Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: James Garfield's Faith
[Originally posted on November 19, 2015 as part of our Presidents and Faith series.]
James Garfield has the distinction of being the only President of the United States to have worked as a clergyman prior to becoming President. Garfield was born on November 19, 1831, in a log cabin in Orange Township, now Moreland Hills, Ohio. His parents, Abram and Eliza Garfield, joined a religious denomination known as the Disciples of Christ in 1833 when James was two years old. Abram Garfield died later that year and the five Garfield children were raised in poverty by their strong-willed mother.
In 1848, Garfield attended Geauga Seminary, where he showed proficiency in languages and elocution. He took a liking to public speaking. It was at Geauga where he met his future wife, fellow student Lucretia Rudolph. To support himself at Geauga, he worked as a carpenter's assistant and as a teacher. He continued to attend church, but it is said that at first, this was done more to please his mother than for genuine religious interest. However in his late teens he professed to have experienced a religious awakening, and he attended many camp meetings. At one of these, he was said to be "born again" and the following day, on March 4, 1850, he was baptized into the Disciples of Christ by being submerged in the icy waters of the Chagrin River. He wrote in his diary "I was buried with Christ and arose to walk in the newness of Life."
After leaving Geauga, Garfield worked for a year at various jobs, including teaching. From 1851 to 1854, he attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later named Hiram College) in Hiram, Ohio, a school run by the Disciples of Christ. While there, he was most studied Greek and Latin. He was hired to teach while still a student. Lucretia Rudolph was one of his students.
It was at this time that Garfield developed a regular preaching circuit at neighboring churches. His usual remuneration was a gold dollar per service. In one of his sermons, entitled "The Material and the Spiritual," Garfield presented Christianity as a remedy to what he saw as a growing materialism. He said:
"Men are tending to materialism. Houses, lands, and worldly goods attract their attention, and, as a mirage, lure them on to death. Christianity, on the other hand, leads only the natural body to death, and for the spirit, it points out a house not built with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Later in the sermon, Garfield said, about Jesus Christ: "Let me urge you to follow Him, not as the Nazarene, the Man of Galilee, the carpenter's son, but as the ever living spiritual person, full of love and compassion, who will stand by you in life and death and eternity."
In 1854, Garfield enrolled at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, as a third-year student, given credit for two year's study at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, after passing an examination. Garfield was hired to teach penmanship to the students of nearby Pownal, Vermont. He succeeded a teacher with whose path he would later cross, his future running mate Chester Alan Arthur. Garfield graduated from Williams in August 1856. He returned to Ohio to teach at the Institute, and in 1857 he was made its president.
Garfield had become more politically active and began to consider politics as a career. In 1858, he married Lucretia. They would have seven children, five of whom survived infancy. Soon after the wedding, he tookup the study of law and was admitted to the Ohio state bar in 1861. That year he was elected to the the local state senate seat serving until he left to join the Union Army later that year.
Garfield served with distinction in the Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of Brigadier General. He was chief of staff to General William Rosecrans. The two men became close friends and they frequently discussed religion. Rosecrans had converted from Methodism to Roman Catholicism, and he succeeded in softening Garfield's view of his religion. When he was in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, he wrote to his mother, March 22, 1863:
"General Rosencrans has Catholic services in his room or mine every few days. I sometimes attend, and as I can understand the Latin service it is not altogether unmeaning to me. I hope you are not alarmed about my becoming a Catholic. You ought to be glad that I take time to think and talk about religion at all. I have no doubt the Catholics have been greatly slandered."
Garfield was elected to Congress from Ohio and took his seat in late 1863 after being convinced that he could do more for the Union cause as a legislator than as a soldier. He served in Congress until November of 1880 when he ran for President. In 1876 Garfield wrote to John Shackleford, Jr., a Disciple minister in Lexington, Ky. "I recognize the fact that my general views of religion have broadened, but I hope that they have not weakened my faith in the central doctrines of Christ. I care less for the denominational doctrines, but more for the spirit of Christ."
In December 1875, Garfield wrote in his diary: "Are all religions, past and present, false except that of Christ? If so, what shall we think of the Goodness and Mercy of God in leaving mankind so many generations without the truth? Is it not intolerable egotism in us to suppose that we are so exceptionally precious to God, that while He has never seen enough good in the race to make it worth saving until 1800 years ago, yet then its superiority of virtue and importance led him to make great exertions to save it? It may not be unreasonable to suppose that each age has had as much light as it could use."
During the election campaign of 1880, Garfield addressed the subject of the separation of Church and State. In a letter to Robert G. Ingersoll of July 9, 1880, Garfield wrote: "In several public speeches I have praised the wisdom of our fathers for prohibiting Congress from legislating on the subject of religion and leaving it to the voluntary action of the people."
The team of Garfield and Arthur were victorious in the 1880 election. In his inaugural address, Garfield predicted that future generations would "surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were made equal before the law." He concluded by saying:
"I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God."
Around four months later, Garfield would lie mortally wounded in the Washington railroad station. While hospitalized he later said to one of the physicians, "Conceal nothing from me Doctor, for remember, I am not afraid to die." On September 19, 1881, while recuperating at Elberon, New Jersey, Garfield, who had been sleeping, awoke that evening around 10:15 pm with great pain in his chest. The attendant watching him sent for his physician. When the Doctor arrived, Garfield was unconscious. Despite efforts to revive him, Garfield never awoke, passing away at 10:35 pm that evening.
James Garfield has the distinction of being the only President of the United States to have worked as a clergyman prior to becoming President. Garfield was born on November 19, 1831, in a log cabin in Orange Township, now Moreland Hills, Ohio. His parents, Abram and Eliza Garfield, joined a religious denomination known as the Disciples of Christ in 1833 when James was two years old. Abram Garfield died later that year and the five Garfield children were raised in poverty by their strong-willed mother.
In 1848, Garfield attended Geauga Seminary, where he showed proficiency in languages and elocution. He took a liking to public speaking. It was at Geauga where he met his future wife, fellow student Lucretia Rudolph. To support himself at Geauga, he worked as a carpenter's assistant and as a teacher. He continued to attend church, but it is said that at first, this was done more to please his mother than for genuine religious interest. However in his late teens he professed to have experienced a religious awakening, and he attended many camp meetings. At one of these, he was said to be "born again" and the following day, on March 4, 1850, he was baptized into the Disciples of Christ by being submerged in the icy waters of the Chagrin River. He wrote in his diary "I was buried with Christ and arose to walk in the newness of Life."
After leaving Geauga, Garfield worked for a year at various jobs, including teaching. From 1851 to 1854, he attended the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later named Hiram College) in Hiram, Ohio, a school run by the Disciples of Christ. While there, he was most studied Greek and Latin. He was hired to teach while still a student. Lucretia Rudolph was one of his students.
It was at this time that Garfield developed a regular preaching circuit at neighboring churches. His usual remuneration was a gold dollar per service. In one of his sermons, entitled "The Material and the Spiritual," Garfield presented Christianity as a remedy to what he saw as a growing materialism. He said:
"Men are tending to materialism. Houses, lands, and worldly goods attract their attention, and, as a mirage, lure them on to death. Christianity, on the other hand, leads only the natural body to death, and for the spirit, it points out a house not built with hands, eternal in the heavens."
Later in the sermon, Garfield said, about Jesus Christ: "Let me urge you to follow Him, not as the Nazarene, the Man of Galilee, the carpenter's son, but as the ever living spiritual person, full of love and compassion, who will stand by you in life and death and eternity."
In 1854, Garfield enrolled at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, as a third-year student, given credit for two year's study at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, after passing an examination. Garfield was hired to teach penmanship to the students of nearby Pownal, Vermont. He succeeded a teacher with whose path he would later cross, his future running mate Chester Alan Arthur. Garfield graduated from Williams in August 1856. He returned to Ohio to teach at the Institute, and in 1857 he was made its president.
Garfield had become more politically active and began to consider politics as a career. In 1858, he married Lucretia. They would have seven children, five of whom survived infancy. Soon after the wedding, he tookup the study of law and was admitted to the Ohio state bar in 1861. That year he was elected to the the local state senate seat serving until he left to join the Union Army later that year.
Garfield served with distinction in the Civil War, eventually rising to the rank of Brigadier General. He was chief of staff to General William Rosecrans. The two men became close friends and they frequently discussed religion. Rosecrans had converted from Methodism to Roman Catholicism, and he succeeded in softening Garfield's view of his religion. When he was in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, he wrote to his mother, March 22, 1863:
"General Rosencrans has Catholic services in his room or mine every few days. I sometimes attend, and as I can understand the Latin service it is not altogether unmeaning to me. I hope you are not alarmed about my becoming a Catholic. You ought to be glad that I take time to think and talk about religion at all. I have no doubt the Catholics have been greatly slandered."
Garfield was elected to Congress from Ohio and took his seat in late 1863 after being convinced that he could do more for the Union cause as a legislator than as a soldier. He served in Congress until November of 1880 when he ran for President. In 1876 Garfield wrote to John Shackleford, Jr., a Disciple minister in Lexington, Ky. "I recognize the fact that my general views of religion have broadened, but I hope that they have not weakened my faith in the central doctrines of Christ. I care less for the denominational doctrines, but more for the spirit of Christ."
In December 1875, Garfield wrote in his diary: "Are all religions, past and present, false except that of Christ? If so, what shall we think of the Goodness and Mercy of God in leaving mankind so many generations without the truth? Is it not intolerable egotism in us to suppose that we are so exceptionally precious to God, that while He has never seen enough good in the race to make it worth saving until 1800 years ago, yet then its superiority of virtue and importance led him to make great exertions to save it? It may not be unreasonable to suppose that each age has had as much light as it could use."
During the election campaign of 1880, Garfield addressed the subject of the separation of Church and State. In a letter to Robert G. Ingersoll of July 9, 1880, Garfield wrote: "In several public speeches I have praised the wisdom of our fathers for prohibiting Congress from legislating on the subject of religion and leaving it to the voluntary action of the people."
The team of Garfield and Arthur were victorious in the 1880 election. In his inaugural address, Garfield predicted that future generations would "surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were made equal before the law." He concluded by saying:
"I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God."
Around four months later, Garfield would lie mortally wounded in the Washington railroad station. While hospitalized he later said to one of the physicians, "Conceal nothing from me Doctor, for remember, I am not afraid to die." On September 19, 1881, while recuperating at Elberon, New Jersey, Garfield, who had been sleeping, awoke that evening around 10:15 pm with great pain in his chest. The attendant watching him sent for his physician. When the Doctor arrived, Garfield was unconscious. Despite efforts to revive him, Garfield never awoke, passing away at 10:35 pm that evening.