HAYES'S POSITION 703 less than 10,000 in the popular vote showed that the election was really very close. The republicans also carried the house of representatives, where they had 150 members to 131 democrats and 12 greenbackers. In the senate they had 37, the democrats a like number, and the balance was held by two independents, Davis, of Illinois, and Mahone, of Virginia. In the election of 1880 Hayes took no part. He was out of step with his party, and awaited retirement with a quiet dignity which brought him much sympathy. His successor would have Political a better party following, but it was pleasant to reflect that Shifting he would not abandon the reforms for which Hayes steadily Currents. contended. The administration just closing was, in fact, an important period in which politics shifted from an old to a new basis. It marked the end of reconstruction and the beginning of an era in which the people showed a determination to control their own rulers, to eliminate abuse, and to make democracy a greater reality. Had he been a more practical statesman the break with the past could not have been so sharp, and the keynote of the future would not have been so clearly sounded. President Hayes gained much from the admirable bearing of his wife, who illustrated the highest qualities of American womanhood. Grant's free and easy ways introduced into the White Mrs. Hayes. House something of the atmosphere of the camp. Mrs. Hayes's sense of purity and simple comfort made it as clean as a New England manse. She considered it her home rather than an official residence. The politicians in Washington were aghast when she decided not to serve wine at the president's table. Secretary Evarts refused to attend, and the usual diplomatic dinners were suspended. The Temperance Women of America showed their admiration by placing her portrait in the executive mansion, and fair public opinion admired the manner in which she asserted her position in her own family. GARFIELD'S SHORT PRESIDENCY The announcement of a cabinet brought trouble, chiefly of Conkling's making. Blaine, of Maine, was secretary of state, William Windom, of Minnesota, secretary of the treasury, Robert The Cabinet. T. Lincoln, of Illinois, secretary of war, William H. Hunt, of Louisiana, secretary of the navy, Wayne MacVeagh, of Pennsylvania, attorney-general, Thomas L. James, of New York, postmastergeneral, and Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, secretary of the interior. Conkling resented Blaine's prominence in the group, fearing his influence with Garfield was paramount, and considering the low rank of New York in the cabinet a token that his own influence was neutralized by his rival. He was slightly appeased when his supporter, Resignation Levi P. Morton, was made minister to France, but this was overcome by the news that Robertson, an anti-Conkling man, was to be head of the New York customhouse. He now became an avowed of Conkling. opponent of the administration and published a letter showing that Garfield, whose inaugural address gave support to civil service reform, had in the preceding campaign countenanced campaign contributions from officeholders. He then took his quarrel to the senate, where the democrats and the republicans had equal numbers, with two independents who refused to vote on party matters. Two months passed in vain attempts to organize the body, when a truce was made to allow the confirmation of the president's nominations. Conkling was thought to have planned to have the senate adjourn as soon as his own friends were confirmed; and Garfield tried to block this by sending in first the nomination of Robertson. Its approval was the occasion of a great battle, in which the New York senator was defeated. Seeing failure before him, Conkling and his colleague, T. C. Platt, resigned their seats, hoping for an immediate reëlection by the New York legislature. They lost their calculation. The legislature, tired of the strife, sent other men to Washington. Platt was a young man and eventually recovered his feet. Three years later he was at peace with Blaine; Conkling retired to private life. He had great mental and practical ability, but he was arrogant, intolerant, and uncompromising. Had he remained in the senate he would have made life uncomfortable for the president and the secretary of state. The Garfield yielded enough to the demand for reform to appoint as postmaster-general, James, who had applied the merit system in the New York post office. James soon began to investigate the contracts to carry the mail over the "star routes," as certain routes in parts of the West were called in the department. It appeared that Brady, second assistant postmaster-general under Hayes, and Senator Dorsey, of Arkansas, had conspired with mail contractors of this class to defraud the government through extravagant prices or the multiplication of useless services. Indictments were secured, and the trials became one of the great events of the year. The defendants were actively aided by many of the leading "machine" politicians of the republican party. Brady at last threatened to produce evidence against Garfield if the prosecution was not dropped. No relief coming, he published a letter from Garfield to "My dear Hubbell," chairman of the republican congressional campaign committee in 1880, condoning the habit of levying contributions for campaign purposes on the salaries of government employees. As this was one of the worst abuses of the spoils system, it discredited Garfield's open protestations of friendship for reform. The proof of fraud in the star-route cases seems overwhelming, but the important defendants managed to wriggle through PRESIDENT ARTHUR 705 the clutches of the law. Public disgust was great, and the opinion was strengthened that the country needed a reformer. Death of Before this feeling went far the president, on July 2, 1881, was shot down in a Washington railway station. The assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, cried out that he was a "stalwart" and that Arthur would now be president. He was executed for the crime, but his mind was probably unbalanced by the bitterness of party strife in which he steeped it. The victim of his madness lingered through the summer between life and death, and died September 19. His fortitude and gentleness in suffering won all hearts, and in the shadow of the national sorrow political asperities softened. So sober a paper as the Nation showed the change in sentiment. In May it pronounced the letter to Hubbell "a painful surprise"; in September it said of the deceased, "He will always remain one of the saints of American story, without a spot on the whiteness of his garments." President When Arthur became president the Conkling quarrel was still in an active condition. He showed his interest in it by going to Albany in May to secure his patron's reëlection to the United States senate. It was considered an unworthy thing for Arthur. a vice-president to stoop to such work, and the prospect of Arthur's elevation alarmed many people. But the shock of the tragedy deeply impressed the vice-president. He dropped the rôle of the politician and revealed unsuspected dignity and good sense. Through the same sobering agency the people were prepared to accord him a fair trial in the high office he now assumed. At the end of three years he retired with the respect of the nation and the esteem of his party. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE For general works see: Sparks, National Development (1907); Andrews, The United States in our Own Time (1903); Wilson, History of the American People, 5 vols. (1902); The Cambridge Modern History, Vol. VII (1903); Stanwood, History of the Presidency (1898); and Woodburn, American Political History, 17761876 (1906), republishes articles by Alexander Johnston in Lalor, Cyclopedia of Political Science, still useful since some of the phases of previous history are carried over into Hayes's administration. The important sources are: Congressional Record, for debates in congress; McPherson, Hand-Book of Politics (1878, 1880, and 1882), contains votes in congress; Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 10 vols. (1896-1899); MacDonald, Select Statutes (1903); Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia, new series; and the various almanacs, as the World's Almanac, and the American Almanac. The legislative reports for the period are abundant, for which see Poore, Descriptive Catalogue of Government Publications to 1881 and the Annotated Index to the Public Documents (1902). For biographies and works of leading men see: Keeler, Rutherford B. Hayes (1910); Gilmore, Life of Garfield (1880), the best of the campaign lives; Bigelow, Life of Tilden, 2 vols. (1896); Ibid., ed., Letters of Tilden, 2 vols. (1908); Boutwell, Reminiscences of Sixty Years (1902); Hoar, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1903); Andrew D. White, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1905); Hamilton [Dodge], Life of James G. Blaine (1895); Stanwood, James G. Blaine (1906); Sherman, Recollections of Forty Years, 2 vols. (1897); The Sherman Letters (ed. 1894); Burton, John Sherman (1906); Mayes, Lucius Q. C. Lamar (1896); Hinsdale, Works of James A. Garfield (1882); Ibid., President Garfield and Education (1882); Balch, Life of Garfield (1881), uncritical; Conkling, Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling (1889); Ogden, Life and Letters of E. L. Godkin, 2 vols. (1907); Wilson, Life of C. A. Dana (1907); Autobiography of T. C. Platt (1910); Coolidge, Orville H. Platt (1910); Cary, George W. Curtis (1900); and Bancroft and Dunning, Carl Schurz's Public Career, (in Schurz, Reminiscences, vol. III, 1909). For Independent Reading Sparks, National Development (1907); Blaine, Twenty Years of Congress, 2 vols. (1884-1886); Hoar, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1903); Andrew D. White, Autobiography, 2 vols. (1905); and Burton, John Sherman (1906). CHAPTER XXXIV POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC REFORM, 1881-1893 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM the Civil Service. THE most glaring political abuse of the day was the spoils system. Scandals occasionally appeared in the higher offices, but in the vast army of clerks and postmasters office was a reward for electioneering, and officeholders paid campaign contribu- Condition of tions for fear of losing their appointments. As a result the service was filled with inefficient clerks, and the appeal to the voters was on the lowest level. The type of politician whom this system developed was apt to be defiant of public opinion. It was felt that the beginning of reform was the adoption of some sort of merit system in appointments. American sentiment was influenced by the progress of a similar movement in England, where in 1853 Charles E. Trevelyan and Sir Stafford H. Northcote reported a plan for reforming the civil service. They recommended a system of competitive examinations, but for some years various things united to prevent its adoption. First Efforts in Congress. One of the Americans most in touch with British affairs was Charles Sumner. He was interested in the work of Trevelyan and Northcote, and in 1864 introduced a bill in the senate to apply competitive principles to appointments in America. The bill attracted much attention, but reconstruction soon engaged Sumner's attention, and he did not press the matter. It was taken up by Thomas Jenckes, a representative from Rhode Island. His first bill was lost, 1865; but he got a committee created to investigate the situation, and himself became the chairman. Its report, May 25, 1868, described the systems in force in England, France, Prussia, and China and contained a bill creating a competitive system. Congress paid no heed and Jenckes turned to the people, where he found supporters, prominent among them being Carl Schurz, William Cullen Bryant, and George William Curtis. Grant himself, a candidate for the presidency, declared for the reform. He redeemed his promise in his second annual message, and several bills were introduced, none of which could pass. The spoils system was too intimately grafted on the political life of the day to be abandoned by congress until a vast amount of public opinion was created on the subject. |