James Abram Garfield (19 November 1831 – 19 September 1881) was President of the United States from 4 March to 19 September 1881, succeeding Rutherford B. Hayes and preceding Chester A. Arthur. He previously served as a member of the US House of Representatives (R-OH 19) from 4 March 1863 to 8 November 1880 (succeeding Albert G. Riddle and preceding Ezra B. Taylor). Garfield led the center-left Half-Breeds against the center-right Stalwarts during a dispute over the civil service system, and Garfield's support for the abolition of the corrupt machine politics system led to his assassination by a delusional office-seeker, Charles J. Guiteau, in the first year of his presidency.
Biography[]
Early career[]
Garfield as a general
James Abram Garfield was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio in 1831, and he served in the State Senate from 1859 to 1861 and was admitted to the bar in 1861. At the start of the American Civil War, he engaged in speaking tours to encourage enlistments for the Union Army, and he was appointed colonel of the 42nd Ohio Infantry. Garfield rose to the rank of Major-General and fought at the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Chickamauga, and he went on to serve in the US House of Representatives, starting in 1863. He firmly supported the gold standard and gained a reputation as a skilled orator, and he was affiliated with the moderate faction of the Republican Party, advocating a cautious approach to enforcing the civil rights of freedmen during Reconstruction.
Presidency[]
At the 1880 Republican National Convention, Garfield served as campaign manager for Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman and nominated him for president, but, when none of the Republican candidates secured a majority of the delegates' votes, Garfield was chosen as a compromise on the 36th ballot. In the ensuing presidential campaign, he conducted a low-key front porch campaign, narrowly defeating Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock. As President, he purged corruption in the Post Office, oversaw an increase in the power of the President with regard to executive appointments, defeated the powerful Stalwart US Senator Roscoe Conkling's bid for Collector of the Port of New York (leading to Conkling's resignation), advocated for agricultural and educational reforms, supported civil rights for African-Americans, and proposed substantial civil service reforms to destroy the patron-client system. On 2 July 1881, he was shot twice at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington DC by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled and delusional office-seeker, who opposed his civil service reforms. He died from his wounds two months later, and Vice President Chester A. Arthur assumed the presidency, while Guiteau was executed.
Gallery[]
