James A. Garfield in 1880
Electoral Brawlage, #20
“Electoral Brawlage” examines the first inaugural address of each president in U.S. history, with some commentary and analysis. Check back on Mondays for more.
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Coming off the heels of the hotly-contested 1876 election, wherein the loser took a clear plurality of the popular vote (lol) but lost the Electoral Vote by ONE (thanks to a Congressional decision along party lines), the 1880 election might have been a bloodbath for the incumbent party.
The Republicans had held the White House for 20 years straight, encompassing the entire Civil War, the first presidential assassination, the first presidential impeachment, big scandals in the Grant administration, and severe division against Hayes. The idea that the GOP would hold the White House for a sixth term was almost laughable.
And yet…
James A. Garfield (Ohio) ran on the GOP ticket with Chester A. Arthur (New York) as his VP. OH and NY were well-established picking-points for candidates by now. Garfield was the compromise candidate from a deadlocked convention; he had political experience as a congressman and military experience as a Union general.
Garfield is described by historians as a “polymath,” very intelligent and good at numerous things. He was fluent in Greek and Latin and was ambidextrous, though the legend of him being able to simultaneously write in Greek with one hand and Latin in the other might be made-up. Nevertheless he was a man who excelled in many areas. Like Lincoln, he was raised in a log cabin.
On the Democrat side, Winfield Scott Hancock (Pennsylvania) and William H. English (Indiana) mounted their challenge. Hancock was also a Civil War general though he didn’t have Garfield’s political experience.
Side note: Indiana continues to pop up as the origin point for Vice Presidents, especially during this stretch. I got curious so I looked it up: 10 different VP candidates have been from Indiana, and two of those were in my lifetime (Quayle and Pence). We’ve only had 50 vice presidents, and 8 of them were from the Crossroads State. New York is the only state to have produced more VP candidates (14) but not as many of them have gone on to win.
Ticket Tally
Garfield got 48.3 percent of the popular vote to Hancock’s 48.2. This is a useful metric because it shows that both men were well-liked by the country. The Electoral gap was wider (214-155) but they each won exactly 19 states, with Hancock taking the South and Garfield taking the North/West.
Inaugural Points
Garfield’s inaugural address was average in length—not as curt as Grant, and certainly not as verbose as Harrison. He opens by marking the centennial of America’s first post-independence government, the Articles of Confederation, and then makes note of forthcoming anniversaries in the 1880s. He talks about the brilliance of the Founders, how the country has added twenty-five states and survived a Civil War, and has elevated the status of its “Negro” (black) population from slaves to citizens. He acknowledges the upheaval in Southern communities from this and that there are still things to figure out.
He continues the GOP platform point of universal education, because an uneducated electorate will doom the future prospects of the country and its supremacy. (Read book, learn thing!) On fiscal policy he supported the gold standard and was open to the future practice of “bimetallism” (we’ll see more about this in future elections) as long as it was tied to international approval. (Complicated to explain why.)
Garfield also emphasized the need for improved unity between the North and the South. Doubtless he looked at the electoral ticket returns and saw something extremely glaring in the breakdown.
Like any good President he closed with humility and a plea to God to continue America’s prosperity.
Garfield would sadly be assassinated four months into his term by a madman, but we’ll get into that next week.
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