That were appointed position s, that were, you know, at the discretion of people in power, ended up being a power struggle within the party between an ohiobased party, which is James Garfields party also Rutherford Hayes was from the same not only the same part of ohio, but the same kind of thinking and what were called the stalwarts, which were new yorkbased. And, you know, you see certain states really emerge throughout history with holding on to power within a particular party. And then in new york, that was really headed by a man by the name of roscoe conkling, who became a United States senator. So this is the struggle, and you see then, of course, the person who ends up shooting president garfield, deranged, of course, Charles Guiteau, but proudly screaming with the gun in his hand, im a stalwart. Now arthur is president. And that was a reference to the fact that Vice President arthur elected with garfield was of the new york wing of the party. Swain well, garfield himself was a compromise candidate after many, many ballots at the republican convention. So when they came to the white house, were they accepted . Anthony they were largely accepted. There was a lot of but and this is where lucretia played a vital role. A lot 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 and the country, would be satisfied, and so you had Lucretia Garfield playing kind of 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, in negotiating members of the cabinet of who would be appointed and who wouldnt. Swain the actual vote was very close, one of the closest elections in history, and crete garfield, after winning, said this it is a terrible responsibility to come to him and to me. So did she want to become first lady . Anthony she didnt really want to become first lady for herself. She very strongly believed in her husband, and, you know, they had really been through everything. You know, they lost two children. Theyd had marital troubles. And by the time he has run in 1880 they are very clear and very square on the same page in terms of their values, and they both shared a lot of intellectual and literary pursuits that was a mutual passion, which i think during the tough times kept them together. But she was, at the time she got the news that he had won the nomination, she was in an old bonnet scrubbing the floor. She didnt want to pose for photographs. She was very reluctant. And she did. And, of course, her image is the first that we start to see being used in paraphernalia sold during the campaign. She wrote a private letter to some friends and she said, you know, the truth is, i really dont want to go to that place but i really believe that my husband is the right man to lead the country. Swain well, throughout this program, well be taking you to the garfields home in mentor ohio, lawnfield, and it is available for you to visit, run by the National Park service. So if youre ever in that part of the state, near cleveland please make a point of visiting it. Were going to show you as much as we can tonight. And heres what it looks like right now. That front porch became very famous that were looking at on camera right now because it was the first Front Porch Campaign. How did the Front Porch Campaign come about . Anthony well, you know what . I dont know 100 percent of the details, except that they, at the time where they lived, it was relatively rural, and groups of people really just coming to hear the candidate speak. Swain so they came to him. Anthony they came to him. Swain it wasnt an orchestrated. Anthony yeah, and that is the sort of the whole thing that these these Front Porch Campaigns. And interestingly enough, all of them took place in the midwest. You know, lincolns in springfield, hardings and mckinleys in ohio, just like garfields. And, of course, for Lucretia Garfield, what was interesting was that because it was technically the property of her private home, she her being seen by the voters, by the people coming in on horse 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. Swain were going to learn more about the Front Porch Campaign in this first video from the garfields home in mentor, ohio. begin video clip todd arrington, james a. Garfield National Historic site, chief this is the site of the nations very first front porch president ial campaign. So James Garfield would come out here, give a lot of speeches from the front porch to people that had gathered here in the front part of the property. Lucretias role, however, was more concentrated on the inside of the home. So standing in the front hallway here of the garfield home probably seems like kind of a strange place to Start Talking about james a. Garfields widely hailed Front Porch Campaign of 1880, but, in fact, this is the part of the house where Lucretia Garfield spent a lot of her time during the 1880 campaign. Now, of course, james a. Garfield went to chicago to nominate someone else for president. He wasnt expecting to be a candidate. So, of course, 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 at her property here in mentor, ohio. When these people started to show up here on the property 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, killing the crops, yanking things out of the ground to take home as souvenirs. And Lucretia Garfield was very very concerned that the same thing that was happening on the outside of the property not happen here on the inside of the family home. So she spent a lot of time in this front hallway basically keeping an eye on the front door. She was the gatekeeper, if you will, making sure that no one that she didnt want in the house was able to get into the house. You see the front steps here of the house. James a. Garfields office was actually at the top of these steps. He would spend a lot of time up in that office and at some point during the day a lot of times would come down these steps and then go right out the front door to stand on the front porch, talk to people that were gathered out there, and eventually give speeches as part of this Front Porch Campaign. And i kind of like to imagine lucretia basically kind of following right behind him and locking that door as he went outside, because she was so adamant that people not get inside the home. They, of course, had a young family that they were very concerned about. They also had just finished a major renovation to the house, and lucretia had really just kind of gotten the house exactly the way she wanted it, so she didnt want people coming and causing the same kind of damage inside that she saw going on, on the outside of the property. We know that Lucretia Garfield was a very gracious host to people that did come into the home that were invited in. She very often would greet them here in the front hallway and offer them during the campaign what she called standing refreshment, which basically meant she was very gracious. Shed talk to them for a few moments, offer them a cold glass of water or lemonade, but conspicuously no chair to sit in, because, of course, she didnt want them to overstay their welcome. end video clip swain one thing i want to tell you that is great about these programs is your involvement in it. We have a phone line set aside for you to call in, and well put the numbers on the screen. Were get to those calls in just a couple of minutes. And you can tweet us. Use the hashtag firstladies and were already having a great conversation with lots of historical questions on our facebook page. And heres one of those. R. J. Wilson writes, i visited the garfield house in ohio and saw that james admired and looked up to previous president s, even had framed images of all the previous president s. Did lucretia feel that way . Or did she have others who inspired her . Anthony really great question because 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. And she writes in her diary that these little sorts of stories are the kinds of things she begins to accumulate and feels that theres some ghosts, so to speak, of the house, but and we will see when we will talk more about her later life, she has sort of an affinity, a real strong sense of sorority with many of the first ladies whod come after her. Swain regina crumkey asks on twitter, did lucretia consider this house her home or did she think of it as a Political Center . Anthony she thought of it as her home. In fact, later on, when a well was being built in the back, and i cant remember, there was another structure and she actually studied the engineering plans and she you know, she was just an incredibly interested in so much and, you know, just absorbed things and taught herself. And she said something like, i have built a home on my own. I have you know, i have done it all, and i know whats going on, and i can get this, you know, this structure out back built quicker and less expensively than is being done right now. So she later on changed what was essentially a farmhouse into a victorian mansion. But, again, thats in the years of her widowhood and, of course, had another home, a beautiful home Still Standing in pasadena, california. Swain which was very forwardthinking for the time. Well talk about that later on. Heres something that James Garfield thought about her as they were Political Partners in the white house. He said, she is unstampedable. Thats a great word 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. So tell us a bit more about that unstampedable character that she brought to this job. Anthony well, you know, it didnt come easy. She was one of those people who spent a lot of time thinking and she always tried to be highly rational in her opinions when she formed them and in her concepts of people and just ideas and subjects, whatever it might be, Current Events history. You know, she and this was a little bit of a problem early on when they were courting and then even in their marriage, because a lot of people, including her husband, felt that she was not emotionally expressive. But it was when she had given something a lot of thought and she was clear about how she felt, then she would express herself. And her letters, i might add are beautiful. I mean, you know, this this is a real selfmotivated woman who realized that education was going to be the key to not only her success, but her happiness. Swain well, one of the very first decisions that she had to make was about temperance and whether or not she and the president would follow the noalcohol policy set by the hayes, which we learned about last week. Will you tell us about that decision that she made and the garfields themselves made and how significant it was politically . Anthony well, it ended up, true to what she said, not having a very Significant Impact politically. But the threat was made to her by a woman who came and said you know, you must continue the noalcohol policy of the hayes. And Lucretia Garfield said, you know, thanks, but no thanks. I sort of feel that by my doing this one little thing, by not serving, you know, 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. And then this woman threatened said, well, you know, this is going to affect the Republican Party. And mrs. Garfield very politely sort of said, i dont think it really is. Swain well, this whole decision and the pressure for it came around the arrival of the official portrait of lucy hayes. Weve got a picture of it. We talked about it in the last program. There was a big story about the money being raised to create this portrait. How much press attention was there on the arrival of this portrait and the ultimate decision that the garfields would make . Anthony well, you know, it was sort of presented to the white house as a fait accompli. I mean, you know, the white house wasnt going to deny it nor did they think, of course, that it would be, you know, wise in terms of Public Relations to, you know, deny the portrait of their most immediate predecessor, the wife of their most immediate predecessor. But the controversy, as you know, was the fact that mrs. Hayes was herself upset because a percentage of the money that they claimed they were raising to get the portrait done was being spent for wctu, womans Christian Temperance Union other projects, and so, you know, it had a slight taint of scandal, odd as it sounds to say about a painting celebrating no drinking. Swain well, Cathy Robinson on twitter wants to know, how popular was lucretia in comparison to lucy hayes . Anthony 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 of. The inauguration was march 4th. By the end of april, shes contracted malaria. And so and by may, through early may, theres even a fear that she might die in the white house. And president garfield, you know, just president for three months, writes of how he was unable to work with fear that, you know, this was going to be a that something would happen to his wife. Its only after hes 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 and her calmness and her control as the president is attempting recuperation for two months. Swain first call is from robert watching us in chicago. Hi, robert, youre on. Robert good evening. I have one simple question to ask. 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 had passed on . Anthony 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 that were raised. And she also received, you know, a president ial widows pension. So she had quite a bit of income coming from several directions. Swain next is a call from bill, watching us in columbus, ohio. Hi, bill. Bill hi. Swain your question, sir . Bill yes, i grew up in mentor ohio, where the garfield estate is, and i remember i passed it all the time, and i remember there being a log cabin on the property that purportedly he grew up in. Is it still there . Anthony that i dont know. Swain and what can you tell people about have you ever visited the place, bill . Bill im sorry . Swain have you visited the house, besides driving by . Bill you know, i surprisingly, i never did, and i lived there. Im amazed. Swain thats actually something that happens to so many of us when we have Historic Sites in our own communities not taking the time. But thanks for calling. Sorry we couldnt answer your question. Talking about her involvement in the selection of her cabinet, we said earlier that she was deeply involved and interested in partisan politics and had a keen political sense. Very briefly, where did she develop that keen political sense . And how did she use it to advise the president on his cabinet . Anthony she really started developing that once they actually moved to washington d. C. , when he was a member of congress. You know, theyd had as i said, they lost their first child, a girl. They lost their last born, a little boy. They had a lot of tough times. And when he served during the civil war. They came to washington, and they were separated again, and they she finally said, im just not going to put up with this. So they decided to build a home here 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. And she and her husband belonged to a literary society, but she really took this is really her political education began during those congressional years. And she also put a room, i should say, aside just for herself to paint and read in the house they built here in washington. But politics really became one of i wouldnt say it was her primary interest was one of several primary interests. I mean, she was interested in everything. The cabinet the issue of the cabinet really circles around the controversial appointment of the secretary of state, james g. Blaine, and she mrs. Garfield is really the advocate for him. And in fact, blaine himself writes to garfield 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. Swain yeah, and heres the quote exactly. I wish you would say to mrs. Garfield, said james blaine, that the knowledge that she desires me in your cabinet is more valuable to me than even the desire of the president elect himself. That says something about her influence, at least on the president. Antho