Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency 20240622

One that i find the most absolutely fascinating and interesting is the one were going to discuss tonight. James garfield. For quite a number of reasons. First of all, garfield is one of the most intelligent president s we have ever had. I mean he is up there in the top half dozen, and when we go through his life by the end of it or the middle of it, youre going to start laughing because youre just going to say no, that cant be. He cant be that good in that field. Its just not possible. And then well find something else, and youre going to say no. He is just incredibly bright, and the hope for his presidency was enormous. And so were going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. I was chatting with a friend before, and he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. I dont know how you test Something Like that. I mean, its not as if you give president s iq tests. Its a lot easier with things that are easy to measure. Tall and short i mean, we all know that madison was the shortest and lincoln was the tallest. Thats easy. I dont know how you know the most intelligent. Certainly adams, and Lincoln Garfield is right up there. So one of the reasons its so exciting is because of who he was, and how he could have changed america. Last week when we discussed lincoln, we were discussing had lincoln not been shot how america would have been different. Would the south be so far behind the rest of the country even today in education and health care and so many other areas. Would African Americans have suffered for over 100 years the way they did had lincoln been in charge of reconstruction instead of Andrew Johnson and a congress that wanted to take revenge on the south and didnt really care about the African Americans. So one of the reasons today is so interesting is the brilliance of garfield. And the second is the other main character in our story, charles getoe, and it shows the failure of the Mental Health treatment in our country today and then. Theres no doubt in my mind that he was mentally ill, and it was not treated properly then, even though they know as well discuss, for example they told his father he needs to be institutionized. Hes nuts. And the father agreed. And then they said but you know that putting people in sanitariums you have to pay. The father said i cant afford it so they didnt institutionalize him. The contrast between garfield and his assassin is so astounding. Last week when we were discussing lincoln, after the talk, a gentleman came up to me and asked me to recommend a book at each of the subsequent talks. I didnt do that last week. My failure, and so i was asked, i thought that was a good idea. And obviously when you prepare talks like this, i use lots and lots and lots of sources. Secondary sources books, and primary sources, a lot of the primary sources are now available on the internet so you can read the letters of garfield and the diaries and so forth. Its quite ease storyy to get primary sources now. I use a lot but if i have to recommend one book, i will do that for garfield mckenley and kely. In the case of garfield, a book called destiny of republic. Its absolutely its a perfect read. Youve got good. She is an excellent writer. If i were to read just one book on this topic, it would be this. Obviously i used it but i used a lot of other its as well. But that would be the one book, again, theres no exam after this. Theres no assignment and a couple members of my book club are here today. Were not going to discuss it but it would be the one book to take a look at. You dont often talk about garfield or people dont. And i remember a conversation that i had in 1988. I know exactly the year. With then congressman dick epphart who was running for president. I knew him quite well. I was chatting with him and i asked him, do you know the last member of the house who was elected from the house to become president , and he said no. I said well, let me give you a hint. Do you know who the only member of the house who was elected straight from the house to be president . And he still said no and i said garfield. And he said they shot him. I said well, youre running for the job. Im not. But garfield, as well see, in a brief period, was president elect, senator elect from ohio, and sitting congressman all at the same time. Fascinating, fascinating guy. At the time he was elected president , he was by the far the youngest president wed had in American History to that date. Only two american president s in our history died before reaching the age of 50. Kennedy and garfield. Obviously both for sad reasons. But hes the only house member, and im trying to think quickly. Obviously on the democratic side, this time no one from the house is running. And on the republican side, no one either that im aware of. Its not a jumping stone or steppingstone usually for the presidency. It occasionally happens, that a house member tries to run for president but not that often. Even senators in the twentieth century, only two senators went straight in the senate to the white house. Harding and kennedy. Obviously obama did and this time kroourzcruz, rubio and rand paul, three of them trying to but not that often from the house. Vice president s, not that many either. Only three that i can think of went straight from the Vice President si to becoming president. Jefferson, van burn, and bush senior. Governors more often. Anyway onto garfield. Garfield was born in 1831 died the year he was elected to be president in 1881. We should put him up there. He served nine consecutive terms in the house and his presidency lasted only 200 days. He was inaugurated in march. He was shot on july second, and he died in september. He lingered, and well talk a little bit about his medical care and what happened to him. Garfield, James Garfield was the youngest of five children. He was born in absolute extreme poverty. This is a recreation of his house in ohio. His family lived in a log cabin. They were so poor that they couldnt afford to put down a log floor. It was a dirt log cabin. His father abram died when garfield was 18 months old leaving his mother to raise five children on her own. A single mom with five kids and no money. The family was so poor he did not have his first pair of shoes until after he was four years old. Later on when people admired how he rose from total poverty to becoming president of the United States, he didnt ro mant size this at all. He said let us never praise poverty, especially as a means of raising children, but you do need to really have a sense of awe about his mother, eliza to go from such poverty, to get her son into the white house and she ultimately moves into the white house with him. She later claims that she thought, and im not sure if she was right or wrong. She claims to have been the first president s mother to move into the white house to take care of the kids. A remarkable woman herself. She was fiercely proud that she never accepted aid from anyone. They worked hard and from her he gained a sense of love of learning, of education, and that defines his life. He more than anything else schooling, education for himself and then when hes president , for the country, is a key to understanding him. When his brother, his older brother, thomas was 11 thomas left home to work on other peoples farms to help raise money, and he would send the money back to or give the money back to mom. When james turned 11 he said its time for me to do the same thing. If thomas leaves home at 11 to work on farm, i will. And mom said no. She realized there was something very, very special about this kid and she said youre staying in school. Well support you. You need to stay in school. Thats the key to his life. It shapes his mind. It shapes his attitude. And it creates opportunities for him that otherwise never would have existed. Garfields parents were both members of the church of christ. He was never particularly religious growing up. Then at about age 19 he decided to go to church and his speaking skills were so good on his first day in church he asked the pastor said would you like to say a few words and he was so remarkable that they said you need to go and travel around to other churches and give sermons. And people who heard him preach said that if he decided to make his career in the ministry he would have been one of the lead leading clergymen in america. Were going to find this in everything he said. He would have been one of the best in the church in the country. He remains an elder in the church and resigns when he becomes president and in his statement he said i resign the highest office in the land to become president of the United States. Garfield at age 16 his life almost took a major change. All of a sudden he decided enough with school. I want to go and i want to have a life on sea. Which was interesting, because he couldnt swim, and no one knew why he did this. And so he was living hundreds of miles away from the ocean. So the closest he could find was to get work on the canals, on the ohio and erie canal. At age 16 he drops out of school. Mom is totally devastated. He later said i broke my mothers heart as he feared this would end her high hopes for me. He works on a canal boat and unfortunately, a few days after he is on the boat on the canal boat, he couldnt swim, all of a sudden he falls off the boat. And he cant swim. And so hes going under, and he grabs a rope, and he yanks on the rope and hes able to pull himself up on to the boat, and then he noticed that the rope wasnt attached to anything, but it got caught in a crack with the wood of the boat and saved his life. And he said he was somehow able to pull himself up on this, and he said i did not believe god paid any attention to me on my own account but i came to believe he saved me for my mother and for something greater and better than canalling so he went home. He was a totally changed young man thinking, this is something that i dont know why this happened, but god is sending me a signal. He also got very sick. He caught malaria, and he was so sick after ten days the fever broke and he thought he was okay and then he had a severe relapse. For two months no one knew if he was going to survive. When he finally survived and finally recovered his help his mom and brother went to him and said thomas had saved 17 so far of money he hadnt given for the family and they said, were giving you this money on one condition. You go back to school. And so he attended a number of local schools and when he reached age 20, he decided its time to go onto the equivalent of college. He went to western reserve eclectic institute which later became known as higher college. He couldnt afford the tuition who he became a janitor. He would at 4 00 or 5 00 in the morning and chop wood. He would prepare breakfast for the other students and then join them in class and then go work in the kitchen to help them with lunch. Then after he would clean the school, lower the flag at the end of the day and go back into his room and study. So he was a janitor in his first year. By his second year he was promoted to assistant professor. Because in his first year, he learned and became fluent in greek and latin. And he was able to read virgil in the original. Its amazing. How is this possible . If you think its impressive that he was fluent in greek and latin after one year, the teacher said his best subject was math. Just to give you an idea of how good he was at math, henwhen he was in congress he was bored for a well so he developed a trap zoid proof of paing that ree um theorem, and his work in math is still taught in graduate math programs today. But despite his ability in both math and languages, his interest was in science. He studied the latest scientific discoveries. So again remember hes taking a full course load as a student, and hes teaching. Hes an assistant professor. So in his second year he is teaching latin and one of his students was lucretia randolph. She was the student. She would later tell their daughter he was a big shy lad with a shock of unruly hair. He was as awkward and untutored in mannered as he was determined to learn anything and everything that came his way. They had virtually opposite personalities. He was this bighearted, cheerful, outgoing guy. He wouldnt shake hands with people. He would give people bear hugs. People laughed with him. He was great company. People just loved being around this extroverted big, wonderful guy. She, on the other hand was shy, softspoken, very private. In her diary she wrote he was fearful she would be considered cold and heartless. Their courtship was awkward to put it mildly. Even though he was an incredible extrovert, he couldnt talk to her. He couldnt tell her what he felt about her. And she couldnt talk to him. And this is not a good thing if you are courting. It seems the first time that he was able to tell her what he thought of her was by letter. And he was he took a tour of niagra falls and he writes her a letter in which he says please pardon the liberty i take in pointing my pen towards your name, for this evening i have taken in so much scenery that i cannot contain it all myself. Not exactly a love letter but its the first time hes telling her, i am thinking about you. She was even more shy and reserved than he was. Neither of them were able to tell each other that they really felt quite strongly about each other. And so in 1854 he leaves ohio and decides to finish college at Williams College in williamstown massachusetts. Our new congressman don buyer went there. When he visited don, he brought him a copy of this, because both he and garfield share the same al ma mater. When he was there, he was the best student there. He was a skilled debater and a skilled writer. He became editor of the williams quarterly and in two years at age 25 because, again he got a late start he graduated with the highest honors. Returns to western reserve to teach latin and greek to become a professor as well as other subjects and one year later he is selected to be president of the school. Youre going to keep laughing because its like oh. He then realizes that the school is deeply in debt. Has no undowment. Raises enough money so they can achieve financial viability. He also resumes his rather awkward courtship of a woman who he called cret. Both of them remain unable to tell each other what they think. One day she hands him her the diary and says just read this. In the diary its full of pages about how much she loves him and so finally on november 11, 1958, James Garfield marries the 26yearold lucretia after an 11yearold courtship. If the courtship was difficult, the beginning of the major was pretty much worse. They had great difficulty figuring out okay, now that were living together, what do we do . And as a result it not as a result but it became more difficult because he was never home. In the first five years of major, they spent less than five months together because of the civil war and because of everything else. And their separation, their difficulty of communicating with one another made it very difficult for them at home alone. Their first child, elisa, same name as jamess mother they called her trot. She unfortunately dies at age three, and they grieve separately instead of together. Its a difficult period, and in 1864 when he was a congressman and she was in ohio he thought he totally ruined their major because he had an affair with a young widow in new york named Lucia Gilbert calhoun. He was a reporter. They had a monthlong affair. He felt guilty went home and confessed it to his wife assuming that the major is now over. She forgives him and says its time for us to figure out how to make this thing better and from that moment they fell passionately in love with each other. They decided that they were going to do the best they could together with each other and after that, maybe for the first time they almost couldnt bear to be apart. He later wrote we waited a long time for this love to come but it is here to stay. He later wrote that lucretia became the light of my life the love of my love. He wrote you cannot know how much i need you and miss you and love you. I can hardly bear to be away from you. So from the moment that they really jump started their marriage, they were this happily married couple. It took them a long time to get there but once they were there they were really there. They ultimately wind up having seven children, so they were there. Sadly, two of them trot as i mentioned, and their son, eddie passed away. Five became mature adults and well talk about them later. The five who survived to adulthood all did extremely well because they had great parents, and particularly after he passed away, she did a great job of raising them after. While he was president of western reserve he decided this isnt enough to keep me busy so he decided to study law. Youre going to keep laughing. So in 1859 he studies law. And two years later, he is admitted to the ohio bar. Turns out he was an absolutely brilliant lawyer, but unfortunately for his legal career, the civil war came first, and then he was elected to congress, and so he had to put law aside. And so he didnt actually engage in the prak sis of law until right after the civil war. The first case he argues, of course, was in front of Supreme Court. Its the first time hed ever been in a courtroom arguing a case. It was in front of the Supreme Court. It was called exparty mill gant which is one of the key cases taught in constitutional law today. It is a case on how to deal with civilians during combat times and it is cited today as well particularly garfields arguments at the time. As i mentioned, two things stalled his legal career. First of all politics, and second the war. Garfield did not consider himself to be an abolitionist, but he was fiercely opposed to slavery, and very, very eagerly supportive, not eagerly but passionately supportive of the rights of African Americans to be equal citizens in this country. When he was relatively poor a number of freed slaves, he put them up in particular, one stayed with him for a while and he gave him what little money he had to try and help this escaped slave. He was enormously upset when john brown was hanged. He said this is a dark day in the history of our country, and then in his diary, of course in latin he writes slavery be damne de. His diary would switch between greek and latin and english. He was obviously from what you can pick up of this guy, its no surprise that people were drawn to him and were very impressed with him. In 1859 a state senator in ohio died, and the Republican Party which is relatively comes to him and says youre opposed to slavery and very emancipation and for the union, would you run for state senate. He says i know nothing about politics. They said give it a try and he wins overwhelmingly in his first attempt at public office. And that begins the political career. In 1859, he serves from 18 59 and then within 20 years hes president of the United States. Its a remarkable story. And he probably would have gone on to do very well as a lawyer as a politician, and then the civil war breaks out. When the civil war breaks out garfield, well when the civil war breaks out, he enlists as a private and four weeks later, hes promoted to colonel. He was one of the first to apply. And he is appointed command of the 42nd ohio volunteer infantry. And he is immediately assigned to stop an invasion of ki kentucky, Eastern Kentucky by the confederates. Abraham lincoln said i hope to have god on my side but i must have kentucky. They were fearful that if the confederacy gained control of Eastern Kentucky, it would be able to split the union and so they were very concerned and they didnt have enough troops and they didnt have a seasoned leader of these troops and so they sent garfield with about 1,000 men, not enough artillery and said repel the invasion. The con tedfederates were led by hum fri marshal. He is a seasoned military expert who had more than twice as many troops, had artillery. Garfield is told stop them. He said how. They said thats why youre in charge. Garfield decides to study geography and maps which he had not done before. He spends three days locked up in his room studying maps and comes up with a plan where he splits his thousand troops from into three. About 330 each and attacks the confederate from three sides. They think theyre outin your opinioned three to one when they actually have more than two to one majority surrender and leave. This is known as the battle of middle creek. It is the battle that helped save Eastern Kentucky for the union. As the result garfield gains nationwide recognition in the north and is promoted. Hes been in the army four months. Typical of garfield when he spoke of the battle of middle creek, he never spoke about his role in this but only spoke of the sadness that he felt about the number of both union and confederate young boys who died and who were injured. In early 1862 friends of his came up to him and said would you like to run for congress. He said i dont have time. They said would you let us put your name in and he said i dont care. Do what you want. And so in october of 1862, he is elected to congress by a 21 majority in his district in ohio. He did not have time to campaign. He shows up to not be a congressman but to get his next military duty. He goes to help general grant at the battle of shilo. Grant says that he would not have survived shilo if garfield had not come and repelled the forces of albert Sydney Johnson and that the hero of shilo was johnson. He returns as chief of staff to general rose krants. He then comes to the conclusion that one of the big flaws with the union army is it doesnt have good intelligence. So he complains to other generals and says we dont have a good intelligence unit. They said form one. He creates the Army Intelligence unit and sets it up from scratch. He then turns out to get a reputation as a military genius. He is the principle strategist for the union taking over and gaining control of chattanooga. In late 1863 his health suddenly deteriorates. He suffers from jaundice significant weight loss, and probably infectious hepatitis, and so he has to go home. And he goes home. When he arrived home, hes promoted to major general, but he goes home and cret nurses him back to health. At this point when hes back in good health, he goes to washington and lincoln says youre a superb intelligence and general, and strategist. I need you in congress. Youve been elected to congress. You havent fulfilled your duties here. Were fighting against some of the reelal crazies. Please serve in congress. So here he is with his daughter eliza trot, who dies at age three. When he gets to congress, his first speech calls for emancipation. He gains tremendous respect from his colleagues as a wonderful speaker. According to one reporter when he takes the floor his voice is heard above all others. Every ear attends. His eloquent words convince the reason and tell the weak and the wavering which way to vote. He serves nine terms, 18 years in the house. He becomes one of the most influential and respected members of congress serving as chairman of several important committees. We dont have time to go through his whole congressional career. A number of very significant committees. He is seen by his colleagues as one of the brightest and thoughtful members and fairest members. Democrats go up to him as well, because they like him and trust him. And so he is a superb or ray or the and gives tremendous speeches on the house. When garfield is scheduled to speak, the galleries fill up. People know hes speaking in advance and they come to listen. He is also an incredible strategist on how to get bills through the house. When the civil war ends he is one of the leading members of the house on how do you take this Enormous Army and put them back into civilian jobs. How do you close the army and get them back into jobs. He is particularly interested in finance, because of his math background, and uses his position on the house ways and Means Committee and as chair of the house banking and Currency Committee to focus on the currency of the country. He is very, very upset at the printing of paper money, greenbacks that are not backed by gold. He says greenbacks are the printed lies of the government, and wants the economy based on a Gold Standard which is totally opposed by his constituents in ohio which want more inflationary currency. He says i dont care. Its better for the country. Another one of his Top Priorities is to create a department of education. He says we need to educate our people particularly African Americans, better. And in particular those who are freed slaves. You cant just free people and let them go. You need to educate them. Otherwise, people are going to take advantage of them. So he gets past the First Department of education which is then created, established, and collapses after not because of him but because of mismanagement of the department of education. It takes decades before a new department of education is set up. He is appointed chairman of the Sub Committee of the census and totally reworks out the census works. And how we count people and the information and as a result of the census taken that he established, we now have a far greater understanding of who was living in america at the time. Shortly after he was reelected in 1864 lucretia sends him a note and says in the last 57 weeks weve been together less than 20. He says youre right. Come to washington and live with me. He brings his family to washington and he is as happy as hes ever been. He loves the house. He loves his colleagues. His wife is there. His family is growing. Hes got a law practice on the side. Hes finally earning decent money and the kids, in particular, want a dog and ill talk about the dog in a minute. He has the five kids and theyre in a rented small house. And he says its time for us to move to something bigger and so they walk around washington and look for a place to live and they cant find a place they like so he says well lets find an architect, he says no i can do this myself. He studies architecture for three to four weeks, designs a house, and the house that he designed became the model for houses and is the cover on the equivalent of architectural digest which says if he would only give up politics he would be the only architect in america. Keep laughing. My good friend bob dawson his office is located on the site where garfields house was. An 13th and i. Im sorry we dont have time to go over the rest of his house career. Again, he was involved in all the issues of the time that you can imagine. Did i lose this . No. Okay. The impeachment of president johnson. I think we did lose it. Nope. Okay. Sorry. The west ward expansion reconstruction. He speaks very forcefully in favor of the 15th amendment. He constantly goes on the floor to attack the kluklux clan and racism. One more thing to mention because its important. His commitment to Civil Service reform. At the time if you wanted a federal job, you bribed someone to give you one. Whoever wins elections would appoint their friends and would expect their friends then to make gifts to whoever gets them the job. Garfield felt that it was time to have most federal jobs based upon merit not upon who you know or what you can buy. And so he is one of the leaders of trying to get Civil Service reform. This becomes important because this is why he was killed. The only black mark, or the main black mark against garfield when he was in the house was he got caught up in one of the largest scandals of the times. Known as the credit mobile yeah scandal. Essentially, a stock in credit mobile yeah which was a Construction Company and the Union Pacific railroad. Members of congress bought it. Garfield had only ten shares. He soled them before it became a big deal and he was able to he got tainted a little bit because of his involvement in the scandal, but he really it didnt cause him great difficulty. In 1876, garfields son neddie died and this time both he and lucretia were able to mourn together. It brought this couple together because they could share the grief. In 1879, a series of political events take place that are almost mind boggling that no one could have predicted. Republican leader of the house of representatives was james blaine of maine. Blaine decides hed rather be a senator. In those days senators are not elected by the people nature they are elected by the state legislatures. So blaine goes to the legislature in maine he says i want to be senator. They said fine. It leaves vacant the leadership of the Republican Party in the house. The republicans were then the minority. And they select garfield to be the republican leader. So in todays terms, hes nancy pelosi. He is the leader of the Minority Party in the house and he is thrilled. He thinks this is great. He loves the house. Hes happy as can be, and he is the lead erszer of the republicans there. This is the last years of the presidency of the ruther ford b haze. Well talk about him because hes such a good friend of william mckinly. He won the contested president able election in 1876 in which hayes got less votes, popular votes, and also probably got less electoral votes but because of florida you cant make this up al he just came in. We were together with al gore in 200 and i had a discussion with gore that this remind me of the tilden hayes election of 1876 in which tilden went to bed thinking he won. He got far more popular votes. The question was where would florida go and florida sent two sets of electors. One republican and one democrat. Washington didnt know what to do with it. They set up a commission on whos votes to count. They picked five house members, three democrats, two republicans. They picked five senators three republicans, two democrats, and they picked five Supreme Court justices two democrats, two republicans and the only independent on the court who realized that he would cast the deciding vote who he quits resigns from the Supreme Court. There is no other democrat or independent on the court. They appoint a republican, and as a result hayes wins because of the voeftte of one Supreme Court justice picking for florida. Hayes has a difficult time as president , and vetoed quite a number of things passed by the democrats in congress and its garfields task to sustain the president s veto. Garfields kids want a dog. So he gets them a dog, and they name it veto. So i mean, you have to love this guy. Hes brilliant. Hes happy. Hes got the five kids. Hes got the dog. Hes got the house he built informal everything changes in 1880 and no one could have predicted it. Hayes announces hes not running for ree election which is okay because no one could have renominated. Its now up to the republicans to pick the nominee. The Republican Party in 1880 is divided into two warring factions. They hate each other. It makes our current politics look tame. One is stalled the stal warts and the other is called the half breeds. The stal warts defend the spoil system. The only way to get a job is someone appoints you. To the victor belong the spoils. They hate the south. They wanted revenge and they dont particularly care about African Americans. The half breeds want Civil Service reform and want better education for the African Americans who were free before and were freed as a result. As mentioned, obviously, garfield feels more comfortable with the half breeds. The leader of the stal warts hes the poster child, is rosco, congling, loyal supporter of president grant so much saw so that grant allowed him to pick anyone he wants to be the port collector of new york. A very very lucrative position. And if you get this job, the only thing you have to do is give money to rosco o konkling. He is making so much money from the port of new york and his buddies running it are making so much money that when he is offered to be appointed to the Supreme Court court, he turns it down and says i cant afford it. He said id rather control the port of new york currency coming in. The Customs House of new york he appoints his good buddy to be in charge a man by the name of chester a art arthur. He runs the Customs House in nooinew york. Hayes then tries to remove Chester Arthur as the port collector of new york and konkling blocks him. Hayes says he is a thorly rotten man because he keeps this corrupt system going in new york. Konkling is feared and obeyed but secretly despised. His personally vain. He always has his thick, wavy hair in a split curl in the center of his forehead. He has one major detractor in the United States congress. And that is the former congressman and now senator from maine, james g. Blaine. Blaine ridicules konkling for his majestic super eminent turkey gobbling strut. Why cant our politicians today talk like that . He vows that the only goal he has left in life is to block blain from the one thing he wants more than anything else, and that is to be president. And he says if i can keep blaine from becoming president , then my lifes ambitions are accomplished. Okay. 1880. Blaine announced he wants to run for president. Konkling says i need to block him. He needs a candidate. He comes up with a candidate. Ulysses h grant. George washington says only two terms. Since grant had served two terms and left, if he comes wacback and runs again, is that okay, and they didnt know. This was before Franklin Roosevelt and the change in our system. It wasnt illegal or unconstitutional for him to run again but people wondered is a third term that is not contiguous, a third term, or is it a first term for the second time. And thats the way they phrased it. Grant did not want to be president again. He didnt like the job, but he was not in good health and was broke, and he needed a job. No so he allowed his name to be put in nomination. So the two main figures for the republican nomination in 1880 are james blaine of maine and former president , ulysses grant. A third candidate appears. The third candidate is john sherman of ohio. John sherman had been the treasury secretary in the Hayes Administration, left the Hayes Administration and became a senator from ohio. He is the brother of william tukumpsa sherman. Now we have three majorfigures. Sherman goes to garfield and says will you be my Campaign Manager. Garfield says, i would be honored. Sherman then decided to resign from senate to devote full time to his run for president. That leaves a vacancy for the ohio senate. Now, remember, voters dont vote in the senators. State legislators do. The state legislature of ohio picks from the next senator of ohio garfield. Garfield is the republican leader in the house and the senator elect from ohio. Okay . Its going to get better. The Republican Convention in 1880 takes place in chicago which is still suffering and showing many of the ill effects from the famous fire. Blains name is placed in nomination. Konkling gets up and nominates grant. Citing him as the hero. At this point, then, it is time to nominate sherman and garfield gives the nominating speech and it is a remarkable speech. He says it is time for america who live up to the true live up to the true principals of the constitution mainly that all men white or black shall be free and shall stand equal before the law and the place goes nuts and everyone says, maybe were picking the wrong guy from ohio. This guy, hes brilliant and hes an or tore and hes wonderful and sherman, hes okay. The first at that time, each convention, as you know always determines for themselves how many how the procedure works. In 1880, in order to get the nomination you needed 379 votes of delegates. Unlike today, for the most part todays conventions are a big party. We know in advance by the time you get to the convention who the nominee is going to be. In those days, they actually went and nominated people. So they went to the convention. They needed 379. On the first ballot, grant gets 304, blain gets 284 and sherman gets 93. And assorted other candidates get a handful. So no one is even close. So they take a second ballot and a third ballot and a fifth ballot and a tenth ballot. And its insane three and they shift five or six, but nothing is changing. On the 14th ballot a delegate from pennsylvania casts his one vote for garfield. Garfield jumps up and says, i am the Campaign Manager for sherman. I am not a candidate. I will not accept the nomination. The chair rules garfield out of order, tells him to shut up and sit down. So he goes back. On the 34th ballot the delegates from wisconsin cast all of their votes for garfield. Garfield again jump is up and says, i am not a candidate. I am the manager for sherman and again is told, youre out of order, sit down and shut up. On the 36th ballot theres a clear shift for garfield who, on the 36th ballot received 399 votes, 20 more than is necessary, and gets the nomination to be the republican candidate for president. As he walks out of the convention hall, a reporter comes up to him and says, general, this is wonderful. And garfield says, i wish that had not happened. This is the worst day of my life. Okay. So now you have a half breed as the president ial candidate. Who do you select as the Vice President ial candidate . You need a stall worth. So conquering names his buddy, Chester Arthur who had been fired for corruption to be the Vice President ial candidate. Chester arthur had never run for Political Office. He was not in chicago. He did not know that he would be nominated for anything let avoen Vice President of the United States. And when he found out, when he got a cable saying youve been nominated for Vice President he thought the Western Union broke. He said what do you mean . Im not a candidate. Well, yes he was. So arthur had been paid 50,000 a year as a collector, which is enormous in those days, forced out on grounds of corruption. Never held any office, never run any office and suddenly is running for Vice President. And everyone said, it doesnt matter. Garfield is the youngest man to run for president in American History to that point. He ultimately becomes the youngest president to date to be elected. Hes in good health. Hes 62 hes in great physical shape. Hes got this wonderful family who cares about who is going to be Vice President. Its irrelevant. Here is another Campaign Poster of garfield and arthur. The democrats name another civil war hero at the time, Winfield Scott hancock, another general, to run for president. In the popular vote out of close to 9 million cast 8. 9 million votes cast garfield whips by only 7,000 votes nationwide. In the electoral vote he wins 214155. And so suddenly we have president garfield this is the official picture of garfield as president. The only man ever elected to the presidency directly from house of represents. So what is even more remarkable was that for a brief period of time, he was a sitting member of the house and the leader of the party in the house and a senator elect and a president elect, all at the same time. Garfield is sworn in on march 4, 1881. Here is garfield with he didnt have the money for his own horse and buggy so president hayes offers to allow him to use his used up rig. He goes. Theres a lot of snow in washington at the time. Thousands of people come to see the youngest person ever to be president and here is garfields inauguration. In those days, it was done on the east wing of the capitol. Today its done on the west wing. And garfield is in the capitol waiting to come out and thousands of people are out there waiting for garfield to come out and three people walk out of the capitol and everyone goes, wow, wow, wow. First person to walk out is James Garfield, the youngest man to be president. Next person to walk out is his mother. And he points to her, i wouldnt be here because of her. And next person to walk out, frederick douglas. And they go an africanamerican standing next to the president on the capitol lawn. That symbolizes garfield as much as anything else. In fact, after garfield is elected and moves into the white house, here he is being sworn in. James blain is behind him here. Here is the official white house picture. Mom, garfield and the wife. She claims i dont know if this is accurate but she claims to have been the first mother of a president to move to the white house to take care of the president s kids. May be true. I dont know. Gab r garfields inaugural address will give us an idea of what he wants to have happen. He emphasizes civil rights of africanamericans. He believes they deserve the full rights of citizenship. Then he goes on to say but they might be literate and stresses the need for universal education in america. Then he goes on to talk about agricultural as the key to american prosperity. And says we have all this land and were growing all these crops and this is all wonderful but if we did scientific agriculture, if we studied how to improve our crops, our who improve agricultural, we could double and triple the use of the land. He says i want the smithsonian, among others, to do research on how to improve the quality and the scientific nature of our agricultural. Then he goes into an attack on the mormon church, particularly polygamy. He says this offends the moral sense of manhood. And finally, he talks about Civil Service reform. He says it should be based on merit, not on who you know. The speeches applauded, people go nuts they think this is wonderful and after the speech John Phillip Soussa leads the marine corps band in an inaugural parade with music that he had composed that we still use today. The president and his family the wife, molly, the daughter, president Garfield Irwin Harry and eliza, the mother. And it was camelot to use a phrase from kennedys time. The president , with his young family, with his wife whom hes in love with mom is sitting there, grows up in abject profit in a dirt floor log cabin and reads latin and reads greek and is a mathematics genius and could have been an architect and could have been the best clergyman in america. Okay. He comes in and obviously the first thing he has to deal with is killing federal jobs. In those days, 100,000 federal jobs and Office Seekers comes to the white house personally asking for the jobs. He thinks this is awful. But first, before he deals with the white house and the cabinet, he puts together his cabinet and he tries to split it between half breeds and stalwarts. He appoints james blain to be secretary of state. Blain is a half breed, believes in Civil Service reform and is probably the closest member of the cabinet to garfield. He appoints the number of supporters to other key positions in the cabinet. And then he appoints a number of others who are neither half breeds nor stalwarts. For example, he appoints Robert Todd Lincoln, lincolns son, to be the secretary of war. The feud between conkling and garfield breaks out almost immediately. Garfield appoints an enemy of conkling to be the port collector of new york, a judge by the name of william robertson. Konkling says you cant appoint to that job. Thats a job i control. Garfield says, im president. Konkling says senatorial courtesy. Its a new york job. You cant do it without me. Garfield says, ive just appointed him. Konkling then says, im show you. Ill resign from the senate. So he and the other senator from new york thomas plat both quit. Believing that the New York Legislature will then re appointappoint him to come back to the senate and that will show garfield, i have support youve got to get my guy in. The New York Legislature refuses to reappoint konkling or plat. Garfield used this as his first major victory as president. Its the presidency. Its executive power. Its the principal of senatorial courtesy being weakened compared to the power of the presidency. Garfield also wants almost nothing to do with Vice President Chester Arthur. He does not allow him to come to Cabinet Meetings. The plight of africanamericans is very much on his mind. And he believes that education for the black for the africanamericans is their way to a better quality of life. And he appoints quite a number of key africanamericans to positions. Frederick Douglas Robert elliott, John Langston blanch bruce and quite a number of others. Again, people are saying wow, what a change. The next issue he faces is the growing National Federal debt. And he looks at american treasury notes and he notices that they are all held by new york banks. And the federal government is paying 6 interest. He says i can do better. He goes up to new york and he tells the banks, 200 million controlling at 6 interest. The interest has just changed to 3. 5 . You want to control these notes you drop your interest rates. They are furious. They drop the interest rate. It remind he me of that scene in the movie days where they sit in the white house and suddenly rearranged the books. Garfield figures this out, goes up to new york and suddenly saves millions of dollars in his first week as president. Lots of appoints we dont have time to go into. The one that i think is one of the more fun ones we talked about him last week because he was one of the judges at the lincoln conspiracy trial and that is general lou wallace. Garfield appoints him to be the ambassador to turkey. And he tells lou wallace, im appointing you to be act bass door so a Muslim Country so you can write another book. He gets involved with an ohio senator by the name of George Pendleton to try and draft civil supervisory form. Sadly, it only passes after garfields death. Good point for us to stop here and shift to the second character in our story. And there is nothing more different than this absolutely brilliant latin and greek scholar, president of the university, lawyer who argues ex parte militant, architecture, designs his own house, mathematician who comes up with the paythagorean theorem that gets published, etcetera and then charles gouilleteau. He was a french houganot family. Moves to new york baus as a young man because he wants to go to nyu. Is completely and inadequately prepared and flanks the exam. Moves to ann arbor, michigan to take remedial courses and quits after a couple of weeks deciding hes not very good at schooling, in his phrase and joins a utopian religious sect known as the oneida community. In oneida, new york, which practices free love and sexual freedom, to put it mildly. Group marriage. But despite the fact that they have Group Marriage and sexual freedom, none of the women want anything to do with him. In fact, they refer to him as charles get out. And so he feels slighted by this and quits and moves to hoboken new jersey, where he attempts to start a newspaper. This failed. So he goes back to oneida, stays there for a lot whooit while and is thrown out. He then gets married to a librarian. He abused her physically, verbally, beat her periodically. They were constantly on the run. They would go into motels or cheap boarding houses and skip out just before paying the bills and finally, after a brief period of time, she left him. Because of his behavior. He then moves to ohio excuse me to chicago where somehow he gets a law license. In those days, you didnt have to go to law school. You could practice law. And he meets a lawyer who asked him three questions. He gets two of them right and the lawyer says, you just passed the bar. And so he becomes a lawyer, but all he his happiest moments as a lawyer is reading his business cards that say charles guitillea a ux attorney at law. And his biggest accomplishment for a brief period of time he had an office in a building that had an elevator. He argues only one case pep loses. Its thrown out. So he spends most of his time as a lawyer as a bill collector which he does rather poorly. He at one point sues the New York Herald for 100,000 because they wrote an article about him saying that he represented a client to get 350 back. He got half of that and pocketed it as his fee. And so the New York Herald wrote about it and said dont use this guy as your bill collector. So he sued them but then they threw it out. He then decides that he moves in with his sister francis whom he then attacks with an ax. She, in turn try toes have him institutionalized as mentally disturbed. A doctor interviews him and says yes, he is. He finds out hes being snooul institutionalized and runs away. Decides hes going to devote the rest of his life to god and becomes interested in theology. Writes a book called the truth which is totally plagiarized from other peoples writing literally word for word. But his biggest conclusion in his book is that christ has already had his second coming. He travels around the country jumping off trains before they collect his ticket. His father is asked to put him in institutionalized and then found out that he would have to pay for institutionalizing him and says he cant afford it. An event takes place june 11 1880, that changes his life. He is on a prairie ride on a ship called the ss stonington. The stonington, its foggy its a terrible night and it clued with another ship called the ssnaragantha. The naragantha sinks dozens of people lose their life. He survives. Hes convinced god has a higher plan for him and that higher plan is to get involved in politics. So he decides to write a speech to help the next president ial candidate, grant. So he writes a speech on why people should vote for grant. Then garfield gets the nomination. So he crosses out grant and writes garfield. Thats the only change in the speech. He then is able to get a small audience in new york to come and listen to him but most of them walk out. And so about a dozen people show up to hear him and they walk out. But he becomes convinced that it was this speech that helped garfield win new york and get the electoral votes of new york and if it werent for this speech, garfield would not be president. And as a result when garfield was elected to president , as president , he sends him a letter. We won. We cleaned them out, just as i expected. So then he writes and says okay, now that i got you in as president , i want a job. I got you in as president , you owe me. I want to be the ambassador to vee enna. Give him credit, he doesnt stick on that for long. After a while he looks into vienna and says i really dont want that. I want to be the ambassador in paris. So he at the time, the president met with job seekers. So somehow he goes in and he meets with garfield in the white house. And he hands him a copy of the speech. Grant crossed out garfield up there and writes on it paris consulship consulship. Hes convinced its a matter of time. Hes met the president he gives a speech hes going to be the next ambassador. Somehow he is able to attend a reception at the white house where he spends time with mrs. Garfield and goes up to her and says, you probably dont know who i am. Im the man most responsible for the president s election as president and as a result im going to be the next ambassador to paris. He then goes and is told that to get any job, you need to have a formal application. So he goes to the white house and fills out the form. And is told, your application will be put in a file. So he is now convinced that garfield will go through the file, pick his out and name him ambassador to paris. So a few days later, he goes to the white house to find out whats happened to his application and he is told the president cannot see you today. So he figures, ahh that means the president can see me tomorrow. So he goes back to the white house day in and day out. And he is meeting frequently with the president s staff outside and they, of course, think that this man is nuts. He spends a lot of time sitting and laughing at the square waiting to meet people. Somehow he meets Vice President Chester Arthur. He says, i got you go the guys elected in new york. Chester arthur, being from new york, was surprised. He says id appreciate your help in becoming ambassador to paris. He said thats a president ial appointment. Im only Vice President. Sorry, i cant help you. At this point, he is running out of paper for his letters. So he goes to the riggs hotel and starts taking paper from the hotel. And the clerk from the hotel says im stealing your paper. And he says dont you know who i am . Im going to be the next a. M. Ambassador to paris. Then he bumps into and goes to see secretary of state blain and says, youre secretary of state ambassadors fall on the state department id appreciate your help to become the next ambassador to paris. He does this so often that the hes told you cant come back. He finally meets blain on the street and blain tells him, youre not going to get a job. So he writes a letter to garfield and says i figured out your problem. Its your secretary of state. So im perfectly willing to come to the white house tomorrow and talk to you about how to get rid of this guys because hes a problem. He writes a letter to the president and basically he stops. On june 1, he decides this isnt going anywhere, this isnt working. But he has a visitor, god. And god talks to him and says, its time for you to kill the president. He didnt think this was murder or an assassination. He thinks he was merely removing the president , who was not doing a good job. And replacing him with someone who would do a good job and decides he wouldnt be gld because god specifically asked him to do this. And so hes not to be blamed for this. If hes going to kill the president , he obviously needs a gun. So he borrows 15 and he goes to buy a gun. This is a photo of the gun. The smithsonian has since lost the gun. He goes to a gun shoe shop and is told he has a choice of two guns, they are both 442 webley british gunls. He says hes rather have the ivory grip because it would look better in a museum. Again, were talking about mental illness. The next thing he needs to do is see how the gun works. The first time he shoots it he gets knocked over from the recoil because he has no idea what he is doing. Now hes decided to kill the president , so he starts following the president and stalking him. Waiting for the right opportunity. Its now time to return to the garfield. In midmay of 1881 mrs. Garfield suddenly contracts malaria and possible spinal meningitis. And she her hurry temperature at one point reaches 104. She is doing quite poorly. When her temperature subsides the doctors suggest that she go to a seaside resort in new jersey in the elberon hotel. So on june 18, garfield and mrs. Garfield take the train to go to new jersey so that she can have convalescence from her illness. Guiletteaux goes to the train station, he sees she is not doing well and he doesnt want to he upet set her by killing her husband in front of her. Garfield stays in new jersey with his wife. He has a Cabinet Meeting there. June 27, 1881, he comes back to washington. A few days later on july 2nd he is invited to be the featured speaker at his alma mater, we yams college. In order to get up there, he needs to take the train. He goes to the train station accompanied by blain and two on his sons. Here is the train station. Today that train station is where the National Gallery of art is. My good friend eric danker, who is one of the occur raters at the National Gallery told me somewhere at the National Gallery theres a plaque where garfield was shot. I havent seen it, but its somewhere in the National Gallery today. Secretary of war Robert Todd Lincoln is at the train station to meet him. He was poor Robert Todd Lincoln is at his fathers bedside with his father dies, he is next to garfield when garfield is shot and hes with mckinley in buffalo when mckinley is shot and after mckinleys death he says i never want to see another president again. Garfield enters the waiting room. Guiletteaux steps forward pulls the trigger from pointblank range and shoots garfield from the back. Garfield runs back and says my god, what is this . Hes fired at again. I forgot to mention, prior to shooting the president a few days earlier he figured he would be arrested for this. So he went to the d. C. Prison to get a tour to see if this is an okay place for him to live. They wouldnt let him in. So he walked around the building a few times and says, this sock. He he gets to the train station by cab. He tells the cab driver, could you please wait. Ill be out in few minutes. So he shoots the president. The first bullet grazes garfields shoulder. The second hits him in the back passing the first lumbar vertebrae but misses the final cord. The bullet lonelies near the liver. It could not be found until after the autopsy. It was found later behind the pan koreaace in fatty tissue. He calmly puts the gun back in his pocket and turns to leave the station because he has a cab waiting for him. At this point a policemen by the name of patrick kurney jumps on guileteaux wrestles him to the ground and is so excited that he just wrestled the assassination of a president that he forgets to take the gun away. A crowd gathers yelling, lynch him, lynch him. He shouts, i am the stalwart of stalwarts. I did it. I want to be arrested. Arthur as president. This leads some people to believe that arthur had something to do with the assassination. He didnt. There is no conspiracy here. We have one very deranged person acting alone. Garfield is conscious, but in shock. He is carried upstairs in the train station with a bullet in his back. Lincoln says, how many hours of sorrow have passed in this town . In less than five minutes, a physician by the name of smith townson who is the d. C. Health commissioner arrives at the train station. Now, quick background. By this point in history, Joseph Lister had already written extensively on the need for sanitation and the danger of sepsis caused by germs and the need not to put germs into patients. But there are many in america who did not believe this. And we will come to this in a second particularly with the doctor who is going to be one of the lead figures in our story. Dr. Bliss. Dr. Townsend comes and decides the first thing to do is take the bullet out. Bullets can cause you harm if theyre moving. If they get into you and they havent caused the harm, you might survive for a long time. He sticks his finger unwashed, into garfield and this is the beginning of bad things. Garfield is in tremendous pain but is mostly concerned, how will his wife take this news . And so he permanently dictates a telegram to be sent to her, im okay, dont worry about this, come to washington when you feel better. At this point, Robert Todd Lincoln makes an extremely well meaning but incredibly tragic mistake. And the mistake is, he calls for his own personal physician to come and be the physician here is another picture of the assassination. Again, here is blain standing there. Guiteau shooting garfield pretty much at point blarng. A man with a great first name of doctor dr. Doctor willard bliss was one of the attending physicians at lincolns death bed, is called by Robert Todd Lincoln to come and see what he could do. Bliss was one of the leading experts in america who opposed lister. He had written a paper saying what do you mean germs can harm you . If you cant see them they can cause you no harm. So he immediately gets there and sticks his finger into garfield to see if he can find the bullet. He cant. And so he goes into his medical bag and pulls out a probe one that had been used on another patient and had not been sterilized or washed since and sticks it into garfield. Into the president s back. Then he tries to remove the probe, but he gets engaged between fragments and the end of the rib. So in order to get the probe out, he has to press down on the president s ribs so that the ribs would lift so he can pull the probe out thereby causing a cavity to develop inside the president. He then sticks his finger back into the president to see if now he could find the bullet and he cant. At this point, another doctor, interestingly enough an africanamerican doctor how many of them were there in america at the time names charles pervis had seen enough and says stop this. Remarkably, bliss did. But then they decided they needed to move the president to the white house. They take him to the white house and everyone decides theres no way garfield is going to survive the night. This is going to be fatal. But mrs. Garfield says here is the telegram and decides shes going to come down. Shes not well but shes going to come and be with her husband if she could. A special train is immediately pul put together to bring her down. And to make matters worse, 18 miles north of washington the barge connecting the engine to the rest of the train snap and the engine malfunctions. The train continues for two more miles ripping up the track and the engine almost explodes. If it exploded, everyone on the train, including mrs. Garfield would have been killed. Somehow, she gets to washington. She gets to the white house. Late that night, garfield breaks into a broad smile despite his pain and says thats my wife. Now all will be well. She responds that she is there to nurse her husband back to health. Despite all the confusion going on and, doctors running around, dr. Bliss decides its his turn to take demand of the situation. He decides that he is going to be in charge of everything, the medicine who could see the president , what would be done where he would be. High on his suspect is people who believe in lister and sepsis. Anyone who believes that has no right to see his patient. Bliss found the notion of invisible germs to be ridiculous and refuses to even discuss it. For the next 80 days the country has a death watch watching whats happening to president garfield. Bliss issues a statement, if i cant save him no one can. Bliss considers the greatest threat to garfields health to be other doctors. Who will get in his way. Garfields personal position, dr. Hide baxter, shows up at the white house. Bliss says, i know why youre here and i wont tolerate it. Get out. Baxter says, im the president s personal physician. Bliss says you were, but not because of this emergency. Bliss starts screaming at him. Garfield is lying right next to him and dr. Baxter realizes that this argument is not helping the president and walks away. Thereby conceding to bliss. Baxter cries out, ive been with the president for years, he is my friend. Bliss says friendship is not enough. I am the president s doctor. Other doctors later came and said why was bliss in charge inspect bliss said because both the president and mrs. Garfield asked for me to be in charge. Mrs. Garfield later said that she was never asked and would never have come to that decision. The first was the first cousin and long time childhood friend and close physician when he was in ohio. When he kams, she sent him a telegram, he came and bliss says i dont need you here, but if you must be here, you can be a nurse. And the second doctor mrs. Gar frld wanted was her physician, a woman physician by the name of susan ann edison. She was such a familiar in the white house that garfield used to sing, dr. Edison, dr. Edison, full of medicine full of medicine. Bliss said women are going to be nurses, not doctors. So bliss was in charge. He issued daily bulletins on the president s health. His condition fluctuated. Fevers came and went. He struggled to keep down solid foods, spent most of the summer eating little, only liquids. He was in skoougz excruciating pain for the last 80 days of his life. Although he was in terrible condition, bliss refused to allow the president to be taken to the house. He said he will get better care in the white house. The summer of 1881 was the hottest summer up to that point. The pipes in the white house were over 100 years old, the basement was full of foul smells, the water flowing through the white house was foul. The building was close to the tidal basin area, which then was not what it looks like now. Insects were around. That summer, over half a dozen servants in the white house came down with malaria. In order to protect the president from malaria, bliss said he should be given daily doiss of quinine. Not only can that in those dosages be fatal, they cause intestinal cramping which caused furg problems for the president s already ravaged digestive system. It was so hot they decided to develop an airconditioning system and it was the first airconditioner in america. He took a huge block of ice and they had fans blowing across. They were able to lower the temperature in the president s room by 20 degrees it made so much nose noise that the president said id rather have the heat than this noise, so they had to shut it off. At this point, its time to introduce another one of the figures in our story. You know whats coming. Alexander graham bell. Alexander graham bell is a major figure because he invented the telephone. He decided to be helpful. And since bliss said that the key thing was finding the bullet and they did not have xrays at the time, he decided to develop a metal detector to try and find the bullet through metal. And so he worked feverishly to come up with a metal detector. And it works. And they pulled out a number of civil war veterans and they that had bullets in them left over, and it went click, click click, there it is. They had something that worked like a telephone, it works. He goes to bliss and says i can find the bullet. Bliss says, i dont believe you. He brings over civil war veterans, click, click, click, they worked. They take him to the white house, here he is with the new mrelths detector trying to find it. Problem. Said the bullet went to the right. Click, click, click, there it is. It works. They opened the president. No bullet. He is on a spring metal frame bed. It would have gone click click click, no matter where they had it. So it didnt work because it wasnt used properly because he was laying on the bed. Garfield is bed ridden for the summer. R. Graham bells thing doesnt work. They cant find the bullet. He is in extreme pain. He is starting to develop sepsemia and the doctors decide to operate. And, of course, this is another bad thing that they do. By now, the infection in his body is so toxic that its a danger to anyone near him. And while doing the operation bliss accidentally slices his finger. And pus from the president gets into his finger and as a result he gets something called pus fever and his hand swells up so much that he has to put dr. Bliss has to put his hand in a slipping for days afterward. Garfields weight drops from over 200 pounds to 130. He is unable to keep food down. Bliss begins to fear that garfield will die of starvation. Hes unable to keep any food down other than oatmeal and, sadly, the only food that garfield hates is oatmeal. Hes suffering from profound deheede hee dehee dehydration. He begins suffering from hallucinations. Blood poisoning and infection are causing even greater pain and problems. In the meantime whenever he is lucid lucid, he tells jokes he is trying to be the motel patient and he keeps particularly when mrs. Garfield is around trying to put the best light on all of this. Mrs. Garfield suffers so much from the stress that her hair falls out. So she only wears a scarf on her head or her hat when she comes to see him. Finally, its decided to get out of the heat from washington and take him back to elberon in new jersey. On september 6th a especially equipped train takes him to new jersey. In the belief, in the hope that maybe if hes at the seaside, the better air, the fresh air seeing the ocean will somehow revive him. Unfortunately, new infection set in as well as spasms of an gi na. On monday, september 19, 1881 at 10 20, he suffers a massive heart attack and an an yourism following blood poisoning and bronchial pneumonia. Dr. Bliss unsuccessfully tries to revive the fading president. Garfields final words are my work is done. Mrs. Garfield leans over her dying husband and yells, oh, why was i made to suffer such a cruel wrong . Hes pronounced dead at 10 35 in the morning by dr. Bliss. And, obviously, Vice President Chester Arthur becomes the next president. Garfields body is taken back to washington where it lays in state in the capitol in the rotunda before being taken to cleveland where he is finally buried on september 26. He is survived by his mother who died seven years later in 1888 and lucretia survives him for 36 years, living a very quiet, but seemingly comfortable life. The five children who went who grew into adulthood all did very well. The eldest, harry became a lawyer and a professor of government at princeton. Then, like his father, he became a University President at his fathers university, williams. James, the second became a lawyer and would serve as secretary of the interior under teddy roosevelt. The third irwin, became a lawyer. Abram, known as abe, became an architect. Molly, the daughter mary was her name, but everyone called her molly. Mary was the president s top assistant and was sort of a second son was an additional son to the president and he becomes a successful banker. So the kids do very, very well. Most historians and doctors and every historian i read on this came to the saig same conclusion. That is that garfield would have certainly survived if the doctors had left him alone. The bullet was lodged in his fatty tissues. Within a week or ten days maybe two weeks, he would have been out walking. He would have been fine. He was certainly in no danger. Had garfield been shot 15 years later, the bullet would have been found very quickly with an xray machine, but it didnt happen. He would have been treated with antiseptic surgery. He had have been back on his feet. Unfortunately, most americans at the time did not understand antisepsis and the need for cleanliness to prevent infection. In addition, all of the probing of garfield in all likelihood, punctured his liver as well, when they were probing around into him. They had erroneously probed rightward when the bullet went leftward. And the autopsy also revealed pneumonia in both lungs and was filled with so much pus that it was uncontrolled accept seem ya. Chester arthur was in new york when he found out that the president had died and his Immediate Reaction was, oh no tell me this isnt true. Arthur was known as a man of leisure. He liked fine whines and dinner parties. He spent a lot of time grooming that moustache and those side burns. He was very proud of them. His wife had died short lir before, so he moved in with roscoe konkling. When he first got the news arthurs first comment was i hope, my god, i hope its a mistake. But it was not a mistake. He travel toes new jersey to be with mrs. Garfield and to pay his respects. Well come back to him and his when we go over what happened to the various folks. Time to move on to Charles Guiteaus trial. The case of United States versus Charles Guiteau began in november 1881 less than two months after garfields death. Americas greatest fear was that guiteau would be let off that he would be able to have a plea of insanity and that they would let him off. The insanity defense was known at the time and was used and they were quite fearful. For quite a while guiteau could not find an attorney to represent him because no one wanted to represent the assassin of the president. So finally, he got George Scoville to represent him. Scoville was married to iteaus sister francis, whom he had tried to attack with an ax. Thats not who you want as your attorney. Scoville was a patent attorney. He had never tried a criminal case. He was, however the only attorney willing to take the case. Scoville said if i did not think the unfortunately r unfortunate man was insane, i would not have defended him at all. So his defense, of course was insanity. As hard as it was to find an attorney, it was equally hard to find jurors. Everyone in america thought guiteau was guilty. There was no question about it. He was caught right there. They interviewed close to 200 meem before they finally came up with 12. The trial was an enormous hoopla in washington. You needed tickets to get in. Even journalists needed tickets to get in to see the trial. Guiteau began his defense by asking if he could give a statement. And his statement said that he wanted to indecide the president s true murderers, the doctors. He said, i was the shooter. The killer were the doctors. The doctors who mistreated him should bear the odom of his death, not his assailant. They should be indicted for murdering James Garfield and not me. I deny the killing your honor. I admit only the shooting. His behavior at the trial became increasingly bizarre, to put it mildly. He would constantly insult his defense team, yelling at his broern during the trial youre a jackass. I must tell you that in public, im sorry to say but youre a [ expletive ]. He would ask for legal advice from spectators with whom he would pass notes during the trial. He would speak when he felt like it. He would rekrooil cite epic poems that he wrote. He would get up periodically and sing john browns body. He claims that he was not guilty because it was gods will that he shot the president and, therefore, he was just carrying this out. He placed an ad in the New York Herald. It was a personal ad for an elegant Christian Lady of wealth under 30 belonging the first class family, object, matrimoniny. So he would like to see if he could get married because of this. He said the ladies sent him letters which he would treat in utmost confidence. He couldnt understand that the public was angry at him, even when two attempts were made to assassinate him when he was leaving the court. Including a man by the name of Williams Mason who got close enough to shoot him but shot and got his coat but didnt hit guuteau himself. As the trial war on, he began to say that he was sane before the assassination, insane just prior and during and insane again. He wanted to be given a job to ambassador to bare paris. He then also actively began to prepare to get on the lecture tour did she okay. This is the picture. He, by the way, allowed photos to be taken which he would autograph for payment. Woody allen once said his grandfather had this marvelous watch which he sold to him on his death bed. What do you payment when youre on trial for murdering the president . What are you going to do with this . He was very dismayed and very surprised when the juror issued a verdict, unanimous, in less than an hour january 25th 1882 finding him guilty. And when it was the verdict was issued, there was tremendous applause. He then appealed and then wrote a letter to president arthur saying the only reason you are president is because of me and if i hadnt shot him one wouldnt be president. You owe me. True thing. Pardon me. And by the way, i need a job. Obviously, this didnt happen. He was hanged on june 30th 1882 three days short of the second anniversary of the assassination of garfield. He wrote a lengthy poem which he said was not a poem and he asked to play while he could sing his song on his way to the gal lows. He was allowed to read the poem, but there was no orchestra. Remarkably Chester Arthur turned out to be a far better president than anyone including Chester Arthur, could have predicted. He owed more than any man in the country he owed to the system. He was corrupt, he was fired from that. First thing he did was broke off contact with konkling. Said you are corrupt i want nothing to do with you. Konkling felt totally anchored by this to put it mildly. Pendleton was asked ultimately to draft and pass the Civil Service act creating tests for people to get jobs and to create the Civil Service commission. Only 10 of federal jobs were covered at the beginning, but obviously, it set the whole stage for everything that we have here in washington now. And it passed january of 1883. It is the legacy of garfield that came because, obviously, his passing. Konkling was furious with him. To his amazement, when they met, Chester Arthur told him, your behavior with is outrageous. He realized he was powerless to control the man who he had created and he went back in his room sick with rage. He felt this betrayal was even worse than when the legislature hadnt renamed him to be senator from new york. Arthur was an honest, decent president. Not a great one, but certainly for the time did a good job job. That said, the republicans did not renominate him for president after his term ended. And, instead, the republicans nominated james blain, who ran against Grover Cleveland and Grover Cleveland turned out to be the only democrat elected between Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and Woodrow Wilson in 1912. Other than cleveland, no democrat was elected president. Cleveland was elected twice but was the oinl democrat elected president. Arthur moved back to new york where hes diagnosed suffering from brights disease, an excruciatingly painful kidney disease, fatal at the time and dies at the age of 56. Conklin then goes and gives a speech at a funeral oration at Chester Arthurs funeral and refers to him as his accidentsy. Conklin himself falls ill in new york while walking home from his girlfriends house during a blizzard and die necessary 1888 of pulmonary endeem ma. Dr. Bliss our famous physician, hopes that this case would tremendously thrust him into the leadership of the medical profession in america. Obviously, exactly the opposite happened. The entire medical community in the United States turned on him. Within months after garfields death, the boston medical and surgical journal he printed an article criticizing bliss not for doing too little, but for doing too much. Bliss has done more to cast distrust upon american surgery than anyone ever in our medical history. Another journal, medical journal, concluded that none of the injuries inflicted by the assassins bullet were necessarily fatal and that listers method of wound treatment would have prevented death of the president. Another medical journal ended their criticism of dr. Bliss by quoting the poet, thomas gray, who essentially earlier had written ignorance is bliss. Bliss, of course rejected this criticism and said no one in the country could have treated the president better and, as a result, sent a bill to the congress for his services for a 25,000. Which in those dails days was enormous. The congress debated the manner and agreed to give him 6,500. He was so outraged at this, he complained bitterly at the notoriously inadequate compensation and turned it down. Seven years later, he would die following a stroke never recovering his health, his practice or his reputation. The outrage, interestingly enough at the president s assassination, did not focus on the fact that there was no guarding of the president. And it was not until after mckinleys death that they established the secret service to guard the president. Something well talk about next week. What they focused on instead, was the cause, the need for Civil Service reform. Garfield himself was mourned in the country. It was almost like the kennedy assassination, this young vibrant, brilliant with this great family, camelot is over. Hundreds of thousands of people waited hours in the rain to walk past the president s casket in the rotunda. In cleveland, more than 150,000 people, which was equal to the entire population of the city came to the president s funeral and to pay their respects. A wreath was sent to the United States by Queen Victoria and it adorned his coffin as it was taken to its time resting place. He was permanently interred, was moved in 1890 and ultimately mrs. Garfield capitol right near the helicopter landing pad. It will occur to some of you on the way home. The gyrocopter, im sorry. Its located just below the Capitol Grounds itself. There are three male figures below the statue of garfield. Each five feet in height representing the various stages of his life, a scholar a soldier and a statesman. Anyway, ive go the gone on long enough. I would last week the questions were far better than the talk. So i would be glad to entertain some questions. Yes, sir . During the 80 days when the president was dying who was running the country . Who was doing the oh, okay. During the 80 days when the president was dying, who was running the country . Daytoday. That is such an excellent question. And youre not going to believe the answer. No one. It was the summer. In the summer in washington, everyone left. So there was really no one around. There was some question blain said should we name Chester Arthur to be acting president . And they all felt this was a bad idea and so they didnt. And arthur stayed in new york. And so basically, things just sort of continued. No one was really running the country. And we really didnt deal with the incapacity of the president until, i believe its the 22nd amendment. Woodrow wilson is incapacitated towards the last year and a half of his life and mrs. Wilson is almost a surrogate president determining who should be able to see the president. She fires the secretary of state because she doesnt like lancing. And so almost no one was running the country. Its an excellent question that doesnt have a really good answer. Diana. A couple things. Why wasnt he taken to a hospital . And also what is the story about Chester Arthur . What were his credentials . Where did you go to college and why did he wow. Okay. The answer to the first is dr. Bliss did not want him to go to a hospital. Bliss felt that he would get better care in the white house. And also he was fearful that if he was in the hospital he, bliss, would lose control of the case. And so he tells what better than to make the white house a hospital . With one patient with all these helpers around. And so bliss was the one who turned down the idea at the hospital. Theres not much that a hospital in those days could have done that they couldnt do for him in the white house, anyway. If they needed something from the hospital, they would bring it over. In terms of chester argue arthur, i honestly dont know what his credentials were. He had never run for Political Office before. The only job i know he had was the port collector of flshg clvs a corrupt position which he got because Roscoe Conklin appointed him to that and then he was fired because of krupz. So he had no real background. Thats why when he became president and did a relatively good job everyone, including Chester Arthur, was surprised. Yes . I spoke to you a little bit last time. Im an Infectious Disease specialist i thought you werent going to make it today. Yeah, well we changed our plans to come down. Okay. Anyhow, and so i can comment a little bit on the premise. I agree pretty much with what you said about the if they had left him alone, certainly his chances would have improved significantly. Still, youve got to remember the bullet travels at relatively low speed would not with necessarily create the amount of heat to create sterile conditions and there still might have been a chance without antibiotics he could have died from an infection. But certainly he was doomed from the time that bliss stuck his finger in there. If you read some of the descriptions, he had abscesses in the carotid glands, meaning it went through the bloodstream. So he obviously as you well pointed out, he was doomed. Now, ill point out that in 1876, Joseph Lister came to this country and gave a series of lectures where he said he was treated very politely, but basically the response was thank you, dr. Lister very interesting. Go back to europe. So it took a while. In europe, yes. Here, as you pointed out, it did take a while for American Physicians to adopt listeria methods. So ironically and im also a civil war reenacter. So he portray dr. Bliss. I want to, in my defense at the time of the civil war at the lincoln assassination, this predated all of his bad stuff. The reason i portrayed him is he was also the Commanding Officer of Armory Square hospital which is where charles liel the first doctor to take care of lincoln, served under dr. Bliss. Leil was 23. So i couldnt portray him. Thank you. Very good presentation. Im so delighted you came back. I was just sprieft and delighted. Yes, sir and then yes, sir in the front. Good evening. I just have a couple of facts. Out of the four president s, lincoln, kennedy and mckinney were shot on a friday. Did you know that . Yeah. Theres things like okay. Garfield and reagan were shot, like, a hundred years apart from each other and both of the guys that shot them were mentally ill. And they kept guiteau in st. Elizabeth rather than a prison. So which is i think where they also kept hinckley. Okay. Yes. Oh, theres theres so many of these coincidences kennedy was shot in the ford and lincoln was shot in fords theater and kennedys secretary was named mrs. Lincoln and yeah. And both kennedy and lincoln were replaced by Vice President s named johnson. [ inaudible question ]. Almost ten years to the day, exactly, yeah. Yes, sir, here in the front. I have a short question. Did he have a chief of staff . Did he have any president ial advisers . Not the way we know it today. He had a secretary mr. Brown, who was his surrogate son and who married his daughter. But he they had much smaller staff. They relied on their kap cabinet a lot more. Today, we dont president s dont rely on their cabinets as much. Im trying to think of when oh bamg in had a Cabinet Meeting where all the staff came together. His staff was more the cabinet. There was no National Security council. There was no domestic National Security adviser to the president. It was smaller and simpler. Great question. First of all, great talk ralph. You mentioned half breeds and stalwarts. Half breed where does that name come from . I dont know. Those were the two names used. I should have looked it up before. Both were names used for the two wings of the Republican Party at the time. Yes, sir and then yes, maam. Given the examples of garfields president , how was his term ranked, or was his term too brief sflp. It was too brief. Garfield and William Henry harrison, they never had time to do anything. With garfield it is just his unlimited potential that is wiped out. The one were going to discuss next week mckinley the more people looking at him, the better his ratings are going. Hes really people are going wow. During the presidency of mckinley and, again, well talk about this next week, the United States moved from being a domestic country to becoming a world an international player. So mckinleys ratings are going up tremendously. Garfield, they dont even count. Tarzan, it was good to see you. Claudia. Hi. At the very beginning of your talk, you said something that was i thought was interesting. And just at the beginning . Well, i was so mesmerized by that one thing, i carried it through all. Many many interesting things, as you know. You said he was opposed to slavery, called it evil and that he specifically talked about education for avenue a can americans. And yet you said he was not an abolitionist. Is that do you want to help us understand that piece . He viewed the abolitionists as trying to end slavery through violence and he didnt think that was the right way to go about it. But he was so opposed to slavery. As soon as the civil war broke out when the civil war broke out, a lot of people, lincoln tried to make the case of the civil war is to preserve the union. Garfield said, no the civil war is to end slavery. He really in his gut, just felt that it was wrong. Iemp so glad we have these questions. Yes. Can you think of specific ways that the countrys history would have been different afterwards if garfield had done one or even two terms . Wow, what a great question. Historians love the what ifs. If you wonder what do historians do whether they sit around together and no one is paying attention, we play the what if game. Thats a great question