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| 1881 |
Assassination of President Garfield:
On July 2, while walking with Secretary of State James Blaine in the waiting
room of the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad in Washington, D. C., President James
Garfield was
shot by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled office-seeker. After lingering for
months, Garfield died on September 19 in New Jersey. On September 22, 1881, Vice
President Chester Arthur of New York was sworn in as president. The lawyer of
Garfield’s assassin pleaded his client not guilty by reason of
insanity. However, a jury found Guiteau guilty, and he was hanged on June
30, 1882. |
|
| 1882 |
Chinese Exclusion Act:
On May 6, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese
immigration to the United States for 10 years and prohibited Chinese residents
in the United States from acquiring American citizenship. President Chester
Arthur had vetoed the original bill, which had stipulated exclusion for 20 years
and established an internal passport system. He signed the new bill, which
omitted the passport clause and reduced the law’s life span by half. Future
laws, however, extended the duration of the act. For more information, visit
HarpWeek’s site on “The
Chinese-American Experience.” |
|
| 1883 |
Civil Service Reform Act:
January 16, 1883, Congress enacted civil service reform through the Pendleton
Act, named after its Senate sponsor, Democrat George Pendleton of Ohio. The law
imposed on the federal bureaucracy a system of merit examinations for hiring. It
prohibited compulsory contributions (“assessments”) from and obligatory partisan
participation by federal workers. The law created a bipartisan civil service
commission to oversee its enforcement. The Pendleton Act initially covered only
a small segment of the federal-government workforce, but was expanded over the
decades by executive orders.
Mongrel Tariff:
In 1882, President Arthur had established a commission to study the tariff
issue. Its report advised sharp reductions in the tariff rates. Protectionists
and tariff reformers both lobbied Congress intensely. The final bill, enacted on
March 2, 1883, was a compromise measure that reduced the overall tariff rate by
a mere 1½ percent. Satisfying neither side of the issue, the law was called the
“Mongrel” tariff. |
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| 1884 |
Chinese Exclusion Act Amended:
Congress adopted amendments to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act (see above), which
made it more difficult for Chinese residents in the United States to obtain
certification to leave and return to America. The amendments also defined the
Exclusion Act as applying to all Chinese, regardless of their country of origin.
(For more information, visit HarpWeek’s site on “The
Chinese-American Experience.”)
Republican National Convention:
On June 3-5, the Republican National Convention met in Chicago. James G. Blaine,
a former secretary of state, senator, and congressman from Maine, won the
presidential nomination on the fourth ballot over President Chester Arthur,
Senator George Edmunds of Vermont, and others. After Robert Lincoln refused to
allow his name to be placed in nomination for vice president, the convention
selected Senator John Logan of Illinois with only seven dissenting votes.
Angered by Blaine’s nomination, a group of prominent Republicans bolted the
party and endorsed the presidential candidacy of Democrat Grover Cleveland, the
reform governor of New York. Called “Mugmumps” by their critics, the bolting
Republicans objected to what they considered Blaine’s record of corruption,
insincere commitment to civil service reform, and reckless foreign policy.
Democratic National Convention:
On July 8-10, the Democratic National Convention met in Chicago. Governor Grover
Cleveland of New York was nominated president on the second ballot, defeating
Senator Thomas Bayard of Delaware, former senator Allen Thurman of Ohio, and
Congressman Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania. Senator Thomas Hendricks of
Indiana, the vice-presidential nominee of 1876, was again selected as the
vice-presidential nominee in 1884.
Minor Party Conventions:
The coalition Greenback-Labor Party nominated former governor Benjamin Butler of
Massachusetts for president and A. M. West for vice president. The National
Prohibition Party nominated former governor John St. John of Kansas for
president and William Daniel for vice president.
Election Results:
On November 4, 1884, Grover Cleveland became the first Democrat elected
president since before the Civil War. His victory was narrow in both the
Electoral College—219 to Republican James Blaine’s 182—and the popular vote,
48.5% to Blaine’s 48.26%. Greenback-Labor nominee Benjamin Butler won 1.8% of
the vote, while Prohibitionist nominee John St. John received 1.5%. St. John’s
vote total in New York State (drawn mainly from Republicans) was particularly
harmful to Blaine. In Congress, Democrats retained control of the House and
Republicans of the Senate. |
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Warning
1860
