acks of salary from customs house employees to support Boss Conkling's political machine in New York.A major confrontation between Conkling and President Rutherford B. Hayes occurred shortly after Hayes's inauguration. Hayes, eager to distance himself from the Grant administration's reputation for scandal, decided to reform the New York customs office as an example of his reform-minded agenda. He established a special commission to investigate corruption in the New York Customs House. The commission determined that political favoritism and blatant patronage had governed appointments, exposed the practice of salary kickbacks, and charged the port authority with being criminally over-staffed.Using the commission's findings, Hayes moved to remove Arthur by appointing him consul to Paris. Conkling and Arthur viewed Hayes's assertion of authority as an open declaration of war, that they fought in the Senate. To counter Conkling's opposition, Hayes bided his time, finally suspending Arthur after Congress had adjourned for the summer. Arthur and Conkling, determined to reassert their control of the Port, moved to draft former President Grant as Hayes' successor in the election of 1880.Since President Rutherford B. Hayes had declared that he was only going to serve one there was no incumbent and the 1880 election was a wide open race. Chester Arthur and party boss Roscoe Conkling's candidate, former President Ulysses S. Grant, and Senator James G. Blaine were the leading rivals at the 1880 Republican nominating convention. Blaine led the one Republican faction that struggled against Conkling's faction for control of the party. On the thirty-sixth ballot, a compromise deal was made and the Republicans rallied behind a political moderate, James Garfield of Ohio. Garfield was leader of the Republican minority in the House of Representatives and just prior to the convention, was elected by the Ohio legislature to the United States Senate. Conklings...
