The rocky road to July 18-21’s Trump-led Republican National Convention has historians recalling another RNC shakeup tied to Northeast Ohio’s past. Long before James Garfield won his presidential election against Winsfield Hancock, the Mentor native worked his way up from senator-elect to GOP nominee at the 1880 RNC in Chicago. As Republicans called to unite a divided party, war hero Garfield arrived at the RNC as a mere supporter of John “Ohio Icicle” Sherman, a senator from Garfield’s home state.
With many of the delegates opposing former president Ulysess S. Grant’s possible third term and pitted against each other Sherman and Maine Sen. James Blaine also in the running, the RNC took on an air of tension. After several hot, tired days and 36 ballots, the delegates went in a completely different direction — the compromise candidate of Garfield.
“The 1880 one was very dramatic and had a ton of twist and turns,” says Todd Arrington, site manager of the James A. Garfield National Historic Site. Be a part of the drama at a readers’ theater at 2 p.m. July 9 at the Garfield site in Mentor, in which attendees act out the play Hardball: How Politics Was Played in 1880 — The Republican National Convention. During the free event, audience members will be casts for roles such as journalists, delegates and even Garfield. Don't worry if you don't have theater or drama experience — scripts will be passed out.
So how did Garfield pull off being a wild card nominee? Here are ways the eventual president came out of the 1880 RNC on top.
Party Discord. Grant swooped into the picture after a vacation seeking a third term. Meanwhile, Sherman and Blaine loathed each other’s policies and egotism, and the media played up the division. So the weeklong convention kept adding days and results were to close to name gridlocked candidates Blaine or Grant to victory, so Garfield started getting votes. “By that time, the convention was thrown into chaos,” Arrington notes, “and suddenly they didn’t have a candidate. They went through ballot, after ballot, after ballot to figure who their nominee was going to be.” Then on the 36th ballot, Garfield won it with 399 votes.
Speech Master. Former Union general Garfield was brought up as a candidate because the powerful speech he had given earlier in the convention in support of Sherman had stuck in delegates’ heads in a way that resonated beyond the fiery diatribes of other GOP backers. “He used this great metaphor about the ocean,” Arrington says. “At the top of the wave was where everybody’s excited. But it’s not there. It’s in the fall, at the bottom of the wave—for the decision in who’s going to lead us.”
Dark Horse. Though there the other dark horses — Franklin Pierce in 1852, James Polk in 1844 — Garfield’s ability to go from a gentle Sherman-backer to defeater of the gigantic figure of Grant was a extraordinary considering the several days and whopping 36 ballots it took to get to him. Could he advance in a 2016 bout? Maybe, maybe not. “Today, most of the time, conventions are mostly just rubber-stamping the choices the voters have already made,” Arrington says. “Which might be true for today’s Democrats. That remains to be seen with the Republican side in Cleveland. That is, to me, the most interesting thing to happen in 2016.” 8095 Mentor Ave., Mentor, 440-255-8722, nps.gov/jaga