Harry Augustus Garfield Harry Augustus Garfield Harry Augustus "Hal" Garfield (October 11, 1863 – December 12, 1942) was an American lawyer, academic and public official. He was president of Williams College and supervised the Federal Fuel Administration during World War I. Garfield was the son of President James A. Garfield and First Lady Lucretia Garfield, and the brother and law partner of Secretary of the Interior James Rudolph Garfield. At the age of 17 he and his 15-year-old brother James watched in horror as their father was shot down by assassin Charles Guiteau. After graduating from Williams College in 1885, he went on
1880 United States presidential election for months, eventually declining to return either man to the Senate. Before that result was known, however, tragedy struck as Charles Guiteau, a mentally unstable man disappointed at being unable to secure a patronage appointment, shot Garfield on July 2, 1881. Garfield lingered for two-and-a-half months before dying on September 19, 1881. Vice President Chester A. Arthur, the New York Stalwart, was sworn in as president that night. Garfield's murder by a spoilsman inspired the nation to reform the civil service—and Arthur, erstwhile member of the Conkling machine, joined the cause. In 1883, a bipartisan majority in Congress passed the