Lessons on American Presidents.
Ready-To-Print Handouts, MP3 & Online Quizzes - James Garfield

James Garfield was born in Ohio, in 1831. Fatherless at two, he later drove canal boat , somehow earning enough money for an . He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1856, and later returned to Ohio as a classics . Within a year he was made its president. He 200 days as the 20th President of the United States before assassinated in 1881.

Garfield was to the Ohio Senate in 1859 as a Republican. During the recession crisis, he for strengthening the Union. In 1862, when Union military had been few, he successfully led a brigade in Kentucky Confederate troops. Ohioans elected him to Congress. He repeatedly won re-election for 18 years (nine terms), and became the Republican in the House.

At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield became the "dark " nominee. In the Presidential election, Garfield the Democratic nominee, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, by a of only 10,000 popular votes. As President, Garfield successfully managed a national debt . He also appointed several African Americans to prominent in his administration.

On July 2, 1881, President Garfield was on his to Williams College, where he was due to a speech. As he walked through a Washington railway station, he was twice by an assassin, Charles J. Guiteau and mortally wounded. He lay in the White House for weeks before from an infection and internal bleeding on September 19. He was 49. His words were: "My work is done."