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Essay / James A Garfield Essay - 564
James A. Garfield was an exceptional man of many endeavors who rose from driving canal boats to becoming a general in the Union Army to the twentieth President of the United States of America (The American Heritage Book of Presidents and Famous Americans). James A. Garfield was against slavery and had big plans for rebuilding, but unfortunately they were cut short. His tenure lasted only the first year, as Garfield was shot by an office researcher and died several 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 was two years old, leaving his mother, Eliza Ballou Garfield, to fend for herself with her four young boys (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans). Garfield, aged about seventeen, drove steamboats on the canals of the Ohio for a year to help his mother financially while she was in a state of poverty (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Bitter...