Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency James Garfield Assassination 20240712

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. Its i dont know how you test Something Like that. 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 our shortest president , lincoln was our tallest president. Thats easy. I dont know how you know who the most intelligent. Certainly the two adams, jefferson, madison, 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 africanamericans 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 africanamericans. 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 gitauld, and it shows the failure of our Mental Health treatment. Theres no doubt he was mentally ill and it was not treated properly then, even though they knew, as well discuss, for example. They told his father he needs to be institutionalized. Hes nuts. And the father said agreed. And then they said but you know that putting people in sanitariums you have to pay and the father says i cant afford it so they didnt institutionalize him. Again, 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. So i was asked when he said that i thought that was a very good idea. Obviously when you prepare talks like this, i use lots and lots and lots of sources. Secondary sources, books, and primary sources, and 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 easy to get primary sources now. I used a lot of different sources. But if i have to recommend one book, i will do that for garfield, mckinley and kennedy. In the case of garfield, a book called destiny of the republic, a tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president by candace millard, its a wonderful read. Okay, good. She is an excellent writer. If i were to recommend 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 blue book exam after this so theres no assignment and a couple members of my book club are here today and 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 tick again heart who was running for president. I knew dick quite well, we were good friends. 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 . U 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 far, the youngest president we had 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 said no one either. That im aware of. Its not a jumping stone or a 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 20th century, only two senators went straight from the senate to the white house. Harding and kennedy. Obviously obama did. And this time cruz, rubio and rand paul. So the three senators are trying to move from the senate. 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 presidency to becoming president. Jefferson, van buren and bush sr. Governors, more often. Anyway, on to 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 2nd, and he died in september. He lingered. And well talk a little bit about his medical care and what happened to him. 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. So he 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. So its a single mom with five kids, and no money. Garfield, the family was so poor he did not have his first pair of shoes until after he was 4 years old. Later on when people admired how he rose from total poverty to becoming president of the United States, he didnt romanticize 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 be able to pull this off, to go from such poverty, and again ill keep stressing that, to get her son into the white house and she ultimately moves into the white house with him. She later claims 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 farms, 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 if 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 leading clergymen in america. Were going to find this on everything he does. If hed gone to the church, that would he would have been the best in the country. He remains an elder in the church and resigns when he becomes president and in his statement he said i resigned the highest office in the land to become president of the United States. Garfield at age 16, his life took on a major change. All the 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 she feared this would end her high hopes for me and he takes a job working on a canal boat. And unfortunately a few days after hes 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 onto the boat and then he noticed that the rope wasnt attached to anything. But it got caught in a crack in 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. And so he went home and said, enough of this and he was a totally changed young man thinking this is something that i dont know why this happened, but gods 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 and for two months no one knew if he was going to survive. When he finally survived and when he finally recovered his health mom and brother thomas went to him and they 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 on to the equivalent of college. We went to western reserve eclectic institute which later became known as Hiram College but he couldnt afford the tuition. He took a job as the janitor. He would get up at 4 00 or 5 00 in the morning and would chop wood so that the other students would have fires in their rooms. He would then go and work in the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the other students. Then he would join them in class. Then he would go and work in the kitchen to help them with lunch. Then afterwards he would clean the latrines, 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 was able to read virgil in the original. Again, its every time you go through this you say, this is 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, when he was in congress he was bored for a while. And so he developed a trapezoid proof of the theorem published in the journal of education and its still taught in graduate math programs today. But despite his ability in both math and languages his interest was science. And so he studied the latest scientific discoveries. So again, remember hes taking full course load as a student and hes teaching, hes an assistant professor. So in his second year hes teaching latin. And one of his students was lucretia randolph. This is his wedding picture. Jumping ahead. He was 19, he was the professor, she was 18, she was the student. Lucretia would later tell their daughter he was a big, shy kid, lad with a shock of unruly hair. He was as awkward and untutored in manners as he was dead earnest and 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, soft spoken, very private. In her diary she wrote that she 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 Niagara 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 that he is telling her, im thinking about you. She was even more shy and reserved than he was. So 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, u new congressman don beyer went to Williams College and, in fact, when we visited don when he was the ambassador to switzerland we brought him a copy of this because both he and garfield share the same alma mater. When he was at williams, of course, needless to say he was the best student there. He was a skilled debater. He was a skilled writer. He became editor of the williams quarterly. And in two years he, at age 25, because, again, he got a late start, he graduated from Williams College 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 hes 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 endowment so he decides to become the chief fundraiser, raises enough money so that the school is able to survive very well and achieve financial viability. He also resumes his rather awkward courtship of a woman whom he called crete. Both of them remain unable to tell each other what they think, and so one day she hands him her diary and says, just read this. And in the diary its full of pages about how much she loves him. And so finally on november 11, 1858 the 27yearold James Garfield marries the 26yearold lucretia lan dorandolph after a 11year courtship. If the courtship was difficult, the beginning of the marriage was much worse. Now that were living together, what do we do and as a result it became not as a result, but it became even more difficult because he was never home. In the first five years of marriage 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, eliza, named same name as james mother, they called her trot, she unfortunately dies at age 3 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 marriage because he had an affair with a young widow in new york named Lucia Gilbert calhoun. They had a month long affair, felt guilty, went home and confessed it to his wife assuming that the marriage 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 life of my life, the love of my love. During one period away from her he wrote, you cannot know how much i need you, how much i miss you, how much i 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 eddy, ed, or neddy as they called him passed away before neither reached their 4th birthday but five did become mature adults and well talk about them a little bit later. The five who survived to adulthood all did extremely well because they were they had great parents and particularly after he passed away she did a great job of raising them afterwards. 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 practice of law until right after the civil war. The first case he argues, of course, was in front of the 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 a case called ex parte milligan, which is still 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 is the wrong word but very, very passionately supportive of the rights of africanamericans 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 slavely be damned. He would his diary would switch between latin and greek 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 new, comes to him and says youre opposed to slavery, youre for emancipation, youre for the union, would you run for state senate . He says i know nothing about politics, they said give it a try and so, of course, he wins overwhelmingly in his first attempt at Public Office and thats begins a political career. In 1859 elected excuse me, in 1859 he serves from 1859 to 1861 and within 20 years hes president of the United States. Its an absolutely 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 leave him up there. When the civil war breaks out he enlists as a private and four weeks later hes promoted to colonel. It gets better. He he was one of the first to apply. And he is appointed command of the 42nd ohio volunteer infantry. And is immediately assigned to stop an invasion of 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, 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 a thousand men, not enough artillery, and said repel the invasion. The confederates were led by general Humphrey Marshall who had graduated number one in his class from west point a year after garfield was born. So he is a seasoned military expert who had more than twice as many troops, had artillery and was marching into Eastern Kentucky. Garfield is told, stop them. He said, how . They said, thats why youre in charge. And so 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 into three, about 330 each. And attacks the confederate from three sides. They think that theyre outnumbered three to one, when they are, in turn, 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 to brigadier general. Hes been in the army four months. Typical of garfield, when he spoke of the battle of middle creek, he invariably 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 2 to 1 majority in his district in ohio. He did not have time to campaign. After the election he shows up in washington, not to be a congressman, but to get his next military duty. And he is appointed, he goes to help general grant at the battle of shiloh. Grant says that he would not have survived shiloh if garfield had not come and repelled the forces of albert Sydney Johnson and that the hero of shiloh was garfield. In 1863 he returns as chief of staff to general william rose krants who was the commander of the army of the cumberland. He then comes to the conclusion that one of the big flaws with the union army is it doesnt have good intelligence and so he complains to other generals and says we dont have a good Intelligence Unit so they said form one so he does and 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 principal strategist for the union taking over gaining control of chattanooga, played a key role in the battle of 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 arrives home, first of all hes promoted to Major General before he does that but he goes home and crete nurses him back to health. At this point when hes back in good health he goes to washington and lincoln says youre a superb general, youre a superb intelligence, you are superb strategist, i need you in congress. Youve been elected to congress. You havent fulfilled your duties here. Were fighting against some of the real crazies. Please serve in congress. And so heres congressman garfield with his daughter eliza trot who sadly enough dies at age 3. When he gets to congress his first speech calls for emancipation. He gains tremendous respect among his colleagues as a wonderful speaker. According to one reporter when he takes the floor garfields voice is heard above all others, every ear attends. His eloquent words move the heart, convince the reason, and tell the weak and the wavering which way to vote. Garfield eventually 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 cloolleagues one of the brightest members 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 orator. He 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 . How do you get people out of these 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 who 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 africanamericans, better, and in particular, those who are freed slaves, you cant just free people and let them go. You need to educate them because otherwise people are going to take advantage of them. And so he gets passed the First Department of education which is then created, established and collapses afterwards, not because of him, but because of mismanagement of the department of education. So it takes decades before a new department of education is set up. He is appointed chairman of the subcommittee of the census and totally reworks how 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 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 we have been together less than 20 and he says, you know, youre right, come to washington and live with me. So he brings his family to washington. And he is as happy, probably, as he has ever been. He loves the house. He loves his colleagues. His wife is there. His family is growing. Hes got a little not a little, but hes got a law practice on the side. Hes finally earning decent money. And its time the kids in particular want a dog, and well talk about the dog in a minute. So hes got 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 they look for a place to live and they cant find a place they like so he says, well, lets find an architect, and he says no, i can do this myself. So 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 has an editorial saying if he would only give up politics he would be the best architect in america. Keep laughing. My good friend bob dawson who is here, his office is located on the site where garfields house was, on 13th and i. Im sorry we dont have time to go over the rest of garfields house career. Again, he was involved in all of 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 nope. Orry. The impeachment of president johnson, westward expansion, reconstruction. He speaks very forcefully in favor of the 15th amendment. He constantly goes on the floor to attack the ku klux klan and racism. One more issue to mention, because its important, is . V aj commitment to Civil Service reform. At the time, if you wanted a federal job, you basically bribed someone to give you one. You would to the victor belong the spoils, whoever wins elections would appoint their friends and would expect their friends, then, to make contributions or 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. 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 time, sort of the app scam of its time, known as the credit mobile scandal. Essentially stock in credit mobile, a Construction Company and the Union Pacific railroad, they were building the transcontinental railroad, members of congress bought it, there were some unscrupulous dealings, garfield had only ten shares, sold them before it became a big deal. 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 neddy died, and this time both he and lucretia were able to mourn together. As sad as the passing was, it brought this happily married couple, finally, 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. The 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 people. They are elected by the state legislatures. So blaine goes to the legislature in maine and says i want to be senator, they said fine and hes elected to be the senator. Leaving 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 leader of the republicans there. This is the last years of the presidency of rutherford b. Hayes. Rutherford b. Hayes for those of you well talk him more next week, hes a good friend of william mckinley. He won the contested president ial election of 1876. In which hayes got less votes than samuel till don, popular votes and also got probably less electoral votes. But because of florida you cant make this up. We were together with al gore on Election Night in nashville in 2000. And i had a discussion with gore that this reminds me of the hayes election of 1876 where tilton went to bed thinking he won. He got far more popular votes. He was one short in the electoral college. Florida sent two sets of electors. They didnt know what to do with it so they set up a commission on whose votes to count. They picked five house members, three democrats, two republicans. 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 so he quits. Resigns from the Supreme Court, there is no other democrat or independent, they appoint a republican and hayes wins because of the vote of one Supreme Court justice picking the votes from florida. Of course that would never happen in our lifetime. Hayes has a difficult time as president and vetos quite a number of things passed by the democrats in congress and it is garfields task to sustain the president s veto. Garfields kids want a dog. So he gets them a dog and they name it veto. You have to love this guy. He is brilliant, happy, five kids, the dog, the house he built, everything changes in 1880 and no one could have predicted it. Hayes announces he is not running for reelection. So now it is up for the republicans to pick the nominee. The Republican Party in 1880 is defined two two factions. They hate each other. It makes our current politics look pained. The staal worths defend the spoil system. The only way to get a job is someone appoints you. They hate the south, they wanted revenge and they dont care about africanamericans. They want Civil Service retomorrow and they want better education for the africanamericans who are free before and freed as a result. As mentioned, obviously, gar field feels your comfortable with the half breeds. The leader of the stall worths, the poster child of the stallworstal stallworths. So much so that grant allowed conkling to pick anyone he wants to be the port collector of new york. A very, very lucrative position. And if you get this job you just have to give money to roscoe and the Republican Party. So he is making so much money from the port of new york that when president grant offers to appoint conkling to the Supreme Court he turns it down and says i cant afford it. I would rather be the senator of new york and control the port of new york currency coming in. The Customs House appoints his buddy to be in charge. The same guy that becomes president of the United States who is seen as so corrupt, but he runs the port Customs House in new york. Heys tries to remove him as the court collector of new york, and he is blocked. They say he is a thoroughly rotten man. Because he keeps this corruption system going in new york. He is feared, he is slavishly o bayed. He is secretly despised. He always has his shik wavy hair in a split kirl on his forehead. He has one major detractor in the United States congress which is james g blan they has an overpowering super gobbler i struck. Conkling says the only thing hs highway left if life is to block blaine from becoming president. He says if i can keep him from becoming president then my lifes ambitions are accomplished. 1880, blaine announces he wants to run for president. In order to block him you need a candid, and he comes up with ulysses grant. George washington said you only serve two terms. It wasnt set, it was the precedent. Since grant served two and left, if he comes back and runs again, is that okay . They didnt know. This is before roogs velt and the change in our system. It wasnt illegal or unconstitutional, but people wondered is a third term that is not continuous a third term or is it the first term for a second time. 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. So the two main figures for the republican nomination are james blaine of maine. A third candidate appears. It is john sherman of ohio. He had been the treasury secretary in the hayes administration. He became a senator from ohio. He is the brother of william tecumsa. Then he goes to gar field and says will you be my Campaign Manager . Sherman decide rs to run fulltime for president. That leaves a vacancy for the ohio senate. So so the state legislature of ohio picks James Garfield. So he is the republican leader in the house and the senator elect from from oir, okay . The Republican Convention takes place in chicago that is still suffering from and showing ill effect ifs from the famous fire. Blaines name is placed in nomination. Conkling gets up and sites grant. At this point then it is time to nominate sherman. And garfield gives the nomina nominating speech. It is a remarkable speech. He say its is time for america to live up to the true principals of the constitution. Mainly that all men, white or black, shall be free and stand equal before the law. And the place goes nuts. Everyone says maybe were picking the wrong guy from ohio. This guy is brilliant and wonderful and sherman is just okay. The first, at that time, each convention as you know always determines for themselves how many how the procedure works. Unlike today for the most part, todays conventions a big party. We know in advance who the nominee will be. In those days they actually went to nominate people. They need 379. On the first ballot grant gets 304. Blaine gets 284, and sherman gets 93. And other candidates get a handful. No one is even close. So they take a second balll lob 10th, but nothing is changing. Then a delegate from pennsylvania casts his vote for garfield. He says im the Campaign Manager for sherman. The chair rules garfield out of order, tells him to snut up and sit down. So he goes back. On the 38thball lot they cast all of their votes for garfield. He jumps up and says im not a candidate, im the manager for sherman. They say youre out of order, sit down and shut up. And the 38th bath lot there is a clear shift who on the 36th gets 399 votes and get the nomination to be the republican candidate for president. A reporter coming up and says general, this is wonderful. Garfield says i wish that had not happened. This is the worth day of my life. So now you have a half breed as candidate. So he names Chester Arthur, who had been fired for corruption, to be the Vice President ial candidate. He had never run for Political Office. He was not in chicago. He didnt know he would be nominated for anything let alone Vice President of the United States. When he found out, when he got a cable saying you have been nominated for Vice President he thought the Western Union broke. So he had been paid 50,000 a year. Forced out on grounds of corruption. Never held any office, never run for any and then is running for Vice President. Garfield is the youngest man to run for he is in great physical shape. He has a wonderful family who cares about who will be Vice President , is irrelevant. They name another individual at the time to run for president. For the popular vote. Kbar field wins by only 7,000 votes nationwide. In the electoral vote, he wins 214 to 225. So we have president garfield, this is the official picture of him as president , the only man ever elected to the presidency directly from the house of represe representatives. He was a sitting member of the house, the leader of the party in the house, and then a senator elect, and a president elect all at the same time. Car field is worn in, here is garfield with creek. So he gets a used up rig. There is a lot of snow in washington at the time. Thousands of people come to see the youngest person ever to be president. Here is his inauguration. In those days it was done on the east wing of the capital. Today it is 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 capital, and everyone goes wow, wow, wow first person to walk out, the new president , James Garfield. Next is his mother, and he points to her, i would not be here because of her. Next person, frederick douglas. And they go an africanamerican . Standing next to the president on the capitol lawn . That is symbolizing garfield as much as anything else. After he is elected and moves into the white house. Here he is being sworn in. James blaine is behind him here. Here is the official white house picture. Mom, garfield, and the wife. She claims, and i dont know if this is accurate, she claims to have been the first mother of a president to move in to take care of the president s kids. May be true, i dont know. His inaugural address gives us a chance to look at what could have happened. He emphasizes the rights of africanamericans. He believes they deserve the full rights of citizenship but he says they must be literate or they will be taken advantage of and stresses the need nor universal education. He goes on to talk about agriculture to the key for economic prosperity. Were growing all of this land and crops, but if we did scientific agriculture, if we study how to improve our crops and agriculture, we could double and triple what the use of the land is. He says i want the smithsonian among others to do research on how to improve the quality and the scientific nature of our agriculture. Then he goes into an attack on this. The speech is applauded. People go nuts, they think this is wonderful, and after the speech John Phillips sousa leads the marine corps band with music that we composed that we still used today. The president and his family the wife welcome mollly, the daughter. President garfield, irwin, harry, and lousia. It was camelot, to use afraid from kennedys time. The with his young family. Grows up in abject poverty in a dirt floor log cabin and reads latin, greek, could have been about architect, and the best clergyman in america. He comes in and the first thing he has to deal with is filling federal jobs. Office seekers come to the white house personally asking for jobs. He thinks this is awful. Before he deals with the white house and the cabinet he pets together his cabinet and he tries to split it. He appoints james blaen to be secretary of state. He is a half breed. He believes in Civil Service reform, and is probably the closest in the candidate to gar field. And hen he appoints a number of others that are neither half breeds nor stall worths. The feud breaks out almost immediately. He appoints an enmy of conkling to be the port collector of new york. He says you cant appoint to that job, thats a job that i do. They say you cant do it without me. Garfield says i just appointed him. Conkling says ill show you, ill resign from the senate, so they both quit believing that the New York Legislature will then reappoint him to come back to the senate the New York Legislature refuses to reappoint conkling or plat. This was his first major victory at president. It is the presidency, executive power, the principal of senatorial courtesy being weakened some paired to tcompar of the presidency. He wants manage nothing to do with Chester Arthur. The plight of africanamericans is on his mind and he believes that education for the plaques, for the africanamericans, is their way to a better quality of life. He appoints quite a number of key africanamericans to positions. Frederi frederick, douglas elliot, and quit a number of others. The next issue he faces is the growing National Federal debt. And he looks at american pressure ri no treasury notes, and he notes theyre all held by federal banks. So he says i can do better. He goes up to new york and he tells the banks 200 million in federal notes at 6 interest. The interest just changed to 3. 5 . You want to control these notes . You drop your interest rate. Theyre fire rouse. They drop the is interest rate. It reminds me of that scene in the movie dave where they sit in the white house and they rearrangement books. Garfield figured this out, goes up to new york, and saves millions of dollars in his first week as president. Lots of appointments that we dont have time to go into. One that i think is one of the more fun ones garfield appoint him to be the ambassador to turkey. He tries to pass civil reform. A good point for us to stop here and shift to the second character in our story. And nothing more different than this absolutely bill yarilliant architect, a mathematician that comes up with a theory that gets published. He was born in illinois. He moves to new york because he wants to go to nyu and he flunks the entrance example. He joins a utopian religious sect that practicing free love and sexual freedoms, to put it mildly. Group marriage, but despite the fact that they have Group Marriage they dont want anything to do with him. So he feels slighted by this, and he quits. And he moves to hobokin new jersey are he aestimates to start a newspaper. So this is thrown out. He then gets married to a librarian and she says this is the most decembsperate and awfu period of her life. She says he beat her periodically. They were always on the run and skip out just before paying the bills and finally after a brief period of time he is left him. Because of his behavior. Then he moves to chicago where he sometimes gets a law license. He meets a lawyer who asks him three questions, he gets two right, and the lawyer says you just passed the bar. He is reading his business cards, his biggest accomplishment is for a period period of time he had an office in a building with an elevator. He spends most of his time as a bill collector which he does rather poorly. They wrote an article about him saying he represented a client to get 350 back. He got half and pocketed it as his fee. The new york harold said dont use this guy as your big collector. He decides he moves in with his sister. She in turn tries to have him institutionalized as mentally disturb disturbed. A doctor says he finds out he is being snulalized and he runs away. He decides to devote the rest of his life to god and theology. He writes a book called the truth, but his biggest con sclugs that christ has already had his second coming. Jumping off of trains before they collect their tickets. Father asked to put him in, and he was institutionaled. An event attacks place, he is on a ferry ride on Long Island Sound on a ship calls the s. S. Stonington. It is foggy, a terrible night, and it collides with another ship. He catches on fire and sinks. He becomes convinced that this is proof that god has a higher plan for him. He decides to write a speech to help the next candidate. So he writes a speech on why people should vote for grant. Then garfield gets the nomination. He crosses out grant and writes garfield. Thats the only change in his speech. He is then able to get a small audience in new york to come and listen to him. Most of them walk out. They walk out, and he becomes convinced it this was spear 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 is elected as president he sends them a letter we won we cleaned them out as i expected. He says 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 vien vienna. He doesnt stick on that for long. After awhile he says i dont really want that, i want to be the ambassador to paris. So at the time he met with job seei seekers. So he goes in and he meets with garfield in the white house. He hands them a copy of the speech. And he writes on it paris consoleship. He is con for instanced it is a matter of time. Somehow he is able to attend a reception at the white house where he spends time with mrs. Garfield. He goes up to her and he says you probably dont know who i am, im at man responsible for the president. He is told he has to have a formal application. So he goes to the white house and fills out the form. He is sold your application will be put in a file. He is now convinced that garfield will go through the files, pick his out and name him ambassador to paris. So a few days later he goes to check on his application. He says the president cannot see you today. He figures that means he can see me tomorrow. 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 think he is nuts. He spends time sitting in lafayette square. He meets the Vice President , and he says i got you elected in new york, Chester Arthur being from new york was surprised, and he says i would appreciate your help being ambassador to paris. And he says im only Vice President , im sorry i cant help you. At this point he is running out of paper. For his letters. So he goes to the rigs hotel and he starts taking paper from the hotel. A clerk at the hotel says youre stealing our paper, and he says dont you know who i am . Im going to be the next ambassador to paris. Then he bumps into and goes to see secretary of state blaine. He says youre secretary of state, i would appreciate your help to become the next ambassador to paris. The state Department Says he can no longer come back. He finally meets blaine on the street. Blaine says youre not going to get a job, stop this nonsense. Then he writes a letter to garfield and says i figured out the problem. Im perfectly willing to come to the white house tomorrow so we can figure out how to get rid of this guy. He is the prop. So he is not getting anywhere. He is writing a letter to the president and he stops. On june one he says this is not going anywhere, this is not working, but he has a visiting, god, and god 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 that would do a good job. And besides he would not be guilty because god asked him to do this. If he is going to kill the president , you need a gun. He has never had one. He borrows 15 and he goes to buy a again. This is the smithsonian they took of the gun, they have since lost the gun. He goes to a gun shop and he is told he has a choice of two kbuns. Theyre both british bulldog revolvers. One has a good grip or a ivory grip. He says he wants ivory because it would look better in a museum. Again, were talking about mental illness. The next thing he needs to do is figure out how the gun works. So someone shows him how the gun works and he goes out into the woods near washington and the first time he shoots it he is knocked over from the recoil because he has no idea what he is doing. So he starts to follow the president and stalking him. Waiting for the right opportunity. It is now time to return to the g fa garfields. In midmay of 1881, mrs. Garfield suddenly contracts malaria and possible spinal m meningit meningitis. Her temperature reaches 104 and she doing quite poorly. The doctors suggest that she go to a seaside report in new jersey. So on june 18 garfield and mrs. Garfield take the train to go to new jersey so she can have relief from her illness. He sees mrs. Garfield, shes not doing well, so he doesnt want to kill her husband while she is there. So she decihe decides not to ki. He has a Cabinet Meeting, and on june 27th, 19 1881 he comes back. In order to get up there he needs to take the train. And he goes to the train station, accompanied by james blaine and two of his sons, james and harry. Here is the train station. That train station is, today, where the west wing, where the National Gallery of art is. My good friend, one of the cur r curators told me there is a plaque. I have not seen it. When i see eric next i will ask him where it is. Secretary of war robert todd link c lincoln is at the train station to greet him. He was he was at his fathers bedside when his father dies. He is next to garfield when he is not. And he is by mckinley after he is shot and he says i never want to see another president again. Garfield yells out, my god, what is this . And he throws up his arms. He fires again. I government to mention. Prior to shooting the president , a few days earlier, he figured he would temporarily be arrested for this. He went to the dc prison to get a tour to see if this is an okay place for him to live. They would not let him in. They walked around the building a few times. He gets to the train station by cab. He says i have business here but i will be out in a few minutes. Passing the first lum bar vertebrae, but missing the spinal cord. The bullet lodges near the liver and it could not be found. They put the gun back in their pocket and they turn to leave the station. By this time, a policeman jumps on, wrestles him to the ground, and he is so excited that he just wrestled the asasasassin t forget to take his gun away. He says im the staleworths of stallworths. This leads him to believe that he had something to do with the assassination. Unlike the lincoln assassination, we will talk a lot about conspiracy, there is no conspiracy here. We have one very der rained human being acting alone. He is thinking he did the best for the Republican Party. Garfield is conscious, but in shock. He is carried upstairs in the train station. His sons and blaine burst into tears as does roberted to link kahn. Link son says in less than five minutes. A physician by the name of smith tow townsend arrives at the train station. At this time in history, they had written extensively on the need for sanitation and the danger of accept sis caused by germs. We will come to this in a second particularly with a doctor that will be one of the lead figures in the story. He comes and decides that 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 have not 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 mostly concerned how will his wife take this news . And so he personally dictates a telegram to be sent to her. Im okay, dont worry about this, come to washington when you feel better. At this point makes a well meaning but tragic mistake. He calls for his own personal physician to come and be the physician. Here is blaine standing here. A man with the great first name of doctor. Dr. Doctor willard bliss. He is called by robert todd lincoln. He is one of the leading perters. What do you mean germs can harm you . If you cant see them, they cant cause you harm. He sticks his finger in to see if he can find the bullet. He cant. So he goes into his medical bag and pulls out a probe. One that had been used on another patient and had not been materi sterilized or washed since. He tries to remove the probe, but it gets engaged between fragments and the end of the rip. So he causes a cavity to develop in the president. He then sticks his finger back in to see if he can find the bullet. Another doctor, an africanamerican doctor, how many of them were there had seen nauf a enough and said stop this. Remarkably bliss did. Then they decide they need to move the president to the white house. They take him to the white house and everyone decides there is no way that garfield will survive the night. This will be fatal. But mrs. Garfield says, gets the telegram, and decides to come down, shes not well, but she is going to come be with her husband if she could. A special train is brought together to bring her down. The train continues for two more miles ripping up the tracks. And the engine almost explodes. If it exploded everyone on the change, including mrs. Garfield would be killed she gets to washington and the white house. He breaks into a broad smile, and he says thats my wife, now all will be weld. She responds that she is there to nurse her husband back to health. Despite all of the confusion, they decide to take command of the situation. The medicine, what would be done, where he could be. High on his suspects are people that believe in lister and septsus. He found the notion of invisible germs to be ridiculous and will not even discuss it. He says if i cant save him, no one can. He thinks the great est risk to him is other physicians. Bliss says i know why youre here, and i wont tolerate it. Baxter says im not personal physician. Bliss says you were, but not because of this emergency. They realize that this is not helping the president and walks away. Baxter cries out, saying he has been my friend. Bliss says friendship is not enough. He says im the president s doctor. Others say why was bliss in charm . And they said they asked for me to be in charge. The first was a doctor who was the president s first cousin and longtime childhood friend and close physician in ohio. When he came, he came and bliss says i dont need you hear, but if you must be here you can be a nurse. The second doctor was her position, 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. He said women are good to be nurses, not doctors. He issued daily bulletins on the president s health. He struggled to keep down solid food. He was in excruciating pain for the la 80 days of his life. He refused to let the president be taken to a hospital. He said he will get better care in the white house. The number of 1881 was one of the hottest in American History up to that point, the plumbing system in the white house was over 100 years old. The pipes were desintigrating. The building was close to the tidal basin area that 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. Norm to appreciate the president , bliss said he should be given daily doses of quinine. Not only can that be fatal, but they cause intestinal cramping, and caused further problems for the digestive system. They decided to develop a airconditioning system. They took a huge block of ice and they had fans blowing across into the they were able to lower the president in the president s room by 20 degrees, but it made so much noise that the president said i would rather have the heat than this noise. They had to shut it off. Alexander graham bell, a major figure by now that invented the telephone. He decided to be helpful. Since they did not have xraies at the time, they didded to have a metal detector to try to find the bullet through metal. He worked feverishly to find the metal detector. It worked. And they pulled out a number of civil war veterans that had bullets left over and it went click click click, there it is. It worked. He goes to bliss and he says i can find the bullet. Bliss says i dont believe you. It works, they take it to the white house and they put it down. There they are trying to find it. Problem the bullet went to the right, click click click, there it is. It works. They open the president , no bullet. He was on a spring metal frame bed. It would have gone click click click no matter where they had it. So it didnt work, it wasnt used properly because he was lying on the bed. Garfield is bedridden for the summer. Graham belles thing doesnt work. They cant find the bullet. He is in extreme pain. He is starting to develop more infections. The infection is now so toxic it is a danger to anyone near him. While doing the operation, bliss accidentally slices his finger. Puss from the president gets in his finger and he gets puss fever. He hand swells up so much that he has to put his hand in a sling for days afterward. Garfields weight drops, he is unable to keep food down. Bliss starts to fear that garfield will die of star vavat. He is suffering from profound desigh duratid dehydration. In todays world that would be given an iv and he starts to suffer from hallucinations. Mrs. Garfield suffers so much from the stress that her hair falls out, so she only wares a scarf or a hat on her head and on september 6th, a train takes him to vujs in the belief and the hope that maybe the seaside, the better air, the fresh air, seeing the ocean might advise him. On monday september 19th. Then he suffers a massive heart attack the doctor tries to revivr revive the failing president. Mrs. Garfield leans over her dieing husband and says oh, why i i made to suffer such a cruel wrong, and obviously the vermont becoming the next president. Garfields body is taken back to wash where it lays in state where he is finally buried. He is survived by his mother, lousia, who dies seven years later, and his wife survives him for 36 years. Living a very quiet but seemingly comfortable life. The five children who went into adulthood all did very well. James, the second, became a lower and would serve as secretary of the interior. The third became a lawyer. And molly, the daughter, mary was her name but everyone called her mollly, marries the top assistant that went to yale, and was sort of a second son. He becomes a successful investment banker. So the kids do very, vel well. Every historian came to the same conclusion. Garfield would have survived if the doctors had left him alone. The bullet was in fatty tissue and in a week or two he would have been Walking Around and fine. He was not in danger. If he had been shot 15 years later, the bullet would have been found very quickly with an x ray machine. He would have been treated with antiseptic surgery. He would have been back on his feet in a matter of days or a week. Unfortunately for garfield most americans at the time did not understand antisepsis. They were probing around in him. They probes right where the bullet went left. And the autopsy about revealed pneumonia in both lungs and was filled with so much puss that it was uncontrolled septicemia. He says oh, no, tell me this is not true. Author is known as a man of leisure. He liked fine wine and dinner parties. He spent a lot of time grops his mustache and side burns. He was very proud of them. His wife died shortly before, so he moved in with Roscoe Conkling. So Roscoe Conkling at the time had a place in new york and thats who he was living with. When he first got the news, he said i hope, my god, i hope it is a mistake, but it was not a mistake. He travelled from new york to 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 the trial. The case of the United States versus Charles Guiteau started in 1881 less than two months after garfields death. They feared he would be let off. He would be able to have a plea of insanity and they would let him off. The insanity defense was known at the time and used. And they were quite fearful. For white awhile he could not find an attorney to representative because no one wanted to represent the asas s assassin. That is not who you want as your attorney. He was a patent attorney, he had never tried a criminal case. He was, however, the only attorney willing to take take the case. He said, if i did not think the unfortunate man was insane, i would not have defended him at all. His defense, of course, was insanity. As hard as it was to find an attorney, it was equally hard to find jurors. Everyone thought he was guilt, he was caught there. They binterviewed close to 200 people before they finally came up with 12. The trial was an enormous hoopla in washington. You needed tickets to get in. Even journalist, needed tickets, to get in to see the trial. He started his defense by asking if he could give a statement and his statement said that he want today diindict the president s true murders, the doctors. He said i was the shooter, the killer were the doctors. The doctors that mistreated him should bear his death, not his assailant. They should be indicted for murdered 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 brotherinlaw in the trial youre a jackass. Sorry to tell you in public, but youre a jackass. He would ask for legal advice from spectators and he would pass notes. He would speak when he felt like it. He would recite epic poems he wrote. He said it was gods will that he shot the president and he was just carrying this out. Weal wealth. The letters in which he treat. He was made to assassinate him. When he was leaving the court. A man by the name of William Mason that got close enough to shoot him jack ruby style, but shot and got his coat, but didnt hit guiteau himself. As the trial wore on, he began to say that he was sean befoane the assassination. Insane just prior and during, and sane again. He should be released promptly. And given a job as ambassador to paris. You know, once you set your sites on a job you may as well try to keep it. He also actively began to try to prepare to get on the lecture to tour. He allowed photos to be taken that he would autograph for payment. Woody allen once said his grandfather had this marvelous watch which he sold to him on his deathbed. What do you pay when youre on trial for the death of the president . What do you do with it . He was very surprised when the jury issued a verdict, unanimous, in less than an hour, january 25th, 1882, finding him guilty. When the verdict was issued, there was tremendous applause. He then appealed and wrote a letter to president arthur saying, the only reason you are president is because of me, and if i hadnt shot him, you wouldnt be president. You owe me. Two things. 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 people, which he said really was not a poem, it was a song, and he asked an orchestra to play so he could sing his song on the way to the gallows. He was allowed to read his poem but there was no orchestra. A few matters to clear up before we get to some questions. 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 spoil system. He was fired from that. First thing he did was break off all contact with conkley. He said, you are corrupt, i want nothing to do with you. Conkley felt totally angered by this, to put it bluntly. He then worked to pass the pendleton 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 we have here in washington now. And it passed january of 1883. It is the legacy of garfield that came because, obviously, his passing. Conkling was furious with him. To his amazement, when they met, Chester Arthur told him, your behavior is outrageous. He realized he was powerless to control the man whom he had created, and he went back to 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 times did a good enough job. That said, the republicans did not renominate him for president after his term ended. And instead the republicans nominated james blaine 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 dem kra democrat was elected president. Cleveland was elected twice, but other than that the only democrat. Arthur went back to new york with excruciatingly painful kidney disease. Conkling gives him a speech at his funeral and refers to him as his accidentcy. Conkling falls dead going home from his girlfriends house in a blizzard and dies of pulmonary emphysema. I would hope this would put him into the professional leadership of america. Obviously the opposite happened. The entire United States turned on him. Within months of garfields death, the journal published an article criticizing bliss for not doing too little but doing too much. Bliss has cast upon us a legal surgery more than any other president. No bullets inflicted by the assassins bullet were necessarily fatal and wound treatment would have prevented the death of the president. Another medical journal ended their criticism of dr. Bliss by quoting the poet thomas gray who a century earlier had written, ignorance is bliss. Bliss, of course, rejected this criticism and said that 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 25,000, which in those days was enormous. The congress debated the matter and agreed to give him 6,500. He was so outraged at this that he complained bitterly at the notoriously low 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 s, 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. And 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 his final resting place. He was permanently interred, was moved in 1890 and ultimately mrs. Garfield joined him when she was buried as well. And this evening as i walked over here from my office, i walked past this. The garfield memorial in front of the house of representatives, which those of you i keep referring to my day job as i make house calls. My father was a physician. He made real house calls. Im the type of doctor that you call if you need footnotes. But i walk daily past the garfield statue. Its a 9foot bronze statue in front on the west side of the capitol right near the helicopter land 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 gone on long enough. Last week the questions were far better than the talk, so i would be glad to entertain some questions. [ applause [ applause ] yes, sir. When the president was dying, who was running the country . Oh, okay. During the 80 days when the president was dying, who was running the country day to day . 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. Blaine 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. 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 the 1900s. Woodrow wilson did not end his presidency until later in his life, and his wife fired the secretary because she didnt like lansing. Almost no one was running the country. Its an excellent question that doesnt have a really good answer. Dia diana . A couple things. Why wasnt he taken to a hospital . And also, what is the story about Chester Arthur . I mean, what were his credentials . Where did he 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 felt what better than to make the white house a hospital with one patient with all these helpers around . So bliss was the one who turned down the idea of a 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 hospitals, they would bring it over. In terms of Chester Arthur, i honestly dont know what his credentials were. He had never run for Political Office before. The only job that i know he had was the port collector of new york which was a corrupt position which he got because ross conkling appointed him to that and he was fired because of corruption. Thats why when he became president and did a relatively good job, everyone, including Chester Arthur, was surprised. 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. Anyhow, so i can comment a little bit on the premise. I agree pretty much with what you said about if they left him alone, certainly his chances would have improved significantly. Still, you got to remember the bullet traveling at relatively low speed would not necessarily create the amount of heat to create sterile conditions, and there still might have been a chance with antibiotics he could have died from an infection. But certainly he was doomed from the time bliss stuck his finger in there. If you read some of the descriptions, he had abscesses in his carotid glands, meaning well away from where the bullet was, so he was doomed. Ill point out in 1886, George Lister came to this country and did 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. It took a while in europe. Here it took a while for American Physicians to adopt listerian methods. Im also a civil war reenactor so i played dr. Lister at ford. At the same time, at the time of the civil war, this predated all the bad stuff. The reason i portrayed him was because he was also the Commanding Officer of Armory Square hospital, which is where charles leo, the first doctor to take care of lincoln, served under dr. Bliss. Leo was 23, so i couldnt portray him. Thank you. A very good presentation. Im so delighted you came back. I was just surprised and delighted. Yes, sir, and then yes, sir, in the front. Good evening. I just have a couple facts. You know that out of four president s, lincoln, mckinley and kennedy were shot on a friday. Did you know that . Yeah, things like that, okay. Reagan and mclaughlin were shot 100 years apart. They kept them at guantanamo. Kennedy was shot in a ford, and lincoln was shot in fords theater, and kennedys secretary was named mrs. Lincoln yeah. And both kennedy and lincoln were replaced by Vice President johnson. Im sorry . [ inaudible ] almost ten years to the day, yeah, exactly. Okay. 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 they had much smaller staff. They relied on their cabinet a lot more. Today president s dont rely on their cabinets as much. Im trying to think of when obama had a Cabinet Meeting where all the cabinet members come together. They did that all the time, so his staff was more the cabinet than there was no National Security council, there was no domestic policy adviser to the president. It was much smaller and simpler. Great question. First of all, great talk, ralph. You mentioned halfrey and stalin. Where did halfrey come from . I dont know. Both of them were named for two hallways at that time. How was he named or ranked or was his term too brief . His term was too short. Every time they rank president s, the president s they ignore is harry henry harrison, who served even shorter, one or two days, and garfield because they never had time to do anything. With garfield it is just this unlimited potential that is wiped out. The one were going to discuss next week, mckinley, the more people are looking at him, the better his ratings are going. People are going, wow. During the presidency of mckinley, and again, well talk about this next week, the United States moved from being just a domestic country to becoming a world an international player. So mckinleys ratings are going up tremendously. Garfield they dont even count. Claudia . Okay. Tarzan, it was good to see you. Claudia . Hi. At the very beginning of your talk, you said something that i thought was kind of interesting. Just at the beginning. Well, i was so mesmerized by that one thing. Many, many interesting things, as you know. You said that he was opposed to slavery, called it evil, i think, and that he specifically talked about education for africanamericans. And yet you said he was not an abolitionist. Do you want to help us understand that piece . He just 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 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 it was wrong. Im so glad we had these questions. Yes, can you think of any specific ways that the countrys history would have been different afterwards if garfield had done one or even two terms . What a great question. Historians love the whatif. If you wonder what do historians do when theyre sitting around together and no one is paying attention . We play the whatif game. So thats a great question. If garfield had survived and served out his term, i think he might have been able to restructure the Way Construction was going. It was going terribly. Grant was not good on it, hayes was worse. Hayes withdrew the troops that were protecting the africanamericans in the south. Garfield understood their plight and wanted to educate them. Could he have overcome the racism that existed, particularly in the south . Probably not. But could he have helped increase literacy . Literacy at the time among africanamericans was well above 30 . Could he have improved literacy for them . Could he have used farming and agriculture to improve production, to improve the economy of the country . Probably. He was very interested in financial matters. Could he have helped america to become more prosperous . That was something he would have worked on. He certainly wanted to move forward with Civil Service reform. Could he have passed it or gotten it passed . I dont know, because it wasnt moving until after he died. Those were the issues he was focusing on. He certainly, looking back on him and particularly reading his inaugural address, you get the impression that he had some really good ideas and he was a legislative strategist. Its almost like Lyndon Johnson knowing how to work things through the system. He had been in congress for 18 years, he knew how it worked. He might have been able to get more done than someone like rutherford hayes, his predecessor, who antagonized everyone in congress. Great question. Yes, i was wondering im sorry. There and well get to you next. I was wondering if grant would have been a stalwart and if conkling wanted grant because he was somebody that could have been elected because he would have been well known and well loved as a general of the army, or if he was someone that he could, for lack of a better word, control. You just answered your question with your last sentence. Grant was not well. Conkling felt he would be his guy. Grant did not want to run for president , conkling talked him into running for president. He felt if he became president , it would be because of him and he could be de facto president. Grants presidency, he was not a particularly strong president. Particularly when you look at reconstruction during his period, a lot of problems when you look at corruption during this period, when people look back on corrupt presidencies, they jump out with grant and harding as the ones that lead the list there. An ill grant weakened by bad health and not doing well would not have been a strong figure elected in 1880. Conkling felt that the only reason he was pushing grant was not because it was grant, but he wanted to block blaine. And he just wanted to make sure blaine didnt get it. Yes, maam. Can you explain more about how he could be serving microphone, please. How he could be serving in the civil war and being elected to congress but he cant be there . Did that happen a lot and how did that work . The answer is, yes, it did. Not a lot but anyone can be elected to congress if you are a hey, just look down the block. Anyone can be elected to congress as long as they are 25 years of age and a resident of the state they live in and a resident of the state in the senate. You dont necessarily have to show up. Today they count votes and see what your percentages of voting, but just because you get elected doesnt necessarily mean you have to show up. Obviously, if you dont show up enough, constituents will not reelect you, but certainly since he was a significant general in the civil war, everyone understood he was not physically there. [ applause ] i will hang out. Some of you are wanting to go and find out whats happening in the hockey game, so next week is mckinley, another set of really fascinating stories. Youre watching American History tv. 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