Most Worshipful Brother SeluciusGarfielde (he insisted on the “e” at the end of his name)was born at Shoreham, Vermont on December 8, 1822, exactly three years before his life-long friend, Thomas Milburne Reed. It is stated that he was a first cousin of the father of President Garfield.
At the age of 13 he started out, first to Gallipolis, Ohio, and then to Paris, Kentucky, without money, to acquire an education and make his way in the world; and from that time he received no financial aid from parents or friends. At 15, he began teaching; at 18, entered college at Augusta where he was graduated in 1842. He then taught school for two years in Mason and Fleming Counties in Kentucky and in 1844 was admitted to the bar and married.
Brother Garfielde was brought to Masonic Light in Holloway Lodge, No. 153, Sherburne, Kentucky, in the autumn of 1847. Brother Thomas M. Reed, as a member of that Lodge, assisted in conferring the degrees upon him; and, in turn, Garfielde subsequently presided in Sherburne Chapter, No. 47, when Brother Reed was therein exalted to the Holy Royal Arch. BrotherGarfielde also took the Cryptic and Scottish Rite degrees, the latter including the 32d degree, in Boston in 1853. He affiliated with Olympia Lodge (then a part of the Oregon Jurisdiction) on September 19, 1857. He would be elected as Grand Master of our jurisdiction in 1860. Upon leaving office, he was granted a dimit from membership in Washington.
Garfielde’spolitical career began in 1849 when he was elected, as a Democrat, in a county having a Whig majority of 600 or 800, to be a member of the State Constitutional Convention.
The following year he lost his wife, and the three children she had borne him all died in early infancy. Bowed down with sorrow, he sailed for California, around the Horn. In September, 1851, he was found by his boyhood friend, Thomas Milburne Reed, lying ill and destitute, alone, on a bed of loose straw in a small tent in the outskirts of Sacramento. Tenderly nursed back to health by that brother of the mystic tie, he resumed the practice of the law, at Georgetown, California, and entered upon a public and political career.In 1852, Garfielde was elected to the California State Assembly as a Democrat from El Dorado County. He served a single term, from January 3 to May 19, 1853. While in the Legislature, he was appointed on a commission to compile the first California Code.
Active in Democratic politics, he was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1856, where he became a supporter of Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Though Douglas lost the Democratic nomination to James Buchanan,Garfielde proved a loyal Democrat traveling heavily through what were then the western and northwestern states, delivering thousands of public speeches in support of Buchanan. He earned a wide reputation as a "captivating" public speaker.
President Buchanan proved grateful to Garfielde for his campaign efforts, and appointed him Receiver of Public Monies for the Land Office in the Washington Territory. Garfielde emigrated to Olympia, Washington Territory, that spring. Almost immediately, he became a supporter of Isaac Stevens, then campaigning for election as Washington Territory's first Territorial Delegate to Congress. When Stevens ran for re-election in 1858, Garfielde abandoned him early in the campaign. He feared that Stevens would lose the general election, jeopardizing Garfielde's position at the land office.
By 1859, Garfield's political views had shifted. A staunch Unionist, Garfielde (still a Democrat) now allied himself with the newly formed Republican Party. William Winlock Miller, a former prominent federal official in the Oregon Territory who had become an important businessman in the region, advised Stevens to deprive Garfielde of his land office position. Stevens attempted to do so in January 1860. But Democrats in Kentucky rallied to Garfielde's defense, forcing Stevens to hold off. By late May, however, Garfielde's support had withered in light of his pro-Republican activities, and Stevens was able to block Garfielde's reappointment. Garfielde's term as receiver of public moneys ended on August 16, 1860.
Garfielde sought the Democratic Party nomination for Territorial Delegate in 1861. Stevens saw unification of the Democratic Party as the only solution to the national crisis over slavery, which was threatening to tear the United States apart. Garfielde, however, broke with pro-secession Democrats, putting him at odds with Stevens. At the Democratic Party's territorial convention, pro-Union forces obtained a ruling from the chair that proxy votes could not be counted. This heavily damaged Stevens' chances for renomination as Territorial Delegate. After two rounds of balloting, some of Stevens' supporters became disgusted with their treatment by the chair and walked out. His candidacy crippled, Isaac Stevens withdrew his name from contention. The convention then split, with pro-Union forces nominating Garfielde and pro-secession forces nominating territorial judge Edward Lander. Republicans, meanwhile, nominated attorney William H. Wallace. Garfielde and Lander spent the campaign attacking one another, and on election day Wallace won election to Congress with 43 percent of the vote.
Garfielde switched political parties, becoming a Republican some time between November 1861 and January 1864. Garfielde continued to practice law, but he also continued to be actively involved in politics. In the Territorial Delegate election of 1864, he stumped throughout the territory for Republican candidate Arthur A. Denny. By 1865, Garfielde could be counted among the top Republican contenders for any office he chose. In 1866, the Republicans denied Denny the nomination, choosing instead Alvan Flanders. Garfielde's popularity was such that, at the beginning of the convention, even he received a few votes to be the party nominee.
President Andrew Johnson appointed him surveyor general of Washington Territory in 1866, and he served in that position until early 1869. Garfielde continued to have outside interests as well. About 1868, Garfielde joined with Daniel Bagley, P.H. Lewis, Josiah Settle, and George F. Whitworth to buy up several abandoned coal mining claims east of Seattle. They formed the Lake Washington Company, and won passage of legislation in the state legislature creating the Coal Creek Road Company. The road firm's goal was to build a road east to the coal fields. In 1870, the owners sold out to new investors, reaping a profit of 500 percent.
In 1868, Garfielde sought and won the Republican Party's nomination for Territorial Delegate. His nomination was not without problems. Garfielde's inconstant political views and his flowery oratory had alienated many, who felt he was a political opportunist. They nicknamed him "Selucius the Babbler". Opposition to Garfielde's nomination was so strong that Alvan Flanders, the incumbent Territorial Delegate who had been denied renomination, and Christopher C. Hewitt, Chief Justice of the Washington Territorial Supreme Court, distributed a circular declaring the state Republican Party near collapse. They and the other signatories to the circular (which numbered more than 50 prominent Republicans) declared the party nomination process fraudulent and demanded radical reorganization of the party machinery. These and other accusations led to a significant backlash against the disaffected Republicans, who quickly retreated from their positions and declined to nominate their own candidate. The damage done, however, was significant. Garfielde won election over Marshall F. Moore by just 149 votes out of more than 5,300 cast. Due to a change in the date of the election, Garfielde's term of office lasted nearly three years. He began serving on March 4, 1869, but the House declined to seat him until December 1870. Garfielde won re-election to Congress in 1870 over Walla Walla Democrat J.D. Mix by a more comfortable 735 votes out of more than 6,200 cast.
Garfielde lost re-election to Congress in 1872. Garfielde's desire to make money on outside business interests did not abate during his tenure in Congress. In 1871, Jay Cooke, the investment banker who controlled the Northern Pacific Railway (NP), hired Garfielde to stump throughout the Washington Territory to promote the railway's interests among voters. Cooke hired Garfielde, in part, because he believed this would please Frederick Billings, then the head of the NP's land office. But Billings heartily disliked Garfield, accusing him of being "too much of a politician" and arguing that it was unseemly for a sitting member of Congress to engage in such blatant promotion of a specific business interest. Billings also believed that Garfielde had allied himself too closely to independent loggers who routinely stolen timber from NP forest lands. Garfielde believed his work for the railway and the loggers would win him the votes he needed for re-election. But Garfielde did not count on the massive influx of new voters into the Washington Territory, most of whom were Democrats. Garfielde was defeated in 1872 in his bid for a third term by Democrat Obadiah Benton McFadden by 761 votes out of 7,700 cast. He left office on March 3, 1873.
Garfielde remained influential in Republican politics, however. President Ulysses S. Grant, elected to a second term as President in November 1872, appointed him customs collector for the Puget Sound District on March 26, 1873. Garfielde left Washington, D.C., and moved to Seattle where he engaged in the practice of law and served as customs collector until June 22, 1874.
Garfielde returned to Washington, D.C., shortly after losing his customs job. He established several gambling parlors in the city, and although frequently raided he never served jail time. He had long exhibited a number of habits, many of which—like gambling, heavy drinking, and womanizing—were considered bad if not outright immoral by good citizens of the day. Suffice to say his conduct was a matter of great discussion at the 21st Annual Communication in 1878.
Garfielde fell ill with both pleurisy and pneumonia in April 1883. He began deteriorating quicklyand died at his home on April 13, 1883. He was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in D.C., with only the stones “Garfield” (no “e”) to mark his grave.His standing as Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Washington Territory, Masonic rites were not observed at his funeral as he had not affiliated with any lodge in the D.C. area.