American President
James A. Garfield (1831–1881)
Facts at a Glance
- Term
- 20th President of the United States (1881)
- Born
- November 19, 1831, Orange Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio
- Nickname
- None
- Full Name
- James Abram Garfield
- Education
- Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (now Hiram College), Williams College (graduated 1856)
- Religion
- Disciples of Christ
- Marriage
- November 11, 1858, to Lucretia Rudolph (1832–1918)
- Children
- Eliza A. (1860–1863), Harry A. (1863–1942), James R. (1865–1950), Mary (1867–1947), Irvin M. (1870–1951), Abram (1872–1958), Edward (1874–1876)
- Career
- Teacher, Public Official
- Political Party
- Republican
- Writings
- Diary, 1848–1874 (2 vols., 1967), ed. by H. J. Brown and F. D. Williams
- Died
- September 19, 1881, Elberon, New Jersey
- Buried
- Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio
- A Life in Brief
- James A. Garfield is remembered as one of the four “lost Presidents” who served rather uneventfully after the Civil War. Of the four lost Presidents—Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, and Harrison—Garfield is best remembered for his dramatic assassination a mere 100 days after he assumed office. More »
Essays on James Garfield and His Administration
- James Abram Garfield
- A Life in Brief
- Life Before the Presidency
- Campaigns and Elections
- Domestic Affairs
- Foreign Affairs
- Death of the President
- Family Life
- The American Franchise
- Impact and Legacy
- Key Events
- First Lady
- Lucretia Garfield
- Vice President
- Chester Arthur (1881)
- Secretary of State
- James G. Blaine (1881)
- Secretary of War
- Robert Todd Lincoln (1881)
- Postmaster General
- Thomas L. James (1881)
- Secretary of the Interior
- Samuel J. Kirkwood (1881)
- Secretary of the Treasury
- William Windom (1881)
- Attorney General
- Isaac Wayne MacVeagh (1881)
- Secretary of the Navy
- William H. Hunt (1881)
Consulting Editor: Justus Doenecke
Professor Doenecke is a professor emeritus of history at the New College of Florida. His writings include:
The Presidencies of James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur (University Press of Kansas, 1981)
Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Foreign Policies, 1933–1945 (With Mark S. Stoler, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2005)
Presidential Speeches
Below are selections from the Miller Center’s James Garfield speech collection.
Scholarship and Speakers
The Miller Center of Public Affairs is a national nonpartisan center to research, reflect, and report on American government, with special attention to the central role and history of the presidency. Below is a selection of Miller Center resources on James Garfield.
Listen to Historian Alan Peskin’s 1996 presentation at the Miller
Center on Why Garfield Did Not Become a
Great President.
Learn more about the Center’s National Commission on Presidential Disability and the 25th Amendment and its relationship to Garfield.
Scripps Library Reference Resources
Below are links to reference resources prepared by the Miller Center’s Scripps Library, designed to help students and scholars conduct their research quickly.
Information on James Garfield’s Private and Public Papers
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