In the Republican national convention at Chi cago, June, 1880, lie was an earnest advocate of the nomination of John Sherman of Ohio. The convention was divided between the advocates of General Grant and the opposition favoring James G. Blaine, John Sherman, and others. Garfield was not at first considered a candidate, but after more than thirty ballots without a choice, and earnest discussion in which, as well as in the advocacy of his favorite candidate, he won the admiration of delegates from all sections, he re ceived the nomination. In November he received 214 electoral votes as against 155 for his oppo nent on the Democratic ticket, Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, and was inaugurated on March 4, 1881. With the single exception of Robert T. Lincoln, Secretary of War, his Cabinet, headed by James G. Blaine, as Secretary of State, was drawn from that wing of the Republican Party of which Gar field himself was a member, and which antago nized the so-called `Stalwarts' (q.v.), among whom the Vice-President, Arthur, ranked him self. Both in public and in private, however, Gar field had signified his earnest desire to unite all factions in support of his Administration, and the people in general were disposed to trust in his promises. On March 23d the President sent in the name of William II. Robertson as his ap pointee to the office of Collector of the Port of New York. As Mr. Robertson was known to be a political enemy of Senator Conkling, the leading spirit among the 'Stalwarts,' Conkling looked upon the nomination as an affront to him self, and when he found that be could not pre vent the Senate from confirming it, he and his colleague, Thomas C. Platt, resigned their of fices (May 16th) and returned to New York to seek vindication by reelection. The New York
Legislature, however, refused to reelect either one, and after a long and tedious struggle Messrs. Lapham and Warner Miller were chosen in their stead. Meanwhile the President's nomination had been confirmed in the Senate, and the breach be tween the Stalwarts and the Administration was hopelessly widened. On July 2d Charles J. Gui teau, a man whose vanity had been offended by the refusal of an office, and whose unbalanced brain had been excited by the dissensions in the Republican Party, shot Garfield in the railway station at Washington. The crime excited the horror and execration of all parties alike; and foreign nations joined in the universal sorrow and indignation. For eighty days Garfield lin gered between life and death. Toward the end of August his medical attendants felt that his last chance of recovery depended on his removal from the malarious climate of Washington, and on September 0th he was taken by train to Elberon, N. J., where he died thirteen days later, on the 19th. His body was taken to Washington, where it lay in state September 22d-23d, and then to Cleveland, Ohio, where it was buried, Sep tember 20th. A subscription started in New York for the bereaved family soon reached the sum of $300,000. The assassin Guiteau was con victed after a protracted trial in which the only defense offered was that of insanity, and was hanged in the jail at Washington on June 30, 1882.
Many of Garfield's speeches were published at the time of their delivery, and after his death B. A. Hinsdale collected his writings and pub lished them in two volumes (Boston71882). For his biography, consult: Gilrnort (New York, 1880) ; Coffin (Boston, 1880) ; Bundy (New York, 1880) ; Mason (London, 1881) ; and Stod dard (New York, 1889).