James Garfield

James A. Garfield was born in 1831 in a small place called Cuyahoga County, Ohio. He was born and raised fatherless, so he grew up strong-willed as the man of his house. When he became of age to start going of to college, Garfield chose the prestigious Williams College in Massachusetts in 1856. Garfield studied to become a politician and his hopes and dreams came true as he was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859 as a Northern Republican. Garfield was well known as a loyal Unionist and kept his ways throughout his work in the war or state legislature. When the Civil War broke out, Garfield took a break from his political actions to help lead the Union in battle. He ended up leading a brigade at Middle Creek, with his military success he was promoted to brigadier general by
President Lincoln. But in 1862 when the people of Ohio reelected him to the Senate, Garfield had a touch choice on his hands. He could either stay leading the Union as a general in the Civil War, or stay serving as an essential Republican in the Senate. Ultimately, he chose to stay in the Senate after some persuasion of Lincoln to keep his strong, northern ideals in the government. For the next 18 years Garfield would not relinquish his position in the Senate and eventually became the leading Republican for Congress. This led to the important decision to begin a presidential campaign. Garfield’s first try was in 1880 at the Republican Convention where he became a dark-horse candidate to win. In the election of 1880, Garfield was not expected to win, or even contend. Ulysses S. Grant was the favorite, but because of the Credit Mobilier scandal, which was when the company took millions of dollars from the government to build a railroad they never started, Grant lost ground in the race. It finally came down to James A. Garfield and Democrat Winfield S. Hancock. The results ended with Garfield winning the election by only 10,000 popular votes. Once he became President, Garfield employed his same