m than was that of his
contemporaries. He had gone into office without being the leader of his
party and without having a single definitive issue. He had alienated one
faction after another; while in Congress, in which both houses were
never Republican, it was never possible to pass constructive laws. The
fight for the next nomination began soon after his inauguration.

Grant and Blaine were the most probable candidates for the Republican
nomination as the spring of 1880 advanced. For the former there was a
feeling of affection among the senatorial crowd, headed by Roscoe
Conkling, who had been so severely disciplined by Hayes. The refusal of
the President to allow the officials of the United States to engage too
actively in politics had brought about the dismissal of Arthur and
Cornell from their posts, and a prolonged quarrel with the Senate. Hayes
had won here, but the defeated leaders turned upon his Southern policy,
demanded a "strong" candidate who would really keep the South in check,
and called for Grant as the only strong man who could lead his party.
Grant was willing in 1880 as he would have been in 1876. Upon his return
from his trip around the world his candidacy was pressed and had strong
support among Civil War veterans and men who were displeased with Hayes.

Blaine, too, was still a candidate, drawing his strength from men of the
same type as those who stood for Grant. He might have secured the
nomination had he not been opposed by the Secretary of the Treasury,
John Sherman, whose friends thought his distinguished service in the
cause of hard money entitled him to a reward. A special element in
Sherman's strength was a group of pliant negro delegates, from the
Southern wing of the party, which was brought to Chicago under close
guard, fed and entertained in a suite at the Palmer House, and voted in
a block as Sherman's managers directed. None of these three, Grant,
Blaine, and Sherman, could please the reform element, that found its
choice in Senator George F. Edmunds of Vermont.

The convention at Chicago was marked by the fight of Conkling to secure
unity and the nomination for Grant, and by the stubbornness with which
the opposing delegates held out against a third term and for their own
candidates. In the end the deadlock was broken when the followers of
Blaine and Sherman shifted to the latter's floor manager, James A.
Garfield, and gave him the nomination on the thirty-sixth ballot. The
Vice-Pr