James A. Garfield National Historic Site schedules special presidential election program

on November 01, 2012 at 7:21 AM, updated November 01, 2012 at 9:58 AM

MENTOR, Ohio -- For a little historical perspective on presidential elections, the James A. Garfield National Historic Site is debuting its program "The Campaign and Election of 1880" on Saturday at its visitors center.

"This is basically something we're doing to get people into the spirit of election season," said Todd Arrington, the James A Garfield National Historic Site Chief of Interpretation and Education. "Obviously the election is next Tuesday. We have a very different style of campaigning the candidates are doing now in sort of the modern era. We thought it might be fun to take a look back to an older style of campaigning, specifically the front porch style that James A. Garfield ran in 1880."

Just how different was this race that pitted Republican James A. Garfield against Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock? In the late 19th century, presidential campaigns were somewhat subtle affairs with candidates rarely hitting the road to sway voters. Instead, Arrington said people came to Mentor to hear what then Congressman and presidential hopeful Garfield was all about.

"People started showing up here in Mentor to get an idea of who he was and what he stood for," Arrington said. "They would come out to the property, walk over the crops and hang around the front of the house. There was no secret service protection or security on property. People were hanging around trashing the place."

Eventually Garfield started to give speeches on his front porch, which today faces Mentor Avenue.

"Garfield did a lot of talking about reminding people which party saved the Union during the Civil War, which party abolished slavery and which party was the rightful heirs to the tradition of Abraham Lincoln," Arrington said. "He didn't talk so much about himself or why he was the better candidate."

Apparently the front-porch campaign approach became the norm for the next quarter of a century. Naturally the media has changed Presidential elections but Arrington pointed out there are similarities between the 2012 race for the White House and the election of 1880.

"The 1880 election from a popular vote perspective was very close," Arrington said. "In fact, Garfield won the popular vote by less than 10,000 votes nationally. I don't know what's going to happen next week, but most indicators are that it will be close and there are a lot of indications that it will come down to Ohio, Florida or Virginia. In Garfield's case, it came down to one state that put him over the top, which was New York."

The 40-minute free program, "The Campaign and Election of 1880," takes place at 1 p.m. Saturday at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site, 8095 Mentor Ave., Mentor. For more information, call 440.255.8722 or visit online.