President James A Garfield | Daily Bellringer

Today we're looking at President James A. Garfield. Hello, welcome to the Daily Bellringer. Please don't forget to subscribe, and take a look at the questions down in the description. James A. Garfield was the 20th President of the United States from March 4, 1881 until September 19, 1881, when he died from an assassin's bullet. Garfield was a member of the Republican Party and was the second president in history to be assassinated, with Abraham Lincoln being the first. James Garfield was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio on November 19, 1831, the youngest of five children, born to Abram and Eliza Garfield. Interestingly, Garfield would be the final president to be born in a log cabin. At the age of two, his father, Abram, died, and Garfield's family basically lived in poverty. Garfield later noted that he had a difficult childhood, dealing with living in poor conditions and with little means in education. At the age of 17 in 1848, he was accepted to attend classes at Geauga Seminary, not far from his home. While attending Geauga, he met and fell in love with Lucretia Rudolph, and the two would later marry in 1858 and have seven children together. To support himself during this time, Garfield worked as a carpenter and part-time school teacher. After graduating from Geauga in 1850, he then went on to attend Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, where he studied Greek and Latin. After graduating from Hiram College, Garfield took his education even further by enrolling at Williams College in Massachusetts. He gained the attention of many of his professors for being a brilliant student, and he also began to teach many classes himself. While at Williams College, Garfield began to get involved in the abolitionist movement and began to become very interested in politics and government. After graduating from Williams College in 1856, he returned to Ohio and began working in the law office of Albert Gallatin Riddle in Cleveland. He also joined the Republican Party and was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1860. Soon after, on April of 1861, the opening shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, and Garfield was eager to join the Union cause as he viewed the war as a crusade to end slavery. Although Garfield wanted to sign up to fight, at the outset of the war, he did not immediately join the Union Army. Rather, he helped raise funds and traveled throughout Ohio recruiting troops to form regiments. By August of 1861, he was commissioned as a colonel of the 42nd Ohio Infantry. Garfield would go on to see action fighting in eastern Kentucky, then taking part of the Battle of Shiloh in southwestern Tennessee, and also being present at the Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga. While serving in the Union Army in the war, Garfield was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, basically without even campaigning at all. He resigned his command in late 1863 to serve in the House, having reached the rank of Major General. Garfield aligned himself with the Radical Republicans in Congress, and was at many times frustrated with President Lincoln's lenient stance dealing with the Confederacy. Garfield favored policies that would have confiscated Confederate property, and either banished or executed Confederate leaders. As the war concluded, Garfield remained in the House of Representatives, and strongly supported the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, and also argued for more rights for former enslaved people helping to push through the 14th and 15th Amendments. Garfield would take part in the impeachment hearings of President Andrew Johnson, and would also be embroiled in political scandals surrounding railroads being constructed into the West. At the same time, throughout the 1870s, Garfield attempted to maintain a law practice while also serving in Congress. In 1880, Garfield was elected to the U.S. Senate, but never officially took a seat in the Senate. In that same year, he attended the Republican National Convention to help his friend John Sherman win the nomination for President. Out of nowhere, Garfield himself garnered enough votes to be the Republican candidate for President, and took on Chester Arthur as his Vice President. In the general election, Garfield defeated Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock, barely winning the popular vote by 10,000 votes out of over 9 million cast, but winning the Electoral College easily 214 to 155. Garfield would be the only sitting member of the House of Representatives to be elected directly to the White House. Garfield was inaugurated on March 4, 1881, as the 20th President of the United States. In his few months as President, Garfield primarily worked on assembling his cabinet and challenging the power of factions within the Republican Party. He also began to push for civil service reform, or in other words, he wanted to change what was known as the spoil system, in which winners of elections could simply appoint their supporters to government offices that many times led to corruption and inefficiency. In fact, one could argue the spoil system led to Garfield's assassination. On July 2, 1881, when about to board a train at the 6th Street Station in Washington, D.C., Garfield was shot twice, once in the arm and once in the back with the bullet in his back shattering a rib and then embedding somewhere in his abdomen. The assassin was Charles Gouteau, who had been seeking an appointment from the President but had been refused. Garfield survived the initial attack, but the wound became infected and doctors could not locate the bullet to remove it. Garfield lingered in terrible pain and agony for nearly two months, losing over 60 pounds, and then died on September 19, 1881, at the age of 49. So, with that, hopefully you learned something, and thanks for watching.