By Edwin Cooney
The political activities of most presidential and vice presidential candidates had less of an effect in the nineteenth century than they do today. Except for lingering Civil War quarrels and resentments, there were few substantial differences between Republicans and Democrats.
As Wednesday, November 3rd, 1880 dawned on 123 Lexington Avenue, the New York City home of the Vice President-Elect, Chet Arthur had 120 days to prepare for his vice presidential responsibility of presiding over the United States Senate. President-Elect Garfield, on the other hand, faced the Herculean task of appointing a cabinet which would hopefully unite rather than divide conservative Stalwart and liberal Half-Breed sections of his party. Two men who were not on the November ballot were James G. Blaine of Maine and Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York, the recognized leaders of these party factions. Blaine would become Secretary of State in the Garfield cabinet. Senator Conkling, Chet Arthur’s friend and ally, would give President Garfield a monumental political migraine throughout the first four months of his administration. Secretary Blaine would be the president’s trustworthy friend and political ally.
In public, Chet Arthur was, as he had been throughout his career, affable, polished in his behavior and courteous to everyone who came in contact with him. However, from the very outset it was obvious that high office had not altered Arthur’s behavior in politics. As 1881 began, the vice president-elect was in Albany, New York doing all he could to make his friend Richard Crowley, of Lockport, New York, a United States senator. In the wake of Crowley’s loss to Thomas Platt, a Republican testimonial dinner for GOP Arkansas Senator Steven W. Dorsey was held. The dinner, at Delmonico’s in New York City, honored Dorsey for his successful management of the election in Indiana. As treasurer of the Republican National Committee, Dorsey had been given the job of engineering Republican efforts in Indiana during the late campaign. He had been successful in bringing the Hoosier state into the GOP column.
Seated at the head table with former President Grant on his immediate right and the lauded Dorsey immediately to Grant’s right, Arthur thrilled the 400 guests by acknowledging that Republicans had utilized special “secrets” to bring about a favorable result. Avoiding specifics, Arthur merely paused as he addressed knowledge of that “secret” as his audience laughingly asserted what that secret must have been. The code word for money in GOP secret communications had been “soap.” Thus, everyone knew what GOP special tactics and secrets amounted to during Arthur’s pregnant pauses. “Soap! Soap! Soap!” chanted that well-healed GOP audience as the vice president-elect smiled knowingly throughout his remarks and reporters looked on. By Friday, March 4th, 1881, Garfield’s and Arthur’s Inauguration Day, much of the nation regarded their 51-year-old vice president as the politician he truly was.
As Chet Arthur took his place as presiding officer of the U.S. Senate, there were 37 Republicans and 37 Democrats plus two independents holding office in that “most deliberative body.” The two independents split their loyalties between the two parties thereby increasing the vice president’s potential power. Thus, in the event of a tie, Arthur had the deciding vote. Within weeks of the inauguration, the old struggle for control of the New York Republican Party (which just three years earlier had cost Arthur his job and tarnished Senator Conkling’s pride) was freshly renewed. In mid March, Conkling, summoned to the White House by the president, was informed that five of his favorites would be appointed attorneys, marshals and collector of Buffalo. When Conkling inquired about the Collectorship of the Port of New York, the president urged him to leave the subject alone just then. However, the following day when Vice President Arthur was handed a list of presidential appointments while presiding, he discovered the name of William Robertson of Jamestown, New York to be the president’s choice to be Collector of the Port of New York. Robertson was a bitter enemy of Conkling’s and an ally of Secretary Blaine. As Commerce Committee chairman, Conkling was determined to block Robertson’s nomination. Throughout March, April and early May, there were efforts to talk the president out of the Robertson nomination. On Wednesday, April 14th, Vice President Arthur, in a long meeting with the president, urged him to withdraw the Robertson nomination and appoint Robertson to another position in New York State. The president politely but firmly refused.
Conkling asserted in a speech before his colleagues on the senate commerce committee that he had a document that would cause the president “to bite the dust.” While he insisted he prayed to God he wouldn’t have to release it, he said he would do so if necessary in defense of his stance against the president’s appointment of Robertson. When informed of Conkling’s threat, Garfield, after only a short pause, released a copy of the letter itself. All it turned out to be was a casual inquiry during the previous campaign about the political fortunes of Thomas Brady who was being investigated for his part in a national scandal. By mid May, it was clear that Conkling was going to lose to Garfield as he had to Hayes. As he saw it, the only way Conkling could regain his authority would be to win immediate re-election by the New York State Legislature. Thus, on Monday, May 16th, 1881, Roscoe Conkling and his New York Senate colleague, the newly elected Thomas Platt, resigned their U.S. Senate seats. Thus, the Republicans automatically lost their senate majority. With Conkling and Platt gone, the senate confirmed Robertson two days later. As things stood, if the senate organized under the Democrats with their new majority, a Democrat rather than a Republican would be president of the senate and in line for the presidency behind Arthur himself. Hence, Conkling and Platt went back to Albany followed by the vice president. From Tuesday May 31st through Friday, July 1st, the two former senators sought re-election with Arthur’s aid. Late in the effort, Thomas Platt was discovered living with a woman who wasn’t his wife. Therefore, as Roscoe Conkling and Chester Alan Arthur headed to New York City from Albany on the morning of Saturday, July 2nd, 1881, Conkling was the only one still scheming to retain his seat in the United States Senate.
Upon their arrival in New York, they learned that at approximately nine-thirty that morning, President Garfield had been shot as he strolled through the Baltimore and Union railroad station arm-in-arm with Secretary Blaine. A shabbily dressed little man named Charles Giteau had fired twice at the president. The first bullet grazed the president’s arm, but the second bullet lodged in his back near his spinal column. Even worse, Giteau had declared “I am a Stalwart of Stalwarts. Now, Arthur is president.” Horrified by the president’s fate and alarmed about his own, Chet Arthur was to be quite a different man politically if not personally.
Urged by Secretary of State Blaine to come to Washington, Arthur visited the White House a week later. Although he apparently didn’t see the president, he did visit Lucritia Garfield. By then, it was pretty clear that Charles Giteau was not part of a conspiracy as some had speculated. Neither Arthur nor Conkling’s personal and political opponents, however they felt about either man, suspected them of plotting against President Garfield. As the president’s health appeared to improve in mid July, Chet Arthur asserted, “The better the president feels, the better I feel.”
James A. Garfield, who was once a vigorous man with Lincolnesque muscles and who also possessed the intellectual capacities Jefferson, both Adams and Lincoln, spent 79 days in terrible agony. Each time he rallied, his doctors would probe his wound with unsanitary fingers. The weather in Washington was tropical and several tons of ice were shipped in to keep the president somewhat cool under fans. At one point, Alexander Graham Bell, who had invented a Geiger counter, visited the president to see if the bullet could be detected, but he was unsuccessful. By September 1st, new infections had set in and parts of the president’s face were actually rotting away.
Meanwhile, the vice president remained in seclusion at 123 Lexington Avenue. Periodically, contemplating the possibility that he might become president, he’d burst into tears. As for Conkling, by late July it became clear that he could not retain his senate seat. Thus, the New York State legislature elected one Half-Breed congressman, Warner Miller, and one Stalwart Congressman, Elbridge Lapham, to the two United States Senate seats originally held by Conkling and Platt. Miller would fill Platt’s term while Lapham would hold Conkling’s seat.
At 10:35 on the night of September 19th, 1881, James Abram Garfield breathed his last. The president died at Elberon, New Jersey where Mrs. Garfield had gone earlier in the year to recover from malaria and where the president had been moved on September 1st with the hope that the fresh salt sea air would cure him. Only a short time before, he had spoken his last words to David H. Swaim, his Chief of Staff, “Oh Swaim,” gasped the president “can’t you do anything about this pain? “Oh, Swaim!”
It was 11:30 pm in New York when Vice President Arthur received the word from a messenger that President Garfield had passed away.
President Arthur was sworn in by New York State Judge John R. Brady at 2:15 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, September 20th, 1881.
All of President Garfield’s ordeals were over. President Arthur’s ordeals were about to begin.
To be continued.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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