mendation" of Garfield. Still the party was glad to have him on any terms and he with General Grant 2 spoke on September 28 to a monster meeting at Warren, Ohio. Grant's speech was only seven minutes long but it produced a great impression and was issued as a campaign document. When Conkling went to Indiana he was shrewd enough to fall in with the party tactics and place the tariff question conspicuously in the front. Apparently every string was pulled. Garfield was a Campbellite (the Campbellites were a religious organization otherwise known as Disciples of Christ), had been a lay preacher and president of Hiram (Ohio) College, the principal educational institution of his sect; and it was estimated that in Indiana there were 5000 Campbellite voters who for the most part were Democrats. Therefore a still hunt was made to induce them to come over to the Republican side on the ground of religious affiliation. Such measures were legitimate but money was used to an extent hitherto unknown in American politics. It was said that the State was plastered over with two dollar bills. To raise the necessary campaign funds, financial men and manufacturers were levied on without stint and assessments on federal office-holders were freely made. Garfield was privy to the exactions from those holding office but it must be remembered that such contributions were not in 1880 contrary to law. The truth about In

1 The Nation, Sept. 23, 1880.

2 This was magnanimous on the part of Grant as his disappointment at not being nominated at Chicago was keen. Grant in Peace, Badeau, 324; Life of Grant, Louis A. Coolidge, 547.

3 Conkling, 618.

Thomas W. Brady was second assistant postmaster-general, a holdover from Grant, and during Garfield's administration was shown to be implicated in the "star route frauds." He was dismissed by Garfield

diana was told after the election by Vice-President-elect Arthur at a dinner at Delmonico's in New York City to the Secretary of the Republican Campaign committee, who had Indiana especially in charge. "Indiana," said Arthur, "was really I suppose a Democratic State. It had been put down on the books always as a State that might be carried by close and perfect organization and a great deal of (laughter). I see the reporters are present, therefore I will simply say that everybody showed a great deal of interest in the occasion and distributed tracts and political documents all through the State."1 The Republicans carried Indiana by a plurality of nearly 7000; Ohio by 23,000. This was a pretty sure indication of Garfield's election in November. But before that took place a desperate attempt was made to stem the current.

It must be remembered that in 1880 the so-called Chinese question was one of vital importance. The Republicans in their platform declared against "the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese" and the Democrats said that there ought to be "no more Chinese immigration except for travel, education and foreign commerce." Shortly before the November election there was scattered

and a week later published the following letter: "Mentor, O. Aug. 23, 1880. My dear Hubbell. Yours of the 19th received and contents noted. Please say to Brady that I hope he will give us all the assistance possible. I think he can help effectually. Please tell me how the departments generally are doing. As ever yours J. A. Garfield." J. A. Hubbell was chairman of the Republican congressional committee and levied the two per cent contribution on the government clerks. Boston Eve. Transcript, May 4, 1881; New York World, Sun, ibid.; see also New York Herald; Sparks's National Development. For an account of the "Star route frauds," see Sparks, 188 et seq. For Garfield's comment on the Hubbell letter see the newspapers.

1 The Nation, Feb. 24, 1881.

broadcast the so-called "Morey letter" in which Garfield favored, as it was popularly stated, "Chinese cheap labor." 1 He at once denounced the letter as a forgery, which indeed it was, but its publication probably cost him the electoral vote of California. But he carried New York which was necessary for his election and received 214 to Hancock's 155 electoral votes.

From my narrative, it will plainly appear that the centering of attention on the tariff was what carried Indiana and the election, but Garfield's own opinion, who watched closely every point, must be given. "The distrust of the solid South," he wrote in a private letter two days after the election, "and of adverse financial legislation have been the chief factors in the contest." 2

Garfield personally contributed to his success. He was a wonderful campaigner and, despite the warnings by friends of the fate of Scott, Douglas and Greeley, discussed freely in public "passing events and current issues." Blaine, likewise a remarkable stump orator, truly said in his eulogy: "Garfield spoke to large crowds as he journeyed to and from New York in August, to a great multitude in that city, to delegations and deputations of every kind that called at Mentor during the summer and autumn. With innumerable critics watchful and eager to catch a phrase that might be turned into odium or ridicule or a sentence that might be distorted to his own or his party's injury, Garfield did not trip or halt in any one of his seventy speeches." Garfield had a magnetic personality and although he did not write out his re

This letter was published in the New York Truth of Oct. 20, Boston Globe, Oct. 21. See Appletons' Ann. Cyc., 1880, 576; also The Nation. 2 J. Sherman, Rec., ii. 789. Feb. 27, 1882.

marks he divined the proper sentiment that his auditors liked to hear. These apparently off-hand speeches had the quality he showed in his familiar conversations with all sorts of men. With a broad though superficial intelligence he had the sympathetic word for the farmer, the man of finance, the manufacturer or the student.

Nor must it be forgotten that the clean and able administration of Hayes contributed to Republican success. While stalwart politicians contemptuously spoke of “the old woman policy of Granny Hayes" the plain people admired his conduct of business and showed their admiration by voting for the continuance in power of his party. He could truly say at the close of his term of office: "I left this great country prosperous and happy, and the party of my choice strong, victorious and united. In serving the country I served the party." 2

In bringing this view of Hayes's administration to an end the tributes of three men are well worth citing. William McKinley: "Hayes was a pure man- pure in his life, pure in his walk, pure in his conversation; his whole life was an example to the young men of the United States." Carl Schurz: "Public station in this country has seldom, if ever, been graced by a man of purer character or higher and more conscientious conception of duty and more patriotic motives." And Woodrow Wilson: Hayes was "upright, public spirited, inclined to serve the country unselfishly and in the interest of sound policy."

1 Sparks, National Development, 117. 2 Williams, ii. 227.

3 Williams, ii. 403, 405.

Hist. of the Amer. People, v. 169. In this account of Hayes's administration, I have been helped by Sparks's National Development (Hart's American Nation series); Carl Schurz, Reminiscences, iii.; Life of Sherman, Burton; J. D. Cox on Hayes's Administration, Atlantic Monthly, June 1893 Hist. of the U. S. 1870-95, E. B. Andrews.

CHAPTER VI

THE President-elect between election and the inauguration has much to do and among his various occupations he must give his chief attention to the forming of his Cabinet. The voice of the country with no uncertain sound demanded the continuance of Sherman in the Treasury department; next to Garfield he had the largest support from business and intelligent men. A partisan he could always be counted upon for party service and once, when unjustifiably suspected of this he gave in a brief speech at his Mansfield (Ohio) home a contribution to our political parlance that has many times served journalists when they desired to twit some seeker of political support who cloaked his real design. "I came west," he said, "purely on private business — to repair my fences." 1 While a party man he was nevertheless a wise patriot, earned fully the popular designation of statesman, and commended himself without the least calculation on his part to the independent voters whose voice was heard in The Nation: "If Mr. Garfield retains Sherman as Secretary of the Treasury it will be understood that he has not surrendered to the Bosses. If Mr. Sherman is not retained the sign will be equally clear that the Machine has overmastered him." 2 Sherman would have been glad to continue in his position but before The Nation

1 J. Sherman, Rec., ii. 728.

2 Dec. 2, 1880.