James Abram Garfield (Final document)
20th President of the United States
James Abram Garfield was the last child born to Abraham and Eliza Garfield in Orange Township,
now Moreland Hills in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
He was the last president to be born in a log cabin and the second to be assassinated
while in office.
James was only 18 months old in 1833 when his father died at home from fever and exhaustion
he acquired while fighting a wildfire that was threatening their home.
Garfields upbringing was then left to his mother and an uncle,
James was still very young when he had to start working the farm with the rest of the
family.
He learned the alphabet in a school on the corner of the Garfield farm and read the Noah
Webster spelling book at age four.
He didn't like being a farmer.
He wanted to be a sailor, so at sixteen he left home to work on the canal boats that
shuttled commerce between Cleveland and Pittsburgh.
He fell overboard fourteen times in the six weeks he worked on the boats.
He finally caught a fever, and had to go back home.
While he recovered, James decided it would probably be better for him to make his way
in the world using his brains instead of his brawn.
From 1851 to 1854, he attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in Hiram, Ohio.
The name of that institution was later was changed to Hiram College.
He then transferred to Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
There he became a brother of Delta Upsilon and graduated in 1856 as an outstanding student.
After graduation he returned to the Eclectic Institute as an instructor.
During the 1856-1857 academic year he taught classical languages there and became the schools
principal from 1857 to 1860.
He married a former classmate Lucretia Rudolph, on November 11, 1858
They had seven children (five sons and two daughters): Eliza, Harry, James, Mary, Irvin,
Abram, and Edward.
Only five lived to adulthood.
Their first born, Eliza Arabella who they called "Trot" died in 1863 when she was just
three years old.
Edward died in 1876 when he was only two.
Garfield studied law in private, and became interested in politics before entering the
bar in 1860.
In 1856, after campaigning in Ohio for John C. Frémont, the presidential candidate of
the newly formed Republican Party, and before being admitted into the bar, Garfield threw
himself into state politics, becoming the youngest member of the Ohio legislature in
1859.
Garfield resigned his position at Hiram College in 1860 and joined the Union Army starting
as a lieutenant-colonel of the Forty-Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry which took part in
several civil war battles including Shiloh and Chickamauga.
Lincoln nominated him to be a Republican U.S. representative of Ohio in 1863 because he
wanted men in Congress who knew the Army.
Garfield ran and was elected in 1863.
After the election, at Lincolns urging, he reluctantly resigned his commission in the
United States Army on December 5, 1863, with the rank of major general.
Garfield served in congress until 1881.
His congressional career wasn't without problems.
For instance, he was accused in 1872 of ethics violations
when he was accused of accepting bribes in the Crédit Mobilier scandal.
A scandal that damaged the careers of several politicians of the time.
The accusations were never proven and later dropped.
He was appointed by the Ohio legislature to the United States Senate in January 1880.
He had to decline the appointment though because he was elected president a few months before
he was to claim his seat in the Senate.
James A. Garfield was President Of The United States from March 4, 1881 until his death
on September 19, 1881 his last 80 days were served incapacitated because of gunshot wounds
received from Charles J. Guiteau. at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington,
D.C.
On July 2, 1881.
Guiteau learned of the trip while reading a discarded newspaper he picked up in a hotel
lobby and was waiting at the station.
When Garfield arrived, Guiteau stepped forward and shot him twice from behind, the first
grazing his shoulder, the second hitting him in the back.
Garfield was at the Railroad Station on that day on his way to Williams College, where
he was scheduled to deliver a speech before beginning his vacation.
He was looking forward to a vacation with his wife, Crete, who had been recovering from
malaria in Long Branch New Jersey
There was no Secret Service protection for presidents as it was designed by Abraham Lincoln
to protect the American currency from counterfeiting, not presidents.
When President William McKinley was assassinated in1901, his vice president, President Theodore
Roosevelt was the first president to have the protection.
Garfield accomplished little during his short time as president, but his death inspired
the United States Congress and his successor, President Chester A. Arthur, to reform the
public service system with the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883, which would effectively
remove situations like the one that led to Garfields assassination.
Garfield lived for about 80 days before finally finding peace on September 19, 1881
Many modern physicians familiar with the case state that Garfield might have easily recovered
from his wounds with sterile medical care, which was uncommon in the United States until
a decade later.
Candice Millard in her 2012 award winning book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness,
Medicine and the Murder of a President, available at Amazon.com, argues that Garfield could
have survived Guiteau's bullet had his doctors simply left him alone.
I agree with that statement but I also realize that accepted medical practices of the time
were used.
Garfield was conscious but in shock when they carried him to an upstairs room at the Sixth
street station where doctors tried but failed to find the bullet and remove it.
He was then taken back to the White House and was expected to die before morning.
Which didn't happen.
As a matter of fact his vital signs showed improvement.
However his temperature went up and down constantly and he was unable to eat solid foods.
In order to escape the Washington heat Garfield was taken by train to Elberon, New Jersey
on the Jersey Shore.
It was hoped the the fresh sea air and quiet would aid him in his recovery.
He died thirteen days later from a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm.
On his return to Washington his body laid in state for two days in the capital rotunda
before he was taken to Cleveand, Ohio where he was buried on September 26th.
What caused Guiteau to assassinate Garfield?
There are several official or so called factual accounts out there.
Many more personal ones.
His families opinion was that he was insane.
My simple opinion based on reading stories of his history, is that his narcissistic feelings
were hurt when nobody but him believed he was responsible for Garfield winning the election.
He did however hold the initial responsibility for the death of the president.
Guiteau was tried
for the murder and found guilty on January 25, 1882.
He was then hanged on June 30, 1882.
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