Garfield, James (Administration)

JAMES GARFIELD WAS FIRST elected to Congress from Ohio while serving as a Union general in the Civil War. After the war, he allied himself with the Radical Republicans. He supported strong protections for the freedmen and tough military measures to suppress the former rebels. He was one of the House leaders who impeached President Andrew Johnson in 1868.

Although no one believed government should be involved directly in resolving issues of poverty, government monetary policy could have a real impact. Hard money supporters believed gold and silver should back up U.S. currency so money would retain its value. This primarily benefited banks and the interests of merchants who had money. Others thought government should allow inflation to devalue currency so that people in debt, primarily farmers in the west, could escape the debts that made their life harder.

Garfield, although a westerner, strongly believed in a hard money policy. He viewed it as a moral issue, arguing that inflation was a form of legalized theft. He was also considered a moderate supporter of tariffs and civil service reform.

In 1872, Garfield was one of many congressmen embarrassed by involvement in the Credit Mobilier scandal. Congressmen received stock and generous dividends from a railroad company that had been given munificent government contracts. Although the scandal ended many political careers, Garfield's involvement was relatively minor and ultimately left him unscathed. He had also received other payments from government contractors while serving in the House, which, although legal at that time, seemed ethically questionable to many reformers. Garfield sat on the election commission in 1876 that controversially awarded the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes.

In a special election in January 1880, Garfield was elected to the U.S. Senate. But before he could take his seat, he went to the Republican Convention, where he nominated John Sherman for president. The convention became deadlocked. In order to block an attempt by supporters of former President Ulysses Grant to take the nomination, the other major candidates compromised by nominating a surprised Garfield on the 36th ballot.

After the election, there was an unusually large flurry of demands for patronage government jobs. Garfield had spoken out generally in favor of civil service reform, though he was not considered a particularly strong advocate. He spent much of his first months dealing with job controversies, particularly a fight over jobs at the Port of New York. When Garfield proposed replacing a reformer with someone who had helped on his campaign, senators complained of the patronage appointment. When the Senate refused to confirm his appointment, he ceased making any further appointments until the Senate acted, resulting in a lengthy showdown. Eventually the Senate confirmed his nominee.

There was also a minor scandal involving kickbacks in government contracts for private postal routes out west. The president, however, was not directly implicated. Outside of the patronage controversies, the Garfield administration had little time to address any major domestic issues. One minor initiative recalled government bonds paying six percent interest and refinanced them at 3.5 percent, which saved $10 million annually, about four percent of the budget at that time.

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