Our Presidents and how we make them

by Alexander K. McClure

STATES.	Popular Vote.				Electoral Vote.
	James A. Garfield, Ohio.	Winfield S. Hancock, Penn.	James B. Weaver, Iowa.	Neal Dow, Maine.	Garfield.	Hancock.
Maine	74,039	65,171[28]	4,408	93	7	—
New Hampshire	44,852	40,794	528	180	5	—
Vermont	45,567	18,316	1,215	——	5	—
Massachusetts	165,205	111,960	4,548	682	13	—
Rhode Island	18,195	10,779	236	20	4	—
Connecticut	67,071	64,415	868	409	6	—
New York	555,544	534,511	12,373	1,517	35	—
New Jersey	120,555	122,565	2,617	191	—	9
Pennsylvania	444,704	407,428	20,668	1,939	29	—
Delaware	14,133	15,275	120	——	—	3
Maryland	78,515	93,706	818	——	—	8
Virginia	84,020	128,586[29]	——	——	—	11
West Virginia	46,243	57,391	9,079	——	—	5
North Carolina	115,874	124,268	1,126	——	—	10
South Carolina	58,071	112,312	566	——	—	7
Georgia	54,086	102,470	969	——	—	11
Florida	23,654	27,964	——	——	—	4
Alabama	56,221	91,185	4,642	——	—	10
Mississippi	34,854	75,750	5,797	——	—	8
Louisiana	38,637[30]	65,067	439	——	—	8
Texas	57,893	156,428	27,405	——	—	8
Arkansas	42,436	60,775	4,079	——	—	6
Missouri	153,567	208,609	35,135	——	—	15
Tennessee	107,677	128,191	5,917	43	—	12
Kentucky	106,306	149,068	11,499	258	—	12
Ohio	375,048	340,821	6,456	2,616	22	—
Michigan	185,341	131,597	34,895	942	11	—
Indiana	232,164	225,522	12,986	——	15	—
Illinois	318,037	277,321	26,358	443	21	—
Wisconsin	144,400	114,649	7,986	69	10	—
Minnesota	93,903	53,315	3,267	286	5	—
Iowa	183,927	105,845	32,701	592	11	—
Nebraska	54,979	28,523	3,950	——	3	—
Kansas	121,549	59,801	10,851	25	5	—
Colorado	27,450	24,647	1,435	——	3	—
Nevada	8,732	9,613	——	——	—	3
California	80,348	80,426	3,892	——	1	5
Oregon	20,619	19,948	249	——	3	—
Totals	4,454,416	4,444,952	308,578	10,305	214	155

Garfield possessed more political honors at one time than any other public man in the history of the country. After the November election of 1880, he was the Congressman from his district; he was United States Senator-elect, having been chosen by the Ohio Legislature in January of the same year, and he was President-elect. He had many elements of popularity, but was not a courageous leader like Blaine. He was not a strong, aggressive man, although able in debate and one of the most scholarly of our public men. He had a most difficult rôle to fill when he came into the Presidency. Conkling wholly distrusted him when Garfield was first nominated for President, as was clearly evidenced by Conkling failing to call upon Garfield when Garfield made his first visit to New York after the Chicago convention, although he stopped at the same hotel where Conkling was a guest. Later in the campaign Conkling was earnestly urged to visit Garfield, and he made the visit, resulting in the Conkling and Grant forces earnestly supporting Garfield’s election.

General Grant, for the first time in his life, took the stump to aid the Garfield cause; but even after having turned the tide in favor of Garfield’s election, Conkling knew that Garfield was not a self-reliant leader, and after the appointment of Blaine to the Cabinet, with whom Conkling had no relations whatever, private or official, Conkling had little confidence in Garfield fulfilling his pledges made to the friends of Grant. The open breach came when Garfield nominated Robertson for Collector of New York. Robertson was one of the New York delegates to Chicago who voted against Grant, and was one of the most aggressive anti-Conkling men in the State. This appointment was at once charged upon Blaine, but the evidence is conclusive that it was made by Garfield alone, without even a suggestion from Blaine, who certainly did not desire to precipitate a war between the administration of which he was Premier and so formidable a political factor as Conkling. It was simply Garfield’s blunder, made in haste, and it proved very clearly that he was not equipped to meet the political exigencies which confronted him. Conkling blundered even worse than Garfield. He petulantly resigned his seat in the Senate, in which his colleague, Senator Platt (now Senator from New York), joined him, although he had served but a fraction of a year of his full term.

Conkling confidently hoped to be re-elected by the New York Legislature, and he doubtless would have succeeded had not the presiding officer of the Senate, by a very shrewd and simple parliamentary act, postponed the election a week longer than Conkling expected. That delay was fatal, and a protracted and humiliating contest was made by Conkling and Platt, each week both losing prestige and support, until finally the Republicans of the New York Legislature were compelled to cast them both aside and elect new Senators. Vice-President Arthur stood manfully abreast with Conkling, his friend, in his battle at Albany for re-election, but after the failure on the 1st ballot there never was a time when the re-election of Conkling and Platt was possible. Conkling retired from politics utterly disgusted, located in New York, where he very rapidly acquired a lucrative practice, and his tragic death from exposure in the great blizzard of 1888 ended the career of one of the ablest of the statesmen of his day.

Arthur was the fourth Vice-President who succeeded to the Presidency by the death of the President, and he was the second whose honors had come to him by the assassination of his chief. The accession of Arthur created very general distrust in both business and political circles. He was little known beyond his factional conflicts in New York, having been removed from a leading Custom House office by Secretary Sherman. That removal was sustained by the Republican Senate in defiance of the power of Conkling. It was generally assumed that the administration of Arthur, under the lead of Conkling, would be one of political vengeance, and of necessity convulse the party and end Republican power in the nation.

Business interests were disturbed because they feared that Arthur would be a political President with little exhibition of statesmanship, but Arthur rose to the full measure of his responsible duties. While he moved with great caution, to avoid a breach with his own friends, he soon offended Conkling, and gradually won the confidence and respect of the nation to an extent that few Presidents have enjoyed. The Garfield administration had been started on lines that Arthur could not follow, and the retirement of the Garfield Cabinet, with the exception of Robert T. Lincoln, then Secretary of War, was soon accomplished. The prosecution of the Star-Route Postal frauds was the one thing on which Blaine and MacVeagh, the Attorney-General, had decided to make a creditable record for the administration, and while Arthur was quite as honest as Garfield, political necessities compelled him to discourage those prosecutions. Beyond that there was not a blemish on his administration of some three years and a half. He appreciated the fact that the President should be above the rule of faction, and in that he early offended Conkling. He nominated Conkling as Supreme Judge of the United States, but Conkling peremptorily rejected it, and thenceforth the relations between Arthur and Conkling were severely strained.

Arthur was the one of the four Vice-Presidents succeeding to the Presidency who did not change the policy of the administration. He gradually won the esteem of all parties in the land by his dignity, courtesy, and manliness in every emergency that confronted him. He was one of the most genial and delightful of all the Presidents who occupied the White House, and he would doubtless have been nominated for President in 1884 but for the fact that Blaine had that honor safely mortgaged. Arthur was desirous of a nomination, but Blaine was so strong with the leaders and also with the rank and file of the party that he won an easy victory over the President.

The opposition to Arthur in the Republican convention of 1884 was not inspired by hostility to him or to his administration. It was simply the overwhelming Republican sentiment of the country that demanded Blaine as the party candidate for President. I had met President Arthur frequently during his Presidential term, although I never had any political or personal interests to serve. It was always a pleasure to call upon him and enjoy the dignified and cordial welcome he ever gave to visitors. I last saw him on the night of the Cleveland inauguration day, that closed his Presidential term. He was the guest of honor at a dinner given by Senator Cameron, and I was painfully impressed with what I then assumed to be the keen disappointment of Arthur at his retirement from the Presidency. He seemed greatly depressed in spirit and to lack his usual genial and fascinating qualities. It was not long after, however, when it became known that he had retired from the Presidential office the victim of a fatal disease, that exhausted his vitality. He lived a very quiet life, beloved by all who knew him and respected by the whole nation during the brief period between his retirement and his death.

THE CLEVELAND-BLAINE CONTEST

1884