Garfield in Congress, part two: the House campaigns of 1872, 1874 and 1878

James Garfield spent nearly eighteen years in Congress, and this National Park Service article, the second of two parts, follows his House campaigns of 1872, 1874 and 1878, from a smooth win to a hard fight. It shows a politician who said he disliked campaigning and plainly enjoyed it.

Ulysses S. Grant, elected President in 1868 and re-elected in 1872, wanted a third term in 1880, but the Republican nomination went to Garfield. Library of Congress.

1872: an easy race

The 1872 presidential contest pitted Grant against Horace Greeley, the candidate of a splinter group of "liberal Republicans" and the Democrats. Garfield judged privately that Grant was not fit to be nominated and Greeley not fit to be elected. His own prospects were better, because redistricting after the 1870 census took Mahoning County out of his district, freeing him from its "Iron men," and added Lake County, solidly Republican. He was nominated without opposition and won, 19,189 votes to 8,254.

Congressman James A. Garfield. Library of Congress.

1874: the stiffest challenge

Grant's second term was swamped by scandal and depression, and voters were in a "throw-the-bums-out" mood. Local Republican conventions in Garfield's district passed resolutions condemning his link to the Credit Mobilier scandal and the congressional "salary grab," and at least one demanded his resignation. A scandal over a contract to pave Washington's streets added to the tension. The issue that most angered voters was the salary grab: a $2,500 raise Congress voted itself as part of the annual appropriation bill, retroactive to the start of the 43rd Congress, while the government was cutting programs. As chairman of the House appropriations committee, Garfield was held personally responsible even though he had opposed it in committee and on the floor.

Garfield went home and campaigned for delegates to the local nominating conventions, mostly in small meetings and through friends. In August he wrote that his enemies were bitter and noisy and his friends more active than ever. His chief local adviser built an impressive organization, and Garfield took two-thirds of the local delegates, after which the opposition collapsed at the district convention.

Disaffected Republicans named an independent candidate, and the Democrat who had run against Garfield twelve years earlier ran again. Garfield answered every question in a month of fierce campaigning, promising blow for blow. The result was Garfield 12,591, the independent 3,427 and the Democrat 6,245. He kept his seat, but a nationwide "blue wave" cost his party its House majority, and for the rest of his career he served in the minority.

Representative (later Senator) Lucius Q.C. Lamar of Mississippi. Library of Congress.

1876 and 1878

Leading the minority gave Garfield his springboard. At the end of the spring session, Democratic Congressman L.Q.C. Lamar, whom Garfield respected as among the ablest Democrats in the House, gave a polished defense of his party that was seen at once as the opening argument of the presidential campaign, the Democrats' first real chance at the White House since the Civil War. Garfield, as Republican leader, answered the next day almost extemporaneously, arguing that the Democrats could not be trusted to run the government. Republicans and their newspapers praised the speech and reprinted it widely.

In 1878 the Democratic-controlled Ohio legislature redrew the congressional districts for partisan advantage, moving Portage County, his home for most of his life and original political base, to a more Democratic district and returning Mahoning County. Republicans renominated him unanimously, but he faced a Democrat and a Greenback party candidate who had been one of his loudest critics in 1874. The main issue was greenback currency against specie resumption, on which Garfield's hard money position was well known. He won with 17,166 votes to 7,553 for the Democrat and 3,148 for the Greenback candidate.

That was the last Congress to which he was elected: in the course of it the Ohio legislature chose him for the U.S. Senate, and in 1880 he was nominated for President. The article's conclusion is that two things stayed constant in his political philosophy: independence of judgment and loyalty to the Republican Party.

James A. Garfield. Library of Congress.

Sources

• National Park Service article by Joan Kapsch, Park Guide, James A. Garfield National Historic Site, written November 2018 for the Garfield Observer (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/james-garfield-congressman-part-ii.htm), a U.S. government work in the public domain.
• National Park Service; rewritten in hubnx's own words.