DECEMBER 5, 1863:
Major
General James A. Garfield resigned his commission in the U.S. Army so that he
could take up his duties as a member of Congress from Ohio. Garfield served
nine terms in the House of Representatives before he was elected President in 1880
(one of seven Civil War veterans, all Unionists, to become President, and the only man to ever go from the House to the White House directly), and was
inaugurated on March 4, 1881, only to be shot by Charles Guiteau, a disgruntled
office-seeker, on July 2, 1881. Garfield lived for 80 days before succumbing to
the bullet on September 19, 1881, becoming the second U.S. President to be
assassinated. Garfield was deeply
committed to Civil Service reform, and his death spurred adoption of his
suggested Reform Bill into law.
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