 Garfield believed that the key to improving the state of African American civil rights would be found in education aided by the federal government . During Reconstruction , freedmen had gained citizenship and suffrage that enabled them to participate in government , but Garfield believed their rights were being eroded by Southern white resistance and illiteracy , and was concerned that blacks would become America 's permanent " peasantry " . His answer was to propose a " universal " education system funded by the federal government . Congress and the northern white public , however , had lost interest in African @-@ American rights , and federal funding for universal education did not find support in Congress during Garfield 's term . Garfield also worked to appoint several African Americans to prominent positions : Frederick Douglass , recorder of deeds in Washington ; Robert Elliot , special agent to the Treasury ; John M. Langston , Haitian minister ; and Blanche K. Bruce , register to the Treasury . Garfield believed that Southern support for the Republican party could be gained by " commercial and industrial " interests rather than race issues and began to reverse Hayes 's policy of conciliating Southern Democrats . He appointed William H. Hunt , a carpetbagger Republican from Louisiana , as Secretary of the Navy . To break the hold of the resurgent Democratic Party in the Solid South , Garfield took patronage advice from Virginia Senator William Mahone of the biracial independent Readjuster Party , hoping to add the independents ' strength to the Republicans ' there . 
