[185] 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 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.[187] He appointed William H. Hunt, a carpetbagger Republican from Louisiana, as Secretary of the Navy.[187] 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.[188]

Foreign policy and naval reform[edit]
Further information: History of U.S. foreign policy, 1861–1897
James G. Blaine, Garfield's Secretary of State
Garfield had little foreign policy experience, so he leaned heavily on Blaine.[189] They agreed on the need to promote freer trade, especially within the Western Hemisphere.