Posted on 11/19/2018 7:46:23 AM PST by harpygoddess
It's President James Garfield's birthday - when he was shot, Alexander Graham Bell showed up with a metal detector to try to locate the bullet.
Born in Moreland Hills, Ohio to a widowed farm wife, Garfield worked at a series of menial jobs but eventually attended Williams College, graduating in 1856.
He entered politics as a Republican and served in the Ohio State Senate until the outbreak of the Civil War, in which he saw combat as a Union major general. In 1862 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served in that body until 1880, after 1876 as Republican Leader of the House.
Noted as a skilled orator, Garfield supported the more radical aspects of Reconstruction, but later moderated his views and became known for his strong support in Congress for the gold standard and free trade. The Republican party nominated him in 1880 as a compromise candidate for the Presidency, which he won handily. His four-month administration, characterized by party squabbles over federal jobs and political patronage, was cut short by his fatal wounding by a disappointed office-seeker in Washington in July 1881.
On July 2, 1881, at 9:20 a.m., he was shot in the back as he walked with Secretary of State Blaine in Washington's Baltimore and Potomac train station. The shots came from a .44 British Bulldog, which the assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, had purchased specifically because he thought it would look impressive in a museum. Garfield's doctors were unable to remove the bullet, which was lodged in the President's pancreas. On September 19, 1881, the President died of blood poisoning and complications from the shooting in his hospital rooms at Elberon, a village on the New Jersey shore, where his wife lay ill with malaria.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
"If they had just left him alone he almost certainly would have survived," Millard said. Within minutes, doctors converged on the fallen president, using their fingers to poke and prod his open wounds. "Twelve different doctors inserted unsterilized fingers and instruments in Garfield's back probing for this bullet, and the first examination took place on the train station floor. I mean, you can't imagine a more germ-infested environment."
Excuse me while i go throw up.
wow.
Anyway, happy birthday.
Must be quite a thing to belong to a group that numbers less than 100 out of untold millions and million that have come and gone.
And to think this country gave bill and obummer that honor. and johnson.
BTW, Garfield may well have been among our greatest presidents if not for the assassination.
I read that book within the last year, and it was very interesting. Garfield was an outstanding individual, and I think he would have been a great President, had his life not been cut short.
Yes, he was subjected to terrible conditions which led to his death.
Happy bithday indeed ...
Sad to think that the pioneering work of Pasteur and Lister and germ born infection and antiseptic was so slowly adopted by doctors in the US.
Hey guys come on over here and see if you can find the bullet!
A democrat shoots someone in the back. Not unusual.
Felix dies natalis, Jacobe!
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