Destiny of the Republic (42 page)

Chapter 15: Blood-Guilty

1
“Information had reached them”: “Guiteau in Jail,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

2
“There were many who felt”: “A Cloud upon the Holiday,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

3
“While it seems incredible”: Ibid.

4
“roar of indignation”: “Brooklyn Much Disturbed,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

5
Rumors spread that a group: “Bulletins Still Eagerly Watched,”
New York Tribune
, July 6, 1881, cited in Menke, “Media in America,” 652.

6
On the top floor: Kalush,
The Secret Life of Houdini
, 177.

7
“a particular friend”: “A Talk with the Assassin,”
New York Times
, July 5, 1881.

8
Soon after settling into his cell: “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

9
“lobbying like any henchman”: Ackerman,
Dark Horse
, 363.

10
As he scanned the message: “Garfield Shot,”
Milwaukee Daily Sentinel
, July 2, 1881.

11
Across the street, the sidewalk: “Seeking for the Latest News,”
New York Times
, July 4, 1881.

12
As Conkling and Arthur entered the hotel: “At the Fifth Avenue Hotel,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

13
“More than one excited man”: Ibid.

14
So suffocatingly crowded: Ibid.

15
By the time Conkling had his hands:
Chicago Tribune
, July 3, 1881.

16
“great grief and sympathy”: Ackerman,
Dark Horse
, 384–85.

17
“Chet Arthur?”: Whitcomb and Whitcomb,
Real Life at the White House
, 181.

18
“simple vanity”: Reeves,
Gentleman Boss
, 5.

19
Arthur was also widely known: Karabell,
Chester Alan Arthur
, 30.

20
“I do not think he knows anything”: Harriet S. Blaine and Beale,
Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine
, 309.

21
“There is no place in which the powers of mischief”: Quoted in Reeves,
Gentleman Boss
, 241.

22
“a statesman and a thorough-bred gentleman”: “Seeking for the Latest News,”
New York Times
, July 4, 1881.

23
“Republicans and Democrats alike”: “A Cloud Upon the Holiday,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

24
“Arthur for President!”: Williams,
Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes
, 23.

25
“There is a theory”: “Guiteau in Jail,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

26
“I am a Stalwart”: “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

27
“This crime is as logically and legitimately”:
Cleveland Herald
, July 3, 1881.

28
“when a child”: Quoted in Chidsey,
The Gentleman from New York
, 354.

29
“Men go around with clenched teeth”: Quoted in Ackerman,
Dark Horse
, 385.

30
In a New York prison, two inmates:
New York Times
, September 16, 1881.

31
“While there is no intimation”: “Thunderbolt at Albany,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

32
“that the ex-Senator had asked”: “The Scenes Up Town,”
New York Times
, July 5, 1881.

33
“Gens: We will hang”: Platt,
The Autobiography of Thomas Collier Platt
, 163.

Chapter 16: Neither Death nor Life

1
As his train pulled into the station: Bell to Mabel Bell, July 17, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

2
“Everywhere people go about”: “A Cloud Upon the Holiday,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

3
Even the Fourth of July celebrations: Celebrations had also been canceled in nearly every other city in the nation.

4
“Men looked eagerly to the flag-pole”: “The Events of Yesterday,”
New York Times
, July 5, 1881.

5
“down upon the Executive Mansion”: Ibid.

6
“To Mrs. Garfield, a slight token”: Bell to Mabel Bell, July 17, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

7
Although his temperature had fallen slightly: Doctors’ notes, July 14, 1881, National Museum of Health and Medicine.

8
“severe lancinating”: Ibid., July 3, 1881.

9
“tiger’s claws”: “At the Patient’s Bedside,”
New York Times
, July 5, 1881.

10
More difficult for Garfield to deny: Doctors’ notes, July 4, 1881, National Museum of Health and Medicine.

11
Garfield had for years suffered: Garfield,
Diary
, June 15–July 19, 1875, 3:85.

12
Finally, a doctor told him: Ibid., May 24, 1875, 3:85.

13
Garfield had avoided such drastic: Peskin,
Garfield
, 433.

14
He received a wide variety of rich foods: Bliss’s notes, 11, National Museum of Health and Medicine.

15
“He was nauseated”: Quoted in Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 89.

16
“No sick or injured person”: Gaw,
A Time to Heal
, 8.

17
“Patients, no matter how critical”: Ibid.

18
The structure had been built into sloping ground: Seale,
The President’s House
, 536.

19
“packed with vermin”: Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 80.

20
“sanitary requirements of a safe dwelling”: “Condition of the White House,”
New York Times
, September 7, 1881.

21
The plumbing system had been built: Seale,
The President’s House
, 536.

22
“pest house”: Feis,
Mollie Garfield in the White House
, 74.

23
“The old White House is unfit”: Quoted in Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 80.

24
“notoriously unhealthy”: Hoogenboom,
Rutherford B. Hayes
, 469.

25
“greatly influenced by the miasma”: Reyburn,
Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield
, 578.

26
Four servants in the White House: Mackenzie,
Alexander Graham Bell
, 236.

27
In a desperate effort to ward off malaria : Paulson, “Death of a President and His Assassin,” 83; Deppisch, “Homeopathic Medicine and Presidential Health,” 3.

28
“You can’t imagine anything so vile”: Harriet S. Blaine and Beale,
Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine
, 229.

29
“Scarcely a breath of air”: “Another Weary Night Watch,”
New York Times
, July 6, 1881.

30
“Sitting to day on my piazza”: Stephen Upson to Lucretia Garfield, July 3, 1881.

31
Others suggested hanging sheets: Letters to Lucretia Garfield, Library of Congress, Garfield papers.

32
Finally, a corps of engineers:
Reports of Officers of the Navy: Ventilating and Cooling of Executive Mansion
, 4. Nine years later, Willis Haviland Carrier designed the first system for controlling not only temperature, but also humidity.

33
In the president’s office: Telegram from Joseph Stanley Brown to R. J. Jennings, the owner of a company in Baltimore that had a cooling device, quoted in Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 83.

34
Although the system worked: Seale,
The President’s House
, 523–24. “They found some kind of compressed air machine,” Garfield’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Mollie, complained in her diary, “& it made a horrible noise when it became full of air.” James A. Garfield Papers, Library of Congress.

35
“cool, dry, and ample”: Seale,
The President’s House
, 524.

36
“wonderfully patient sufferer”: Paulson, “Death of a President and His Assassin,” 79.

37
“never approached him”: Bliss, “The Story of President Garfield’s Illness,” 301.

38
“Thank you, gentlemen”: Rockwell, “From Mentor to Elberon,”
Century Magazine
, 437.

39
“witty, and quick at repartee”: Ibid.

40
“The vein of his conversation”: “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

41
“I do not believe that”: “At the Patient’s Bedside,”
New York Times
, July 5, 1881.

42
Although Garfield rarely mentioned: Rockwell, “From Mentor to Elberon,”
Century Magazine
.

43
“What motive do you think”: “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

Chapter 17: One Nation

1
“You were not made free merely”: “Colored Men Visit Garfield,”
New York Times
, October 21, 1880.

2
“the high privilege and sacred duty”: Garfield,
Inaugural Address
, March 4, 1881.

3
“give the South, as rapidly as possible”: De Santis, “President Garfield and the ‘Solid South,’ ” 449.

4
“felt, as they had not felt before”: “Southern Sympathy,”
New York Times
, July 20, 1881.

5
“united, as if by magic”: Bundy,
The Nation’s Hero, in Memoriam
, 242–43.

6
“the whole Nation kin”: “Jefferson Davis on Guiteau’s Crime,”
New York Times
, July 16, 1881.

7
“I felt lighthearted and merry”:
United States v. Guiteau
, 601.

8
“His vanity is literally nauseating”: Hayes and Hayes,
A Complete History
, 405–6.

9
“He spoke with deliberation”: Ibid.

10
“He objected strenuously”: Ibid., 406.

11
“I want you to be sure”: Ibid., 499.

12
“I don’t want to appear strained”: Quoted in Ackerman,
Dark Horse
, 406.

13
Before returning to his cell: Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 65.

14
He believed that he would be released: Rosenberg,
The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau
, p. 46.

15
“by the hundreds”: Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 91.

16
“a conviction would shock the public”:
United States v. Guiteau
, 2246.

17
So carefree was Guiteau: Rosenberg,
The Trial of the Assassin Guiteau
, 45.

18
“I am looking for a wife”: Hayes and Hayes,
A Complete History
, 451.

19
“For twenty years, I have had an idea”: Hayes and Hayes,
A Complete History
, 452.

20
He was in contact with everyone: Mackenzie,
Alexander Graham Bell
, 235.

21
“Alec says he telegraphed”: Mabel Bell to her mother, July 20, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

22
At this point in his experiments: Bell,
Upon the Electrical Experiments
, 15.

23
He had adjusted the coils’ size: Ibid., 8–11.

24
Most important, he had decided to borrow: Ibid., 5.

25
Bell and Tainter had already begun testing: Mackenzie,
Alexander Graham Bell
, 236.

26
Seven years earlier, while working: Bruce,
Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude
, 121.

27
“more nearly approximate”: Bell to Mabel Bell, July 17, 1881, Bell Family Papers; Mackenzie,
Alexander Graham Bell
, 236.

28
On July 20, as promised: Bell, “Volta Lab Notes,” July 19, 1881.

29
Bliss, who had brought for the inventor: Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 86. The bullets are in the collection of the National Museum of American History.

30
“Ball can certainly be located”: Bell, “Volta Lab Notes,” July 9, 1881.

31
“If people would only make their bullets”: Bell,
Upon the Electrical Experiments
, 46.

32
In its earliest form, the induction balance: Ibid., 7, 11.

33
Always a serious young man: Grosvenor and Wesson,
Alexander Graham Bell
, 62.

34
The Volta Laboratory, moreover, was far: Gray,
Reluctant Genius
, 217.

35
So unhealthy was the laboratory: Mabel Bell to Eliza Bell, June 23, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

36
“headache has taken root”: Bruce,
Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude
, 201.

37
“Alec says he would rather die”: Mabel Bell to Eliza Bell, June 23, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

38
“epistolary silence”: Bell to Mabel Bell, July 26, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

39
“Alec says he is well and bearing”: Mabel Bell to her mother, July 20, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

40
“I want to know how you are personally”: Mabel Bell to Alexander Graham Bell, July 16, 1881, Bell Family Papers.