DARK HORSE

James Garfield’s 1880 dark horse nomination for president after the longest-ever Republican convention (36 ballots), his victory in the closest-ever presidential popular vote, his struggle against feuding factions once elected, and its climax of violence, all produced one of the most dramatic presidential odysseys of the Gilded Age.  The era’s decency is seen contrasted against sharp partisanship, hauntingly familiar to modern America.  But in this case, it ended in the pistol shots of assassin Charles Guiteau.