VI.

United States Congressman

Garfield's military service ended with his election to the House of Representatives. In December 1863 he started his first term as representative for his home district. Garfield was reelected for eight successive terms to the same office.

Garfield was a loyal Republican. He favored a policy of “hard money,” the principle that all paper money issued by the government should be secured by gold or silver. He took no strong stand on the issue of whether tariffs (taxes on imports) should be set high to protect American industry from foreign competition. After the Civil War he sided with the Radical Republican faction that opposed the moderate policy toward the defeated South advocated by President Andrew Johnson. Garfield supported the Radicals' proposed punitive measures, including seizure of the property of those who had served the Confederacy. He joined in the Radical demand for voting rights for blacks.

Serving on the influential Ways and Means Committee and Appropriations Committee in the House, Garfield soon became a power in his party. In 1876, when Representative James G. Blaine of Maine resigned his seat to serve in the Senate, Garfield assumed Republican leadership in the House.

During his rise to political power, two incidents were made public that tarnished Garfield's record. He was named among the House members who were allegedly bribed to delay a congressional investigation of the Crédit Mobilier company, which had made illegal profits from government contracts. Garfield denied the charges, but they provided a political weapon for his foes. He was also accused of accepting fees from a company trying to obtain a paving contract from the city government of Washington, D.C. Both scandals were known to Garfield's Ohio constituents in 1874, but he was elected for a seventh term.

Garfield supported Rutherford B. Hayes in the bitterly fought presidential campaign of 1876, which, because of disputed elections in several Southern states, resulted in a deadlock. Garfield served on the electoral commission appointed to decide the election. Like the other members of the commission, he decided in favor of his party's candidate.