JAMES A. GARFIELD, twentieth President of the United States, had literary ability of a high order, and if the Civil War had not drawn him away from his work as an educator, he might have attained the same eminence in letters he did in politics. He was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, November 19th, 1831. In 1856 he began his professional life as an instructor in Hiram College, of which he soon became president; but when the Civil War began he left the college to enter the Union army as a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers. His military career was brilliant and he was promoted to be first a brigadier and then a major-general. His ability as an orator was remarkable, and in 1863 he was elected to Congress from an Ohio district, beginning thus the brilliant career in national politics which culminated in his election to the presidency in 1880. When assassinated by Guiteau, July 2d, 1881, he had done nothing to prepare his works for the press, but his papers were edited after his death by B. A. Hinsdale, and published in two volumes in 1883.