President James A. Garfield

By: Patrick Short

James A. Garfield was the 20^th president of the United States of America.  He was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1831.  He was graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1856, and he returned to the Western Reserve Eclectic in Ohio as a classics professor. Within a year he was made its president.  Garfield was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859 as a Republican.  When he was 31, he became a brigadier general, and two years later a major general of volunteers. In 1862, Ohioans elected him to Congress. James repeatedly won re-election for 18 years, and became the leading Republican in the House.  On 1880, by a margin of only 10,000 popular votes, Garfield defeated the Democratic nominee, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock.  As President, Garfield strengthened Federal authority over the New York Customs House.  On July 2, 1881, in a Washington railroad station, an attorney who lost to Garfield shot him.  He lay in the Whitehouse for weeks.  For a few days he seemed to be getting better, but on September 19, 1881, he died from an infection.

Works Cited

"President James A. Garfield." The White House. US Goverment. 21 Nov 2007 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/jg20.html>.

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