JAMES A GARFIELD: “CAMPBELLITE” PRESIDENT

In 1866, the year that Alexander Campbell died, James A. Garfield, then a Congressman from Ohio, used his influence to get a government job for Henry T. Anderson, a gospel minister from Kentucky, so that the preacher might support himself as an evangelist in the Washington area. Garfield humorously referred to this event as “a conspiracy to get the ancient Gospel preached in the City of Washington according to the principles of the people known as Disciples.”

Garfield was in Washington for eighteen years as a Representative before ascending to the presidency in 1881, being the year of his assassination, having served only a few months as Chief Executive. During those eighteen years he was living testimony that a politician can be an active and devoted church worker. As many people did in that day, he kept a diary of his activities, which reveals his consistent support of the little “Campbellite” church in Washington. The congregation was still assembling in private homes when he first went there, and it was only with his help that the little group was able to purchase a house of their own from the Methodists.

This was the beginning of what is now the National City Christian Church, which honors the president’s role in its history by preserving what is called “the Garfield pew.” During his long service in Washington he was not only always in his pew, or nearly always, but he also assisted in preaching and teaching. One Washington observer reported that Garfield was teaching a Bible class “at a very obscure church.”

The Disciples were not exactly “obscure” at this time, for even then they numbered nearly a half million; but they were then, as they are now, comparatively few in number in the eastern part of the nation. Disciple historians of today attribute to Garfield credit for acquainting the nation with the “Campbellite” movement by means of his position as president. It was not that he was simply a part of the movement, but that he himself had long been a preacher of the gospel and a teacher of religion in a Disciple college. For a preacher to become president of the United States not only gave stature to the Disciple plea, but it had a salutary effect upon all Protestant bodies, giving them hope that the day had dawned for a deeper religious faith in America. With Col. Ingersoll stumping the country for atheism and with agnosticism gaining ground on all fronts, a religious-minded president was warmly welcomed. That his election to the presidency was providential was a rather common view.

It would be expected that Garfield would be sensitive about any intimation that his eminent position might be used to support any particular religious cause. He wrote to a preacher friend that the Disciples should not make “too much fuss” over his election, and that they certainly should not look to him as a promoter of their views while president of the United States. Yet he was willing for the Disciples to gain any rewards that might come by the way. He wrote: “Let us not flaunt ourselves in the face of the American people, as though we had made a special conquest but, by modesty and moderation, bear our part worthily and take whatever resulting advantages may come.” But some Disciples interpreted this as a forfeiture of his unusual opportunity to disseminate the principles of the Reformation.

Even during the few months that he was president he was always present for worship at the humble meetinghouse at Vermont Ave. and M street, which led to a phenomenal increase in the attendance, a development that was distasteful to Garfield. He once wrote: “Attended Church with Mother and Crete. The usual crowd outside and in. It gives me a sorry view of human nature to see a little church filled to double its usual attendance by the accident of one of its frequenters having been elected to high office.” Another time he wrote of there being at church “a great and annoying crowd.”

It was after his election to the presidency that the Disciples in Washington undertook to erect their first meeting-house, and Garfield is surely the only president in history to have had a hand in planning a church building for Washington. He cautioned the brethren not to build too large a house: “let us keep within our means and also avoid anything like ostentation, either in size or decoration.” The cornerstone of that building was laid on the first anniversary of Garfield’s assassination, and it became known as “Garfield Memorial Church,” and still stands as part of the property of the National City Christian Church.

Garfield was an admirer of Alexander Campbell as most Disciples of his time were. We know of at least one visit he made to the Campbell Mansion. He was so impressed with the Sage of Bethany that he went to Bethany to check on the prospects of attending Bethany College, though he finally decided to go to Williams College. At Williams he was greatly impressed with the famous Mark Hopkins, but when it came to theology he depicted Hopkins as but an infant alongside “our dear brother Campbell.”

Of Campbell he wrote in his diary: “I must say he is a living wonder. When in his company you feel the shadow of greatness falling upon you; he is a new man every time you meet him, for his mind seems to be taking a sweep through the universe and is enlightening new objects at every inch of its orbit. Thus far in his course, systems have been crushed before him, truth has blazed around and peace and righteousness have followed in his train.” It was Garfield’s conviction that Alexander Campbell’s work was the greatest light to break forth during the nineteenth century.

History acknowledges Garfield to have been an astute statesman, winning ground no less by strong intelligence than uncompromising honesty. Had he lived he might well have become one of America’s most productive presidents, for at the time of his death there were many important reforms about to be inaugurated. He was shot in the Washington railway station by a disappointed office-seeker, and died eighty days later, Sept. 19, 1881, becoming the second president to be assassinated.

The story of his life illustrates how a man’s views tend to mellow as he grows older and wiser. As a youth he was a militant pacifist, but before the Civil War was over he was a general in the Union army. While still in college he was convinced that religion and politics do not mix, resolving to give his life to the preaching of the gospel while turning his back upon politics. But becoming convinced while a soldier of the need of dedicated Christian statesmen, he went on to become a state senator, U. S. representative, and president. He holds the distinction of having been elected to the U. S. Senate and to the presidency in the same year.

There is no question but what Garfield was at one time a recognized minister of the gospel, despite the fact that some of his biographers attempt to ignore it. He was in fact during the 1850’s considered “one of the foremost preachers among the Disciples in the Western Reserve (now Ohio). He both attended and served as teacher and president of Hiram College. He not only preached throughout the Reserve, but he conducted funerals, weddings, and baptisms. He was even a debater for the Disciple cause, for on one occasion at least he was selected to answer the challenge of John Denton, a freethinker, a highly intelligent enemy of religion who made it his practice to issue a challenge to debate after each of his speeches, something the Disciples could not long endure.

Garfield’s preparation for this debate has an amusing note. Not only did he read everything on science and religion that he could get his hands on, but be sent one of his friends to take notes on Denton’s lectures! It was a debate on the claims of the evolutionary theory, which had been influencing intellectual circles for sometime. Charles Darwin’s famous book on the Origin of Species appeared at about this time. Garfield argued for the miracle of creation as recorded in Genesis, while Denton contended for the validity of the nebular hypothesis. The smallest crowds numbered more than 700. Interestingly enough, as Garfield grew older and became more liberal he developed a very sympathetic attitude toward the evolutionary theory.

This debate was probably a turning point in Garfield’s life. Not only did it enhance his standing with the Disciples, who compared his contest with Denton to that of Campbell’s with Robert Owen, but it gave him prominence throughout the Reserve. It is a reasonable speculation that had Garfield not had that debate he would have continued as a teacher at Hiram College and a preacher of the gospel, and would never have become president. Only God knows which would have been better for him.

The debate also led him to a broader view of religion, for he literally read his way to an ecumenical position on Christianity. He was soon calling for more attention to the great principles of religion rather to doctrinal derails. He became so “undenominational” as to suppose that the Disciples themselves had become sectarian. This was of course long before the Restoration Movement began to divide itself into a score of fragmentary sects. There is no question but what Garfield was always dedicated to the cause of Christ, and it is certain that he never gave ground to scepticism or infidelity, but he surely became far too “liberal” for most of the brethren of his time. But he probably went no further than an Alexander Campbell would go when as a Congressman he wrote: “I try not to be a religious partisan, and I call all men my brethren who acknowledge and follow Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of men.” But he was too far out when he urged ministers to teach their people how to live in all spheres of life, whether business, political, economical.

He once admitted: “I recognize the fact that my general views of religion have broadened, but I hope they have not weakened my faith in the central doctrines of Christianity. I care less for denominational doctrines, but more for the spirit of Christ.”

He had that insatiable thirst for knowledge that usually leads one to more liberal views. He once had breakfast with Col. Robert Ingersoll, the agnostic, concerning which he wrote that he was interested in “studying the peculiarities of his remarkable mind.” He saw Ingersoll as both poetic and prejudiced. He dared to read stuff like Renan’s Life of Jesus, which rejects the deity of Christ, claiming that “it is pleasant to read the views of a strong man with whom you disagree.”

President Garfield was a Christian statesman in the finest meaning of that term. He was himself a noble example of what it means to be a Christian. He was above the littleness and cheapness that is too often found in political careers. After almost a century American history honors him as a devoted, high-minded leader. He believed in the equality, dignity, and freedom of the individual, often making reference to “the importance of man and the dignity of labor.” He was well ahead of his day in pleading for equal rights for Negroes. He saw democracy as the means of achieving the greatest attainable perfection of each citizen. Government is for man, not man for the government; and the purpose of social order is individual freedom, and so the power of government must be subordinated to the happiness and rights of the citizen.

He speaks to our time when he warns against two extremes: extreme individualism and regimented collectivism. He was also more vocal than most statesmen on the principle of separation of church and state. He stressed the moral obligation to be reasonable and intelligent, and he certainly registered his protest against anti-intellectualism in religion. He had faith in the common man, believing that he can build homes, schools and churches that can cultivate the best that is in man, accenting his intellectual and moral capabilities.

Americans in general and in particular can be thankful for James A. Garfield, “Campbellite” president. And they can hope that Lyndon B. Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency while this article was being prepared, and who is the second president within the Disciple tradition, will stand magnificently alongside James A. Garfield in responsible Christian statesmanship.

(In the preparation of this article I am especially indebted to James A. Garfield: His Religion and Education, by W. W. Wasson, Tennessee Book Co., Nashville,) — the Editor