The last of the log cabin presidents, James Garfield was born November 19, 1831 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. For many Americans, James Garfield represented not only an American's capacity to rise up in the world, but also the larger notion of what they believed the Union had fought for—equal opportunity for all men, Black or white. In the only major speech of his 1880 presidential campaign, Garfield spoke to the issue closest to his heart: the fate of the formerly enslaved. | American Experience |