Editing James A. Garfield (section)

==Presidential election of 1880==
{{Main|1880 United States presidential election}}

===Republican nomination===
{{Main|1880 Republican National Convention}}
[[File:The Appomattox of the third termers - unconditional surrender.jpg|thumb|200px|upright=1.25|alt=A cartoon. Grant, on the right, is semi-kneeling while others kneel behind him. Garfield stands upright and receives a sword from Grant. Behind him are cheering throngs, and two men raise a flag in the background.|Following Grant's defeat for the nomination [[Puck (magazine)|''Puck'' magazine]] satirized [[Robert E. Lee]]'s surrender to him at Appomattox by depicting Grant giving up his sword to Garfield.]]

Having just been elected to the Senate with John Sherman's support, Garfield was committed to Sherman for the 1880 Republican presidential nomination.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=454–455}} Before the convention began, however, a few Republicans, including [[Wharton Barker]] of Philadelphia, thought Garfield the best choice for the nomination.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=454–455}} Garfield denied any interest in the position, but the attention was enough to make Sherman suspicious of his lieutenant's ambitions.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=456–457}} Besides Sherman, the early favorites for the nomination were Blaine, former President Grant; several other candidates attracted delegates as well.{{sfn|Doenecke|1981|pp=17–19}}

The Republican Party at the time was split into two factions: the "Stalwarts", who supported the existing federal government patronage system, and the "Half-Breeds", who wanted civil service reform.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.vox.com/2016/7/20/12233454/christie-trump-purge-federal-employees |title=Donald Trump and Chris Christie are reportedly planning to purge the civil service |date=July 20, 2016 |website=[[Vox (website)|Vox]] |first=Dylan |last=Matthews |author-link=Dylan Matthews |access-date=September 8, 2019 |archive-date=March 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190322175810/https://www.vox.com/2016/7/20/12233454/christie-trump-purge-federal-employees |url-status=live }}</ref> As the convention began, [[New York City|New York]] Senator [[Roscoe Conkling]], floor leader for the Stalwarts, who supported former President Ulysses S. Grant, proposed that the delegates pledge to back the eventual nominee in the general election.{{sfn|Ackerman|2003|pp=81–83}} When three West Virginia delegates declined to be so bound, Conkling sought to expel them from the convention. Garfield rose to defend the men, giving a passionate speech in defense of their right to reserve judgment.{{sfn|Ackerman|2003|pp=81–83}} The crowd turned against Conkling, and he withdrew the motion.{{sfn|Ackerman|2003|pp=81–83}} The performance delighted Garfield's boosters, who were then convinced he was the only one who could attract a majority of the delegates' votes.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=464–465}}

After speeches in favor of the other front-runners, Garfield rose to place Sherman's name in nomination; his speech was well-received, but the delegates mustered little excitement for Sherman as the next president.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=466–469}} The first ballot showed Grant leading with 304 votes to Blaine's 284, and Sherman's 93 votes placed him in a distant third. Subsequent ballots demonstrated a deadlock between Grant and Blaine, with neither having the 379 votes needed for nomination.{{sfn|Ackerman|2003|pp=96–101}} [[Jeremiah McLain Rusk]], a member of the Wisconsin delegation, and [[Benjamin Harrison]], an Indiana delegate, sought to break the deadlock by shifting a few of the anti-Grant votes to a [[dark horse]] candidate—Garfield.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=472–475}} Garfield gained 50 votes on the 35th ballot, and a stampede began. Garfield protested to the Ohio delegation that he did not seek the nomination and would not betray Sherman, but they overruled his objections and cast their ballots for him.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=475–477}} In the next round of voting, nearly all the Sherman and Blaine delegates shifted their support to Garfield, giving him 399 votes, and the Republican nomination. Most of the Grant forces backed the former president to the end, creating a disgruntled Stalwart minority in the party.{{sfn|Ackerman|2003|pp=110–114}} To obtain that faction's support for the ticket, Chester A. Arthur, a former [[Collector of the Port of New York|New York customs collector]] and member of Conkling's [[political machine]], was chosen as the vice presidential nominee.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=480–481}}

===Campaign against Hancock===
[[File:1880RepublicanPoster.png|thumb|200px|Garfield–Arthur election poster]]
[[File:ElectoralCollege1880.svg|right|thumb|200px|1880 electoral vote results]]
Even with a Stalwart on the ticket, animosity between the Republican factions carried over from the convention, so Garfield traveled to New York to meet with party leaders.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=488–491}} After convincing the Stalwart crowd to put aside their differences and unite for the coming campaign, Garfield returned to Ohio, leaving the active campaigning to others, as was traditional at the time.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=498–500}} Meanwhile, the Democrats settled on their nominee, Major General [[Winfield Scott Hancock]] of Pennsylvania, a career military officer.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=488–491}} Hancock and the Democrats expected to carry the [[Solid South]], while much of the North was considered safe territory for Garfield and the Republicans; most of the campaign focused on a few [[Swing state|close states]], including New York and Indiana.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=501–502}}

Practical differences between the candidates were few, but Republicans began the campaign with the familiar theme of [[waving the bloody shirt]]. They reminded Northern voters the Democratic Party was responsible for secession and four years of civil war, and Democrats would reverse the gains of that war, dishonor Union veterans, and pay Confederate veterans pensions out of the federal treasury.{{sfn|Clancy|1958|pp=175–180}} Fifteen years had passed since the end of the war, and with Union generals at the head of both tickets, the bloody shirt was of diminishing value in exciting the voters.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=493–494}} With a few months to go before the election, the Republicans switched tactics to emphasize the [[tariff]]. Seizing on the Democratic platform's call for a "tariff for revenue only", Republicans told Northern workers a Hancock presidency would weaken the tariff protection that kept them in good jobs.{{sfn|Clancy|1958|pp=232–233}} Hancock made the situation worse when, attempting to strike a moderate stance, he said, "The tariff question is a local question."{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=493–494}} The Republican ploy proved effective in uniting the North behind Garfield.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=511–513}} Ultimately, of the more than 9.2{{spaces}}million popular votes cast, fewer than 2,000 separated the two candidates.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/scores.html#1880 |title=Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996 |publisher=U.S. National Archives |access-date=January 10, 2018 |archive-date=February 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204033536/http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/scores.html#1880 |url-status=live }}</ref> But in the [[Electoral College (United States)|Electoral College]], Garfield had an easy victory over Hancock, 214 to 155.{{sfn|Peskin|1978|pp=510–511}} The election made Garfield the only sitting member of the House ever to be elected to the presidency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-election-of-President-James-Garfield-of-Ohio/|publisher=[[United States House of Representatives]]|title=The election of President James Garfield of Ohio|access-date=June 23, 2015|archive-date=May 4, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190504200455/https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-election-of-President-James-Garfield-of-Ohio/|url-status=live}}</ref>