James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881, until his death by assassination six and a half months later. 'On his return to Ohio, the degree from a prestigious Eastern school made Garfield a man of distinction. Distracted by committee duties, he rarely spoke about these bills, but was a loyal Republican vote against Johnson. The conventional narrative regarding James A. Garfield's post-shooting medical condition was challenged by Theodore Pappas and Shahrzad Joharifard in a 2013 article The American Journal of Surgery.