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James Garfield - 20th President
Party: Republican
Term: March 4, 1881 - September 19, 1881
Age at Inauguration: 49
Life Span: Nov 19, 1831 - Sept 19, 1881 [49]
Spouse: Lucretia Rudolph - Age at Marriage: 26
Vice President: Chester Arthur

  • James Garfield fell victim to an assassin's bullet on July 2, 1881, just four months into his term of office
    Presidential Assassinations
  • Wounded at the Baltimore and Potomac railway station while on his way to attend a class reunion, he survived eighty days before he died on September 19, 1881
  • The assassin, identified as Julius Guiteau, a disgruntled office seeker, was convicted and hanged while in jail in Washington on June 30, 1882
  • Garfield spoke Greek, Latin and German
  • At a campaign rally in Ohio he greeted a group of German-Americans in their native tongue
  • The President is credited with the ability to write Greek and Latin simultaneously from each hand.
  • Although Garfield won the electoral vote by a margin of 214 to 155, he was awarded the popular vote by less than ten thousand, 4,454,416 to 4,444,952
  • He remains the only Evangelist elected president.