James A. Garfield
Born November 19, 1831, Orange Township (now Moreland Hills), Ohio · Died September 19, 1881, Elberon, New Jersey · Magnolia Lodge No. 20, Columbus, OH (raised in Columbus Lodge No. 30)
20th President of the United States, a Union general who was also an ordained preacher and active Mason.
The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787.
Contribution to History
James A. Garfield was born in a log cabin in Ohio in 1831 and grew up poor. At 16 he took a job driving the mules that pulled a canal boat. He then put himself through school, graduated from Williams College in 1856, and became a preacher, a teacher and president of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute.
He rose to Union general in the Civil War and served nine terms in the U.S. House. He was inaugurated President on March 4, 1881. On July 2 he was shot by a disappointed office seeker, and he died that September.
Why It Matters Today
Garfield argued for civil rights and the vote for Black Americans, and his push for civil service reform became the Pendleton Act of 1883. That law is why most federal jobs today go to people who pass exams, not to political friends. He believed a free country depends on schools:
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
James A. Garfield, letter accepting the Republican nomination, July 12, 1880
The Masonic Thread
Garfield became a Freemason at Magnolia Lodge No. 20 in Columbus, Ohio, on November 19, 1861, his thirtieth birthday, while his regiment trained nearby. He received his third degree in 1864, after his army service. He spent his life learning and teaching, and that habit is open to anyone: keep learning, and help someone else learn too.
Sources
- https://www.srkc.org/history/famous/presidents/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_who_were_Freemasons
- http://themasonictrowel.com/books/lexicon_of_freemasonry_by_Albert_Mackey/files/MMAP1/Mmac-07.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield
- https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_A._Garfield
- Portrait image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Abram_Garfield,_photo_portrait_seated.jpg (Public domain)
Life & Masonic Timeline
Unknown; part of Brady-Handy Photograph Collection., via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Source