Blast to the Past: The Rise and Fall of James Garfield

History 415 Assignment

October, 1880

Hello to all of my loyal readers, I have something marvelous to tell you. I woke up yesterday morning and found out that, incredibly, I have been transported over a hundred years back to the 1880’s, specifically 1880. How this is possible, I still have yet to find out, but just as amazingly, my laptop and its Internet connection also made the jump with me, allowing me to continually blog about my adventure in the past. I will tell you all just what happens on a daily basis, what is going on in the world, and what or who is creating headlines in America. As a history buff myself, this will allow me to live in and witness the history that is being made all around me, giving me a much greater understanding of the stories that I would never know about if not for my journey to the past.

So far I have noticed that one man has created the most stories over the past few weeks. His name is James Garfield, a republican politician and Civil War veteran from Ohio. He was nominated, last June, for the Republican nomination for the President of the United States. Apparently, he was a dark horse candidate, someone who was only nominated because he was a compromise between James G. Blaine and Ulysses S. Grant, who were deadlocked in the fight for the nomination. Even so, he was not an unknown man and he was apparently an ethically dedicated Republican, as Charles E Fitch writes in The International Review, “…where Republicans put forward no unknown man. Neither did they make any compromise with principle in the character of their candidate…. They selected one of their most conspicuous champions, who for twenty years has been in the blaze of publicity, and has made full and forcible utterance of their ideas.”1

The life story of Garfield that Fitch relays in his article seems intriguing, too. He was born in the township of Orange, Ohio, on November 19th, 1831. His family hails from New England, having come from Wales sometime in the 1700s. In 1854, he entered Williams College, where he graduated as the “third of Commencement honors.”2 After fighting and leading troops in the Civil war as a Major General, he served in the House of Representatives, and became the Senator-elect of Ohio for Senator Allen Granberry Thurman’s seat. His nomination was out of the blue, so to speak, because from what I can gather, he originally attended the Republican National Convention for the sole purpose of supporting John Sherman, the Secretary of the Treasury, for President. In opposition to his Presidency is William Scott Hancock, the Democratic nomination.

I’m excited to watch how the events unfold, even though I already know the outcome. The back-story, what happened outside of the textbooks that will be written in the future, is great prospect and I look forward to seeing if their was anything different that what I already know. James Garfield seems like a good man, someone who shouldn’t be overlooked in the history books like he usually is. Unfortunately for him, however, he is only remembered for his death and not his life.


March 10th, 1881

It has been nearly a week since James Garfield was inaugurated and took office on March 4th. According to The Independent, a newspaper that is devoted to politics, “over 50,000 persons were gathered to witness the installation ceremonies on the east front and to listen to the inaugural address.”3 From what I understand, it was a marvelous celebration; one that The Independent doubts that any other “has met with so general and complete an observance as that just celebrated.” It reminds me of the Barack Obama inauguration that happened over a month before I was transferred back in time. Incidentally, the Independent says that the Inauguration Ball was of a “promiscuous nature…a considerable number of colored persons were present.”4 Given what I know about the South during the Gilded Age, it is surprising that any colored people were there at all, let alone a considerable number. But then again, Garfield wants “Negroes of this country to be protected in all their civil and political rights,” and he also pledges “the authority of his office to secure these ends,”5 so perhaps the colored attendance was planned to go along with his ideals. It is also surprising that so many people attended as it was such a close count, with Garfield only winning by .01 percent and that “uncertainty regarding the proper count of the electoral vote at that period prevailed almost until the very day appointed for the inauguration.”6 Overall, I believe it was a very successful day, and brought joy and hope into the hearts of Americans.


July 7th, 1881

The tragedy of James Garfield has finally hit the nation. On July 2nd, “while standing in the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Depot and Washington, the President of the United Sates was shot twice,”7 with the culprit being “Charles J. Guiteau, an Illinois lawyer.”8 Fortunately, “the President has remained conscious throughout and shows great nerve and courage.”9 While the bullet has not been removed, at the time that I wrote this entry to my blog, “the condition of President Garfield is more favorable than it has been at any period since the shooting, and, though by no means out of danger, his attending physicians express considerable encouragement and hope for a satisfactory result.”10 I will update with news about the President soon.


July 21st, 1881

It is an interesting world I’m living in. James Garfield has not recovered yet, and “there is no probability that…he is a well man,”11 after he recovers, if he ever does. His situation is causing a constitutional debate, as well, over when the Vice-President may “assume the powers and duties of the office, the Constitution gives no light.”12 It is interesting to watch as they try and figure out the proper time to hand the powers over to Chester A. Arthur, knowing from my future knowledge that it is inevitable that he will take office.

Guiteau, meanwhile, is causing a stir as many feel the most extreme punishment he can get, eight years in prison, “is wholly inadequate to the enormity of the crime.”13 Many lawyers and other folk are participating in trying to get Guiteau to be punished more severely.


September 24th, 1881

The Ohio Farmer says it best: “The long suspense is over. James A. Garfield, the scholar and statesman, the patriot soldier, the loving husband and father, the noble man and humble Christian, and the genuine type of our highest civilization, is dead.”14 He died on September 19th, finally succumbing by way of a heart attack after suffering from gunshot wounds that were inflicted two months prior. He will surely be missed, as he “was a man of the people a representative American, a splendid illustration of what can be accomplished in this land.”15 As the article ends with this, I think it best that I, too, end this blog entry with the same words: “Americans have lost an able and fearless defender.”16


Citations:

1 Fitch, Charles E. "James A. Garfield." The International Review (1880): 447-58

2 Fitch, Charles E. "James A. Garfield." The International Review (1880): 447-58

3 "The Inauguration of President Garfield." The Independent [New York] 10 Mar. 1881:
15.

4 "The Inauguration of President Garfield." The Independent [New York] 10 Mar. 1881:
15.

5 "The Inauguration of President Garfield." The Independent [New York] 10 Mar. 1881:
15.

6 "The New Administration." The Independent [New York] 10 Mar. 1881:
16.

7 "President Garfield Shot By An Assassin." The Independent [New York] 7 July 1881:
15.

8 "President Garfield Shot By An Assassin." The Independent [New York] 7 July 1881:
15.

9 "President Garfield Shot By An Assassin." The Independent [New York] 7 July 1881:
15.

10 "President Garfield Shot By An Assassin." The Independent [New York] 7 July 1881:
15.
11 "The President's Inability." The Independent [New York] 21 July 1881: 16.

12 "The President's Inability." The Independent [New York] 21 July 1881: 16.

13 "The President's Inability." The Independent [New York] 21 July 1881: 16.

14 "Death of the President." The Ohio Farmer 24 Sept. 1881: 204.

15 "Death of the President." The Ohio Farmer 24 Sept. 1881: 204.

16 "Death of the President." The Ohio Farmer 24 Sept. 1881: 204.