US Presidents For Dummies

by Marcus Stadelmann

  After serving out his second term, Grant took his wife on a two-year trip around the world. He briefly considered becoming the candidate for the Republican ticket in 1880, but he didn’t receive enough support. So he retired from politics.

  He suddenly discovered that he was broke. He had allowed his son to invest his money, and when the investments turned sour, Grant was left penniless. To make some money, he wrote his memoirs.

  He finished his autobiography a week before he died from throat cancer on July 23, 1885 (at times, he smoked more than 20 cigars a day). His book became one of the finest accounts of the Civil War.

  Mark Twain helped the Grants by pledging 75 percent of the royalties from his book, Personal Memoirs, to the Grant family. Grant’s widow, Julia, received over $500,000 from Twain’s pledge.

  Corruption Leads to an Uncorrupt President: Rutherford Birchard Hayes

  Rutherford B. Hayes was one of the most honest men ever to inhabit the White House, but he was elected under a dark cloud. He was the first president to lose the presidential race and win office through massive electoral fraud. As president, Hayes fought corruption. But his most notable achievement was ending Reconstruction.

  He planned to serve just one term as president because he believed it would give him the freedom to pursue policies that he thought were right. He was willing to pursue these policies, even if it meant offending his own party and the U.S. electorate.

  Hayes’s early career

  The controversy over slavery brought Hayes into politics. His wife was a strong Republican who opposed slavery. Hayes shared some of her views, so he joined her political party. In 1858, he became the city solicitor for Cincinnati. Shortly thereafter, the Civil War broke out.

  Hayes volunteered and became a major in the Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He didn’t want to do legal work for the military, so he requested to see action on the battlefield, where he was soon promoted to colonel.

  Hayes’s men loved him because he didn’t stay behind — in a battle, Hayes would always charge first. During the next four years, Hayes was wounded four times, and he had his horse shot from under him on several occasions. One of his subordinates, future president William McKinley, said of Hayes: “His whole nature seemed to change when in battle. . . . He was, when the battle was once on . . . intense and ferocious.”

  Just another lawyer

  Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Ohio in 1822. His father died two months before his birth. His uncle took over, providing young Rutherford with an education. Rutherford went to private schools and then attended Kenyon College in Ohio. In 1843, he entered Harvard law school. He graduated and received his law license in 1845.

  Hayes didn’t like working as a lawyer, so he slacked off quite a bit to pursue his hobbies, especially the study of the natural sciences. He changed these habits when he opened a new law practice in Cincinnati in 1850 and became a famous criminal lawyer.

  In 1852, he married his high school sweetheart, Lucy Ware Webb — when she became the first lady, she was the first to have a college degree. They had a wonderful marriage until her death in 1889.

  Hayes’s exploits became legendary. The Republican Party decided that he was a great candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives. Hayes, still fighting in the Civil War, was urged by his friends to return home to campaign. Hayes refused and won the seat in 1864 without ever campaigning. Hayes, in response to the urging from his friends, said, “An officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress ought to be scalped.”

  Governing Ohio

  Hayes entered Congress in 1865 and supported a tough stance on Reconstruc-tion (for more on Reconstruction, see the section, “From Poverty to the Presidency: Andrew Johnson,” earlier in this chapter). He didn’t have time to accomplish much in Congress because, in 1868, the Republican Party asked him to run for governor of Ohio. Hayes accepted and won the governorship.

  Hayes’s administration in Ohio foreshadowed his presidency. He eliminated corruption and appointed state officials based on merit, not personal or party ties. He also founded Ohio State University. Throughout his life, Hayes was interested in education. He attempted to provide public education to as many students as possible — especially the poor.

  Hayes ran for Congress again in 1871 and lost. Undeterred, he ran for a third gubernatorial term in Ohio in 1875 and defeated the popular incumbent Democratic governor. Suddenly the Republican Party looked at him as a possible presidential nominee.

  President Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1877–1881)

  Rutherford Hayes, shown in Figure 11-3, wasn’t the frontrunner for the 1876 Republican presidential nomination. However, after all the scandals in the Grant administration, the Republican Party decided that they needed a “Mr. Clean” candidate — someone who fought corruption and was not implicated in any scandals.

  Figure 11-3: Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th president of the United States.

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress

  The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, James Blaine of Maine, was the frontrunner for the presidential nomination. However, a special committee in Congress charged him with corruption shortly before the convention. So the delegates turned to Hayes instead.

  The election turned out to be the most controversial election in U.S. history (until the 2000 election). The Democratic nominee, Samuel Tilden, the governor of New York, won the popular vote by more than 200,000 votes. In the Electoral College, Tilden appeared to have won 203 electoral votes to Hayes’s 166.

  Although all results showed that Tilden had won, the Republican Party disputed the outcome of the election. It claimed that blacks had been denied the right to vote in many parts of the South, especially in South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. The election officials refused to accredit the Democratic electors in these three states. The officials instead had the three states give their electoral votes to Hayes. Now the election was tied, with each candidate receiving 184 electoral votes. Interestingly, Republican officials toured the three states and paid for recounts, or a second count of the votes, in many counties.

  Not surprisingly, chaos ensued in the capital. The Democrats controlled the House, and the Republicans controlled the Senate. The Republican Party knew that if the election went to the House, they would lose. So they recommended a bipartisan commission to study the election and certify the results. The Republicans arranged it so that the commission would ensure a victory for Hayes.

  The Democrats were furious at the machinations of the Electoral Commission and refused to attend the inauguration. The inauguration was held in secret because the Republicans feared for Hayes’s life. Hayes received the title, “His Fraudulency.”

  Stacking an electoral commission

  The Electoral Commission of 1877 consisted of 15 members — 5 from the House, 5 from the Senate, and 5 from the Supreme Court. Seven members were Democrats and seven were Republicans. The final and decisive member was Supreme Court Justice David Davis, an Independent.

  Supreme Court Justice Davis became a U.S. senator for the state of Illinois shortly before the Electoral Commission was to meet. Another “Republican” justice stepped into his place. After an 8 to 7 victory from the Electoral Commission, Hayes received all of the disputed votes and became the next president of the United States.

  Ending Reconstruction

  To secure the promise of the Southern states not to challenge the Electoral Commission’s ruling, the Republicans promised to end Reconstruction, appoint one Southerner to the new cabinet, and appropriate federal money to rebuild the South. President Hayes came through on the Republican’s promise after he assumed office.

  In 1877, Hayes pulled out the last Northern troops from South Carolina and Louisiana, ending Reconstruction. The Democratic Party reasserted itself and went on to control Southern politics for almost a century. The process of segregating blacks from society also started during this time. Blacks were routinely denied their civ
il rights, especially the right to vote.

  Fighting corruption and inflation

  President Hayes went after corruption as soon as he assumed the office of president. He ignored the spoils system, which handed out federal jobs based on party or family ties. He appointed the most qualified people to the positions in his administration. He further issued an executive degree, making it illegal for federal workers to work for political parties and for parties to solicit money from federal employees. The decision alienated many in both parties. In New York City, Hayes broke up a ring of federal employees working for the Republican Party. He dismissed many of the federal employees, including future president Chester A. Arthur.

  Keeping his word and retiring

  In 1881, Hayes kept his word and did not to run for reelection. The decision seems to have been a good one. Because he alienated Republicans and Democrats alike during his presidency, he very likely would not have received the Republican nomination anyway.

  Hayes retired to his estate in Ohio and became supportive of public education — especially for the poor in the South. He died of a heart attack in 1893, four years after his beloved wife Lucy passed away. President Hayes’s last words were “I know I am going where Lucy is.”

  The spoils system

  The spoils system is based on the concept of patronage, handing out government jobs based on party ties. The idea behind the spoils system was that all federal jobs belonged to the party in power and could be freely handed out to party supporters.

  Andrew Jackson was the first U.S. president to widely use the spoils system extensively, and he set the tone for subsequent presidents. Following Jackson, almost all federal appointments were based on party ties. The spoils system survived until the Wilson administration (1913 to 1921), when the Civil Service Reform Act outlawed the practice.

  Chapter 12

  Closing Out the Century: Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison

  In This Chapter

  Being assassinated: Garfield

  Overcoming the odds: Arthur

  Serving two nonconsecutive terms: Cleveland

  Following in his grandfather’s footsteps: Harrison

  T his chapter covers the last four presidents of the 19th century. All of them concerned themselves with fighting the spoils system and protecting the U.S. public from the excesses of big business. These presidents started the practice of government interference in the U.S. economy, which is still a common practice today. All four of these presidents, three Republicans and one Democrat, were honest, hardworking men who did their best to propel the United States into the 20th century. For this accomplishment they deserve credit, even though none of them ranks among the great presidents in U.S. history.

  A Promising President is Assassinated: James Abram Garfield

  James Garfield, shown in Figure 12-1, has the distinction of being the second president to be assassinated (Lincoln was the first in 1865). He served only six months in office, four of them on his deathbed.

  Figure 12-1: James A. Garfield, 20th president of the United States.

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress

  Had he lived long enough to finish his term as president, Garfield likely would have implemented major reforms while battling the spoils system and corruption in the federal government. It would be unfair to rate him — considering that he had only two active months in office. However, judging from his long political career, Garfield would have been one of America’s better presidents. Too bad he didn’t have a chance to show his abilities.

  Garfield’s early political career

  Slavery helped Garfield get involved in politics. In 1856, he campaigned for the Republican nominee for president, John Frémont, who shared his views on slavery. Both Garfield and Frémont opposed slavery. In 1859, Garfield ran for a seat in the Ohio state senate and won easily.

  Garfield studied law part-time while serving in the state senate. He became a lawyer in 1861, just as the Civil War broke out. He volunteered for the military and set up the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Garfield fought bravely in Kentucky and in the battle of Shiloh. By 1863, he was a major general.

  In 1862, the people of Ohio elected James Garfield to the U.S. House of Representatives. Garfield, who was still fighting the war, refused to leave to take his seat. Only after President Lincoln personally urged him to serve in Congress did Garfield resign his military commission.

  For the next 16 years, Garfield served in the House of Representatives. He joined the Radical Republicans, calling for harsh punishment of the Confederacy and the right to vote for blacks. He also backed the impeachment of President Johnson. By 1876, Garfield was the leader of the Republican Party in the House. He achieved the position even though he was implicated in a bribery scandal. Garfield took $5,000 from a paving contractor in Washington, D.C. while he was chair of the Appropriations Committee, a group that handed out contracts for public works, such as paving streets.

  James Garfield served as one of the Republican delegates on the Election Commission of 1877, which handed the election to Rutherford Hayes (see Chapter 11).

  President James Abram Garfield (1881–1881)

  Garfield was a Republican senator from Ohio in 1880 when the Republican Party split into two camps, the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds. The two factions disagreed on the issue of patronage, the practice of handing out federal jobs to party loyalists and friends. Both groups supported patronage but disagreed over how the jobs should be handed out.

  The Stalwarts backed former President Grant for the presidential nomination. The Half-Breeds favored former Speaker of the House, James Blaine. Garfield supported a third candidate, John Sherman, who was the secretary of the treasury and a fellow Ohioan. Garfield made a passionate speech for Sherman at the presidential convention. The delegates liked Garfield’s speech so much that they turned to him as a compromise candidate. Even then, it was six days before he became the Republican nominee for the presidency.

  In the November elections, Garfield faced off against Democrat Major General Winfield S. Hancock. Although they disagreed on the issue of tariffs, the two candidates advocated the same policies in all other areas. When the results came in, Garfield had narrowly won the popular vote (by less than 10,000 votes out of over 9 million cast), but he carried the electoral vote 214 to 155.

  Being assassinated

  On July 2, 1881, President Garfield was waiting for his train at the Potomac and Baltimore railroad station on his way to New England, when Charles J. Guiteau, a deranged religious fanatic, shot him twice. One bullet hit the President’s arm and the other went into his back, but neither bullet killed him: Garfield’s doctors did that. While looking for the bullet in Garfield’s back, the doctors turned a three-inch wound into a 20-inch wound, puncturing his liver in the process. The wound became infected, and Garfield died on September 19, 1881.

  Garfield’s assassin had asked to be named consul to Paris but was turned down by Republican leaders. Guiteau was angry, as well as quite mad. He believed that God told him to assassinate the president to save the country and the Republican Party. The federal government hanged Guiteau in 1882.

  President Garfield’s deathbed quote: “He must have been crazy. None but an insane person could have done such a thing. What could he have wanted to shoot me for?”

  The last log cabin president

  James Garfield was the last U.S. president born in a log cabin. Born in 1831 in rural Ohio, Garfield lost his father when he was just two years old. Young Garfield spent his early years laboring on the family farm until he got a job on a canal boat when he was 16.

  Garfield’s mother persuaded him to go to school, so he enrolled in what today is Hiram College in Ohio, affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. He excelled in classical languages and became an accomplished speaker and preacher — talents that came in handy during his political career.

  In 1854, Garfield, who was teaching on the side, had enough money to enroll in Williams College i
n Massachusetts, where he continued his study of classical languages. After he graduated, he returned to Hiram College as a professor of foreign languages and became the school’s president.

  In 1858, Garfield married Lucretia Rudolph, who shared his religious faith. One of Garfield’s sons, James Rudolph Garfield, served in Theodore Roosevelt’s administration as secretary of the interior.

  The Unexpected President: Chester Alan Arthur

  Nobody thought that Chester Arthur, shown in Figure 12-2, would ever become president, including him. Everybody expected Arthur to fail miserably and preside over a corrupt administration. He was a Republican Party loyalist who had received his political jobs based on his party loyalty.

  To everybody’s surprise, Arthur abandoned the spoils system, whereby those faithful to the party are rewarded with positions in the government, and enacted the first true civil service reform act during his administration. He became the father of the U.S. navy and was a visionary in foreign affairs. Despite expectations, Arthur turned out to be one of the better presidents of the late 19th century.

  Figure 12-2: Chester A. Arthur, 21st president of the United States.