Its only in recent years that a lot of scholarship has focused on the fact that their the fact of how rocky their marriage was, specifically in its early days. I think in the early years, james found her a bit distant and cold. As the years went by, she had a tremendous influence on him. James and lucretia spent a lot of time with their children. They felt that education was an emancipating factor. Mrs. Garfield adored her time at the exhibition, but she was specifically interested in the latest sciences and technologies of the day. After James Garfields death, a number of prominent citizens raised about 350,000 that was turned over to Lucretia Garfield. In todays dollars, it would equate to somewhere around 8 million. Her character was extremely exceedingly strong. She had a rectitude that was invulnerable. Host Lucretia Garfield was born in ohio in 1832. Her life spans antebellum america to the progressive era of the early 20th century. A supporter of womens rights and deeply interested in partisan politics, she and president James Garfield entered the white house on march 4, 1881 after a very close election. However, what plans she had as first lady were soon cut short by an assassins bullet. Good evening, and welcome to cspans series first ladies influence and image. Tonight, we will earn about Lucretia Garfield. After the assassination, the next person to come into the white house, Chester Arthur, did not have a first lady. Tell us understand this to help us understand this interesting peterperiod of American History we have carl anthony. , he is the author of americas first families. The circumstances of James Garfields election helped to seal the president s fate. Tell us the story of where the Party Politics were at the time. Guest so many of the large issues that had continued in postcivil war era were really in large mode put to rest. The Transcontinental Railroad by this time had been completed the troops had been removed from the south during reconstruction. A lot of focus was basically on power and money, and that struggle within the Republican Party for who would control the party, which meant who would control the positions that were appointed positions that were at the discretion of people at in power, ended up being a power struggle in the party between an ohiobased party, which is James Garfields party, and Rutherford Hayes was not only from the same part of ohio but the same kind of thinking, and what were called the stalwarts, which were new yorkbased. You see certain states really emerge throughout history Holding Onto Power within a particular party. In new york, that was headed by a man who became a United States senator. This was the struggle. You see then, of course, the person who ends up shooting president garfield, deranged Charles Guiteau, proudly screaming with the gun in his hand, i am a stalwart. Now arthur is president. Garfield was of the new york wing. Host garfield himself was a compromise candidate after many ballots at a republican convention. When they came to the white house, were they accepted . Guest they were largely accepted. And this is where lucretia played a vital role. A lot of it was a matter of cobbling together a cabinet where everybody would be happy that the new york wing would be happy, that garfield now as leader of the party in the country would be satisfied. The party and the country would be satisfied. You had Lucretia Garfield playing a little bit of an espionage role in the postelection, preinauguration where she goes to new york under the alias of mrs. Greenfield and is really there to deal with this guy she doesnt like roscoe conkling, and negotiating members of the cabinet of who would be appointed and who wouldnt. Host the actual vote was very close. One of the closest elections in history. Lucretia garfield after winning says this it is a terrible responsibility to come to him and me. Did she want to become first lady . Guest she did not want to become first lady for herself. She very strongly believed in her husband. They had really been through everything. They lost two children. They had marital problems. By the time he had run in 1880 they are very clear and very square on the same page in terms of their values. They both shared a lot of intellectual and literary pursuits. That was a mutual passion which during the tough times kept them together, but she was, at the time she got the news that he won the nomination, she was in an old bonnet, scrubbing the floor. She did not want to pose for photographs. She was very reluctant. She did, and of course, the first images we start to see in paraphernalia during the campaign. She wrote a private letter to some friends and said, the truth is, i do not want to go to that place, but i really believe that my husband is the right man to lead the country. Host we will be taking you to the garfields home in ohio. It is available for you to visit, run by the National Parks service. If you are ever in the state near cleveland, make a point of visiting it. We will show you as much as we can. There is what it looks like. That front porch became very famous because it was the first Front Porch Campaign. How did the Front Porch Campaign come about . Guest i do not know 100 of the details, except at the time where they lived, it was relatively rural. Groups of people really just coming to hear the candidate speak. That is sort of the whole thing with these Front Porch Campaigns. Interestingly enough, most of them took place, all of them took place in the midwest. Lincolns in springfield hardings and mckinleys in ohio just like garfield. Of course, for Lucretia Garfield, what was interesting was because it was technically the property of her private home, her being seen by the voters, the people coming in on horses and buggies to hear garfield speak didnt find anything at all unusual about the presence of his wife at what was a Campaign Rally because it was also her home. Host we are going to learn more about the Front Porch Campaign in this video. [video clip] this is the site of the nations very first front porch president ial campaign. James garfield would come out here and give speeches to people who had gathered here from the front part of the property. Lucretias role was more concentrated on the inside. Standing in the front hallway of the garfield home probably seems like a strange place to Start Talking about garfields widely hailed Front Porch Campaign of 1880. In fact, this was the part of the house where Lucretia Garfield spent a lot of her time during the 1880 campaign. James a. Garfield went to chicago to nominate someone else for president. He wasnt expecting to be a candidate. Lucretia garfield had no expectation that over the next five months somewhere between 17,000 and 20,000 people would show up at her home and her property in ohio. When these people started to show up, that many people obviously unexpected, uninvited, started to cause a lot of damage to the outside of the property. They were traipsing all over the property, yanking things out of the ground to take home as souvenirs. Lucretia garfield was very concerned about what was on the outside of the property, not happening inside the family home. She spent a lot of time in this front hallway, keeping an eye on the front door, and she was the gatekeeper, making sure that no one she did not want in the house was able to get into the house. You see the front steps. James a. Garfields office was at the top of these steps. He would spend a lot of time in the office. At some point during the day, a lot of times he would come down the steps and go to the front door to stand out on the front porch, talk to people gathered out there, and eventually give speeches as part of his Front Porch Campaign. I like to imagine lucretia following behind him and locking the door as he went outside because she was so adamant that people not get inside the home. They had a young family they were very concerned about. They also had just finished a major renovation of the house. Lucretia had just gotten the house the way she wanted it. She did not want people coming in to cause the same kind of damage inside that she saw going on outside. We know that Lucretia Garfield was a very gracious host to people that did come into the home. She very often would greet them here in the front hallway and offer them what she called standing refreshment, which meant she was very gracious. She talked to them for a few moments with a cold glass of water or lemonade, but conspicuously no chair to sit in because she did not want them to overstay their welcome. [end video clip] host we have a phone line set aside for you to call in. We will get to call for a couple to those calls in a couple of minutes. You can also tweet us to use the hashtag firstladies. Heres a comment from our Facebook Page guest really great question. We have a lot of bits of evidence that cumulatively show us that Lucretia Garfield was perhaps the first first lady to really have a strong conscientiousness about being part of a historical tradition of first ladies. In her diary, to my knowledge, the only diary kept by a first lady, she records an incident where one of her guests comes in and tells her about the night of the fall of richmond and being with mary lincoln. She writes in her diary that these little sorts of stories are the kinds of things she begins to accumulate and feels that there are some ghosts of the house. We will talk more about her later life she has a sense of affinity, a strong sense of sorority with the first ladies who came after her. Host on twitter guest she thought of it as her home. In fact, later on when a well was being built in the back i cant remember, there was another structure she actually studied the engineering plans, and she was just incredibly interested in so much and absorbed things and taught herself. She would say things like, i have built a home on my own, i have done it all, and i know what is going on, and i can get the structure out back built quicker and less expensively than is being done right now. She later on changed what was essentially a farmhouse into a victorian mansion. Again, that is in the years of her widowhood. She had another beautiful home Still Standing in pasadena california. Host which was very forwardthinking for the time. Here is something that James Garfield thought about her as they were political partners. He said, she is unstampedable. There has not been one solitary instance of my public career when i suffered in the smallest degree for any remark she ever made. Tell us a bit more about that unstampedable character. Guest you know, it did not come easy. She was one of those people who spent a lot of time thinking. She always tried to be highly rational in her opinions, when she formed them, and in her concepts of people and ideas and subjects, whatever it might be current events, history. This was a little bit of a problem early on when they were courting and even in their marriage because a lot of people including her husband felt that she was not emotionally expressive. But when she had given something a lot of thought, and she was clear about how she felt, then she would express herself. Her letters, i might add, are beautiful. This is a real selfmotivated woman who realized that education was going to be the key to not only her success but her happiness. Host one of the very first decisions she had to make was about temperance and whether or not she and the president would follow the noalcohol policy set by the hayes. Will you tell us about that decision she made, the garfields made, and how significant it was politically . Host it ended up, true to what she said, not having a Significant Impact politically. But the threat was made to her by a woman who came and said you must continue the noalcohol policy of the hayeses. Lucretia garfield said, thanks, but no thanks. I sort of feel that by my doing this one little thing, by not serving alcohol to my guests, it will take on enormous importance in the press and give it far more attention than it needs. She herself drank wine. She writes about that in a letter to her husband. Then this woman threatens him, well, this is going to affect the Republican Party. Mrs. Garfield said politely, i dont think it really is. Host this decision and the pressure for it came around the arrival of the official portrait of lucy hayes. We talked about this picture in the last program. There was a big story about the money being raised to do this portrait. How much press attention was there on the arrival of this protr portrait and the ultimate decision the white house would make . The garfields would make . Guest it was presented to the white house as a fait accompli. The white house wasnt going to deny it. Nor did they think that it would be wise in terms of Public Relations to deny the portrait of their most immediate predecessor, the wife of their most immediate predecessor. The controversy as you know a percentage of money they were raising was being spent for the womens christian temperance union, other projects, so it had a slight taint of scandal. Host Kathy Robinson wants to know on twitter guest there was very little time for Lucretia Garfield to actually become popular in the sense of functioning as a first lady the way we think it. The inauguration was march 4. By the end of april, she has contracted malaria. By may, there is even a fear she might die in the white house. President garfield, just president for three months writes of how he was unable to work with fear that this was going to be, that something would happen to his wife. It is only after he is shot in july that the press really begins to focus on Lucretia Garfield and she becomes, not just a national, but an international heroine for her behavior, calmness, and control as the president is attempting recuperation. Host the first call is robert watching us in chicago. Caller good evening. I have one simple question. By the time garfield became president , his salary was 50,000. I was just wondering if mrs. Garfield received the balance of the salary after he passed on. Guest yes, she did. She also received his pension as a former member of congress, and she received, as susan mentioned, that large amount of public funds which were raised. She also received a president ial widows pension. She had quite a bit of income coming from several directions. Host next is a call from bill watching us in columbus, ohio. Caller i grew up in ohio where the garfield estate is. I passed it all the time, and i remember there being a log cabin on the property where he grew up. Is it still there . Guest that i do not know. Host have you visited the house . Caller surprisingly, i never did. And i lived there. Host that happens to many of us. When we have Historic Sites in our own communities. Thanks for calling. Sorry we couldnt answer your question. Talking about her involvement in the selection of the cabinet, we said earlier that she was deeply involved and interested in partisan politics. Very briefly, where did she develop that keen political sense and how did she use it to advise the president . Guest she started developing that once they moved to washington, d. C. , when he was a member of congress. They lost their first child, a girl, their last born, a little boy. They had a lot of tough times. During his service in the civil war, and when he came to washington, they were separated again. She was not going to put up with it. They decided to build a home in washington, and when she came to washington as a congressional wife, she began attending debates on capitol hill. She was there during the 1876 election dispute commission. Her husband belonged to a literary society, but this was really when her political education began, during the congressional years. She also put a room aside just for herself to paint and read in the house they built in washington, but politics really became i wouldnt say it was her primary interest, but one of several primary interests. She was interested in everything. The issue of the cabinet really circles around the controversial appointment of the secretary of state, james g. Blaine. Mrs. Garfield is really the advocate for him. In fact, blaine writes that the knowledge that mrs. Garfield wants me in the cabinet is just as important to me as knowing that you, the president , want me in the cabinet. Host heres the quote exactly that says something about her influence, at least on the president. Guest absolutely. I would also say partisanship and these splinter things within parties, she was not a policy person. She was not somebody who was looking at policy and saying you should support this or not support that. She was looking at members of the cabinet, who were supposed to be running the government but from a point of partisan political loyalty. Theres that saying, keep your friends close, your enemies closer. She was always looking at, how are these men going to potentially affect her husbands career . Host in the end, it seems they mixed the cabinet with half stalwarts and half the rest. Guest to a degree. By the time of garfields assassination, there is a sense of remorse. This guy that shot him did it openly out of political partisanship. It was sort of horrifying to people. It also involved Vice President arthur, who was sort of representative of the wing that the assassin claimed to be assoc