Washington, D.C. - an incident of the inauguration - ex-confederate soldiers saluting President Garfield

James Abram Garfield (November 19, 1831 – September 19, 1881) was the 20th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1881, until his assassination later the same year. Garfield had served nine terms in the House of Representatives and had been elected to the Senate. Garfield was raised on a humble Ohio farm by his widowed mother. He worked at various jobs, including on a canal boat before age 17, when he attended several schools, then studied at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1856. A year later, Garfield entered politics as a Republican. Garfield opposed Confederate secession, served as a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. His term cut short by his death after only 200 days. On July 2, 1881, less than four months into his term as the 20th President of the United States, Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. He died in Elberon, New Jersey eleven weeks later, on September 19, 1881. Garfield was the second of four Presidents to be assassinated, following Abraham Lincoln. "All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.'