean Edward Smith, Grant and Garfield had a "guarded relationship" since Grant promoted Thomas, rather than Garfield, to command of the Army of the Cumberland after Rosecrans's dismissal.[68] Congressional career Election in 1862; Civil War years Salmon P. Chase was Garfield's ally until Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial. While he served in the Army in early 1862, friends of Garfield approached him about running for Congress from Ohio's newly redrawn and heavily Republican 19th district. He worried that he and other state-appointed generals would receive obscure assignments and running for Congress would allow him to resume his political career. That the new Congress would not hold its first regular session until December 1863 allowed him to continue his war service for a time.[c] Home on medical leave, he refused to campaign for the nomination, leaving that to political managers who secured it at the local convention in September 1862 on the eighth ballot. In the October general election, he defeated D.B. Woods by a two-to-one margin for a seat in the 38th Congress.[69] Days before his Congressional term began, Garfield lost his eldest daughter, three-year-old Eliza, and became anxious and conflicted, saying his "desolation of heart" might require his return to "the wild life of the army."[70] He also assumed that the war would end before his joining the House, but it had not, and he felt strongly that he belonged in the field, rather than in Congress. He also thought he could expect a favorable command, so he decided to see President Lincoln. During their meeting, Lincoln recommended he take his House seat, as there was an excess of generals and a shortage of administration congressmen, especially those with knowledge of military affairs. Garfield accepted this recommendation and resigned his military commission to do so.[70] Garfield met and befriended Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who saw Garfield as a younger version of himself. The two agreed politically and both were part of the Radical wing of the Republican Party.[71] Once he took his seat in December 1863, Garfield was frustrated at Lincoln's reluctance to press the South hard. Many radicals, led in the House by Pennsylvania's Thaddeus Stevens, wanted rebel-owned lands confiscated, but Lincoln threatened to veto any bill that proposed to do so on a widespread basis. In debate on the House floor, Garfield supported such legislation and, discussing England's Glorious Revolution, hinted that Lincoln might be thrown out of office for resisting it.[72] Garfield had supported Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and marveled at the "strange phenomenon in the world's history, when a second-rate Illinois lawyer is the instrument to utter words which shall form an epoch memorable in all future ages."[73] Garfield not only favored the abolition of slavery, but also believed the leaders of the rebellion had forfeited their constitutional rights. He supported the confiscation of Southern plantations and even exile or execution of rebellion leaders as a means to ensure a permanent end to slavery.[74] Garfield felt Congress had an obligation "to determine what legislation is necessary to secure equal justice to all loyal persons, without regard to color."[75] He was more supportive of Lincoln when he took action against slavery.[76] Garfield showed leadership early in his congressional career; he was initially the only Republican vote to terminate the use of bounties in military recruiting. Some financially able recruits had used the bounty system to buy their way out of service (called commutation), which Garfield considered reprehensible.[77] He gave a speech pointing out the flaws in the existing conscription law: 300,000 recruits had been called upon to enlist, but barely 10,000 had done so, with the remainder claiming exemption, providing money, or recruiting a substitute. Lincoln appeared before the Military Affairs committee on which Garfield served, demanding a more effective bill; even if it cost him reelection, Lincoln was confident he could win the war before his term expired.[78] After many false starts, Garfield, with Lincoln's support, procured the passage of a conscription bill that excluded commutation.[79] Under Chase's influence, Garfield became a staunch proponent of a dollar backed by a gold standard, and strongly opposed the "greenback". He also accepted the necessity of suspension of payment in gold or silver during the Civil War with strong reluctance.[80] He voted with the Radical Republicans in passing the Wade–Davis Bill, designed to give Congress more authority over Reconstruction, but Lincoln defeated it with a pocket veto.[81] Garfield did not consider Lincoln very worthy of reelection, but there seemed to be no viable alternative. "He will probably be the man, though I think we could do better", he said.[73] Garfield attended the party convention and promoted Rosecrans as Lincoln's running mate, but delegates chose Military Governor of Tennessee Andrew Johnson.[82] Lincoln was reelected, as was Garfield.[83] By then, Chase had left the Cabinet and been appointed Chief Justice, and his relations with Garfield became more distant.[84] Garfield took up the practice of law in 1865 to improve his personal finances. His efforts took him to Wall Street where, the day after Lincoln's assassination, a riotous crowd drew him into an impromptu speech to calm their passions: "Fellow citizens! Clouds and darkness are round about Him! His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the establishment of His throne! Mercy and truth shall go before His face! Fellow citizens! God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives!"[85] The speech, with no mention or praise of Lincoln, was, according to Garfield biographer Robert G. Caldwell, "quite as significant for what it did not contain as for what it did."[86] In the following years, Garfield had more praise for Lincoln; a year after Lincoln's death, Garfield said, "Greatest among all these developments were the character and fame of Abraham Lincoln," and in 1878 he called Lincoln "one of the few great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power".[87] Reconstruction In 1864, the U.S. Senate passed the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery throughout the Union. The bill failed to pass the House by a two-thirds majority until January 31, 1865, when it was then sent to the states for ratification. The Amendment opened other issues concerning African American civil rights. Garfield asked, "[What] is freedom? Is it the bare privilege of not being chained?...If this is all, then freedom is a bitter mockery, a cruel delusion."[88][d] Garfield supported black suffrage as firmly as he supported abolition.[90] President Johnson sought the rapid restoration of the Southern states during the months between his accession and the meeting of Congress in December 1865; Garfield hesitantly supported this policy as an experiment. Johnson, an old friend, sought Garfield's backing and their conversations led Garfield to assume Johnson's differences with Congress were not large. When Congress assembled in December (to Johnson's chagrin, without the elected representatives of the Southern states, who were excluded), Garfield urged conciliation on his colleagues, although he feared that Johnson, a former Democrat, might join other Democrats to gain political control. Garfield foresaw conflict even before February 1866, when Johnson vetoed a bill to extend the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, charged with aiding the former slaves. By April, Garfield had concluded that Johnson was either "crazy or drunk with opium."[91] A black statue of Garfield atop an elaborate pillar. The United States Capitol rotunda is visible in the background. Garfield Monument, by the Capitol, where he served almost twenty years The conflict between Congress and President Johnson was the major issue of the 1866 campaign, with Johnson taking to the campaign trail in a Swing Around the Circle and Garfield facing opposition within the Republican party in his home district. With the South still disenfranchised and Northern public opinion behind the Republicans, they gained a two-thirds majority in both houses of Congress. Garfield, having overcome his challengers at the district nominating convention, won reelection easily.[92] Garfield opposed the proposed impeachment of Johnson initially when Congress convened in December 1866, but supported legislation to limit Johnson's powers, such as the Tenure of Office Act, which restricted Johnson's ability to remove presidential appointees.[93] Distracted by committee duties, Garfield spoke about these bills rarely, but was a loyal Republican vote against Johnson.[94] On January 7, 1867, Garfield voted in support of the resolution that launched the first impeachment inquiry against Johnson (run by the House Committee on the Judiciary).[95] On December 7, 1867, he voted against the unsuccessful resolution to impeach Johnson that the House Committee on the Judiciary had sent the full House.[96] On January 27, 1868, he voted to pass the resolution that authorized the second impeachment inquiry against Johnson (run by the House Select Committee on Reconstruction).[97] Due to a court case, he was absent on February 24, 1868, when the House impeached Johnson, but gave a speech aligning himself with Thaddeus Stevens and others who sought Johnson's removal shortly thereafter.[94] Garfield was present on March 2 and 3, 1868, when the House voted on specific articles of impeachment, and voted in support of all 11 articles.[98] During the March 2 debate on the articles, Garfield argued that what he characterized as Johnson's attempts to render Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and William H. Emory personal tools of his demonstrated Johnson's intent to disregard the law and override the Constitution, suggesting that Johnson's trial perhaps could be expedited to last only a day in order to hasten his removal.[99] When Johnson was acquitted in his trial before the Senate, Garfield was shocked and blamed the outcome on the trial's presiding officer, Chief Justice Chase, his onetime mentor.[94] By the time Grant succeeded Johnson in 1869, Garfield had moved away from the remaining radicals (Stevens, their leader, had died in 1868). By this time, many in the Republican Party wanted to remove the "Negro question" from national affairs.[100] Garfield hailed the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870 as a triumph and favored Georgia's readmission to the Union as a matter of right, not politics. An influential Republican, Garfield said, "[The] Fifteen Amendment confers on the African race the care of its own destiny. It places their fortunes in their own hands."[100] In 1871, Congress took up the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was designed to combat attacks on African Americans' suffrage rights. Garfield opposed the act, saying, "I have never been more perplexed by a piece of legislation." He was torn between his indignation at the Klan, whom he called "terrorists", and his concern for the power given the president to enforce the act through suspension of habeas corpus.[101] Tariffs and finance The greenback despised by Garfield Throughout his political career, Garfield favored the gold standard and decried attempts to increase the money supply through the issuance of paper money not backed by gold, and later, through the free and unlimited coinage of silver.[102] In 1865, he was put on the House Ways and Means Committee, a long-awaited opportunity to focus on financial and economic issues. He reprised his opposition to the greenback, saying, "Any party which commits itself to paper money will go down amid the general disaster, covered with the curses of a ruined people."[103] In 1868 Garfield gave a two-hour speech on currency in the House, which was widely applauded as his best oratory to that point; in it, he advocated a gradual resumption of specie payments, that is, the government paying out silver and gold, rather than paper money that could not be redeemed.[104] Tariffs had been raised to high levels during the Civil War. Afterward, Garfield, who made a close study of financial affairs, advocated moving toward free trade, though the standard Republican position was a protective tariff that would allow American industries to grow. This break with his party likely cost him his place on the Ways and Means Committee in 1867, and though Republicans held the majority in the House until 1875, Garfield remained off that committee. Garfield came to chair the powerful House Appropriations Committee, but it was Ways and Means, with its influence over fiscal policy, that he really wanted to lead.[105] One reason he was denied a place on Ways and Means was the opposition of the influential Republican editor Horace Greeley. [106] Photographic portrait of Grant President U.S. Grant Mathew Brady 1870 Starting in January 1870, Garfield, then chairman of the House Banking Committee, led an investigation into the Black Friday Gold Panic scandal.[107] In 1869, during Grant's first term in office, two New York conspirators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, launched a scheme to corner the gold market. The conspiracy was broken on Friday, September 24, 1869, when Grant and Treasury Secretary George Boutwell released gold into the market, causing widespread financial panic. During the investigation, rumors spread that Grant's family might have been involved. In order not to force Grant's wife to testify, Garfield had a private meeting with Grant at the White House. When Garfield showed Grant testimony about him and his family, Grant thanked Garfield but refused to read it or give a response.[108] Grant personally resented Garfield for investigating Black Friday and his wife Julia concerning possible involvement in the scandal.[68] Garfield's investigation and final majority report, released on September 12, 1870, were thorough but found no indictable offenses and exonerated Grant and Julia of wrongdoing.[109] Garfield thought the scandal was enabled by the greenbacks that financed the speculation.[110] Garfield was not at all enthused about President Grant's reelection in 1872—until Greeley, who emerged as the candidate of the Democrats and Liberal Republicans, became the only serious alternative. Garfield said, "I would say Grant was not fit to be nominated and Greeley is not fit to be elected."[111] Both Grant and Garfield were overwhelmingly reelected.[111] Crédit Mobilier scandal; salary grab The Crédit Mobilier of America scandal involved corruption in the financing of the Union Pacific Railroad, part of the transcontinental railroad which was completed in 1869. Union Pacific officers and directors secretly purchased control of the Crédit Mobilier of America company, then contracted with it to undertake construction of the railroad. The railroad paid the company's grossly inflated invoices with federal funds appropriated to subsidize the project, and the company was allowed to purchase Union Pacific securities at par value, well below the market rate. Crédit Mobilier showed large profits and stock gains, and distributed substantial dividends. The high expenses meant Congress was called upon to appropriate more funds. One of the railroad officials who controlled Crédit Mobilier was also a congressman, Oakes Ames of Massachusetts. He offered some of his colleagues the opportunity to buy Crédit Mobilier stock at par value, well below what it sold for on the market, and the railroad got its additional appropriations.[112] Editorial cartoon: Uncle Sam directs U.S. Senators and Representatives implicated in the Crédit Mobilier scheme to commit Hara-Kiri. The story broke in July 1872, in the middle of the presidential campaign. Among those named were Vice President Schuyler Colfax, Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson (the Republican candidate for vice president), Speaker James G. Blaine of Maine, and Garfield. Greeley had little luck taking advantage of the scandal. When Congress reconvened after the election, Blaine, seeking to clear his name, demanded a House investigation. Evidence before the special committee exonerated Blaine. Garfield had said in September 1872 that Ames had offered him stock but he had repeatedly refused it. Testifying before the committee in January, Ames said he had offered Garfield ten shares of stock at par value, but that Garfield had never taken them or paid for them, though a year passed, from 1867 to 1868, before Garfield had finally refused. Appearing before the committee on January 14, 1873, Garfield confirmed much of this. Ames testified several weeks later that Garfield agreed to take the stock on credit, and that it was paid for by the company's huge dividends.[113] The two men differed over $300 that Garfield received and later paid back, with Garfield deeming it a loan and Ames a dividend.[114] Garfield's biographers have been unwilling to exonerate him in the scandal. Allan Peskin writes, "Did Garfield lie? Not exactly. Did he tell the truth? Not completely. Was he corrupted? Not really. Even Garfield's enemies never claimed that his involvement in the affair influenced his behavior."[115] Rutkow writes, "Garfield's real offense was that he knowingly denied to the House investigating committee that he had agreed to accept the stock and that he had also received a dividend of $329."[116] Caldwell suggests Garfield "told the truth [before the committee, but] certainly failed to tell the whole truth, clearly evading an answer to certain vital questions and thus giving the impression of worse faults than those of which he was guilty."[117] That Crédit Mobilier was a corrupt organization had been a badly kept secret, even mentioned on the floor of Congress, and editor Sam Bowles wrote at the time that Garfield, in his positions on committees dealing with finance, "had no more right to be ignorant in a matter of such grave importance as this, than the sentinel has to snore on his post."[115] Another issue that caused Garfield trouble in his 1874 reelection bid was the so-called "Salary Grab" of 1873, which increased the compensation for members of Congress by 50%, retroactive to 1871. As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Garfield was responsible for shepherding the appropriations bill through the House; during the debate in February 1873, Massachusetts Representative Benjamin Butler offered the increase as an amendment, and despite Garfield's opposition, it passed the House and eventually became law. The law was very popular in the House, as almost half the members were lame ducks, but the public was outraged, and many of Garfield's constituents blamed him, though he personally refused to accept the increase. In a bad year for Republicans, who lost control of the House for the first time since the Civil War, Garfield had his closest congressional election, winning with only 57% of the vote.[e][119] Floor leader; Hayes administration The Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives in 1875 meant the loss of Garfield's chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee, though the Democrats did put him on the Ways and Means Committee. With many of his leadership rivals defeated in the 1874 Democratic landslide, and Blaine elected to the Senate, Garfield was seen as the Republican floor leader, and the likely Speaker, should the party regain control of the chamber.[120] Garfield thought the land grants given to expanding railroads was an unjust practice. He also opposed monopolistic practices by corporations, as well as the power sought by workers' unions.[121] He supported the proposed establishment of the United States civil service as a means of ridding officials of the annoyance of aggressive office seekers. He especially wished to eliminate the practice of forcing government workers, in exchange for their positions, to kick back a percentage of their wages as political contributions.[122] As the 1876 presidential election approached, Garfield was loyal to the candidacy of Senator Blaine, and fought for the former Speaker's nomination at the 1876 Republican National Convention in Cincinnati. When it became clear, after six ballots, that Blaine could not prevail, the convention nominated Ohio Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. Although Garfield had supported Blaine, he had kept good relations with Hayes, and wholeheartedly supported the governor.[123] Garfield had hoped to retire from politics after his term expired to devote himself full-time to the practice of law, but to help his party, he sought re-election, and won it easily that October. Any celebration was short-lived, as Garfield's youngest son, Neddie, fell ill with whooping cough shortly after the congressional election, and soon died.[124] Garfield (second from right in the row of commissioners just below the gallery) served on the Electoral Commission that decided the disputed 1876 presidential election. Painting by Cornelia Adele Strong Fassett. When Hayes appeared to have lost the presidential election the following month to Democrat Samuel Tilden, the Republicans launched efforts to reverse the results in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida, where they held the governorship. If Hayes won all three states, he would take the election by a single electoral vote. Grant asked Garfield to serve as a "neutral observer" of the recount in Louisiana. The observers soon recommended to the state electoral commissions that Hayes be declared the winner—Garfield recommended the entire vote of West Feliciana Parish, which had given Tilden a sizable majority, be thrown out. The Republican governors of the three states certified that Hayes had won their states, to the outrage of Democrats, who had the state legislatures submit rival returns, and threatened to prevent the counting of the electoral vote—under the Constitution, Congress is the final arbiter of the election. Congress then established an Electoral Commission, consisting of eight Republicans and seven Democrats, to determine the winner. Despite his objection to the Commission, Garfield was appointed to it. He felt Congress should count the vote and proclaim Hayes victorious. Hayes emerged the victor by a party line vote of 8–7.[125] In exchange for recognizing Hayes as president, Southern Democrats secured the removal of federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction.[126] Although an Ohio Senate seat would be vacated by the resignation of John Sherman to become Treasury Secretary, Hayes needed Garfield's expertise to protect him from the agenda of a hostile Congress, and asked him not to seek it. Garfield agreed. As Hayes's key legislator in the House, he gained considerable prestige and respect for his role there.[127] When Congress debated the Bland–Allison Act, to have the government purchase large quantities of silver and strike it into legal tender dollar coins, Garfield opposed it as a deviation from the gold standard; it was enacted over Hayes's veto in February 1878.[128] In 1876, Garfield purchased the property in Mentor that reporters later dubbed Lawnfield, where he conducted the first successful front porch campaign for the presidency.[129] Hayes suggested that Garfield run for governor in 1879, seeing that as a road likely to take Garfield to the White House. Garfield preferred to seek election as a U.S. senator. Rivals were spoken of for the seat, such as Secretary Sherman, but he had presidential ambitions (for which he sought Garfield's support), and other candidates fell by the wayside. The General Assembly elected Garfield to the Senate in January 1880, though his term was not scheduled to commence until March 4, 1881.[130] Garfield was never seated in the U.S. Senate.[131] Legal career and other activities In 1865, Garfield became a partner in the law firm of a fellow Disciple of Christ, Jeremiah Black. They had much in common, except politics: Black was an avid Democrat, having served in the cabinet of President James Buchanan.[132] The next year, Black was retained by some pro-Confederate northern civilians who had been found guilty of treason in a military court and sentenced to death. Black saw an opportunity to strike a blow against military courts and the Republicans.[133] He had heard Garfield's military speeches, and learned of not only his oratory skills but also his resistance to expansive powers of military commissions. Black assigned the case to Garfield one week before arguments were to be made before the U. S. Supreme Court. When Black warned him of the political peril, Garfield responded, "It don't make any difference. I believe in English liberty and English law." [134] In this landmark case, Ex parte Milligan, Garfield successfully argued that civilians could not be tried before military tribunals, despite a declaration of martial law, as long as civil courts were still operating. In his very first court appearance, Garfield's oral argument lasted over two hours, and though his wealthy clients refused to pay him, he had established himself as a preeminent lawyer.[133] During Grant's first term, Garfield was discontented with public service and in 1872 again pursued opportunities in the law. But he declined a partnership offer from a Cleveland law firm when told his prospective partner was of "intemperate and licentious" reputation.[135] In 1873, after Chase's death, Garfield appealed to Grant to appoint Justice Noah H. Swayne Chief Justice, but Grant appointed Morrison R. Waite.[136] Garfield's proof of the Pythagorean theorem features a right triangle within a trapezoid. In 1871, Garfield traveled to Montana Territory to negotiate the removal of the Bitterroot Salish tribe to the Flathead Indian Reservation.[137] Having been told that the people would happily move, Garfield expected an easy task. Instead, he found the Salish determined to stay in their Bitterroot Valley homeland. His attempts to coerce Chief Charlo to sign the agreement nearly brought about a military clash. In the end, he convinced two subchiefs to sign and move to the reservation with a few of the Salish people. Garfield never convinced Charlo to sign, although the official treaty document voted on by Congress bore his forged mark.[138] In 1876, Garfield developed a trapezoid proof of the Pythagorean theorem, which was published in the New England Journal of Education.[139] Mathematics historian William Dunham wrote that Garfield's trapezoid work was "really a very clever proof."[140] According to the Journal, Garfield arrived at the proof "in mathematical amusements and discussions with other members of congress."[141] After his conversion experience in 1850, religious inquiry was a high priority for Garfield. He read widely and moved beyond the confines of his early experience as a member of the Disciples of Christ. His new, broader perspective was rooted in his devotion to freedom of inquiry and his study of history. The intensity of Garfield's religious thought was also influenced by his experience in combat and his interaction with voters.[142][143] Presidential election of 1880 Republican nomination Main article: 1880 Republican National Convention A cartoon. Grant, on the right, is semi-kneeling while others kneel behind him. Garfield stands upright and receives a sword from Grant. Behind him are cheering throngs, and two men raise a flag in the background. Following Grant's defeat for the nomination Puck magazine satirized Robert E. Lee's surrender to him at Appomattox by depicting Grant giving up his sword to Garfield. Having just been elected to the Senate with Sherman's support, Garfield was committed to Sherman for the 1880 Republican presidential nomination.[144] Before the convention began, however, a few Republicans, including Wharton Barker of Philadelphia, thought Garfield the best choice for the nomination.[144] Garfield denied any interest in the position, but the attention was enough to make Sherman suspicious of his lieutenant's ambitions.[145] Besides Sherman, the early favorites for the nomination were Blaine, former President Grant; several other candidates attracted delegates as well.[146] The Republican Party at the time was split into two factions: the "Stalwarts", who supported the existing federal government patronage system, and the "Half-Breeds", who wanted civil service reform.[147] As the convention began, New York Senator Roscoe Conkling, floor leader for the Stalwarts, who supported former President Ulysses S. Grant, proposed that the delegates pledge to back the eventual nominee in the general election.[148] When three West Virginia delegates declined to be so bound, Conkling sought to expel them from the convention. Garfield rose to defend the men, giving a passionate speech in defense of their right to reserve judgment.[148] The crowd turned against Conkling, and he withdrew the motion.[148] The performance delighted Garfield's boosters, who were then convinced he was the only one who could attract a majority of the delegates' votes.[149] After speeches in favor of the other front-runners, Garfield rose to place Sherman's name in nomination; his speech was well-received, but the delegates mustered little excitement for Sherman as the next president.[150] The first ballot showed Grant leading with 304 votes to Blaine's 284, and Sherman's 93 votes placed him in a distant third. Subsequent ballots demonstrated a deadlock between Grant and Blaine, with neither having the 379 votes needed for nomination.[151] Jeremiah McLain Rusk, a member of the Wisconsin delegation, and Benjamin Harrison, an Indiana delegate, sought to break the deadlock by shifting a few of the anti-Grant votes to a dark horse candidate—Garfield.[152] Garfield gained 50 votes on the 35th ballot, and a stampede began. Garfield protested to the Ohio delegation that he did not seek the nomination and would not betray Sherman, but they overruled his objections and cast their ballots for him.[153] In the next round of voting, nearly all the Sherman and Blaine delegates shifted their support to Garfield, giving him 399 votes, and the Republican nomination. Most of the Grant forces backed the former president to the end, creating a disgruntled Stalwart minority in the party.[154] To obtain that faction's support for the ticket, Chester A. Arthur, a former New York customs collector and member of Conkling's political machine, was chosen as the vice presidential nominee.[155] Campaign against Hancock Main article: 1880 United States presidential election Garfield–Arthur election poster 1880 electoral vote results Even with a Stalwart on the ticket, animosity between the Republican factions carried over from the convention, so Garfield traveled to New York to meet with party leaders.[156] After convincing the Stalwart crowd to put aside their differences and unite for the coming campaign, Garfield returned to Ohio, leaving the active campaigning to others, as was traditional at the time.[157] Meanwhile, the Democrats settled on their nominee, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania, a career military officer.[156] Hancock and the Democrats expected to carry the Solid South, while much of the North was considered safe territory for Garfield and the Republicans; most of the campaign focused on a few close states, including New York and Indiana.[158] Practical differences between the candidates were few, but Republicans began the campaign with the familiar theme of waving the bloody shirt. They reminded Northern voters the Democratic Party was responsible for secession and four years of civil war, and Democrats would reverse the gains of that war, dishonor Union veterans, and pay Confederate veterans pensions out of the federal treasury.[159] Fifteen years had passed since the end of the war, and with Union generals at the head of both tickets, the bloody shirt was of diminishing value in exciting the voters.[160] With a few months to go before the election, the Republicans switched tactics to emphasize the tariff. Seizing on the Democratic platform's call for a "tariff for revenue only", Republicans told Northern workers a Hancock presidency would weaken the tariff protection that kept them in good jobs.[161] Hancock made the situation worse when, attempting to strike a moderate stance, he said, "The tariff question is a local question."[160] The Republican ploy proved effective in uniting the North behind Garfield.[162] Ultimately, of the more than 9.2 million popular votes cast, fewer than 2,000 separated the two candidates.[163] But in the Electoral College, Garfield had an easy victory over Hancock, 214 to 155.[164] The election made Garfield the only sitting member of the House ever to be elected to the presidency.[165] Presidency (1881) The Garfield cabinet Office Name Term President James A. Garfield 1881 Vice President Chester A. Arthur 1881 Secretary of State James G. Blaine 1881 Secretary of the Treasury William Windom 1881 Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln 1881 Attorney General Wayne MacVeagh 1881 Postmaster General Thomas Lemuel James 1881 Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt 1881 Secretary of the Interior Samuel J. Kirkwood 1881 Cabinet and inauguration President Garfield in reviewing stand, viewing inauguration ceremonies, on March 4, 1881 Line engraving of Garfield, produced around 1902 by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing as part of a presentation album of the first 26 presidents Before his inauguration, Garfield was occupied with assembling a cabinet that might engender peace between the party's Conkling and Blaine factions. Blaine's delegates had provided much of the support for Garfield's nomination, so the Maine senator received the place of honor as Secretary of State.[166] Blaine was not only the president's closest advisor, but he was also obsessed with knowing all that took place in the White House, and allegedly posted spies there in his absence.[167] Garfield nominated William Windom of Minnesota as Secretary of the Treasury, William H. Hunt of Louisiana as Secretary of the Navy, Robert Todd Lincoln as Secretary of War, and Samuel J. Kirkwood of Iowa as Secretary of the Interior. New York was represented by Thomas Lemuel James as Postmaster General. Garfield appointed Pennsylvania's Wayne MacVeagh, an adversary of Blaine's, as Attorney General.[168] Blaine tried to sabotage the appointment by convincing Garfield to name an opponent of MacVeagh, William E. Chandler, as Solicitor General under MacVeagh. Only Chandler's rejection by the Senate forestalled MacVeagh's resignation over the matter.[169] Because Garfield was distracted by cabinet maneuvering, his inaugural address was a "compendium of platitudes" and fell below expectations.[170][171] At one high point, however, Garfield emphasized the civil rights of African-Americans, saying "Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen."[172] After discussing the gold standard, the need for education, and an unexpected denunciation of Mormon polygamy, the speech ended. The crowd applauded, but the speech, according to Peskin, "however sincerely intended, betrayed its hasty composition by the flatness of its tone and the conventionality of its subject matter."[173] Garfield's appointment of James infuriated Conkling, a factional opponent of the Postmaster General, who demanded a compensatory appointment for his faction, such as the position of Secretary of the Treasury. The resulting squabble occupied much of Garfield's brief presidency. The feud with Conkling reached a climax when the president, at Blaine's instigation, nominated Conkling's enemy, Judge William H. Robertson, to be Collector of the Port of New York. This was one of the prize patronage positions below cabinet level and was then held by Edwin A. Merritt. Conkling raised the time-honored principle of senatorial courtesy in an attempt to defeat the nomination, to no avail. Garfield, who believed the practice was corrupt, would not back down and threatened to withdraw all nominations unless Robertson was confirmed, intending to "settle the question whether the president is registering clerk of the Senate or the Executive of the United States."[174] Ultimately, Conkling and his New York colleague, Senator Thomas C. Platt, resigned their Senate seats to seek vindication but found only further humiliation when the New York legislature elected others in their places. Robertson was confirmed as Collector and Garfield's victory was clear. To Blaine's chagrin, the victorious Garfield returned to his goal of balancing the interests of party factions and nominated a number of Conkling's Stalwart friends to offices.[175] You are receiving our newsletter because you opted-in for it on one of our sister websites. Make sure you stay up to date with finance news by [whitelisting us](. 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