 Soon after the nomination , Garfield was ordered to report to War Secretary Edwin Stanton in Washington to discuss his military future . There , Garfield met Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase , who befriended him , seeing him as a younger version of himself . The two men agreed politically , and both were part of the Radical wing of the Republican Party . Once he took his seat in December 1863 , Garfield was frustrated that Lincoln seemed reluctant to press the South hard . Many radicals , led in the House by Pennsylvania 's Thaddeus Stevens , wanted lands owned by rebels to be confiscated , but Lincoln threatened to veto any bill that would do that on a widespread basis . Garfield , in debate on the House floor , supported such legislation and , discussing England 's Glorious Revolution , hinted that Lincoln might be thrown out of office for resisting the bills . Although Garfield had supported Lincoln 's Emancipation Proclamation , the congressman marveled that it was a " strange phenomenon in the world 's history , when a second @-@ rate Illinois lawyer is the instrument to utter words which shall form an epoch memorable in all future ages " . 
