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 One
bullet grazed his elbow, but a second lodged in the back of President
James Garfield, who was shot JULY 2, 1881, as he waited in the
Washington, D.C., train station.
The assassin was Charles Guiteau, a member of a polygamist-communist cult called the Oneida Community.
Garfield had only been in office four months.
Though not wounded seriously, unsterile medical practices caused him to die two months later.
Secretary of State James Blaine sent news to James Russell Lowell, U.S. Minister in London, September 20, 1881:
"James A. Garfield, President of the United States, died...For nearly eighty days he suffered great pain,
and during the entire period exhibited extraordinary patience,
fortitude, and Christian resignation. Fifty millions of people stand as
mourners by his bier."
When Vice-President Chester Arthur assumed the Presidency, he declared a National Day of Mourning, September 22, 1881:
"In
His inscrutable wisdom it has pleased God to remove from us the
illustrious head of the nation, James A. Garfield, late President of the
United States...It is fitting that the deep grief which fills all
hearts should manifest itself with one accord toward the Throne of
Infinite Grace...that we should bow before the Almighty...in our
affliction."
James Garfield had been a Major General in the Civil War, a college president and a Disciples of Christ preacher.
Elected
a U.S. Congressman, he despised fiat paper currency "Greenbacks,"
supporting instead a gold-silver based monetary system.
Elected
a U.S. Senator, he gave a stirring speech at the 1880 Republican
National Convention opposing the rule that State delegates had to vote
unanimously for only one candidate.
In
an unprecedented move, after 34 ballots, Garfield was chosen as the
Republican nominee over prominent contenders, including Ulysses S. Grant
seeking a third term.
As President, James Garfield appointed several African-Americans to prominent federal positions.
In his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1881, Garfield stated:
"Let
our people find a new meaning in the divine oracle which declares that
'a little child shall lead them,' for our own little children will soon
control the destinies of the Republic...
Our children...will
surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union was
preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were made
equal before the law."
Garfield described the Chancellor of the newly united Germany:
"I
am struck with the fact that Otto von Bismarck, the great statesman of
Germany, probably the foremost man in Europe today, stated as an
unquestioned principle, that the support, the defense, and propagation
of the Christian Gospel is the central object of the German government."
At the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1876, then Congressman James Garfield stated:
"Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress.
If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.
If
it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand
these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature...
If the NEXT CENTENNIAL does not find us a great nation...it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."
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