James Abram Garfield

James Abram Garfield 1831-81, 20th President of the United States (Mar.-Sept., 1881). Born on a frontier farm in Cuyahoga co., Ohio, he spent his early years in poverty. As a youth he worked as farmer, carpenter, and canal boatman. After graduation (1856) from Williams College, he became a teacher of ancient languages and literature at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute at Hiram, Ohio (the name was later changed, largely through his influence, to Hiram Institute), and later (1857-61) was its principal. He was also a lay preacher of the Disciples of Christ, was admitted (1859) to the bar, and was elected an antislavery state senator. During the Civil War he served in the Union army and was a major general of volunteers when he resigned (1863) to take his seat as Representative in Congress. He was a regular Republican, unhesitatingly following his party's postwar program of radical Reconstruction and later of hard-money deflationism and opposition to civil service reform. On the tariff issue he was evasive. Garfield was prominent in the settlement of the disputed election of 1876 (in which Rutherford B. Hayes was finally adjudged the winner), but in 1880 he was still only moderately well known nationally. He was campaign manager for John Sherman in the Republican convention but on the 36th ballot was himself chosen as compromise candidate for President. Former President Grant, who had wanted the nomination, and his supporter, Roscoe Conkling , gave Garfield only formal aid in the election—and allegedly even that was conditioned on a promise of a share in the President's political favors. After Garfield had defeated W. S. Hancock and was President, he passed over Conkling's "Stalwarts" in his appointments and appointed James G. Blaine, Conkling's political enemy, Secretary of State. War was thus declared between the President and the most important faction of the Republican party. Garfield won the first round of the fight, getting his appointee for the New York port collectorship approved over Conkling's objections. He began prosecution of the star route postal frauds. Constantly harassed by office seekers, President Garfield met his death through one of them. On July 2, 1881, he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau. On Sept. 19 he died, and Chester A. Arthur succeeded to the presidency. Garfield was a brilliant orator and an able, knowing, and charming man. He had shown little originality or force in his 17 years as Congressman, and his early death prevented him from showing whether or not he might have demonstrated statesmanship as President.

Bibliography: See his diary, ed. by H. J. Brown and F. D. Williams (1967-81); T. C. Smith, Life and Letters of James A. Garfield (1925, repr. 1968); biographies by J. M. Taylor (1970) and A. Peskin (1978).

Garfield, James Abram (1831–81) 20th US president (1881). He served in the Civil War until 1863, when he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1876, he became the Republican Leader of the House. The 1880 Republican convention was deadlocked and, on the 36th ballot, he became the compromise presidential candidate. His four-month administration was characterized by party squabbles over federal jobs and political patronage. He was assassinated on July 2, 1881, and was succeeded by his Vice President, Chester A. Arthur.

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Garfield, James Abram (1831–81) US politician, 20th President (1881) of the USA. He served in the AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, retiring as a major-general, and then entered national politics as a Republican Congressman (1863–80). One of the politicians smeared with the Crédit Mobilier of America financial scandal, he was rescued by James G. BLAINE. During the Republicans' feud between the self-styled “Half Breeds” (members of that wing of the Republican Party that favoured a conciliatory policy towards the South, and advocated civil service reforms) and “Stalwarts” (their Republican opponents), he emerged as the compromise candidate to fight, and win, the presidential election of 1880. His assassination within months of taking office by a disappointed office-seeker sealed the fate of the Stalwarts and ensured support for civil service reform in the Pendleton Act(1883).