历届美国总统简介：詹姆斯·艾伯拉姆·加菲尔德（在线收听）

詹姆斯·艾伯拉姆·加菲尔德是美国政治家、数学家，生于俄亥俄州。美国共和党人。南北战争期间加入北方军队，与南方奴隶制军队作战，拥有少将军衔。1880年加菲尔德当选为第20任总统，他是美国首位具有神职人员身份的总统。就职仅4个月即遭暗枪，是美国第二位被暗杀的总统。他在数学方面的贡献主要是在勾股定理的证明方面的新成就，他也是美国历史上唯一一位数学家出身的总统。他的第一夫人是卢克丽霞·鲁道夫，育有五子二女。

James Garfield was born in Ohio, in 1831. Fatherless at two, he later drove canal boat teams, somehow earning enough money for an education. He graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in 1856, and later returned to Ohio as a classics professor. Within a year he was made its president. He served 200 days as the 20th President of the United States before being assassinated in 1881.

Garfield was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859 as a Republican. During the secession crisis, he argued for strengthening the Union. In 1862, when Union military victories had been few, he successfully led a brigade in Kentucky, against Confederate troops. Ohioans elected him to Congress. He repeatedly won re-election for 18 years (nine terms), and became the leading Republican in the House.

At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield became the "dark horse" nominee. In the Presidential election, Garfield defeated the Democratic nominee, Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, by a margin of only 10,000 popular votes. As President, Garfield successfully managed a national debt crisis. He also appointed several African Americans to prominent positions in his administration.

On July 2, 1881, President Garfield was on his way to Williams College, where he was due to make a speech. As he walked through a Washington railway station, he was shot twice by an assassin, Charles J. Guiteau and mortally wounded. He lay in the White House for weeks before dying from an infection and internal bleeding on September 19. He was 49. His final words were: "My work is done."