Republican · 1881
James A. Garfield
Reform agenda, cut short by assassination. The dot is that unfinished program.
James A. Garfield was president 1881. The party color on the chart is Republican. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: Reform agenda, cut short by assassination. The dot is that unfinished program.
The dot is economics +8 and authority +6. That is near the middle on economics. The other axis sits near the middle. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: Civil-service reform against the spoilsmen. Done: Assassinated before a statute. The promise was Arthur’s to sign. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are James Madison (1809–1817, +10 / +8) and John Quincy Adams (1825–1829, +2 / +6). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.