...by Doubleday, 2011, 339 This book details Garfield's life, but I will be focusing on the tragic end to Garfield's presidency, which was abruptly stopped by his assassination. The Assassination of James Garfield President James A. Garfield was and still is one of the most respected presidents to serve in the White House. Millard book is split into parts, each part a significant chunk from Garfield's life. Millard wrote of Garfield becoming president in the first two parts, then focuses more on his death in parts three and four of her book, and I found what she wrote to be fascinating. The book switched between telling the main events mainly from three people perspectives, which were Alexander...
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...The Assassination of President James A. Garfield On July 2, 1881, President James Abram Garfield was shot “My God, what is this?” Cried the new chief executive (McKinley pg.42). Garfield died September 19, 1881 from an infection and internal hemorrhage (James A. Garfield par.14). An examination of primary and secondary sources will reveal the significance of this key event in American history. James A. Garfield was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio on November 19, 1831. (Mowry pg.577). His parent was Abram Garfield and Eliza Ballou. He married Lucretra Randolph on November 11, 1858. He had seven children, Eliza A. Garfield, Harry A. Garfield, James R. Garfield, Mary Garfield, Irvin M. Garfield, Abram Garfield, and Edward Garfield. (James Abram...
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...James Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States, had only 100 days in office because of a mentally disturbed lawyer by the name of Charles Julius Guiteau, but the bullet was not what killed him. For 80 days Garfield was dying an agonizing death because the doctors did not clean their hands and was then given many infections that would lead to his death on September 19, 1881. But what did Garfield do in his 100 days of office and what was his life like before his unfortunate death in 1881? James Garfield was born on November 19, 1831, in a log cabin located in Orange Township, Ohio, but is now known as Moreland Hills, Ohio(James A. Garfield). At the age of two, Garfield’s parents joined the Church of Christ, and that same year his father, Abram Garfield, died and was taken in and cared for by his mother, Eliza Garfield. Eliza remarried a few years later but...
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...Sarah Vowells Assassination Vacation book is based on the true events of the assassinations of Presidents: Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley. This book covers all areas of these three assassinations including the three assassins: Booth, Guiteau , and Czolgosz. Though the book starts at Fords theater at a play, Sarah Vowell says she didn't go to the play to actually watch it. She went there to stand in the same theater that Lincoln had been assassinated in ,and although she does point out that technically she wasn't in the same theater because it was restored, she was still excited. At this point we would be at the beginning of a road trip that Sarah Vowell would drag her friends and family all around the country from Buffalo to Alaska - Washington...
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...In 1871, before the passing of the Pendleton act, then president Ulysses S. Grant along with congress created the first United States Civil Service Commission. The commission lasted for two years, until it was disbanded in 1874 due to lack of funding. President Grant was succeeded by President Rutherford B. Hayes, whose attempts at trying to renew funding for the commission failed. However, President Hayes successor, President Garfield was a huge civil service reform advocate. President Garfield’s non tolerance for the spoils system, also known as patronage, in turn became his demise. President James A. Garfield was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau, who had been rejected by President Garfield after seeking a job in office by means of patronage, on September 19, 1881. After President Garfield’s assassination, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act took almost two years to reach congress by the means of his successor President Chester A. Arthur and Senator George H. Pendleton, who was also a long time reformer. The Pendleton act was signed into law by President Chester A. Arthur, who had also become a vehement reformer after President Garfield’s death. The act was then finally passed by congress on January 16th, 1883. The Pendleton Act made...
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...Chapter 23 Outline Politics in the Gilded Age 1. 10 Important Facts a) Ulysses S. Grant - He was a great soldier but an inept politician. Republicans would wave “the bloody shirt” for Grant which was reviving gory memories of the civil war. Grant had won with 214 electoral votes to 80 votes for Seymour. b) James G. Blaine - He was from Maine and was a radiantly personable congressman with an elastic conscience. Blaine was one of the late 19th century's leading Republicans and champion of the moderate reformist faction of the party known as the "Half-Breeds". c) Burly “Boss” Tweed – He employed briery, graft, and fraudulent elections to milk the metropolis of as much 200 million dollars. Tweed’s luck ran out when the New York Times discovered evidence in 1871 and published. He then died behind bars. d) Democrats – They had a solid electoral base in the south and in the northern industrial cities, teeming with immigrants and controlled by well-oiled political machines. e) Republicans – Their strength laid largely in the Mid-West and the rural and small-town Northeast. Important blocs of republicans’ ballots came from the GAR- a politically potent organization with many Union veterans of the civil war. f) Grover Cleveland – He was a solid lawyer of 47 and was the first democrat to take the oath of presidential office in twenty...
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...10 random people off the street and asked them who James A. Garfield was, do you think they would know he was President of the United States? Garfield wasn’t like most of the presidents we have had in the past, he is in a category with very few, he didn’t really leave much of a rein behind him. It would have been hard to leave much of a history in the white house when he only served as President of the United States from March 4, 1881 - September 19, 1881. While reading "Destiny of the Republic” Candice Millard tells a story that not only shows the murder of Garfield but also shows the politics related to the murder and his medical history, that really was a shock and a secret to the public. A few things that really shocked me in this story was the fact that Garfield was born into Poverty in 1831. He grew up with out a father in a very rural part of Ohio. He only went to school till the age of 16 and left to go take part in a very dangerous line of work on the Canals. I think the reason this surprised me was because if you look back at most presidents we have had in the past most were educated and most came from decently well families. At the age of 26, he would take over the position of President of Williams Colleges, where in the past years he went and so impressed his teachers that by his second year at the school he would be moved up to assistant professor. He went from working in the canals to moving up to President of the College, but this isn’t the end for Garfield...
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...Week 9 Assignment A. Harold PAD 500 6/11/11 Explain both the Pendleton Act and the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act established the Civil Service Commission, which placed most federal government employees on the merit system and marked the end of the so-called spoils system. The act provided for some government jobs to be filled on the basis of competitive exams. The Pendleton Act served as a response to President James Garfield's assassination by Charles Julius Guiteau. The Act was passed into law on January 16, 1883. The Act was sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton, Democrat of Ohio, and written by Dorman Bridgeman Eaton, a staunch opponent of the patronage system who was later first chairman of the United States Civil service Commission (Theriault, 2003, p.56). The Pendleton Act was primarily an effort to eliminate political influence from administrative agencies and, secondarily, an effort to assure more competent government employees. It pursued these aims through the following major provisions: 1. A bipartisan commission called the U.S. Civil Service Commission was created within the executive branch to establish and implement personnel rules and procedures for the federal government. 2. Open and competitive examinations to test job-related skills were developed wherever practical within the agencies covered by the law and were to become the primary basis upon which to make hiring decisions. 3...
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...Chapter 17 The Industrial Revolution Learning Outcomes After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following: 17-1 Describe and discuss the development of the Industrial Revolution in America after the Civil War, concentrating on the major industries and their leaders. 17-2 Describe how America’s regional and local markets merged into one truly national market and how this influenced the consumer demand for products and services, as well as some of the costs associated with the transition. 17-3 Discuss the functioning of national, state, and local politics during the late 1800s. 17-4 Describe the formation of the early labor unions in the United States, including their goals, activities, and situations at the end of the nineteenth century. 290 C h apt e r 15 The Continued Move West “ The world that had consisted of small farms, artisans’ workshops, and small factories transformed into a full-scale industrial society. ” As the process of ensuring political, economic, and social rights of African Americans waned during the 1870s, most Americans turned their attenNo invention had more lasting impact than the incandestion to another transformation cent light bulb. brought on by the Civil War: the Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree Industrial Revolution. During 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 the half-century between 1865 and 1915, the United States evolved from a relative...
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