James Garfield was a professor, school president, and ordained minister who became the 20th US president. He won by fewer than 10,000 votes and was shot less than four months into his term. Garfield was born in a log cabin in Ohio, became a military man during the Civil War, and was elected to the US House of Representatives and Senate. He began the prosecution of the Star Route trials and advocated for education and voting for African Americans. His death led to major reforms under his successor, Chester Arthur, due to poor medical care.
James Garfield was a professor, a school president, studied law, was ordained a minister, and became our country’s 20th president. In an election in which the popular vote was sharply split between North and South, he won by fewer than 10,000 votes. President Garfield was shot less than four months after he took office and served less time than anyone except William Henry Harrison.
James Garfield was born in a log cabin, the last president to be able to make that claim. The cabin was in Ohio, and it was 1831, two years before his father died, leaving his mother to try to run the family farm. The family was poor, but he graduated from Williams College and became a professor of ancient languages at Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, where he had taken classes. In 1857, James Garfield became the school’s president and advocated for its name change to Hiram College.
Garfield took an interest in the newly formed Republican Party and was elected to the state legislature in 1859. He became a military man during the Civil War, and was elected to the United States House of Representatives between being a brigade commander at the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Chickamauga, where his service earned him a promotion to major general. After serving nine terms and becoming chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, he was elected to the United States Senate in 1880.
That same year, James Garfield made the nomination speech for John Sherman at the Republican presidential convention, which featured a three-way race between Sherman, Ulysses S Grant and James G. Blaine. Grant, the former president, led the vote 35 ballots but failed to win a majority. On the 36th ballot, Garfield was nominated.
In his active four months in office, Garfield began the prosecution of the Star Route trials, which Chester Arthur continued. He advocated education and voting for African Americans, mentioning both of these elements in his inaugural address. The manner of his death helped lead to major reforms in this area under his successor, Chester Arthur.
How could his death have affected this? On July 2, 1861, James Garfield was killed by a man who had hoped to be appointed ambassador to France, Charles J. Guiteau, who was mentally unstable. Garfield’s death, eleven weeks later, is thought to be due to poor medical care resulting in complications, rather than life-threatening injuries.
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