ELECTION #24, 1880. The NASTY-METER is 3.

QUOTE from James Garfield on his deathbed: "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?"

Under Rutherford Hayes, America entered the very heart of what Mark Twain dubbed the Gilded Age. A huge economic expansion was led by robber barons (er, industrialists) - like Andrew Carnegie, John Rockefeller, John Jacob Aster, Jay Gould , and Cyprus W. Field. The rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the disenfranchised were more disenfranchised.

In his four years as president Hayes had become unpopular with his own Republican Party. They were upset because he was hamstrung by the promises he'd made to the Democrats in order to steal the presidency in 1876. He'd withdrawn Union troops from the South, given important positions to Southern Democrats, and approved money for Southern pork barrels. So the Republican Party was split when they had their convention in Chicago in June, 1880. So Hayes decided not to run for reelction in 1880.

The CANDIDATES in 1880.

REPUBLICAN: JAMES A. GARFIELD.

By 1880 the Republican Party had split into two groups: One group was called the "Stalwarts"- they were the old-line Party members loyal to Ulysses S. Grant; the other group was the "Half-Breeds" - they were the moderates who wanted reform in the party and wanted nothing to do with four more years of the scandulous Grant and his crooked cronies. The Stalwarts put Grant's name on the floor to be nominated and the Half-Breeds put Maine Senator James G. Blaine's name on the floor. After a record-setting 36 ballots (still a record) nobody had won so James Garfield was put on the floor as a compromise candidate. Garfield had been a major general in the Civil War, member of the House and a Senator from Ohio. He won and Chester Arthur, a New York City party boss, was named his VP teammate. Garfield was low-key and likeable and was the last candidate to be born in a log cabin.

DEMOCRATS: WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK.

Hancock was a former Civil War hero and military governor. He was a good man and a big man. But he had never held public office or even dabbled in politics. His VP partner was William H. English. a banker from Indiana.

The CAMPAIGN in 1880.

As the U.S. was heading to the 20th century the country faced pressing issues: the need for child labor laws and an eight hour work day, the plight of blacks, the rights of women, and a graduated federal income tax. The platforms of both parties ignored these issues, instead they emphasized civil service reform, opposed aid to parochial schools, and called for curtailing Chinese immigration - "an evil of great magnitude," claimed the Republicans.
The Democrats tried, unsuccessfully, to tie Garfield to the scandals in the Grant administration. The Republicans said to have Hancock as president would be crazy. A Republican newspaper wrote that for the Democrats to nominate Hancock "no more changes the character of the Democrats than a figurehead of the Virgin Mary on Captain Kidd's pirate ship."
Both states realized they had to carry Indiana for the large number of electoral votes. So both parties resorted to "Soap" or "Soapy Sam" which were 1880s slang for cash passed out to voters to encourage them to vote for the right candidate. Soaping palms had been the custom in American elections for years, but money exchanged hands in an unprecedented fashion during the Garfield-Hancock contest. Being William English, the Democratic VP candidate, was from Indiana the Republicans were terrified that the state would go for Hancock. So they sprang into action. Garfield and VP candidate Chester Arthur urgently requested cash from their Wall Street connections, and a silver-tongued bagman named Stepehn Dorsey was sent to Indiana carrying, by some accounts, as much as $400,000 in two-dollar bills. Soapy Sam had come to the rescue.
The Democrats tried "Soapy Sam" also, but they didn't have Wall Street connections and were not nearly as successful. The Democrats biggest dirty trick consisted of sending in "repeaters" or "floaters" from outside Indiana to vote in different precincts.
Since 1860 the Republicans had controlled the U.S. government. In New York just about every state and civil-service worker owed their job to the Republican bosses. What was the going rate to keep their jobs? Well, in 1876 it had been 2% of annual salary. But VP candidate, Chester Arthur, a New York political boss, upped it 3%, delivering hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Republican treasure chest.

The WINNER was JAMES GARFIELD and became the 20th president of the U.S.

Garfield got 4,446,158 popular votes and 214 electoral votes.
Hancock got 4,444,260 popular and 155 electoral.

The race was close - only 10,000 votes separated them. In the end, Soapy Sam had carried Indiana for Republican James Garfield. Unfortunately, Garfield would be shot three months later (July 2nd) by a disgruntled office seeker. He was shot in the arm and back but neither killed him - his doctors killed him. While trying to extract the bullet his doctors turned a three-inch wound into a 20-inch wound, puncturing his liver. The wound became infected, and Garfield died on September 19, 1881. (He would easily have survived today.)
VP Chester Arthur then became our 21st president.