Part 54 (1/2)
One of the most destructive visitations of yellow fever was in the summer and autumn of 1873. Memphis and New Orleans suffered the most, and at one time those cities were abandoned by all who could leave them.
Other portions of the country contributed every possible a.s.sistance in the way of medical help, nurses, and money, but before the scourge was extirpated by cool weather fully 15,000 persons had succ.u.mbed.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1878.
The Republican National Convention was held in Chicago at the opening of June. As General Grant had returned from his memorable tour round the world, having been received everywhere with the highest honors, a determined effort was now made to renominate him for a third term.
Roscoe Conkling, United States senator from New York, was the leader in the movement, and the whole number of Grant's supporters was 306, who without a break cast their vote for him thirty-six times in succession.
They failed because of the widespread opposition to any man holding the exalted office for a longer period than Was.h.i.+ngton, the Father of his Country.
The princ.i.p.al rivals of General Grant were James G. Blaine, of Maine, and John Sherman, of Ohio. There being a deadlock, the supporters of these two candidates united and thereby nominated James A. Garfield, of Ohio, with Chester A. Arthur, of New York, as the nominee for Vice-President.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GRANT IN j.a.pAN.]
The Democratic Convention, which met in Cincinnati in the latter part of June, placed in nomination General Winfield S. Hanc.o.c.k, of New York, and William H. English, of Indiana. The prospect of Hanc.o.c.k's election was excellent, but he destroyed it by one of those unfortunate expressions which more than once have defeated candidates for high office. When questioned concerning the tariff he expressed the opinion that it was a ”local issue,” a remark which many accepted as displaying ignorance of the important subject, and they, therefore, voted against him. The result was as follows: James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, 214 electoral votes; W.S. Hanc.o.c.k and W.H. English, 155; James B. Weaver and B.J. Chambers, the Greenback candidates, received 307,306 popular votes; Neal Dow and H.A. Thompson, the Prohibition, 10,305; and John W. Phelps and S.C. Pomeroy, American, 707; but none of the three secured an electoral vote.
James A. Garfield was born at Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, November 19, 1831. While he was an infant his father died and he was left to the care of his n.o.ble mother, to whom he was devotedly attached.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOY JAMES GARFIELD BRINGING HIS FIRST DAY'S EARNINGS TO HIS MOTHER.]
Garfield spent his boyhood in the backwoods, and at one time was the driver of a ca.n.a.l-boat. He became strong, rugged, and a fine athlete, and at the same time obtained the rudiments of an English education. At the age of seventeen he attended the high school at Chester, and by hard study acquired an excellent knowledge of Latin, Greek, and algebra. He was a student at Hiram College, and became an instructor in 1854. The same year he entered Williams College, from which he was graduated with honor in 1856. He returned to Ohio, and was appointed a professor in Hiram College. He indulged his taste for politics and law, and served for a time in the State Senate, but was president of the college when the war broke out. He at once volunteered, and was appointed lieutenant-colonel and afterward colonel of the Forty-second Regiment of Ohio Volunteers.
Garfield displayed remarkable ability in the military service, and had he remained would have won high distinction. As a brigadier-general he did fine work in Kentucky and Tennessee. He was chief-of-staff to General Rosecrans, and showed great gallantry in the tremendous battle of Chickamauga. He was in the field when elected to Congress in 1862.
His desire was to remain, but, at the personal request of President Lincoln, he entered Congress, where it was felt his help was needed in the important legislation before the country. The estimate in which he was held by his fellow-citizens is shown by the fact that he served as a member of Congress for seventeen years. In 1879 he was chosen United States senator, but did not take his seat because of his nomination for the presidency.
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
The question of ”civil service reform,” as it is termed, a.s.sumed prominence during the term of Hayes. This, as all understand, means that the public offices should be filled not in accordance with politics, but be determined by fitness. The charge has been made with reason that, when public servants have become skilled in the discharge of their duties, they are turned out to make room for the friends of the new administration, where politics are different. In that way public service is injured.
[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES A. GARFIELD (1831-1881.) One partial term, 1881.]
The opponents of civil service reform maintain, on the other hand, that there are thousands out of office who are just as capable as those in office, and that the party ought to reward those that have helped it to success. ”To the victor belong the spoils” was the policy of Andrew Jackson, and it has been followed in a greater or less degree ever since. The cry of civil service reform was long a well-sounding motto with which to catch votes, but no serious effort was made to enforce it.
Hayes tried his hand, but the clamor for political rewards was so insistent that he gave it up, and matters dropped back into their old ruts. The vexatious question was inherited by Garfield, and the hope was general that he would not only make a determined effort, but would succeed in carrying out the principles of real civil service reform.
The task soon proved beyond the capacity of himself or any human being.
It seemed as if nearly every man in the country had been the deciding factor in the election of the President, while the ”original Garfield man” would have formed a full regiment. The executive threw up his hands, and decided to pa.s.s over the plague to the next administration.
The quarrel produced a split in the Republican party itself, and two wings were formed, known as ”Half-breeds” and ”Stalwarts.” At the head of the latter was the brilliant New York senator, Roscoe Conkling, who had been so persistent in his efforts to renominate General Grant for a third term. The leader of the Half-breeds was James G. Blaine, as brilliant as Conkling, while both were strong personal opponents. The Stalwarts claimed the right of dividing the offices, as had been the custom for a century, the senators and representatives apportioning the plums among the horde of claimants. The President was supported by the Half-breeds in his claim that it was his province to bestow these gifts as he saw fit.
The collectors.h.i.+p of the port of New York is one of the best offices at the disposal of the administration. The President nominated Judge William Robertson. He was personally distasteful to Conkling, and, when he found himself unable to prevent his confirmation by the Senate, he and Thomas C. Platt, the junior senator from New York, resigned their seats. Both afterward sought and failed to secure a re-election from the Legislature. Congress adjourned in June.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE AGED MOTHER OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.]
a.s.sa.s.sINATION OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.
Relieved from the pressure of his duties, the President now made his arrangements for placing his two sons in Williams College and joining his invalid wife at the seash.o.r.e. On the 2d of July, 1881, accompanied by Secretary Blaine and several friends, he rode to the Baltimore Railroad station to board the cars. He had just entered the building and was chatting with his secretary, when a miscreant named Charles Julias Guiteau stepped up behind him and shot him with a pistol in the back.
The wounded President sank to the floor and was carried to the executive mansion, while the a.s.sa.s.sin was hurried to prison before he could be lynched, as he a.s.suredly would have been but for such prompt action by the authorities.