I heard Peter Boyles on KOA radio of Denver interviewing Candice Millard and reviewing her book, and decided it sounded fascinating. I now think “fascinating” doesn’t do the book justice, and I give this book a very high recommendation. I wanted to do a single part review, but this book simply had too much information for a mere couple of pages to do it justice. This part will be about Garfield’s early life, his military service during the Civil War, entrance into politics, and his seemingly accidental connections to a madman named Charles Guiteau and the inventor, Alexander Graham Bell.

I am frequently astonished at how little I know about history, and this book led me even further to the conclusion that I don’t know enough. I certainly knew little about James A. Garfield. He was born to a poor family that was barely scraping out a living in Ohio, and his father died when he was two. His mother, Eliza Garfield, who came from a family of intellectuals, and eleven year old brother worked to keep the family from starving, and eventually sacrificed what little they had to see that James could be educated. His ability to learn was remarkable. His willingness to work at any job perhaps was just as remarkable. He worked on the Erie Canal with rough men, and was amazingly saved from drowning by a rope that caught solid in a crack as he fell overboard alone in the dark. He worked as a janitor at a preparatory school and within a year was an assistant professor teaching literature, mathematics, and ancient languages. He was accepted into Williams College in Massachusetts, and became the president of Eclectic Institute by the age of twenty-six.

There are some fascinating “coincidences of history.” Garfield attended the World Fair in Chicago where Charles Guiteau, the man who would later shoot Garfield, was demonstrating his remarkable opinion of himself. He was thought to be either overbearingly arrogant, insane, or both. He called himself “God’s minute man.” Alexander Graham Bell would attempt to develop a device that could locate the bullet in Garfield. He was at the fair for a successful demonstration of the telephone. The fair was also attended by Joseph Lister advocating his methods for preventing infections. Few of the attending doctors believed what Lister was saying. Several thought his methods were dangerous, One doctor who didn’t listen, Frank Hamilton, would help treat James Garfield’s gunshot wound.

Politics and war ended Garfield’s academic career. He commanded a regiment of 500 young men in a Union regiment that faced 2000 Confederates in Kentucky. He won the Battle of Middle Creek by splitting his regiment into three groups and attacking the Confederates in sequence. The Confederates were tricked into thinking they were facing much larger force, and they withdrew from Kentucky. The importance of the military victory is shown by comments made by Lincoln. He said, I hope to have God on my side, but I must have Kentucky.” The military victory made Garfield famous and resulted in him being promoted to brigadier general. However, the most lasting memory I will probably of his military service is the description of him stepping into a clearing after the battle to see large number of young soldiers stretched out and apparently sleeping from an exhausting day. Then the “…impression of peace and tranquility…was replaced by the sickening realization that the young men before him were not resting but dead.”

All was not perfect in Garfield’s personal life. His wife is described as being in love with him, but he found himself unable to return the feelings. He nearly destroyed the marriage with an affair with a young widow named Lucia Gilbert Calhoun. He was grief-stricken, admitted the affair, and his wife demanded only that he end the affair. He complied, and, “As he watched her bravely endure the pain and heartbreak he had caused…he began to fall in love with his wife.”

Garfield entered politics and won a state senate seat, but spent more time on the battlefield than in his office. He was elected to the U.S. Congress ten months after the Battle of Middle Creek without bothering to campaign. He would spend 17 years in Congress, and never aspired to the presidency. The Republicans at the 1880 convention were divided between two factions. The Stalwarts were fiercely committed to the “spoils system” and opposed to reconciliation with the South. The Half-Breeds were a determined group of reformers. Rutherford Hayes had an ineffective four years as President because of constant and diligent opposition from the powerful senator Roscoe Conkling, and was refusing to run again. Conkling was advocating Ulysses S. Grant be given a third term as President, and he was opposed by John Sherman, William Tecumseh Sherman’s younger brother, and Senator James G. Blaine, who was known as the Magnetic Man from Maine. Garfield gave the nominating speech for Sherman after Conkling had given a rousing nominating speech for Grant. Garfield’s choice to give a speech was natural, because he not only was skilled at giving speeches; he “…enjoyed it even more, perhaps too much.” Garfield used the words that became the primary title of this book early in his nominating speech. He said “…in this brilliant circle, where fifteen thousand men and women are gathered , is the destiny of the Republic to be decreed for the next four years…” He soon asked the question, “…what do we want.” A voice answered, “We want Garfield!” The convention remained unable to agree on a candidate for several days and thirty-six ballots, but the number of votes for Garfield steadily expanded from the single vote on the first ballot to more and more with each successive ballot. Garfield pleaded to not be considered. Blaine and Sherman eventually withdrew in defeat, and Garfield was nominated. When he was congratulated he replied, “I am very sorry that this has become necessary.

Garfield said, “This honor comes to me unsought. I have never had the Presidential fever; not even for a day.” He did enjoy the freedom that was given by the advice that campaigning and asking for votes was undignified. Hays advised him to “Sit crosslegged and look wise.” Garfield didn’t travel to campaign, but he did frequently give speeches to enormous groups gathered around his front porch. Many of his speeches included his strong advocacy for abolition. Mostly he dreaded winning the presidency, which “seemed to him not a great accomplishment but a ‘bleak mountain’ that he was obliged to ascend.”

Garfield’s inauguration went wonderfully well. General William Tecumseh Sherman led the presidential procession. Garfield was greeted by a “deafening chorus.” He was accompanied by Frederick Douglas and his mother Eliza when he stepped onto the portico. However, Roscoe Conkling began immediately to try to either take control of his presidency or to destroy it. Levi Morton was a Stalwart in the Conkling camp, but accepted an appointment to become Secretary of Navy. He was pulled from his bed, fed quinine and brandy, and berated in Conkling’s apartment until he finally agreed to turn down the nomination at 4:00 A.M. Garfield was able to appoint Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s oldest and only surviving son and a Stalwart his Secretary of War. Chester Arthur was selected to be Garfield’s Vice President, and he had only held one position from an appointment given by Conkling. Conkling had summoned him to tell him to refuse the Vice Presidency, and Arthur responded that the office “…is the greatest honor I’ve ever dreamed of attaining. I will accept the nomination.” Conkling then decided having “his man” as Vice President would give him great advantage. Conkling did underestimate Garfield, who described himself “I am a poor hater.” However, he wrote, “Of course I deprecate war, but it is brought to my door the bringer will find me at home.”

Garfield was distressed that he was besieged by people seeking appointments. There were long lines of people, and he met with about a hundred a day Monday through Friday. The delusional Charles Julius Guiteau was a persistent applicant, and he was demanding high level State Department positions. He was never seriously considered by anyone, but he always believed he was on the verge of an important appointment. Roscoe Conkling continued to do everything he could to sabotage Garfield’s work at getting a cabinet in place and the government running.. Conkling and an ally decided the best approach was to shock everyone by resigning and to come back only after being given promises of power. The ploy backfired, because no one begged them to come back. Many would believe that Conkling was responsible for the assassination attempt that was to come. Conkling would eventually run for election back to the senate seat he had resigned, but he was defeated by a little known Congressman Elbridge Lapham.

Guiteau received what he believed was a message from God that he must kill Garfield. He first set out to prepare for the fame he believed he would gain by editing his book, The Truth, A Companion to the Bible. He had written the book earlier, had a thousand printed, and failed to sell many at fifty cents each. He wrote a letter to General Sherman announcing that he had shot the President, was going to jail, and asked for Sherman to order his troops to take possession of the jail immediately. He apparently believed that Sherman would free him. Guiteau tracked the President for several days and shot him first through the arm and into his back with a .44 caliber pistol. Garfield was knocked off his feet and immediately began vomiting. He was carried on a mattress to a room after a doctor probed at the wound in the back with an unsterilized finger. Dr. D. Willard Bliss took control of Garfield and excluded other doctors from treating him. He frequently probed the wound with equipment that had not been sterilized. He completely disagreed with Dr. Lister’s admonition about the danger of infection created by such practices. There were countless numbers of Civil War veterans who carried lead slugs or balls in their bodies who suffered no great discomfort or danger. The difference was that they were “anonymous men…that…received little if any medical care.” They especially did not receive frequent injections of contaminants deep into their open wounds.

Part II of this review will be about the medical treatment, or more accurately mistreatment of Garfield, the remarkable people who interacted with him during his long decline to his end, and the remarkable transformation of Chester Arthur a political hack to becoming an admirable American President because of a previously unknown disabled woman who coached him and the limited contact he had with the remarkable Garfield.