James A. Garfield by BarkerC

Garfield came from abject poverty in Ohio and found his first work as a driver of mules for the canal boats of the Ohio and Erie Canal, a job that what American author of "rags to riches" stories used as fodder for Garfield's official campaign biography in 1880?

Garfield's early collegiate education was at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute located in this Ohio town which shares its name with the Biblically-influenced first name another 19th century Republican president was born with.

Garfield served with distinction in the Army of the Ohio, using an audacious plan to defeat Confederate forces under Humphrey Marshall at the Battle of Middle Creek in this state. Garfield's victory would lead to his promotion to Brigadier General.

As a young Congressman, Garfield was befriended by this former Ohio governor who had become a member of Lincoln's cabinet and would later win appointment to a seat on the Supreme Court.

In 1870, as chairman of the House Banking Committee, Garfield led the investigation into the "Black Friday" Gold Panic scandal. Name EITHER of the two men who attempted to corner the market on gold on that day in September 1869.

Though Garfield was seen as a largely ethical member of Congress, he was ensnared in the "Salary Grab" scandal of 1873 where an amendment to a bill gave Congress a 50% pay raise retroactive to 1871. By number, what NOW current amendment to the U.S. Constitution would have rendered this scandal moot had it been in the Constitution in 1873?

During the hotly contested election of 1876, President Grant asked Garfield to serve as a "neutral observer" of the recount in which former Confederate state, one of three whose electoral votes were in dispute during that election?

Also in 1876, Garfield completed a new trapezoidal proof of what mathematical theorem, which was published in the New England Journal of Education.

At the 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Garfield gave the nominating speech for this Secretary of the Treasury, a former and future Senator from Ohio, better known known to history as the younger brother of a Union General and as the namesake of a landmark 1890 Congressional act.

Because his supporters has provided Garfield with much of the backing to win the nomination and the presidency, Garfield appointed this Maine-iac and leader of the Half-Breed faction as his Secretary of State.

Historians and quiz bowl players alike will tell you that almost inevitably, Garfield's assassin, Charles Guiteau, is described by what three word phrase in historical recounting of the assassination?

What Scottish inventor's use of a primitive metal detector to find the bullet lodged in Garfield's body was thwarted by the fact that Garfield was resting on a metal spring mattress?