Service. Thank you for that on behalf of the city. Today is going to be talking about james garfield, his death and efforts to commemorate his life and death here in washington d. C. I wont say too much more, i dont want to steal his steam, please join me in welcoming matt. applause thank you very much. The story im going to tell might be ripped from todays recent headlines. There was a president ial memorial delayed for years. It was caught up in congressional infighting, and replace it with another. A powerful lobby behind the memorial had chosen this site, the designer, the design criticize in the press. The site was very close to the capital on maryland avenue. If the years 1887, not 2017, and the memorial was one to president garfield and not president eisenhower. James garfields death was a national shock. He is been a compromise candidate for the presidency and had won the closest election in american history. It was a difficult life but his rise up was the rags to riches story. A prototypical, selfmade man. This is reflected in a passage from one of his favorite poems. Moving from higher to higher becomes a pillar of peoples hope. He was a pillar of hope, a refuge from a caustic set of divisions from the republican party. He was a tragic figure of unrealized potential. His term was mired in controversy from the start. His personal life overwrought with illness and near death of his first lady. This is the garfield memorial. Garfield was shot in the baltimore potomac train station on july 2, 1881. He returned to the white house for medical care. He was not a disappointed office seeker, but a quite delusional character with dreams of glorious Public Service. The long agonizing death of garfield kept public attention during the summer of 1881. And it finally came in september on the 19th in new jersey, after a wretched summer of suffering in the white house. He had been moved at his insistence when it became clear that he would never recover. His body was brought back to the capital for a lying in state. Garfield woods only the sixth man to lie in state in the rotunda. This, the second president ial suspension, was in some ways more shocking than the first. The shooter seemingly motivated by seeking revenge for the cell civil war. Here he is laying in state in the rotunda. Calls for a morial were immediate. The veterans who had put up the statue of a general henry thomas in iowa circle and later erect the statue of logan in logans circle led the charge. The filling of circles and squares of civil war and military heroes had only begun recently, in 1874. With only five up to that point. General rowlands, scott, and admiral fair. Garfield had even attended the grand ceremonial unveiling of that statue that february. The initial fundraising for garfields memorial, dated january 15th, 1882, suggested that his statue would be similarly located in a Public Square in washington. There was a goal of a sum of not less than 200,000 dollars and a very optimistic completion date of three years. Fundraising efforts for the statue had to compete with a number of other projects such as the Memorial Hospital and a statue in cleveland. What form and where the memorial would take place was open to question. By 1883, 2 years after, the post was against an equestrian statue of garfield. They threw cold water on the idea of a statue, proposing instead of garfield fountain on indiana avenue. The eventual state for the garfield statue, at the foot of the west front of the capital grounds, was chosen in 1884. The site itself had only been recently created, two traffic circles west of the capital, pennsylvania and maryland avenues respectively, had been created when it was redesigned, designing which have begun in 1874. The circle of pennsylvania avenue held the the naval monument commemorating naval personnel lost in the civil war. It is often called the Peace Monument now. The circle of maryland avenue was still empty. In december 1884, the star reported on Senate Passage of a competing bill for a statue of lafayette. An equestrian statue of lafayette would be cited in that circle displacing the potential garfield memorial. The struggle to retain the site for garfield was not resolved until march 6, 1887. Three months before the scheduled dedication. Colonel john m wilson, in charge of the project received and sent letters to sculptor ward trying to assure and on time completion and unveiling. They remain on file in the National Archives. This is the site, west of the capital. I believe it is before the statue was placed there. I want to say it absolutely is. Are those trees hiding the memorial . I dont think so, i think this is before it is erected. This is what the area looked like. This is what it looks like now. I took this picture recently. This is the invitation to the unveiling, may 11 and 12th, 1887. John quincy adams ward sculpted the statue representing the aspects of garfields life. Richard morris hunt designed the pedestal for the statue. Both men were renowned in their fields. The two would collaborate on 13 monuments over a span of 25 years. Ward had a prominent place in washington, d. C. Public art. He was commissioned to create a statue of general thomas, which was erected in 1879 at thomas circle. Garfields statute does not have quite an imposing location. He considers the Garfield Monument to be one of the outstanding achievements. Beyond the statue, there are other legacies of garfield beyond the statue there are other legacies of our field that have come and gone. As soon as the statue was proposed, a hospital was suggested as an alternative. Garfield had not been taken to a hospital, treating him at home was the standard for the time. Washington had no hospital at the time. They were specialized hospitals serving needs or populations. The need was apparent. Fords theatre had been closed and turned into a medical museum after the death of president lincoln. A similar idea came after garfields death. Turn the baltimore and potomac station into a hospital. October 5, a Public Meeting was held to raise support for the project. December 5, a bill was in congress to incorporate garfield Memorial Hospital. The unhealthiness of the proposed location was soon realized. Prominent colleagues of garfield including the secretary of state spearheaded the fundraising efforts. Efforts were made between various competing garfield memorialization efforts for the statues in washington, cleveland, and the hospital in washington to do some collaborative fundraising. Scattered press reports of each effort folding in favor of the other show the underlying rivalries between the projects. A grand reception and tea party was held may 6, 1882. It was organized by the ladies aide society. I was hoping it was one of the first receptions in the rotunda of its kind, but there had been others previously. Refreshments were held in the rotunda. Music was supplied. Despite lastminute issues, the event went off brilliantly. According to most accounts. There was 6000 people in attendance. An amusing side note, one of the documented press snipee that using the Supreme Court chamber as a coat room and statuary hall as a ballroom. With ladies of dubious reputation in attendance, the press suggested a majority of a Society People were not there in attendance. The property to locate that garfield hospital netted 60 Properties Available for purchase, including bellevue. Property in georgetown, and a raft of other sites throughout washington city, georgetown, and the suburban farmland to the north, south, and east. Ultimately, the Elliott Snyder property on 10th street, north of florida avenue was chosen and purchased for the location of the hospital. The hospital opened in june of 1884. There is the reception card. There is the hospital. In addition to the statue and the hospital, other commemorations to garfield exist around the city. In the 1880s, Real Estate Development was leapfrogging beyond on the city. Into the surrounding suburban washington county. The development was unregulated. Giving those involved great latitude to layout and name in the new neighborhoods. One man named his stretch of land in the hills garfield, in 1882. The streets were named after republican military men. Including a classmate of general grant at westpoint. Several other streets in other subdivisions around the city had streets named after garfield. In 1895, further up the hill from garfields subdivision, Garfield Heights was laid out. In 1909, Garfield Elementary school was built to serve that neighborhood. The randomness of all the suburban development was squelched in the 1890s with the development of highways. As part of the of this all street names were regularized. Future streets in the district were named. Some small garfield streets in various subdivisions, Washington Heights, and nearby, were abolished. Garfield was memorialized with a major street in northwest, running across from washington to palisades, to woodley park. Garfield was a member of the disciples of christ church, he attended the church on vermont avenue regularly. In 1884, the church he attended, which was then often referred to as Garfield Memorial Church was replaced with a new brick structure. This building still exists, although occupied by a different organization. The church evolved into National Christian city church on top of the circle, and includes a garfield memorial window. Across the city, garfield park, in southeast washington at new jersey and virginia avenues was one of the original reservations of land set aside in plans for the city. Reservation number 17. It had remained unimproved for most of its existence up to that point. In 1874, he saw the opportunity to connected to the Capitol Grounds with a park along the site of the old james creek canal. That did not happen, improvements began in 1882, by 1883 the park, which had been previously unnamed, became garfield park. I did not find any documentation as far as a specific naming but that is when they start referring to it as such. Garfield was unusual in that he built a home in washington as a congressman. His home was at the corner of i and 13. He built in 1869. It expanded in 1877. The house was immediately across from Franklin Square and down the block from franklin school, which also was dedicated october 2, 1869. The site was just a few blocks from the white house, but still on the edge of developing washington. It was unusual for that era, for a congressman to build a home in washington. Generally only wealthy politicians had a washington home. Garfield had a wife, and five Young Children and decided to make washington his home. After garfields death, Lucretia Garfield sold the house in 1895 to a pioneer in a apartment House Development in washington. He hired a noted architect to transform the former garfield home into an apartment house. It was inevitably called the garfield. The building was given a new address, so just using the other side. It was a large house, but a small Apartment Building, only five units. Ultimately, that area began to decline, the building was renamed, the atlantic, in the 1920s. Interesting things happened there, the night manager was convicted of a bawdy house during world war ii. The garfield connections were forgotten. It was quietly demolished in 1963. That is what the house looked like. It was basically impossible to find any images but this is from a book, you could see general garfield washington home. This would be 13 street side. Additional legacies, garfield left washington. I would say if you need a job done, get a garfield. Garfields legacy also was his three sons, they provided significant Public Service in the 20th century. The garfields had seven children, two of whom died young. The oldest son was harry augustus. He was nicknamed how. As a lawyer, he taught politics at princeton university, where he made the friendship of princeton president woodrow wilson. Wilson, as president of the United States called on him to lead the Field Administration during world war i. While that does not seem like all of that, it was a very powerful position of command and control. Managing distribution of coal supplies in the country. He held the position and resigned in december of 1919. The next garfield son, james, a lawyer and also a politician served in several republican administrations. First, on the initial Services Commission during william mckinleys. Then on theodore roosevelt, commerce and labor. James decided to leave at the end of roosevelts term, rather than serve under taft. Abram, the youngest surviving son helped to direct washingtons development directly. Quietly behind the scenes. An architect in cleveland, he quietly had a connection to roosevelt. He was appointed to the National Council of fine arts. The council, created through president ial order met only once to review the citing of the Lincoln Memorial before the order was rescinded by the president , William Howard taft. Abram garfield, writing to his mother, indicated that all participants on the commission recognize the fertility of the council and the likelihood that William Howard taft would abolish it at the back past at the behest of congressional opposition. He came back and served on the commission of fine arts from 19251930 including a stint as vice chair. Leading federal Government Service 50 years after his fathers death. Garfields political legacy would seem to be quite thin, since he served effectively as president for only four months. He had been a highly respected military man and legislator. Through the distance of time, all the circumstances are murky. Some of his decisions, some relating to washington, seem to have been worth questioning. His dedication to friends could lead him astray. As when he took on the completion of a lobbying job for the firm at the urging of his friend, richard parsons. The wooden paving was competing for contracting with the District Court of public works. Garfield supported shepherds improving efforts. Hoping that in all this and all your efforts to beautify our National City, you may be abundantly successful. Garfield was also chair of the Appropriations Committee which it did not look good as he earned 5000 dollars, the same mrs. Congressional salary for a small effort for that from. There are virtually no records as far as what actually transpired. But in death, and through the circumstances of his death, there is another significant legacy from gore field. A Civil Service act was passed by congress in 1883. It began to rig federal employment of a spoil system. President rutherford hayes, garfields president predecessor had been a reformer up ahead so eliminated his fellow Party Members that he stood down for reelection in 1880. Garfield was too taken up the reform banner, but battled stronger congressional headwinds. His competitor, chester arthur, was not a reformer but had been a loyal number of the new york machine. It may have been garfield symbolic martyrdom on the altar of federal employee that so change the political climate. In retrospect, at the time of garfields death it was a tragedy of unfulfilled potential. The Washington Post tribute was glowing. And mentioned his tribute to his mother. This is abraham garfields letter about the council of fine arts. This is kind of symbolic of the way people pictured it. Abraham lincoln, welcoming garfield into heaven. inaudible i got that picture in the library of conference and it was not really clear where it appeared. It was in the popular press. The garfield family collected and preserved their family papers. Along with the family at home, National Historic site has most over the decades the library of congress continued a long to acquire the papers and now houses papers for the president , the first lady in the,. Charles moore, former acting head of library of congresss manuscript division, in charge of those efforts, wrote in 1940 to Abram Garfield, a former colleague of his. How please he was that the garfield family worked out differences with the library of congress and got the papers to the library. All these papers are there and they include even a lock of hair. They are in the National Archives and it is the correspondence regarding the resurrection of the statue. Ohio gave a statue of garfield for National Statuary hall in 1886. Several vertebrae from garfields spine, pierced by the bullet, are on display at the National Museum of medical history. In 2006, the National Museum of health and medicine commemorated the 125th anniversary of the shooting with an exhibit on garfields death. Exhibited only for 80 days, the same amount of time that garfield suffered and died. The equipment that Alexander Graham bell used to try and find the bullet in garfield is at the National Museum of american history. A number of these commemorations of garfield have vanished. Many have been threatened, at least once in their existence. The baltimore and atomic station was poured down in 1908. The National Gallery, currently occupies the site. The memorial tablet and formatting star in the station memorializing the shooting have been lost. We started with the removal in 1897, following a fire in the station. As i noted, garfields home was transformed into an Apartment Building and swept away in the 1960s. The statues of the general have come under attack a number of times. Garfield statue was threatened with removal in 1900s, when the Mcmillan Commission plans had placed union square at the base of the capital. It would have swept away both traffic circles. Both the naval and Garfield Monuments. In 1959, congress considered removing the garfield statue again for traffic concerns and referred that to the commission on fine arts. In 1968, garfield Memorial Hospital merged with the hospitals into the Washington Hospital center. It was replaced by a housing complex, the garfield terrace. Designed by a local noted modernist architect. The garfield name is often ignored in the areas frequently called the Woodland TerraceHousing Project across the river. Garfield neighborhood usually called now, woodland. Garfield Memorial Church transformed to the National City christian church. Although just steps away from its previous location. Why is garfield so unknown generally . Today, such a short time in office illiminated a chance for serious accomplishments. Lost potential. That lost potential is commemorated in various ways. Statues, hospitals. It is valuable and resident to those who sought. As those people slip away, the appreciation of that lost potential slips away as well. Thank you. [applause] questions . Ive heard it said that garfield may well have been the most brilliant president we ever had. I have heard the legend that he could speak greek and latin. I even heard that he could write with one hand in latin and one hand in greek. Is there any truth to any of those legends about him . He was very intelligent and very well educated. I am not sure about writing in a two different languages with two different hands. He was very well educated, particularly for his time. You saw that on his monument. They commemorate those aspects of his life and career. Im a native washingtonian, i seem to remember as a child, seeing inside the national library, a plaque saying on this spot garfield was assassinated. Im wondering if that is a false memory . I think garfields main legacy is the civil rights stand. He was strong for the rights of the free man. He resisted the efforts of the south to overcome reconstruction. What is your perspective on that . The National Gallery question is easier. I dont believe there has ever been a marker in the National Gallery. The site itself is in the middle of constitution avenue. From all i have heard, read, and seen, the National Gallery resists including that kind of commemoration there. I am not quite sure why. That is the impression that i have been given, from what i have read and seen. There have been efforts to various people to put a new marker, probably closer to the apex building. Putting a marker in the middle of the street would be kind of moot. As far as a civil rights career, he served for a number of years in congress, house and senate. I did not go deeply into that part of it, i was starting basically with how did we end up with this man as president and what happened subsequently. I cant really address that substantively, i am sorry. Maybe i missed what you might have said. What are the memorials in his home state . There is a statue in cleveland as well. It looks a bit like the one here. Longwood is a National Historical site. That was before president ial libraries existed. All the materials were acquired by the library of congress as part of their efforts. Ohio . There is a museum next to it that is really well done. I took a tour of it in connection with a conference i was attending. I have to say, it is one of the most beautiful, i dont know what if you would call it, maybe arts and crafts style, it is very eclectic. Inside, it is the most beautiful to the core from that site. Seeing that by gaslight is the way to do it. If you can ever get there, my understanding is that fundraisers gave a pile of money to Lucretia Garfield as a way of thanking the family for the martyred president. They spent it well. It is just a beautiful home. Just a plug for mentor, ohio. Which is a shame. [laughter] other questions . For the presidency . Question. I would have to look that up. Close. And who was his opponent . General hancock. Yes sir. What position did he hold . He rose to the rank of general, i dont know that he saw any really significant battle experience. Again, he had a solid career, a solid life of education, military service, Political Service so i concentrated on the conclusion of that. Was he a politician first or pulsed afterwards . No he was a pro politician afterwards. He won the electoral vote, 2 14 to 1 55. But the popular vote was tied. 48. 2 seven to 48. 2 five. So we had a sequence of republican president s. Well it was 50 , so they must admit third candidate . Yes chuck . There was a book that came out a few years ago about the assassination. I have not read it all, i own it, it is upstairs. Maybe someone here can recommend me to move it up on my reading list. I think it was suggesting that he colluded in a Historical Context with other forces to have him assassinated because they were afraid of what. The reforms he was on the threshold of promoting. Do you remember which book that is . I concentrated more looking at he just seems to have been a random character. He came to washington, he participated a little bit in the republican campaign. I think he gave half of a speech, got stage fright, and ran off. He wrote a pamphlet, published a pamphlet. Based upon that contribution, he decided that he should be the envoy to france. Which seems a little bit overgenerous for his efforts. He would go from office to office lobbying. I think he took his requests down to vienna, ultimately. He was one of those people, i dont know if they are still around washington where he is the guy sitting in the outer office waiting to talk to whatever secretary saying i am here, i am ready to be appointed to this envoy to france. Here is the pamphlet i published as part of the campaign, so i deserve something for that. No one ever really wanted to they brushed him off . But they didnt just like get rid of him. He kept wandering around. He would go to a hotel, stay there, run out on his bill, go to another hotel, run out on his bill. Finally, he just decided that he would take care of garfield and got a gun and shot him. That was before he purchased the envoy positions. No one is taking issues with the way i had titled this, which i was surprised with. When i said he is the most memorialized in washington, and least remembered. What i was trying to get at is there was lots of different ways he was memorialized with the neighborhoods, streets, hospital, statue. You could argue that washington himself is more memorialized in washington, d. C. With the name, with his statue, someone was saying would you consider Washington Heights to be named after him . Ok, we will pull on that one we will quibble on that one. Theres finally a washington street, there hadnt been. That is why make the claim that it is ironic that someone who no one really remembers now, and did not have a significant president ial career was memorialized so much. I read one book on president ial assassinations where the author got it wrong. He said when garfield was shot there were there was no reaction, no efforts to memorialized him. As opposed to others like kennedy. I read that and went back to all of the original newspapers and was like no, lots of people wanted to do lots of things to commemorate garfield. Yes. What is the story with bell and the bullet . They took garfield back to the white house. He was on his way from baltimore and potomac station. He was shot, they took him back to the white house, which is what you did, you took people home to take care of them. There were a number of physicians trying to help. They could not find the bullet. They were digging into him, trying to find the bullet. They were unsuccessful. Bell thought about it and said i have equipment where i could detect the bullet. I could detect that metal fragment inside the body. That would have worked if garfield were not on metal springs. The bed, and nobody told bell this. It wasnt going to work, there was too much noise. It also did not help that the physician was looking here and the bullet was over here. They were kind of misdirected. I cannot imagine the suffering he went through. Because he was here in a july and august. They came up with some rudimentary kinds of air conditioning. They started off with like tubs of salt water and cloths. You can imagine, it is 115 humidity which is not a very pleasant thing. They came up with some other technology, which at first was too noisy. Then it got better. At first, he said it just turn it off, it is too noisy. They came up with some better options. That is kind of the origination of air conditioning as well. This . Yes, he had one cabinet meeting. He was a big, husky man. They fed him, not intravenously, but a different way, rather unpleasant thinking about it. Soon, he rallied for a while. You could imagine people are hoping that he is going to get better. It is just hard to imagine these days there would be like the president ial health watch every reporter outside. Essentially, there were the past, people writing reports every day. The doctor would report out that he is in is getting better. There is a letter from little Abram Garfield saying dear mama, i am glad to hear father is getting better. This is in july. 20 days into it, he is getting better. Well, obviously he was probably Holding Stable but not getting better. Just thinking of the time of year, one accomplishment i share with tour guides, is that garfield dedicated or launched the first declaration day, may 30, 1868 in Arlington National cemetery. We now call it memorial day. Pete, you know. The first memorial theater, that launched declaration day. For me, garfield is alive and well in memory. I try to share that with as many visitors as possible. Another legacy than. I would like to talk about garfield. It was in the book called the destiny of the republic, she said he was actually murdered by the doctors and not his assassin. He would have survived if they left him alone, as i recall it. That is true, if they had stopped trying to search for the bullet and stopped infecting him, they really did not believe in they were not worried about their hands. They thought the development of puss was a good thing. You just read the description, and its, like oh man. What he went through was just horrifying. Yes, the doctors did end up killing him. As i mentioned, theres all kinds of documentation about all of these different aspects of things around the city. The docket at the National Archives of people listing their claims of what they thought they were owed for being a part of the president ial care. There were guards who worked overtime and various doctors. Those are fascinating documents to look through. Lets cut it off here, i wanted to thank you again. Thank you. And to president cleveland winter went surgery, a secret kept from the American Public for over 20 years. Coming up, a conversation with the author of the