James A. Garfield

20th President of the United States
Term: March 4, 1881 - September 19, 1881
Born: November 19, 1831
Died: September 19, 1881

James Abram Garfield served as the twentieth President of the United States for just over six months before his tragic assassination. Although his presidency was one of the shortest in American history, Garfield's death profoundly influenced the direction of the federal government by significantly strengthening the movement for civil service reform.

Before ascending to the nation's highest office, Garfield established an impressive record as a soldier, educator, attorney, and long-serving congressman. His remarkable rise from deep childhood poverty remains one of the most compelling stories of social mobility in American history.

Early Life

James Garfield was born in a log cabin near Orange Township, Ohio, in 1831. His father died when Garfield was only two years old, leaving the family in severe poverty.

As a young man, Garfield worked numerous manual labor jobs to help support his family, including laboring on canals and farms. He briefly considered a career as a sailor before choosing to pursue higher education. Garfield attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute — later renamed Hiram College — and eventually graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts with honors. He later returned to Hiram College, serving as both a professor and its president.

Early Political Career

Garfield studied law and entered the political arena in Ohio. His diverse early public career included service in:

• The Ohio State Senate
• The Union Army during the Civil War
• The U.S. House of Representatives

Garfield remained in Congress for nearly eighteen years, establishing himself as one of the Republican Party's leading legislative voices on finance, education, and civil service reform.

The Civil War

When the Civil War erupted in 1861, Garfield volunteered for service in the Union Army. He rose rapidly through the military ranks, eventually attaining the rank of major general.

Among his most notable military accomplishments was leading the Union to victory at the Battle of Middle Creek in Kentucky, an engagement that helped secure federal control of eastern Kentucky early in the conflict. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln asked Garfield to resign his military commission after he was elected to Congress. Garfield became one of only a handful of future presidents to achieve the rank of general during the Civil War.

Election of 1880

The Republican Party entered the 1880 national convention deeply divided between competing internal factions. After thirty-five ballots failed to produce a nominee, convention delegates unexpectedly turned to Garfield as a compromise candidate.

Although Garfield had originally attended the convention to support another candidate, he emerged as the party's surprise "dark horse" nominee. He went on to defeat Democratic candidate Winfield Scott Hancock in a closely contested general election.

The Presidency

Garfield entered office determined to strengthen the executive branch through merit-based appointments rather than political patronage. One of his earliest priorities was reducing the sweeping influence of the "spoils system," under which lucrative government jobs were routinely awarded as political rewards. This reformist position quickly brought him into direct conflict with powerful members of his own Republican Party.

Civil Service Reform

Although Garfield had little time to implement major legislation, he publicly argued that government appointments should be based on ability and qualifications rather than party loyalty. His support for merit-based hiring became one of the defining principles of his brief administration. Ironically, Garfield's assassination would become the historic event that finally convinced a reluctant Congress to enact comprehensive civil service reform.

Conflict Within the Republican Party

The Republican Party of 1881 was divided between two major factions:

• The Stalwarts: Supported the traditional patronage system and political rewards.
• The Half-Breeds: Favored executive reform and merit-based appointments.

Garfield attempted to balance both groups but increasingly sided with the reformers. His federal appointments, particularly in New York's powerful customs office, deeply angered many Stalwart leaders.

Assassination

On July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. by Charles J. Guiteau. Guiteau falsely believed he deserved a high-level diplomatic appointment because he had supported Garfield's campaign. When no appointment came, Guiteau convinced himself that killing Garfield would unite the Republican Party and advance his own political interests.

Garfield survived the initial attack. However, nineteenth-century medical practices contributed significantly to his decline. Doctors repeatedly probed his wounds with unsterilized fingers and instruments while attempting to locate the bullet. Modern medical historians generally agree that Garfield likely could have survived the gunshot itself if treated with modern antiseptic techniques and surgical care. Instead, he developed severe infections and died on September 19, 1881, after suffering for seventy-nine days. Vice President Chester A. Arthur succeeded him.

Scientific Innovation During His Illness

During Garfield's prolonged treatment, Alexander Graham Bell developed an early metal detector in an attempt to locate the embedded bullet. The device itself functioned correctly, but the effort failed for two compounding reasons: the metal coil springs of Garfield's mattress created interference that Bell suspected was masking the signal, and attending physician Dr. D. W. Bliss — convinced the bullet was lodged on Garfield's right side — refused to allow Bell to scan the left side of the body. The autopsy later revealed the bullet had in fact traveled to the left. Had Bell been permitted to scan both sides, the springs alone may not have prevented the bullet's detection. Although unsuccessful in Garfield's case, Bell's invention represented an important early step in the development of metal detection technology.

Personal Life

Garfield married Lucretia Rudolph in 1858, and the couple had seven children together. Garfield was known for his immense intellectual curiosity, his exceptional memory, and his fluency in multiple languages including Greek, Latin, and German — making him the first presidential candidate to deliver a campaign speech in a language other than English, addressing a German-speaking crowd during the 1880 campaign.

Death and The Pendleton Act

James Garfield died on September 19, 1881. His funeral became a massive national event, with more than 100,000 people traveling to Washington to view his body. Widespread public sympathy strengthened demands for government reform.

Although enacted during Chester A. Arthur's subsequent presidency, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 was strongly influenced by public reaction to Garfield's assassination. The law established that many federal jobs would be filled through competitive examinations rather than political patronage, marking the formal beginning of the modern professional federal civil service.

Myth vs. History

Garfield Died Immediately After Being Shot
This is incorrect. Garfield lived for seventy-nine days after the initial shooting. Most historians believe the infections that developed during his treatment — not the gunshot wound alone — were the primary cause of his death. At his assassin's trial, Guiteau's own defense argued, not entirely without medical basis, that the doctors had killed Garfield, not the bullet.

Charles Guiteau Was Part of a Large Political Conspiracy
There is no credible evidence that Guiteau acted as part of a larger conspiracy. Historians generally agree he acted completely alone while suffering from severe mental illness and delusional beliefs.

Garfield Could Write Latin with One Hand and Greek with the Other Simultaneously
This famous story is almost certainly a legend. Shortly after Garfield's death, one of his sons tried to track it down — writing to relatives, friends, and family members who had known his father — and found no one who had ever witnessed the feat. Garfield's biographer Allan Peskin concluded: "It's true that Garfield was ambidextrous, but he just wasn't that ambidextrous." Garfield was genuinely multilingual and demonstrably ambidextrous; the specific simultaneous-writing claim simply has no contemporary documentation.

Garfield Accomplished Nothing Because He Served Only Six Months
Although Garfield had little opportunity to implement formal legislation, his open commitment to civil service reform and the national response to his assassination directly influenced one of the most important administrative reforms in the history of the federal government.

Historical Significance

If Rutherford B. Hayes began the movement toward reforming the federal civil service, James A. Garfield became its martyr. His assassination exposed the extreme dangers of a political patronage system in which disappointed office seekers expected government positions as rewards for political support. Public outrage over Garfield's death helped generate the momentum needed to establish a professional, merit-based civil service that continues to shape the federal government today.

Though his presidency was tragically brief, Garfield's influence far exceeded the six months he spent in office. His life demonstrated the possibilities of education, perseverance, and public service, while his death became the catalyst for one of the most enduring reforms in American government.