#20: Garfield, James Abram

James Abram Garfield
20th President of the United States - HALFWAY, woop woop!
Nov. 19, 1831 (Orange Township, Ohio) Sept. 19, 1881 (Elberon, New Jersey)

• The World Book entry on James Garfield begins: “GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM (1831-1881), was the last President to be born in a log cabin. Nobody knows what kind of President he would have been, because he was assassinated only a few months after taking office.” Such drama and such brevity! I aspire to write as well. Also, what is it with log cabins that holds the American imagination so captive? I have my own thoughts, but I'll let you ponder upon it.
  


• According to World Book, “Garfield was a big, athletic, handsome man with blond hair and beard.” To wit (minus the beard):

• He was super smart too. “He occasionally entertained his friends by writing Greek with one hand and at the same time writing Latin with the other.” Boy, would I have liked to party with him.


• Garfield was nominated for the presidency in part because the fractured post-war Republican party (two factions in particular: the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds) couldn’t agree on a nominee. Garfield was the “dark horse.” Also, he had quite the leadership pedigree. He'd been a college professor, college president, lawyer, major general in the U.S. Army, and Congressman.


• Four months into his first term, Garfield was shot by a disappointed job seeker, Charles J. Guiteau. The shooting occurred while Garfield was waiting for a train on his way to attend the 25th reunion of his class at Williams College (which I visited many moons ago on a college campus tour of New England with my mom, and which has a James A. Garfield Collection, should you be interested in researching the man further). As President, Garfield had begun filling hundreds of government jobs with his supporters--the Spoils System, which Rutherford B. Hayes supposedly put an end to, rearing its ugly head. Guiteau had wanted Garfield to appoint him as U.S. consul to Paris, which Garfield didn't do. So he shot him. After the shooting, Garfield “lay near death for 80 days.” A single bullet had lodged in his back and surgeons could not find it. “Alexander Graham Bell tried unsuccessfully to locate the bullet with an electrical device.” World Book says that Garfield remained "calm and cheerful." Garfield ultimately died from infection of the wound. Ew. And sad.