What Cause Would James Garfield Not Fight?

David Senra says James Garfield would fight almost any cause except his own political future. He refused to seek an appointment or promotion of any kind, an early habit that became a central law of his life. He admitted he was morbidly sensitive about any reference to his own achievements, and he did not want to become president.

Becoming president against his will cost him his life 199 days after he was inaugurated. When the presidency came up, he looked the other way. He had spent 17 years in Congress and watched men whose desperate desire for the White House ruin their careers, their character, and their lives. He wrote that he had so long and so often seen the evil effects of the presidential fever on his associates and friends that he was determined it would not seize him, because in almost every case it impairs if it does not destroy the usefulness of its victim.

A chapter opens on his warning that quiet is no certain pledge of permanence and safety: trees and flowers can bloom on a quiet mountainside while rain fills a cavern that, in a single moment, hurls that peace to wild ruin. The chapter is the one where he goes to a convention hoping to elect a nominee for his party and gives a speech so compelling that the crowd decides he should be the nominee.