Remembering Jimmy Garfield
On this day September 19th in 1881, 129 years ago today, President James Abram Garfield died from a heart attack while recovering from an assassin's bullet. He was shot on July 2nd by Charles Guiteau. I journalled about the assassination and about what might have been Garfield's medical malpractice suit in an earlier journal entry in this community.
Garfield was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio on November 19, 1831. He married Lucretia Rudolph in 1858. In 1860, he was admitted to the Bar whilst serving as an Ohio State Senator (1859–1861). Garfield served as a major general in the United States Army during the American Civil War and fought at the Battle of Shiloh. He entered congress as a Republican in 1863, opposing slavery and secession. Following compromises with Ulysses S. Grant, James G. Blaine and John Sherman, Garfield became the Republican party nominee for the 1880 Presidential Election and successfully defeated Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock.
Garfield was only president for 200 days. In his inaugural address, Garfield outlined a desire for Civil Service Reform which was eventually passed by his successor Chester A. Arthur in 1883 as the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. He was the second United States President to be assassinated. Following his death, Garfield was succeeded by Vice-President Chester A. Arthur.
If he had lived, Garfield my have been one of the greatest leaders in the field of civil rights. In his inaugural address he spoke of racial equality, in the language of the day. He said "The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787... There is no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen."
Garfield was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio on November 19, 1831. He married Lucretia Rudolph in 1858. In 1860, he was admitted to the Bar whilst serving as an Ohio State Senator (1859–1861). Garfield served as a major general in the United States Army during the American Civil War and fought at the Battle of Shiloh. He entered congress as a Republican in 1863, opposing slavery and secession. Following compromises with Ulysses S. Grant, James G. Blaine and John Sherman, Garfield became the Republican party nominee for the 1880 Presidential Election and successfully defeated Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock.
Garfield was only president for 200 days. In his inaugural address, Garfield outlined a desire for Civil Service Reform which was eventually passed by his successor Chester A. Arthur in 1883 as the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. He was the second United States President to be assassinated. Following his death, Garfield was succeeded by Vice-President Chester A. Arthur.
If he had lived, Garfield my have been one of the greatest leaders in the field of civil rights. In his inaugural address he spoke of racial equality, in the language of the day. He said "The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787... There is no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen."