James A. Garfield
James Garfield was the second President to be assassinated, an event which overshadows his accomplishments as a Civil War general, a State Senator for Ohio, a long serving member of the House of Representatives, and finally as President. As a member of the House he supported the impeachment of his fellow Freemason Andrew Johnson, and as President he sought to overturn the long-standing system of patronage used to appoint Civil Service jobs, proposing a system of reform eventually enacted during the term of his successor, Chester Arthur.
He was a Freemason who achieved Master Mason in 1864 in Columbus, Ohio. He maintained affiliations with several lodges throughout his political career, affiliated with the Pentalpha Lodge in Washington DC in 1869 as a Charter Member. He attained 14th degree Scottish Rite in 1872.
Garfield held a reputation for personal honesty and incorruptibility throughout his career, which was further enhanced when he chose principle over Masonic fraternity by supporting the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. Despite supporting a position against Johnson which would have weakened the Presidency had it been successful, Garfield strengthened Presidential authority during his short time in office, and used it to eliminate the corruption over appointments which was rife in the Post Office at the time.
After his death Garfield was compared to previous Presidents who had been Freemasons in the Freemason’s Chronicle Volume 14 as “… as pure a man as the purest of them and will stand beside them in Masonic history as a shining example and illustration of the purity and nobility of Freemasonry…He knew Masonry through and through; he vouched for it with all of his mind and heart…” The Chronicle later opined that the nation had been unified by the President’s death.
Garfield lingered for weeks after being shot by an anarchist named Charles Guiteau. During his fight for life an experimental metal detector developed by Alexander Graham Bell was used to try to locate the exact position of the bullet in the President’s body, it was foiled by the metal bed springs under the mattress.