James A. Garfield

James A. Garfield is a name that produces a sprawling aura of melancholy and grief amongst all those familiar with American history. This is for one main reason: Garfield, alongside Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy, is one of only 4 US presidents to be successfully murdered. Unlike Lincoln, McKinley, and Kennedy, however, Garfield didn't get to actually make any major accomplishments before being stolen from the world. For this reason, many have lumped Garfield into the same category as William Henry Harrison, dubbing both of them presidents that died far too early to actually be ranked, as they were unable to accomplish anything in office. I agree that Harrison died too early to actually be analyzed, as he passed away literally 31 days into his tenure. He was inaugurated on March 4, 1841, and died on April 4, 1841. However, Garfield actually did achieve things and embark on legislative adventures during his presidency, so I still rank him on my list.

Garfield's political career really began with the formation of the Republican Party in 1854. Garfield, a staunch abolitionist from Ohio, quickly joined the new single-issue anti-slavery group and became a prominent advocate for its platform. Famous and beloved amongst Ohio abolitionists, Garfield was elected to the state senate in 1859. Garfield had obtained his very first public office. Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election barely a year into Garfield's formal occupation as a legislator, causing southern states to start seceding in protest. Many Americans realized that civil war was inevitable, and Garfield was among their numbers. At the end of 1860, he resigned from the Ohio State Senate and, once Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter, joined the Union military.

The first portion of Garfield's political career ended up being equal in length to his military career; in 1862, Garfield joined the House of Representatives. Unlike his work in the Ohio State Senate and Union military, Garfield's tenure as a Congressman proved to be lengthy and significant: Garfield was already 3 years into his service when Confederate troops surrendered at the Battle of Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, ending the civil war. The Confederate States of America was formally defunct exactly a month later, on May 9, 1865. From there, the country began to focus on Reconstruction, the campaign to rebuild the south in the wake of the war's carnage and to extend new political, legal, and financial rights to ex-slaves.

As Reconstruction became the country's main concern, Garfield established himself as one of the primary members of the Radical Republicans, a faction that put pressure on Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant to respect the rights of newly-freed slaves and to enforce the abolition of slavery, equal protection under the law, and black voting rights. Garfield specifically argued that by seceding, officials from former Confederate states like South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, and Arkansas had voluntarily relinquished Constitutional rights like protection from unwarranted searches and seizures, abstaining from forced self-incrimination, and immunity from cruel and unusual punishment.

In 1872, Garfield was accused of being complicit in the Credit-Mobilier Scandal. Lincoln had commissioned the construction of a transcontinental railroad and Johnson and Grant gave the Union Pacific Railroad Company the responsibility (as well as financial blessings) of actually building the road. Some board members at the UPR then established a shell company called Credit-Mobilier and hosted an auction for who they, the UPR, would give the task of building the railroad. Herbert Hoxie, another UPR board member, then submitted an astonishingly-high bid to crush all competition, giving Credit-Mobilier control. Under Credit-Mobilier (which was really just a pseudonym for the UPR), a series of corrupt and illegal actions were taken to delay the railroad's construction and line the UPR's pocket. Credit-Mobilier then began giving Congressmen stocks in their company in exchange for silence. Garfield was accused of being among those who accepted the deal, but this was never proven.

8 years later, in 1880, Garfield ran for president. At the time of the 1880 election, the Republican Party was split between the more progressive Half-Breeds and the more conservative Stalwarts. The Stalwarts wanted to nominate former-President Grant, while the Half-Breeds wanted to nominate James G. Blaine. Eventually, the convention settled on a compromise: Garfield was a moderate Half-Breed, so he would be the presidential nominee. Meanwhile, Chester A. Arthur, a Stalwart, was made the vice presidential nominee. In the generals, Garfield and Arthur ran against Winfield Scott Hancock. The election was incredibly close, but Garfield defeated Hancock by an extremely close margin. On March 4, 1881, Garfield replaced Rutherford B. Hayes as president of the United States of America.

Garfield entered the presidency with numerous admirable policy proposals busting at the seams with the potential to improve life for average Americans. For instance, Garfield wanted to help unlock new economic opportunities for black people and increased equality between the races. He believed that these goals could be completed by helping black people access education. Throughout his brief presidency, Garfield tried to establish schools that black children could attend for free. This not only would have helped black people access better lives and better-paying jobs and thus receive more respect from white people, but it also may have helped normalize the idea of free education. Had Garfield succeeded in this pursuit, we may be living in an America with free college.

Although I like the founders of the Democratic Party (Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren), I believe that the party had dramatically declined in quality after the inauguration of James K. Polk. The Democratic Party started off as a progressive vehicle for increased democracy, expanded economic opportunity, regulation of corporations, and the preservation of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. It was carrying the torch of Thomas Jefferson. However, Polk began the party's descent into the right-wing elitism of the planter class. For this reason, I would prefer the Republican Party prior to the rise of people like Grover Cleveland, William Jennings Bryan, and Woodrow Wilson. For this reason, I admire Garfield's efforts to quell the divisions between the Stalwarts and Half-Breeds, as it would make the Republican Party more united and much more effective.

Contrary to popular belief, Garfield did accomplish a few things as president. Among them is his decision to suspend all government bonds with an interest rate above 6%. Any such bonds that had been given out prior to this move by Garfield were immediately paid off. In doing this, Garfield reduced the national debt and helped quell its growth in the long term. Some things that Garfield did, however, were more disappointing than we'd expect from a man as brilliant and promising as him. Lew Wallace was a prominent novelist in Garfield's time, and Garfield appointed him ambassador to the Ottoman Empire for no reason other than believing that he would be inspired by his time in Istanbul to write a new novel. This was very irresponsible and certainly hurts Garfield's score.

During the 1880 Republican primaries, Charles Guiteau was a Stalwart who supported Grant. He wrote a short, incoherent speech endorsing Grant's run for a third term. When Garfield was nominated, however, Guiteau edited the speech and replaced all mentions of Grant with mentions of Garfield. After giving the speech once to a small, unimpressed audience, Guiteau became convinced he helped Garfield defeat Hancock. In exchange, he demanded a post as US consul to France. When Garfield refused, Guiteau began stalking the new president. At a train station on July 2, 1881, Guiteau finally worked up the courage to shoot the man he viewed as an ungrateful traitor. Doctors and the press assumed Garfield would survive, but a lot of what the doctors did only made Garfield's wound worse. Garfield died on September 19, 1881, making Chester A. Arthur president.

James A. Garfield could have been one of America's greatest presidents. He fought for the unity of progressive movements, increased economic opportunities for racial minorities, and a lower national debt. He was also incredibly intelligent. He graduated from numerous colleges with degrees in subjects as diverse as theology, law, and ancient languages. He was a professor who wrote treatises on math prior to joining the Republican Party. He could even write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand simultaneously. Had he survived Guiteau's bloodlust or not been shot at all, he could have served a full term or even 2 full terms, during which he would pass legislation birthing a better America. In Garfield's America, we would be closer to the greatest ideals our country ever had, the ideals for which we were born to pursue: That all men are created equal, that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.