James A Garfield Essay

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James A. Garfield was an outstanding man of many endeavors who went from driving boats down the canal to become a general of the union army to the twentieth president of the United States of America (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans). James A. Garfield was against slavery and had great plans for reconstruction, but sadly they were cut short. His term only lasted in the first year, as Garfield was shot by an office seeker and died many months later (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans). James a Garfield was born, the youngest of four, in orange Township, Ohio on November 19, 1831 (Duckster). His father, Abraham Garfield, died when James A. Garfield turned two years of age leaving his mother, Eliza Ballou Garfield, to fend for herself and four young boys (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans). Garfield, around age seventeen, drove steamboats through Ohio canals for a year to assist his mother financially while in their state of poverty(The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Amer...

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