This is the fifth in a nine-part series looking at Ohio’s history of presidents. Some of the information was gleaned from a kit provided by the Ohio Historical Society released in 1967 titled “Portraits of Ohio Presidents.” Richland Source has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites. Part I, an introduction, was published on Feb. 9. Part II, on William Henry Harrison, was published on Feb. 16. Part III, on Ulysses S. Grant, was published on Feb. 23. Part IV, on Rutherford B. Hayes, was published on March 2.
I have always felt a personal connection to James A. Garfield, for one very simple reason. Beginning in the autumn of 1972, I attended Garfield Elementary School in Heath, Ohio. The school was named for the former president, and American history was a significant part of our curriculum — particularly in the fifth grade.
Learning more about the Ohio native made him even more admirable. His tragic assassination after just 200 days in the Oval Office triggered deeper empathy.
Garfield was born in a log cabin in Orange Township of Cuyahoga County on Nov. 19, 1831. His father, Abram, died when the future president was just 2, and the poverty-stricken boy largely grew up without a father. Although his mother remarried in 1842, it lasted briefly, and she was granted a divorce in 1850 — a scandalous affair at the time.
The last of the log-cabin presidents, Garfield left home at 16 and made his way by driving mules that pulled boats along the Ohio Canal. He earned enough to afford an education, and excelled as a student. Garfield graduated from Geauga Academy in 1850, where he met Lucretia Rudolph, who would eventually become his wife. Five of their seven children survived infancy.
Garfield attended what became known as Hiram College, and underwent a religious transformation in 1850. Becoming a born-again Christian in the Chagrin River would shape the rest of his life. He served as a preacher and a teacher and later enrolled at Williams College in Massachusetts.
Garfield was fascinated by politics while at Williams, and honed an ardent anti-slavery position. On the eve of the Civil War, his personal and professional life became a whirlwind of activity. He dabbled in politics, married Lucretia in 1858, was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1860, and passed the bar exam in 1861.Â
Entering the Civil War, he was commissioned a colonel in the Union Army in August 1861, and was challenged to organize the 42nd Ohio Infantry regiment.
On Jan. 9, 1862, in the Battle of Middle Creek, Kentucky, Garfield’s forces drove the Confederates from their position, earning him a promotion to Brigadier General. He served under fellow Ohioan Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Shiloh, and was fortunate to emerge without a scratch in one of the bloodiest battles of the war.
In the Battle of Chickamauga in September, 1863, Garfield correctly noted Union troops had staved off the Rebels at Missionary Ridge, and sent a telegram to Washington requesting more troops immediately — 20,000 arrived within nine days. His appraisal of the scene helped the Yankees avoid a rout under General William Rosecrans, and while the latter was demoted, Garfield was promoted to Major General.
Garfield was elected to Congress while a general, but was conflicted about leaving the Army. He met with President Abraham Lincoln, who advised Garfield there was an excess of generals and a shortage of administration congressmen, especially those with knowledge of military affairs.
So, Garfield resigned his military commission in favor of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Interestingly, although he was a huge proponent of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, he was not at all impressed by the president himself.
“It’s a strange phenomenon in the world’s history when a second-rate Illinois lawyer is the instrument to utter words which shall form an epoch memorable in all future ages,” Garfield famously said of Lincoln, whom he did not favor for re-election in 1864. “He will probably be the man, though I think we could do better.”
Although his stance on Lincoln softened in later years, he made no mention of praise, or even of the president at all, in a speech the day after John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre.
Garfield remained an active member for nine terms in the U.S. House of Representatives until 1880, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. But he never served in that capacity. At the Republican convention, delegates were split between Grant and James G. Blaine.
Incidentally, Garfield supported Mansfield’s John Sherman for the nomination and made an impassioned speech on his behalf.
But in the ensuing chaos, it was Garfield who emerged as a compromise candidate on the 36th ballot. In the presidential election, he narrowly defeated Democratic nominee, General Winfield Scott Hancock, by 10,000 votes.
In the aftermath, Sherman was elected to the Senate to take Garfield’s place with the Ohio seat.
Civil Service reform was at the top of Garfield’s wish list as president. He also wanted to increase trade and influence with Latin America and spread the nation’s influence in the world via commercial treaties with Korea and Madagascar. In addition, he wanted to modernize and expand the U.S. Navy.
But his plans were cut short when he was shot at a Washington, D.C., railroad station on the night of July 2, 1881, less than four months into his term. The assassin was Charles J. Guiteau, a deranged office-seeker who believed Garfield owed him a political appointment.
Garfield lingered for months but eventually died on Sept. 19, 1881. Guiteau was convicted of murder and executed by hanging one year after the shooting.
Garfield is considered by some as the greatest “What If President” in history.
