Remembering James Garfield
On September 19, 1881 (130 years ago today) James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, died as the result of a gunshot wound that he received the previous July 2nd. It is likely that what killed Garfield was the "medical treatment" he received and that with proper treatment he would have survived the wound. Garfield died at Long Branch, New Jersey, where he had gone to recuperate from his wound.
Garfield was shot on the morning of July 2, 1881, President Garfield. He had been on his way to his alma mater, Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech. Garfield was accompanied by James G. Blaine, Robert Todd Lincoln (or as author Sarah Vowell refers to him, "Jinxy McDeath"), and Garfield's two sons, James and Harry. As he was walking through the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington at 9:30 am, Garfield was shot twice by an assassin, Charles J. Guiteau. Guiteau was, to use the vernacular, a "batshit crazy" disgruntled federal office-seeker who repeatedly harassed Garfield to appoint him Ambassador to France. Eventually Garfield got fed up and told Guiteau that the appointment was never going to happen. Guiteau used a .44 caliber pistol. He was apprehended shortly after the shooting, and repeatedly said upon his arrest, "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! I did it and I want to be arrested! Arthur is President now!"Some suspected that Vice-President Chester Alan Arthur or his supporters had put Guiteau up to the crime, but people soon realized that Guiteau was just a nut.
Garfield exclaimed immediately after he was shot, "My God, what is this?" The firt bullet grazed Garfield's arm and the second probably lodged in his spine, near his lung, but could not be found. Alexander Graham Bell specifically built a metal detector to find the bullet, but the device's signal was distorted by the metal bed springs.
Garfield became increasingly ill over a period of several weeks due to infection, which caused his heart to weaken. He remained bedridden in the White House with fever and extreme pain. As the heat of summer became more oppressive for the stricken President, a Navy engineer, with the help of Simon Newcomb, installed in Garfield's room what may have been the world's first air conditioner. An air blower was installed over a chest containing 6 tons of ice, with the air then dried by conduction through a long iron box filled with cotton screens, and connected to the room's heat vent.
On September 6 the ailing President was moved to the Jersey Shore in the vain that the fresh air and quiet there might aid his recovery. In a matter of hours, local residents constructed a special rail spur for Garfield's train. Although the two men had been political opponents within the Republican Party, former President Ulysses Grant paid a visit on Mrs. Garfield to try and console her. He told her that during the civil war soldiers who had the same wound as her husband almost always recovered.
But Grant's prognosis was unfortunately wrong. On Monday, September 19, 1881, at 10:20 p.m. James Garfield suffered and died from a massive heart attack and a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, following blood poisoning and bronchial pneumonia. Garfield's chief doctor, Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss (who, oddly was an M.D., but whose given name was also "Doctor"), had unsuccessfully attempted to revive the fading President with restorative medication. Mrs. Garfield, having leaned over Garfield, kissed his brows and exclaimed, "Oh! Why am I made to suffer this cruel wrong?" Garfield was pronounced dead at 10:35 p.m. by Dr. Bliss in the Elberon section of Long Branch, New Jersey. Mrs. Garfield remained with her dead husband for over an hour until prompted to leave the room. Garfield died exactly two months before his 50th birthday. His final words were said to be: "My work is done."
Many medical experts have suggested that Garfield would have survived his wounds had the doctors attending him had at their disposal today's medical research, techniques, and equipment. Standard medical practice at the time dictated that priority be given to locating the path of the bullet. Several of his doctors inserted their unsterilized fingers into the wound to probe for the bullet, a common practice in the 1880s. American doctors had not fully accepted the sterilization technique implemented by Joseph Lister during the 1860s. Historians agree that massive infection was a significant factor in President Garfield's death. Others suggest that medical malpractice did not contribute to Garfield's death and that infection and blood poisoning were inevitable from that deep of a bullet wound.
On January 12, 2010, a previously unknown life insurance policy on Garfield's life was discovered in Orient, New York. The policy was found in a family scrapbook dating from the same period of his death and had a benefit amount of $10,000. It was opened on May 18, 1881, just 45 days prior to the date Garfield was shot by Guiteau.
Oh and fittingly, today a new book by Candice Millard about James Garfield hit the bookshelves. It's called Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. It will be waiting for me when I get home and I'll review it for you as soon as I've read it.
Garfield was shot on the morning of July 2, 1881, President Garfield. He had been on his way to his alma mater, Williams College, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech. Garfield was accompanied by James G. Blaine, Robert Todd Lincoln (or as author Sarah Vowell refers to him, "Jinxy McDeath"), and Garfield's two sons, James and Harry. As he was walking through the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington at 9:30 am, Garfield was shot twice by an assassin, Charles J. Guiteau. Guiteau was, to use the vernacular, a "batshit crazy" disgruntled federal office-seeker who repeatedly harassed Garfield to appoint him Ambassador to France. Eventually Garfield got fed up and told Guiteau that the appointment was never going to happen. Guiteau used a .44 caliber pistol. He was apprehended shortly after the shooting, and repeatedly said upon his arrest, "I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts! I did it and I want to be arrested! Arthur is President now!"Some suspected that Vice-President Chester Alan Arthur or his supporters had put Guiteau up to the crime, but people soon realized that Guiteau was just a nut.
Garfield exclaimed immediately after he was shot, "My God, what is this?" The firt bullet grazed Garfield's arm and the second probably lodged in his spine, near his lung, but could not be found. Alexander Graham Bell specifically built a metal detector to find the bullet, but the device's signal was distorted by the metal bed springs.
Garfield became increasingly ill over a period of several weeks due to infection, which caused his heart to weaken. He remained bedridden in the White House with fever and extreme pain. As the heat of summer became more oppressive for the stricken President, a Navy engineer, with the help of Simon Newcomb, installed in Garfield's room what may have been the world's first air conditioner. An air blower was installed over a chest containing 6 tons of ice, with the air then dried by conduction through a long iron box filled with cotton screens, and connected to the room's heat vent.
On September 6 the ailing President was moved to the Jersey Shore in the vain that the fresh air and quiet there might aid his recovery. In a matter of hours, local residents constructed a special rail spur for Garfield's train. Although the two men had been political opponents within the Republican Party, former President Ulysses Grant paid a visit on Mrs. Garfield to try and console her. He told her that during the civil war soldiers who had the same wound as her husband almost always recovered.
But Grant's prognosis was unfortunately wrong. On Monday, September 19, 1881, at 10:20 p.m. James Garfield suffered and died from a massive heart attack and a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm, following blood poisoning and bronchial pneumonia. Garfield's chief doctor, Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss (who, oddly was an M.D., but whose given name was also "Doctor"), had unsuccessfully attempted to revive the fading President with restorative medication. Mrs. Garfield, having leaned over Garfield, kissed his brows and exclaimed, "Oh! Why am I made to suffer this cruel wrong?" Garfield was pronounced dead at 10:35 p.m. by Dr. Bliss in the Elberon section of Long Branch, New Jersey. Mrs. Garfield remained with her dead husband for over an hour until prompted to leave the room. Garfield died exactly two months before his 50th birthday. His final words were said to be: "My work is done."
Many medical experts have suggested that Garfield would have survived his wounds had the doctors attending him had at their disposal today's medical research, techniques, and equipment. Standard medical practice at the time dictated that priority be given to locating the path of the bullet. Several of his doctors inserted their unsterilized fingers into the wound to probe for the bullet, a common practice in the 1880s. American doctors had not fully accepted the sterilization technique implemented by Joseph Lister during the 1860s. Historians agree that massive infection was a significant factor in President Garfield's death. Others suggest that medical malpractice did not contribute to Garfield's death and that infection and blood poisoning were inevitable from that deep of a bullet wound.
On January 12, 2010, a previously unknown life insurance policy on Garfield's life was discovered in Orient, New York. The policy was found in a family scrapbook dating from the same period of his death and had a benefit amount of $10,000. It was opened on May 18, 1881, just 45 days prior to the date Garfield was shot by Guiteau.
Oh and fittingly, today a new book by Candice Millard about James Garfield hit the bookshelves. It's called Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. It will be waiting for me when I get home and I'll review it for you as soon as I've read it.