James A. Garfield

James Abram Garfield, born November 19, 1831, near Orange Township, Ohio, and died September 19, 1881, served as the twentieth President of the United States for only about six months in 1881. On July 2, 1881, he was shot at a Washington, D.C. railway station by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, and lingered for 79 days, weakened by infection introduced during his medical treatment, before dying in September. His assassination and prolonged death helped spur passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act under his successor, Chester A. Arthur, reducing the patronage-based hiring system that had motivated his killer.