James A. Garfield Biography Quotes 31 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
James Abram Garfield was born on November 19, 1831, in Orange Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio (now Moreland Hills). The youngest of four children, he lost his father, Abram Garfield, when he was a toddler, leaving his mother, Eliza Ballou Garfield, to raise the family in modest circumstances. Eliza's resilience and devotion to learning shaped his character; she encouraged reading, thrift, and a stern moral code grounded in the frontier Protestant ethos. Garfield's early work on a farm and brief, difficult stint as a canal boatman on the Ohio and Erie Canal gave him firsthand experience of toil and illness, including bouts of malaria, and deepened his resolve to pursue education.

He attended the Geauga Seminary in Chester Township, where he proved a gifted student and avid debater. He then enrolled at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in Hiram, Ohio (later Hiram College). There he studied classical languages and mathematics, embraced the Disciples of Christ faith, and began to teach. Seeking a rigorous liberal education, Garfield transferred to Williams College in Massachusetts, where he studied under Mark Hopkins and graduated with high honors in 1856. The Williams experience reinforced his lifetime identity as a scholar and orator.

Teaching, Law, and Family
Returning to Hiram, Garfield served as principal of the Eclectic Institute from 1857 to 1861, building enrollment, hiring faculty, and teaching Latin, Greek, and literature. He also preached as a lay minister among the Disciples of Christ, earning a reputation for clear, earnest sermons. In 1858 he married Lucretia Rudolph, a fellow Hiram student whose intellectual depth and steadiness complemented his ambitious temperament. Their partnership would sustain him through war and politics, and they raised several children, including James R. Garfield, who would later become a national figure in his own right.

While administering the school, Garfield read law and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1861. He had already entered public life by winning election to the Ohio State Senate in 1859 as a Republican, where he supported measures to strengthen the state militia and opposed the spread of slavery. On the eve of the Civil War, he embodied the rising Midwestern Republican blend of moral reform, educational aspiration, and nationalist commitment.

Civil War Service
When the Union called for volunteers, Garfield helped organize the 42nd Ohio Infantry and was commissioned its colonel. In early 1862 he led a successful campaign in eastern Kentucky, culminating in the Battle of Middle Creek, which secured the region and raised his profile. Promoted for his performance, he served in the Western Theater and became chief of staff to Major General William S. Rosecrans in the Army of the Cumberland. Garfield's analytical reports, strategic memoranda, and vigorous staff work earned respect from senior officers. He was present during the tense campaigns of 1863, including Chickamauga, and was promoted to major general of volunteers.

During his service, Ohio voters elected him to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1862. Lincoln's administration encouraged promising officers to take their seats if elected, and Garfield reluctantly resigned his commission in late 1863 to begin a long legislative career. The war left him convinced that the Union's victory should be secured by constitutional amendments and firm, fair policies toward the formerly enslaved.

Congressional Career and National Issues
Garfield served in the House from 1863 to 1881, becoming one of its most capable Republican legislators. He supported the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments and generally favored robust Reconstruction to protect the civil and political rights of African Americans. An able speaker and quick study, he worked on financial policy after the war, advocating sound money and arguing against inflationary schemes that he believed would erode confidence and harm laborers and savers. He served on influential committees, including those dealing with appropriations and banking, and emerged as a principal House voice on fiscal and administrative questions.

Like many of his contemporaries, Garfield's reputation was touched by the Credit Mobilier revelations of the early 1870s. His name appeared among those who had been offered or held railroad-related stock tied to federal subsidies. He denied wrongdoing, insisted any stock arrangement had yielded him nothing of value, and was never formally censured, but the episode left a lingering cloud. Even so, he preserved the esteem of colleagues through diligence, mastery of detail, and a reputation for personal courtesy.

During the disputed 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden, Garfield defended the Republican position in the House and argued relentlessly for lawful resolution. He became a bridge between party factions, maintaining ties with reform-minded leaders and pragmatic operators alike. By 1879 he was the acknowledged Republican leader in the House. In early 1880, the Ohio legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate, a distinction he expected to assume after one final House session.

The 1880 Republican Convention and Election
Garfield arrived at the 1880 Republican National Convention as a loyal supporter of Treasury Secretary John Sherman. The convention deadlocked between Ulysses S. Grant, championed by Roscoe Conkling's Stalwarts, and James G. Blaine, leader of the Half-Breeds, with Sherman holding a smaller bloc. Garfield's own eloquent floor speech nominating Sherman won attention for its breadth and conciliatory tone. As the balloting stalemated, delegates began to shift toward a compromise figure. To his surprise and initial discomfort, Garfield emerged as the consensus nominee on the 36th ballot. The convention chose Chester A. Arthur of New York, a Stalwart stalwart and ally of Conkling, as the vice-presidential nominee to balance the ticket.

In the general election against Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock, Garfield campaigned on national unity, sound finance, and continued growth. With assistance from party leaders such as James G. Blaine and the quiet support of President Rutherford B. Hayes, he carried the industrial North and won a narrow popular vote but clear electoral victory.

Presidency and Administration
Garfield took office on March 4, 1881, determined to strengthen executive leadership and promote civil service reform. His cabinet mixed reformers and experienced administrators: James G. Blaine became secretary of state; William Windom, secretary of the treasury; Robert Todd Lincoln, secretary of war; William H. Hunt, secretary of the navy; Samuel J. Kirkwood, secretary of the interior; Thomas L. James, postmaster general; and Wayne MacVeagh, attorney general. He also pressed the Senate to confirm Stanley Matthews to the Supreme Court, an ally of John Sherman whose nomination had languished under Hayes.

The defining political struggle of Garfield's brief presidency involved patronage in New York. He nominated William H. Robertson as collector of the Port of New York, a key office long dominated by Roscoe Conkling's machine. Conkling and his ally Thomas C. Platt tried to block the nomination, insisting the president yield patronage to their faction. Garfield refused, asserting the executive's prerogative to select officers. Conkling and Platt staged a dramatic protest by resigning their Senate seats, only to fail in their bid for reappointment. Garfield's victory over the Stalwarts signaled a shift toward merit-based administration and foreshadowed broader reform.

Beyond patronage, Garfield sought tariff adjustments and investigated postal service corruption. He encouraged conciliation in the South without abandoning the protection of civil rights. His plans included modernizing the Navy and fostering scientific and educational advancement, drawing on his own lifelong allegiance to learning.

Assassination and Death
On July 2, 1881, as he prepared to travel, Garfield was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., by Charles J. Guiteau, a deluded office seeker who claimed allegiance to the Stalwart faction. The president survived the initial attack, but the bullet lodged in his body. Physicians led by D. Willard Bliss treated him aggressively, probing the wound repeatedly in an era before universal antiseptic practices were standard in American surgery. Inventor Alexander Graham Bell attempted to locate the bullet with an induction-balance device, but interference from metal bed springs and the limitations of the technology thwarted the effort.

Over the ensuing weeks, infection and malnutrition sapped Garfield's strength. Seeking sea air, his doctors moved him to the Jersey Shore. He died on September 19, 1881, in Elberon, New Jersey, with Lucretia Garfield at his side. Vice President Chester A. Arthur took the oath of office, inheriting a nation shocked by the crime and sobered by the spectacle of a wounded president lingering for months.

Legacy and Assessment
Garfield's national service spanned the crucible of the Civil War and the hard politics of Reconstruction and its aftermath. He rose from poverty through study and teaching, led men in battle, and became a formidable legislator before reaching the presidency. Although his tenure in the White House was tragically brief, his stand against entrenched patronage, his appointment of reform-minded officials like Thomas L. James, and his successful challenge to Roscoe Conkling's machine helped set the stage for the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act that Chester A. Arthur signed in 1883. In that sense, Garfield's confrontation with factionalism ripened into durable institutional change.

His personal relationships framed his public life. Eliza Ballou Garfield lived to see her son in the White House, the first presidential mother to reside there. Lucretia Garfield brought scholarly poise and moral steadiness to the presidency and later curated his papers. His colleagues in Congress, including John Sherman and James G. Blaine, alternately competed with and supported him, while opponents such as Conkling tested the limits of party authority. Figures from his Civil War years, notably William S. Rosecrans, remembered him as a diligent staff officer and strategist.

Garfield's mind ranged widely. He read Greek and Latin, argued fine points of finance on the House floor, and championed public education. He is credited with a clever geometric proof of the Pythagorean theorem and maintained detailed diaries that reveal a blend of introspection and pragmatism. Buried in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland beneath a grand monument, he is remembered as the quintessential self-made American statesman of the nineteenth century: a farm boy turned scholar, soldier, legislator, and, for a fleeting, consequential moment, president.

Our collection contains 31 quotes who is written by James, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Motivational - Wisdom - Truth - Justice.

Other people realated to James: Robert G. Ingersoll (Lawyer), Clara Barton (Public Servant), John Philip Sousa (Musician), Alexander Graham Bell (Inventor), Sarah Vowell (Author)