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James A. Garfield, 20th President of
the United States, was a preacher, educator, soldier, lawyer, and U.S.
Congressman.
 Garfield was born on November 19, 1831
near Cleveland in what is today
Moreland Hills, Ohio. Last
President born in a log cabin,
Garfield's early years were spent in poverty,
and
he drove mules on the
Ohio and Erie Canal.
In 1849,
Garfield entered the Geauga Seminary, and later, the Western Reserve
Eclectic Institute, now Hiram College. In the 1850's, Garfield taught
and preached at the Institute before
 attending
Williams College in Massachusetts. After graduation, he returned to the
Institute, becoming its president.
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Related Garfield Links
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 Joining the Republican Party, Garfield
was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859, and during the
secession crisis, favored coercing the South back into the
Union. Garfield was commissioned a Lt. Colonel in the 42nd O.V.I.
Regiment in August of 1861. After commanding troops at Middle Creek,
Shiloh, and Corinth, he became a
Major General in Battle of Chickamauga.
While at the front, Garfield was
elected to the U.S. House of Representatives,
and Lincoln urged him to resign his commission. He supported Lincoln's
policies in Congress and became a Radical during Reconstruction. In
January of 1880, Garfield was elected to the U.S. Senate, but never took
his seat since he became the Republican Party's nominee for President.
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 After
campaigning from the front porch of his home in Mentor, Garfield
defeated Winfield Scott Hancock for the Presidency. The spring and early
summer months of 1881 were a grueling time for the new President because
he had to make thousands of appointments to government jobs. In spite of
favoring civil
service reform, he would soon become a victim of the Spoils
System.
 In a Washington railroad station,
Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, shot the President on
July 2, 1881. Robert Todd Lincoln, Secretary of War, was walking nearby
with other Cabinet members. Garfield died from blood poisoning in
September. Overlooking Cleveland, the Garfield Monument stands on a
hill in Lake View Cemetery.
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