Garfield, JAMES ABRAM

Garfield, JAMES ABRAM, twentieth president of the United States, was born in Orange, Ohio, 19th November 1831. His father, who was descended from one of the Puritan founders of Watertown, Massachusetts (1630), died soon after the boy's birth, leaving his wife, the daughter of a Huguenot family that had settled in New England in 1685, to bring up unaided her four small children, battling bravely with poverty and privation in her lonely cabin in the 'Wilderness' (now the 'Western Reserve') of Ohio. At the age of ten young Garfield already added something to his mother's income by work on the neighbouring farms; in winter he made steady progress in the district school. In 1849 he entered Geauga Seminary, at Chester, Ohio; and in the summer months he turned to any and all kinds of work, to provide funds for the ensuing winter. At this period Garfield joined the Campbellite body. He next passed on to the college at Hiram, Ohio, supporting himself meanwhile by tuition, and finally graduated at Williams College, Massachusetts, in 1856. Returning to Hiram, he became its president in 1857, at the same time preaching and studying law. He was elected to the state senate in 1859, and on the outbreak of the war received the command of the 42d regiment of Ohio volunteers. In December 1861 he was given a brigade, with orders to drive the Confederates out of eastern Kentucky, and with reinforcements gained the battle of Middle Creek, 10th January 1862, from which his commission as brigadier-general was dated. He had been promoted major-general for gallantry at Chickamauga, September 19, 1863, when he resigned his command to enter congress, at the age of thirty-two. He sat in congress, rendering valuable assistance in military and financial questions, until 1880, and acted latterly as leader of the Republican party in the house. In January 1880 he was elected a United States senator, and in June of the same year he was adopted as presidential candidate by the Republican convention at Chicago. Garfield's nomination came as a surprise to his party, and was simply the result of a compromise between the supporters of Grant and Blaine, after thirty-three ineffectual ballots had proved that neither could secure the prize. He proved, nevertheless, a strong candidate, regardless of precedent delivered speeches in his own behalf, and finally defeated General Hancock by a narrow majority on the popular vote, but by 215 to 155 electoral votes. He was inaugurated on 4th March 1881, and identified himself with the cause of civil service reform, whereby he irritated a powerful section of his own party (see CONKLING). On the morning of 2d July, as he was setting off to witness the closing exercises of his old college, he was shot down from behind by a disappointed office-seeker, Charles Guiteau. For weeks he lingered between life and death; early in September he was removed to Long Branch, New Jersey, and there he died, at Elberon, 19th September 1881. He was buried at Cleveland (q.v.). The vice-president, General Arthur (q.v.), succeeded him. Garfield held power long enough to show himself worthy of it. His tragic death has given him prominence in the roll of American presidents, but it was his brave and patient endurance of suffering that endeared him most to his countrymen and claimed the sympathy and admiration of the rest of the world. His speeches were collected in 2 vols. (Boston, 1882). See the Life by J. R. Gilmore (1880).