Lend Me Your Ear
The story of a lesser-known presidential assassin
Nearly every American child learns in their high school history classes about how John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln in Ford’s Theater in 1865. They also learn about how Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Some even believe he was the lone assassin. What most Americans are less familiar with, however, are the two other presidents who were assassinated, James Garfield and William McKinley.
James Garfield is one of those presidents most people have never heard of or, if they did, they would be unable to say much about him. As presidents go, he was fairly nondescript and largely forgettable. Elected in 1880, he took office on March 4, 1881, and only served as president for six months. He was assassinated on September 19 of that same year.
Garfield was a Republican, but it should be noted that the Republican Party of the late 1800s bears no resemblance to the Republican Party of today. Back then it was the party of Lincoln, the party that fought against slavery and against the Confederacy. Garfield’s Republicans would not be caught waving the Confederate flag like some of today’s Republicans do.
Garfield spent much of his life from the Civil War through his assassination building a political career. He served in the…
