On July 2, 1881, Pres. James Garfield was looking forward to a summer trip to New England. He and his teenage sons headed for the railway station in the morning. He was accompanied by Secretary of State James G. Blaine. He had no body guards. At 9:20, Charles Guiteau stepped towards him and fired a shot from a .44 caliber revolver. It grazed Garfield’s right arm. The President yelled: “My God, what is this?” A second shot entered his back and lodged near the pancreas. As we know now, but they didn’t then. Guiteau tried to escape, but a ticket agent and a policeman grabbed him. Guiteau proclaimed: “I am a Stalwart and Arthur is now president.” Within the next hour, ten different doctors arrived to examine the President as he lay in agony on the floor. They probed the wound with their fingers and unsanitary instruments, trying vainly to locate the bullet. They introduced germs that caused an infection that would take Garfield’s life. The 40-year-old Guiteau was an unstable individual. He was a drifter who had tried various jobs. A fanatical Republican, he had supported Garfield for President in 1880 and even wrote a speech in his favor. When Garfield won, Guiteau felt he was largely responsible for his victory. He moved to Washington and visited the White House numerous times, hoping for a consulship in Paris. Frustrated, he had a vision where God told him to save the Republican Party by putting Vice President Chester Arthur in the White House. “The President’s tragic death was a sad necessity, but it will unite the Republican Party and save the Republic.” Garfield died 79 days after being shot. Almost one year after the assassination, Guiteau was hanged.
https://www.history.com/news/the-assassination-of-president-james-a-garfield
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/garfield-assassination-altered-american-history-woefully-forgotten-today-180968319/
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