In Washington , Hay oversaw a staff of eighty employees , renewed his acquaintance with his friend Henry Adams , and substituted for Evarts at Cabinet meetings when the Secretary was out of town . In 1880 , he campaigned for the Republican nominee for president , his fellow Ohioan , Congressman James A. Garfield . Hay felt that Garfield did not have enough backbone , and hoped that Reid and others would " inoculate him with the gall which I fear he lacks " . Garfield consulted Hay before and after his election as president on appointments and other matters , but offered Hay only the post of private secretary ( though he promised to increase its pay and power ) , and Hay declined . Hay resigned as assistant secretary effective March 31 , 1881 , and spent the next seven months as acting editor of the '' Tribune '' during Reid 's extended absence in Europe . Garfield 's death in September and Reid 's return the following month left Hay again on the outside of political power , looking in . He would spend the next fifteen years in that position
Garfield 's death
Assassination of James A. Garfield
John Hay