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 a 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 Disciples of Christ preacher at Franklin Circle Christian Church in Cleveland, Ohio, 1857-1858.
Garfield was principal of the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (Hiram
College), 1857-1860, during which time he defended creation in a
debate against evolution.
Garfield became a lawyer in 1861, and during the Civil War was promoted to Major General.
Elected to Congress, Garfield despised fiat paper currency 'Greenbacks' supporting instead a gold-silver based monetary system.
Elected
a U.S. Senator, Garfield gave a stirring speech at the 1880 Republican
National Convention opposing the rule that all delegates from each
State were required to vote for the candidate with the majority of
delegates:
"There never can be a convention...that shall bind my vote against my will on any question whatever."
Garfield
won the crowd with his speech and in an unprecedented move, after 34
ballots, Garfield was chosen as the Republican nominee for President
over Ulysses S. Grant who was seeking a third term.
Garfield stated in his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1881, just 200 days before his death:
"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."
President James Garfield appointed African-Americans to prominent federal positions:
Frederick Douglass, recorder of deeds in Washington;
Robert Elliot, special agent to the U.S. Treasury;
John M. Langston, Haitian minister; and
Blanche K. Bruce, register to the U.S. Treasury.
Garfield appointed Civil War General Lew Wallace, author of the famous novel Ben-Hur, as U.S. Minister to Turkey.
Garfield described Otto von Bismark, who united German and served at its first Chancellor, 1871-1890:
"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."
As a Congressman, James Garfield had stated at the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1876:
"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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