President Garfield entered office as a popular president and would embark upon a number of anti-corruption reforms, a necessity given the Second American Republic was a one-party state, while also seeking for the greater inclusion of African-Americans and Women in the civil service. President Garfield and Congress would also implement the first nation-wide minimum wage of any country, currying him favour with his party's left.
The Panic of 1887 would come to overshadow Garfield's achievements, especially as his unwavering commitment to the Gold Standard would only, especially with the benefit of hindsight, worsen matters. While both factions of the Republican Party would circle the wagons around the embattled Garfield in the name of party unity, he would still face two unexpectedly strong opponents.
In the wake of the Panic, little-known author Edward Bellamy became a national sensation, with his book Looking Backwards depicting a utopian future becoming the third-highest selling book in American history at that point behind The Bible and Lincoln's memoirs. Bellamy would eschew the socialist label, decrying it as un-American, yet nevertheless proposed an economic platform that in his words, 'out-socialized the socialists' with the 'elimination of the tyranny of the market' and the nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy. Bellamy would see an incredible outpouring of public support with hundreds of Bellamy Clubs propping up around the country. Bellamy Club meetings were rather odd affairs, with Bellamy adopting his cousin's suggestion of having the crowd pledge allegiance to the American flag while raising their arm in a roman salute, something that President Garfield would mock as un-American.
Bellamy would not be the only opponent to President Garfield. John Harvey Kellogg was a strange man. He was highly devout, in his own way, his beliefs rather syncretic. In the wake of the Panic, and the ensuing American turn to spirituality, Kellogg garnered quite the following with his religious fervour. Some of Kellogg's views such as his promotion of vegetarianism, a healthy diet and abstinence from alcohol and tobacco to cleanse the spirit seem downright forward thinking, others such as the promotion of routine enemas and his vigorous opposition to the 'degeneracy of masturbation' seemed bizarre. Kellogg was an economic progressive and a nominal Republican, but would come to be expelled from the party over his unwavering promotion of re-segregation. But it was this that saw him gain a surprising amount of support in some quarters of the former Confederacy.
The Second American Republic was a one-party state, and Bellamy had, by far, the strongest campaign infrastructure of any non-Republican candidate the new state had ever seen. While he was unquestionably popular, many were suspicious over how professional his campaign was. In an October Surprise, Republican newspaper the New York Herald-Tribune revealed that foreign states, primarily France under far-right President Georges Boulanger had financed the Bellamy campaign, believing that his proto-socialist views would undermine American industry. Bellamy would deny the allegations, and there was no evidence that he had solicited or knowingly accepted the funds, but it would wound his campaign. Nevertheless, he still performed admirably well and many Republicans were scared for the future of their party's dominance given they only just broke a majority with a unified party.