His administration was
noteworthy principally because he destroyed the last vestiges of
carpet-bag government in the South, and left the southern states to work
out their own destiny unhampered. He was not even considered for a
renomination, and spent the remainder of his life quietly in his Ohio
home.
Hayes's successor was another so-called "dark horse," that is, a man of
minor importance, whose nomination, was due to the fact that the party
leaders could not agree upon any of the more prominent candidates. They
were Grant, Blaine and John Sherman, and after thirty-five ballots, it
was evident that a "dark horse" must be found. The choice fell upon
James Abram Garfield, who was not prominent enough to have made any
enemies, and who was as astonished as was the country at large when it
heard the news.
Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831, in a little log cabin and to a
position in the world not greatly different to Lincoln's. While laboring
at various rough trades, he succeeded in preparing himself for college,
worked his way through, got into politics, served through the Civil War,
and later for eighteen years in Congress, where he made a creditable but
by no means brilliant record. He was elected President by a small
majority, and enraged the many enemies of James G. Blaine by selecting
that astute politician as his secretary of state.
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