“Assassination can be no more guarded against than death by lightning; and it is best not to worry about either.” James A Garfield
Really Cool Stuff about James Garfield
1. In college, Garfield was hired as a penmanship teacher in Vermont. What is interesting here is that this position had just been vacated by Chester Arthur. “At the end of his first fall term, the well-liked Garfield, who was always in need of extra income, was invited to spend several weeks teaching penmanship to the schoolchildren in the nearby town of Pownal, Vermont. In a curious coincidence of history, Garfield occupied a position that had been filled the previous year by Chester A. Arthur, his future vice presidential running mate” (p. 8).
2. While in congress, Garfield, through his work with governmental finance, became a major force in national academic achievement. “Garfield helped finance federal scientific expeditions and was a major force behind the creation of the United States Geological Survey. The six-volume Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, regarded as one of the most important works in the history of American medicine, was organized and published due to his insistence that money be made available for the project” (p. 32).
3. Garfield, despite his personal honesty, was involved in several of the major scandals of the day, including the Credit Mobilier scandal, the Salary Grab scandal, and the DeGolyer-McClelland scandal. These would come to haunt him during his presidential campaign.
4. James’ relationship with his wife, Lucretia, was not always stable. “In the 1860s, there had been rumors of Garfield’s persistent philandering…Throughout his life, Garfield maintained intensely close relationships with a number of women. Certainly, the stories concerning Garfield’s early emotional infidelities were true” (p. 43). There is no evidence though that these affairs were physical.
5. The election of 1880 had the closest popular vote in history! “More than nine million individuals went to the polls and Garfield received a plurality of fewer than 2,000 votes—the closest popular vote in all presidential elections in American history” (p. 62).
6. He was the first person to hold offices in the Senate, the House of Representatives and the presidency all at the same time. “It was an exciting time for Garfield—he was simultaneously a member of the House of Representatives, a United States senator-elect, and president-elect of the United States, the only instance this has occurred in history—but there was a sobering realization of how the win would affect him and his family” (p. 62).
7. I think that it’s interesting that Garfield’s Secretary of War was Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln.
8. Garfield’s mother would be the first mother to attend an inauguration of her son. “She [Eliza] would be the first woman in American history to witness her son’s inauguration as president” (p. 69-70).
9. Since he had been shot in July, the summer heat, even in the White House, was almost more than Garfield could bear. Thus, the first air conditioning unit in the United States was invented. “Because the ice did not suffice, a rudimentary air-conditioning unit, the nation’s first, was built in the White House. It was a Rube Goldberg-like contraption, consisting of a series of Turkish towels placed inside a massive cast-iron chamber. The towels were kept wet by a solution of ice, water, and salt sprayed on them from above. Fans circulated air through the cloths and the cold exhaust was directed into Garfield’s room. This proved inadequate and United States Navy engineers jury-rigged even larger fans and second cooling unit. Supplying twenty-three thousand cubic feet of air per hour, at a temperature of 54 degrees, the bedside temperature was maintained steadily at 75 degrees day and night” (p. 111).
10. At one point, Garfield’s wound ejected some foreign materials and Woodward, a surgeon, placed this under a microscope to determine its origin and thus, make history. “Woodward examined the one-quarter-inch-square specimen under a microscope. He confirmed that it was a portion of the president’s cotton shirt, with a few fibers of wool from the coat. In doing this, Woodward conducted the first microscopic-based forensic science examination in the United States” (p. 113).
11. Garfield’s vertebrae are still housed in the National Museum of Health and Medicine. “When Lamb completed his dissection [autopsy], the affected vertebrae were removed and brought back to the Army Medical Museum (Garfield’s twelfth thoracic and first and second lumbar vertebrae currently reside at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.), where they were given to the prosecution for the upcoming trial of Charles Guiteau” (p. 128-29).
12. Even though Garfield’s assassin was mentally insane, Guiteau was also considered a frustrated office seeker who took out his political agenda on Garfield. (Minutes after the president had been shot, Guiteau had claimed “I did it and will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart and Arthur will be president” p. 2)To keep this from occurring again, the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, a groundbreaking effort to reduce patronage, was passed in 1883.
I hope you guys understand what I meant about being horrified after reading about James Garfield’s appalling end. Honestly, no man alive should have to die like that. And really I didn’t even do it justice—the author, Rutkow, went into very great and graphic detail about the state of the president’s health during the 80 days. That’s right, people, the president took 80 days to die. 80! Let’s not forget that this was during the heat of the Washington summer (which, believe me, is hotter than Florida sometimes) before air-conditioning and energy star homes. There were no IVs or hospital beds, no hand-sanitizing foam or latex gloves. Garfield had to lie in his room for 80 days, completely covered in bed sores, while his body slowly deteriorated from the inside out. And on top of that, he had to lay there patiently allowing all manner of people to stick their unwashed fingers and probes into the bullet wound. Ugh!
I guess it will not be a surprise to anyone when I state that red flags were raised by this treatment on a national level. The medical profession came under heavy abuse after the president died, especially when the assassin, Charles Guiteau, stood in court and told everyone that he didn’t kill the president—the doctors did! It is truly sad that a calamity, such as this one, would be the impetus to bestir the medical profession to join the rest of the twentieth century. “Fueled by the Garfield tragedy, an increasing number of positive articles concerning antisepsis brought about the acceptance of Listerism by the late 1880s” (p. 132). As a frequenter of doctors and hospitals I only have one thing to say to Lister “thank you very much!”
Rutkow does a great job with Garfield’s story. At first I was a little confused to find that I was only halfway through the book when Garfield gets shot, little knowing that our poor president would effectively ‘live’ for another 80 days after that. Rutkow had more than enough ammunition on Bliss and the state of Garfield’s health during those days to probably fill up several more volumes. In fact, within the chapters on Garfield’s convalescence, Rutkow sets aside an entire chapter on medicine in the early 1880s and it is fascinating. Gross, but fascinating.
Rutkow also makes an interesting comparison between the fates of James Garfield and Ronald Reagan. Most of us may remember that in 1981 (exactly one hundred years after Garfield), President Ronald Reagan was shot near the heart. His wound was quite lethal, puncturing a lung before finally resting an inch away from his aorta. “Bleeding internally and short of breath, he was rushed to the George Washington University Hospital, where he collapsed in the emergency room. Resuscitative measures stabilized Reagan’s condition, and, within minutes, he was taken into surgery. By the time the three-hour operation ended and the hemorrhage was controlled and the pulmonary injury treated, more than 50 percent of the president’s blood volume had been replaced by transfusions. In a tribute to scientific medicine and the recuperative powers of the patient, Reagan was on his feet within twenty-four hours of the shooting and, eleven days later, returned to the White House—fully able to conduct the nation’s business” (p. 138). Amazing. Can you believe how far we’ve come??
Of course, we will never, ever know what kind of president Garfield would have made. I wonder if he would have been any good at all. He had an illustrious political career up to that moment but a part of me thinks that he staged the entire thing. I believe that Garfield was intensely ambitious, planning out every detail, including when he would run for certain offices and when his name would be brought forward for consideration. I felt that he cultivated certain individuals strictly in light of their benefit to him and used everyone else on his path to the top. Was this a bad thing? Of course not! I’d like to know which of our politicians don’t take this route. What struck me about Garfield though is that it felt so very obvious that he staged the entire thing.
And it was all for nothing. Garfield spent maybe 4 months in office and then he simply became a sad nonentity in the pantheon of unremarkable presidents. “Ultimately, it was his [Garfield’s] lack of assertiveness and worry over the slightest hint of criticism that interfered with his presidential decision making. ‘I am a poor hater,’ was Garfield’s self-description, and for this reason his is remember more as a political party functionary—and for having been assassinated—than an inspirational American president” (p. 137).
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