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. He is the only sitting member of the United States House of Representatives to be elected to the presidency.Garfield entered politics as a Republican in 1857. 'On his return to Ohio, the degree from a prestigious Eastern school made Garfield a man of distinction. Garfield was as firm a supporter of black suffrage as he had been of abolition, though he admitted that the idea of African Americans as whites' political equals gave him 'a strong feeling of repugnance.' President Johnson sought the rapid restoration of the Southern states during the months between his accession and the meeting of Congress in December 1865; Garfield hesitantly supported this policy as an experiment.
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