A History of Political Violence
What will be the Destiny of our Republic?
The year was 1881, the country was still divided by north and south. The Democratic Party and the south were in shambles, reconstruction ended early and the old power in the south was still focused on race. The Republican Party a patchwork of factions created to stop the spread of Slavery, was corrupted by corporations during the civil war and the gilded age that followed. Republicans united to punish the south ensuring their power for the future. From 1869 to 1913 Republicans held the White House 36 out of 44 years. During this time a small faction of Republicans used their wealth and power to manipulate the system to keep their power and increase their wealth. The system was called the Spoils System and one of its biggest defenders was Roscoe Conkling.
Conkling was a Republican Senator from New York, who helped craft the 14th amendment but he was far from a civil rights hero. He argued the intent of the 14th Amendment was also to recognize corporate rights. He manipulated something written to help people who had been oppressed and he used it to help himself and others get rich. He turned down a seat on the Supreme Court twice. He was an ambitious man but he served himself. As leader of the New York Custom House, Conkling was a member of the Stalwarts faction, and he used his power to serve himself and faction and not the people of the state. The Stalwarts believed they had the right to control the civil service jobs if they won power, work for the party and the party would reward you with a good job and opportunity. They taught people to be loyal to something other than the country, they taught them to be loyal to the party, and they taught them the party had power it didn’t have. Conkling and the Stalwarts lied to the American people.
James Garfield was part of the Half-Breeds faction and was elected to reform the system. Garfield was a kind, empathetic, patient leader who had the trust of the nation. A dark horse candidate who was brought forth to mend the broken factions of the party and to put it on the right path. The story of Garfields’s convention victory is a master class in how to use the republican government power structure to enact change quickly and to right past mistakes. Once in office, Garfield immediately took on the Stalwarts by removing Conkling from the Custom House job, Conkling resigned his Senate seat in protest thinking he would get his job back. He didn’t. Meanwhile Charles Guiteau was in search of a consulship to Paris.
Charles Guiteau was a loner, failed minister and an abusive husband. He was disconnected from society, so much so that his own family tried to have him committed. He survived the Stonington steamboat crash and it left him feeling destined. Those feelings led him to help the Stalwarts during the election of James Garfield. Vice President Chester A. Arthur (a Stalwart) saw Guiteau at least 10 times on the campaign trail. When Garfield won, Guiteau, a Conkling and Stalwart supporter thought he was owed a job. “To the victor belong the spoils.” Garfield wasn’t giving out civil service jobs based on party loyalty but that didn’t stop Guiteau from trying. He would show up at the White House over and over again searching for a job, Secretary of State James G. Blaine once snapped at him “Never speak to me again on the Paris consulship as long as you live!”
Guiteau with a note for General William Tecumseh Sherman in his pocket, stalked the President to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station and shot him twice from behind. Guiteau was described by a witness at the time of shooting as “a brave man, who is determined upon a desperate deed.” After firing Guiteau went from brave man to a man alone in his delusion.
The spoils system was a manipulation of our republic and Conkling and the Stalwarts defense of it led millions of Americans to believe something that wasn’t true. Those lies led a man disconnected from society, to kill a man who was serving the people over himself. Charles Guiteau pulled the trigger but partisan politicians unwilling to relinquish their power assassinated James Garfield.
We’re living in one of the most partisan moments in our history. The political temperature is boiling, our generation has seen a number of incidents with political violence. Congressman Steve Scalise was shot at a baseball game, January protesters chanted “hang Mike Pence” and brought zip ties and weapons in the capitol. We watched Jan 6th unfold live, if police didn’t stop them, they would have murdered several members and broadcast it to the world. It would have been a modern day French Revolution. It only takes one Charles Guiteau in the middle of a mob to set fire and burn the whole place down. It only takes one person living in a delusion to spark the hate inside others souls. Once the flame is lit the bad people will take the lead and the good people who were just along for the ride and having fun, will be too scared to stop it. They will be powerless.
If we want to bring the temperature down we need leaders who understand the story of the Garfield, Conkling and Guiteau. We need leaders who are thinking about others and not themselves, we need leaders who think of the future by learning about the past.
What’s the destiny of our republic?