James Abram Garfield, 1831-1881.  20th President of the United States, 1881.  Excellent election content Manuscript Letter Signed, J. A. Garfield, as presidential candidate, one page, 5” x 8”, Mentor, Ohio, September 30, 1880. 

Just over a month before he is elected President, Garfield, the Republican nominee, seeks to learn from author George M. Towle what has been published about the Republican Party and its candidates.  In full:  “Your letter of the 27th came duly to hand but ‘The Republican Principles and the Repub- [sic] Candidates’ has not reached me.  Wont [sic] you please send me another copy as I desire very much to see it.  Mark it ‘Personal.’”

George Makepeace Towle (1841-1893) was an author and a fellow Republican.  A graduate of Harvard Law School, Towle served as United States consul at Nantes, France, and later at Bradford, England.  He was a delegate to the 1888 Republican national convention.  He was managing editor of the Boston Commercial Bulletin, foreign editor of the Boston Post, and a contributor to many American and foreign periodicals.  He wrote such works as The Nation in a Nutshell: A Rapid Outline of American History; Young People’s History of England; Young People’s History of Ireland; Heroes of History; The History of Henry the Fifth, King of England; Adventures and Conquests of Pizarro; and Modern France, 1851-’79.  He also translated works from French, including Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days and Dr. Ox, and Other Stories.

Garfield, the second president to be assassinated, served just over six months in office, the second shortest term of any American president.  He was shot by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, in a train station in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881, just under four months after he entered the White House.  Doctors could not locate the bullet that had lodged in his chest, and he ultimately died on September 19, 1881, of a ruptured aneurysm following blood poisoning and pneumonia that occurred as a result of the gunshot.

Because of his short time in office, Garfield’s presidential material is extremely rare.  This letter, written shortly before the 1880 election, and with excellent political content, is a nice substitute.

This letter is in very fine condition.  It has normal mailing folds, which do not affect the signature.  It also has two archival hinges on the back from prior mounting.