In the President's madness he has wrecked the grand old Republican party, and for this he dies.Comment of Charles Guiteau, two weeks before shooting President Garfield,
From evidence given at Guiteau's Trial,
John K. Porter's Closing Speech to the Jury in the Guiteau Trial, January 23, 1882.On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded the new President James A. Garfield in the lobby of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot in Washington, D.C. as he yelled, "I am a stalwart and Arthur is President now!" Guiteau, a lawyer with a history of mental illness, blamed the president for not selecting him for a job at the U.S. Consulate in Paris.
Afflicted with religious delusions, the factionalism of the election of 1880 had given Guiteau's paranoia a political focus. He expressed several times the conviction that he had been commissioned by God to murder Garfield, and was surprised to discover that his action was deplored by Garfield's political opponents and supporters alike. In spite of Guiteau's manifest insanity at his trial, his attorneys were unable to gain an acquittal on that basis.
President Garfield did not die immediately, but lingered for 11 weeks, during which time surgeons attempted to find the bullet which had lodged in his back. In spite of Joseph Lister's discoveries on the use of antiseptics in surgery, the practice of sterilization had not caught on, and Garfield's wound was probed by the unwashed fingers of many physicians. The infection which ensued in his wound caused his death.
On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau shot and fatally wounded the new President James A. Garfield in the lobby of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Depot in Washington, D.C. as he yelled, "I am a stalwart and Arthur is President now!" Guiteau, a lawyer with a history of mental illness, blamed the president for not selecting him for a job at the U.S. Consulate in Paris.
Afflicted with religious delusions, the factionalism of the election of 1880 had given Guiteau's paranoia a political focus. He expressed several times the conviction that he had been commissioned by God to murder Garfield, and was surprised to discover that his action was deplored by Garfield's political opponents and supporters alike. In spite of Guiteau's manifest insanity at his trial, his attorneys were unable to gain an acquittal on that basis.
President Garfield did not die immediately, but lingered for 11 weeks, during which time surgeons attempted to find the bullet which had lodged in his back. In spite of Joseph Lister's discoveries on the use of antiseptics in surgery, the practice of sterilization had not caught on, and Garfield's wound was probed by the unwashed fingers of many physicians. The infection which ensued in his wound caused his death.
On September 6, Garfield was sent to the New Jersey shore in an attempt to aid his recovery. Despite initial signs of improvement, he died two weeks later of an infection in his back and an abdominal hemorrhage. Charles J. Guiteau was hanged on June 30, 1882.
Garfield's incapacitation sparked a constitutional crisis. The Cabinet was divided over whether Vice President Chester Arthur should assume the office of the incapacitated president or merely act in his stead. Because Congress was out of session, the issue remained unresolved at the time of Garfield's death. The Twenty-fifith Amendment (1967) to the Constitution addresses the succession of power to the Vice President in the event of a President "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."
Washington, D.C.--The attack on the President's life--Scene in the ladies' room of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad depot--
The arrest of the assassin / from sketches by our special artist's [sic] A. Berghaus and C. Upham.
Presidential assassinations maintain a strong hold on the American imagination. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) continues to resonate with Americans, and Abraham Lincoln's murder holds a central place in the nation's memory. Many Americans have at least some awareness of the murder of William McKinley (1843-1901), which elevated Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) to the presidency. Far less known, however, is the assassination of the nation's twentieth president, James A. Garfield (1831-1881). Garfield died on 19 September 1881, seventy-nine days after being shot in the back at a Washington, D.C., railroad station. Garfield's assassination is poorly remembered today, largely due to the short span of time he served in office, only four months, and the little that was achieved during his presidency. Yet at the time, Garfield's death was deeply mourned, and his life's achievements would be impressive in any era. The son of poor Ohio farmers, Garfield acquired a Williams College education and later became a teacher and college president. He served as a Union major general early in the Civil War and in 1863 was elected to the United States House of Representatives. A compromise candidate for a divided Republican Party, Garfield defeated Democratic nominee Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock (1824-1886) by a slim margin in the 1880 presidential election.Garfield's assassin was Charles Julius Guiteau (1841-1882), an Illinois native with a checkered career and erratic personal life. A failure at academic and journalistic pursuits, Guiteau turned to law, embarking on a marginal career tainted by dishonest practices. He also styled himself a preacher and student of religion, and as a young man spent several years at John Humphrey Noyes's utopian community in Oneida, New York. But Guiteau's lectures and writings on Christianity drew only meager audiences. Despite his dim career prospects, Guiteau lived well beyond his means, staying in fashionable hotels and purchasing expensive clothing without paying the bills. He was also known to be abusive, mistreating his wife (who divorced him in 1874 for his dalliances with prostitutes) and at one point threatening his sister with an axe.
By 1880 Guiteau had developed an interest in national politics. He was a hanger-on at Republican headquarters in New York City during the presidential campaign, and published a speech in support of Garfield's candidacy. After Garfield's election, Guiteau repeatedly pestered the president and members of his cabinet for appointments to diplomatic posts. Disappointed by their rebuffs, in spring 1881 Guiteau had what he described as a divine inspiration to take the president's life. Doing so, he believed, would heal the factionalism in the Republican Party and thereby save the nation. After stalking Garfield for several weeks, Guiteau shot the president in a Washington, D.C., railroad terminal on 2 July 1881.
Garfield survived until September, and Guiteau, captured at the scene of the assassination, stood trial for murder in November 1881. The trial was a national sensation and an important legal case as well, as Guiteau's attorney argued that his client was insane at the time of the shooting, an early use of such a defense. The trial became a forum on the issue of legal insanity, as thirty-six doctors testified as expert witnesses. Guiteau's conduct at trial also was notable. He constantly interrupted and berated the prosecuting attorneys, witnesses, judge, and even his own counsel, and he relished his celebrity status. Dozens of people wrote to him, seeking his autograph. Shown here is one such autograph, given to his jailer on the occasion of New Year's Eve 1881. Guiteau viewed the public's interest as an indication of support and a sign that he would be acquitted. But the jury rendered a guilty verdict on 26 January, and on 30 June 1882, Guiteau was executed by hangman's noose.
