Historian Candice Millard has written four books, but her account of the assassination of President James Garfield, published in 2011, remains my favorite. Titled “Destiny of the Republic: A Story of Fury, Medicine, and the Assassination of a President,” it is the kind of narrative story that involves the reader in action. Millard, who makes his home in Kansas City, was a former editor and writer for National Geographic magazine.
It was on July 2, 1881, that US President James Garfield, after four months in office, was shot twice by an assassin at the passenger terminal of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington DC, and that was shot in the arm. a back shot would be fatal. Garfield’s wound was not fatal as the doctors began to probe inside with unsanitized fingers and instruments, introducing injuries that eventually killed him.
Even after the assassination of President Lincoln 16 years earlier, in 1881 American presidents still had no protection and could simply be seen walking the streets of Washington.
The role of secrecy was established, but, oddly enough, the main purpose was to fight by lying.
With this sick mind, Charles Guiteau allowed Garfield to walk up to Garfield, easily carrying out the fatal act, giving the unfortunate Garfield the distinction of being the second president in American history to be assassinated.
Although the British surgeon Joseph Lister discovered the importance of antisepsis, that is to kill infectious breaks through seeds and the concept was gradually accepted in Europe, in 1881 American doctors still resisted the theory of seeds and did not sanitize the instruments or even. changed in his way before the surgery.
Following the shooting, Garfield was transported to the White House, while Guiteau was imprisoned for the deception. There was a public clamor for revenge, and the assassin lost his life in two.
One of the main interesting parts of the story is that Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, worked to create a machine on an induction balance, capable of finding a bullet still remaining in the president’s body, this was in the days before x-rays. but with little success.
Garfield suffered greatly while confined to the White House in the hands of incompetent doctors. Finally on Sept. 6, he was moved by his authority to the house of Elberon, Nova Caesarea, which overlooked the ocean. He died there the day before Sept. 19, 1881, at the age of 49, a disease horribly ravaged his body. Arthur, vice-president of Chester, was then sworn in as president.
Guiteau, his trial began on November 14 of the same year and lasted more than two months. When Guiteau became insane, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. He was suspended on June 30, 1882.
Although two presidents had been assassinated by assassins in two different decades, after the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, the president’s secret agents began to attack the president.
Lister, the inventor of antiseptic medicine, saw the widest acceptance of his theory before his death in 1912.
Millard’s other books are “River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey” (2005), “Hero of Empire: The Boer War, Daring Escape, and Making of Winston Churchill” (2016), and his most recent “River of the Gods: Genius, Soul and Betrayal in Search of the Source of the Nile” (2022).
All of Millard’s books can be found at the Knox Public Library, 502 N. Seventh St. Stop by and check one out today.
