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The Presidencies of James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur
This is the first single volume to focus on the presidencies of both James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur. Drawing from a host of studies on the foreign and domestic policies of the nation during the Gilded Age, as well as from his own primary research, the author presents a somewhat revisionist look at Garfield and Arthur--revisionist in that he gives the reader a renewed appreciation of both men. Far from being cynical spoils men or naïve incompetents, individuals whose presidencies provide studies in ineptitude, Garfield and Arthur emerge as men of considerable ability. While making no claims of greatness, Doenecke maintains that each was a significant transitional figure, playing a crucial role as the institution of the presidency moved from the weak leadership of Andrew Johnson to the forceful direction of Theodore Roosevelt.
According to Doenecke, Garfield saw the office of chief executive primarily in administrative terms, and his great battle was over keeping the power of appointment in his own hands. His victory over the Stalwarts enhanced both the power and prestige of the office. His knowledge of how government worked was unmatched; long before Woodrow Wilson made his mark, Garfield was "the scholar in politics." The diplomacy of Secretary of State James G. Blaine comes under critical scrutiny. Doenecke evaluates his performance in the Chile-Peru War (War of the Pacific), the Guatemala-Mexico dispute, the isthmian-canal issue, Irish-American activities in Britain, and efforts to secure markets in Korea.
Garfield was assassinated less than six months after he entered office; he had yet to be tested on major issues of public policy. Chester A. Arthur was ill prepared to be chief executive, was in poor health much of the time while he was in office, and was faced with a hopelessly divided party. Nevertheless, he was one of the nation's great political surprises. His administration pioneered in the development of the navy, sought foreign markets for American surpluses, fostered civil-service reform, and pressed for a scientific tariff. Doenecke devotes one chapter to the spoils system and the background to the Pendleton Act, one to Arthur's strategy regarding the South, and then offers an in-depth analysis of diplomacy during Arthur's tenure.
During the presidencies of Garfield and Arthur, the United States attempted to intervene in a war between Chile and Peru, sought to turn Nicaragua into a protectorate, supplied leading advisers to Madagascar and Korea, and took a major part in the Congo conference of 1884. In examining these activities, even while pointing to uncoordinated statecraft and inept diplomacy, Doenecke challenges the long-held view that, from 1881 to 1885, the nation was withdrawn and insular. His fresh perspective on the Garfield and Arthur years will be of considerable interest to historians of the Gilded Age.
According to Doenecke, Garfield saw the office of chief executive primarily in administrative terms, and his great battle was over keeping the power of appointment in his own hands. His victory over the Stalwarts enhanced both the power and prestige of the office. His knowledge of how government worked was unmatched; long before Woodrow Wilson made his mark, Garfield was "the scholar in politics." The diplomacy of Secretary of State James G. Blaine comes under critical scrutiny. Doenecke evaluates his performance in the Chile-Peru War (War of the Pacific), the Guatemala-Mexico dispute, the isthmian-canal issue, Irish-American activities in Britain, and efforts to secure markets in Korea.
Garfield was assassinated less than six months after he entered office; he had yet to be tested on major issues of public policy. Chester A. Arthur was ill prepared to be chief executive, was in poor health much of the time while he was in office, and was faced with a hopelessly divided party. Nevertheless, he was one of the nation's great political surprises. His administration pioneered in the development of the navy, sought foreign markets for American surpluses, fostered civil-service reform, and pressed for a scientific tariff. Doenecke devotes one chapter to the spoils system and the background to the Pendleton Act, one to Arthur's strategy regarding the South, and then offers an in-depth analysis of diplomacy during Arthur's tenure.
During the presidencies of Garfield and Arthur, the United States attempted to intervene in a war between Chile and Peru, sought to turn Nicaragua into a protectorate, supplied leading advisers to Madagascar and Korea, and took a major part in the Congo conference of 1884. In examining these activities, even while pointing to uncoordinated statecraft and inept diplomacy, Doenecke challenges the long-held view that, from 1881 to 1885, the nation was withdrawn and insular. His fresh perspective on the Garfield and Arthur years will be of considerable interest to historians of the Gilded Age.
- GenresHistory
244 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1981
About the author
Justus D. Doenecke
27 books18 followersJustus Drew Doenecke is Professor Emeritus of History at New College of Florida, where he taught from 1969 until his retirement in 2005. Doenecke earned his Ph.D. in history from Princeton University, and served on the faculty of Colgate University (1963-64) and Ohio Wesleyan University (1965-69) before taking up his appointment at New College of Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 7, 2025
This is the second book I have read in The American Presidency Series, the first being the one on Richard Nixon. My laconic review of that book simply said, "This was a very average biography, a bit on the dry side, but I learned a lot about RN. And isn't that the point of a biography?" If I learned a lot about Nixon from that book, I have forgotten it all. And after reading my second book in this series, I realized these aren't really biographies. They are about *presidencies* and as such essentially cover only the terms of office.
That was painfully apparent in this book, in which Garfield's Secretary of State James G. Blaine and Arthur's Secretary of State Frederick Frelinghuysen got nearly as much attention as the presidents. In fact each SOS each received a chapter devoted to them, besides many other mentions.
I am particularly interested in the presidency of Garfield because of my interest in his assassin, Charles Guiteau and Guiteau's connection to preterism and the Oneida Community. Guiteau's motives for the assassination were primarily political though, and not religious, although he claimed that there was a pressure from God to assassinate Garfield. This book had little to say about the assassination, but it did lead me to an excellent source: The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau: Psychiatry and the Law in the Gilded Age, by Charles E. Rosenberg, a book I cannot recommend highly enough.
The Doenecke book didn’t have much to say about Garfield, which is not surprising because his presidency lasted such a brief time. Basically it talked about the difficulties he had choosing his cabinet and the issue of patronage which was so prominent during Garfield's and Arthur's presidencies. Naturally the lion's share of the book was devoted to Arthur's presidency, and I did learn a lot about Chester Arthur. I was more impressed with Arthur as a president as a result of this book. I did read a biography about Arthur years ago (2014), from Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s American Presidents Series. According to my review of that book, I enjoyed it, but I didn’t record my impressions of Arthur himself. Instead I simply noted that I could have done without the description of Arthur redecorating the White House, which fortunately Doenecke does not bore us with.
As with the Nixon book in this series, I did learn a lot about the presidency of the main subject. One thing worth mentioning was Arthur's being the founder of the modern navy, in Doenecke's words. I found this notable because I recall from a university level American history class I took in the 1970s, the instructor mentioning how weak the
U.S. navy was.
This series doesn’t have me jumping up and down the way the Schlesinger series does. One annoying thing about this particular book was the flood of unfamiliar names. I am not going to make an effort to read every book in this series, the way I did the American Presidents Series.
That was painfully apparent in this book, in which Garfield's Secretary of State James G. Blaine and Arthur's Secretary of State Frederick Frelinghuysen got nearly as much attention as the presidents. In fact each SOS each received a chapter devoted to them, besides many other mentions.
I am particularly interested in the presidency of Garfield because of my interest in his assassin, Charles Guiteau and Guiteau's connection to preterism and the Oneida Community. Guiteau's motives for the assassination were primarily political though, and not religious, although he claimed that there was a pressure from God to assassinate Garfield. This book had little to say about the assassination, but it did lead me to an excellent source: The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau: Psychiatry and the Law in the Gilded Age, by Charles E. Rosenberg, a book I cannot recommend highly enough.
The Doenecke book didn’t have much to say about Garfield, which is not surprising because his presidency lasted such a brief time. Basically it talked about the difficulties he had choosing his cabinet and the issue of patronage which was so prominent during Garfield's and Arthur's presidencies. Naturally the lion's share of the book was devoted to Arthur's presidency, and I did learn a lot about Chester Arthur. I was more impressed with Arthur as a president as a result of this book. I did read a biography about Arthur years ago (2014), from Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s American Presidents Series. According to my review of that book, I enjoyed it, but I didn’t record my impressions of Arthur himself. Instead I simply noted that I could have done without the description of Arthur redecorating the White House, which fortunately Doenecke does not bore us with.
As with the Nixon book in this series, I did learn a lot about the presidency of the main subject. One thing worth mentioning was Arthur's being the founder of the modern navy, in Doenecke's words. I found this notable because I recall from a university level American history class I took in the 1970s, the instructor mentioning how weak the
U.S. navy was.
This series doesn’t have me jumping up and down the way the Schlesinger series does. One annoying thing about this particular book was the flood of unfamiliar names. I am not going to make an effort to read every book in this series, the way I did the American Presidents Series.
April 22, 2015
Since he was assassinated very early in his term, it is inappropriate to analyze the Garfield presidency. It would be reduced to statements of his intentions when he took office and speculations regarding how he would have handled events. Although Doenecke spends some time in examining Garfield’s personal philosophy, to his credit, it is minimal. He concentrates on one of the greatest problems facing presidents at that time, the federal patronage, which was one of the few things that Garfield managed to do before he was gunned down.
In the era before civil service reform, the change of administration meant that many federal jobs needed to be filled. At the time, they were considered political spoils, to be awarded to individuals who had served the new president in the past or who were expected to serve him in the future. While all presidents used it as a rewards system, they also were frustrated in the number of applicants, and the time it took to deal with them. Therefore, the sections on what Garfield did as president largely deal with his handling of the patronage issues.
While Chester A. Arthur was a compromise candidate for vice president and automatically suspect as presidential material, his presidency suffered from yet another serious problem. Unlike the earlier presidents who died in office, Garfield lingered for some time after he was shot. Eighty days elapsed between the time Garfield was wounded and his death. Furthermore, at times it appeared that he would recover. Therefore, there was over two months of leadership limbo, plenty of time for the government to drift. During this time, Arthur’s hands were tied, as there was no precedent concerning an incapacitated president.
There are two things about this book that are striking, although they are related. The first is how little coverage there is of domestic affairs, especially in the area of legislation. The years of the Arthur presidency were a time of little major legislative action, the only significant accomplishment were the initial steps of civil service reform. There is mention of the general economic conditions and the continued expansion of the industrial revolution, but nothing with significant depth.
The second point is the amount of coverage of U. S. involvement in world affairs. With a military that could have been easily defeated by that of nearly all European nations, there could be no muscle flexing. However, the growth of international commerce, the European imperial quest for colonies and the fact that the U. S. now covered both coasts meant that U. S. merchants now traveled the world in search of commercial and economic ties. For reasons that I don’t understand, the 1890’s are generally considered to be the point where the United States shed the isolationist mindset and began to take an interest in the rest of the world. Doenecke does an excellent job in describing how involved the U. S. was becoming a decade earlier. There is coverage of U. S. involvement in events in Korea, Hawaii, Madagascar, the Congo, South America and Central America. We see the beginnings of a country that is starting to understand that it can no longer restrict itself to what takes place in North America north of the Rio Grande River.
There is also extensive coverage of how incredibly weak the U. S. navy was in the years immediately after the Civil war. In order to blockade the south and starve it of resources, the Union built up what was then the most powerful navy in the world. However, after the war was over, it was so weak that even one of the medium size capital ships of the British navy was more powerful than all U. S. ships combined. Although it started slowly and there was a lot of partisan wrangling, one can see the initial glimmerings of a great power on the ascent.
While I commend Doenecke for his extensive coverage of U. S. involvement in the world, I believe that he should have spent more time in examining the events inside the U. S. I readily concede that President Arthur did little in the way of legislation, however there were many other things happening in the country during his administration. Presidents affect those events, even if only by their inaction, so I would have preferred more detailed explanations of some of those changes.
This review also appears on Amazon
In the era before civil service reform, the change of administration meant that many federal jobs needed to be filled. At the time, they were considered political spoils, to be awarded to individuals who had served the new president in the past or who were expected to serve him in the future. While all presidents used it as a rewards system, they also were frustrated in the number of applicants, and the time it took to deal with them. Therefore, the sections on what Garfield did as president largely deal with his handling of the patronage issues.
While Chester A. Arthur was a compromise candidate for vice president and automatically suspect as presidential material, his presidency suffered from yet another serious problem. Unlike the earlier presidents who died in office, Garfield lingered for some time after he was shot. Eighty days elapsed between the time Garfield was wounded and his death. Furthermore, at times it appeared that he would recover. Therefore, there was over two months of leadership limbo, plenty of time for the government to drift. During this time, Arthur’s hands were tied, as there was no precedent concerning an incapacitated president.
There are two things about this book that are striking, although they are related. The first is how little coverage there is of domestic affairs, especially in the area of legislation. The years of the Arthur presidency were a time of little major legislative action, the only significant accomplishment were the initial steps of civil service reform. There is mention of the general economic conditions and the continued expansion of the industrial revolution, but nothing with significant depth.
The second point is the amount of coverage of U. S. involvement in world affairs. With a military that could have been easily defeated by that of nearly all European nations, there could be no muscle flexing. However, the growth of international commerce, the European imperial quest for colonies and the fact that the U. S. now covered both coasts meant that U. S. merchants now traveled the world in search of commercial and economic ties. For reasons that I don’t understand, the 1890’s are generally considered to be the point where the United States shed the isolationist mindset and began to take an interest in the rest of the world. Doenecke does an excellent job in describing how involved the U. S. was becoming a decade earlier. There is coverage of U. S. involvement in events in Korea, Hawaii, Madagascar, the Congo, South America and Central America. We see the beginnings of a country that is starting to understand that it can no longer restrict itself to what takes place in North America north of the Rio Grande River.
There is also extensive coverage of how incredibly weak the U. S. navy was in the years immediately after the Civil war. In order to blockade the south and starve it of resources, the Union built up what was then the most powerful navy in the world. However, after the war was over, it was so weak that even one of the medium size capital ships of the British navy was more powerful than all U. S. ships combined. Although it started slowly and there was a lot of partisan wrangling, one can see the initial glimmerings of a great power on the ascent.
While I commend Doenecke for his extensive coverage of U. S. involvement in the world, I believe that he should have spent more time in examining the events inside the U. S. I readily concede that President Arthur did little in the way of legislation, however there were many other things happening in the country during his administration. Presidents affect those events, even if only by their inaction, so I would have preferred more detailed explanations of some of those changes.
This review also appears on Amazon
May 29, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews