Saturday July 16 Books & Brunch to Discuss Book on Garfield’s assassination
The National Pres Club Books & Brunch group will meet on Saturday, July 16, in the Fourth Estate restaurant to discuss “Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President,” by Candice Millard.
Amazon’s brief description of the book is: “The extraordinary account of James Garfield's rise from poverty to the American presidency, and the dramatic history of his assassination and legacy … Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.”
Even political junkies might be hard-pressed to say much about Garfield.
In his 2011 New York Times review of the book Kevin Baker describes Garfield as one of the ”Ohio Seven," that spate of singularly undistinguished presidents from the Buckeye State who served between 1869 and 1923. At their best, they presided over some years of prosperity; at their worst, they gave us two of the most corrupt administrations in our history."
One topic for discussion on July 16 could be how late 19th century U.S. history might have followed a different path if Garfield had lived.
As the book makes clear, Garfield had proven to be a politician who would not have fit the “Ohio Seven” mold if he had lived. He, unlike the others, was “undistinguished” because he was president only four months.
The book is also a biography of Charles J. Guiteau, who stalked and shot Garfield. He imagined he was responsible for Garfield’s election and that Garfield owed him an appointment as consul general to France. In fact, for months he had been trying to get past the young man who vetted would-be presidential visitors, mostly office seekers.
As a character Guiteau is almost as fascinating, in a perverse way, as Garfield.
As Baker says in his Times review: “Guiteau, suffering perhaps from syphilis, led a peripatetic existence, failing as a lawyer and an evangelist, unable to find love even at a free love colony, where the women nicknamed him ‘Charles Gitout.’ (That’s right: 1960s “hippies” didn’t invent free-love colonies.”)
Another topic of discussion will probably be the extremely poor (that’s putting it mildly) medical care the President received after being shot.
Baker says: “Had Garfield been left where he lay (after being shot in a Washington, D.C. railroad station), he might well have survived… he was given over to the care of doctors, who basically tortured him to death over the next 11 weeks.“
Alexander Graham Bell, admired at the time for his invention of the telephone, tried to help by inventing what we call a “metal detector” to find the bullet in Garfield’s body. The doctors’ “torture” included probing for the bullet, in the wrong places, with their dirty fingers and instruments. The doctors also thwarted Bell’s efforts, which helped worsen the inventor’s poor health.
Next up: On Aug. 20, Books & Brunch will discuss “Skios” by Michael Frayn.
Books & Brunch discussions are open to all NPC members and their guests -- in fact members are encouraged to bring guests.
More information: Jack Williams, Books & Brunch chair, [email protected]