Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-19
BIRTH Of GARFIELD
WAS 100 YEARS AGO
Twentieth President of U. S.
Was First Candidate to
"Stump" for Self.

In humble log cabin in the frontier
settlement Of Orange, in Cuyahoga
County, a section of the Western Re.
serve, Ohio, James Abram Garfield,
goth President of the United States,
was born 100 years ago today.
He was fourth of four children. His
father died when he was years old.
His boyhood was passed amid the harsh
but by no means destitute conditions
of frontier life. He worked hard on the
farm, helped in the support of the FAM
lily, attended school three months each
Winter and read and reread every book
which fen in his way When he was 16
he tramped to Cleveland, where for a
time he found employment as a driver
and steerSman on the Ohio Canal. Re-
turning home after a discouraging i'll
ness, he worked as carpenter.
Later he studied successfully at Geau-
ga Seminary, Chester, Ohio, 1849; the
Eclectic Institute, Hiram (now~ Hiram
Collage, 1851-1854, and Williams Col
lege, Williamstown, Mass, entering the
last-named institution in 1854 and
graduating with high honors in 1856.
Equipped with his degree from Viii
hams. he returned to Ohio and was en-
gagged to teach the classics at Hiram.
He became president or principal of his
college in 1857.
But Garfield had been reading law
4O1 SCfC1d 1 years. W UIle OAR
in 1859, he resigned his place at Hiram
and was elected to the Ohio State Sen
ate as Republican.
Was Civil War General
With the opening of the Civil War
he threw himself Fundamentally into
the Northern cause, and was commits
stoned lieutenant colonel of the 42d
Ohio Regiment and was given command
nf hr.iOQfia with fTactrJIHfin1c 70
as an independent force in Eastern Ken
lucky. He was in the field by Deem
Der, 1861. On January 10, 1862, he de-
feated a superior command under Gen.
Humphrey Marshall, and President Lin
coin promptly made him brigadier
general. He was appointed chief Of
staff to Gen. William Starke Rosecrans
in February, 1868, and in recognition of
his notable services at Chic4amauga he
was made a major general, September
10, 1863. - 1.''
Meanwhile his home district had
elected him to Congress. At the in
stance Of President Lincoln, he resigned
his commission December S, 1868, and
took his seat In the House of Repre-
sentatives December z. He was re-
elected to the House eight times. On
January IS, 1880, he was unanimously
elected by the Ohio Legislature to sue
coed Allen G. Thurman in the United
States Senate. His last speech in the
House was delivered on April %, 1880.
But he never took his place In the
Senate. -. a. 'i-t
First to stump" for Self.
When the Republican convention of
1880 met at Chicago the delegates were
almost hopelessly divided in partisan
York, Pennsylvania and Illinois con-
trolled one faction. James G. Blaine
and John Sherman had each nIiffer-
Gus following President Grant was a
candidate for a third nomination.
Twenty-eight ballots were taken before
there appeared the slightest break in
the deadlock. The friends of Grant
and those of Blaine were of approxi-
| rnately equal strength. When it was
plain that neither group could win,
Garfield. was chosen on the thirty
sixth ballot. 't'
He was a compromise candidate. The
'bosses" still opposed him, but the cleo
ton demonstrated that the people of
the country trusted and admired him.
| He received PA electoral votes to l55
given his Democratic opponent, Gen.
Winfield Scott Hancock.
The campaign OF 1880 was so bitter
that its results shortly destroyed the
victor. Contrary to all precedent, Gar
field himself took part" in the struggle
lOI fOIcS. k1G LldOG SOIIlc ~ SpeGCItSS,
Chiefly extempo In his own
behalf-a new development in American
politics. His enemies were busy with
the dissemination OF rlimors rejecting
upon his personal integrity. The mystic
numbers 1929" (relating to q charge.
never proved. that he had accepted Q
bride of 1929 from Cakes Ames) ap-
peared on walls and payemeptS through
out the country. Every sly and cum
ming effort to soil his honor was en-
ployed against HMM vain.
Died September 10, 1881.
The first months of his administers
ton were disturbed by raflcorouS disSen.
sion in his own party, and Garfield was
murdered as the direct outcome of the
Quarrel Senator'S Conkling and Plat
Of New York, representing the "stal-
Wart" or ''bosses" faction Of the party,
demanded control Of patronage in their
home territory. Garfield refused to let
them have these precious fruits.
Conkling and PIatt resigned their
places in the Senate and appealed to
the New York Legislature for re-elec-
ton. They were not reelected. But
one of their followers, Charles Jules
Guiteau, half-craZy Chicago lawyer,
who had vainfy sought appointment as
consul at Marseille, waited his oppor-
tunity, and, encountering Garfield in
the old Baltimore & Potomac Railroad
Station on July 2, 1881, shot him down.
Garfield died at Elberon, N j., at 1890
pm, September 10, 1881-the second of
our martyred Presidents. His assassin
was hanged in the District jail June
80, 1882.