JAMES A. GARFIELD:

Assassination and Conspiracy

Cameron SpinellaMrs. PeaceEnglish 111November 29, 2013

Birth and Early Childhood

- James A. Garfield was the last President who was part of the “log cabin Presidents.” He was born in 1831 in the city known as Orange Township, Ohio. From a very young age, he gained big responsibilities after his father died when he was only two years of age. Because of this, his strive for success came early.

Childhood and College

- Garfield was a very good student from pre-school all the way through high school. He excelled in every class and loved learning about the Latin and Greek languages.

- After school, he first attended college at Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, but soon transferred to Williams College.

- At Williams College, he was considered an excellent student with fantastic grades. He was the president of a fraternity and was in the process of becoming a teacher. As a result, when he graduated, he quickly got a job teaching at the Eclectic Institute.

Civil War- Garfield joined the Union as soon as he could. By

1861, he was already a cornel in the army. He started and headed the Ohio 42nd Infantry.

- His infantry took part in many important victories.

Examples of these include the battle of Middle Creek and Chickamauga.- By 1863, Garfield was serving as chief of staff for William Rosecrans. After serving this position for a few months, he was elected into the House of Representatives and retired from the military in December 1863.

Congressional Congress

- Garfield’s first taste of politics came when he was elected to the Ohio State Senate from 1859 until 1861. One year later, Garfield was elected to Congress. He was a representative of Ohio’s 19th district.

- Garfield was an extreme supporter of the Republican party. He was a firm believer in abolition and talked on it constantly.

- While serving in the House of Representatives, he was head of many important committees such as the Banking and Currency Committee and the Military Affairs Committee.

- He also was the Republican minority leader during Rutherford Hayes’s presidency.

Presidency- Garfield was nominated for the Republican candidate in

1880 and won. Although he was only President for a little over one hundred days, he had many great ideas in-store for America.

- However, he actually did complete a few ideas. Some of these things include reforming the Post Office, establishing that the President has the most power when dealing with executive appointments, and starting the push for civil rights.

- He also put many slaves in positions of power. One big person he appointed was Frederick Douglas.

Assassination

- James Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881, in Washington D.C. at a railroad station.

- He shot Garfield twice at point blank range. These did not kill Garfield, but the shot severely wounded him.

- Guiteau’s reason for shooting Garfield was simply that he did not agree with Garfield politically. He believed it would be best to get him out of office; thus, he attempted to kill him at the station.

- Contrary to Guiteau’s wish, James Garfield did not pass away until September of 1881. When he died, Arthur was sworn in as President.

Conspiracies- The first conspiracy that conspiracists claim

is that Charles Guiteau was brainwashed by a cult.

- Though Guiteau did have records of being involved in cult activities, he wrote letters explaining why he desires to kill Garfield, a few days before he killed him.

- In the letters, he never mentions that he was persuaded by another person. He did it because he had differing political opinions than Garfield did. He believed he was doing America and the people a good deed.

Conspiracies- The second conspiracy is a very possible

situation. This conspiracy is the idea that Garfield actually died by the doctors’ poor treatment on him.

- Conspiracists state that the doctors stuck their hands and tools into Garfield without properly sterilizing them. This resulted in an infection or sickness.

- The doctors also apparently treated him on the floor of a railroad car. Again, this was a poor hygiene state; thus, it resulted in a unhealthy President Garfield.

- The reason, most conspiracists believe this is the actual reason of Garfield’s death is because Garfield was not shot anywhere fatal. The uncleanliness caused his passing.

SourcesPictures:1) http://

img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/display/812ee91c-6390-4016-8a56-897152713cdd.jpg

2) http://www.historyrocket.com/images/James-A-Garfield-At-Hall-Of-Presidents.jpg

3) http://civilwartalk.com/threads/taking-requests-on-colorization.71481/page-12

4) http://fineartamerica.com/featured/4-james-a-garfield-20th-american-photo-researchers.html

5) http://blog.beardbrand.com/2012/02/top-3-bearded-presidents/

6) http://new.who2.com/blog/2013/11/the-death-of-president-garfield

7) http://kateretires.blogspot.com/

8) http://suite101.com/a/garfields-assassination-spawns-major-inventions-a392784

Sources

- Websites:- http://

www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/jamesgarfield

- http://www.history.com/topics/james-a-garfield- http://

www.biography.com/people/james-garfield-9306645

- http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/assassins/charles_guiteau/index.html