James Garfield Defends His Reputation During the 1880 Presidential Campaign

The Credit Mobilier was a purported construction company formed by Oakes Ames, Thomas C. Durant and a few other influential stockholders of the Union Pacific Railroad, which was building the transcontinental railroad. Acting for both companies, these men had the Union Pacific give the shell Credit Mobilier its contracts, which were underwritten by the U.S. Government, to build the remaining 667 miles of railroad.

This strategy funnelled profits estimated at up to $23 million into the Credit Mobilier, which did little to earn them, at the expense of the Union Pacific. It also depleted generous government grants to the Union Pacific and left that company under a heavy debt by the time of the road’s completion in 1869. The situation surfaced as a political scandal when Ames, a U.S. Representative, resorted to bribery. To forestall investigation or interference by Congress when the inevitable insolvencies occurred, he sold or assigned shares of the Crédit Mobilier stock to members of Congress at par (or less), although the shares were worth twice as much at the time. He wrote to Henry S. McComb, an associate, that he had placed the stock “where it will produce the most good to us” and subsequently forwarded a list of Congressmen who had received or were to receive shares. Later friction between Ames and McComb resulted in the publication of these letters in The New York Sun. A subsequent Congressional investigation badly stained the political reputations of Vice President Schuyler Colfax, who was denied renomination because of it, as well as Senator James W. Patterson of New Hampshire, Representative James Brooks of New York and others. On Ames’s list to receive stock was Congressman James A. Garfield, who denied any involvement.

The 1880 Republican National Convention met in Chicago from June 2-8. Although Garfield placed the name of John Sherman in nomination for president, when a deadlock developed, Garfield himself was nominated on the 36th ballot. As the party’s candidate, his record would immediately become a subject of scrutiny. And the main potential monkey wrench to his hopes for election was the Credit Mobilier scandal and the allegations that he was part of it. When questioned on the subject, he hastened to cite a new publication that he claimed exonerated him. This is his defense, which consists of a cover letter and an autograph manuscript of the statement Garfield considered exculpatory. Whether it really was or not is an interesting question.

Autograph Letter Signed, Mentor, Ohio, June 29, 1880, to Henry Sanford, a Wisconsin printer and Democrat. “Your letter of the 16th inst. came duly to hand but I was unable to reply as the book containing the paragraph from the “World” had been shipped by freight from Washington. The box containing it came this morning and I hasten to comply with your request.”

The Autograph Manuscript reads: “Copied from the New York World of October 10/1873. Senator Thurman lets up Gen. Garfield of Ohio in this amiable fashion. ‘Oakes Ames swears that Garfield got ten shares and Garfield says that he did not do anything of the kind. There was a good deal of talk but no proof against him, and I am compelled to say that Garfield gets out of it better than anybody else, and on the whole, there was not sufficient evidence to fasten the corruption at his door.’ After considering all the testimony, on the whole we concur in this view of Mr. Garfield’s connection with the Credit Mobilier.”

Allen G. Thurman was a U.S. Senator and fellow Ohioan who was Grover Cleveland’s running mate in 1888. As a Democrat, he would be expected to oppose Garfield, so Garfield clearly felt that the remarks by Thurman were favorable because not condemnatory. When Thurman lost his senate seat in 1881, a grateful President Garfield appointed him as American representative to the international monetary conference in Paris.